John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
3137 Jonathan Swift 1667-1745 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 3137 |
| AUTHOR: | Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) |
| QUOTATION: | Seamen have a custom, when they meet a whale, to fling him out an empty tub by way of amusement, to divert him from laying violent hands upon the ship. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Tale of a Tub. Preface. |
| Note 1. In Sebastian Munster’s “Cosmography” there is a cut of a ship to which a whale was coming too close for her safety, and of the sailors throwing a tub to the whale, evidently to play with. This practice is also mentioned in an old prose translation of the “Ship of Fools.”—Sir James Mackintosh: Appendix to the Life of Sir Thomas More. [back] |