"share and fare alike"

[victor steinbok]

A slight improvement to 1674 in GB by dropping the a-:

http://goo.gl/0AZMv

> I hope, Sir, since you have put in for your share in the pleasure, you will
> be share, and share like in the charge


This still come nowhere near OED's earliest 1566.

Still, the several 1690s citations significantly predate the earliest listed
"alike" citation from Robinson Crusoe. All the earlier ones are "like". In
all, I count 10 GB sources that predate Crusoe: 1690, 1698, 1704, 1706,
1714, 1715, 1718 (some multiples in a couple of years).

Add to that a 1716 set of Plautus comedies, where GB interpreted "fhare and
fhare alike". There also three more (1706, 1715, 1716) where the first s is
read as (. In one of these (1716), the expression occurs at least 14
times--and likely has similar frequency in other "conveyancers".

Another one of these, however, is more interesting because it contains a
verbal version of the phrase (can be found under share v.2 6.e.) that is
described as "being misapprehended grammatically". This one only goes back
to 1821, so it's an actual antedating.

http://goo.gl/1ipSA
The history of many memorable things lost, which were in use among ...,
Volume 1. By Guido Panciroli, Heinrich Salmuth. 1715
Chapter 12. Of Printing. p. 327

> And therefore, he and *Guttenberg *made an Agreement to be Partners in the
> Matter, and (whether win or lose) to share and share alike, and to be
> equally concerned touching the Ekpences about their Art :


VS-)


On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 3:07 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ...
> "Share and share alike" goes back perhaps to 1690 in GBooks:

...

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