[PW] Re: ? promise the moon and the stars?

[Bye, Dan J]

The "and the stars" bit is not always present.

For example, I found this:

The Times, 18 Jan 1897, p.11 
Leader column, concerning Forfarshire election.
"Captain Sinclair's unreadiness of reply to inconvenient questions was dexterously praised as the calculated reticence of a man who refuses to promise the moon."

It's idiomatic, surely, so identifying "first use" might be rather trickier than if it were a quotation or phrase drawn from a particular work.

Dan 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org 
> [mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On 
> Behalf Of Tod Owens
> Sent: 21 November 2006 15:59
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: [PW] ? promise the moon and the stars?
> 
> Our patron wants to know the origin/first use of the phrase 
> "promise the moon and the stars." We've tried internet 
> searches, Brewster's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the 
> Oxford English Dictionary, and various slang dictionaries.
> 
> Thanks,
> Tod Owens
> Smyth-Bland Regional Library
> _______________________________________________
> Project Wombat
> list at project-wombat.org
> http://www.project-wombat.org/
>