Speak (the) truth to power (quasi-precursors)

[Jonathan Lighter]

It's really curious that so striking a phrase should show so little
continuity of usage until the late 20th C.

Independent coinage seems unlikely - though not absolutely impossible.

JL

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 8:46 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      Speak (the) truth to power (quasi-precursors)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Though the 1950s Friends were unlikely to have read these texts:
>
>
> [EECO] TITLE:
> A free Briton's advice to the free citizens of Dublin. Numb. II.
> AUTHOR:
> Priscus, Helvidius.
> DETAILS:
> Dublin, [1748]. 15 pp. page 13
>
>  Strange it is that Men should be found abject enough to tremble at the
> very Thought
> of speaking Truth to Power!
>
> And this (unconfirmed) snippet [British Newspaper Archive]:
>
> Exeter and Plymouth Gazette
> Tue 25 Nov 1924 p. 2 article
> Devon, England
> Correspondence. We do not necessarily endorse the opinions of our
> correspondents. We cannot enter into any discussion concerning rejected
> communications
> 1921 Words [presumably read: prophet]
>
>     “ ophet speaking truth to power over selfishness and sloth, When
> silence falls such a voice, there ... ?
>
> Stephen Goranson
> www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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