cramp one's style (1781)

[Joel S. Berson]

Not this literally, but:

Boston Evening-Post, published as Boston Evening Post.; Date:
12-30-1751; Issue: 854; Page: [1]  (EAN):

"Certainly nothing should be retained to cramp or co[...]e [two or
three letters missing due to folded paper] the Genius of the Poet;
who requires full Liberty".

Joel

At 11/13/2008 10:43 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>OED2 has "to cramp one's style" from 1917.
>
>1781 Horace Walpole _Correspondence_ II (1851) 148 The shackles of
>translation have neither cramped your style, nor rendered it obscure.
>http://books.google.com/books?id=2D8JAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA148
>
>Also in _Letters_ VII (1891) 510:
>http://books.google.com/books?id=eBMlAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA510
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org