Thomas H. B. Graham

“ Day labourers, common soldiers, common sailors, and common seamen, who were to be fined one shilling for every oath. (2) Other persons under the degree of a gentleman, who were to pay two shillings. (3) Persons of or above the degree of a gentleman, who were to forfeit the sum of five shillings for each oath they uttered. For a second offence the culprit was to pay double, and for a subsequent offence treble the penalty, which was in every case to be applied for the benefit of the poor of the parish. ”

“ Marry and Amen is a form of the old oath, By Mary. In the "Chester Mysteries" (circ. 1450) , the Patriarch Noah is made to swear by Marye. Why not by Joan of Arc? Zooks means God's looks: We find two other forms of the interjection in the play, viz., Gadszooks and 'Odszooks.
The exclamation, Flesh! is a contraction of 'Odsflesh, which appears elsewhere as 'Odsfish. 'Odso is probably a corruption of Godsbones. Marry come up, like the Marry guep of "Hudibras," I. iii. ”

“ James Howell, in one of his "Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ," dated August l, 1628, writes:—"This infamous custom of swearing, I observe, reigns in England lately more than anywhere else: though a German, in highest puff of passion, swears a hundred thousand sacraments, the Frenchman by the Death of God, the Spaniard by His Flesh, the Irishman by His Five Wounds, though the Scot commonly bids the Devil hale his Soul, yet for variety of oaths the English roarers put down all. ”

“ It probably did not extend to the lower orders of society; for in Congreve's "Love for Love," the old nurse says God! and Lord! and the young man from sea, a God's name. The oath by God is ubiquitous in old English literature. In the "Lay of Havelok the Dane," written about the year 1280, in the reign of Edward the First, we meet with the exclamation Deus several times. It is, of course, the Latin word for God, and probably the original form of our interjection, Deuce! ”

“ We learn, too, [Passus VII.] that merchants in general fared badly in purgatory, "for they sworen by heore soule." Examples of the oaths used in Chaucer's day (1340-1400) will be found in "The Reeve's Tale," where we meet with the phrases, For Goddes banes (bones) , For Cristes peyne, For Cristes sowle, By Goddes hart, By Goddes sale (soul) , By Goddes dignité, God wot, and Pardé (par Dieu) .
The latter oath is used by St, Joseph in the "Coventry Mysteries," written in the year 1468, which also contain the exclamations, The devil! ”

“ Jove explains why the modern Christians continue to swear by them. One of Sheridan's characters, a lady, exclaims, By Gemini! Its more recent form is By Jimminy.
But to return to "Leve for Love." Mess! and By the Mess! is a survival of the once common oath, By the Mass. We meet with it in Chaucer's "Boke of the Duchesse" ”