OT: Wise and/or Otherwise [Was: Limerick (poem) antedating Nov. 30, 1880]

[victor steinbok]

While doing my search for "wise or otherwise" I discovered an early
example of something entirely different.

>From The Town and Country Magazine for 1782 (p. 487):

"On the first day of April last, like a d--n'd fool, as the day
prognosticated I fell desperately in love with Antonietta the
Brunetta. If I had been wise, or otherwise, or any thing but
weatherwise, this fatal accident would not have happened."

Also, from the same piece:

"Pyg (what d'y call him) malion?
Who carved his mistress out of stone,
Had not, by half, so hard a hearted one."
                                 Hudibras.

This is, of course, a quote (the first line starting with "That old")
from Samuel Butler's Hudibras poem (1662).

On a different note, the header for the comment column in a 1777
Almanac reads reads "Odd Poetical Whimwhams, Wise or Otherwise, &c."
(GB-found Collection of English Almanacs for the years 1702-1835,
scanned from NY Public Library)

VS-)

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