[Clive Watkins]

Another footnote from the OED:

THAN

1b: With a personal or relative pronoun in the objective case instead of the nominative (as if than were a preposition).

This is app. the invariable construction in the case of than whom, which is universally accepted instead of than who. With the personal pronouns it is now considered incorrect.

1560 Bible (Genev.) Prov. xxvii. 3 A fooles wrath is heauier then them bothe. 1569 J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 165 We cannot resiste them that be stronger then vs. 1718 Prior Better Answer 27–8 For thou art a girl as much brighter than her, As he was a poet sublimer than me. 1762 Goldsm. Cit. W. xxxviii, I am, not less than him, a despiser of the multitude. a1774 I Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) I. 163 Others, later than him, who appeal to experience as well as he, affirm the contrary. 1792 Wakefield Mem. (1804) I. 108 He was much older than me. 1815 Scott Guy M. xvii, I+could not be expected+to be wiser than her. c1825 Beddoes Second Brother i. i, You are old, And many years nearer than him to death. 1861 E. O'Curry Lect. MS. Materials 253 He is better than me, then, said the monarch.

Clive

[Uche Ogbuji]

And what of that "I"--is it righter than "me"?
Or is rightest whatever the heck seems to fly;
Lord poet ain't happy when language flaps free
So I'm sure he's fancier rhymer than I

[Gail White]

Thanks for the OED quotes, Clive. (How could I have forgotten Prior's Better Answer?)

On the other hand, up against Proverbs I would put Edmund Burke:
"In the reporter's gallery yonder there sits a Fourth Estate more important than they all."

Also, Julie, good points about English as a hybrid lanaguage. But the French word for "I" (pronounced "zhuh") sounds just plain funny at the end of a sentence, and they avoid putting it there. I'd like to see how a French Bible translates, "Lord, is it I?"

[Diane Dees]

You are correct, Gail. That you have begun to question a correct use of grammar just goes to show how grammar has been trashed in the English language.

[Gregory Dowling]

But as Clive points out, it's a trashing that's been going on since at least the 16th century, and by writers like Goldsmith and Scott along the way.