Thereby hangs a tale


What's the meaning of the phrase 'Thereby hangs a tale'?

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What's the origin of the phrase 'Thereby hangs a tale'?

From Shakespeare’s As You Like It, 1600:

JAQUES:
      A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ the forest,
      A motley fool; a miserable world!
      As I do live by food, I met a fool
      Who laid him down and bask’d him in the sun,
      And rail’d on Lady Fortune in good terms,
      In good set terms and yet a motley fool.
      ‘Good morrow, fool,’ quoth I. ‘No, sir,’ quoth he,
      ‘Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune:’
      And then he drew a dial from his poke,
      And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
      Says very wisely, ‘It is ten o’clock:
      Thus we may see,’ quoth he, ‘how the world wags:
      ‘Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
      And after one hour more ’twill be eleven;
      And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
      And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
      And thereby hangs a tale.’ When I did hear
      The motley fool thus moral on the time,
      My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
      That fools should be so deep-contemplative,
      And I did laugh sans intermission
      An hour by his dial. O noble fool!
      A worthy fool! Motley’s the only wear.

Trend of thereby hangs a tale in printed material over time

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

Gary Martin

Writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.
Thereby hangs a tale

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