Playing Fast and Loose:

Playing fast and loose Definition: to be deceitful or irresponsible Origin 1: Seneca the Younger (ca. 4 BC to 65 AD) was a Roman philosopher, essayist, and playwright who became a personal tutor to the emperor Nero. Seneca was an advocate of Stoicism, that philosophy of life that advocated rational thought, a simple life, and personal sacrifice over indulgences in pleasures and emotions, a position more aligned with Epicureanism. In his essay, “Of a Happy Life,” Seneca argued that wisdom and virtue are the foundation for the serious approach to the meaning of life. “What have we to do with frivolous and captious questions, and impertinent niceties? Let us rather study how to deliver ourselves from sadness, fear, and the burden of all our secret lusts. [What do we do when] our houses are on fire, our country invaded, our goods taken away, our children are in danger… Is this a time for us now to be playing fast and loose with idle questions, which are, in effect, but so many unprofitable riddles? Our duty is the cure of the mind, rather than the delight in it.” The reference to “fast and loose” probably referred to a juggling trick that was common in Roman times. Audience members would bind the juggler with ropes. He then quickly wiggled out of them as if my magic, loosening the ropes with great speed. Seneca’s tragedies and essays were read and quoted by Chaucer, Dante, and Shakespeare. Seneca himself was not so lucky. Nero later charged Seneca with plotting his assassination. Although possibly innocent, Seneca was forced to commit suicide by Nero. Origin 2: The word “fast” originally meant stuck. “Fast and loose” was an old cheating game in which something that appeared stuck (“fast”) quickly became loose. Wagers were often placed on this game, with con artists quickly making “loose” with other people’s money. Here was the definition of the game from James Halliwell’s 1847 Dictionary: "Fast-and-loose, a cheating game played with a stick and a belt or string, so arranged that a spectator would think he could make the latter fast by placing a stick through its intricate folds, whereas the operator could detach it at once." The expression had become so common in English by the 1500s that Shakespeare used it: KING PHILIP: Heaven knows, they were besmear'd and over-stain'd With slaughter's pencil, where revenge did paint The fearful difference of incensed kings: And shall these hands, so lately purged of blood, So newly join'd in love, so strong in both, Unyoke this seizure and this kind regret? Play fast and loose with faith? So jest with heaven… Origin 3: Actually, the origin of this phrase rested with the practices of the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. After a sinner had confessed and received absolution, the Church granted an “indulgence,” which was a full or partial remission of temporal punishment for the forgiven sins. To receive the indulgence, a sinner devoted himself to good deeds or piously read scripture for a given period. During the Middle Ages, however, the Catholic Church condoned the sale of indulgences. Professional “pardoners” were sent out by the Church to collect alms for indulgences. These monies were used to fund expensive building projects and other luxuries. As the amount of money for each indulgence increased, so too did the “temporal” dimension for the remission of the sin. Pardoners forgave all types of sins for periods of hundreds or even thousands of years. They even threatened parishioners to collect alms: if the parishioner did not pay “fast,” he could “lose” eternal life. Other people, however, saw the indulgences as a way to be quickly forgiven for any sin they wished to commit. Martin Luther got so upset with this practice that he started the Protestant Reformation. In 1517, Luther wrote his Ninety-Five Theses to confront indulgence salesperson Johann Tetzel, who was trying to collect inordinate amounts for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The enmity against buying one’s faith was shared by these new Protestants. Samuel Slater, in his 1694 An Earnest Call to Family Religion, cautioned against playing with God’s Grace: “Consider my dearly beloved what the Scripture saith. It is a good thing that the Heart be established with Grace, Heb. 13 9., both with the Doctrine of Grace, and with an internal Principle of Grace, for the one will not do without the other, nothing short of Grace can strengthen, establish and settle the Heart, till Grace be infused into the Soul, and becomes a new nature in it, till it comes to be commander in chief, the Heart of man will be fluttering and unstable, off and on playing fast and loose with God…”   Answer: Origin 2 Although a good case can be made for the Catholic Church “playing fast and loose” with contributions, this phrase originated as a con artist’s game.