[Ads-l] Inquiry about template in Shakespeare: X me no x's

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Wonderful! Thanks, Jesse. The appendix lists two citations before the
Shakespeare citations.

[Begin excerpt]
APPENDIX: SOME SAMPLES OF X ME NO X'S

1590, George Peele, The Old Wives Tale, l. 481.
S1: What, would you have us to bury him, and to answer it ourselves to
the parish?
S2: Parish me no parishes!

1591, The Lamentable ... Tragedie of M. Arden of Feversham, l. 767.
S1: I will lay the platforme [plan] of his death.
S2: Plat me no platformes.

1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, II.iii.87.
S1: My gracious uncle—
S2: Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.

1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, III.v.152.
S1: Proud can I never be of what I hate, / But thankful even for hate
that is meant for love.
S2: Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds....

...
The dates cited here are generally those assigned in Harbage and Schoen-
baum (1964), but it should be understood that some of these as well as others
are approximations
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, Oct 15, 2026 at 10:06 PM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>
> See Dale B. J. Randall, "X Me No X's: Some Examples (Mainly from the Renaissance) of the Neologizing Imperative Retort", _American Speech_ Vol. 64, No. 3 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 233-243.
>
> https://www.jstor.org/stable/455591
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
>
> On Thu, Oct 15, 2026 at 09:36:14PM -0400, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
> > I received an interesting inquiry about a template employed by William
> > Shakespeare. Is anyone familiar with this template? Are there examples
> > before Shakespeare's works?
> >
> > [Begin request sent to Garson]
> > I am trying to determine the origin of the phrase type "x me no
> > x's"--for example, "riddle me no riddles."
> >
> > I have found two instances in Shakespeare, one in Romeo and Juliet:
> > "Thank me no thanking, nor proud me no proud."--and one in Richard II:
> > "Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle." Interesting, that both are
> > double, and both use singular nouns. So you see, I've done a little of
> > the work myself.
> >
> > But can you think of any earlier versions?
> > [End request sent to Garson]
> >
> > I did not find anything pertinent when I performed a quick search in
> > Early English Books Online, but the search was incomplete.
> >
> > Thanks for any help,
> > Garson O'Toole
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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