Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
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Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
You little Jack-a-Lent? have you been true to us?—
Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iii. sc. 3 (1603).
=Jack of Newbury=, John Winchcomb, the greatest clothier of the world in
the reign of Henry VIII. He kept a hundred looms in his own house at
Newbury, and equipped at his own expense a hundred of his men to aid the
king against the Scotch in Flodden Field (1513).
=Jack Robinson=. This famous comic song is by Hudson, tobacconist, No.
98 Shoe Lane, London, in the early part of the nineteenth century. The
last line is, “And he was off before you could say ‘Jack Robinson.’” The
tune to which the words are sung is the _Sailors’ Hornpipe_. Halliwell
quotes these two lines from an “old play:”
A warke is ys as easie to be doone
As ’tys to saye, _Jacke! robys on_,
_Archaic Dictionary_.
=Jack Sprat=, of nursery rhymes.
Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean?
And so betwixt ’em both,
They licked the platter clean.
=Jack the Giant-Killer=, a series of nursery tales to show the mastery
of skill and wit over brute strength. Jack encounters various giants,
but outwits them all. The following would illustrate the sort of combat:
Suppose they came to a thick iron door, the giant would belabor it with
his club hour after hour without effect; but Jack would apply a delicate
key, and the door would open at once. This is not one of the stories,
but will serve to illustrate the sundry contests. Jack was a “valiant
Cornishman,” and his first exploit was to kill the giant Cormoran, by
digging a deep pit, which he filmed over with grass, etc. The giant fell
into the pit, and Jack knocked him on the head with a hatchet. Jack
afterwards obtained a coat of invisibility, a cap of knowledge, a
resistless sword, and shoes of swiftness; and, thus armed, he almost rid
Wales of its giants.
=Jack-with-a-Lantern=. This meteoric phenomenon, when seen on the
ground or a little above it, is called by sundry names, as
Brenning-drake, Burning candle, Corpse candles, Dank Will,
Death-fires, Dick-a-Tuesday, Elf-fire, the Fair maid of Ireland,
Friar’s lantern, Gillion-a-burnt-tail, Gyl Burnt-tail, Ignis fatuus,
Jack-o’-lantern, Jack-with-a-lantern, Kit-o’-the-canstick,
Kitty-wi’-a-wisp, Mad Crisp, Peg-a-lantern, Puck, Robin Goodfellow,
Shot stars, Spittle of the stars, Star jelly, a Sylham lamp, a Walking
fire, Wandering fires, Wandering wild-fire, Will-with-a-wisp.
Those led astray by these “fool-fires” are said to be Elf-led, Mab-led,
or Puck-led.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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