No Googling please!

[artme]

Dickens 4 votes

George Bernard Shaw 3 votes

Bertrand Russell 1 vote

Henry Glapthorne 1 Vote

Google 2 Votes

Dickens is often thought to be the originator of this quote through the personage of the lawyer Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist

The first reference to this quote, however is in a play credited to Henry Glapthorne in 1653

As Dickens was a voracious reader it is possible that he came across this in his reading and later dragged it from his memory banks
when writing Oliver Twist.

[A Duke]

And it hasn't changed.

[Bushmiller]

Noticed the thread too late, but for what it worth I was going to say Glapthorne .

No no I wasn't. All right I confess I hadn't heard of him. I was going to say Samuel Johnson firstly because I thought the saying dated back a way and secondly because nobody else thought it was him. Lastly because there might have been more profit to be turned on the rank outsider .

Regards
Paul

[Chesand]

As Dickens was a voracious reader it is possible that he came across this in his reading and later dragged it from his memory banks
when writing Oliver Twist.

"Cut & Paste" is obviously not new.

[Big Shed]

Actually it wasn't Glapthorne but George Chapman, see here (I won't cut and paste)

The law is an ass

And as you can see, there is some doubt that it is either.

As your question was


Who is responsible for the oft (mis)quoted say about the law being an ass:

I put it to you that Charles Dickes is still the correct answer as he popularised the say and put it in the public domain to enable it to be "oft (mis)quoted"

Your question was not "Who first coined this phrase"

[artme]

I knew someone would come up with that!!

Let me quote my old woodwork teacher "Don't argue son, I know!"