The Curious Meaning of the Phrase ‘Hoist with One’s Own Petard’ — Interesting Literature

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the meaning and origins of a famous Shakespeare phrase ‘Hoist with one’s own petard’. The expression is well-known, and its meaning is fairly clear to most people: it describes someone who has been scuppered by their own schemes, […] The post The Curious…

via The Curious Meaning of the Phrase ‘Hoist with One’s Own Petard’ — Interesting Literature

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Author: Phil Slattery

Publisher, Rural Fiction Magazine; publisher, The Chamber Magazine; founder, the Farmington Writers Circle. I have written short stories and poetry for many years. In my careers as a Naval officer and in the federal government, I have written thousands of documents of many types. I am currently working on a second edition for my poetry collection and a few novels.

2 thoughts on “The Curious Meaning of the Phrase ‘Hoist with One’s Own Petard’ — Interesting Literature”

  1. Shakespeare prof taught a tripod ( A Frame), which holds an iron kettle facing a wooden gate or weakness in a defensive wall. Filled with gunpowder, the kettle,(Petard), is facing the gate, wall, and pushed against it by the outward leg of the tripod, just before it detonates, destroying the intended gate or wall section. Unintendedly, the engineer might get flung up by the recoiling kettle and left on top of his tripod in a sorry state. Shakespeare beat Issac Newton’s laws of motion by more than a Century with this joke!

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  2. Interestingly, David Suchet’s character in an episode of Tales of the Unexpected <a href=”https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717425″>was literally hoist with his own petard</a>.

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