On the Internet, the phrase attributed to the Irish writer is popular that all the good that is produced in England first appeared in other countries. We decided to check if he said something like that.

The completely statement is: “In England, only three good things are produced: tea, whiskey and my books. But it turned out that tea is Chinese, whiskey - Scottish, and I am an Irishman. In other words, the only thing that is good in England is what is taken from other countries. ” In the vast majority of cases, this quote Found In the form of a picture with a portrait of a writer and text above him. Such images can be found on entertainment And Information portals, in social networks ("VKontakte" Facebook*, X, Telegram), on Blog-platforms And forums.

Almost all the Russian -speaking publications containing this quote appeared in May 2024 “tested”, but in other languages ​​they Meet On the Internet and earlier. Usually it was also a picture consisting of a portrait of Wilde and the phrase itself. The most common such image was originally Socked The text in Spanish, which, apparently, was then replaced by translation into other languages, including Russian. Even the design coincides - for example, the quote indicates the years of the writer's life. In many foreign publications, there is no clarification “in other words, the only thing that is good in England is what is taken from other countries.”

However, the first two sentences in the previously other Spanish -speaking posts are significantly different from the source to the source, for example:

“Los Ingleses Tienen Tres Cosas de las que mostrarse Orgullosos: El Té, El Whisky Y Un Escritor Como Yo. Pero Resulta Que El Té Es Chino; El Whisky, Escocés Y Yo Soy Irlandés "

“Inglaterra Sólo Produce Tres Cosas Buenas: El Té, El Whisky Y Mis Libros. Pero Resulta Que El Té Es Chino, El Whisky EsCocés y Yo Soy Irlandés

This, however, is not surprising, given that even if Wilde said something like that, he did it clearly not in Spanish, and artistic translation may vary in such cases. It is much more strange that in English - the language in which he wrote the vast majority of his works - there is no single version. Among the formulations we met, there are such:

"England Only Produce Three Good Things: Tea, Whisky and My Books. But Really The Tea Is Chinese, The Whisky Is Scottish and I Am Irish. In Other Words, The only Goods England Has Are Those Taken from Other Countries

“England is Famous with 3 Things: Tea, Whisky and Very Famous Writer. The Problem Is that Tea is Chinese, The Whisky Is Scottish and I Am Irish

From this we can conclude that either Wilde repeated the same thought several times in different words, or the quote was retold so many times that it was significantly distorted, if not at all invented.

Since the death of Wilde in 1900, his work was collected, carefully studied and for the most part were digitized by libraries, universities and museums in different countries of the world. Among them is an electronic archive Trinity College In Dublin, where the writer himself once studied, and now a significant part of his heritage is stored, the collection of Wilde's works in Library and Museum Morgan (USA) and New York Public Library, archives Celtic literature University College Cork (Ireland). None of these resources were “verified” to detect the desired quote. The search was brought to similar results in the Google Books database and on the site Oscar Wilde Online, where a vast collection of works of the writer is collected - plays, poems, prose and journalism.

There is no quote on the British website Society Oscar Wilde - a non -profit organization, created in 1990 to study and popularize the personality and work of Wilde. “Verified” asked the company's representatives to comment on whether they knew anything about the desired quote. The press attache of the organization Darcy Sullivan said that, according to their data, this phrase does not belong to Wilde.

The earliest case of attribution of the tested phrase to the Irish writer, who was “verified”, was to find a publication in the Spanish Scientific and popular journal Historia y Vida in the room of February 2015. The note says that this is how the writer answered the journalist’s question, what three things England can be proud of. It is noteworthy that the story was placed in the Anécdotas section, that is, unverified or not fully confirmed stories (in this case, the name of the interlocutor Wilde and the year when the interview took place). The fact of publishing a bike in a Spanish publication explains why it was in this language that the statement has gained such widespread.

Thus, there is not a single convincing evidence that Wilde someday said something like that. The formulations of the statement in English, in which Wilde mainly wrote, differ significantly, which usually indicates the translation of the source from another language. The earliest publication of the statement discovered “verified” appeared in 2015 in one of the Spanish publications. This explains both the widespread distribution of quote precisely in the Spanish -speaking segment of the network and the differences in English -language formulations, since, apparently, this is really a translation. Oscar Wilde also claims that the writer never said the phrase about the three good things that they produce in England.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: Alfred Ellis & WaleryPublic Domain, Via Wikimedia Commons

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

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2. Arzamas. 11 quotes from Oscar Wilde's letters
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