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==As motto and slogan==
==As motto and slogan==
*The phrase appeared as the [[motto]] of gold [[pen]] manufacturer Levi Willcutt during a Railroad Jubilee in [[Boston, Massachusetts]] which ran during the week beginning 17 September 1852.<ref>{{cite book
*The phrase appeared as the [[motto]] of gold [[pen]] manufacturer Levi Willcutt during a Railroad Jubilee in [[Boston, Massachusetts]] which ran dure week beginning 17 September 1852.<ref>{{cite book
|title=The Railroad Jubilee. An Account of the Celebration Commemorative of the Opening of Railroad Communication Between Boston and Canada
|title=The Railroad Jubilee. An Account of the Celebration Commemorative of the Opening of Railroad Communication Between Boston and Canada
|publisher=J. E. Eastburn, city printer
|publisher=s.). City Council
|year=ed form ''Doctrina Fortior Armis'', it is the motto of [[Hipperholme Grammar School]], [[England]].
|author= Boston (Mass.). City Council
*British music photographer [[Kevin Cummins]] ontyled so that it appears to read "penis mightier than the sword"
|year=1852
|page=139}}</ref>
*[[Woodrow Wilson]]'s [[United States presidential election, 1916|1916 U.S. presidential re-election campaign]] used the [[slogan]] "He proved the pen mightier than the sword".
*It is the motto of the [[Alpha Xi Delta]] [[fraternities and sororities|sorority]].
*In its [[Latin]]ized form, ''Calamus Gladio Fortior'', it is the motto of [[Keio University]] in [[Tokyo]], [[Japan]].
*In another Latinized form, "Cedit Ensis Calamo", it is the motto of the [http://www.authorsclub.co.uk Authors' Club] of London, founded by Walter Besant in 1891.
*In another Latinized form ''Doctrina Fortior Armis'', it is the motto of [[Hipperholme Grammar School]], [[England]].
*British music photographer [[Kevin Cummins]] once shot [[The Smiths]] vocalist [[Morrissey]] in front of a hand written "pen is mightier than the sword" poster in the background. The poster is styled so that it appears to read "penis mightier than the sword"


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 07:23, 7 November 2010

An illustration of Cardinal Richelieu holding a sword, by H. A. Ogden, 1892, from The Works of Edward Bulwer Lytton

"The pen is mightier than the sword" is a metonymic adage coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy.[1][2] The play was about Cardinal Richelieu, though in the author's words "license with dates and details... has been, though not unsparingly, indulged."[1] The Cardinal's line in Act II, scene II, was more fully:[3]

True, This! —
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! —
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —

States can be saved without it!

The play opened at London's Covent Garden Theatre on 7 March 1839 with William Charles Macready in the lead role.[4] Macready believed its opening night success was "unequivocal"; Queen Victoria attended a performance on 14 March.[4]

In 1870, literary critic Edward Sherman Gould wrote that Bulwer "had the good fortune to do, what few men can hope to do: he wrote a line that is likely to live for ages."[2] By 1888 another author, Charles Sharp, feared that repeating the phrase "might sound trite and commonplace".[5] The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, which opened in 1897, has the adage decorating an interior wall.[6][7] Though Bulwer's phrasing was novel, the idea of communication surpassing violence in efficacy had numerous predecessors.

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As motto and slogan

  • The phrase appeared as the motto of gold pen manufacturer Levi Willcutt during a Railroad Jubilee in Boston, Massachusetts which ran dure week beginning 17 September 1852.<ref>{{cite book

|title=The Railroad Jubilee. An Account of the Celebration Commemorative of the Opening of Railroad Communication Between Boston and Canada |publisher=s.). City Council |year=ed form Doctrina Fortior Armis, it is the motto of Hipperholme Grammar School, England.

  • British music photographer Kevin Cummins ontyled so that it appears to read "penis mightier than the sword"

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy: A Play in Five Acts (second ed.). London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit St. 1839.
  2. ^ a b Gould, Edward Sherman (1870). Good English. New York: W.J. Widdleton. p. 63.
  3. ^ Lord Lytton (1892). The Dramatic Works of Edward Bulwer Lytton. Vol. IX. New York: Peter Fenelon Collier. p. 136.
  4. ^ a b Macready, William Charles (1875). Sir Frederick Pollock (ed.). Macready's Reminiscences, and Selections from His Diaries and Letters. New York: MacMillan and Co. p. 471.
  5. ^ Sharp, Charles (1888). The Sovereignty of Art. London: T. Fisher Unwin. p. 67.
  6. ^ Reynolds, Charles B (1897). Library of Congress and the Interior Decorations: A Practical Guide for Visitors. New York, Washington, St. Augustine: Foster & Reynolds. p. 15.
  7. ^ Specifically, the west wall of the entrance pavilion's second floor south corridor