etymology - "Is not dead" origin?

So, does anyone know when and where this expression was used for the first time?

No; nobody knows when and where this expression was used for the first time. Nobody was copying it down and publishing it at the time. So we'll never know who, where, or when. Too bad, but that's the way it is.

As to what it means, it's a metaphor for cyclically-recurring social/popular trends in art, fashion, politics, games, movies, reality shows, and practically any other cultural phenomenon.

• X is not dead; in fact, this season it's the new Y.


• You thought that X was dead; I'm here to tell you that you're wrong.

X can be anything at all which everybody recognizes by name, and which some (are said to) claim is "dead", i.e boring, old-fashioned, not the done thing any more. To say

• X is not dead

is to claim that X has been resurrected from the past and rebranded in a new, modern, up-to-date, luxuriously chic way that everyone will want, so why don't you?

I think that's remarkable specificity for just adding three syllables after X.