"cheek music", 1800, 1802

[Joel S. Berson]

Another instance I was led to from EAI, also slightly later than
Jon's, but in an article with a few expressions that caught my
eye.  Starting with the Daily Advertiser [New York, N.Y.]; Date:
09-20-1802; Volume: XVIII; Issue: 5490; Page: [3], a quotation for
"gill glass" is attributed to
      1799    in Spirit of Public Jrnls. (1800) III. 349
and the phrase ""dim her daylights" Google Books tells me is in the
same journal.
-----
In the Daily Advertiser, the article is introduced by:

 From a London Paper.
THE FASHIONABLE WORLD.

 From the King on the throne, to the Beggar on the dunghill, PACIFIC
FETES have, in England, been the general order of the day.
[Pacific fetes = ?; probably ironic considering the disorderliness of this one]
...
Of the various descriptions of these FASHIONABLE FOLLIES which have
been republished in this side of the HERRING POND, few, we presume,
will be considered more interesting or more entertaining to the
reader of taste and delicacy, than the following exquisite delineation of
      MRS. SWIPE'S ROUT IN RAM ALLEY.
[Herring Pond = North Atlantic Ocean, from 1686 (John Dunton);
interdates 1729 (John Gay)--1824]
-----
In "The Spirit of the Public Journals for 1799. Being an Impartial
Section of the Most Exquisite Essays and Jeux d'Esprits, Principally
Prose, that Appear in the Newspapers and other Publications.  With
Explanatory Notes."  Vol. III. London: Printed for James Ridgway,
1800.  "Imitations ! Imitations ! ! Fashionable Imitations * ! ! ! /
Mrs. Swipe's Rout, in Ram Alley. / [From the Morning Herald.]" Pages
348--350.  Google Books, full view.  http://tinyurl.com/3wk8kzo

[Considering this particular article, I can't help wondering about
"spirit" and "Jeux d'Esprits" in the title.]

What caught my eye are:
348, 349 -- "rout" = "gathering", but with added association of "disreputable".

349 --  [The hostess's] face ... was fired with labour ... wherever
we turned our eyes, she still presented herself with a bottle of gin
in her right hand, and a gill glass in her left.
["fired with labour" = with liquor?]

349 -- Her daughter ... seemed to vie with her mother ... by carrying
hot purl to every quarter of the rooms.
[purl n.3 interdates a1764--1843]

349 -- About eleven, Miss Slang [I thereupon hoped some would
follow!] was earnestly entreated to charm the company with the much
admired _cantata_ of _"Come tip us a glass of true blue."_
[true blue = ? here?]

349 -- To those who know the affability, the readiness to oblige, and
the condescension of this young Lady, it will be needless to observe
how cheerfully she complied. She was accompanied by the two Master
Tripes, one on the marrow bone and cleaver, and the other on the
Jew's harp; she was, it must be confessed, in full song, a fine
compass of voice, great light and shade, and a most enchanting _portamento_.
[A pun on "carriage"?  Something tells me that during my adolescence
I learned on the dirty streets or in the dirty books "portamento" =
"bosom"?  Not in the OED in that sense.]

349--250 -- ... a person ... who is supposed to have intruded himself
under the function of a forged ticket, abruptly exclaimed "D--n all
this cheek music, let us have a little jaw work of another sort;
where are the hot mutton-pies that mother Swipes promised?
[cheek music = a reference to the Jew's harp music? Or more
generally, too much talk and not enough food and drink?]
[mutton-pies = I won't venture; although later they seem to be
innocent, accompanying the gin and purl.]

350 -- [A Miss Dunstan tumbles against a Miss Slammerkin] who,
stepping back, asked her, in an angry tone, if she had a mind to be
running her rigs, telling her, at the same time, that she would _"dim
her daylights."_
["running her rigs" = rig, n.5, P. 1.a. ="To make a fool or mockery
of; to ridicule", from 1735--; or P. 2. = "to behave recklessly; to
run riot", from 1750--.]
["dim <someone's> daylights" not in OED?  When did this expression
arise? (Google Books has only this one source with "her" -- and none
with "his"!)  When did it mutate to "headlights"? (Also not in OED,
and too many of the GBooks hits are literal for me to follow that up.)]

350 -- ... Miss Dunston, who, squaring her elbows, asked Miss
Slammerkin "what she was for?"---"A ring, a ring!" was instantly
vociferated from every quarter of the room ...
["what she was for?" = "what the H--l do you thing you're
doing"?  When did this expression arise?]
["A ring" = presumably a space for fisticuffs.]

359 --  About three in the morning, the assembly began to separate;
carts were provided for those who could not walk, the riders in
which, falling to blows soon after their quitting the rooms, were
seized by the watch, and all safely lodged in Tothillfields Bridewell.

Joel




At 8/21/2011 08:32 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Means "whistling," but cf. later "chin music," yakking.
>
>1787 _The Adventures of Jonathan Corncob_ (London: ptd. for the author) 190:
>Does it not blow hard enough without your giving us your d----d cheek music,
>to bring on a squall, and be d----d to you."

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