Pope’s children are still none the wiser

JOHN Kennedy Toole has a lot to answer for.

The American novelist lifted the title of his best-known book, A Confederacy of Dunces, from Alexander Pope, and ever since journalists of every description have plopped that book title into their copy as an indication of unearned erudition (the phrase is pretty irresistible, mind you: When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him).

No-one, however, has come up with an apposite quotation for the opposite scenario: the silence of the dunces when the obvious is apparent to all. We know some Pope here in this corner of the newspaper, but it’s doubtful the little genius ever came up with a neat couplet to encompass that eventuality.