Chapter XXXVI: Epilogue: , (2)

p. 189 _the Mall_. The Mall, St. James’s Park, was formed for Charles II, who was very fond of the game ‘pall-mall’. The walk soon became a popular and fashionable resort. There are innumerable references. cf. Prologue, Dryden’s _Marriage à la Mode_ (1672):--

Poor pensive punk now peeps ere plays begin,
Sees the bare bench, and dares not venture in;
But manages her last half-crown with care,
And trudges to the Mall, on foot, for air.

The scene of the first Act of Otway’s _The Soldier’s Fortune_ (1681) is laid in the Mall, and gives a vivid picture of the motley and not over respectable company that was wont to foregather there.

p. 189 _the Ring_. The Ring, Hyde Park, a favourite ride and promenade was made in the reign of Charles I. It was very fashionable, and is frequently alluded to in poem and play. cf. Etheredge, _The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter: ‘Sir Fopling_. All the world will be in the Park to-night; Ladies, ‘twere pity to keep so much beauty longer within doors, and rob the Ring of all those charms that should adorn it.’--Act iii sc. II. cf. also Lord Dorset’s _Verses on Dorinda_ (1680):--

Wilt thou still sparkle in the Box,
Still ogle in the Ring?

p. 193 _Starter_. This slang word usually means a milksop, but here it is equivalent to ‘a butterfly’, ‘a weathercock’--a man of changeable disposition. A rare use.

p. 193 _Finsbury Hero_, Finsbury Fields, which Pepys thought ‘very pleasant’, had been kept open for the citizens to practise archery. An ordinance of 1478 is extant which orders all obstacles to be removed and Finsbury to be ‘made a plain field for archers to shoot in’. As late as 1737 there were standing twenty-four ‘rovers’ or stone pillars for shooting at distances.

p. 196 _Mr. Barnardine_. This allusion must almost certainly be to a recent revival of _Measure for Measure_, which particular play had been amongst those set aside by the regulation of 12 December, 1660, as the special property of Davenant’s theatre. After the amalgamation of the two companies in November, 1682, a large number of the older plays were revived or continued to be played (with a new cast and Betterton in the rôles which had been Hart’s) during the subsequent decade. Downes mentions _Othello, The Taming of the Shrew_, and several by Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, and Brome. On the other hand, it is possible this reference may merely be to _The Law Against Lovers_ (1661, folio, 1673), in which Sir William Davenant has mixed Benedick and Beatrice with Angelo, Claudio, Isabella and the rest. It is a curious conglomeration, and the result is very pitiful and disastrous. Bernardine and the prison scenes are retained. _Measure for Measure_ was again profanely altered by Gildon in 1700, mutilated and helped out by ‘entertainments of music’.

p. 197 _Snicker Snee_. See note Vol. I, p. 449, _Snick-a-Snee, The Dutch Lover_, iii, III (p, 278).

p. 198 _Spittal Sermon_. The celebrated Spital Sermons were originally preached at a pulpit cross in the churchyard (now Spital Square) of the Priory and Hospital of St. Mary Spital, founded 1197. The cross, broken at the Reformation, was rebuilt during Charles I’s reign, but destroyed during the Great Rebellion. The sermons, however, have been continued to the present time and are still preached every Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, at Christ Church, Newgate Street.

P. 201. _Alsatia_. This cant name had been given to the precinct of Whitefriars before 1623, then and for many years a notorious refuge for persons wishing to avoid bailiffs and creditors. The earliest use of the name is Thomas Towel’s quarto tract, _Wheresoever you see meet, Trust unto Yourselfe: or the Mysterie of Lending and Borrowing_ (1623). The second use in point of time is the Prologue to Settle’s _Pastor Fido_ (1676):--

And when poor Duns, quite weary, will not stay;
The hopeless Squire’s into _Alsatia_ driven.

Otway’s comedy, _The Soldiers Fortune_ (4to, 1681), where Courtine says: ‘I shall be ere long as greasy as an Alsatian bully,’ comes third; and Mrs. Behn’s reference to Alsatia in this play, which is often ignored, claims fourth place. We then have Shadwell’s famous comedy, _The Squire of Alsatia_ (1688), with its well-known vocabulary of Alsatian jargon and slang, its scenes in Whitefriars, the locus classicus, a veritable mine of information. The particular portions of Whitefriars forming Alsatia were Ram-Alley, Mitre Court, and a lane called in the local cant Lombard Street. No. 50 of Tempest’s _Cries of London_ (drawn and published in James II’s reign) is called ‘A Squire of Alsatia’, and represents a fashionable young gallant. Steele, _Tatler_ (No. 66), 10 September, 1709, speaks of Alsatia ‘now in ruins’. It is interesting to note that many authorities, ignoring Settle and Mrs. Behn’s allusions, quote Powel and Otway as the only two places where the word ‘Alsatia’ is found before Shadwell made it so popular.

p. 202 _Dornex_. Or dornick, a worsted or woollen fabric used for curtains, hangings and the like, so called from Tournai, where chiefly manufactured. cf. Shadwell’s _The Miser_ (1672), Act i, I: ‘a dornock carpet’. Also _Wit and Drollery_ (1681): Penelope to Ulysses:--

The Stools of _Dornix_ which that you may know well
Are certain stuffs Upholsterers use to sell.

p. 202 _Henry the Eighth_. Henry VIII had been put on by Davenant in December, 1663 with a wealth of pomp and expenditure that became long proverbial in the theatrical world. An extra large number of supers were engaged. Downes dilates at quite unusual length upon the magnificence of the new scenery and costumes. The court scene was especially crowded with ‘the Lords, the Cardinals, the Bishops, the Doctors, Proctors, Lawyers, Tip-staves.’ On New Year’s Day, 1664, Pepys went to the Duke’s house and saw ‘the so much cried up play of Henry VIII; which tho’ I went with resolution to like it, is so simple a thing, made up of a great many patches, that, besides the shows and processions in it, there is nothing in the world good or well done.’ On 30 December, 1668, however, he saw it again, ‘and was mightily pleased, better than ever I expected, with the history and shows of it.’ In _The Rehearsal_ (1671), Act v, I, Bayes says: ‘I’l shew you the greatest scene that ever England saw: I mean not for words, for those I do not value; but for state, shew, and magnificence. In fine I’ll justifie it to be as grand to the eye every whit, I gad, as that great Scene in Harry the Eight.’

p. 203 _Joan Sanderson_. See note Vol. I, p. 456: _Joan Sanderson. The Roundheads_, Act iv, IV (p. 402).

p. 204 _Haunce in Kelder_. Literally Jack-in-the-Cellar, i.e. the unborn babe in the womb. cf. Davenant and Dryden’s alteration of _The Tempest_, Act iv, sc. II. ‘_Stephano_, I long to have a Rowse to her Grace’s Health, and to the _Haunse in Kelder_, or rather Haddock in Kelder, for I guess it will be half Fish’. and also Dryden’s _Amboyna_ (1673), Act iv, sc. I, where Harman senior remarks at Towerson and Ysabinda’s wedding: ‘You Englishmen ... cannot stay for ceremonies; a good honest Dutchman would have been plying the glass all this while, and drunk to the hopes of Hans in Kelder till ‘twas bedtime.’

p. 204 an _Apple John_. An apple John is usually explained as being a kind of apple said to keep two years and to be in perfection when shrivelled and withered, cf. 2 _Henry IV_, ii, IV, and the context. If the allusion here is to such a kind of apple Sir Feeble’s phrase is singularly inept, as may perhaps be intended to be the case.

p. 204 _St. Martin’s Trumpery_. The parish of St. Martin-le-Grand was formerly celebrated for the number of shops vending cheap and imitation jewellery within its purlieus. ‘St. Martin’s ware’ came to mean a forgery.

p. 205 _nick their Inclinations_. To nick = to thwart. A somewhat uncommon use. Generally, to nick (slang), means ‘to arrest’, ‘to waylay and stop’.

p. 207 _the wonderful Salamanca Doctor_. cf. Notes, Vol. II, p. 433. _silken Doctor. The City Heiress_. Prologue (p. 202); and Vol. II, p. 437. _Salamanca. The City Heiress_, v, V (p. 297).

p. 208 _the Twire_. cf. Note, Vol. II, p. 440. _Amorous Twire. The Feign’d Curtezans_, i, II (p. 319).

p. 210 _gutling_. Guzzling, cf. supra, p. 479.

p. 210 _Docity_. cf. Note, Vol. II, p. 441. _Docity. The Feign’d Curtezans_. ii, I (p. 340).

p. 210 _laid in Lavender_. An old and common phrase for ‘to pawn’. cf. Florio, _Worlds of Wordes_ (1593): ‘To lay to pawne, as we say, to lay in Lavender.’ Ben Jonson, _Every Man out of his Humour_, Act iii, sc. III: ‘And a black sattin suit of his own to go before her in; which suit (for the more sweet’ning) now lies in Lavender.’

p. 210 _Enter Rag and Landlady_. Mrs. Behn remembered how Don John treated Dame Gillian, his landlady. _The Chances_, i, IX.

p. 211 _Judas_. cf. Note, Vol. I, p. 457. _The Roundheads_. v, II (p. 413).

p. 211 _flabber_. Fat; puffed out. A very rare adjective, perhaps only here. The _N.E.D_. quotes this passage with a reference to the adjective ’.laberkin’ = puffed out, puffy, and a suggestion that it is akin to the substantive ‘flab’ = something thick, broad, fat.

p. 212 _this old Sir Guy of Warwick_. Sir Guy of Warwick is an old slang name for a sword; a rapier. The name is taken from the romance (of which there were many versions) and which proved extraordinarily popular. It was first licensed ‘in prose by Martyn Parker’ to Oulton, 24 November, 1640. Smithson’s version was first printed in black letter, and a second edition appeared in 1686. John Shurley’s version was published 4to, 1681 and again 1685. Esdalle, _English Tales and Romances_, enumerates sixteen versions, editions and abridgements, concluding with ‘The Seventh Edition’ 12mo, 1733.

p. 214 _Enter Bredwel_. Lady Fulbank supplying Gayman with money through the medium of Bredwel ‘drest like a Devil’ is reminiscent of incidents in Dryden’s first comedy, _The Wild Gallant_ (1663, and revised version, 1667; 4to, 1667), where Lady Constance employs Setstone, a jeweller, to accomodate Loveby with ready cash. Loveby is benefited to the tune of two hundred and fifty pounds, which are filched from the study of old Lord Nonsuch, who complains in much the same way as Sir Cautious. Loveby declares it must be the devil who has enriched him, and forthwith rescues his ‘Suit with the Gold Lace at Sleeves from Tribulation.’ Owing to his poverty he has been unable to visit Constance, and when he appears before her in his gay clothes he excuses his fortnight’s absence by saying, I have been ‘out of Town to see a little thing that’s fallen to me upon the Death of a Grandmother.’ In Act i of _The Wild Gallant_ Loveby gives Bibber a humorous description of a garret, which may be paralleled with Bredwel’s ‘lewd’ picture of Cayman’s chamber--_The Lucky Chance_, Act i, II. It must be allowed that Mrs. Behn bears away the palm in this witty passage. _The Wild Gallant_ is, by Dryden’s own confession (cf. the First Prologue), founded on a Spanish plot. In the Preface he says: ‘The Plot was not Originally my own: But so alter’d by me, (whether for better or worse, I know not) that, whoever the Author was, he could not have challeng’d a Scene of it.’ So vast, indeed, is the library of the Spanish Theatre that it has not as yet been identified, a task which in view of the author’s own statement may well be deemed nigh impossible. Recent critics have pertinently suggested that the device of furnishing Loveby with money was the chief hint for which Dryden is indebted to Spain. The conduct of the amour between Lady Fulbank and Gayman, founded as it is on Shirley’s _The Lady of Pleasure_, has nothing in common with Otway’s intrigue between Beaugard and Portia--_The Atheist_ (1683)--which owes itself to Scarron’s novel, _The Invisible Mistress_.

p. 222 _the Gad-Bee’s in his Quonundrum_. _Gad-Bee_, vide supra. _The False Count_, Act ii, II (p. 129), note, p. 481. _Quonundrum_ or Conundrum. A whim; crotchet; maggot; conceit. The _N.E.D_. quotes this passage, cf. Jonson’s _Volpone_, Act v, sc. II: ‘I must ha’ my crotchets! And my conundrums!’ _Dic. Cant. Crew_ (1700) has: ’.Conundrums_. Whimms, Maggots and such like.’

p. 222 _jiggiting_. To jigget = to jig, hop or skip; to jump about, and to fidget, cf. T. Barker, _The Female Tatler_ (1709), No. 15: ‘She has a languishing Eye, a delicious soft Hand, and two pretty jiggetting Feet.’ cf. _to giggit_. Note, Vol. II, p. 436. _fisking and giggiting_. _The City Heiress_, ii, II (p. 262).

p. 223 _we’ll toss the Stocking_. This merry old matrimonial custom in use at the bedding of the happy pair is often alluded to. cf. Pepys, 8 February, 1663: ‘Another story was how Lady Castlemaine, a few days since, had Mrs. Stewart to an entertainment, and at night begun a frolique that they two must be married; and married they were, with ring and all other ceremonies of church service, and ribbands, and a sack posset in bed and flinging the stocking; but in the close it is said my Lady Castlemaine, who was the bridegroom, rose, and the King come and take her place.’

p. 224 _the Entry_. In the Restoration theatre it was the usual practice for the curtain to rise at the commencement and fall at the end of the play, so that the close of each intermediate act was only marked by a clear stage. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, more particularly when some elaborate set or Tableau began a new act. A striking example is Act ii, _The Forc’d Marriage_.

p. 224 _Mr. Cheek_. Thomas Cheek was a well-known wit and songwriter of the day. His name not infrequently occurs to the graceful lyrics with which he supplied the theatre. There are some pretty lines of his, ’.orinna, I excuse thy face’, in Act v of Southerne’s _The Wives Excuse; or, Cuckolds make Themselves_ (1692); and a still better song, ‘Bright Cynthia’s pow’r divinely great,’ which was sung by Leveridge in the second act of Southerne’s _Oroonoko_ (1699), came from his prolific pen.

p. 225 _Bandstrings_. Strings for fastening his bands or collar which were in the seventeenth century frequently ornamented with tassels, cf. Selden, Table-Talk (1689): ‘If a man twirls his Bandstrings’. and Wood, _Ath. Oxon_. (1691): ‘He [wore] snakebone bandstrings (or bandstrings with huge tassels).’

p. 225 _yare_. Eager; ready; prepared from A.-S. geáro. cf. _Measure for Measure_, iv, II: ‘You shall find me yare’. and _The Tempest_, i, I: ’.heerly, my hearts! yare, yare!’. also Act v, sc. I: ‘Our ship ... is tight and yare.’ Also _Antony and Cleopatra_, v, II: ‘yare, yare, good Iras; quick.’ Ray gives it as a Suffolk word, and the ‘hear, hear’ of Lowestoft boatmen of to-day is probably a disguised ‘yare, yare’.

p. 226 _Livery and Seisin_. A very common error for the legal term ’.ivery of seisin’ which signifies the delivery of property into the corporal possession of a person.

p. 251 _Song. Oh! Love_. Mr. Bullen, who includes this ‘impassioned song’ in his _Musa Proterva: Love-Poems of the Restoration_ (1889), has the following note: ‘Did Mrs. Behn write these fine verses?... Henry Playford, a well-known publisher of music, issued in the same year [1687] the Fourth Book of _The Theatre of Music_, where “O Love, that stronger art” appeared with the heading “The Song in Madam Bhen’s last New Play, sung by Mr. Bowman, set by Dr. John Blow.” At the end of the song Playford adds, “These words by Mr. Ousley.” ... Mrs. Behn usually acknowledged her obligations; but she may have been neglectful on the present occasion. Ousley’s claim cannot be lightly set aside.’ There is nothing to add to this, and we can only say that Aphra Behn had such true lyric genius that ‘Oh! Love that stronger art’ is in no way beyond her. A statement which neither disposes of nor invalidates Ousley’s claim based, as this is, upon such strong and definite evidence.

John Bowman (or Boman) who acted Bredwel had ‘as a boy’ joined the Duke’s Company about 1673. He was, says Cibber, in the days of Charles II ‘a Youth fam’d for his Voice’, and he often sang before the King, no indifferent judge of music. Bowman’s name appears as Peter Santlow in _The Counterfeit Bridegroom; or, the Defeated Widow_ (1677). He soon became an actor of considerable merit, and created Tattle in _Love for Love_ (1695). He is said to have remained on the stage for the extraordinary period of sixty-five years, and to have played within a few months of his death. Davies speaks highly of his acting, even in extreme old age. Oldys (MS. note on Langbaine) refers to him as ‘old Mr. John Bowman’. Cibber, in his _Apology_ (1740), speaks of ‘_Boman_ the late Actor of venerable Memory’.

p. 234 _half Pike_. ‘Now _Hist_. A small pike having a shaft of one half the length of the full-sized one. There were two kinds; one, also called a _spontoon_, formerly carried by infantry officers; the other, used on ships for repelling boarders, a boarding-pike,’--_N.E.D_. which quotes (inter alia) Massinger, &c., _Old Law_ (4to, 1656), Act iii, II: ’.ere’s a half-pike’. and Froger, _Voyages_ (1698): ‘Their ordinary Arms are the Hanger, the Sagary (assagai), which is a very light Half-Pike.’

p. 245 _Geometry_. A colloquial term for magic.

p. 247 _a Sirreverence under your Girdle_. ‘To have an M under (or by) the Girdle’ was a proverbial expression = to have a courteous address by using the titles Mr., Mrs., Miss, &c. cf. Halliwell, _Dictionary Archaic and Proverhial Words_; ‘M. ... to keep the term “Master” out of sight, to be wanting in proper respect.’ cf. _Eastward Hoe_ (1605), Jonson, Chapman, and Marston, iv, I: ‘You might carry an M under your Girdle’. and not infrequently. Sir- (or Save-) Reverence is an old and very common colloquialism. It was the most usual form of apology when mentioning anything likely to offend, or naming a word for which excuse was thought proper or necessary. Wherefore it came to stand in place of various words of obscene sound or meaning. There are innumerable instances from Mandeville (1356); down to recent times, and even Devonshire dialect to-day.

p. 248 _the George in White-Fryers_. The George tavern was situated in Dogwell Court, and some little time after the abolition of the vicious privileges of Alsatia by the Act 8 and 9 William III, c. 27 (1697), it was converted into the printing office of William Bowyer, the elder. These premises were destroyed by fire, 30 January, 1713. Scene II, Act i of Shadwell’s _The Squire of Alsatia_ (1688), is laid ‘at the George in Whitefriars’.

p. 249 _he cullies_. To cully = to cheat; trick. Although the verb, which came into use circa 1670, and persisted for a full century, is rare, the substantive ‘a cully’ (= a fool) is very common. For the verb, cf. Pomfret, _Poems_ (1699), _Divine Attributes_: ‘Tricks to cully fools.’

p. 249 _he pads_. The substantive ‘pad’ = a path or highway. Bailey (1730-6) has ‘to Pad ... to rob on the road on foot.’ cf. Ford’s _The Lady’s Trial_ (1639), v, I: ‘One can ... pick a pocket, Pad for a cloak or hat’. and also Cotton Mather’s _Discourse on Witchcraft_ (1689), chap, vii: ‘As if you or I should say: We never met with any robbers on the road, therefore there never was any Padding there.’

p. 250 _sport a Dye_. To play at dice. ‘To sport’, generic for ‘to parade’ or ‘display’ was, and is a very common phrase. It is especially found in public school and university slang. This is a very early example.

p. 250 _Teaster_. i.e. a tester--sixpence, cf. Farquhar’s _Love and a Bottle_, (1698), i, I, where Brush says: ‘Who throws away a Tester and a mistress loses sixpence.’

p. 251 _to top upon him_. To cheat him; to trick him; especially to cheat with dice. cf. _Dictionary of the Canting Crew_ (by B.E. _gent_., 1696): ‘Top. What do you Top upon me? _c_. do you stick a little Wax to the Dice to keep them together, to get the Chance, you wou’d have? He thought to have Topt upon me. _c_. he design’d to have Put upon me, Sharpt me, Bullied me, or Affronted me.’

p. 251 _we are not half in kelter_. Kelter (or kilter) = order; condition; spirits. cf. Barrow, Sermons, I, Ser. 6: ‘If the organs of prayer are out of Kelter, or out of time, how can we pray?’ _Dictionary Canting Crew_ (1690), has: ‘Out of Kelter, out of sorts.’ The phrase is by no means rare.

p. 251 _as Trincolo says_. Lady Fulbank mistakes. The remark is made by Stephano, not Trincalo. Dryden and Davenant’s _The Tempest_ (1667), Act ii, I: ‘_Ventoso_. My wife’s a good old jade ... ... _Stephano_. Would you were both hanged, for putting me in thought of mine!’

p. 252 _Ladies of Quality in the Middle Gallery_. The jest lies in the fact that the middle gallery or eighteenpenny place in a Restoration theatre was greatly frequented by, if not almost entirely set aside for, women of the town. cf. Dryden’s _Epilogue on the Union_ (1682):--

But stay; me thinks some Vizard-Mask I see
Cast out her Lure from the mid Gallery:
About her all the fluttering Sparks are rang’d;
The Noise continues, though the Scene is chang’d:
Now growling, sputt’ring, wauling, such a clutter!
‘Tis just like Puss defendant in a Gutter.

And again, in his Prologue to Southerne’s _The Disappointment_ (1684), he has:--

Last there are some, who take their first degrees
Of lewdness in our middle galleries:
The doughty bullies enter bloody drunk,
Invade and grabble one another’s punk.

p. 257 _Hortensius_. Cato Uticensis is said in 56 B.C. to have ceded his wife Marcia to Q. Hortensius, and at the death of Hortensius in 50 B.C. to have taken her back again--Plutarch, _Cato Min_., 25.

p. 258 _he has a Fly_. A fly = a familiar. From the common old belief that an attendant demon waited on warlocks and witches in the shape of a fly, or some similar insect. cf. Jonson’s _The Alchemist_, I (1610):--

You are mistaken, doctor,
Why he does ask one but for cups and horses,
A rifling fly, none of your great familiars.

Also Massinger’s The _Virgin Martyr_, ii, II:--

Courtiers have flies
That buzz all news unto them.

p. 271 _Snow-hill_. The old Snow Hill, a very narrow and steep highway between Holborn Bridge and Newgate, was cleared away when Holborn Viaduct was made in 1867. In the days of Charles II it was famous for its chapmen, vendors of ballads with rough woodcuts atop. Dorset, lampooning Edward Howard, has the following lines:

Whence
Does all this mighty mass of dullness spring,
Which in such loads thou to the stage dost bring?
Is’t all thine own? Or hast thou from _Snow Hill_
The assistance of some ballad-making quill?

p. 271 _Cuckolds Haven_. This was the name given to a well-known point in the Thames. It is depicted by Hogarth, _Industry and Idleness_, No. 6. Nahum Tate has a farce, borrowed from _Eastward Hoe_ and _The Devil’s an Ass_, entitled _Cuckold’s Haven; or, An Alderman no Conjuror_ (1685).

p. 278 _Nice and Flutter_. The two typical Fops of the day. Sir Courtly Nice, created by Mountford, is the hero of Crowne’s excellent comedy, _Sir Courtly Nice_ (1685). In Act v he sings a little song he has made on his Mistress: ‘As I gaz’d unaware, On a face so fair--.’ Sir Fopling Flutter is the hero of Etheredge’s masterpiece, _The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter_ (1676). Sir Fopling, a portrait of Beau Hewitt, became proverbial. The rôle was created by Smith.

p. 278 _shatterhead_. A rare word for shatter-(scatter) brained. cf. The Countess of Winchilsea, _Miscellany Poems_ (1713), ‘Pri’thee shatter-headed Fop’.

p. 278 _Craffey_. Craffy is the foolish son of the Podesta in Crowne’s _City Politicks_ (1683). He is described as ‘an impudent, amorous, pragmatical fop, that pretends to wit and poetry.’ He is engaged in writing _Husbai_ an answer to _Absalom and Achitophel_.

p. 278 _whiffling_. Fickle; unsteady; uncertain. To whiffle = to hesitate; waver; prevaricate. cf. Tillotson, _Sermons_, xiv (1671-94): ’.veryman ought to be stedfast ... and not suffer himself to be whiffled ... by an insignificant noise.’ 1724 mistakenly reads ‘whistling’ in this passage.

p. 279 _Bulkers_. Whores. cf. Shadwell, _Amorous Widow_ (1690), Act iii: ’.er mother sells fish and she is little better than a bulker.’ A bulker was the lowest class of prostitute. cf. Shadwell’s _The Scowerers_, Act i, I: ‘Every one in a petticoat is thy mistress, from humble bulker to haughty countess.’ Bailey (1790) has: ‘Bulker, one that would lie down on a bulk to any one. A common Jilt. A whore.’ Swift, _A Tale of a Tub_,