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‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man.’

John 4:23 has ‘But the hour cometh, and now is’ and there is an English proverb ‘Opportunity makes the man’ (though originally, in the fourteenth century, it was ‘makes the thief’), but when did the phrases come together? Harriet Martineau entitled her biography of Toussaint L’Ouverture (1840), The Hour and the Man. An American, William Yancey, said about Jefferson Davis, President-elect of the Confederacy in 1861: ‘The man and the hour have met’, which says the same thing in a different way. P.G. Wodehouse in Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (1974) has: ‘And the hour ... produced the man.’

Earlier, at the climax of Sir Walter Scott’s novel Guy Mannering, Chap. 54 (1815), Meg Merrilies says, ‘Because the Hour’s come, and the Man’. In the first edition and in the magnum opus edition that Scott supervised in his last years the phrase is emphasized by putting it in italics.

Then, in 1818, Scott used ‘The hour’s come, but not [sic] the man’ as the fourth chapter heading in The Heart of Midlothian, adding in a footnote: ‘There is a tradition, that while a little stream was swollen into a torrent by recent showers, the discontented voice of the Water Spirit [or Kelpie] was heard to pronounce these words. At the same moment a man, urged on by his fate, or, in Scottish language, fey, arrived at a gallop, and prepared to cross the water. No remonstrance from the bystanders was of power to stop him – he plunged into the stream, and perished.’ Both these examples appear to be hinting at some earlier core saying which is still untraced.

It appears from a survey of ten British newspapers in recent years that the saying is especially a weapon (or cliché) in the sportswriter’s armoury. From Today (22 June 1986): ‘Beating England may not be winning the World Cup, but, for obvious reasons, it would come a pretty close second back in Buenos Aires. Cometh the hour, cometh the man? Destiny beckons. England beware.’ From The Times (13 August 1991): ‘“Graham [Gooch] is a very special guy,” [Ted] Dexter said. “It has been a case of ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man.’ I do not know anyone who would have taken the tough times in Australia harder than he did”.’ From The Scotsman (29 February 1992): ‘In the maxim of “Cometh the hour, cometh the man,” both the Scotland [Rugby Union] manager, Duncan Paterson, and forwards coach, Richie Dixon, indicated yesterday the need to look to the future.’

The reason why the phrase is so popular with sports writers may be because it was notably used (about himself) by Cliff Gladwin, the Derbyshire and England cricketer, during the first Test Match against South Africa at Durban (20 December 1948). England were 117 for 8 requiring 128 to win, when Gladwin walked out to bat, remarking to Dudley Nourse, the South Africa captain, as he did so: ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man!’ The last ball of the match hit Gladwin on the thigh and he and Alec Bedser ran a leg-bye to win the match for England.

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Cheers,
Bruce

2007-09-21 10:55:44 · answer #1 · answered by Bruce 7 · 5 3

Cometh The Hour

2016-12-15 09:14:08 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.’

Lots of different versions of this quotation, one attributed to

John 23.

2007-09-21 10:51:55 · answer #3 · answered by jet-set 7 · 1 1

Here is the link to Bob Geldof's speech where he speaks about Cometh the Hour cometh the man
http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=77445

BOB GELDOF
COMETH THE HOUR, COMETH THE MAN

There is a lot of confusion about leadership. It's not a timeless thing. Think back to the Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin and De Gaulle gathering at the end of World War II. All of them are seen as powerful, eternal examples of leadership. For their time, maybe. But, today maybe people would be looking for leaders who can bend and flex with society. 'Cometh the hour, cometh the man.' Leadership needs to suit its times.

I hope this is what you were looking for?

2007-09-21 11:00:44 · answer #4 · answered by heeeelp 3 · 2 1

1

2017-01-27 00:18:05 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0 0

RE:
Cometh the moment cometh the man.Origin of this quotation please.?

2015-08-02 00:24:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

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