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Where does the phrase "Oh brother, where art thou?" come from?

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I am pretty sure it comes from Shakespeare but I haven't been succesfull in finding it yet. I don't believe that it was created for the Coen brothers movie since I've heard it elsewhere and I've seen a 1991 Simpsons episode that uses the same phrase as its title (the movie was released in 2000, I believe). So, can anyone help?

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  1. "Where art thou" is a common phrase from older English of course, right, like in Genesis 3 "And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?", Shakespearean sonnets, etc.  "Oh Brother, Where art thou" is the name of a made-up book in the film Sullivan's Travels (1941) .  Apparently scenes from the Coen brother's movie allude to scenes from this film. lot more info here: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma05/cline/o...


  2. Maybe the bible?
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