Embarrassment

Posted by ESC on September 12, 1999

In Reply to: Embarrassment of riches posted by Melinda Nowikowski on September 12, 1999

: I've looked several different places trying to find some source for this phrase. It could well be Shakespeare, though I've read quite a bit of that and never come across it. The best I've been able to find is a definition (which I already knew) and some "muttered" commentary about it being common usage. Any ideas?

Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet) 1694-1778. The embarrassment of riches. From Le Droit du Seigneur, act II, sc. vi

I found it in Familiar Quotations by John Barlett.