Tempting
the Evil Spirits
It may be based on the premise that saying “good luck” actually will have an adverse affect. There's a possibility the saying comes from folklore. Popular folklore down through the ages is full of warnings against wishing your friends good luck. To do so is to tempt evil spirits or demons to do your friend harm. Better to outwit the demons by wishing your friend bad fortune.
Don't
break the curtain(?)
Perhaps the saying comes from the use of “leg.” In tech theatre, a “leg” is a curtain, and a highly successful run with repeated curtain calls could wear out the fly machinery that raises and lowers the "leg," or curtain. “Break a leg” is a complex way of expressing wishes for a show that is so great, with the audience demanding so many curtain calls, that it "breaks" that "leg" or curtain.
I couldn't take another bow
Another possible background for the expression is its relation to "taking a knee," which itself has roots in chivalry. Upon meeting royalty, one would "take a knee"--bend down to one knee. That breaks the line of the leg, hence "break a leg," a wish that the performer will do so well that he or she will need to take repeated bows.
Blame it on John Willkes Booth
Someone may try to convince you that "break a leg" actually has sardonic roots in John Wilkes Booth's assassination of President Lincoln in 1865. You know, of course, that Booth was an actor and that after shooting Lincoln he jumped down from the President's box to the stage, breaking his leg in the process. Incidentally, according to Michael W. Kauffman's book, John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies, it isn't true he broke his leg in that jump. The break, Kauffman writes, happened later during Booth's frenzied escape, when his horse fell.
What
we believe
A personal note: My mother, who was in Vaudeville with her parents on the Pantages circuit during the 1930’s, once told me that they used to say “Break a leg” to each other because in those days you worked as often as you could and the only way one could take time off was due to injury. This was their way of saying “take a break” or wishing each other a little relaxation or vacation time.
Whichever of these contribute to the phrase, the point is clear: "Break a leg" means "Have a great show!"
This
is what some people say. What do you think, or
what
have you heard? Let us know at info@sheebles.com
References
This
material is intended for educational purposes only and
was originally published as part of:
Theatrical Superstitions and Saints,
by Louis E. Catron.
Superstitions
Archive
The
Scottish Play
Probably the most well known
theatre superstition involves William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth -- often
called, by actors 'the bard's play' or 'the Scottish play'. Don’t ever say its name when you’re inside a theatre building.
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