love me, love my dog

Cf. ST. BERNARD Sermon: In Festo Sancti Michaelis iii. qui me amat, amat et canem meum, who loves me, also loves my dog; early 14th-cent. Fr. et ce dit le sage qui mayme il ayme mon chien, and so says the sage, who loves me loves my dog.

a 1500 in Archiv (1893) XC. 81 He that lovyeth me lovyeth my hound.

1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs II. ix. K4^v Ye haue bene so veraie [veritable] a hog, To my frends. What man, loue me, loue my dog.

1692 R. L’ESTRANGE Fables of Aesop cvi. Love Me, Love my Dog... For there are certain Decencies of Respect due to the Servant for the Master’s sake.

1826 LAMB Elia’s Last Essays (1833) 262 That you must love me, and love my dog... We could never yet form a friendship..without the intervention of some third anomaly..the understood dog in the proverb.

2001 Spectator 1 Dec. 28 Sir Michael had agreed to take his new job only on the condition that Mr Bolland remained at his right hand. ‘It’s a case of love me, love my dog,’ a courtier told me.