Older Than Steam - Television Tropes & Idioms

From printing to the steam engine (1439-1698). The arrival of movable type printing in Europe made books plentiful, and helped standardize the languages that used it. Much more survives from this period than from earlier.

Please note, that when we say steam engine we mean useful steam engine. Not Heron's first century toy.

Notable works and authors from this time period include:

William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and other authors of Elizabethan/Jacobean drama.
The works of Jonathan Swift.
Don Quixote by Cervantes.
The Italian Commedia dell'Arte farces, establishing many comedy-related tropes we enjoy to this day.
Paradise Lost by John Milton.
Journey to the West, the great Chinese epic.
The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope's great mock-heroic epic satire of the most infamous haircut of English literature.

Tropes that originated in this time period:

Adaptation Displacement: Shakespeare, frequently.
All Part of the Show: 17th-century urban legend.
All That Glitters: Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice, which implies that it was already an old aesop.
Antagonist In Mourning: 16th-century Japanese history.
Anti-Hero: Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.
Ascended Fanboy: Don Quixote.
Aside Comment: Shakespeare and contemporaries.
Atlas Pose: The, um, Atlas.
A Wizard Did It: Don Quixote pokes fun at other works that use the trope in that the title character always ascribes things going sideways to "some cursed enchanter". The Tempest plays it straight, putting essentially the entire plot down to Prospero's magical machinations.
Beware Of Hitch Hiking Ghosts: The Child ballad of "The Suffolk Miracle".
The Bluebeard: European folktales.
Bluffing The Murderer: The play within the play in Hamlet.
Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Polonius's list of genres in Hamlet.
Bromantic Foil: Mercutio of Romeo and Juliet.
Cargo Envy: In a famous line from Romeo and Juliet, Romeo sees Juliet resting her head on her hand, and wishes he was a glove on that hand.
The Chessmaster (using actual chess motifs): Iago in Othello.
Contrived Coincidence: The Comedy Of Errors by Shakespeare.
Could Say It But: Several Shakespearean characters, such as Polonius in Hamlet.
Cult Classic: Scots poet Robert Burns and his annual supper.
The Dead Can Dance: The danse macabre motif in art, and various morality plays.
Deal with the Devil: Historia von D. Johan. Fausten dem weitbeschreyten Zauberer und Schwartzkünstler, 1587; may be older.
Deconstruction: What Don Quixote did to Chivalric Romance.
Detect Evil: Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Diamonds in the Buff: Popular in 16th Century French art.
Disorganized Outline Speech: Much Ado About Nothing.
Epistolary Novel: Existed in the 1600s but became popular with Pamela, 1740.
Et Tu, Brute?: Julius Caesar is the Trope Namer, obviously.
The Everyman: Everyman, late 15th century morality play.
Eviler than Thou: King Lear.
Exact Eaves Dropping: At least this old; subverted by Shakespeare in both Hamlet and Othello.
Gender Flip: King Lear.
The Ghost: Othello and Don Quixote
Godiva Hair: Botticelli's 1486 painting The Birth of Venus.
Humble Pie: Called umble pie in the 15th and 16th century.
I Am Spartacus: Fuente Ovejuna by Lope de Vega
I Banged Your Mom: Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus
Chiron: Thou hast undone our mother.
Aaron: Villain, I have done thy mother.
Idiot Plot: At least as far back as Shakespeare.
Impeded Messenger: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, or earlier.
In Another Man's Shoes: Shakespeare's Henry V, or earlier.
Joker Jury: In Vanity Fair in The Pilgrim's Progress
Jossed: Cervantes disproved all the non-canonical novels written by other author(s) featuring his character Don Quixote, going as far as to have the characters in the book to read them and prove them as inaccurate.
Lampshade Hanging: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and As You Like It
Last Villain Stand: Shakespeare's Macbeth
Liberty Over Prosperity: First found in Paradise Lost.
Like a Weasel: Hamlet
Loan Shark: Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
Lord Error Prone: Don Quixote
Loser Has Your Back: Everyman.
Love Dodecahedron: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night
Mad Alchemist: The precourser to the modern mad scientist.
Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter (The "mad scientist is good" variant): Shakespeare's The Tempest, 1611, even though Prospero is a sorcerer, not a scientist.
Magically-Binding Contract: Faust's contract with Mephistopheles has to be signed with blood, and can't be broken.
Magnificent Bastard: The eponymous character of Shakespeare's Richard III.
Malaproper: Several Shakespheare comedies.
Mistimed Revival: Romeo and Juliet
Moral Myopia: Shakespearean characters, such as Queen Margaret in Henry VI and Richard III, and Tamara in Titus Andronicus.
More than Mind Control: The Faerie Queene, Pilgrim's Progress
Must Have Caffeine: Bach's Coffee Cantata
No Fourth Wall: Shakespeare if not much earlier.
Off the Table: Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, ca. 1598
Out Damned Spot: Lady Macbeth is the Trope Namer.
Overly-Long Gag: Gratiano's repeated ironic echoes of Shylock at the climax of the court scene in The Merchant Of Venice.
Parental Marriage Veto: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Two Gentlemen Of Verona
The Peeping Tom: The folk legend of Lady Godiva.
Pineal Weirdness: Descartes' Treatise of Man, 1629
Poe's Law: Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, 1515-1517
Pose of Silence: Shakespearian stage production technique
Potty Emergency: Don Quixote features this joke.
Puss in Boots: The fairy tale of the same name.
Rage Against The Reflection: Shakespeare's Richard II
Rash Equilibrium: Shakespeare's Measure for Measure
Recursive Crossdressing: Shakespearean comedy, especially As You Like It.
Recursive Canon: Hamlet refers to Julius Caesar as a play.
Red Herring: Actual red herrings used in hunting.
Returning The Handkerchief: Shakespheare's Othello
Rousing Speech: Shakespeare, the "St. Crispin's Day" speech in Henry V.
Shoo Out the Clowns: Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and Henry V
Show Within a Show: Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, and Hamlet, or earlier.
Spontaneous Human Combustion: The oldest known report of such an incident allegedly occurring dates back to 1654, briefly detailing an incident believed to have occurred sometime between 1468 and 1503.
The Starscream: Cassius from Julius Caesar.
A Storm Is Coming: Macbeth
Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: "The Ghost of Oyuki"
Surrogate Soliloquy: Hamlet; arguably Macbeth.
That Cloud Looks Like: Hamlet
Those Two Guys: Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Twin Threesome Fantasy: Twelfth Night, maybe.
Villainous Breakdown: Macbeth
Wedding Day: Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, or earlier.
When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Cinderella amongst others.
Wrong Genre Savvy: The titular character of Don Quixote.
Xanatos Gambit: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, more exactly their escape.
Zany Scheme: Much Ado About Nothing — it's one long ping-pong match of schemery.
- Counter Zany
- Zany Scheme Chicken

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Tropes that originated in this time period: