![]() We, therefore, to dispel our royal spleen, Yet, as he's laid in peace upon the shelf, The mem'ry of our brother's death is green Tho' by our dismal phizzes plain 'tis seen Note its opening lines, spoken by Hamlet's uncle-cum-stepfather: What's unclear is what exactly "up to snuff" is doing in Poole's play. Poole's 1810 Hamlet Travestie : in Three Acts earned him a reputation as a funny guy (and eventually a spot in London's National Portrait Gallery). ![]() We don't know how he felt about the phrase "shuffled off this mortal coil," but we do know that he had some interest in Hamlet, the play in which that phrase originates, because Poole took it upon himself to write a little burlesque of the famous tragedy. Poole was inspired, apparently, by the Bard. The year was 1810, approximately two centuries after Shakespeare had shuffled off this mortal coil. ![]() The earliest evidence we've recovered of the phrase is in an 1807 London newspaper in text now only partially readable: "… asked a young lady if she would have a pinch of snuff, and on … in the negative, he facetiously observed … suppose you are up to snuff." But the phrase seems to have its literary (though we're using that term somewhat loosely) debut in a work by one John Poole. We don't know who first thought to tack snuff on to up to, but it appears to have been some clever 19th century Brit. "This space mission is a-okay in my book!"
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