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Senior Member
I'd like to clarify one thing. There's this play "Speed-the-Plow" which in my native language means something like "get a move on, hurry up". I haven't seen the play myself but I'd like to know what it means for you native English speakers. Would you use it instead of "get a move on, hurry up"?
  • entangledbank

    Senior Member
    English - South-East England
    No, I've never heard of it as a phrase. When I see the name of the play, I don't really know what it means. (Which play do you mean, by the way? The original was by Thomas Morton in the late 1700s, and the name was revived by Mamet in modern times. So to understand it we have to ask what Morton meant.)


    Senior Member
    Français (CH), AE (California)
    The following is extracted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed-the-Plow
    There is an 18th century English play by Thomas Morton called Speed-the-Plough, which gave the world the character of that arch-prude Mrs. Grundy, but Mamet has never indicated that he is familiar with it. In an interview in The Chicago Tribune, he explained the title as follows:

    I remembered the saying that you see on a lot of old plates and mugs: 'Industry produces wealth, God speed the plow.' This, I knew, was a play about work and about the end of the world, so 'Speed-the-Plow' was perfect because not only did it mean work, it meant having to plow under and start over again.[1]
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