Boscoe Pertwee? Umberto Eco? Christopher Hampton? Nigel Rees? Mario Cuomo? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Making definitive choices is arduous. A humorous expression reflects this predicament:
I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.
This quip has been attributed to Boscoe Pertwee who reportedly was an eighteenth-century wit, but I cannot find any evidence that Pertwee actually existed. Also, the earliest matches I can find occurred in the twentieth century. Thus, I have become skeptical. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The skepticism is justified. The false attribution to Boscoe Pertwee was constructed as a prank as explained further below.
The earliest approximate match known to QI occurred in the 1970 London play “The Philanthropist” by British playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
PHILIP. (Bewildered.) I’m sorry. (Pause.) I suppose I am indecisive. (Pause.) My trouble is, I’m a man of no convictions. (Longish pause.) At least, I think I am. (Celia starts laughing.) What’s the joke?
CELIA. I am fond of you.
In 1971 a reviewer from “The Wall Street Journal” saw the New York production of “The Philanthropist”. The comical line uttered by the character Philip caught the reviewer’s attention, and it was reprinted in the newspaper:2
Incapable of any sort of firmness, he never declares himself on any subject or even on any person: “I suppose I am indecisive. My trouble is, I’m a man of no convictions. At least, I think I am.”
In 1976 the earliest exact match found by QI appeared in the “Manchester Evening News” of England within a column called “Mr Manchester’s Diary”. The creator of the line was anonymous:3
OVERHEARD at the hair salon: “I used to be indecisive but now I’m not so sure.”
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In July 1977 broadcaster Nigel Rees mentioned the quotation during his BBC Radio program called “Quote … Unquote”. Rees presented a claim about the creator of the quip which he had received in a letter from a listener:4
M.M. Harvey from Andover sends a favourite quotation from the little-known 18th-century poet and wit, Boscoe Pertwee (with a name like that I’m surprised he existed at all). Here it is: “I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.”
Rees, a prominent quotation expert, was unable to find any substantive evidence supporting the attribution to Boscoe Pertwee, and the mystery of the linkage persisted for more than two decades. At last, indefatigable Rees again contacted M.M. Harvey who admitted that he and a friend had constructed the attribution as a prank. They had attached the eccentric name to a quip that was already in circulation.5
In October 1977 a reviewer in the British classical music magazine “Gramophone” printed the jest without attribution:6
“I used to think I was indecisive—but now I’m not so sure”. I don’t know who made that delightful remark but it suggests something of my state of mind as I contemplate all these records.
In 1978 Nigel Rees published a book titled “Quote…Unquote” based on his radio program. At that time Rees was still unaware that the attribution of the quip was false; hence, the following entry appeared in the book:7
I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.
Boscoe Pertwee (eighteenth-century wit).
In September 1978 “The Daily Telegraph” of London published a column titled “London Day By Day” which included an instance:8
Graffito from the same Covent Garden wine bar immortalised in yesterday’s column: “I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not quite sure.”
In April 1979 the “Toronto Star” of Canada printed an instance while credited Pertwee:9
And a confusing word from that 18th century wit, Boscoe Pertwee, who once declared: “I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.”
In 1981 the quip appeared as an epigraph of the postscript of “Mind in Science: A History of Explanations in Psychology and Physics” by Richard L. Gregory. The accompanying footnote identified Boscoe Pertwee as an eighteenth-century wit:10
I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.
Boscoe Pertwee
In 1988 “The New Yorker” magazine reported on a show presented by the Inner Circle, an association of present and former New York City Hall reporters. The show lampooned political figures including New York Governor of Mario Cuomo. The show suggested that Cuomo might enter the race for the U.S. presidency:11
The Governor was a no-show that night, and so wasn’t around to issue a definitive comment on the prediction—not that anyone present would have expected him to. A line assigned to his character in the show was “I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not so sure.”
In 2000 the English edition of the Umberto Eco’s collection “Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition” appeared. Eco credited Pertwee with the joke while citing Richard L. Gregory’s book “Mind in Science” for support:12
And while I say many things in these pages, there are many more that I don’t say, simply because my ideas are not clear in that regard. In fact, I should like to take as my motto a quotation from Boscoe Pertwee, an eighteenth-century author (unknown to me), which I found in Gregory (1981: 558): “I used to be indecisive but now I’m not so sure.”
In conclusion, playwright Christopher Hampton deserves credit for the comical line which appeared in his 1970 play “The Philanthropist”. The quip under examination might be viewed as a condensed and slightly rephrased version of this line. The creator of the quip remains anonymous. The attribution to Boscoe Pertwee was constructed as a mischievous escapade. There is no substantive evidence to support that ascription.
Image Notes: Road sign with three choices symbolizing indecision from geralt Pixabay. The image has been cropped, retouched, and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to x-twitter handle BruvverEccles whose tweet inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Special thanks to Nigel Rees who uncovered the important 1970 citation and determined that the ascription to Pertwee was false. Rees also found other helpful citations. Additional thanks to researcher Barry Popik at barrypopik.com who explored this topic and found significant citations beginning in 1980.
- 1970 Copyright, The Philanthropist: A Bourgeois Comedy by Christopher Hampton, Note: First presented by David Merrick at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, N.Y.C., on March 15, 1971, Act 1, Scene: 5, Quote Page 51, Samuel French Inc. New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1971 March 24, The Wall Street Journal, Comedy of Character, a la Moliere by Henry Popkin, (Review of the play “The Philanthropist”), Quote Page 14, Column 4, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1976 April 27, Manchester Evening News, Mr Manchester’s Diary: Sir Harry treasures his full house, Quote Page 10, Column 5, Manchester, Greater Manchester, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2006, Brewer’s Famous Quotations, Edited by Nigel Rees, Section: Boscoe Pertwee, Quote Page 357 and 358, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 2006, Brewer’s Famous Quotations, Edited by Nigel Rees, Section: Boscoe Pertwee, Quote Page 357 and 358, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1977 October, Gramophone, Volume 55, Issue 653, (Review of Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op.. 26 and other records by T. H.), Quote Page 638, Column 1, General Gramophone Publications Limited, London, England. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1978, “Quote…Unquote” by Nigel Rees, Chapter: There’s No Answer To That, Quote Page 37, George Allen & Unwin, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1978 September 22, The Daily Telegraph, London Day By Day: A woman’s touch at Tory conference, Quote Page 16, Column 4, London, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1979 April 26, Toronto Star, Sir Larry ‘afraid of killing Vivien’ by George Gamester, Quote Page A17, Column 1, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1981, Mind in Science: A History of Explanations in Psychology and Physics by Richard L. Gregory (Professor of Neuropsychology, University of Bristol), Chapter: Postscript, (Epigraph), Quote Page 558, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1988 April 11, The New Yorker, Around City Hall: You Never Know, Start Page 117, Quote Page 119, Column 2, The New Yorker Magazine Inc., New York. (Verified with digital scans) ↩︎
- 2000 (1997 Copyright), Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition by Umberto Eco, Translated from the Italian by Alastair McEwen, Chapter: Introduction, Quote Page 2, Harcourt Brace & Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎