All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

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The phrase being shown in the script of The Shining All work and no play... (8648670619).jpg
The phrase being shown in the script of The Shining

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is an old proverb that means without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring. It is often shortened to "all work and no play". [1] It was newly popularized after the phrase was featured in the 1980 horror film, The Shining . [2]

Contents

History

Though the spirit of the proverb had been expressed previously, the modern saying first appeared in Welsh writer and historian James Howell's Proverbs (1659). [3] [4] [5] It has often been included in subsequent collections of proverbs and sayings. [6]

Some writers have added a second part to the proverb, as in Harry and Lucy Concluded (1825) by the Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth:

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,
All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". Dictionary.com . Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  2. ↑ Miers, Paul (1980). "The Black Maria Rides Again: Being a Reflection on the Present State of American Film with Special Respect to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining". MLN. 95 (5): 1360–1366. doi:10.2307/2906498. ISSN   0026-7910.
  3. ↑ Howell, James (1659). Paroimiographia. Proverbs, or, old Sayed Sawes & Adages in English (or the Saxon Toung) Italian, French and Spanish whereunto the British, for their great antiquity and weight are added. London: Samuel Thomson. It is found on page 12 of the section titled Proverbs, or Old Sayed-Sawes, and Adages in the English Toung. Howell's Proverbs is bound with Howell's Lexicon Tetraglotton (1660).
  4. ↑ Howell, James (1660). Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish Dictionary. London: Samuel Thomson. : Whereunto is adjoined a large Nomenclature of the proper Terms (in all the four) belonging to several Arts and Sciences, to Recreations, to Professions both Liberal and Mechanick, &c. divided into Fiftie two Sections; with another Volume of the Choicest Proverbs in all the said Toungs, (consisting of divers compleat Tomes) ...
  5. ↑ "work, n.", Oxford English Dictionary (3 ed.), Oxford University Press, 2023-03-02, doi:10.1093/oed/2591891995 , retrieved 2023-11-24
  6. ↑ "James Howell Quotes and Quotations". Famous Quotes and Authors.com. Archived from the original on 15 December 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-21.
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