# Does the phrase "hale and hearty" appear in Shakespeare's works? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2024, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699 "2024-09-25T06:10:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Xocomil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xocomil/32/14927_2.png) [@Xocomil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xocomil)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699/1 "2024-09-25T06:10:36Z")
During a rally Trump said the following about Biden: > He was a hale and hearty guy, well-met. Did you ever hear Shakespeare? He was hale and hearty and well-met, but he wasn’t a smart person. “Well-met” shows up a lot in Shakespeare, but never together with “hale and hearty.” In fact, searching the [Open Source Shakepeare](https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/) site I get zero results for that phrase. Hearty does appear but hale doesn’t appear at all as an adjective. Hale and hearty is a common phrase and maybe it sounds kinda old timey like something Old Man Shakepeare would say. [Colbert pointed out](https://youtu.be/XiRX5UN3YYA?si=vSYK82mAMNbhp17F&t=250) that Hale and Hearty is a chain of soup restaurants in New York. It’s (or was) also the name of a [Sydney vegan cafe that called itself a “safe space” for Trump supporters](https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/sydney-vegan-cafe-hale-hearty-a-safe-zone-for-trump-supporters/news-story/42eff11aabae500e340214cf6eb62460). Neither of which have anything to do with Shakepeare (afaik, tbf). So does anyone have an example of Shakespeare writing that or, for the first time ever, was Trump simply mistaken? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699/2 "2024-09-25T06:16:30Z")
It comes from Edmund Spenser, I believe, who was writing as a contemporary of Shakespeare. So Trump is wrong, but if you cock your head and squint it’s actually sort of a defensible wrong that’s nowhere near as bad as it could be. Edit to add: I looked at my printed concordance, and I find that “hale” is used by Shakespeare nine times, all of which seem to be in the sense of an alternative spelling of “haul” (“I’ll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne”). ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699/3 "2024-09-25T06:23:56Z")
I’m familiar with the phrases “hale and hearty” (which basically means “healthy”) and “hail-fellow-well-met” (which describes the way a jovial person might greet another). I think Trump has conflated the two here (note the different spellings of hale/hail in the two phrases, but they are pronounced the same in my (most?) dialect(s)). ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699/4 "2024-09-25T10:11:26Z")
Even for T I think one can forgive an occasional brain-glitch. Only yesterday, Keir Starmer, in his speech to his party’s conference, talking about the Middle East, managed to mangle “hostages” into “sausages” (but he did correct himself). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699/5 "2024-09-25T10:29:22Z")
> [@Xocomil](#): > > He was a hale and hearty guy, well-met. The usual phrase is “Hail fellow well met” Wikipedia [has an article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail_fellow_well_met) on the origin of the phrase. It’s not Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699/6 "2024-09-25T14:13:16Z")
I wonder if Trump was trying to think of himself more as buoyant, recoverable - maybe something in that sense. I know nothing about his mind but this seems like a facet of his personality he tries to put forth in uhmm a ham-handed way. ---
**Author:** ![Xocomil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xocomil/32/14927_2.png) [@Xocomil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xocomil)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699/7 "2024-09-26T01:03:51Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > It comes from Edmund Spenser Spenser’s coinage was apparently “hearty-hale.” > [@Eric1](#): > > ham-handed way Ham-handedness is also a facet of his personality, I think. That’s why it’s so weird when he acts sort of… _normal_, I guess? He seems to have some interest in history. He knows, seemingly, that “hale and hearty” and “well-met” are at least of Elizabethan vintage. There’s also a clip I saw once where’s he’s wistfully talking about the dining table in Citizen Kane, recognizing the symbolism of the isolating effect of wealth. I remember he also genuinely complemented Hillary Clinton’s tenacity and drive at the end of one the 2016 debates. So, I guess what I’m saying is, maybe the real Shakespeare was the friends we made along the way. > [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Keir Starmer, in his speech to his party’s conference, talking about the Middle East, managed to mangle “hostages” into “sausages” That would explain why Jacob Rees-Mogg was seen measuring for drapes at 10 Downing Street. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699/8 "2024-09-26T01:07:28Z")
> [@Xocomil](#): > > That’s why it’s so weird when he acts sort of… _normal_, I guess? He seems to have some interest in history. He knows, seemingly, that “hale and hearty” and “well-met” are at least of Elizabethan vintage. I imagine he also remembers [the Shakespeare in the Park production where he was “killed” onstage](https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/trump-mock-assassination-shakespeare-in-the-park-new-york-city-controversy-kathy-griffin/164591/). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-phrase-hale-and-hearty-appear-in-shakespeares-works/1007699/9 "2024-09-26T02:33:57Z")
> [@Xocomil](#): > > hale and hearty Originated in Middle English my sources say. That means the Bard _could_ have used it,I suppose- but others have done word searches and he did not in his published books.