A Cursory History of Swearing

by Julian Sharman

In all countries enactments have been levelled against the excesses of ejaculation, but the true instruments for keeping them in bounds, assuming there to be an actual necessity for such treatment, has been shown to be the voice of ridicule and the keen banter of satire. Moralists of the pattern of the law-givers of Connecticut would probably be found to take exception to the oaths of Bobadil, and would condemn ‘Every Man in his Humour’ as a licentious work. It does not however need argument to show that the mere fact of the redoubted Bobadil taking credit to himself for his freaks with the fourth commandment, forms one of the strongest inducements to respect that prohibition. But in view of any latent admiration being lurking in any portion of his auditory, Jonson has contrived a foil in the person of Master Stephen. This is a vain-glorious, empty parasite, whose clumsy imitation of the Captain is certainly calculated to put his hearers out of all sympathy with his model. So captivated is this apt disciple with Bobadil’s string of expletives, that he is found anxiously inquiring whether he also may swear en militaire. “Certainly,” says the sagacious Well-bred, “if, as I remember, your name is entered in the Artillery Garden.”

Bobadil “swore the legiblest of any man christened.” The field, however, has not been suffered to be left without competitors. To see how persistent has been the struggle for reputation in the matter as well as manner of swearing, we have only to turn to the well-known dialogue in Sheridan’s comedy:

“Absolute. But pray, Bob, I observe you have got an odd kind of a new method of swearing.

“Acres. Ha! ha! you’ve taken notice of it—’tis genteel, isn’t it? I didn’t invent it myself though, but a commander in our militia, a great scholar I assure you, says that there is no meaning in the common oaths, and that nothing but their antiquity makes them respectable; because, he says, the ancients would never stick to an oath or two, but would say, By Jove! or by Bacchus!—by Mars! or by Pallas! according to the sentiment, so that to swear with propriety, says my little major, the oath should be an echo of the sense; and this we call the oath referential, or sentimental swearing—ha! ha! ’tis genteel, isn’t it?

“Absolute. Very genteel, and very new, indeed!—and I daresay will supplant all other figures of imprecation.

“Acres. Ay, ay, the best terms will grow obsolete. Damns have had their day.”[49]

We are not aware whether it has been noticed how closely this passage is foreshadowed by dialogue occurring in a much earlier play. Both turn upon the notion of a species of property being acquired in set forms of swearing. The play in question is from the pen of Richard Brome, and is further useful to our purpose as showing that this eccentricity had not abated in the interval that elapsed between Jonson and Sheridan. Under the title of ‘Covent Garden Weeded,’ it exposes the riotous doings that prevailed in that joyous locality. It was to cleanse this new plantation of the human nettles and creepers that found shelter in its precincts that the drama purports to have been designed. The builders had just completed the spacious piazza which occupies a portion of the site of the convent garden formerly existing there. Among the rollicking societies that were springing up in this new settlement, was one known, at least in the comedy, as the “Brothers of the Blade and the Batoon.” One scene in this play discloses the brethren in a state of carnival. They are engaged in passing a novice into the ranks of the order, their captain thus exhorting the new-comer as to their social code:—

“Captain. I have given you all the rudiments and my most fatherly advice withall.

“Clot. And the last is that I should not swear; how make you that good?

“Captain. That’s most unnecessary, for look you, the best, and even the lewdest of my sons do forbear it, not out of conscience, but for very good ends, and instead of an oath, furnish the mouth with some affected protestation. As I am honest! it is so. I am no honest man! if it be not. ’Ud take me! if I lie to you. Nev’rigo! nev’rstir! I vow! and such like.