Quote of the Day (Tacitus, on Roman Servility and Hypocrisy Under the Emperors)

“Meanwhile at Rome people plunged into slavery—consuls, senators, knights. The higher a man’s rank, the more eager his hypocrisy, and his looks the more carefully studied, so as neither to betray joy at the decease of one emperor nor sorrow at the rise of another, while he mingled delight and lamentations with his flattery.”—Ancient Roman historian Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 120 AD), “The Annals” and “The Histories,” translated by Alfred Church and William Brodribb

This passage, on virtually the first page I opened to in this volume by Tacitus, transfixed me. You can sense the barely contained anger at the opportunism, cravenness, and cowardice of his time.

Many of us will find such behavior all too familiar in contemporary Washington, particularly among GOP politicians, as they weigh, tremblingly, just how much distance they should put between themselves and a certain former President without incurring his wrath, or how much they can continue to do the bidding of the National Rifle Association without losing their self-respect.

(The image accompanying this post comes from the 1964 film, The Fall of the Roman Empire. Many would say that the empire’s collapse was presaged by its widespread corruption.)

TV Quote of the Day (‘Get Smart,’ As Max Tries a Stock Phrase for the First Time)

Maxwell Smart [played by Don Adams]: “You see, the moment I suspected there was something wrong with this old scow, I immediately telephoned headquarters, and I happen to know that at this very minute, seven coastguard cutters are converging on this boat. Wouldya believe it? Seven.”

Mr. Big [played by Michael Dunn]: “I find that pretty hard to believe.”

Smart [slightly hesitating]: “Wouldya believe six?”

Mr. Big: “I don't think so.”

Smart: “How about two cops in a rowboat?”— Get Smart, Season 1, Episode 1, “Mr. Big,” original air date Sept. 18, 1965, teleplay by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, directed by Howard Morris

For the first time the other night, I watched the pilot—the only episode shot in black and white—of the classic Sixties comedy, Get Smart. I was convulsed with laughter from the opening minutes to the last, but especially by this scene involving the clueless spy who, co-creators Brooks and Henry said over the years, was a cross between James Bond and Inspector Clouseau.

The “wouldya believe” line, I learned from the Season 1 DVD of the series, was one that Don Adams came up with. It turned into one of the great running gags of the show.

In the image accompanying this post, Smart’s colleague, Agent 99 (played by Barbara Feldon), has taken off her cap and let her hair down. Her partner is astonished to discover that she’s a woman.

A friend of mine (AND HE KNOWS WHO HE IS!!!), quite a Feldon fan, would be astonished that Smart is astonished. As a mere youngster in the 1960s, I am sure he would not mind telling you, even he would have been able to see that Feldon was a woman from 10 miles away. It was one of the first indications that the spy's surname was ironic.

Quote of the Day (Alexis de Tocqueville, on Americans’ Fever for Prosperity)

“It is odd to watch with what feverish ardor the Americans pursue prosperity and how they are ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they may not have chosen the shortest route to get it. Americans cleave to the things of this world as if assured that they will never die, and yet are in such a rush to snatch any that come within their reach, as if expecting to stop living before they have relished them. They clutch everything but hold nothing fast, and so lose their grip as they hurry after some new delight.”— French diplomat, political scientist, historian, and observer of America Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), Democracy in America, translated and edited by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop (1835)

Quote of the Day (P. G. Wodehouse, on a Man With a VERY Unpleasant Experience)

“He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life, and found a dead beetle at the bottom.” — English humorist P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975), The Man Upstairs and Other Stories (1914)

Quote of the Day (Ambrose Bierce, on Dying Civil War Soldiers Reaching for a Last Drink of Water)

“Possibly his impressionable mind was half conscious of something familiar in its [an unfamiliar form] shambling, awkward gait. Before it had approached near enough to resolve his doubts he saw that it was followed by another and another. To right and to left were many more; the whole open space about him were alive with them--all moving toward the brook.

“They were men. They crept upon their hands and knees. They used their hands only, dragging their legs. They used their knees only, their arms hanging idle at their sides. They strove to rise to their feet, but fell prone in the attempt. They did nothing naturally, and nothing alike, save only to advance foot by foot in the same direction. Singly, in pairs and in little groups, they came on through the gloom, some halting now and again while others crept slowly past them, then resuming their movement. They came by dozens and by hundreds; as far on either hand as one could see in the deepening gloom they extended and the black wood behind them appeared to be inexhaustible. The very ground seemed in motion toward the creek. Occasionally one who had paused did not again go on, but lay motionless. He was dead. Some, pausing, made strange gestures with their hands, erected their arms and lowered them again, clasped their heads; spread their palms upward, as men are sometimes seen to do in public prayer.”—Civil war soldier (and later journalist-satirist) Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913?), “Chickamauga,” in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians: And Other Stories (1891)

Memorial Day originated in the wake of the Civil War. Just how harrowing the conflict was can be glimpsed through the life and work of a Union soldier who went on to win considerable fame—and, because of his mysterious disappearance a half-century later, just as much notoriety—as a writer: Ambrose Bierce.

Bierce felt that a noncombatant simply couldn’t understand what a veteran had experienced on the battlefront. Nevertheless, whether through a sense that he ought to bridge this gulf in comprehension or as an exorcism of the torment he had experienced, he wrote a collection of stories based on what he’d seen, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians.

Trained as a topographical engineer, Bierce missed few if any details about landscapes and spaces, as seen here. I have not been able to find as many photographs in the “Western theater” of the conflict (where Chickamauga—the second-bloodiest battle of the whole war—took place) as battles in the East such as Antietam and Gettysburg. Bierce’s verbal account, then, will have to stand for the images that never were visually recorded and sold, but continued to haunt survivors for the rest of their lives.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Alexander Pope, on God’s Absolution and ‘This Eternal Sleep’)

“All is calm in this eternal sleep;
Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep,
Ev’n superstition loses ev’ry fear:
For God, not man, absolves our frailties here.”— English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744), “Eloisa to Abelard” (1717)

Quote of the Day (Ray Davies, on Rock ‘n’ Roll in a ‘Gone to the Catskills' Transition)

“A certain element of rock is over, but I don’t think it’ll ever be dead. As long as there’s a kid on the street with a guitar who wants to make a noise, rock will be alive somewhere. Stadium rock, yes, I think that is over. Rock and roll’s going to a period of transition. It’s just gone to the Catskills. It’ll come back.” —English rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter Ray Davies (pictured here at left, with his former—maybe future?—band, The Kinks), interviewed by Andy Greene, in “The Last Word: Ray Davies,” Rolling Stone, Apr. 6, 2017

The Catskills...Hmmm...If what Davies has in mind is East Durham, then rock 'n' roll's in quite a "period of transition"—and may emerge with an Irish brogue!