Notes & Queries Archive
REPLY1850

AS LAZY AS LUDLUM'S DOG

By D. V. S. (Shooter's Hill)

I feel obliged by the extract from the *Doctor* given by J. M. B. (Vol. i., p. 475.), though it only answers by a kind of implication the Query I proposed. That implication is, that, instead of Ludlum and his dog being personages of distinction in their own way and in their own day, the proverb itself is merely one framed on the principle of alliteration, and without precise or definite "meaning." This is very full of meaning, as anyone may convince himself by observing the active energy of every muscle of all dogs in the act of barking. What can typify "laziness" more emphatically than a dog…

Topics: Proverbs, Alliteration, Euphony, Metre

Locations: Sheffield