https://youtu.be/Ig6f5fT0Xho
Fantastic, isn't it, all those phrases that we use that were invented by Shakespeare?
EXCEPT THEY WEREN'T!!! Sorry for shouting, but this really bugs me, not least because it takes hours to check all these things in the OED, whereas it takes milliseconds to share this video. And no, this blog post won't get the 45,000+ shares that the original Telegraph posting of this video did. But for you, dear readers, I did the work, and here are the words and phrases which this video claims were created by Shakespeare THAT AREN'T!! (sorry, shouting again, I know it's rude).
Below is all pre-Shakespeare evidence for these words. Please make it stop.
For more on this problem see this post and this one.
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Greek
to me
1603
T. Dekker et al. Patient
Grissill sig.
C, Far...
Asking for some greeke Poet, to him he falles..but Ile be sworne he
knowes not so much as one Character of the tongue. Ric.
Why then its greeke to him.
Play
fast and loose
1557
Earl of Surrey et al. Songes
& Sonettes
(new ed.) f. 64 (heading)
Of a new maried studient that plaied fast or lose.
tongue-tied
1571
A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Psalmes
of Dauid with Comm.
(iii. 5) He himselfe was not tungtyde, but rather lifted
up his voyce
tower of strength
hoodwink
1. trans. To cover the eyes with a hood or other covering so as to prevent vision; to blindfold.
2. fig. To cover up from sight.
a1600
R. Hooker Of
Lawes Eccl. Politie
(1648) vi. 99 Had it pleased him not to hud-winck his
own knowledge, I nothing doubt but hee fully saw how to answer
himselfe.
3. fig. To blindfold mentally; to prevent (any one) from seeing the truth or fact; to ‘throw dust in the eyes’ of, deceive, humbug.
1610
J. Healey tr. St. Augustine Citie
of God xxi.
viii. 848 Let not the faithlesse therefore hood-winck
them-selues in the knowledge of nature.
1585
J. Foxe Serm.
2 Cor. v. 21
In this pickle lyeth man by nature, that is, all wee that be Adams
children.
c1405
(▸c1395) Chaucer Squire's
Tale
(Hengwrt) (2003) l. 585 That I made vertu of necessitee
And took it wel syn þt
it moste be.
Fair
play
▸?a1500
R. Henryson tr. Æsop Fables:
Wolf & Wether
l. 2564 in Poems
(1981) 95 Quhether call ȝe this fair play or nocht.
1542
N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes
f. 316, A good vigilaunt Consul..whiche never slept one
wynke duryng..his Consulship.
Cold
comfort
1571
A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Psalmes
of Dauid with Comm.
(x. 14) We receive but cold comfort of whatsoever the
Scripture speaketh.
fool`s
paradise
Have
seen better days
c1590
Sir
T. More iv. v.
86 But we..Hauing seene better dayes, now know the lack
Of glorie that once rearde eche high-fed back.
Early
days
a1535
T. More Dialoge
of Comfort
(1553) i. xiv. sig. C.viiv,
She telleth hym then that it is but early dayes, and he shall come
tyme ynough.
Bag
and baggage
1525
Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Chron.
I. cccxx. 497 So all the men of warre within departed
with bag and baggage.
High
time
c1400
(▸?a1387) Langland Piers
Plowman
(Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. xix. l. 139 Til plenitudo
temporis hih tyme
a-prochede.
a1450
(▸c1412) T. Hoccleve De
Regimine Principum
(Harl. 4866) l. 1990 (MED),
Go home to þi mete, It is hy tyme.
1518
H. Watson tr. Hystorye
Olyuer of Castylle
xxx. sig. G. iijv,
It was hyghe tyme to goo in to the courte.
The
long and the short
a1500
Merchant & Son
l. 46 in W. C. Hazlitt Remains
Early Pop. Poetry Eng.
(1864) I. 135 Thys ys the schorte and longe.
The
game is up
1599
‘T. Cutwode’ Caltha
Poetarum sig.
E7, The scantlin won, the winners must cry whup, The
goale is got, and now the game is vp.
Foul
play
a1500
(▸?a1450) Gesta
Romanorum
(Harl. 7333) 248 The lion wolde have I-made a foule pleye
withe þe lorde & withe þe lady.
Set
someone`s teeth on edge
1535
Bible
(Coverdale) Jer.
xxxi. 29 Ye
fathers haue eaten a sower grape, and the childrens teth are set on
edge.
Without
rhyme or reason
1531
Tyndale Answere
Mores Dialoge
f. lvii, For appose her now of christ, as scripture
testifieth of him, and thou shalt finde her clene without ryme or
reason.
Good
riddance
c1525
J. Rastell Away
Mourning
(single sheet) I haue her lost, For all my cost, yet for
all that I trowe I haue perchaunce, A fayre ryddaunce, And am quyt of
a shrew.
Send
someone packing
c1580
tr. Bugbears
v. vii. 28 in Archiv
f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen
(1897) 99
50, I sent the knaves packinge.
Dead
as a doornail
1362
Langland Piers
Plowman A. i.
161 Fey withouten fait is febelore þen nouȝt, And ded
as a dore-nayl.
eyesore
1530
J. Rastell New
Bk. Purgatory
iii. viii. sig. g, Ye
spottes..be..a great deformyte & eye sore.
laughing stock
laughing stock
?1518
A. Barclay tr. D. Mancinus Myrrour
Good Maners
sig. Aiv, Thynge nat lesse vyler, is to be ignorant Of
maners vncomly: ageynst all honeste As fable or laughyng stocke, of
lewdest commonte.
Devil
incarnate
bloody-minded
?1545
J. Bale 2nd
Pt. Image Both Churches
ii. xvi. sig. P.ij, As cruellye harted and as bloudye
mynded are they yet as euer they were afore.
1935
J. Agate in Sunday
Times 17 Mar.
6/2 A man says to a presumed lady, ‘What a
bloody-minded woman you are!’(earliest for the common figurative sense)
by
Jove
1575
R. B. Apius
& Virginia
sig. Biijv,
By Ioue master Marchant..Would get but smale argent, if I did not
stand, His very good master.
Tut
tut
1536
in J. Strype Eccl.
Mem. (1721) I.
xxxvi. 282 [He said, to what she had spoken, as it seems,
in her own defence] Tut, tut, tut [and shaking his head three or four
times].
What
the dickens
1599
T. Heywood 1st
Pt. King Edward IV
sig. E3, What the dickens is it loue that makes ye prate
to me so fondly.
Fascinating stuff ... thank you!
ReplyDeleteI was aware that some were not old Will; others came as a surprise. And by all means shout ... loudly. This is yet one more example of how it's much more interesting to get a bit closer to the truth than to just accept the legends.
Personal favourite is Piers Plowman - And ded as a dore-nayl.
Great post. And even if we had no pre-Shakespeare evidence for all of these phrases, that doesn't necessarily mean that he invented all of them—it just means he's the first person to have written them down that we know of.
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY!!! (oops, shouting again)
DeleteYes, you have won the battle. However, I know almost none of the first known users except the BCP, and most of those phrases survive in usage ONLY because of old Bill. I have heard people quote the KJV when they are in fact referencing the Bhagavad Gita. My fave, however, is The Donald quoting Mussolini. If the shoe fits.. (I'm quoting Scooby Doo) -- Dennis J. Hassell
Deletethey survive in usage because they were being used by many people, not just by one person who then got quoted.
DeleteThanks for a great post - it must have taken ages to look all those up!
ReplyDeleteIf Shakespeare invented all the words/phrases that he is given credit for, his plays would have been complete nonsense to the people who went to see them. And now it turns out he's not even the first to have written them down?? Such a scam. :-)
Also, I find this video really annoying. Why should every word/phrase I use be QUOTING the person who invented it or made it popular?
"If you say 'fire', you are quoting Grog the caveman." No.
Thank you! Love that the flowering of Tudor times really did produce a lot of, at least, writing and rewriting stuff that stayed around long enough in the aggregate to show these phrases. It was a great time, and of course his quick playwrighting (and the other hundreds of plays by other people that are lost) grabbed from what was around and did it so well! Of course, Chaucer, well, pretty good stuff and rich rich times. May I "quote" you (ha ha) in my Shakespeare in High Park annual walk? We read and talk and act out Shakespeare and we get lots of folks who've never read a phrase of it. We talk about the language a lot...and put it in context and this is a wonderful way to paint the time! Julia B
ReplyDeletePlease do quote me!
Delete