Re: Aphorisms and Copyright

Mike Lean <m.lean[_at_]qut.edu.au> wrote:
>
> Harold Federow <hfederow[_at_]u.washington.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Some of the "Brilliant" aphorisms seemed fairly common to me, at
> > least as I remember the start of this thread.
>
> Me too. (Something you should never say in email.) I remember some
> of those quoted, or something very like them, as a set of printed
> cards which were circulating around my high school in the late 1950s,
> including such gems as "Don't Go Away Mad, Just Go Away", and "I'm Not
> Deaf, I'm Ignoring You". I also thought that the "...parts of me are
> excellent" was attributed to Oscar Wilde or Noel Coward...

As I pointed out in an earlier post to this thread, "parts of me are excellent" is plagiarized from the now-proverbial story of the curate's egg. My copy of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable informs me that this catch-phrase was born as the caption to a cartoon in Punch, the famous English humor magazine. I quote:

The illustration shows a nervous young curate at his bishop's breakfast table. Asked by his lordship whether the egg is to his liking, he is terrified to say that it is bad and stammers out that, "Parts of it are excellent!"

If Wilde or Coward made allusions to parts of something being excellent, it was with the knowledge that they were employing a catch-phrase that had become part of the popular culture. I have read many references to the curate's egg in 20th c. English novels. It caught on quickly, and I'm sure there was a time when nearly everyone in England would have recognized it, even if they didn't know its source. (Whether it is commonly recognized now I cannot say.)

I do the same sort of thing when I remark of something that I don't care for in spite of someone else's defense of it, "I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it!" (Part of a caption from a cartoon in the New Yorker--back when it _was_ the New Yorker.)

Mr. Brilliant, if he has succeeded in registering a copyright in "... parts of me are excellent," has pulled a fast one. The phrase was in all likelihood under Punch's copyright when it first saw the light of day, and by now has surely passed into the public domain.

Amy Stoller

ghoti
<redherring[_at_]tuna.net>
<:)))>><( Received on Tue Aug 25 1998 - 18:29:47 GMT