The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (21 page)

Commonly known as Gresham's Law, after Sir Thomas Gresham (
c
1519–79), founder of the Royal Exchange. Gresham saw the economic need to restore the purity of the coinage, though there is no evidence that he actually used this expression. Quot. 1902 states that the principle, not the proverb, is mentioned in Gresham's letter to the Queen. (
1858
H. D. MACLEOD
Elements of Political Economy
477 He [Gresham] was the first to perceive that a bad and debased currency is the cause of the disappearance of the good money.)
1902
New English Dictionary
VI. 116
Gresham's law
, the principle, involved in Sir Thomas Gresham's letter to Q. Elizabeth in 1558, that ‘bad money drives out good’.
1933
Letter
18 Nov. (1969) 438
Gresham's Law holds good in every field .. and bad politics tends to drive out good politics just as bad money drives out good money.
1952
Journal
16 June in
Backbench Diaries
(1981) 109
The one thing we all know is that, if you have Government radio and sponsored radio side by side, the bad currency drives out the good.
1979
Times
12 Dec. 15
Bad money drives out good, by which is meant that a man who has both good and bad money will keep the good and use the bad to settle transactions.
1982
Prejudices
178
Genuine scholars receive grants too, but this misses the crucial point, which is that bad money drives out good, and that only a few years of such handouts to putterers will be enough to convince the American people that Everyman is a humanist.
money

 
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Cf.
1539
R. TAVERNER tr.
Erasmus' Adages
II. A4 Sad and heuy tydynges be easly blowen abroade be they neuer so vaine and false and they be also sone beleued. In quots. 1592 and 1694
news
is construed as a plural noun, as was usual at this period.
1592
Spanish Tragedy
I. B2
^V
Euill newes flie faster still than good.
1694
Terence's Comedies made English
46
Bad News always fly faster than good.
1792
Road to Ruin
II. i.
All these bills .. brought .. this morning. Ill news travels fast.
1935
Julius Caesar Murder Case
xxv.
‘Where'd you get it [a knife]?’ ‘On the Plains of Philippi.’ ‘Bad news travels fast,’ said Hercules.
1976
‘’
Vets might Fly
xxiii.
They say bad news travels fast and I had hardly started my return journey when .. the loudspeaker asked me to report to the manager's office.
1991
McNally's Secret
(1992) iv. 38
‘I've already had a dozen phony sympathy calls—including one from a cousin in Sarasota. Bad news certainly travels fast.’
misfortune
;
news

 
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The proverb, also used allusively in simile and metaphor (see quots. 1766 and 1979, second sentence), usually refers to the predictable, and often unwanted, return of a disreputable or prodigal person to his place of origin after some absence. Cf.
1766
A. ADAMS in L. H. Butterfield et al.
Adams Family Correspondence
(1963) I. 55 Like a bad penny it returnd, to me again.
1824
Redgauntlet
II. ii.
Bring back Darsie? little doubt of that—the bad shilling is sure enough to come back again.
1884
Fenton Family
iii.
Just like as not he'll be coming back one of these days, when he's least wanted. A bad penny is sure to return.
1922
Ulysses
149
Who's dead, when and what did he die of? Turn up like a bad penny.
1941
Hills look Down
vi.
‘I miss Bart.’ ‘Oh, a bad penny always turns up again.’
1979
Mudflats of Dead
iii.
‘Stop worrying. The bad pennies always turn up.’ ‘Oh, Adrian, I don't think she's a bad penny, not really.’
wrongdoers

 
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