SoJ S. VIII. Deo. 17. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



491 



a score, or " chalk," at a public-house or shop, 

 walking off without paying for it. 



" And if you want fresh liquor, you must pay. 

 For chalks too often walk themselves away." 



Albert Smith's Alhavthra. 



This same burlesque also thus puns on the phrase 

 " saving one's bacon ;" — 



"Be calm, or I'm mistaken, 

 This rasher mood will never save our bacon." 



Here are some other illustrations of modern slang 

 phrases : — 



" A poor widow and her orphan chicks. 

 Left without fixtures, in an awful Jix." 



Planchfe's Good Woman in the Wood. 

 " I don't like quarrels washed out with palm-soap." 

 F. Talfourd's Shylock. 

 Grat. " I see then, by your pruning knife, of course, 



Though you hate pig, you're partial to prune sauce. 

 Shy. " A source you'll find for cooking your friend's goose." 



Ibid. 

 " Oh ! flattering foresight ! see 

 Her bundle made to bundle off with me." 



Planchfe's King Charming. 



&c. &c., for such examples might be extended ad 

 mfiidtum. But I would especially mention Poole's 

 Hamlet Travestie, with its clever annotations after 

 the manner of Johnson, Steevens, and the Shak- 

 sperian commentators, wherein many specimens of 

 modern slang are elucidated in the most amusing 

 manner: e.g. rig, paws off, gab, diddled, up to 

 snuff, all gammon, mill him, bread-basket, dish'd, 

 dash my wig, all dickey, my eye and tommy. I 

 transcribe the annotation on this last phrase, for 

 the amusement of those who have not the original 

 to refer to. 



" 3fy Eye and Tommy. 



" This is rather an obscure phrase. I suspect the author 

 wrote 7ny own to me, and that the passage originally stood 

 thus: — ^ 



But I have that without you can't take from me. 

 As my black clothes are all nij' own to me. 

 The whole passage, which before was unintelligible, is by 

 this slight alteration rendered perfectly clear, and may be 

 thus explained; — you may disapprove of my outward 

 appearance, but you cannot compel me to alter it ; foryou 

 have no control over that which I wear without, as my 

 black clothes are all my own to me — i.e. my personal pro- 

 perty — not borrowed from the royal wardrobe, but made 

 expressly for me, and at my own expense. 



" Warburton. 



" Here is an elaborate display of ingenuity without ac- 

 curacy. He that will wantonly sacrifice the sense of his 

 author to a supererogatory refinement, may gain the ad- 

 miration of the unlearned, and excite the wonder of the 

 ignorant ; but of obtaining the praise of the illuminated, 

 and the approbation of the erudite, let him despair. 



"iUy eye and Tommy (i.e. fudge) is the true reading, 

 and the passage, as it stands, is correct. Johnson. 



"In the liyghte Tragycall History of Master Thomas 

 Thumbe, bl. let., no date, I find • 'Tis all my eye and Betty 

 Martin,' used in the same sense. If the substitution of 

 ' Tommy ' for ' Betty Martin ' be allowed. Dr. Johq^on's 

 explanation is just. Steevens." 



Hood's humorous Poems would also afford several 

 examples for Mr. Hotten's Dictionary. Also Mat- 



thews' At Homes, and the younger Colman's works 

 would supply some omitted words ; e.g. casting 

 sheeps-eyes at a person : — 



" But he, the beast ! was casting sheep-eyes at her. 

 Out of his bullock head." 



Broad Grins, p. 57. 

 See also (in Broad Grins) " Crow-thumping," p. 

 55. ;" Odrabbit," 79. ;" Mulligrubs," 85. ;" Dollies," 

 109.; "Jemmy," 116. for illustrations of slang 

 words. 



Of the modern sense of the word Bore, the 

 Prince Consort made an amusing and efi'ective use 

 in his masterly address to the British Association, 

 at Aberdeen, Sept. 14. 1859. He said (as re- 

 ported by The Times) : — 



" I will not weary you by further examples, with which 

 most of 3'ou are better acquainted than I am myself, but 

 merely express my satisfaction that there should exist 

 bodies of men who will bring the well-considered and 

 understood wants of science before the public and the 

 Government, who will even hand round the begging-box 

 and expose themselves to refusals and rebuffs to which all 

 beggars are liable, with the certainty, besides, of being 

 considered great bores. Please to recollect that this species 

 of bore is a most useful animal, well adapted for the ends 

 for which nature intended him. He alone, by constantly 

 returning to the charge, and repeating the same truths 

 and the same requests, succeeds in awakening attention 

 to the cause which he advocates, and obtains that hearing 

 which is granted him at last for self-protection, as the 

 minor evil compared to his importunity, but which is re- 

 quisite to make his cause understood." 



The Gradus ad Cantairigiam (which the com- 

 piler of the Dictionary does not appear to have 

 made use of) suggests the derivation of bore, 

 as probably from Bopoy, onus, molestia — whence 

 burden. * * 



" . . . It has been proved bj' quotation from Shak- 

 speare, that the word tore, in the above sense, is not pecu- 

 liar to the moderns. In the historical play of Henry the 

 Eighth, the Duke of Buckingham says to Norfolk, al- 

 luding to Cardinal Wolsey, 



" ' I read in his looks 

 Matters against me, and his ej-e revil'd 

 Me, as his object : at this instant, 

 He bores me with some trick." 



This Shakspearian use of the word is worthy of 

 notice. ( Vide Henry VIII., Act I. Sc. 1 .) 



Bags in the Slang dictionary appears to apply 

 to money : but the modern use might have been 

 given, i. e. a pair of trousers, — used in conjunc- 

 tion with other words of modern slang, viz. a 

 pair of loud bags (of a vulgar flaunting colour or 

 pattern), quiet lags (gentlemanly), and go-to- 

 meeting bags (one's " best " trousers). In addi- 

 tion to these and similar adjectives, we also now 

 hear of a fcetid waistcoat, &c., this expression 

 being the equivalent of loud. Bad should have 

 been here inserted in the Dictionary ; " he went 

 to the bad." " Bog-thotter, satirical name for 

 an Irishman," says the Dictionary. But Camden^ 

 speaking of the " debatable land " on the borders 

 of England and Scotland, says, " both these dales 



