Quote or Proverb: My boys trust in the Lord, and keep your powder dry (antedating 1832 February 28)

[Dan Goncharoff]

So all of a sudden, in the early 1830s, the quote gets attributed to
Cromwell? Seems to me there was a theatrical production on the London
stage that provoked this.

I know Hugo's Cromwell was written a few years earlier, but the quote
is not to be found in translations of the French. Could an English
actor or director taken some dramatic license?

DanG

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 2:20 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Quote or Proverb: My boys trust in the Lord, and keep your powder
>              dry (antedating 1832 February 28)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Yesterday, Jonathan Lighter mentioned the phrase "In God we trust -
> everybody else cash." The phrase below resonated in my memory:
>
> Put your trust in God, and keep your powder dry.
>
> This expression appears in the Proverbs section of the Oxford
> Dictionary of Quotations, and the entry points to a quotation from the
> ballad ‘Oliver's Advice’ by Valentine Blacker:
>
> Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.
>
> ODQ specifies a date of 1856. The Yale Book of Quotations also has
> this quotation and traces it back to 1834. Both references note that
> the phrase is attributed to Oliver Cromwell.
>
> OED (August 2010) contains a pertinent phrase under the headword powder (noun):
>
> Phrases P1. e. to keep one's powder dry: to adopt a practical or
> realistic policy; to act prudently or cautiously; to be on the alert.
> [With allusion to words attributed (apparently originally in quot.
> 1834) to Oliver Cromwell:
>
> 1834    W. Blacker Oliver's Advice in E. Hayes Ballads of Ireland
> (1855) I. 192   The Pow'r that led great William, Boyne's reddening
> torrent thro',—In his protecting aid confide, and every foe defy—Then
> put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.
>
>
> Here are selected citations for the saying starting in 1832.
>
> Hansard - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Lords Sitting
> Date 1832 February 28
> Topic: Education-Ireland
> Speaking: The Earl of Radnor
>
> On that occasion, Mr. Archdal concluded his speech by saying, "My
> friends, I will now only add the words used by Oliver Cromwell to his
> army, when marching through a ford—"My boys trust in the Lord, and
> keep your powder dry."
>
>
> Hansard - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Lords Sitting
> Date 1832 April 16
> Topic: Affray at Newtownbarry-Captain Graham
> Speaking: The Marquis of Clanricarde
>
> As a sample of the spirit in which persons belonging to those
> Associations conducted themselves, he need only refer to an address
> delivered lately at a great conservative meeting by a Mr. Archdale, a
> clergyman too, he believed. The Christian spirit of this address might
> be judged of when he informed the House that the speaker exhorted his
> hearers "to put their trust in God and keep their powder dry."
>
>
> Hansard - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Lords Sitting
> Date 1832 July 26
> Topic: Parliamentary Reform-Bill for Ireland-Committee
> Speaking: The Duke of Richmond
>
> Why, at one of the meetings in the north of Ireland, he understood
> this was the language used:—" My boys, keep the Bible safe in your
> hands, and take care that your powder is dry."
>
>
> Switching focus to the colonies in 1833, here is a quotation
> attributed to Cromwell that refers to an older form of weaponry,
> pikes. This excerpt also includes a version using gunpowder instead of
> powder:
>
> Cite: 1833 May 27, Adams Sentinel, Cromwell's Oratory, Page 3,
> Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (NewspaperArchive)
>
> Cromwell's Oratory -- "Trust in the Lord, and rely on your pikes," was
> on one occasion Cromwell's address to his soldiers on going into
> battle. On another occasion his general address was, "Trust in the
> Lord, and keep your gunpowder dry."
>
>
> Switching focus to Dublin, here is an instance of "Oliver's Advice"
> published in 1834:
> Cite: 1834 December, The Dublin University magazine, Oliver's Advice,
> Page 700, Number XXIV, Volume IV, Dublin, Ireland, William Curry, Jun.
> and Company. (Google Books full view)
>
> OLIVER'S ADVICE
> ADAPTED TO "THE TIMES THAT BE."
>
> The night is gathering gloomily, the day is closing fast—
> The tempest flaps his raven wing in loud and angry blast;
> The thunder clouds are driving athwart the lurid sky—
> But, "put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry."*
>
> * There is a well-authenticated anecdote of Cromwell. On a certain
> occasion when his troops were about crossing a river to attack the
> enemy, he concluded an address, couched in the usual fanatic terms in
> use among them, with these words—"put your trust in God; but mind to
> keep your powder dry."
>
> (The above footnote is from the 1834 publication.)
>
> Garson
>
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