"Hunc over de" clubs, NY 1736?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 10/4/2007 01:04 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/s5-VI/157/534-a
>_Notes and Queries_, 5th S. VI, Dec. 30, 1876, p. 534, col. 1
>"HUNK O' DEE." -- This is the singular name of a boys' game in
>Pennsylvania which is very similar to "I spy." Instead of saying "I
>spy Brown, Jones, or Robinson," as the case may be, we say "Hunk o'
>Dee Brown," &c. It is a contraction of the words "Hunk over Dee," as I
>find in two communications to Zenger's New York Weekly Journal, March
>1 and April 19, 1736, by a writer who often speaks of the "pretty game
>of Hunk over Dee," which he charges his political opponents as
>playing, using it entirely in a metaphorical sense of evasion or
>dodging.

1876 is the same year as "Progress of New York in a Century,
1776-1876. An Address ...", by John Austin Stevens, New-York
Historical Society, which discusses "Hunc over de" clubs on pp. 30-31.

Saying "entirely", the N&Q writer thus missed what I now with
confidence will call "satire with sexual overtones" in the March 1
article.  And there is not one writer, but two.  March 1 is "Trusty
Roger", April 19 is "Diana" [the huntress?], who writes (in full; I
have regularized italics and full caps):
---------
Mr. Zenger;

If you have room in your Journal, I should be oblig'd; if you will
give this small Billet a Place in it.

It is only to desire you will inform me, whether an Act of the
Legislature cannot be procured, to confine the prettie Game of Hunk
over Dee, to the present Set of Company that play at it?  My Reason
for this is, because, I think all projectors, ought to be encouraged
by the publick.  Besides it is my Opinion, that our Posterity should
know, who were the Hunk over Dees, and that their dependants might
ever be distinguished, from those that play the silly Game of
maintain Truth, your speedy Answer will be very Acceptable to your
constant Reader.

Diana.
----------------
This strikes me as satire also, and probably a pointed and serious
political comment: Hunk over Dee as evasion; maintain Truth as
honesty.  Whether this letter has sexual overtones, I don't know
[although Diana is reputed to be a virgin].  But surely the earlier
letter from "Trusty Roger" does.

(EAN has certainly confused me about the dates. It calls the March 1
issue "Date: 03-01-1735", not identifying it as Old Style.  The
reason my EAN searches did not find it previously is that I was
looking only in the year 1736!)

Joel

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