On Wednesday, February 22, 1922, the New York Times reported that “an agreeable if not brilliant musical comedy fashioned by various hands accustomed to the trade and briskly produced last night in the Lyric Theatre” opened to rave reviews with siblings Fred Astaire playing the role of Teddy Lawrene and Adele Astaire playing the role of Suzanne Hayden in the play “For Goodness Sake.” It was reported that the siblings were “developing into delightful comedians.”
Prior to that, it was used often and as with so many other phrases, it can be found in one of Shakespeare’s plays. In this instance, it can be found in “Henry VIII” in Act 3, scene 1 when Wolsey says:
“For goodness sake, consider what you do, how you may hurt yourself—ay, utterly grow from the King’s acquaintance, by this carriage.”
It is believed that Henry VIII was written shortly before 1613, the year in which the Globe Theatre burned down during one of the play’s earliest known performances. It is believed that the play was relatively new and had not been presented more than 2 or 3 times prior to the fire. However, the term was already in vogue more than a century before Shakespeare made use of it.
On December 21, 1502 Niccolo Machiavelli‘s friend and colleague, Biagio de Buonaccorsi wrote to Machiavelli regarding the latter’s wife who complained weekly to Buonaccorsi about her husband’s absense. Machiavelli had to leave his wife almost as soon as they were married due to business demands, leaving her to struggle with managing his personal and financial affairs. She pleaded with Buonaccorsi to write to her husband on her behalf. In his letter he wrote: “Monna Marietta blasphemes God, and thinks that she has thrown away both herself and her property. For goodness’ sake give orders that she may have her own dower, like others of her position, otherwise she will lose all patience with you.”
This minced oath is even older than that as some English translations of Plato‘s Republic indicates that when Glaucon encouraged Socrates to continue his consideration of “goodness” Glaucon asked Socrates to continue “for goodness’ sake.”
Historically Speaking 