Thick and fast

The term ‘thick and fast’ has been part of the English language since at least the days of Charles I of England. The earliest example I know of the phrase is found in the English playwright Thomas Middleton’s satirical play, the title of which makes its contents abundantly clear – A game at chess as it was acted nine dayes to gether at the Globe on the banks side, 1625:

Lay your commands as thicke and fast vppon me

‘Thick and fast’ was predated by an earlier phrase ‘thick and threefold’ which has much the same meaning. An early example of that can be found in another work with an unambiguous title – The union of the two noble and illustrate famelies of Lancastre [and] Yorke. This book was published in 1548 by the English lawyer Edward Hall and is more commonly known as Hall’s Chronicle:

When mo[re] newe Testamentes were Imprinted, thei came thicke and threfold into Englande.