Volume Iii Part 145 (2/2)

p. 248 _the George in White-Fryers_. The George tavern was situated in Dogwell Court, and some little time after the abolition of the vicious privileges of Alsatia by the Act 8 and 9 William III, c. 27 (1697), it was converted into the printing office of William Bowyer, the elder.

These premises were destroyed by fire, 30 January, 1713. Scene II, Act i of Shadwell's _The Squire of Alsatia_ (1688), is laid 'at the George in Whitefriars'.

p. 249 _he cullies_. To cully = to cheat; trick. Although the verb, which came into use circa 1670, and persisted for a full century, is rare, the substantive 'a cully' (= a fool) is very common. For the verb, cf. Pomfret, _Poems_ (1699), _Divine Attributes_: 'Tricks to cully fools.'

p. 249 _he pads_. The substantive 'pad' = a path or highway. Bailey (1730-6) has 'to Pad ... to rob on the road on foot.' cf. Ford's _The Lady's Trial_ (1639), v, I: 'One can ... pick a pocket, Pad for a cloak or hat'; and also Cotton Mather's _Discourse on Witchcraft_ (1689), chap, vii: 'As if you or I should say: We never met with any robbers on the road, therefore there never was any Padding there.'

p. 250 _sport a Dye_. To play at dice. 'To sport', generic for 'to parade' or 'display' was, and is a very common phrase. It is especially found in public school and university slang. This is a very early example.

p. 250 _Teaster_. i.e. a tester--sixpence, cf. Farquhar's _Love and a Bottle_, (1698), i, I, where Brush says: 'Who throws away a Tester and a mistress loses sixpence.'

p. 251 _to top upon him_. To cheat him; to trick him; especially to cheat with dice. cf. _Dictionary of the Canting Crew_ (by B.E. _gent_., 1696): 'Top. What do you Top upon me? _c_. do you stick a little Wax to the Dice to keep them together, to get the Chance, you wou'd have? He thought to have Topt upon me. _c_. he design'd to have Put upon me, Sharpt me, Bullied me, or Affronted me.'

p. 251 _we are not half in kelter_. Kelter (or kilter) = order; condition; spirits. cf. Barrow, Sermons, I, Ser. 6: 'If the organs of prayer are out of Kelter, or out of time, how can we pray?' _Dictionary Canting Crew_ (1690), has: 'Out of Kelter, out of sorts.' The phrase is by no means rare.

p. 251 _as Trincolo says_. Lady Fulbank mistakes. The remark is made by Stephano, not Trincalo. Dryden and Davenant's _The Tempest_ (1667), Act ii, I: '_Ventoso_. My wife's a good old jade ...

... _Stephano_. Would you were both hanged, for putting me in thought of mine!'

p. 252 _Ladies of Quality in the Middle Gallery_. The jest lies in the fact that the middle gallery or eighteenpenny place in a Restoration theatre was greatly frequented by, if not almost entirely set aside for, women of the town. cf. Dryden's _Epilogue on the Union_ (1682):--

But stay; me thinks some Vizard-Mask I see Cast out her Lure from the mid Gallery: About her all the fluttering Sparks are rang'd; The Noise continues, though the Scene is chang'd: Now growling, sputt'ring, wauling, such a clutter!

'Tis just like Puss defendant in a Gutter.

And again, in his Prologue to Southerne's _The Disappointment_ (1684), he has:--

Last there are some, who take their first degrees Of lewdness in our middle galleries: The doughty bullies enter b.l.o.o.d.y drunk, Invade and grabble one another's punk.

p. 257 _Hortensius_. Cato Uticensis is said in 56 B.C. to have ceded his wife Marcia to Q. Hortensius, and at the death of Hortensius in 50 B.C.

to have taken her back again--Plutarch, _Cato Min_., 25.

p. 258 _he has a Fly_. A fly = a familiar. From the common old belief that an attendant demon waited on warlocks and witches in the shape of a fly, or some similar insect. cf. Jonson's _The Alchemist_, I (1610):--

You are mistaken, doctor, Why he does ask one but for cups and horses, A rifling fly, none of your great familiars.

Also Ma.s.singer's The _Virgin Martyr_, ii, II:--

Courtiers have flies That buzz all news unto them.

p. 271 _Snow-hill_. The old Snow Hill, a very narrow and steep highway between Holborn Bridge and Newgate, was cleared away when Holborn Viaduct was made in 1867. In the days of Charles II it was famous for its chapmen, vendors of ballads with rough woodcuts atop. Dorset, lampooning Edward Howard, has the following lines:

Whence Does all this mighty ma.s.s of dullness spring, Which in such loads thou to the stage dost bring?

Is't all thine own? Or hast thou from _Snow Hill_ The a.s.sistance of some ballad-making quill?

p. 271 _Cuckolds Haven_. This was the name given to a well-known point in the Thames. It is depicted by Hogarth, _Industry and Idleness_, No. 6.

Nahum Tate has a farce, borrowed from _Eastward Hoe_ and _The Devil's an a.s.s_, ent.i.tled _Cuckold's Haven; or, An Alderman no Conjuror_ (1685).

p. 278 _Nice and Flutter_. The two typical Fops of the day. Sir Courtly Nice, created by Mountford, is the hero of Crowne's excellent comedy, _Sir Courtly Nice_ (1685). In Act v he sings a little song he has made on his Mistress: 'As I gaz'd unaware, On a face so fair--.' Sir Fopling Flutter is the hero of Etheredge's masterpiece, _The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter_ (1676). Sir Fopling, a portrait of Beau Hewitt, became proverbial. The role was created by Smith.

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