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    Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
    Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
    Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
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    Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc

    By Various Various and George Bell

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc

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      Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc - Various Various

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22,

      1853, by Various

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853

             A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists,

                    Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc

      Author: Various

      Editor: George Bell

      Release Date: May 24, 2013 [EBook #42784]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES AND QUERIES ***

      Produced by Charlene Taylor, Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins

      and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

      http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images

      generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian

      Libraries)

      NOTES AND QUERIES:

      A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

      When found, make a note of.—Captain Cuttle.

      CONTENTS.

      Notes.

      BLACKGUARD.

      In some of the earlier numbers of N. & Q., there occur disquisitions as to the origin of the term blackguard, and the time at which it came into use in England in its present sense. But the communications of your correspondents have not been satisfactory upon either point—they have not shown the period at which the word came to be accepted in its present sense; and their quotations all apply to its use in a much more simple meaning, and one totally different from that which we now attach to it.

      One class of these quotations (Vol. ii., pp. 171. 285.), such as the passages from Butler and Fuller, refer obviously to a popular superstition, during an age when the belief in witchcraft and hobgoblins was universal; and when such creatures of fancy were assigned as Black Guards to his Satanic majesty. Who can conceive, says Fuller in the paragraph extracted, but that such a Prince-principal of Darkness must be proportionally attended by a Black Guard of monstrous opinions? (Church History, b. ix. c. xvi.) And in the verses of Butler referred to, Hudibras, when deceived by Ralpho counterfeiting a ghost in the dark,—

      "Believed it was some drolling sprite

      That staid upon the guard at night:"

      and thereupon in his trepidation discourses with the Squire as follows:

      "Thought he, How does the Devil know

      What 'twas that I design'd to do?

      His office of intelligence,

      His oracles, are ceas'd long since;

      And he knows nothing of the Saints,

      But what some treach'rous spy acquaints.

      This is some petty-fogging fiend,

      Some under door-keeper's friend's friend,

      That undertakes to understand,

      And juggles at the second hand:

      And now would pass for spirit Po,

      And all men's dark concerns foreknow.

      I think I need not fear him for't;

      These rallying devils do not hurt.

      With that he roused his drooping heart,

      And hastily cry'd out, What art?—

      A wretch, quoth he, whom want of grace

      Has brought to this unhappy place.

      I do believe thee, quoth the knight;

      Thus far I'm sure thou'rt in the right,

      And know what 'tis that troubles thee,

      Better than thou hast guess'd of me.

      Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite,

      Condemn'd to drudg'ry in the night;

      Thou hast no work to do in th' house,

      Nor half-penny to drop in shoes;

      Without the raising of which sum

      You dare not be so troublesome;

      To pinch the slatterns black and blue,

      For leaving you their work to do.

      This is your business, good Pug Robin,

      And your diversion, dull dry bobbing."

      Hudibras, Part III. Canto 1. line 1385, &c.

      It will be seen that Butler, like Fuller, uses the term in the simple sense as a guard of the Prince of Darkness. But the concluding lines of Hudibras's address to Ralpho explain the process by which, at a late period, this term of the Black Guard came to be applied to the lowest class of domestics in great establishments.

      The Black Guard of Satan was supposed to perform the domestic drudgery of the kitchen and servants' hall, in the infernal household. The extract from Hobbes (Vol. ii., p. 134.) refers to this:—

      "Since my Lady's decay, I am degraded from a cook; and I fear the Devil himself will entertain me but for one of his black guard, and he shall be sure to have his roast burnt."

      Hence came the popular superstition that these goblin scullions, on their visits to the upper world, confined themselves to the servants' apartments of the houses which they favoured with their presence, and which at night they swept and garnished; pinching those of the maids in their sleep who, by their laziness, had imposed such toil on their elfin assistants; but slipping money into the shoes of the more tidy and industrious servants, whose attention to their own duties before going to rest had spared the goblins the task of performing their share of the drudgery. Hudibras apostrophises the ghost as—

      "... some paltry blackguard sprite

      Condemn'd to drudgery in the night;

      Thou hast no work to do in th' house

      Nor half-penny to drop in shoes;"

      and therefore, as the knight concluded—this devil full of malice had found sufficient leisure to taunt and rally him in the dark upon his recent disasters.

      This belief in the visits of domestic spirits, who busy themselves at night in sweeping and arranging the lower apartments, has prevailed in the North of Ireland and in Scotland from time immemorial: and it is explained in Sir Walter Scott's notes to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, as his justification for introducing the goblin page Gilpin Horner amongst

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