"Living Large"

[victor steinbok]

One more to add from pre-1900.


http://goo.gl/Rk2fO
Guy Rivers, The Outlaw. A Tale of Georgia. By W. Gillmore Simms. London:
1841
Chapter VIII. p. 39

> There was an old codger--a fine hearty buck--old Ralph Colleton--Colonel
> Ralph, as they used to call him. He did have a power of money, and a smart
> chance of lands and field niggers; but they did say he was going
> behind-hand, for ho didn't know how to keep what he had. He was always
> buying, and living large ; but that can't last for ever. I saw him first at
> a muster. I was then just eighteen, and went out with the rest, for the
> first time.



This is the complete accounting of "living large" before 1900 (in addition
to the aforemention 1834 citation). But Browning gives a shocker!

http://goo.gl/y63pE
The Poetical Works of Robert Browning: With Portraits, Volume 2. London,
1896 edition
The Ring and the Book (1868-9). III--The Other Half-Rome. p. 48/1 [lines
545-8]

> To show some bowels, give the dregso' the cup,
> Scrap of the trencher, to their host that was,
> Or let him share the mat with the mastiff, he
> Who lived large and kept open house so long.


As this edition notes, the poem is from 1868-9 and it shows up in other
editions. Here's the link to the "Author's Edition" (1869):

http://goo.gl/lDZTQ

Also Swinburne:

http://goo.gl/T9rTK
Bothwell: A Tragedy. By Algernon Charles Swinburne. 2nd ed. London: 1874
Act III. Scene XI. p. 325

Bothwell.       You were wont
> To walk more free; I wot you have seen fair days
> When you lived large i' the sun, and had sweet tongues
> To sing with yours, and haply lips and eyes
> To make song sweeter than the lute may; now
> 'Tis hard that you sit here my woeful wife,
> Who use you thus despitefully, that yet
> Was never queen so mated with a groom
> And so mishandled; have you said so?


So we have clusters: 1834/1841; 1869/1874; 1910/1913; 1974/1975. After that,
it's open season. But it certainly does not appear to be "dead" between 1834
and 1975, nor is it confined to a particular region or dialect, unless I am
completely misreading the search results (and the original writing behind
them).

VS-)


On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 9:43 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> As it turned out, the 1120 raw turned out to be exactly 435 ghits between
> 1900 and 1975 and only 4 of them looked relevant (plus one more for "living
> large-handedly"). I'm going to look at pre-1900, then come back and try a
> few more variants.
>
> VS-)
>
> On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 9:29 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> >
> > I was going to wait until I finished processing, but it's a fine sieve
> for
> > very small needles in a very large stack, so I'll report intermediate
> > finding.
> >
> >  http://goo.gl/jZqOM
> > The torch of reason: or, Humanity's god. By Frederick Forrest Berry.
> > Cincinnati: January 1912 [Copyright 1910, 1911, 1912]
> > p. 5
> >
> > > But here was a man--one man--who would not be cut down to fit their
> pigmy
> > > habitations. Here was a man living large and broad in spite of want and
> > > oppression. Their narrow codes and commandments could not encompass
> him;
> > for
> > > he loved the music of the living spheres, and the limitations of human
> > > brotherhood were bounded only by the limitations of the cosmic realm.
> >
> >
> > A nice date, almost half-way between 1975 and 1834--and not BE dialect.
> >
> > http://goo.gl/qqzo3
> > Table talk in the home. Ed. by Norman E. Richardson. American Institute
> of
> > Child Life. 1913
> > Subjects for Table Talk. p. 19
> >
> > > This adds a zest to appetite, and where people are living large, full
> > lives
> > > tends to make their reading and thinking more definite.
> >
> >
> >
> > Here's another, a bit more ambiguous (part of an NP).
> >
> > http://goo.gl/qu3ap
> > Life and living. By Frederic Wood Jones. 1939
> >
> > > Moreover, they were all inclined towards living large and open-handed
> > > lives. John Hunter, we all know, supported a household of over fifty
> > persons
> > > not counting his numerous pupils.
> >
> >
> >
> > This certainly doesn't explain the /origin/ of the expression, but it
> does
> > explain some uses (living a large life).
> >
> >
> > At the other end, this one is tagged 1974 by GB, but I am not even sure
> > this
> > is the right volume:
> >
> > http://goo.gl/8pf1H
> >
> > > For Rodgers was an aristocrat and he liked to see his young proteges
> > living
> > > largeso long as they did their work.
> >
> >
> > I am listing it tentatively, but I suspect another GB screw-up.
> >
> > This represents the entire relevant selection from the first 300 of about
> > 1000 raw ghits in GB. I only tried the direct pair, but there are,
> > obviously, several variations.
> >
> > VS-)
>

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