massage". Theodore Sturgeon had one of his characters say this about H. G. Wells in his 1948 short story Unite and Conquer; and Roger Lancelyn Green (in 1962) ascribed it as a saying of Professor Nevill Coghill, Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, who was born 49 years after its first documented appearance in print. The phrase also appears in Myra Brooks Welch's poem "The Touch of the Master's Hand," in which "a mess of pottage – a glass of wine – a game" stand for all such petty worldly pursuits, contrasted to life after a spiritual awakening. The phrase also appears in the 1919 African-American film Within Our Gates, as used by the preacher character 'Old Ned' who having ingratiated himself by acting the clown with two white men turns away and states, "again, I've sold my birthright. All for a miserable mess of pottage." Notes External links Translators to the Reader Figures of speech Biblical phrases