OLD-WORDS-L Archives

From: Philip Lindsey <>
Subject: [O-W] Shakespeare's "unvarnished truth"
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 16:57:16 -0600

Elsi,

Thank you so much for this information. It makes perfect sense now.

My forefathers were somewhat book deprived on the frontier so while
they could not be widely well read, they tended to read thoroughly in
what they had. And, relative prices being what they were in the 19th
century, what they had tended to be of the best taste available. Penny
dreadfuls had not yet opened the way for genre series, so it was
generally either the Bible or the Classics that were the daily bread of
those who enjoyed reading.


> The first recorded use in any sense of unvarnished is Shakespeare's 'I
> will a round, unvarnish'd tale deliver,/Of my whole course of love
> (Othello, I.iii), and we probably owe our use of the word to mean
> 'plain, direct', to this. The linking of truth to unvarnished was
> established by the 19th century."

An interesting and pertinent (in my geographical area) bit of trivia
would confirm the above, I think.
A stone's throw from where I am now sitting there lived a reknowned
pair of Amercan brothers of the surname James (Jesse and Frank, not
Billy and Hank). Though Jesse James was shot in 1882 by a member of his
own outlaw gang, his elder brother Frank lived until 1915 and was quite
fond of quoting Shakespeare, often at rather great length. So obviously
he must have spent some great time reading the bard.
It is widely believed that, at his own trial for bank robbery, train
robbery and murder, he even incorporated quotes from Shakespeare upon
that occasion. It must have been an entertaining trial for, while not
admitting to any of the specific charges against him, he did promise the
governor of Missouri that he would not repeat any of the acts in the future.

Best Wishes to All,

Phil

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• [O-W] Shakespeare's "unvarnished truth" by Philip Lindsey <>