[Ads-l] Me or your own eyes/my wife or my own lyin' eyes

[victor steinbok]

I was searching for references and came across the Quote Investigator post
from 2018 on the line "Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes" - and
variations to that effect.

The post traces two similar tropes - one involving eyes and another, donkey.

The search for the former seems to terminate in 1904 with a particular
song. I believe, I can antedate that trope much further back - to at least
1873.

Man Is Love. An American Story. By One Who Knows. Lippincott, 1873, p. 380.

"How large was the bear you saw?" "I never saw a bear!" the man replied.
"Why, you just said you had," replied the astonished friend. Indignantly
the man replied,

"Don't you suppose I'd believe my own dear wife 'fore I would my own lyin'
eyes?"

https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA380&dq=%22lyin%27+eyes%22&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&ovdme=1&id=nOxLAQAAMAAJ&source=gb_mobile_search&output=text#v=onepage&q&f=false

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