Originally published at: Bill Clinton, 78, mocks Trump's age — and his bizarre "swaying" episode — at North Carolina rally (video) - Boing Boing
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Ack! The phrase is to paint a lily, and it means to unnecessarily adorn something already beautiful.
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Eh, I’ve heard “gild a lily” plenty of times, never “paint” one. But that is the meaning, indeed.
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The phrase is often attributed to Shakespeare, but the phrase used in his play King John is actually “to paint the lily”. The phrase “gild the lily” likely came about as a mistaken version of the line from King John.
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Even so, “Gild the Lily” is the version that became widespread enough use to end up in the dictionary (thought Mirriam Webster does attribute the Shakespeare version as the original source).
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MW even explicitly gives the go ahead:
You may continue to use gild the lily, and if anyone points out that you are misquoting Shakespeare you may simply inform them that you are using a well-established English idiom, and not misquoting anyone. Or you can reply with an accurate quote from Shakespeare; we’ve always been fond of a certain line from Coriolanus: “I Find the Ass in Compound with the Major Part of Your Syllables.”
Clinton’s use doesn’t make much sense, but he is a very very old man, so we can humor (but not vote for) him.
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Same here.
We 'Muricans will bastardize anything, dontcha know!
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Well…ish? It likely came about from shortening the quote. The full quote is…
Therefore, to be possess’d with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
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Clinton also assured his audience that he does not clap offbeat nor make believe that is is a conductor.
Bill Clinton used to be a reasonably competent saxophone player. He probably has more musical talent in his little finger than Trump has in his whole body.
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Bill Clinton was elected President over 30 years ago. Since then there’s been 4 presidents and three of them were older than him. That’s just… what the hell people? Vote for someone born in a different year!
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I loved Gilda Lily in the Broadway hit, “Miss Quote”.
Why is the post talking about Bill Clinton, when the photo is clearly Dick Van Dyke?
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