Q: "bazzil strings"?

[Joel S. Berson]

And on the next page I find the gang at a performance of The Beggar's
Opera, and one "observing that Captain Mackheath's Fetters were not
plac'd in that Order which is observ'd at the Chequer Inn, cry'd out
aloud, Z---s Captain, tie up your Bazzil Strings."

So not something associated with a coach and horses, but rather with
a person's (man's?) clothes?

Joel

At 8/14/2010 10:33 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>In a 1728 publication about a street robber, in describing the
>highway robbery of a coach the author writes "but his Comrades, he
>[one of the robbers] says, has so entangled themselves in the Bazzil
>Strings, that they are likely to stop there".
>
>What are "bazzil strings"?  Reins or traces for the coach and horses?
>
>Joel
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org