a 1891. New York Sun (quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant, s.v.). ‘What do you think he had the gall to do to-day?’ Brown: ‘He has the gall to do anything.’ Dumley: ‘He asked me to drink with him; but he’ll never repeat the impudence.’ Gallant, subs. (old).—A dandy (q.v.); a ladies’ man; a lover; a cuckold-maker, whether in posse or in esse (Shakspeare). 1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii. One that is well-nigh worn to pieces with age to show himself a young gallant! 1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., ii., 4. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you. 1663. Dryden, The Wild Gallant [Title.] 1690. B. E., A New Dict. Gallant a very fine man; also a Man of Metal, or a brave Fellow; also one that Courts, or keeps, or is Kept by, a Mistress. 1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 110 There’s never a gallant but sat at her hand. 1751–4. Jortin, Eccles. Hist. (quoted in Encyclopædic Dict.). As to Theodora, they who had been her gallants when she was an actress, related that dæmons, or nocturnal spirits, had often driven them away to lie with her themselves. Adj. (old).—(1). Valiant (2) showy; (3) amorous. 1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 40. O London is a fine town, and a gallant city. Verb. (old).—To sweetheart; to squire; to escort; to pursue or to enjoy. To Gallant a Fan. verb. phr. (old).—To break with design, to afford an opportunity of presenting a better.—B. E. (1690). Gallant Fiftieth, subs. phr. (military).—The Fiftieth Foot. [For its share in Vimiera, 1808.] Also, blind half hundred (q.v.); and dirty half hundred (q.v.). Gallantry, subs. (1). Sparkishness (q.v.); dandyism; (2) the habit, or pursuit, of the sexual favour. A life of gallantry = a life devoted to the other sex. Gallery, subs. (Winchester College).—A commoner bedroom. [From a tradition of galleries in Commoners.] See gallery-nymphs. To play to the Gallery, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To act so as to win the applause of the vulgar: i.e., to abandon distinction and art for coarseness of means and cheapness of effect. Said indifferently of anyone in any profession who exerts himself to win the suffrages of the mob; as a political demagogue, a ‘popular’ preacher, a ‘fashionable’ painter, and so on. 1872. Standard, 23 Oct. ‘New York Correspondence.’ His dispatches were, indeed, too long and too swelling in phrase; for herein he was always playing to the galleries. Hence, Gallery-hit, shot, stroke, etc. = a touch designed for, and exclusively addressed to, the non-critical. To play the Gallery, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make an audience; to applaud. 1870. Echo, 23 July, p. 5, c. 4. He seemed altogether a jovial, amusing sort of fellow, and as we were close by him, and constantly called in to play the gallery to his witty remarks, we asked him, when his friends left him, to join our party.