Random thoughts on had rather, profusely illustrated with extracts from literature

Somebody wrote to WordReference forums with a 'question taken from an exam', where you have to fill the gap with one of the options given:

"She ____they travelled by bus."

1. would sooner
2. had rather
3. had sooner

I don't know whether it said 'Choose the best option' or 'Choose the correct option', but either way, the answer they gave was 1. - would sooner. But what I'm interested in is whether both the other answers are 'wrong'.

Would rather / would sooner

As a reminder for any foreign learners reading this, these two expressions have a similar meaning to prefer to, but are used with a bare infinitive, or with a subject and past form.

• I'd prefer to go the cinema, myself
  He'd prefer it if you came a bit earlier.
• She'd rather have
  I'd rather you didn't do that.
• They'd sooner not have to pay in advance.
  Would you sooner I left now?

In spoken English we nearly always contract (except in questions), so all we usually hear is 'd. But what about when it comes to written language? Can we use had instead of would?

As we shall see, rather was not the only word used like this after had: we have the expression had better - I'd better get a move on, and before Shakespeare's day there had been the expression had liefer, which had a similar meaning to had rather, and from this had developed the expression had lief as, meaning would (just) as willingly, used quite a bit by Shakespeare.

Incidentally, rather was originally the comparative of an adjective we don't use any more - rathe - meaning 'early, soon, quick', hence the similarity of the two expressions had rather and had sooner.

Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies

Lycidas, John Milton 1637

Are had rather and had sooner idiomatic English?

It rather looks as though the person who set that question thinks not. Let's have a look how they've been used in British books over the last three hundred years or so.

First of all we can see, perhaps not surprisingly, that:

• would rather is much more common than had rather
• had sooner has hardly been used at all at any time

On the other hand:

• until somewhere toward the end of the eighteenth century, had rather was more common than would rather
• at first glance, the graph suggests that even today, had rather is more common than would sooner

There is a small problem with this, however, in that Ngram will also catch sentences like 'I had rather set my mind on it', where rather is simply modifying the verb set. So we need to look at some rather harder evidence.

At the British National Corpus

The British National Corpus is a computerised collection of over 100 million words taken from British sources from mainly the 1980s and 1990s.

• would rather - 547
• had rather - 12-20 (?) Show examples
  • But I tell you Minnie, for all the independence,I had rather have my old job back and be in service with Mrs Browning .

    Lady's Maid. Forster, Margaret. London, 1990 (set in the 19th century)

  • John Poole's temper cannot have been improved when he announced the news of Robespierre's execution, reported in that day's Western Flying Post , and prompted from Southey the Histrionic cry, ‘I had rather have heard the death of my own father.’

    Coleridge and Wordsworth in the West Country. Mayberry, Tom, 1992 (about the 19th century)

  • As in example, the Theban Crates flung all his possessions into the sea saying I had rather drown you than you should drown me.

    Gardens of Meditation. Falconar, A E I, 1980

  • BELVILLE: I had rather so than perfecting my Pamela in it.

    Pamela. Morgan, Fidelis (stage play adapted from the 18th century novel of the same name)

  • ‘I had rather do that,’ she said.

    Legacy of love. Harvey, Caroline, 1992 (set in various time periods)

  • At Southwark in 1705, the women took exception to the candidacy of a local Tory JP, a bachelor and renowned misogynist, who had once said "that he had rather see a Sow and Pigs, than a Woman and her Children"

    Politics under the Stuarts. Harris, Tim, 1993 (quote from the 18th century)

• would sooner - 41
• had sooner - 1 Show example
  • All depend in varying degrees on the analytical activities of conscious thought, but all would say with Thomas à Kempis: I had sooner feel compunction than know its definition.

    English medieval mystics: games of faith. Glasscoe, Marion, 1993

For had rather, the BNC showed a random 50 from 105 hits. Of these 50, only six used had rather in the sense we are looking for. So if this is typical, there are probably less than twenty in all. It's also worth mentioning that in at least four of the six examples of had rather, the expression is attributed to someone (real or fictional) from the 18th or 19th centuries.

So we can say, that in the British National Corpus at any rate, would rather is overwhelmingly more common than had rather, and also much more common than would sooner.

Literary or archaic perhaps, but is had rather incorrect?

Oxford Dictionaries Online say that had rather is 'literary or archaic'; in Practical English Usage, Michael Swan says:

In older English, had rather was used in the same way as would rather. This structure is still found in grammars, but is not normally used in modern British English.

None of the standard British learner's dictionaries list had rather, and I certainly wouldn't want to suggest foreign learners use it, but I'd still like to know - is it incorrect? First I had a look at some usage guides.

Usage guides

Henry Fowler, writing in 1928, says:

I had rather is as idiomatic as I would rather.

Modern English Usage, H.W.Fowler, 1928

Robert Burchfield, editor of the Third Edition (1996) of Fowler saw no reason to change this position.

The blurb to Usage and Abusage, suggests that Eric Partridge treats the use of would rather or had rather as a point of style, along the lines of different from and different to.

And from an American perspective, at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage they say much the same thing as Fowler, although in a lot more detail:

Had rather is a perfectly respectable and perfectly standard English idiom. By Shakespeare's time had pretty well replaced 'had liefer'.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage

And here's Brian Garner of Garner's Modern American Usage

had rather; would rather. Both phrases are idiomatic and old. Today would rather is the predominant form, but both forms are fully established.

Garner's Modern American Usage, Bryan Garner

So according to the usage guides had rather is OK if a minority use. Next I wondered how the history of the two expressions compared.

Introduction to the history of had rather

What I hadn't realised when I started this post was that this was at one time one of the most controversial areas of English usage, and what I thought would take me a couple of hours to write has taken more like two weeks. For the history of had rather, and the controversy that surrounds it, my leads have largely come from the following publications, although I've also found quite a few myself, as one thing has lead to another.

• The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage (MWDEU)
• Otto Jespersen's A Modern English Grammar, the relevant section of which is available at Google Books (link at the end)
• On the Origin of "Had rather go" and Analogous or Apparently Analogous Locutions, an essay by Fitzedward Hall, published in the American Journal of Philology, 1881

There are quite a few modern books I can't access which broach the subject, as well as what looks like an interesting paper by W. van der by Gaaf, 'The Origin of Would Rather and Some of its Analogues.' (Engl.Studien XLV, 1912, 381-96), which seems stubbornly unavailable. There are also a couple of lengthy treatments of it from the end of the nineteenth century, by Lounsbury and Hall, both freely available online and to download - see Further Reading. I've divided the rest of this post up into:

• From Chaucer to the end of the sixteenth century
• Aside #1 - The problem with quoting Sir Thomas More
• Shakespeare
• The King James Bible
• Seventeenth century literature
• Eighteenth century literature
• Nineteenth Century and beyond
• Would sooner and had sooner
• The controversy - the objectors
• The controversy - the defenders

From Chaucer to the end of the sixteenth century

Would rather

The first known use of would rather seems to have been by Chaucer:

Full loth were him to curse for his tithes,
But rather would he given out of doubt,
Unto his poore parishens about

The Prologue

It woulde rather break in two than ply

The Clerk's Tale

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, end of 14th century
(had rather 0, would rather 1 maybe 2)

Had rather

Sometime in the fifteenth century, had rather started to replace an older, now archaic expression with a similar meaning, had liefer, also spelt had lever or had liever. Here's an example of had lever from Chaucer:

Prologue to the Franklin's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer

The OED dates had rather from 1450, and here we have an example from sometime around that date. John Hardyng completed the manuscript of his Chronicle in 1437, but was still working on it in 1464, so we can put it somewhere between those two dates. It was subsequently printed for the first time in 1543.

whiche she did nowe see to haue chaused, and sowith this great feare & agonie she was in that case that she had rather dye then lyue

The chronicle of Iohn Hardyng, 1437 (first print edition 1543) [Archive.org]
(had rather 5, would rather 2)

Letter to Sir John Paston, 1478, from Paston Letters: Original Letters, Written During the Reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III
(had rather 1, would rather 1, had lever 12)

The History of the Valiant Knight Arthur of Little Britain, translated from the French by John Bourchier, Lord Berners d.1533 (this limited reprint 1814)

Google Books lists five books published between 1500 and 1550 with the expression had rather. For would rather it has six (one of them being in both lists).

The Vnion of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke, Edward Halle, 1542 (this edition 1550)
(had rather 6, would rather 2)

A declaration of Christe of his offyce, John Hooper, 1547
(had rather 3, would rather 0)

The Praise of Folie, Erasmus, trans Sir Thomas Chaloner, 1549
(had rather 6, would rather 0)

From the second half of the sixteenth century, Otto Jesperson mentions Lyly and Marlowe, and I've also found examples from Sir Philip Sidney, John Donne and Thomas Nashe.

These discourses I haue hot clapt in a cluster, thinking with my selfe, that Ladies had rather be sprinckled with sweete water, then washed, so that I haue sowed them heere and there, lyke Strawberies, hot in heapes, lyke Hoppes

Euphues and his England, John Lyly, 1580 [Archive.org]
(had rather 7+, would rather 5)

Rather had I, a Jew, be hated thus,
Than pitied in a Christian poverty;

The Jew of Malta, Christopher Marlowe, 1589-1592 [Project Gutenberg]
(had rather 2, would rather 0)

The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Last Part), Sir Philip Sidney, 1593
(had rather 4, would rather 3)

I hate extremes; yet I had rather stay
With tombs than cradles to wear out the day

Elegy IX The Autumnal, John Donne, 1596-8 (?) [Google Books]

Have with You to Saffron-Walden Or, Gabriell Harveys Hunt is Up
Thomas Nashe, 1596 (facsimile)
(had rather 2, would rather 0)

Aside #1 - The problem with quoting Sir Thomas More

More has been quoted by one or two people as being an early example of the use, on one hand of had rather, and on the other of would rather. Jesperson cites 'they had rather take them aliue', while J. L. Hall (English Usage 1917) found an instance of would rather. But there's a problem in trying to enlist More's support for one side or the other: much of what he wrote was in Latin, so the person who is really being quoted is his translator, not the illustrious man himself.

There were two early translations of Utopia, More's most famous book, one by Ralph Robinson, first published in 1556, and the other, the most commonly used translation, by Gilbert Burnet, which first appeared in 1664. That sentence quoted by Jesperson does indeed appear in Robinson's translation, but is nowhere to be found in Burnet's. In fact Robinson's translation has eight instances of had rather and none of would rather (that I can find). In contrast, Burnet's has two instances of would rather, but appears to have none of had rather. These two versions of the same passage show this difference:

Utopia, Sir Thomas More - translated from Latin by Ralph Robinson - Reprint of the revised 1556 edition
(had rather 7, would rather 0)

Utopia, Sir Thomas More - translated from Latin by by Gilbert Burnet (1664) 1743
(had rather 0, would rather 7)

Shakespeare

MWDEU suggests 38 instances of had rather, while Jesperson ups that to 60, citing 'I had rather haue my Wounds to heale againe', from Coriolanus. With the help of Project Gutenberg we can see that in fact there are over seventy instances in the First Folio. These include:

I had rather be a Dogge, and bay the Moone,
Then such a Roman

Julius Caesar

I had rather be a Toad,
And liue vpon the vapour of a Dungeon,
Then keepe a corner in the thing I loue
For others vses.

Othello

Madam, I had rather seele my lippes,
Then to my perill speake that which is not

Anthony and Cleopatra

I had rather be a canker in a hedge, then a rose in his grace

Much Ado about Nothing

I had rather be a Kitten, and cry mew,
Then one of these same Meeter Ballad-mongers:
I had rather heare a Brazen Candlestick turn'd,
Or a dry Wheele grate on the Axle-tree

Henry IV Part 1

Mr William Shalespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies (The First Folio), 1623 [Project Gutenberg]

This compares with just three for would rather.

There are no instances of would sooner or of had sooner with the meaning of would prefer.

Although there are no instances of had liefer, there are 17 instances of had as lief / liefe / liue / leeue, related to the older expression, and meaning as happily; as gladly (=just as rather). There's also one of had lief as

I had as lief haue the foppery of freedome, as the mortality of imprisonment

Measure for Measure

Nay, and you be so tardie, come no more in my sight, I had as liefe be woo'd of a Snaile

As You Like it

But if you mouth it, as many of your Players do, I had as liue the Town-Cryer had spoke my Lines

Hamlet

but she good soule had as leeue see a Toade, a very Toade as see him

Romeo and Juliet

2nd Servant: Pray heauen it [a linen basket] be not full of Knight againe
1st Servant: I hope not, I had liefe as beare so much lead

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The King James Bible 1611

The KJV has two instances of had rather and none of would rather

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness

Psalms

Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

Corinthians

King James Bible,1611 [Project Gutenberg]
(had rather 2, would rather 0)

Seventeenth century literature

Google Books has about 190 instances of would rather and about 130 of had rather, most of which appear to fit our criteria. One is possibly from King Charles I.

Eikon Basilike, (attributed to Charles I), 1648
(had rather 8, would rather 1)

A Treatise of Selfdenyall, Richard Baxter, 1660
(had rather 20, would rather 0)

Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan, 1678
(had rather 3, would rather 0)