subs. (common).—That or none: i.e., there is no alternative. [Popularly derived from the name of a Cambridge livery stable keeper, whose rule was that each customer must take the horse next the door, or have no horse at all. That old Hobson existed is clear from Milton’s epitaph, but Bellenden Ker (Essay on the Archæology of Popular Phrases) affirms the story to be a Cambridge hoax, and maintains the proverb to be identical in sound and sense as the Low Saxon, Op soens schie ho eysche = when he had a kiss he wanted something else.]
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. HOBSON’S CHOICE, that or None.
1710. WARD, England’s Reformation, ch. iv. ’Tis HOBSON’S CHOICE; take that or none.
1712. STEELE, Spectator, No. 509, p. 191. I shall conclude this discourse with an explanation of a proverb [HOBSON’S CHOICE], which by vulgar error is taken and used when a man is reduced to an extremity, whereas the propriety of the maxim is to use it when you would say there is plenty, but you must make such a choice as not to hurt another who is to come after you. Ibid. He [HOBSON] kept a stable of forty good cattle, always ready and fit for travelling; but when a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where there was great choice, but was obliged to take the horse which stood nearest to the stable-door; so that every customer was alike well served, according to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice.
1717. CIBBER, The Non-juror, i. Can any woman think herself happy that’s obliged to marry only with a HOBSON’S CHOICE?
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1820. REYNOLDS, (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy. Black men now are HOBSON’S CHOICE.
1851. F. E. SMEDLEY, Lewis Arundel, ch. liii. ‘When shall we go?’ inquired Laura. ‘Why, it’s a case of HOBSON’S CHOICE,’ returned Leicester.
1854. Notes and Queries, 21 Jan., p. 51. It was clear a choice had been given to him, but it was a HOBSON’S CHOICE.
