[Ads-l] Proverb: There is nothing sure, but Death and Taxes. (Daniel Defoe 1717)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Yesterday was tax day, so I decided to update the QI article about the
famous "death and taxes” saying. Researcher Terri Guillemets sent me
an intriguing 1717 citation.

[ref] 1717, Fair Payment No Spunge, (Author: Daniel Defoe), Chapter
11, Quote Page 75, Printed and Sold by J. Brotherton and W. Meddows,
London. (Google Books Full View) [/ref]

https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_fair-payment-no-spunge-_defoe-daniel_1717/page/n82/mode/1up?q=%22death+and+%22

[Begin excerpt]
. . .a Proverb or by-Word among us, that there is nothing sure, but
Death and Taxes.
[End excerpt]

Determining the earliest citation for this saying is tricky. The play
"The Cobler of Preston" by Christopher Bullock contains the phrase
"'tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes". The
play existed in 1716 according to a ProQuest citation and Wikipedia.

Unfortunately, the ProQuest citation I can access does not include
scans. It only presents text. I do not know how the date was
determined. The earliest scans I can find for the published version of
the play were obtained from a fourth edition published in 1723. The
script used in early performances of a play sometimes is revised
before the first publication appears.

The situation is complicated because there is another 1716 play titled
"The Cobler of Preston" by Mr. Johnson. The "death and taxes” saying
does not appear in the play by Mr. Johnson.

It would be nice to be able to access scans of the published 1716
version of the Christopher Bullock play (if it exists). Despite this
residual uncertainty, the QI article does list "The Cobler of Preston"
as the first citation for now.

Quote Origin: Nothing Is Certain, Except Death and Taxes
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/05/11/taxes/

Garson

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