Volume Iii Part 143 (1/2)

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 fict.i.tious 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 Pa.s.sover 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 Yus.h.i.+nsky 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 occa.s.sion, 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 d.a.m.n, 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 d.a.m.neth, with intent To erect his Paschal-lamb's-wool-Sacrament.

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

Next valiant and n.o.ble 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 d.u.c.h.ess 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 n.o.body_, Part II (4to, 1606), is continually a.s.severating '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.'