antedating Freudian slip (1927)

[Stephen Goranson]

ads-l archive has 1941

The Complete Works of Sir John Vanburgh, ed. B. Dobree [plays] and G. Webb
[letters] (Bloomsbury: The Nonesuch Press, MCMXXVII)

Textual Note (vol. 1 p. 234) on Act IV Scene II (v.1 p. 154)

Heartfree.....I have been studying all Night, how to bring your Matter about
with Bellinda.
Constant. With Bellinda?
Heartfree. With my Lady, I mean.....

p.154. With my Lady, I mean. This Freudian slip is quite common in the plays of
the period. We find it again in the False Friend. The psychological explanation
of such a slip was quite well understood in those days, though the mechanism had
not yet been given a name, which for some people transforms a concept into a
reality, and a platitude into a discovery.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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