When did 'cowards way out' gain noteriety in use?

[femmejean]

Looking up the word, it seems to come from old-French couard and the word ‘coward’ was adopted in Middle English (remembering Shakespeare’s Hamlet, 'thus conscience doth make cowards of us all’)

However, in regards to cowardice being refered to suicide, There doesn’t seem to be a clear origin. It seems to be a recent phenomenon. In Tom Hanks’s film, Bridge of Spies, his character mentions to the judge about the spy that ‘he did not take the cowards way out’ . Either this could be a historical error in the use of the word or indeed it was used commonly in the 20th century…don’t really know and don’t want to make speculations.

Does anyone know?

[engineer_comp_geek]

Poking around with google ngram and book searches, the earliest result I could find where “coward’s way out” specifically referred to suicide was a book from 1913. There are a few more suicide references in the 1920s and 1930s. The phrase was common enough to end up in print on many occasions.

Bridge of Spies isn’t terribly accurate, historically speaking, but it’s use of the phrase “coward’s way out” is reasonable.

[bibliophage]

It seems to be used in that sense in this book from 1911.

Often he had thought of ending it all, there and then, but that he mused, was the coward’s way

Coward’s path may be earlier. It occurs in this magazine from 1881

… the world … gives a verdict of ‘suicide’ when no idea of self-slaughter ever entered the mind of the victim. I write this in the sincere conviction of its truth. Upton was too brave, too conscientious, too noble to make a coward’s path out of any distress …

[bibliophage]

The idea that suicide is cowardly goes back farther. I found this book from 1844 or 1845

“It is easy to die,” responded the stranger, “if you die assured of a better life, but otherwise I think not. It is courageous to live, when you wish for death: it is a coward’s act to fly from existence, because it is full of misery and disappointment.”