[1633],George Herbert, “Avarice”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor,The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:[…] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green,[…],→OCLC,page69:
Money, thoubane of bliſſe, & ſourſe of vvo, / VVhence com'ſt thou, that thou art ſo freſh and fine? / I knovv thy parentage is baſe and lovv: / Man found thee poore and dirtie in a mine.
1673,Andrew Marvel[l],The Rehearsall Transpros’d: The Second Part.[…], London:[…] Nathaniel Ponder[…],→OCLC,page148:
This is the greatbane and ſcandal of the Church, that ſuch Livings as more immediately belong to it ſhould be the vvorſt ſupplyed,[…]
1709 May 11 (Gregorian calendar),Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms;Richard Steele], “Saturday, April 30, 1709”, inThe Tatler, number 9; republished in [Richard Steele], editor,The Tatler,[…], London stereotype edition, volume I, London: I. Walker and Co.;[…],1822,→OCLC,page55:
All that I apprehend is, that dear Numps will be angry I have published these lines[of his poem]; not that he has any reason[to] be ashamed of them, but for fear of those rogues, thebane to all excellent performances, the imitators.
She, who had been thebane of his life, blighting his hope, and awarding him, for love and domestic happiness, long mourning and cheerless solitude, he treated with the respect a good son might offer a kind mother.
At Barking, previously thebane of L.T.S. operating staff, the new works have now simplified the working of traffic from four converging routes in the area.
1577, Conradus Heresbachius [i.e.,Konrad Heresbach], compiler, “The Third Booke, of Feeding, Breeding, and Curing of Cattell”, inBarnabe Googe, transl.,Fovre Bookes of Husbandry,[…]: Conteyning the Whole Arte and Trade of Husbandry, with the Antiquitie, and Commendation thereof.[…], London:[…] Richard Watkins,→OCLC,folio 156, verso:
For my part I would rather counſell you to deſtroy your Rattes and Miſe with Traps,Banes, or Weeſels: for beſides the ſluttiſhneſſe & lothſomeneſſe of the Catte (you know what ſhe layes in the Malt heape) ſhe is moſt daungerous and pernicious among children, as I mee ſelf haue had good experience.
In dairie no cat, / Laiebane for a rat. /[…] / Take heede how thou laieſt, thebane for the rats, / for poiſoning ſeruant, thy ſelfe and thy brats.
1586,William Warner, “The Second Booke. Chapter VIII.”, inAlbions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island:[…], London:[…] George Robinson[and R. Ward] for Thomas Cadman,[…],→OCLC,page29:
Take this (he gaue a folded cloth and to thebane therein / he mixed ſomewhat of his blood) this ſame (quoth he) ſhall win / To thee again the Husbands loue when he ſhall it eſtrange: / For out of doubt, I know it I, he takes delight in change.
[1633],George Herbert, “The Forerunners”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor,The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:[…] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green,[…],→OCLC,page171:
Hath ſome fond lover tic'd[i.e., enticed] thee to thybane? / And vvilt thou leave the Church, and love a ſtie?
He finds out, soon enough for his weal and hisbane, that he is stronger than Nature: and right tyrannously and irreverently he lords it over her, clearing, delving, dyking, building, without fear or shame.
Let Rome her ſelfe beebane vnto her ſelfe, / And ſhee vvhome mightie kingdomes curſie[curtsey] too, / Like a forlorne and deſperate caſt avvay, / Doe ſhamefull execution on her ſelfe.
1647,Henry More, “Psychathanasia or The Second Part of the Song of the Soul, Treating of the Immortality of Souls, Especially Mans Soul. Democritus Platonissans, or An Essay upon the Infinity of Worlds out of Platonick Principles.[…].”, inPhilosophicall Poems, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:[…] Roger Daniel, printer to theUniversity,→OCLC, stanza 97,page215:
[T]he broad flaſhing skies / VVith brimſtone thick and clouds of fierybain / Shall meet vvith raging Etna's and Veſuvius flame.
[I]f now again intoxicated and moaped with theſe royal, and therefore ſo delicious becauſe royal rudiments of bondage, the cup of deception, ſpiced and tempered to theirbane, they ſhould deliver up themſelves to theſe glozing words and illuſions of him, vvhoſe rage and utmoſt violence they have ſuſtained, and overcome ſo nobly.
1655,Thomas Fuller, “Section III. To Mrs. Anne Danvers of Chelsey.”, inThe Church-history of Britain;[…], London:[…] Iohn Williams[…],→OCLC, book IX,page110:
[A] great depopulation happened[due to the plague], at theAſſiſes ofPerſons of quality, and the tvvoJudges,Baron Yates, andBaron Rigby getting theirbanes there, died fevv dayes later.
1655, Thomas Fuller, “Section VII”, inThe History of theUniversity of Cambridge, since the Conquest,[London]:[[…] Iohn Williams[…]],→OCLC, paragraph 18,page151:
Doctor[William]VVhitaker returning fromLambeth Conference, brought home vvith him thebane of his health, contracted there by hard and late ſtudying and vvatching in a very cold VVinter.
1567,George Turbervil[l]e, “Disprayse of Women that Allure and Loue Not”, inEpitaphes, Epigrams, Songs and Sonets, with a Discourse of the Friendly Affections of Tymetes to Pyndara His Ladie.[…], London:[…]Henry Denham,→OCLC,folio 61, recto:
Think when thou ſéeſt the baite whereon is thy delite, / That hidden Hookes are hard at hande tobane thee when thou bite.
a.1634 (date written),Geo[rge] Herbert, “The Parsons Accessary Knowledges”, inA Priest to the Temple, or, The Countrey Parson His Character, and Rule of Holy Life.[…], London:[…]T[homas] Maxey for T[imothy] Garthwait,[…], published1652,→OCLC,page16:
Novv if a ſhepherd knovv not vvhich graſs vvillbane, or vvhich not, hovv is he fit to be a ſhepherd? VVherefore the Parſon hath throughly canvaſſed al the particulars of humane actions, at leaſt thoſe vvhich he obſerveth are moſt incident to his Pariſh.
1601,Arthur Dent,The Plaine Mans Path-way to Heauen.[…], London:[…] Robert Dexter,[…],→OCLC,page80:
It[covetousness] annoyeth our Phiſitions, it infecteth our Diuines, it choaketh our Lawiers, it woundeth our Farmers, itbaneth our Gentlemen, it murdereth our Tradeſmen, it bewitcheth our Merchants, it ſtingeth our Marriners. Oh couetouſneſſe, couetouſneſſe: it is the poyſon of all things, the wound of Chriſtianitie, the bane of all goodneſſe.
1578,Rembert Dodoens, “Of Aconitum”, inHenry Lyte, transl.,A Niewe Herball, or Historie of Plantes:[…], London:[…][Henry [i.e., Hendrik van der] Loë for] Gerard Dewes,[…],→OCLC, 3rd part (Medicinal Rootes, and Herbes, that Purge the Body, also of Noysome Weedes, and Dangerous Plantes),page424:
Aconit is of two ſortes (asDioſcorides writeth) the one is namedAconitum Pardalianches, that is to ſay, Aconite thatbaneth, or killeth Panthers.
VVhat if my houſe be troubled vvith a Rat, / And I be pleas'd to giue ten thouſand ducats / To have itbaind?
1602,William Warner, “The Fifth Booke. Chapter XXV.”, inAlbions England. A Continued Historie of the Same Kingdome, from the Originals of the First Inhabitants thereof:[…], 5th edition, London:[…] Edm[und] Bollifant for George Potter,[…],→OCLC,page119:
Then he, vvhil'ſt he in progreſſe did at Svvinhed Abbey lye, / VVas poyſoned by a Monke, thatbaend himſelfe thatIohn might dye.
The word can be regarded as a reborrowing from Old Swedish mediaeval literature. It is not attested in writing in the 16th and 17th centuries, but was reinforced due to its usage in the mediaeval Swedish country laws, which were in use until the 18th century. During the 17th century its usage is usually accompanied by a definition explaining the meaning. It was revived in the late 17th century due to the resurging interest in the middle ages and the Icelandic sagas, cf. other Icelandic loans from the same era, e.g.idrott,skald,dyrd. Already inSAOB (1899) it is regarded as archaic or literary and mostly used in a few set phrases.
The word survived in the compoundbaneman(“slayer, murderer”), which is attested from the 16th and 17th centuries, and dialectally in the southern Swedish wordhönsbane(“henbane,Hyoscyamus niger”), in standard Swedishbolmört.
1830,Fredrika Bremer, translated by Mary Howitt,Familjen H*** [The H— family][1]:
Din egen passionerade själ — se där draken, mot vilken du bör strida, vars eld skall förtära dig och bliva andrasbane, om den ej kväves.
[…]thy own impassioned soul! Behold the dragon with which thou oughtest to contend—whose fire will consume thee, and be thebane of others, if thou do not subject it.
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor,A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867,page24
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, September 2023;“bane,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
bane (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
