Request: Quote - For the want of a nail... the war was lost
Don Bowman, Tech Services, 625-3340
this.
For the want of a nail the horse lost a shoe,
For the want of a shoe the mount was lost
For the want of a mount the rider couldn't deliver his dispatch from the
battlefield to the general and the battle was lost.
Because the battle was lost, the war was lost
All for the want of a nail
for want of a Colonel
>I would like to find out the actual quote for this one, it goes something like
>this.
>
786. For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For want of a horse the rider was lost,
For want of a rider the battle was lost,
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
This old proverb--a version of it appeared in Ben Franklin's _Poor Richard's
Almanack_ in 1758--does not seem to have been published in a "Mother Goose"
book until 1898, when Andrew Lang included it in _The Nursery Rhyme Book._
_The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes_ notes that a copy of it "was
framed and kept on the wall of Anglo-American Supply Headquarters in
London during the Second World War."
--W. S. Baring-Gould and C. Baring-Gould, _The
Annotated Mother Goose_
--
Col. G. L. Sicherman
g...@hrcms.ATT.COM
Alfred M. Kriman
>I would like to find out the actual quote for this one, it goes something like
>this.
>
>For the want of a nail the horse lost a shoe, ...
In article <CtDAG...@nntpa.cb.att.com>,
for want of a Colonel <g...@hrcms.ATT.COM>
gave the standard version...
>786. For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
> For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
> For want of a horse the rider was lost,
> For want of a rider the battle was lost,
> For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
> And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
and gave some unsatisfyingly inconclusive provenance:
>This old proverb--a version of it appeared in Ben Franklin's _Poor Richard's
>Almanack_ in 1758--does not seem to have been published in a "Mother Goose"
>book until 1898, when Andrew Lang included it in _The Nursery Rhyme Book._
>
>_The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes_ notes that a copy of it "was
>framed and kept on the wall of Anglo-American Supply Headquarters in
>London during the Second World War."
>
> --W. S. Baring-Gould and C. Baring-Gould, _The
> Annotated Mother Goose_
In _The Real Personages of Mother Goose_ (1930), Katherine Elwes
Thomas tries to gather some of the oral tradition surrounding the nursery
rhymes. It is one of the more poorly supported interpretations in her
book, but for what it's worth, she thinks the horshoe nail was extra
funding denied by Parliament to Henry VII and VIII, who on two occasions
dealt French monarchs serious but indecisive defeats:
Punch and Judy fought for a pie;
[England] [France] [Italy]
Punch gave Judy a sad blow in the eye.
[1513; Henry VIII defeats Louis XII]
The battle, at Guinegate, was called "The Battle of the Spurs"
because the French cavalry turned tail quickly. Horses again.
The case is not made completely explicitly, but K. Thomas seems
to imply that if the English Army had had the horseshoe nail of greater
funding, they could have stayed in France; that then Louis XII's successor
(in 1519) Francis I, would not have continued the designs on "Italy"; and
somehow then Pope Leo X would not have felt the need to reinstitute the
sale of indulgences; Martin Luther would not finally have nailed up his
95 theses; Charles V of Spain would not then have fought a war with Francis
I (England on the side of Spain). The kingdom lost presumably was the
Roman Catholic hegemony of all Western Europe. Needless to say, this chain
has a few weak links.
Disclaimer: the opinions above are not, as far as I know,
those of anyone now living.