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  1. #16
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    Smile Time is up !!

    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.

  2. #17
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    Default

    And it hasn't changed.
    Hugh

    Enough is enough, more than enough is too much.

  3. #18
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    Default

    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
    Bushmiller;

    "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"

  4. #19
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by artme View Post
    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.
    Tom

    "It's good enough" is low aim

  5. #20
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    Default

    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"

  6. #21
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    Exclamation

    I knew someone would come up with that!!

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

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