"sable [gentry]"
ronbutters at AOL.COM
ronbutters at AOL.COM
Sat Jul 23 11:20:43 UTC 2011
I had no idea that "for fun" and "ice cream" were nearly thus old.
It is interesting to see "side walk" separated into 2 words; this makes it semantically more transparent ( or perhaps I should say "etymologically").
Sent from my iPad
On Jul 22, 2011, at 6:39 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU> wrote:
> From my notes, through 1830:
>
>
>
> 1: "sable", verb, "to put on black-face"
>
> Five persons have been apprehended and sent to jail strongly suspected
> of the robbery of Mrs. Temple's house. Much of the lamp-black which they
> made use of to sable their fair complexions, remains about their necks and
> on their linens. They say, "We only blacked ourselves for FUN." But, from
> apparent circumstances, there is but little doubt of their GUILT.
>
> N-Y Gazette & General Advertiser, February 5, 1798, p. 3, col. 1
>
>
>
> 2: Among the number of ice cream gardens in this city, there were none
> in which the sable race could find admission and refreshment. Their modicum
> of pleasure was taken on Sunday evening, when the black dandys and
> dandizettes, after attending meeting, occupied the side walks in Broadway,
> and slowly lounged toward their different homes.
>
> National Advocate, August 3, 1821, p. 2, col. 2
>
> [from the report on the opening of "The African Grove"]
>
>
>
> 3: " sable fashionables", "sable lady" & "sable audience"; also "black
> gentry"
>
> *African Amusements*. -- We noticed, some time ago, the opening of a
> tea garden and evening serenades for the amusement of our black gentry; it
> appears that some of the neighbors, not relishing the jocund nightly
> sarabands of these sable fashionables, actually complained to the Police,
> and the avenues of African Grove were closed by authority; and thus were
> many of our ebony friends excluded from a participation in those innocent
> recreations to which they are entitled, by virtue of the great charter that
> declares "all men are equal." ***
>
> Lady Ann was sustained with great spirit by a young sable lady,
> chambermaid to a family near Park Place. . . . ***
>
> Several fashionable songs, sung with no mean taste, concluded the
> evening's amusement, and the sable audience retired peaceably to their
> homes. Richard and Catesby were unfortunately taken up by the watch.
>
> *National Advocate*, September 21, 1821, p. 2, col. 4
>
> [The African Grove was closed for creating a disturbance in a
> residential neighborhood; it morphed into "The African Theatre", which
> staged Shakespeare's Richard III]
>
>
>
> 4: "sable brethern and sisters"
>
> Charles Beers, a black man, was convicted of grand larceny, in having
> stolen the goods of Thomas Drumgold. This fellow had belonged to a company
> of commedians, [sic] composed of ladies and gentlemen of color, and amused,
> and very probably delighted his sable brethern and sisters, in performing
> the difficult part of Richard 3d. ***
>
> New-York City-Hall Recorder, 6:10 (November, 1821):88
>
> [Beers, aka Taft, was the understudy to James Hewlett, who took over
> the role of Richard for the second performance, and was thereafter the star
> of the company.]
>
>
>
> 5: "sable managers" & "sable corps"
>
> We have heretofore noticed the performances of a black corps
> dramatique in this city, at their Theatre, the corner of Bleecker and
> Mercer-streets. It appears that the sable managers, not satisfied with a
> small share of profit and a great portion of fame, determined to rival the
> great Park Theatre, belonging to the Messrs. Beekman & Astor, and
> accordingly hired the Hotel next door to the Theatre, where they announced
> their performances. ***
>
> Come, come, said the watch, none of your play acting airs -- into the
> black hole with you. The sable corps were thus thrust into one green room
> together, where, for some time, they were loud and theatrical; ever and
> anon, one would thrust his head through a circular hole to survey the grim
> visages of the watchmen. Finally, they pleaded so hard in blank verse, and
> promised never to act Shakespeare again, that the Police Magistrates
> released them at a very late hour.
>
> *National Advocate*, January 9, 1822, p. 2, col. 3
>
> [The African Theatre didn't suit the neighbors any more than the Grove
> had, so it moved to Mercer street, above Houston: the edge of town. The
> manager wanted to improve his location, and it seems figured that the Park
> Theatre already drew crowds and commotion, and a little more wouldn't be
> complained of. The manager of the Park thought otherwise, disrupted
> performances and had the cops raid the joint, although off-the-record.]
>
> [This item and nos. 2 & 5 were all written by the same man, Mordecai
> Noah; no. 9 appeared in the Advocate after he had been separated from it]
>
>
>
> 6: "sable manager"
>
> For the benefit of Mr. Brown, will next be presented the drama of the
> "*Fortress of Sorrento*," from the fruitful pen of Mr. Noah; after which an
> entire new play, written by Mr. Brown (the sable manager,) called *Shotaway;
> or, the insurrection of the Caribs, of St. Domingo*.
>
> *New-York Commercial Advertiser*, January 16, 1822, p. 2, col. 1
>
>
>
> 7: "sable colored woman"
>
> A lady passing by St. Paul's Church, was met by three sable colored
> women, tricked out in the height of the fashion; one of them gave way for
> the lady to pass, while another exclaimed, loud enough to be heard by the
> passers by -- *Louisa, why did you give the wall to that white woman?*"
>
> National Advocate, July 9, 1822, p. 2, cols. 2-3
>
>
>
> 8: "sable tragedian"
>
> "The opossum," continued Mr. M's informant, "is addicted to climbing
> up the gum tree, thinking no one can follow him; but the racoon [sic] hides
> himself in the hollow of the tree, and as poor opossum goes up, pulls him
> down by the tail, and that's the plot["] -- the cries of "opossum,
> opossum["] increasing, the sable tragedian comes forward, and addressing the
> audience, informs them that he will sing their favorite melody with him
> greatest pleasure, and accordingly sings it.
>
> *Sketches of Mr. Mathews's Celebrated Trip to America. . . .* London:
> Printed by and for J. Lamberd, n. d., pp. 9-10
>
> [Mathews was an English actor famous for his ability to do dialects;
> his special shows were collections of short sketches, on the themes of his
> experiences while on a trip. He toured the United States in 1822.]
>
>
>
> 9: "sable ruffian"
>
> [a letter signed Michael K. Burke, keeper of a porterhouse at 351
> Broome street, who had been arrested "for hurling a sable ruffian out of my
> house"]
>
> National Advocate, February 17, 1827, p. 2, col. ?
>
>
>
> 10: "sable arm and hand"
>
> Portia was attired in the utmost extravagance of modern fashion; her
> robe was so short as to expose to view the clumsy ancles [sic] and the high
> calves which are peculiar to the whole Negro-race; her black woolly hair was
> adorned with roses, and white glazed gloves half covered her sable arm and
> hand in which she adroitly weilded [sic] a fan with Chinese figures.
> -- Applauses
> were lavished as freely and as unseasonably as in the theatres of the
> Whites.
>
> *Nottingham and Newark Mercury*, May 22, 1830, unknown page and
> column, taken from The Family Magazine.
>
> [The immediate source of this was an English newspaper; there was a
> Family Magazine published ca. 1830 in London, and another in Dublin.]
>
> On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 2:26 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>> On Jul 21, 2011, at 1:47 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>
>>> I suspect searching for "sable" with other terms
>>> besides "gentry" would turn up many more
>>> instances in the early 19th century.
>>
>> Indeed, but I was looking specifically for “sable gentry”, partly because I
>> was making the case (to myself, at least) that the OED entry for “sable”
>> should have an entry for that collocation along with that for “his sable
>> excellency”, “sable majesty”, and such. In fact, the entry doesn’t include
>> any cites for “sable gentry”, much less an actual subentry for it.
>>
>> My own preferred sable is the eponymous smoked fish, which isn’t even the
>> appropriate color. (It was alternately known in our family as “chicken
>> carp”, which just seems weird.)
>>
>>
>>> (I think I
>>> once complained to Jesse that the use to refer to
>>> people seemed more than merely "joc.”)
>>
>> Exactly. Jocular to whom? I was impressed by the acumen of that passage
>> ("that false elevation of language, a preposterously inflated lexis,
>> deliberately employed to mock”) from Meredith in the 1840s.
>>
>> LH
>>>
>>> In Hawthorne's "Old News I", written probably in
>>> 1828-1829 and first published in 1835, he uses "sable" twice:
>>>
>>> "There was a coachmaker at this period, one John
>>> Lucas, who seems to have gained the chief of his
>>> living by letting out a sable coach to funerals."
>>>
>>> "The sable inmates of the mansion were not
>>> excluded from the domestic affections: in
>>> families of middling rank, they had their places
>>> at the board; and when the circle closed round
>>> the evening hearth, its blaze glowed on their
>>> dark shining faces, intermixed familiarly with their master's children."
>>>
>>> Joel
>>>
>>> At 7/21/2011 12:10 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Jul 21, 2011, at 10:39 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> ...
>>>>> *Breach of the Marriage Promise*. -- A
>>>> gentleman from Ulster county, who was
>>>>> present at the trial of the sable gentry
>>>>
>>>> Talk about your euphemistic avoidance—"the
>>>> sable gentry”. Apparently this was not
>>>> uncommonly used at the time (judging from Google
>>>>
>>>> OED has this for adjectival “sable":
>>>>
>>>> 2. gen. Black. Chiefly poet. and rhetorical.
>>>> a. Of material objects, persons, animals, etc.
>>>> At one time applied joc. to black people.
>>>>
>>>> his sable majesty (also his sable excellency):
>>>> applied to a dark-complexioned potentate; spec. the Devil.
>>>>
>>>> Jocular in origin, no doubt, but "sable
>>>> gentry" seems to have become a
>>>> conventionalized euphemism with or without
>>>> intended jocularity. (The OED lacks any
>>>> specific entry for this collocation.) There are
>>>> 187 hits in Google books, most or all
>>>> exemplifying or citing 19th c. usage. In one
>>>> book, Louisa Anne Meredith, who recorded her
>>>> travels in Tasmania in the 1840s, characterizes
>>>> "sable gentry" as an instance of "that false
>>>> elevation of language, a preposterously inflated
>>>> lexis, deliberately employed to mock".
>>>>
>>>> LH
>>>>
>>>>> for a breach of the marriage
>>>>> promise, the report of which originally appeared in this paper, says,
>> that
>>>>> when the jury awarded ten dollars damages, Cuff darted out of court --
>> shot
>>>>> the pit as the fancy call it -- and was pursued through the village by
>> Coon
>>>>> Crook, the constable, and half the boys, when he was caught and
>> brought
>>>>> back. Cuff has been admitted to the privileges of the limits at Big
>>>>> Sopus. *N.Y.
>>>>> Nat. Adv*.
>>>>>
>>>>> A I 4 ∫*c.* to shoot the pit : of a fighting cock, to rush out of the
>>>>> cockpit from cowardice. Often *fig.* *Obs.*
>>>>> 1675 A. Marvell *Let. to Sir H.
>>>>>
>>>> Thompson<
>> http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/178501?rskey=7roKNU&result=1&isAdvanced=true
>>>
>>>>> *, He hath a month ago shot the pitâ•¥he hath thought convenient to
>> passe
>>>>> over into Holland.
>>>>> 1681 *Heraclitus
>>>>>
>>>> Ridens<
>> http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/178501?rskey=7roKNU&result=1&isAdvanced=true
>>>
>>>>> * 30 Aug. 2/2 Two or three more such
>>>> stroaks will make them shoot the Pit.
>>>>> *a*1734 R. North
>>>>>
>>>> *Examen<
>> http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/178501?rskey=7roKNU&result=1&isAdvanced=true
>>>
>>>>> * (1740) ii. v. â™—19 327 Which made the whole Party shoot the Pit
>> and
>>>>> retire, as not caring to be pointed at with ill-favoured Reflections.
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> GAT
>>>>>
>>>>> George A. Thompson
>>>>> Author of A Documentary History of "The
>>>> African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
>>>>> Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
> Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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