[NEohioPAL]The story behind "Break a leg"?

[david white]

The association of this with John Wilkes Booth is most likely far too literal to have any basis in fact.  (Aside from the fact that it would involve joking about something related to Lincoln's assassination, which would have been considered atrociously bad form.)  This is most likely a simple example of an "apotropaic" formula, i.e. something designed to turn aside bad luck.  If is regarded as bad luck to wish someone well, it must conversely be good luck to wish someone ill.  Why that took the particular form of wishing an actor to break his leg is a mystery that most likely will never be solved.  (Although slipping and falling, and breaking a leg, is something that could actually happen to an actor during a performance, if there were water on the stage, etc.  My father swears to this day that he saw Jackie Gleason fall and break his leg on live TV in the 50s.)  

German actors traditionally with each other "Hals- und Beinbruch" (lit., neck and leg break).  

One wishes opera singers "In bocc' al lupo", into the wolf's mouth.  (The proper response is "Crepi", may it (the wolf) die.

David J. White
formerly of Kent Stage Players
Now of Waco, TX

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Cipra <cipra at apk.net>
Date: Sat, 09 Oct 2004 10:02:39 -0400
To: neohiopal at lists.fredsternfeld.com
Subject: Re: [NEohioPAL]The story behind "Break a leg"?

> For what it's worth:
> 
> When I first had "break a leg" explained to me, not too long after those first
> written references in the 50's, my theater-superstition-mentor made a point of
> saying:  "Never wish a theater person 'good luck'; luck has nothing to do with
> it."  I don't doubt there's an element of "fooling the pixies" in the phrase,
> but this has always stuck with me.
> 
> My personal preference has always been for the Booth story ... it sounds like
> the kind of cruel in-joke we hear a lot in the theater.  My guess is it was
> first used at a command performance for the President (there were periodic
> revivals of interest in Booth's physician Dr. Mudd, which could explain the
> time lapse).  The other stories always sounded too convoluted ("Bow so deeply
> that ...") or too generic ("Walk through the first leg").
> 
> Just a guess, but "merde" is close to the French for "marvel" ("merveille") and
> "merit" ("merite") so it might have originated as a pun on one of these.
> 
> At 12:14 PM 10/8/2004 -0400, you wrote: 
> 
> >
> > Someone asked me today about the origin of blessing actors with the phrase,
> > "break a leg".  I confessed I didn't have a clue.  Also, my dance friends
> > wish each other well with the French word "merde" which means...well, I know
> > what that means...but I don't know the WHY behind it.
> >
> > Can anyone enlighten me about the orgins of these?
> >
> > To my fellow cast members in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"
> > at Olde Towne Hall Theatre in North Ridgeville..."break a leg" and "merde"
> > for tonight's opening!
> >
> > Ron Dauphin
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  
> >
> >
> > ----------
> > <http://g.msn.com/8HMBENUS/2731??PS=47575>Find the music you love on MSN
> > Music. Start downloading now! 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Mark T. Cipra           H:  (216) 295-5763              B:  (216) 433-6372
> "Although arguments about the dating of [Shakespeare's Sonnets] are almost as
> numerous and contradictory as those about who is dating whom in the poems ..."
>         - Russ McDonald, The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare
> _______________________________________
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____________

DAVID J. WHITE, M.A., M.L.I.S.
 
Baylor University
Department of Classics
Waco, Texas 

 
E-mail:  djwhite at eudoramail.com
         albinus1 at yahoo.com

Oudeis gar houto^ anoe^tos esti hostis 
polemon pro eire^ne^s haireetai. en men 
gar te^i hoi paides tous pateras 
thaptousi, en de to^i hoi pateres
tous paidas.  
--  Herodotus, *Histories*, I.lxxxvii.4.