"Good old days"

[Jonathan Lighter]

The problem may not be a lack of nostalgia so much a lack of adequate technology.

A new search of ECCO reveals that Edward  Ward's  A Journey to Hell, or, A Visit Paid the to the Devil  (1700)  has,

                          Now, alas, those good old Times are lost.

OED offers the following as its primary ex. of "good old times" (s.v. old, a.):

        1611 R. COTGRAVE Dict. French & Eng. Tongues  s.v.  Argent,  In good old times  when men were loath to publish their owne goodnesse.

Possibly of greater interest is that repeated searches of EEBO failed to retrieve this example.  It remains true, however, that these two are the only pre-1707 quotes to illustrate a phrase comparable to our "the good old days."

Caveat computator.

JL









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