A boaster. adulation." Jack, as shown above, | †JACK-BRAG, or JACK-BRAGGER. was a common appellative for every person or thing familiarly, or rather contemptuously, spoken of. Katherine calls her music-master a twangling jack. Tam. of Shr., ii, 1; and so elsewhere. The clock-house evidently means that part of the steeple, &c., which contains the clock. +JACK-IN-A-BOX. 1. A thief who deceived tradesmen by substituting empty boxes for others full of money. This Jacke-in-a-bore, or this divell in mans shape, wearing (like a player on a stage) good cloathes on his backe, comes to a goldsmiths stall, to a drapers, a habberdashers, or into any other shoppe, where he knowes good store of silver faces are to be seene. Dekker, English Villanies, 1632. 2. A kind of fire-work described in White's Artificial Fireworks, 1708, p. 17. 3. In the following passage it perhaps means a child's toy, such are still in use. As I was thus walking my rounds, up comes a brother of the quill, belonging to the office, who no sooner made his entrance amongst the equitable fraternity, but up started every one in his seat, like a Jack in a box, crying out Legit aut non Legit; To which they answer'd themselves, Non legit, my lord. Jacke Bragger and his fellow, a vaunter, a cracker, &c. +JACK-MEDDLER. A busybody. A Jacke-medler, or busie-body in everie mans matter, +JACK-PUDDING. I tell you, I had as leave stand among the rabble, to +JACKET. To line one's jacket, to Il s'accoustre bien. He stuffes himselfe soundly, hee lines his jacket throughly with liquor. Cotgrave. 4 JACOB'S STAFF. A pilgrim's staff; As he had traveil'd many a sommer's day His weary limbs upon. Spens. F. Q., I, vi, 32. Also an astronomical instrument, called likewise a cross-staff; from its re semblance to the other: The Infernal Wanderer, 1702. +JACK-A-DANDY. A pert fellow. Bea. I'll throw him into the dock, rather than he The Mistake, a Comedy, 1706. +JACK-ON-BOTH-SIDES. A popular name for a neutral. Reader, John Newter, who erst plaid +JACK-OUT-OF-DOORS. A houseless person. Withals' Dictionary, ed. 1634, p. 569. Riche his Farewell to Militarie Profession, 1581. +Hanging-JACK. A jack for cooking. I met Spicer in Lincoln's Inn court, buying of a hanging-jack to roast birds upon. Pepys' Diary, Feb. 4th, 1660. Resolve that with your Jacob's staff. Hudibr., II, iii, 785. +Whereupon the poore prognosticator was readie to runne himselfe through with his Jacobs staffe. Nash, Pierce Penilesse, 1592. +His life is upright, for he is alwaies looking upward, yet dares beleeve nothing above primum mobile, for 'tis out of the reach of his Jacobs staffe. Overbury's New and Choise Characters, 1615. Aur. Then Ile tell you. There was once an astrologer brought mad before me, the circulations of the heavens had turn'd his braines round, he had very strange fits, he would ever be staring, and gazing, and yet his eyes were so weake, they could not looke up without a staffe. Spr. A Jacobs staffe you meane? Marmyon's Fine Companion, 1633. JACOB'S STONE. The stone which If I survive England's inheritance, Heywood's Royal K., &c., Anc. Dr., vi, 227. For a fuller history of this stone, see the accounts of Westminster Abbey,. and these Latin verses, which are, or were, inscribed upon the chair itself: Si quid habent veri vel chronica cana, fidesve, Clauditur hac cathedrâ nobilis ecce lapis, Ad caput eximius Jacob quondam patriarchia Quem posuit, cernens numina mira poli, &c. JACOBITE. This word seems to be used for Jacobin, or white friar. To see poor sucklings welcom'd to the light, With searing irons of some soure Jacobite. Hall, Sat., iv, 7. +To JADE. To weary. Apparently a new word in lord Bacon's time. For it is a dull thing to tire, and, as we now say, to jade anything too far. Essay xxxii. JADRY. The properties of a bad or vicious horse; from jade, which in its primitive sense, as applied to a horse, is growing into disuse, though Pope has so applied it, which may keep it alive a little; but the usage is in general transferred to the metaphorical sense, as applied to a woman. Seeks all foul means See The chamber stinkes worse all the yeere long, than a jakes-farmer's clothes doth at twelve a clock at night. Fennow on the Compter, in Censura Lit., x, p 342. Called in Stowe a goung-fermour. London, ed. 1633, p. 666. See GOUNG. +JAMSEY. Then have they nether-stockes to these gai hozen, not of cloth (tho never so fine), for that is thought too base, but of jamsey, worsted, crewell, silke, thred, and such like. Stubbs, Anatomie of Abuses. A JANE. A small coin of Genoa, or Janua; according to Skinner, “ Exp. Halfpence of Janua, potius Genova, q. d. nummus Genuensis vel Januensis." Supposed to be the same as the galley halfpence mentioned by Stowe. Because I could not give her many a Jane. Spens. F. Q., III, vii, 58. +JANIVEER. An old form of January. Of boisterous and rough jadry, to disseat Its etymology is uncertain, unless we easy. Jakes Solomon, a Jew, fell inte a iaxe at Tewkesbury on a JAKES-FARMER. Nay we are all signiors here in Spain, from the jakes- B. & Fl. Love's Cure, ii, 1. Jakes-farmers, fidlers, ostlers, oysterers. Time sure hath wheel'd about his yeare, JAPE. Cleaveland, Char. of London Diurnall, 1647. To play, or jest. Nay jape not hym, he is no smal fole. Skelton, p. 236. It was used also in an indecent sense: Now have ye other vicious manners of speech, but sometimes and in some cases tolerable, and chiefly to the intent to moove laughter and to make sport, or to give it some prety strange grace; and is when we use such wordes as may be drawen to a foule and unshamefast sence, as one that should say to a young woman, I pray you let me jape with you, which is indeed no more but let me sport with you. Yea, and though it were not so directly spoken, the very sounding of the word were not commendable, as he that in the presence of ladies would use this common proverbe: Jape with me, but hurt me not, Bourde with me, but shame me not. For it may be taken in another perverser sense by that sorte of persons that heare it, in whose eares no such matter ought almost to be called in memory. Puttenh. Art of English Poesie, B. iii, ch. 22. JAPE. A jest. I durst aventure wel the price of my best cap, The pilf'ring pastime of a crue of apes, To JAR. My thoughts are minutes, and, with sighs, they jar Rich. II, v, 5. The above is the reading of the second folio, and is sense without alteration or laborious explication: the reading of the old quartos serves as the best comment, which is, They jar The meaning is, "They tick their periods on, to my eyes, which represent the outward watch;" watch signifying, as Dr. Johnson observed, in the first place a portion of time, and in the second the face of the clock. The bells tolling, the owls shrieking, the toads croaking, the minutes jarring, and the clock striking twelve. Spanish Tragedy, O. Pl., iii, 199. A JAR, from the above, a beat or stroke; the ticking made by the pallets of the pendulum in a clock. Yet, good deed, Leontes, Wint. Tale, i, 2. I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind What lady she her lord. +JARSEY. Wool combed but not spun into yarn. By no meanes therefore is the present practice to be borne, which daily carrieth away of the finest sorts of wools ready combed into jarsies for worke, which they pack up as bales of cloth. Golden Fleece, 1657. JAVEL. A worthless fellow. Javelle in French means a sheaf of corn, and also a faggot of brush wood, or other worthless materials; and therefore might be applied to such fellows as Shakespeare calls "rash bavin wits." The term that these two javels Unto their master. Spens. Moth. Hubb. T., v. 309. holly javels, That cite good words, but shift off works and discipline by cavells. Alb. Engl., B. viii, ch. 39, p. 192. He called the fellow ribbald, villayn, javell, backbiter, &c. Robinson's Utopia, 1551, E 3. To JAUNCE. To ride hard; from jancer, old French, to work a horse And yet I bear a burden like an ass, A JAUNCE was also used for a jaunt, The word is purposely misspelt, to mark the dialect of the speaker; as vaith for faith, &c. To JAW. the jaws. To devour, to take within It seems to be only a harsh metaphor, hazarded in this place. JAWSAND, adj. Apparently, a corruption of joysome or jocund. F. Will you be merry then and jawsand? R. As A JAY. Used for a loose woman, pro- ICE-BROOK. Supposed to mean cold or icy brook. I have another weapon in this chamber; Othell., v, 2. The reading of the old quarto is isebrooke's, which the folio changed to ice brookes; whence Pope made Ebro's, and was followed by Capell. Mr. Steevens is of opinion that icebrook's is right; and proves from Martial, that the brook or rivulet so used, is the Salo, now Xalon, near Bilbilis, in Celtiberia. ICELAND DOGS. Shaggy, sharp-eared, white dogs, much imported formerly as favorites for ladies, &c. Pish for thee, Iceland dog, thou prick-ear'd cur of Swetnam's Arraignment of Women, Preface. Written also corruptly Isling, and Hang hair like hemp, or like the Isling curs, B. & F. Queen of Corinth, iv, 1. Use and custome hath intertained other dogges of an outlandishe kinde, but a few, and the same beying of a pretty bygnesse; I meane Iseland dogges, curled and rough all over, which by reason of the lenght of their heare make showe neither of face nor of body. And yet these curres forsoothe, because they are so strange, are greatly set by, esteemed, taken up, and made of, many times in the roome of the spaniell gentle or comforter. Of English Dogges, &c., 1576. ever so employed by any other author. | IDLE WORMS. Worms bred from idle I reck not if the wolves would jaw me, so I do not know that this word was somes. Phi. You forget his cover'd dishes Of jene-strayes, and marmalade of lips, Perfum'd by breath sweet as the beanes first blosSuckling's Aglaura, 1638. JENERT'S BANK. The following passage is probably corrupt. It has been conjectured that there was a bank called Jenert's, so famous as to be proverbial for security; but it remains to be shown that any country-bank existed in the seventeenth century; much more that they were so common as for one to be famous above the rest. A better reading seems to be wanted : How now, my old Jenert's bank, my horse, My castle, lie in Waltham all night, and Not under the canopy of your host Blague's house? Merry Devil of Elm., O. Pl., v, 300. Can it be a misprint, for Ermen's bank, or the old Roman road passing through Edmonton, which might have been written Irmint's? Horse is not much more intelligible, as applied here. here. Should it not be house? speaking of his house as his castle. †JENNET. A small Spanish horse. All the examples given in Todd's Johnson, are of the seventeenth century, or earlier. JEOBERTIE, for jeopardy, in like man ner. If you foil me, of which there is small jeobertie, I will send word to set them all at libertie. Harr. Ariosto, xxxv, 44. To JEOPARD. To hazard or endanger. Not in use now. He was a prince right hardie and adventerous, not fearing to jeopard his person in place of danger. Holinsk., vol. i, 1.3. col. 1. I am compelled against my minde and will (as Pompey the Great was) to jeopard the libertie of our country, to the hazard of a battel. North's Plut. Brutus, p. 1072. +The forefrontes or frontiers of the ii. corners, what wythe fordys and shelves, and what with rockes, be very jeoperdous and daungerous. More's Utopia, 1551. JER-FAULCON, or GERFAULCON. A large and fine sort of hawk, said to come originally from the north; therefore by some called the Iceland falcon. Gyrofalco, low Latin; gerfaulk, or gerfaut, French. Latham is abundant in its praise: A bird stately, brave, and beautifull to behold in the eye and judgement of man, more strong and powerfull than any other used hawk, and many of them very bold, couragious, valiant, and very venturous, next to the slight-faulcon, of whose worthiness I have already sufficiently discoursed. Latham, B. i, ch. 16. The Gentleman's Recreation is almost equally strong in its commendation; p. 48 of the Treatise on Hawks. The following description of a contest of one of these birds with a heron, may be thought interesting: I saw once a jerfalcon let flie at an heron, and observed with what clamour the heron entertained the sight and approach of the hawke, and with what winding shift hee strave to get above her, labouring even by bemuting his enemies feathers to make her flagge-winged, and so escape; but when at last they must needs come to an encounter, resuming courage out of necessity, hee turned face against her, and striking the hawke through the gorge with his bill, fell downe dead together with his dead enemie. Arthur Warwick's Meditations, part ii, p. 80. JERICHO seems to be used, in the following instance, as a general term for a place of concealment or banishment. If so, it explains the common phrase of wishing a person at Jericho, without sending them so far as Palestine. Who would to curbe such insolence, I know, JERONIMO. He that will swear Jeronimo or Andronicus are the best plays yet, shall pass unexcepted at here, as a man whose judgement shews it is constant, and hath JESSES. The short straps of leather, So, seize her gets, her gesses, and her bells. Soar ye ne'er so high, Earle's Microcosm., § xviii, p. 54; Bliss's edition. To JEST. To act any feigned part in a mask or interlude, &c. As gentle and as jocund as to jest Rich. II, i, 3. A JEST. A mask, pageant, or inter lude. But where is old Hieronimo our marshal? Spanish Trag., Ó. Pl., iii, 138. On which immediately follows the mask, which satisfies the king as the fulfilment of the promise. It seems to be applied to actions in general, real or fictitious. See GEST. Jest is sometimes written for gest: There [in Homer] may the jestes of many a knight be read, Patroclus, Pyrrhus, Ajax, Diomed. Jasper Heywood, in Cens. Lit., ix, 393. O peace! Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock And, Midas like, he jets it in the court. See also O. Pl., iii, 390. The orders I did set, They were obey'd with joy, which made me jet. [To encroach insultingly upon.] Upon the innocent and aweless throne. Rich. III, ii, 4. So were ye better, Four Ps, O. Pl., i, 94. +JEWS' EARS. Funguses or excrescences of the elder-tree, called auriculæ Judæ in Latin, and therefore it is probably a corruption of Judas's ears. Judas was supposed to have hanged himself on an elder tree. They that have any pains or swellings in the throat, let them take Jews-ears (which is to be had at the apothecaries), and lay it to steep in ale a whole night, and let the party drink a good draught thereof every day once or twice. Lupton's Thousand Notable Things. JEW'S EYE. This phrase does not require explanation, but its origin may be worth remarking. The extortions to which the Jews were subject in the thirteenth century, and the periods both before and after, exposed them to the most tyrannical and cruel mutilations, if they refused to pay the sums demanded of them. "King John," says Hume, "once demanded 10,000 marks from a Jew of Bristol, and on his refusal, ordered one of his teeth to be drawn every day, till he should consent. The Jew lost seven teeth, and then paid the sum required of him." Chap. xii, A.D. 1272. The threat of losing an eye would have a still more powerful effect. Hence the high value of a Jew's eye. The allusion was familiar in the time of Shakespeare: There will come a Christian by Will be worth a Jewess' eye. Mer. Ven., ii, 5. The fine black eye of the Jew does not seem sufficiently to account for the saying. Herrick's Noble Numbers, p. 44. †JEWLEPS. 29 |