# Correcting a misquotation with another misquotation

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH02.P006](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH02.P006/#char=452,493): "Great wits are oft to madness near allied"

Dryden's line actually reads ‘Great Wits are sure to Madness near alli'd’, followed by ‘And thin Partitions do their Bounds divide’: *Absalom and Achitophel*, Part I, lines 163–64. The wording is visible in the [third edition of 1682, printed p. 5](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Absalom_and_Achitophel_(3rd_edition)_Dryden_1682.pdf/15), and is also retained in the [University of Toronto text based on the second edition of 1681](https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/absalom-and-achitophel). The poem first appeared in November 1681. Chesterton restores ‘wits’ in place of ‘genius’ but substitutes ‘oft’ for ‘sure’. That substitution makes Dryden's assertion less categorical. His useful recovery of the political context therefore should not be mistaken for exact textual correction. Nor does changing ‘genius’ to ‘wits’, by itself, demonstrate that Dryden meant exclusively analytical rather than imaginative intelligence; that sharper distinction belongs to Chesterton's argument.

## Sources

- [John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, third edition (1682)](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Absalom_and_Achitophel_(3rd_edition)_Dryden_1682.pdf/15), Printed p. 5, lines corresponding to 150–179; quotation at lines 163–64
- [Representative Poetry Online: Absalom and Achitophel](https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/absalom-and-achitophel), Lines 163–64; editorial base-text statement
- [Absalom and Achitophel, edited by Jack Lynch](https://www.jacklynch.net/Texts/absalom.html), Editorial introduction, first-publication date

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