shagging & fucking

[George Thompson]

A review in TLS of Classical Sculpture and the Culture of Collecting in Britain since 1760, by Viccy Coltman (OUP, 2009) mentioned a "libertine" letter quoted in it, in terms that sent me scampering to the library.

The letter is dated February, 1772, from Richard Cosway, a painter, to Charles Townley, his patron,( and, it seems, his intimate friend,) and is found on pp. 181-82.
Extracts:
*** Oliver has been in Town a month -- fuck'd himself dry, & returned to Bath to recomit *** the Duke of Cumberland married, & the Princess Dowager dead -- so wags the world -- with respect to shagging -- it is much the same as when you left us (your part omitted) but as for myself I stick as close to Radicati's Arse as a Bum Bailiff to Lord Deloraine's -- Italy for ever I say if the Italian Woman fuck as well in Italy as they do here, you must be happy indeed -- I am such a Zealot for them, that I be damned if I ever fuck an English woman again (if I can help it) ***  a Clergyman has just publish'd a treatise on fucking under the title of the Joys of Hymen ***

OED, "shag", verb, #3 1. trans. and intr. To copulate (with).
1788 GROSE Dict. Vulgar Tongue (ed. 2), Shag, to copulate. 1879-80 Pearl (1970) 258 A fellow who's had the mishap, To forget, when he shagged her, to button his flap. 1958 N. LEVINE Canada made Me iv. 102 You know what they're talking about? If they got shagged last night. 1969 J. WOOD Three Blind Mice iii. 32 We..go and shag ourselves half-stupid all night..and pay them for it in the morning! 1973 Nation Rev. (Melbourne) 24-30 Aug. 1417/4 The credo of the new fashioned mammy is if you shag, I shag. 1977 C. MCCULLOUGH Thorn Birds xvii. 413 There are plenty of men who will shag anything if it's a virgin. 1980 R. ADAMS Girl in Swing xxi. 279 ‘He's never absent.’ And the corporal next to Jack muttered, ‘Well, I 'ope 'e ain't 'angin' around when I'm shaggin' my missus.’
So this is a 16 year antedating.

For "fucking", the OED has:
1. The action of FUCK v. 1; sexual intercourse.
  Also as the second element in compounds; cf. also sport-fucking n. at SPORT n.1 Compounds 4a.
1568 A. SCOTT Poems (1896) iv. 55 Thir foure, the suth to sane, Enforsis thame to fucking. 1571 in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. 202 For quha wald not lauche..To se forett e holy frere his fukking so deploire? 1680 School of Venus I, in B. K. Mudge When Flesh becomes Word (2004) 11 When a man thrusts his Prick into a Womans Cunt, it is called Fucking,. But pray do'nt talk of such kind of thing before Company, for they will call you and immodest baudy Wench, and chide you for it. 1708 School of Love in Indictment (P.R.O.: KB 28/24) m. 9 My lovely Phil. is..as well vers'd in the various manners of ffucking and ffrigging, as the Captain of the virtuosa's. 1865 ‘PHILOCOMUS’ Love Feast II. 11 Now the first time understood That fucking is the greatest good. ***
So this is not an antedating, but it falls in the middle of a 157 year gap.

For "fuck", verb, the OED's string of citations includes:
a1749 A. ROBERTSON Poems (?1751) 256 But she gave Proof that she could fk. 1784 PRINCE WILLIAM Let. 23 July in P. Ziegler King William IV (1971) iii. 51 Oh, for..the pretty girls of Westminster..such as would not clap or pox me every time I fucked. a1796 R. BURNS Merry Muses (1911) 71 You can fk where'er you please.
So there is already evidence that this word hadn't fallen into disuse in the 18th C.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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