No, you're NOT "quoting Shakespeare"

This video has been doing the rounds for Shakespeare's birthday:
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

1529   T. More Dialogue Heresyes i, in Wks. 107/2   He is of nature nothing tonge tayed.

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

1549   Bk. Common Prayer (STC 16267) Matrimonie f. xv*^v,   O lorde..Bee vnto them a tower of strength.

hoodwink

 1. trans. To cover the eyes with a hood or other covering so as to prevent vision; to blindfold.

1562   Apol. Priv. Masse (1850) 10   Will you enforce women to hoodwink themselves in the church?

 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.

Make a virtue of necessity

c1405  (▸c1395)    Chaucer Squire's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 585   That I made vertu of necessitee And took it wel syn þ^t 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.

Not sleep a wink

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

1462   W. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) I. 167,   I wold nat be in a folis paradyce.

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.vii^v,   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. iij^v,   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   Y^e 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,   Y^e spottes..be..a great deformyte & eye sore. 

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

1395   J. Purvey Remonstr. (1851) 53   A sone of perdicioun, and a devil incarnat othir in flesh.

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. Biij^v,   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.