[Ads-l] Things That Go Bump in the Night

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks John. Excellent citation, JL. Here are some links to the 1905 book:

https://books.google.com/books?id=DygSAAAAYAAJ&q=leggettie#v=snippet&
https://archive.org/details/beggars00walkuoft/page/4
https://archive.org/details/beggars00walkuoft/page/n201

The excerpt with "things that go bump in the night" appears as an
epigraph of a tale titled "Some Strange Visitations" by Hugh Warrand.

Here is citation from the next year that employs dialectical spelling,
e.g., "lang-legged" for "long-legged", "nicht for "night", and "gude"
for "good".

Date: July 7, 1906
Periodical: The Academy: The Weekly Review of Literature, Science & Art
Article: Review of the book "The Undertaker's Field" by Herbert Compton
Quote Page 16, Column 2
Published at The Offices of Country Life and George Newnes, London
(Google Books Full View)

https://books.google.com/books?id=5UY9AQAAMAAJ&q=%22gude+Lord%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
But "in romance all things are permissible," we are told. We lay down
the book with the old Scotch prayer upon our lips: "From ghouls and
ghosts and lang-legged beasties and things that go bump in the nicht,
gude Lord deliver us."
[End excerpt]

Garson O'Toole

Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 1905 Archibald Stodart Walker   _A Beggar's Wallet : Containing
> contributions in prose, verse and pictorial illustration, gathered from
> certain workers in art and letters ... To be disposed of in aid of the
> Royal Victoria Hospital for Consumpton, Edinburgh, at the Great
> International Fair to be held in the Waverly Market, in the month of
> November, 1905_  [Edinburgh: Dobson, Molle, 1905] 163:
>
> "Frae ghosties and ghoulies, long-leggettie beasties,
>
>  And things that go bump in the night,
>
> Good Lord deliver us."
>
> — From a quaint old Litany.
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 5:04 PM Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
>
> > "Things that go bump in the night" refers to frightening unspecified but
> > generally supernatural creatures.  The phrase (and variants on it) has been
> > used in a number of titles, some of which are listed on a disambiguation
> > page on Wikipedia,
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_That_Go_Bump_in_the_Night.
> > According to The Phrase Finder, the earliest known use of the phrase is
> > from 1918, and it was incorporated in a prayer which was recorded in The
> > Cornish and West Country Litany in 1926,
> > https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/378900.html.  The OED also gives the
> > 1918 date and suggests it probably has its origins in the 1926 "rhyme."  It
> > does not appear to be in the Yale Book of Quotations.
> >
> > Here is an example of the prayer with the phrase from a review of the play
> > Peter Pan in 1909.  This is from the Los Angeles Herald (Mar. 1, 1909)
> > (Newspapers.com):
> >
> > <<"From ghoulies and ghosties, long-leggety beasties and things that go
> > bump in the night - good Lord deliver us!" runs a quaint old litany,
> > echoing the beliefs of another day, when sprites and nymphs and elves were
> > about us and
> >                Magic casements opened on the foam
> >                Of Perilous seas in faery lands forelorn.
> > The "ghoulies and ghosties" have gone, God give them speed, but "Peter
> > Pan" is back with Tinker Bell and the beasties, and yesterday Los Angeles
> > slipped out through the casement with Peter to the "Never, Never, Never
> > land," in Barrie's whimsical and delightful play.>>
> >
> > It seems likely that both the prayer and the phrase are older than this
> > and do not come from Los Angeles originally.
> >
> >
> > John Baker
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
>
>
> --
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>
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