Thursday, December 28, 2017

Well, well

From Pierre; Or, The Ambiguities (1852):
"Well, well, well," cried Pierre rapidly and impetuously; "we both knew that before."
"Well, well, well, Pierre," retorted his mother, mockingly.
"It is not well, well, well; but ill, ill, ill, to torture me so, mother; go on, do!"
Dearest Lucy!—well, well;—'twill be a pretty time we'll have this evening; there's the book of Flemish prints—that first we must look over....
"Well, well; go on, go on, aunt; you can't think how interested I am," said little Pierre,
Well, well, I never thought to cast them back into the sordid circulations whence they came. 
"Well, well, wonders is all the go. I thought I had done with wondering when I passed fifty; but I keep wondering still.... Well, well, well, well, well; of all colics, save me from the melloncholics; green melons is the greenest thing!"
"Oh! is that you, sir? well, well, then;" and the man set down the easel.
"Well, well, Isabel," stammeringly replied Pierre; while a mysterious color suffused itself over his whole face, neck, and brow; and involuntarily he started a little back from her self-proffering form.
The locution Well, well occurs 9x in Moby-Dick, for example:
Well, well, what’s signed, is signed; and what’s to be, will be; and then again, perhaps it won’t be, after all.
From the August 1853 installment of Scenes Beyond The Western Border; and Scenes and Adventures in the Army:

Scenes Beyond the Western Border
Southern Literary Messenger 19 - August 1853
C.—"Well, well,—I wrote what pleased myself; and,—another object I have, which I did not mention: with scarce a book to read, if one did not write, I fancy the beef and pork and beans would in time form a coating round his brain,—turn it all perhaps to thick and solid skull! How is it with you, Frank? Does yours retain a slight softness?"

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