“My business in this state
Made me a looker-on here in Vienna.”
Many people in quoting this, say Venice in place of Vienna.
Gray says in the “Elegy,” “They kept the noiseless tenor of their way,” usually quoted “the even tenor.”
Pope says, “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” Often misquoted “knowledge.”
In his “Satires,” Pope says, “Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.” But Pope himself, in his translation of the Odyssey, says, “Speed the parting guest,” so that we are left to take our choice.
In connection with this dual reading may be recalled a quotation which is a misquotation in one way, but not in another. In Habakkuk it is written, “Write the vision and make it plain, that he may run that readeth it.” This is commonly turned into the phrase “that he who runs may read.” But Cooper says in his “Tirocinium,”—
“Shine by the side of every path we tread
With such a lustre, he that runs may read.”
Butler says in “Hudibras,” “He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still.” Many continue to say, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still,” regardless of the difference in sense as well as in words.