"flounder", "red-herring", "magic glass", 1703 -- for the OED

[Dan Goncharoff]

When I read Terrible Robin I think Robin Goodfellow.
On Oct 3, 2014 8:43 PM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "flounder", "red-herring", "magic glass", 1703 -- for the OED
>
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>
> If my interpretation of the 1703 quotation below is correct:
>
> flounder, n.2, antedates OED2 1867--.  A stumbling about, in thought or
> word.
> red herring, n., sense 2, antedates OED3 1807--.  A piece of
> information which is misleading or untrue.
> magic glass, under "magic, adj.", sense 1.b.,  antedates OED3 1792--.
>
> "Jerry Scandal, Whale and Ghost Printer in White Friars, had plagued
> the Town above Ten years with Apparitions, Murders, Catechisms, and
> the like Stuff; By showing him the Phyz of Terrible Robin in my Green
> Magic Glass, I so effectually frighted him, that he has since
> demolish'd all his Letters, dismiss'd his Hawkers, flung up his
> business, and instead of News, cries Flounders and Red herring about
> the Streets."
>
> [Aside -- Who is "Terrible Robin"?]
>
> I suggest for "Flounders and Red herring" the following
> interpretation as figurative:
>
> 1)  flounder, n., "a stumbling about, incoherently and
> aimlessly."  Antedates OED2 1867--.
>
> My analysis -- Flounder, n.2, as "the action of flounder, verb", here
> as "floundering about" ("like a headless chicken", 1870; and see 1822
> quotation below).  For the verb, the OED has (under 1.b.) three
> apposite quotations (encompassing Brown's date):
>
> 1684   S. E. Answer Remarks upon Dr. H. More 299   The Remarker, in
> the very entrance, shuffles and flunders.
> 1728   Pope Dunciad i. 104   The Bard..writ, and flounder'd on, in
> mere despair.
> 1822   W. Hazlitt Table-talk II. viii. 197   They flounder about
> between fustian in expression, and bathos in sentiment.
>
> Perhaps an evolution from "motion" in 1684 to "writing, thought" in
> 1728?  (Unless the 1684 "entrance" of the "Remarker" refers to the
> beginning of his remarks rather than his coming in to someplace.)
>
> 2)   red herring, n., as "something misleading or untrue".  Antedates
> OED3 sense 2, 1807--.
>
> My analysis -- Here, used in contrast to "News" (which is generally
> assumed to be truthful).
>
> 3)  "magic glass" under "magic, adj." 1.b., antedates OED3 1792--.
> -----
>
> Bibliographic information:
>
> "A True and Faithful Catalogue of some remarkable Cures perform'd in
> the other World by the famous Signior Guisippe Hanesio, High German
> Doctor and Astrologer."  Within "A Letter from Signior Guisippe
> Hanesio, High-German Doctor and Astrologer in Brandipolis, to his
> Friends at Will's Coffee-House in Covent Garden. By Mr. T. Brown."
> (This is also known as "Mr. Jo. Haine's 2nd Letter, to his Friends at
> Will's.")  In "A Continuation or Second Part of the Letters from the
> Dead to the Living, By Mr. Tho. Brown, Capt. Ayloff, Mr. Henry
> Barker, &c."  London, Printed in the Year, 1703.  Pages [21]--[22]
> (brackets on pages).   (Misnumbered; page [17] follows page 32.)  ECCO.
>
> Joel
>
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