Write a piece of fiction describing the
incident that gave rise to the phrase, “third time’s the charm.”
I’m going to
assume by now that you already know fiction is NOT my forte. So, I will change up this prompt a bit in my
response and instead provide you with the “history” or what can be found in
history on the WORLD WIDE WEB (and I dating myself with that terminology?) about
the phrase “third time’s a charm.” And
actually, I was surprised to find out that it is quite interesting….Here goes:
When
googling the subject, the first site that sparked my interest was the “English
Language and Usage” site at http://www.english.stackexchange.com,
which is a question and answer site for language enthusiasts. To start off, the saying actually originated
in England, and it may have started out as the saying “third time lucky,” but
there is no definitive proof of this.
What’s interesting about this site is that it gives reference to several
British texts beginning with Shakespeare in 1602, which use the phrase in one
way or another. The Shakespeare reference from The Merry Wives of Windsor is the oldest reference I found in my
online search today. It comes from Act V, Scene I, and I quote:
“Pr’ythee,
no more prattling;-go. I’ll hold; this is the third time; I hope good luck lies
in odd numbers. Away, go; they say there is divinity in odd number, either in
nativity, 5 chance, or death.-Away.”
Of course,
Shakespeare being Shakespeare, he uses the phrase in his very own unique way,
but if he was the one who first spoke of the third time bringing good luck,
then he very well may be the originator of the phrase. Other references at this website are made to
British texts in 1830 and 1833 by other authors, which you can see for yourself
if you would like, just click on the link above. This site allows people to chime in with
their own thoughts about it, so there were several more that referred to
religious traditions and the Bible as the origination of the phrase (which
would be the only literary reference older than Shakespeare if that’s true),
and one mentioned an interesting story from English Common Law in the 1800’s,
which is told in more detail at “The Phrase Finder” (http://www.phrases.org.uk).
At “The
Phrase Finder” our explanation starts with Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Letters addressed to R.H. Horne in 1839
where she writes, “The luck of the third adventure is proverbial” In Alexander
Hislop’s The proverbs of Scotland in
1862, he states, “The third time’s lucky.” Being proverbial indicates the
phrase may date from earlier, but no one has really been able to nail this down
yet.
So, back to
the story about English Common Laws I told you is described at this site. And I
quote directly from The Phrase Finder
website:
“Why is the third time lucky? Again, we don't know. There are a
few suggestions. The most common is that it alludes to the belief that, under English
law, anyone who survived three attempts at hanging would be set free. This is
probably from the story of John 'Babbacombe' Lee. Lee was a West Country sailor
who was convicted of the murder of Emma Keyse at Babbacombe Bay in 1885. He was
sentenced to hang at Exeter prison and three attempts to execute him all
failed. The Home Secretary of the time, Sir William Harcourt, commuted the
sentence to life imprisonment and Lee was later freed. He was known thereafter
as 'the man they couldn't hang' and went on to live a long life, dying sometime
in the 1940s. Fascinating story though it is, the use of 'third time lucky'
predates it and thus it can't be the origin. Nor is any earlier reference to
the supposed English law on freeing those who survived three hanging attempts.
This legal ruling never existed in any general sense and is restricted to
isolated cases like Lee's.”
There’s also another funny story about a lady getting married
for the third time in 1912, but I’ll have you visit the site to read about this
one.
Wherever the phrase came from, I was pleasantly surprised to
learn that it has such a fascinating and mysterious origin. Thank you to the English Language and Usage
website and The Phrase Finder for
sharing your knowledge of the subject with humble bloggers and language
enthusiasts like me!
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