"joining giblets" [and "stubble," adj.], 1812

[Joel S. Berson]

 From 1812 -- in the sense of "to marry" (?!):

Also "stubble, a." postdates OED2 -1641.  More on "stubble" below.

Farmer's Repository [Charlestown, West Virginia};
Date: 01-31-1812; Volume: IV; Issue: 201; Page: [4].  [EAN]

 From the Belfast News Letter.
The Goose" [title].

Let others praise the warbling Thrush [etc]
...
I'll sing the bird that's fit for use,
The fat, contented, stubble GOOSE,
Whose wing, my fire in winter blows---
Who gives me down for my repose---
The flavour of whose flesh I boast,
In broth, in pye, or boiled or roast---
Nay, lends a tongue unto my soul,
That's heard from Indies to the Pole,
With which I may invite love's care,
'Till I join giblet's [sic] with my fair!
   Malone, Dec. 31.                   B.

On "stubble":  Marked as Obs., with senses " a. ?
Clumsy, awkward.  b. ? Stoutly-built. stubble
boy."  Perhaps one of the question marks can be removed?

Just one hit in Google Books on the "stubble"
line, from (the works of) Percy Hethrington
Fitzgerald.  Further searching says the source is
"A Day's Tour: A Journey through France and
Belgium by Calais, Tournay, Orchies, Douai,
Arras, Béthune, Lille, Comines, Ypres, Hazebrouck, Berg.  [Gutenberg]

The line is in quotes in Fitzgerald; and his
dates are 1834-1925, so he could not have written
the 1812 poem.  Whom is he quoting?  Who is "Malone"?

Joel

At 6/7/2010 01:22 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>You're expecting another dirty posting from GAT, aren't you?  No such thing.
>
> From 1831.  The NYC newspapers then thought
> "news" meant "news from Europe", which came by
> means of bundles of newspapers from England and
> elsewhere, brought when saiiing ships reached
> port.  In order to get these bundles, the
> morning papers would send small sailboats out
> beyond the harbor and meet the ships from
> Europe 50 or 100 miles off shore.  The morning
> papers had formed a cooperative to share the
> cost of keeping the newsboats, and shared the
> news.  The Courier & Enquirer broke from this
> combine and began running its own boat.  Then
> the Journal of Commerce was founded, also
> running its own boat.  After a long paragraph
> surveying the history of newsgathering in the
> 19th century, the editor of the Courier speaks:
>
>***  "Let us . . . take the lead . . . ; the
>Gazette is good for nothing -- the Mercantile is
>always asleep -- the Daily is dull and heavy --
>the Standard no one reads or care for.  We have
>only one opponent, he of the Journal of
>Commerce, to contend against, and we can beat
>him with all his assumed piety."  Accordingly we
>obtained our news boats, made our arrangements,
>beat the whole concern ten times our of eleven,
>and compelled the Journal to join giblets with
>the other sleepy editors.  ***  Here we are
>then, standing alone against this unholy
>alliance -- bearded and blackguarded by them all.  ***
>         Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, November 5, 1831, p. 2, col. 3
>
>This expression is not in HDAS.  The OED has one
>quotation in an applicable sense: 1769 Stratford
>Jubilee II. i. 29 If your ladyship's not
>engaged, what's the reason but we may join
>giblets without any
>pribble-prabble?  (definition 2c, "transf. with
>reference to a human being. "to levy one's
>giblets": ? to summon up one's courage. "to join giblets": to marry.")
>
>Well, maybe it does mean "doing the nasty", but
>it can't have been very dirty, if it got into a 1831 newspaper.
>GAT
>
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African
>Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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