Not even X, much more Y [was: re: gill (verb) = laugh]

[Douglas G. Wilson]

 From Project Gutenberg:

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"Not X, much more Y" examples:

Tobias Smollett, "Expedition of Humphry Clinker" (1771 I think):

<<I doubt he has as little manners as money; for he can't say a civil word,
much more make me a present of a pair of gloves for goodwill; ....>>

W. Shakespeare, "Much Ado about Nothing" (1599 I think), Act III, Scene III:

<<
Verg[es]. You have been always called a merciful man, partner.
Dog[berry]. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who
hath any honesty in him.
 >>

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Borderline or questionable examples:

Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Manners", in "Essays: Second Series" (1844 I think):

<<'I overheard Jove, one day,' said Silenus, 'talking of destroying the
earth; he said it had failed; they were all rogues and vixens, who went
from bad to worse, as fast as the days succeeded each other. Minerva said
she hoped not; they were only ridiculous little creatures, with this odd
circumstance, that they had a blur, or indeterminate aspect, seen far or
seen near; if you called them bad, they would appear so; if you called them
good, they would appear so; and there was no one person or action among
them, which would not puzzle her owl, much more all Olympus, to know
whether it was fundamentally bad or good.'>>

W. M. Thackeray,"A Little Dinner at Timmins's" (1856 I think):

<<And I know for a fact that Fubsby's bill is not yet paid; nor Binney and
Latham's the wine-merchants; that the breakage and hire of glass and china
cost ever so much money; that every true friend of Timmins has cried out
against his absurd extravagance, and that now, when every one is going out
of town, Fitz has hardly money to pay his circuit, much more to take Rosa
to a watering-place, as he wished and promised.>>

W. M. Thackeray,"The Book of Snobs" (1848?):

<<'Married? no,' says he.  'Not money enough.  Hard enough to keep myself,
much more a family, on five hundred a year.>>

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-- Doug Wilson