Last words are often recorded for posterity. We sometimes lay great store by last words. Some are amusing and some are not.
Apparently Oscar Wilde said, “Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.” Rudolph Valentino was supposed to have said, “Don’t pull down the blinds! I feel fine.” James Joyce: “Does nobody understand?” Dylan Thomas: “I’ve had eighteen straight whiskies. I think that is a record.” My favourite though is the American officer in the Civil War who said, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance,” right before he was shot dead.
We lay great store by last words. We cherish them, we may even write them down somewhere. We certainly store them in our hearts.
In 1 Chronicles chapters 28-29 we have recorded for us the last words of King David. David has been on the throne for 40 years. Many of those years have been troublesome and now he looks back over his life and is about to speak to Solomon his son and successor and the people of Israel for the last time.
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Holwick: Some of these quotes are probably apocryphal or altered. Dylan Thomas has four different “last words” attributed to him. This one is the most popular (he died of chronic alcohol poisoning) but undoubtedly mythical. Credible sources say Wilde’s last words were “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.” He died in a flophouse in Paris, which has since remodeled the room with luxurious Victorian wallpaper.
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #6516]