“The Way of All Flesh”
This paper is not, as the title would seem to imply, a discussion of Butler's famous novel, nor does it attempt to answer the question where Butler found the phrase. It may well be doubted indeed whether the novelist himself could have given us an exact reference to his source, since the phrase...
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| Tipo di documento: | Elettronico Articolo |
| Lingua: | Inglese |
| Verificare la disponibilità: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Pubblicazione: |
1938
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| In: |
Harvard theological review
Anno: 1938, Volume: 31, Fascicolo: 1, Pagine: 41-51 |
| Accesso online: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Riepilogo: | This paper is not, as the title would seem to imply, a discussion of Butler's famous novel, nor does it attempt to answer the question where Butler found the phrase. It may well be doubted indeed whether the novelist himself could have given us an exact reference to his source, since the phrase, as a euphemism for the dread word “death,” is one of those winged utterances which come into one's mind without a definite perception whence or how or when. English literature at least seems to furnish comparatively few examples of its use and the writers who do employ it, if we except Dickens who, in one of the stories in Sketches by Boz, makes Mr. Parsons remark that his wife's father “allowed us something to live on till he went the way of all flesh,” are not such as are commonly read. Moreover it is clear that the phrase was generally familiar before the date of its earliest appearance in our literature. This was in the year 1607, in the play Westward Ho, by Dekker and Webster, II, 2, where one of the characters remarks, “I saw him even now going the way of all flesh, that's to say, towards the kitchen.” This remark would have been without point, had the phrase not been in common use with a more serious connotation. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4517 |
| Comprende: | Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0017816000029540 |