Nathaniel Lee

I called the world mad, and the world called me mad, and they outvoted me.

Nathaniel Lee (c. 1653 – May 6, 1692) was an English dramatist.

Quotes

• Man, false man, smiling, destructive man!
  • Theodosius, or the Force of Love (acted 1680), Act iii., Sc. 2.

• I called the world mad, and the world called me mad, and they outvoted me.
  • Possibly apocryphal remark to a visitor asking why he was incarcerated in Bedlam for five years; this is often misquoted as "They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me." (c. 1987), but that does not appear in either version written by Joseph Priestley in the 1700s:

1. The Theological and Miscellaneous Works of Joseph Priestley, Volume 17, pg321, in "Remarks on M. Depuis's Origin of All Religions" (? date):

When Lee the tragedian was in a mad-house, and was asked by a stranger how he came there, he said he was outvoted. Being desired to explain himself, he replied, "I said the world was mad, and the world said I was mad, and they outvoted me." (P.)

1. And in a letter 7 January 1799 (pg15-16, Letters):

My general maxims of policy are, I believe, peculiar to myself. When I mentioned them to Mr. Adams, he was pleased to say that "if any nation could govern itself by them, it would command the world." Of this I am fully persuaded; but he has departed very far from them. All that I can expect is the fate of the poet Lee, who, when he was confined in a mad-house, and was asked by some stranger why he was sent thither, replied, "I said the world was mad, and the world said I was mad, and they outvoted me." My plan would prevent all war, and almost all taxes. But if the calamities of war, heavy taxation, the pestilence, &c., or any other evil, be required for the discipline of nations, as I believe that in the present state of things they are, they will be introduced for some cause or other...

The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great (1677)

’T is beauty calls, and glory shows the way.

• Then he will talk—good gods! how he will talk!
  • Act i., Sc. 3. "It would talk,— Lord! how it talked!", Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady (c. 1613; printed 1616), Act v., Sc. 1.

• Vows with so much passion, swears with so much grace,
  That ’t is a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.
  • Act i., Sc. 3.

• When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war.
  • Act iv., Sc. 2.

• ’T is beauty calls, and glory shows the way.
  • Act iv., Sc. 2. In stage editions, it is "Leads the way" with various interpolations, among them—
    See the conquering hero comes!
    Sound the trumpet, beat the drums!—
    which was first used by Handel in "Joshua," and afterwards transferred to "Judas Maccabæus." The text of both oratorios was written by Dr. Thomas Morell, a clergyman.