Quote: You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on

[Garson O'Toole]

Many thanks to all respondents. Nigel kindly replied to my note with a
wonderful citation dated 1836. Inspired by this information I
performed some additional searches and pushed the date back to 1817.

Cite: 1817, Harrington and Ormond: Tales by Maria Edgeworth, Volume 2,
[Second Edition, Corrected], Page 96, Printed for R. Hunter, And
Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, London.

Short link: http://goo.gl/SctOk
http://books.google.com/books?id=wn0wAQAAMAAJ&q=%22called+drunk%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
This startling assertion could not bring his majesty's veracity into
question; for according to his definition, and to the received opinion
at his court, "No man could be called drunk, so long as he could lie
upon the ground without holding it."
[End excerpt]

Also by 1828 a variant of the quotation was assigned to Falstaff. This
is interesting because it suggests that a variant of the saying might
be somewhere in Shakespeare's oeuvre. But this may be a false lead.

Cite: 1828, Tales of an Antiquary: Chiefly Illustrative of the
Manners, Traditions, and Remarkable Localities of Ancient London,
Volume 1 of 3, Mine Host of the Garter, Page 151-152, Henry Colburn,
London.

Short link: http://goo.gl/bhX9g
http://books.google.com/books?id=bw8nAAAAMAAJ&q=%22not+lie%22#v=snippet&

[Being excerpt]
Master Shallow's brain was so much discomposed by the Sack which he
had taken, that he was absolutely uproarious, and as Falstaff said,
"could not lie on the ground without holding;" while the same cause
made Masters Simple and Silence perfect logs, which required bearing
to their homes by any legs rather than their own.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 5:16 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Quote: You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without
>              holding on
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Maybe it was "...hang onto a blade of grass...."
>
> Ha! Close enough! After 20+ years:
>
> http://www.spreadshirt.com/an-irishman-is-never-drunk-C3376A4138189
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 5:01 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Quote: You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor
>> without
>>              holding on
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> T-shirts don't lie.
>>
>> You must be part Irish.  Happy St. Pat's!
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 4:47 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: Quote: You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor
>> > without
>> >              holding on
>> >
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>> ------
>> >
>> > On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 4:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>> > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > > "=85 hang onto the grass without falling off the earth."
>> >
>> > I once - once was enough! - experienced a similar feeling: struggling
>> > to keep from falling out my bunk as it slowly rotated around its long
>> > axis, after a Dime Night - all hard liquor at ten cents per *straight
>> > shot*; in its war on weed, the Army *strongly* encouraged alcoholism -
>> >  at the EM club. And some guys did, in fact, fall out of their bunks,
>> > one breaking his jaw as a consequence of having fallen out of a top
>> > bunk onto his face.
>> >
>> > --
>> > -Wilson
>> > -----
>> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>> > to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> > -Mark Twain
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --=20
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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