Splinters

The opening quotation of Kenner's book is by Porson and goes as follows: "Damn the nature of things!" Well, quite. I found a stack of great anecdotes about the classics scholar (1759-1808), and this one even has the exact form of a joke:

"Richard Porson was once traveling in a stagecoach with a young Oxford student who, in an attempt to impress the ladies present, let slip a Greek quotation which he said was from Sophocles. The professor was not taken in by the young man's bluff and, pulling a pocket edition of Sophocles from the folds of his coat, challenged him to find the passage in question.

Undeterred, the student said that he had made a mistake and that the quotation was in fact from Euripides. To the great amusement of the young ladies, Porson immediately produced a copy of Euripides from his pocket and issued the same challenge.

In a last desperate attempt to save face, the young man announced with conviction that the passage was, of course, from Aeschylus. However, on seeing the inevitable copy of Aeschylus emerge from Porson's pocket, he finally admitted defeat.

'Coachman!' he cried. 'Let me out! There's a fellow here has the whole Bodleian Library in his pocket!'"