Antedating of Read Between the Lines (1829)

[Baker, John]

The OED has "read between the lines" to 1866.  The following is from The American Quarterly Review, vol. 12, p. 322 (Dec. 1829), in a review of A Grammar of the Latin Language, for the use of Colleges and Seminaries, in a discussion of Tacitus:

"[w]e must insist on reading slowly, for though his language affords, comparatively speaking, but few difficulties, yet he is so rich in ideas, that almost every word, certainly every sentence, claims a thorough illustration, or, as an admirer of Tacitus expressed himself very appropriate, "much is to be read between the lines.""


John Baker

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