wholly without a peer
Preserved but no longer current.
The line occurs in Lewis Theobald's The Double Falsehood (1727), iii, 1, a play which Theobald tried to palm off on the literary world as by Shakespeare. There are many similar sentences; for example: — And but herself admits no parallel. MASSINGER: Duke of Mitlaine, 111, 4 (1662). None but himself can parallel.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “wholly without a peer” mean?
The line occurs in Lewis Theobald's The Double Falsehood (1727), iii, 1, a play which Theobald tried to palm off on the literary world as by Shakespeare. There are many similar sentences; for example: — And but herself admits no parallel. MASSINGER: Duke of Mitlaine, 111, 4 (1662). None but himself can parallel.
Is “wholly without a peer” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.