The Volokh Conspiracy

Someone once wrote, "There is nothing new under the sun."

That someone is alleged to have been King Solomon, but it may be a well-forgotten old quote he borrowed from someone else.

This reminds me of the story I've heard (in various guises) about the Shakespearean scholar who, after leaving a lecture in Stratford which discussed the origins of some of Shakespeare's best lines, came across a couple of gardners, trimming the hedges. He stopped to talk with them, and inquired about their jobs and why they were each using different tools on the shrubs. The one gardner replied that the different tools were needed because: "he rough hews 'em, and I shape the ends."

The scholar walked away in awe of Shakespeare's skill to take a little common local gardening phrase and transform it into: "There's a divinity which shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will."

(One source on the local patois is here (about 3/4 of the way down the page, search for the word "shapes"). Also, a commenter at Glenn Greenwald recounted a version of the story here. It's attributed to a BBC radio broadcast here.)

OK, so it doesn't fit perfectly, but it's a memorable line all the same: Alan Breck in Kidnapped tells David Balfour that he "has a grand memory for forgetting."

Sorry for the double post, but it occurs to me:

is the original:

That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. Kohelet 1:9
?