What the colliers said to the railwaymen in the public-house last Saturday night?Ģ-: From The Holidays. Who, when cursing a friend said, “ I hope your rabbits die”? If he said “It’s a good job I don’t wear spurs”? If webbed feet would assist to a greater extent than wings? If she is possessed of fairy-like proclivities? The name of the young lady who asserts she can swim with the aid of water-wings? Who borrows the “Echo” to see if she has been jotted?ĭoes she try to buy one when she is referred to? The other early occurrences of the phrase that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:ġ-: From the column What we should like to know?, published in the Beeston Gazette and Echo (Beeston, Nottinghamshire, England): The retort, “Then I hope your rabbit dies,” has, however, been overworked in pantomime and should be permitted to share the rabbit’s fate. Many comedians have drawn on enlistment and army experiences for patter, but Jack Edge, as principal comedian, contrives to find new material at the same source. The text containing the second-earliest occurrence of the phrase that I have found indicates that I hope your rabbit dies was already hackneyed-this text is the review of The Whirl of To-day, a revue presented at the Hippodrome, Leeds, published in The Yorkshire Evening Post (Leeds, Yorkshire, England) of Tuesday 24 th February 1920: They begin all right, but are subject to the laws of degeneration. I hope your rabbit dies.” That, in the limpid language of the little ones, is pretty well how most really earnest, would-be helpful newspaper controversies are carried on. You are.” “I shall tell mother.” “Well, I don’t care. “I say it is.” “Well, I say it isn’t.” “You’re a story.” “No, I’m not. The text containing the earliest occurrence that I have found of I hope your rabbit dies indicates that this phrase originated as one child’s threat to another-this text is the column Out of Doors, by William North, published in The Weekly Telegraph (Sheffield, Yorkshire, England) of Saturday 26 th October 1918: The British-English phrase I hope your rabbit dies, also I hope your rabbits die, may your rabbits die, etc., is a malediction, typically uttered as a parting shot after a quarrel.Īs in the case of the good-luck incantation (white) rabbit(s), the reason the word rabbit was chosen is unknown.
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