Chapter 88

In Post-Restoration days a ballad sung in the streets by two persons was frequently called a Jig, presumably because it was a ‘song in dialogue’. Numerous examples are to be found amongst the Roxburgh Ballads.

The Jig introduced in _Sir Timothy Tawdrey_ would seem to have been the simple dance although not improbably an epithalamium was also sung.

p. 44 _an Entry_. A dance which derived its name from being performed at that point in a masque when new actors appeared. In Crowne’s _The Country Wit_ (1675) Act iii, I, there is a rather stupid play on this sense of the word confounded with its meaning ‘a hall or lobby’.

p. 63 _Cracking_. Prostitution. A rare substantive, although ‘Crack’, whence it is derived, was common, cf. p. 93 and note.

p. 65 _Cater-tray_. cater = quatre. The numbers four and three on dice or cards. This term was used generally as a cant name for dice; often for cogged or loaded dice.

p. 69 _She cries Whore first_. In allusion to the old proverb--cf. _The Feign’d Courtezans_, Act v, iv, Vol. II, p. 409, when Mr. Tickletext on his discovery appeals to the same saw.

p. 81 _Berjere_. A very favourite word with Mrs. Behn. Vide Vol. II, note (p. 346, _The hour of the Berjere_), p. 441 _The Feigned Courtezans_.

p. 93 _Cracks_. Whores. As early as 1678 ‘Crack’ is the proper name of a whore in _Tunbridge Wells_, an anonymous comedy played at the Duke’s House, cf. D’Urfey, _Madam Fickle_ (1682), Act v, ii, when Flaile says: ’.’have killed a Mon yonder, He that you quarrell’d with about your Crack there.’ Farquhar, _Love and a Bottle_ (1698), Act v, ii, has: ‘You imagine I have got your whore, cousin, your crack.’ Grose, _Dict. Vulgar Tongue_, gives the word, and it is also explained by the _Lexicon Balatronicum_ (1811). It was, in fact, in common use for over an hundred years.

p. 94 _Mr. E.R_. i.e. Edward Ravenscroft.

THE FALSE COUNT.

p. 99 _Forty One_. cf. note, Vol. II (p. 207) p. 433, _The City Heiress_.

p. 99 _no Plot was true_. A patent allusion to the fictitious Popish Plot.

p. 99 _Conventicles_. For the accentuated last syllable, _vide_ Vol. I, p. 454. A striking example of this accentuation occurs in a Collection of _Loyal Songs_--1639-1661--

But all the Parish see it plain, Since thou art in this pickle, Thou art an Independent quean, And lov’st a conventicle.

p. 99 _Christian Suckling_. The charge of murdering young Christian boys, especially at Passover time, and eating their flesh was continually brought against the Jews. Little St. Hugh of Lincoln, St. William of Norwich, the infant St. Simon of Trent and many more were said to have been martyred in this way. But recently (1913) the trial of Mendil Beiliss, a Jew, upon a charge of ritually murdering the Russian lad Yushinsky has caused a world-wide sensation.

p. 99 _Gutling_. Guzzling. Guttle is used in a secondary sense (= to flatter) in _The City Heiress_. Vide Vol. II, note (on p. 207) p. 433.

p. 100 _took in Lamb’s-Wool Ale_. Lamb’s-Wool Ale is hot ale mixed with the pulp of roasted apples, sugared and well spiced. The allusion is to Lord Howard of Esrick, who, having been imprisoned in the Tower on a charge connected with the so-called Popish Plot, to prove his innocence took the Sacrament according to the rites of the English church. It is said, however, that on this occassion, instead of wine, lamb’s-wool was profanely used. cf. Dryden’s bitter jibe--_Absalom and Achitophel_ (November, 1681), I, 575:--

And canting Nadab let oblivion damn, Who made new porridge for the paschal lamb.

cf. also _Absalom’s IX Worthies_:--

Then prophane Nadab, that hates all sacred things, And on that score abominateth kings; With Mahomet wine he damneth, with intent To erect his Paschal-lamb’s-wool-Sacrament.

A ballad on the Rye House Plot, entitled _The Conspiracy; or, The Discovery of the Fanatic Plot_, sings:--

Next valiant and noble Lord Howard, That formerly dealt in lamb’s wool; Who knowing what it is to be towered, By impeaching may fill the jails full.

p. 100 _Brumighams_. Bromingham was a slang term of the day for a Whig. Roger North says that the Tories nicknamed the opposite party ’.Birmingham_ Protestants, alluding to the false groats struck at that place’. Birmingham was already noted for spurious coinage. cf. Dryden’s prologue to _The Spanish Friar_ (1681):--

What e’er base metal come You coin as fast as groats at Bromingam.

A panegyric on the return of the Duke and Duchess of York from Scotland says of Shaftesbury’s medal that

‘Twas coined by stealth, like groats at Birmingham.

For Birmingham = Whig we have _Old Jemmy, an Excellent New Ballad_:

Let Whig and Bromingham repine, They show their teeth in vain; The glory of the British line, Old Jemmy’s come again.

Also in Matthew Taubman’s _A Medley on the Plot_, this stanza occurs:--

Confound the hypocrites, Birminghams royal, Who think allegiance a transgression; Since to oppose the King is counted loyal, And to rail high at the succession.

Dryden in his Preface to _Absalom and Achitophel_, I, speaks of ‘an Anti-Bromingham’, i.e. a Tory.

p. 100 _dry bobs_. A bob was a sarcastic jest or jibe. cf. _Sir Giles Goosecappe_ (1606), Act. v, I. ‘Marry him, sweet Lady, to answere his bitter Bob,’ and Buckingham’s _The Rehearsal_ (1671), Act iii, I, where Bayes cries: ‘There’s a bob for the Court.’ A dry bob (literally = a blow or fillip that does not break the skin) is an intensely bitter taunt, cf. _Cotgrave_ (1611), _Ruade seiche_, a drie bob, jeast or nip. _Bailey_ (1731) has ‘_Dry Bob_. a Taunt or Scoff’.

p. 100 _By Yea and Nay_. ‘Yea and Nay’ was often derisively applied to the Puritans, and hence to their lineal descendants the Whigs, in allusion to the Scriptural injunction, _S. Matthew_ v, 33-7, which they feigned exactly to follow. Timothy Thin-beard, a rascally Puritan, in Heywood’s _If you Know Not Me, You Know Nobody_, Part II (4to, 1606), is continually asseverating ‘By yea and nay’, cf. Fletcher’s _Monsieur Thomas_, Act ii, III, where Thomas says:--

Do not ye see me alter’d? ‘Yea and Nay,’ gentlemen; A much-converted man.

In _Sir Patient Fancy_ (1678), Lady Knowell’s late husband, a rank Puritan, is said to have been ‘a great Ay and No Man i’th’ City, and a painful promoter of the good Cause.’

p. 109 _Twins_. Vide note (p. 319, _Amorous Twire_), Vol. II, p. 440, _The Feigned Courtezans_.

p. 113 _gives Julia the Letter_. Mrs. Behn took the hint for this device from _L’Ecole des Maris_, ii, XIV, where Isabella feigning to embrace Sganarelle gives her hand to Valère to kiss.

p. 116 _Just-au-corps_. ‘A sort of jacket called a _justacorps_ came into fashion in Paris about 1650. M. Quicherat informs us that a pretty Parisienne, the wife of a _maître de comptes_ named Belot, was the first who appeared in it. In a ballad called _The New-made Gentlewoman_, written in the reign of Charles II, occurs the line “My justico and black patches I wear”. Mr. Fairholt suggested that _justico_ may be a corruption of _juste au corps_.--Planché’. _Cyclopedia of Costume_, Vol. I, p. 318. Pepys, 26 April, 1667, saw the Duchess of Newcastle ’.aked-necked, without anything about it, and a black just-au-corps’. cf. Dryden’s _Limberham; or, The Kind Keeper_ (1678), iv, I: ‘_Aldo_. Give her out the flower’d Justacorps with the petticoat belonging to’t.’

p. 116 _Towers_, The tower at this time was a curled frontlet of false hair. cf. Crowne’s _The Country Wit_ (1675), Act ii, II, where Lady Faddle cries to her maid, ‘run to my milliner’s for my gloves and essences ... run for my new towre.’ Shadwell, _The Virtuoso_ (1676), Act iii, mentions ‘Tires for the head, locks, tours, frouzes, and so forth’. _The Debauchee_ (1677), Act ii, I: Mrs. Saleware speaks of buying ‘fine clothes, and tours, and Points and knots.’ _The Younger Brother_ (1696),