...said the Queen

Posted by ESC on March 03, 2000

In Reply to: As the actress said to the bishop posted by Heidi on February 22, 2000

: I'm trying to find the origin of this phrase. The Saint (Simon Templar) used it regularly, and it's the title of a related magazine, but I can't turn up anything else on its origin.

As the actress said to the bishop. I couldn't find anything on this phrase. Don't you figure it might be the punchline of a joke? It does remind me of an entry in one of my reference books:
"SH*T! SAID THE QUEEN." - "An old story; unproved one way or the other, has it that those good friends Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain had a contest between them to see who could write the bawdiest; most offensive story. An effort of Kipling's beginning, 'Sh*t!' said the Queen.' was brought to an unamused Queen Victoria's attention, which is why Kipling was never knighted and never became poet laureate." From Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997).