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“The Way of All Flesh”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2011
Extract
This paper is not, as the title would seem to imply, a discussion of Butler's famous novel, nor does it attempt to answer the question where Butler found the phrase. It may well be doubted indeed whether the novelist himself could have given us an exact reference to his source, since the phrase, as a euphemism for the dread word “death,” is one of those winged utterances which come into one's mind without a definite perception whence or how or when. English literature at least seems to furnish comparatively few examples of its use and the writers who do employ it, if we except Dickens who, in one of the stories in Sketches by Boz, makes Mr. Parsons remark that his wife's father “allowed us something to live on till he went the way of all flesh,” are not such as are commonly read. Moreover it is clear that the phrase was generally familiar before the date of its earliest appearance in our literature. This was in the year 1607, in the play Westward Ho, by Dekker and Webster, II, 2, where one of the characters remarks, “I saw him even now going the way of all flesh, that's to say, towards the kitchen.” This remark would have been without point, had the phrase not been in common use with a more serious connotation.
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References
1 Cf. the examples given in the Oxford Dictionary, s. v. Way, p. 201, col. 1, C.
2 Mr. Watkins Tottle, p. 451 (Harper and Brothers, N. Y.).
3 Testamenta Eborancensia, Surtees Society (London, 1836), Pt. I, pp. 146, 174, 219.Google Scholar
4 Ed. , Stevenson, Rolls Series (London, 1858).Google ScholarPubMed The MSS of this Chronicle date from the 13th century, but the form of expression may be older.
5 ed. , Riley, Rolls Ser. (London, 1867).Google Scholar
6 This example is not included in Baxter, J. H. and Johnson, C., Mediaeval Latin Word List (Oxford Univ. Press, 1984) s. v. Via, p. 454.Google Scholar They note occurrences of the phrase in the 11th and 13th centuries and in 1461.
7 Printed in Thorpe, B., Diplomatarium Anglicum Aevi Saxonici (London, 1865), p. 144Google Scholar ; , Birch, Cartul. Sax. (London, 1887), II, 241Google ScholarPubMed.
8 Here the choice of the verb adire, instead of the usual ingredi, may have been due to the desire of securing a rime with the preceding obiit. We find adire, however, in a curious phrase which occurs several times in , Asser, de Rebus Gestis Aelfredi, ed. , Stevenson (Oxford, 1904):Google Scholarviam universitatis adiit (or adiens); cf. ch. 19, 28, 38, 41, 85. Since the original MS of Asser's work was destroyed by fire in 1731, we are dependent for its readings upon secondary sources which are not altogether trustworthy; cf. Stevenson, Introduction, pp. xiii sq., xlvi sq. One of these is the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, d. 1118, who incorporated Asser's history into his Chronicle. The readings of the MSS of Florence agree with Asser in the passages cited except in ch. 85, under the year 887, where the MSS have: Carolus Francorum rex viam universae carnis adiit. The editors of Florence in the Monumenta Historica Brittanica (London, 1848)Google Scholar , have changed this to viam universitatis adiit. It may be noted also that in the Chronicon Fani Sancti Neoti, ed. by Stevenson as an Appendix to his Asser, under the year 900 (p. 142), Aelfred's death is recorded with the words, viam universitatis adiit. In view of my inability to find earlier examples of this phrase and of the presence of universae carnis in the Charter cited above, referring to the same event, I am inclined to think that universitatis arose from a scribal error. A similar phrase occurs in Simeon of Durham, de Gestis Regum Anglorum (yr. 884): praesul Marius universitatis viam arripuit.
9 Brit. Mus., Add. 15, 350 f, 69b; cf. Birch, 1. c, II, p. 242; ib., I, p. xiii.
10 Cf. Cook, A. S., Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose Writers, Ser. I (Macmillan, N. Y., 1898)Google Scholar ; Ser. II, (Yale Bicentennial Publications) (Scribner's Sons, N. Y., 1908) ; Smyth, Mary W., Biblical Quotations in Middle English Literature before 1350, Yale Studies in English XLI, (Holt, N. Y., 1911)Google Scholar.
11 Du Cange, s. v. via, remarks: viam universae carnis ingredi: mori; modus loquendi Seriptoribus Sacris et Ecclesiasticis familiaris. The one example which he quotes (Bar tholomeus, Annales Genuen., ap. Muratori, Script. Rer. Ital. VI, 440) is from the year 1225. The first part of this statement is, Ithink, a mistake, cf. below, and the second is true only for writers from the 11th century onwards. No examples, I may note, are given by Arnaldi, Latinitatis Italicae Medii Aevi inde ab anno CDLXXVI usque ad MXXII Lexicon Imperfectum, Arch. Lat. Med. Aevi, X, 1935.
12 I cite from the Acta Sanctorum, Editio , Novissima, curante Joanne Carnandet, Paris, 1863-Google Scholar.
13 It may be noted that Bede, in his account of the death of Fursey, Hist. Eccl., in, 19, uses different phrases: diem clausit ultimum and de hac luce egressus. Nor does he elsewhere in his writings employ our phrase.
14 Cf. e.g. Gregory of Tours, Liber Vitae Patrum (ed. Krusch, M. G. H., Ser. Rer. Mer. I), x, 4; xiii, 2; Vita S. Arnulfi (ed. Krusch, ib. p. 442); Vita S. Carilefi, in Migne, P. L., 74, 1260; Eadmer's Life of S. Wilfred, A. S., Apr. 24, III, p. 313; similarly in lives of Spanish saints, cf. , Flores, España Sagrada, XIII, p. 342Google Scholar.
15 This life is a reworking of an older life by Radbert ; cf. , Manitius, Geschichte d. lat. Liter, des Mittelalters, II, 4, 65–468Google Scholar.
16 Bibliorum Sacrorum latinae versiones antiquae (Paris, 1751), I, 425.Google Scholar He gives no references from the Fathers except S. Aug. Quaest. in Hept., vi, 24 (P. L., 34, 789), who approves Jerome's ingredior for the recurro of earlier versions, and none of the early writers whom I have read quotes these verses.
17 , Billen, Old Latin Texts of the Heptateuch (Cambridge, 1927).Google Scholar The reading of Joshua 23,14 in the codex Lugdunensis, ed. Robert, V., Pars Prior (Lyon, 1900), p. 101Google Scholar , is, ego autem exeedo vitam sicut omnes qui sunt super terrara. I owe this reference to the kindness of my friend, Mr. Bernard Peebles, who has generously given me the benefit of his fine knowledge in the fields of the liturgy and palaeography. I owe to him also the citation from the Gutenberg Bible, given below, which was kindly sent to him by W. J. Wilson of the Library of Congress.
18 Romae, 1860-64.
19 On this group of MSS, cf. also , Berger, S., Histoire de la Vulgate (Paris, 1893), pp. 141–143Google Scholar , and Quentin, D., Mémoire sur l'Établissement du Texte de la Vulgate, in Collectanea Biblica Latina, VI (Rome-Paris, 1922), p. 361.Google Scholar
20 D. Quentin does not agree with Berger that this “Italian Group” is Spanish in origin and even rejects the north Italian provenance; cf. op. cit. pp. 380-384. He also thinks that Vercellone's date for F is too early and suggests (p. 377), saec. XI/XII.
21 This citation (cf. above, p. 45, n. 17) is drawn from the 1913, Berlin, photo-facsimile edition of the Berlin copy of the 42-line Gutenberg Bible.
22 Cf. Die Erste Deutsche Bibel von 1466, hrg. von Kurrelmeyer, W., in Bibliothek des litterarischen Verein in Stuttgart; 4 vols. (Tubigen, 1904-1918).Google Scholar For a discussion of the book , cf. Walther, W., Die Deutsche Bibelübersetzung des Mittelalter (Braun-schweig, 1889), 1-118Google Scholar ; Schulze, Fr., Deutsche Bibeln vom ältesten Bibeldruck bis zur Lutherbibel, (Leipzig, Bibliographisches Institut, 1934).Google Scholar I may note that Luther's translation follows the Vulgate: Josh. 23, 14: Sihe ich gehe heute dahin wie alle welt; I ( = III) Kings, 2, 2: Ich gehe hin den weg aller welt ; Luther's, cf. Bible, gedrucht durch Hans Lufft, 1534, facsimile edition, (Berlin, 1935)Google Scholar.
23 On the history of this Bible , cf. Pope, Hugh, “The Origin of the Douay Bible,” Dublin Review, 147 (1910), pp. 97–118Google Scholar.
24 Mr. Peebles notes that the reading of the 1635 edition (Rouen, John Cousturier), a copy of which is in the Harvard Library, follows that of the 1609 edition. In later editions, however, the rendering conforms with the Vulgate in one (or both?) passages. Thus in the three copies accessible to me here at the University of Minnesota, that of Edinburgh, 1805, of London, 1914, and of Baltimore, 1914, the rendering of Joshua is “the way of all the earth,” but of III Kings, “the way of all flesh.”
25 A copy of this edition of the Concordance is in The Typefounders Library, Columbia Library. The title page reads: Sacrorum Bibliorum Vulgatae Editionis con-cordantiae … Emendatae primum a Francisco Luca … Ex Officina Plantiniana Balthasari Moreti. M.DC.XLII. The pertinent references were kindly copied for me by Mr. Julian Foster, Librarian of Oberlin College Library; Josh. 23,14: ingredior viam uniu. terrae; III Kings, 2, 2: ego ingredior viā uni. car. On the Plantin Concordance, the first printing of which was at Antwerp in 1572 , cf. , Schaff-Herzog, Religious En-cyclopaedia, III, 207Google Scholar.
26 On the subject of “Centonisation” in the liturgies , cf. , Cabrol, in Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Chrétienne et de la liturgie, publié par Dom F. Cabrol et Dom H. Le-clercq, s.v. Mozarabe (La Liturgie), XII, 484Google Scholar.
27 Ed. , Henderson, as an Appendix to his Manuale ad Usum Insignis Eccl. Ebora-censis, Surtees Society (London, 1874), p. 45Google Scholar ; also in , Palmer, Origines Liturgicae (London, 1845), II, p. 226Google Scholar ; , Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia Eccl. Anglicae (London, 1846), I, p. 74Google Scholar ; cf. , Brightman, The English Rite (London 2nd ed., 1921), II, p. 824Google ScholarPubMed ; , Procter and , Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer (London, 1932), p. 623, n. 2.Google Scholar
28 Richard le Poer, Dean from 1173 to 1215 was certainly instrumental in compiling the liturgy ; cf. , Brightman, op. cit., I, xviiGoogle Scholar ; , Procter and , Frere, op. cit., p. 15.Google Scholar According to , Bishop, Liturgica Historica (Oxford, 1918), p. 300Google ScholarPubMed , n., the Sarum Missal, (he says nothing of the Manuale), is a 13th century compilation. His query, whether “St. Edmund of Canterbury (of Abingdon, that is) did not have a hand in it,” is interesting in view of the presence of our formula in the Manuale and in the Chronicle of Abing-don, cited above, p. 42.
29 The MSS of the Manuale are not safe guides in this matter, since none are earlier than saec. XIV ; cf. Chr. , Wordsworth and Littlehales, H. L., The Old Service-books of the English Church (London, 1904), pp. 213–217Google ScholarPubMed and the Index under Manuale.
30 Note, however, the important place held by the old Sarum Use not only in England, but on the Continent ; cf. Chr. , Wordsworth, Ceremonies and Processions of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury (Cambridge, 1901), Preface, p. vii.Google Scholar
31 Cf. , Bishop, “Liturgical Note,” in The Prayer Book of Aedeluald the Bishop, Commonly called The Book of Cerne, ed. Kuypers, Dom A. B. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1902), pp. 277 ff.Google Scholar ; id. Liturgica Historica, pp. 165 ff.; Dom Gougard, Diet. d'Archéologie, s.v. Celtiques, II, 2, col. 2992 ; Cabrol, Dom. ib. s.v. Mozarabe, XII, coll. 461 ffGoogle Scholar.
32 This fact accounts no doubt for the absence of our formula from Latin documents of Spain.
33 Cf. , Cabrol, op. cit., 393 ff.Google Scholar
34 Ed. Ferotin, Dom, in Monumenta Ecclesiae Liturgica, vol. V (Paris, 1904).Google Scholar For a discussion of the nature of the book, date, MSS, etc., cf. pp. xvi ff. ; , Cabrol, op. cit., 428 ff.Google Scholar ; Prado, P. Germán, Historia del Rito Mozárabe y Toledana (Abadía de Santo Domingo de Silos) (Burgos, 1928), pp. 24 ff.Google Scholar Of the two chief MSS one, MS A, dates from 1039, the other, B, from 1052, as we learn from the signatures, Ferotin, pp. xviii and xxviii.
35 Liturgica Historica, 182-192.
36 One cannot be sure about such matters as these, but I have failed to find the phrase in any of the important printed liturgies, including those of Ireland, Gaul, Germany, and Italy, except the two mentioned. In view of , Duchesne's opinion, Orig. du Culte chrét., 3rd ed. p. 86Google Scholar , that the Ambrosian and Visigothic liturgies belong to the same family, and in view of the appearance of the phrase in Latin documents of north Italy, I expected to find it in the books of Milan, but it does not occur in the collection of Magistretti, M., Monumenta Veteris Liturgiae Ambrosianae (Milano, 1897-1905)Google Scholar , of which the Pontificate forms vol. I, the Manuale, vols. II and III.
37 This question is discussed by , Bishop, Liturgica Historica, 165–202Google Scholar; cf. also , Cabrol, op. cit., 461 ffGoogle Scholar.