A note on wet-blanket politics--plus antedating of wet blanket

[Victor Steinbok]

[I know Jesse Sheidlower would prefer just a single reference for
antedating, but I am trying to do a bit more here. Still, both
figurative interpretations of "wet blanket" are antedated. Besides, I am
not sure how most of these would be treated by OED.]

Steve Benen noticed repeated use of "wet blanket" in recent political
discourse.

    http://goo.gl/o1tYo


Looking in OED reveals not one but two locations.

Under blanket n., from 1830 ("on the wrong side of the blanket" is from
1771).

> 3. Phrases.
> a. /a wet blanket/ : a person or thing that throws a damper over
> anything, as a wet blanket smothers fire. /born on the wrong side of
> the blanket/: said of an illegitimate child; also /(on) the right side
> of the blanket/.

>     1830 J. Galt /Lawrie Todd/ I. iii. xiii. 273,   I have never felt
>     such a wet blanket before or since syne.



Then, there is the separate wet-blanket entry.

> 1. A blanket that has been drenched in water; esp. one used for
> quenching a conflagration. Chiefly in allusive use.
>
>     1662 Atwell /Faithf. Surveyor/ 95   Of quenching an house on fire.
>     The Instruments ... are ... forks, wet-blankets, ladders, ...
>     pails, &c.*
>     *
>
> 2. fig.
>  a. Something that acts as a damper to activity, enthusiasm, or
> cheerfulness.
>
>     1810 G. Jackson /Diaries & Lett./ (1873) I. 143   It would have
>     been a cruel stroke of fate ... if ... a wet blanket [had] been
>     thrown over them [/sc./ gaieties].
>
>  b. A person who has a depressing or dispiriting effect on those
> around him.
>
>     1857    A. Mathews /Tea-table Talk/ I. 185   Such people may be
>     termed the wet blankets of society.
>

Antedating 3.a. and 2.a.

Perhaps the first two qualify as precursors.

http://goo.gl/FlPKO
Sketches from Nature; Taken, and Coloured, in a Journey to Margate. By
George Keate. 2nd Edition. 1779
http://goo.gl/AgGfi
Sketches from Nature; Taken, and Coloured, in a Journey to Margate. By
George Keate. 4th Edition. 1790
The Two Bachelors. p. 47
> My only quarrel with the blind goddess is, that she has opposed me in
> pursuits most interesting to me.--Fond of female converse, and
> possessing brisk spirits, and imagination, I have been perpetually
> nursing up attachments till they kindled into a flame; but there was
> ever some greedy father, capricious old aunt, or miserable wretch, in
> the way, who served as a wet blanket to stifle its progress.

http://goo.gl/9d7vd
The Gentleman's magazine and Historical Chronicle. Volume 51. July 1781
June 19. [By] Staffordiensis. p. 317/2
> Le Texier, who had obtained great reputation by reading them, sitting
> at a table, and acting them as he went on. Mr. Garrick fixed upon his
> own farce of Lethe *, and there were present the king, queen, princess
> royal, duchess of Argyll, and one or two more of the ladies in
> waiting: but the coldness with which this select party heard him, so
> opposite to the applause he had always been used to on the Stage, had
> such an effect on him, as to prevent his exertions; or, to use Mr. G's
> own words in relating the circumstance, "it was," said he, /"/as if
> they had thrown a wet blanket over me."

http://goo.gl/Eq2d4
An Impartial Report of the Debates that Occur in the Two Houses of
Parliament, In the Course of the Fourth Session of the Eighteenth
Parliament of Great Britain, called to meet at Westminster, on Tuesday
the 27th of September, 1796. Volume 1. By William Woodfall, and
Assistants. 1798
House of Commons. December 11, 1798. p. [162,] 171
> [Mr. /Canning/ rose, and spoke in reply to Mr. Tierney. ...] Surely it
> is impossible to believe, that men who have the same feelings as
> ourselves, should be so hardened into idiots, as not to burn with the
> most anxious impatience to burst the chains of such a bondage ; and
> while that impatience is breaking out in every quarter, while a spirit
> of resentment and revenge is kindling in the bosom of every insulted
> and oppressed nation, are we te throw a wet blanket upon it by
> entertaining and admitting the present motion ?

http://goo.gl/gp2yh
The Monthly Review; or Literary Journal. Volume 7(18). Part 1. April 1799
On the Modern Improvements in Live Stock. [By "A Practical Farmer".] p.
207/2
> Here the example of old France  enables us to pay a well-merited
> compliment to our own government. Under the thrice and ever to be
> accursed despotism, which formerly devoured that fine country, the
> activity of the most enthusiastic cultivators upon earth, was stifled
> in every attempt at improvement  with " the wet blanket" of fiscal
> extortion and feudal monopoly.

http://goo.gl/BRpjQ
The Parliamentary Register; or, History of the Proceedings and Debates
of the Houses of Lords and Commons. 3rd Session of 18th Parliament.
Volume 7. 1799
Parliamentary Debates. House of Commons. December 11. p. [170,] 182
> [Mr. Canning rose and said ...] But if, on the other hand, the powers
> of Europe, or any of them, are ready to do their part towards the
> common salvation, and want but our countenance and encouragement to
> begin; if the train is laid,---if the sparks of enmity and resentment
> which the aggressions of France have kindled in every nation
> throughout Europe want but our breath to blow them into conflagration
> ;---is it the dictate of our duty, our interest, or our feelings, to
> save France from destruction,---and by a coarse and hasty proceeding,
> like that which is now recommended to us, /to throw a //wet blanket
> /on the flames?

Yes, I did find it odd that both parliamentary references to "wet
blanket" occurred on December 11 in subsequent years. In fact, it's
worse than that--the one published in 1799 is from an earlier session
(1797-8) than the one from 1798 (1798-9). And the one copyrighted in
1798 includes a part of the session that's in January 1799. And, to top
it off, both remarks are by George Canning--which, actually, may explain
the correlation.

Gazette of the United States, Philadelphia; 03-09-1799. Volume: XV.
Issue: 2020. P. [3];
> But if this motion were to be adopted, we should throw a wet blanket
> on the fire, which was otherwise about to spread through Europe.

This is, of course, yet another derivative from George Canning's
December 11 speech. Yet, here, the choice of words is nearly the
opposite--in the two registers, Canning urges to prevent the opposition
from throwing a wet blanket on the efforts to stifle French agression,
but here he is credited with trying to throw a wet blanket on France.


http://goo.gl/fa2HM
The Columbian Phenix and Boston Review. Volume 1. Boston: February 1800
The Political Review. No. II. p. 84/1
> With those who hold it a crime to throw a wet blanket on the fire of
> party spirit, I stand arraigned as a criminal already.

http://goo.gl/5U8Aa
The Spirit of the Public Journals for 1800. Being an Impartial Selection
of the Most Exquisite Essays and Jeux d'Esprits, Principally Prose, That
Appear in the Newspapers and Other Publications. Volume 4. London: 1801
Cant Phrases [From the Morning Chronicle]. [By A Linguist.] p. 165
> /"wet blanket"/--haggling between pounds and shillings in a loan or
> subsidy, and rs a kin to the abovementioned /cold economy. /

http://goo.gl/IsssM
Cobbett's weekly political register, Volume 2. October 16, 1802
Mr. Cobbett's Letter to Lord Hawkesbury. c. 457
> Up to this disgraceful period, too; Russia, in spite of the /wet
> blanket /which your lordship threw over the youthful and generous
> warmth of the new Emperor, manifested a disposition to interfere in
> favour of the old system against the encroaching ambition of France.

http://goo.gl/UIZj2
The Monthly Review; or Literary Journal. Volume 58(6). April 1809
Poetry. Art. 36. One more Peep at the Royal Academy ; or Odes to
Academicians, &c. &c. By Peter Pindar, Esq. 1808. p. 437
> Indeed, we began to apprehend, from thy long silence, that the mists
> and fogs of the valetudinary state had operated like a wet blanketon
> thy genius ; or that, occupied with graver thoughts, in thy great
> chair, thou hadst declared with Horace, "Nunc etiam versus et ludicra
> pono."

http://goo.gl/Glz4s
Letters from an Irish Student in England to His Father in Ireland.
Volume 2. [No author.] London: 1809
Letter 35. Opie. p. 175
> Opie flew back upon the wings of delight to me, to tell me what a
> liberal sum the King had promised for his picture. I soon threw a wet
> blanket over Opie's ardour, by drily saying thou art a raw fellow,
> indeed, to let the King make such a bargain with thee ; for do you not
> remember that I have offered to give you as much for it without the
> frame, which is itself worth two guineas more ?



This is one may well be a precursor of 2.b.

http://goo.gl/XtemD
The Fashionable Lover; A Comedy: As Acted at the Theatre-Royal in
Drury-Lane [London]. [By Richard Cumberland.] Belfast: 1772
Act 1. Scene 1. p. 4
> /Dr. Druid/. Tedious ! ay, in coot truth is he, as tedious as a
> Lapland winter, and as melancholy too; his crochets, and his humours
> damp all mirth and merriment, as a wet blanket does a fire: he is the
> very night-mare of society.

And this one a manifestation of 2.b.

http://goo.gl/K8LXR
The Soldier's Daughter. A Comedy, in five acts. As performed at the
New-York Theatre. By A. Cherry. 2nd Edition. New York: 1808 [The play is
English, so this does not qualify as an American instance.]
Act 5. Scene 3. p. 79
> /Gov/. Why, what the devil is the matter with the grumbling mongrel ?
> get about your business, you night-mare! you death-watch ! you wet
> blanket! you flap-winged raven !--

It is interesting that, with a single exception, all sources are English
(although two of them are in American publications). Still, there is
that single 1800 US source. And that single US source (The Columbian
Phenix) may well have been influenced by comments attributed to Canning.
But the fact that the expression is being used both in theatre (in
dramatic works, as well as by actors off-stage) and in political
commentary suggest that it would have been fairly widespread. Still, the
use is somewhat hesitant, as a number of lines use "wet blanket" either
enclosed in quotation marks or given as a simile. There is little chance
I could find something to antedate the straight meaning of "wet blanket"

     VS-)

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