1631 - Braithwaite, Richard - Whimzies (3)

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-07-20. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-07.

Allusion

6. A Pedler
[... p. 138: ...] A countrey-rush-bearing, or morrice pastorall, is his festivall: if ever hee aspire to plum-porridge, that is the day. Here the Guga-girles gingle it with his neat roifles: while hee sculkes under a booth and showes his wit never till then, in admiring their follies. He ha's an obscene veine of ballatry, which makes the wenches of the greene laugh; and this purchaseth him, upon better acquaintance, a posset or a silibub. [... p. 139: ...] His judgement consists principally in the choice of his ware, and place of their vent. Saint Martins rings, and counterfeit bracelets are commodities of infinite consequence: these will passe for currant at a may-pole, and purchase a favor from ther May-Marian.

IRHB comments

Whimzies is a series of satirical portraits of representatives of various trades of the kind at which Braithwaite was so adept. Guga = gewgaw (cf. OED2, snn. "guga", "gewgaw"). "St Martin's ring" was a colloquial term for a "copper-gilt ring" in the 17th and early 18th cent., cf. Partridge, Eric, compil. A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (London, 1937), sn "St Martin's ring".

Lists

• Not in: Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976).
• Outside scope of: Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88.

Citations

Braithwaite, Richard; Haslewood, John, ed.; Hazlitt, William Carew, revis. Barnabæ Itinerarium or Barnabee's Journal (London, 1876), vol. I, pp. 99-101, cites most of the portrait of the "Pedler", including the reference to Maid Marian.

Notes