"Fit to be tied" (1807?)

[George Thompson]

Barry gives us this, as an antedating for the expression "fit to be tied":
". . . the enraged uncle, who, with a bitter imprecation, vowed that his nephew was a poltron, and only fit to be tied to his mother's apron string."

My notion of the meaning of the expression "fit to be tied" is "extremely angry", though I also feel the expression has a joking tone.  In the uncle's statement the nephew is worthy of being, or only capable of being, tied to his mother for protection; but in the common expression a person is "fit to be tied" because he requires being put under restraint to prevent him from acting upon his anger.

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: Bapopik at AOL.COM
Date: Saturday, May 17, 2003 2:08 pm
Subject: "Fit to be tied" (1807?)