dead and buried vs earlier

dead and buried

adj
  • Of an issue, moot, passed, irrelevant, forgotten. 

  • Of a project or plan, wholly dispensed with; never to be completed or revived. 

earlier

adj
  • occurring previously 

adv
  • previously; before now; sooner 

How often have the words dead and buried and earlier occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )