antedating (?) "mad as a hatter" (1829)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Mon, Sep 24, 2007 at 08:02:48AM -0400, Stephen Goranson wrote:
> At Google Books full view with the date on the running heads:
>
> From a strange [I first typed strage, strange stage] play in Blackwood's
> Magazine, June 1829, page 790. Three different characters have the following
> exchange:

Page 792 actually, and this is not a play, but from the
"Noctes Ambrosianae", which was an ongoing series in
Blackwood's in the 1820s, featuring imaginary conversations
among Edinburgh wits of the time; it's only presented in the
form of a play.

For more details see

http://www.bartleby.com/222/0608.html

which is an excerpt from the Cambridge History of English and
American Literature, vol. XII. (Hat tip to Languagehat for
this link.)

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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