Quotation: speech surely will return to a silent woman

[Joel S. Berson]

I apologize for not having the excellent YBQ, or for that matter any
other collections of quotations, on my shelf.

In 1735 William Byrd wrote to the governor of North Carolina, who was
suffering from malaria, urging him to take repeated doses of
"[Peruvian] Bark" or else his "Distemper will as surely return, as
speech to a silent woman".

Google Everything produces "as speech to a silent woman" only from Byrd.

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org