A Destitute Duke

by Patricia A. Knight

  Well… then who did control them, you ask. Their fathers, legal guardians, trustees of the estate, or husbands. Do you begin to understand why Eleanor’s father was so worried about her? Penwick Elsington would have the management of the freehold properties she would inherit. He was fine, but Penwick is an old man. Who takes over from him when he dies? The next managing partner of the law firm who might not be such an upstanding dude. Marriage gives Florence pause also. She has a lot to lose.

  So how does Florence get away with all her business dealings? She is a widow. Widowed women were allowed an independence almost across the board that married and single women lacked. This is what so concerns Florence. As soon as she marries, everything is managed by her husband. She is not even entitled to spend the proceeds of her businesses unless her husband allows it. Furthermore, to add insult to injury, her husband can sell anything she brings into the marriage without even asking her consent. As a widow, she is allowed to be an independent person with all privileges held by men, except the right to vote. There were a good many single women who pretended to be widows for business purposes. I would.

  Now, investment banking. While there was a rudimentary stock market, there were not investment banks as we think of them today. You didn’t sit down with an unsympathetic loan officer and present your case for your business that promises to make you a millionaire overnight. The money that went into new ventures in the early 1800s came from individuals who already had the wealth to invest. Barings Bank, the one mentioned in A Destitute Duke, was one of the few institutions to take an individual’s money and invest it for them. Please note: you already had the money. They told you where to spend it. They did not loan the funds to invest.

  Then as now, it took money to make money. For a woman, it was virtually impossible. When you add the aristocratic disgust for anything that stank of “trade” (read you worked for a living) Florence had the deck stacked against her and without the help of Lord Seville and Baron Anthony she would have had a very hard time of it. They got away with their investments because, as Lord Seville said, “I didn’t need it, you see. It was just a diversion, a way to pass idle time.”

  Kinda makes you glad you didn’t live in the 1800s doesn’t it?

  I hope you enjoyed the story of Florence and Duncan and the small peek into some of the results of my research. I’ve tons more. I’m a veritable fountain of archaic information. *laughing* Perhaps I’ll start posting it on my website.

  It’s time to say cheerio, gentle reader. Hi-Ho! I’m off to see what that young rascal, Lord Edmund Everleigh, is up to.

  Happy reading,

  Patricia

  For the Word Nerd

  &

  Others baffled by Regency terms:

  English

  “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”

  James D. Nicoll

  NOTE: The dates (if known) refer to when the word was first noticed in common usage, either spoken or written.

  Accoucheur

  A male midwife

  Al fresco

  To eat outside. Really not popularly used as such until the mid 1800s, so this is slightly anachronistic when Florence uses it.

  Aladdin And The Wonderful Lamp

  Arabian Nights, more properly known as One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales, compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. The title Arabian Nights came from the first English language edition (1706), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment. The work itself was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, South Asia and North Africa. The tale of Aladdin and the genie is one of the stories contained in this collection. It is more than likely that both Duncan and Florence would know of these stories as they were immensely popular in the west.

  Ape leader

  In the bible, a virgin who dies without marrying and producing children is sentenced to lead apes in hell. Therefore, a spinster in the Regency period was referred to in rather a scathing fashion as an “ape-leader,” a reminder that a woman’s worth was directly in proportion to her ability to bear.

  Arsy yarsy

  To fall arsy varsey, i.e. head over heels.

  Back gammon player

  Same-sex oriented male. A homosexual male.

  Bam

  To impose on any one by a falsity; to lie, also to jeer or make fun of any one.

  Banbury story of a cock and a bull (or just Banbury story)

  A roundabout, nonsensical story.

  Bang up to the mark (or up to the mark)

  The best, the ultimate. If referring to clothing it meant of the highest style, if referring to horses, the most beautiful and well trained. Whatever the phrase is used to describe, it means it has achieved the ultimate in perfection.

  Barques of frailty

  Prostitutes

  Bellows to mend

  Winded, out of breath

  Bite the dust

  In ancient Greek, this was a favorite cliché of Homer. The phrases “bite the ground”, “bite the sand”, and/or “bite the dust” have been used in almost every English translation of the Iliad since 1697. “Lick the dust” is in the Bible.

  Billet-doux

  1670’s French meaning “sweet note”. Billet meaning note and doux meaning sweet. Generally translated as a “love letter”.

  Blink

  Amazingly, this didn’t mean “briefly close the eyes” until 1858. (To blink away tears is first recorded in 1905.) In Shakespeare’s time the word meant “twinkle”, and the original sense seems to be the same word as “blench”, to flinch or turn away. Cf. “see who blinks first” to describe a tense confrontation.

  Blonde lace

  Originally (about 1745) this extremely expensive delicate French lace (dentelle blonde) was indeed blonde in color, being made from unbleached silk. By 1800 the silk threads were almost always black or white, and the term was used for any fine silk lace woven with tiny hexagonal cells. These days it is usually called Chantilly lace.

  PS — Blonde and blond are used almost interchangeably these days, particularly in the US, but technically the spelling is “blonde” lace as blonde/blond is a French adjective that must agree with the gender of the noun it modifies.

  Bloody

  All too many historical novelists seem to think this is a mild expletive — I can’t think how many books I have read where Our Hero uses the word in front of Ye Gentle Heroine, and several where YGH says it herself when provoked. From about 1750 through the early 20th century this was not mild in Britain; it was a filthy obscenity, and a person with any sort of manners would no more have said “bloody” in mixed company than he or she would have said “fucking”. As late as 1913, Shaw caused a minor riot when he had the semi-transformed Eliza Doolittle say “Walk! Not bloody likely!” in Pygmalion. Amusingly, when the play was made into the movie My Fair Lady fifty years later, the word had lost all its shock value, and Alan Jay Lerner had Eliza shout “Move your bloomin’ arse!” to a horse at Ascot instead.

  Bo-peep

  One who sometimes hides himself, and sometimes appears publicly abroad, is said to-play at bo-peep.

  Bosoms (plural)

  Not used as a euphemism for “breasts” (“Stop staring at my bosoms!” she said.) until 1959.

  Boughs

  He is up in the boughs; he is in a passion.

  Bracket-faced

  Ugly, hard-featured.

  Brown study

  Said of one physically present but absent in thought, in a reverie.

  Bun

  1894 as a bundle of hair at the nape of the neck. The older term was “chignon”, which does mean “nape” in French. (The original meaning of “bun” seems to h
ave been “rounded mass”, leading to the bakery sense, the tail of the bunny rabbit, bunch, etc., but not bundle, which is a “bind” word.)

  Bust

  1819 as a euphemism for a woman’s breasts. The sense of a sculpture consisting of head, shoulders, and chest is over a hundred years older in English. Bustline was not recorded until 1939, and busty until 1944.

  Captain Sharp

  A cheating bully, or one in a set of gamblers, whose office it to bully any pigeon, who, suspecting roguery, refuses to pay what he has lost.

  Cent per centers

  Lenders who took advantage of their clients by lending at uxorious rates.

  Cheek-by-jowl

  The expression 'cheek by jowl' is very old, in fact the earliest examples in print pre-date modern English, for instance, in Meredith Hanmer's translation of Eusebius of Caesarea, Socrates Scholasticus, and Evagrius Scholasticus - The auncient ecclesiasticall histories of the first six hundred yeares after Christ: Cheeke by iole with the Emperour. Soon after that, Shakespeare, always one to pick up on an ear-catching expression, used it in A Midsommer Nights Dreame, 1600, in which Demetrius says: Follow? Nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl.

  This usage makes it clear that 'cheek by jowl' meant 'side by side'.

  Che sera sera

  1558, in Marlowe’s Faustus. (That version is Italian; the 1950’s popular song changed it to French Que sera sera. Either way, it’s “What will be will be”.

  Chemise

  An old word for a shirt or smock. The current sense of “undergarment” dates from about 1840; it was a euphemism for the suddenly-vulgar “shift”.

  Christen

  To add water to spirits or wine to dilute their potency.

  Climax

  1918 as a noun meaning an orgasm. Not until 1975 as a verb “to achieve orgasm”. So, what did the people in the early 1800s call this physiological event? A paroxysm of animus… an attainment of the highest expression of animal vitality and health. Curiously, by this time in history, the importance of an orgasm for women had largely been discounted where in prior times, it was given equal importance as that of a man’s.

  Come

  In the sense “achieve sexual orgasm” or “ejaculate”, this looks like modern vulgar slang, but it was first used with that meaning about 1650.

  Corinthian

  Not used in the sense of an elegant man about town until 1819. Corinthians replaced “dandies” and were in turn replaced by “swells”. The earlier definition, to quote the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, was “a frequenter of brothels; also an impudent brazen-faced fellow”. All this goes back to the ancient reputation of Corinth for wealth and licentiousness.

  **Author’s note: When used in Husband For Hire, the definition used is that of the somewhat later understanding of 1819, that of an elegant man about town.

  Cudgel

  A short, thick stick used as a weapon, e.g., a baton or nightstick, a club.

  Cut Direct

  To look directly at someone while they greet you and ignore them completely, as if they were not there.

  Dashed

  1881 as a euphemism for “damned”, perhaps from the practice of printing the word as d----d to avoid the censors. The exclamation “Dash it!” is recorded for 1800, though.

  Desperate measures for desperate times

  I believe this is well known to my readers, however in researching it I ran across this interesting fact: The expression ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’ is believed to have originated with a saying coined by the ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates. In his work Amorphisms, he wrote: “For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable.”

  Dick

  In the 19th century, it meant “riding whip”; the first slang use for “penis” isn’t until 1890. (Both the latter sense and its synonym “dork” are probably from “dirk”, dagger. Note those /R/s aren’t pronounced in propuh British.)

  Dildo

  Despite the “look and feel” of being a 20th-century implement, it has meant “representation of a phallus” since 1593. The batteries are recent, though.

  Disguised

  Half-Drunk. Somewhat the worse for the over-consumption of drink. Tipsy

  Double chin

  1832.

  Elope

  The first unequivocal use to mean “run away with the intent of being married“ is in 1813. Before that, it originally meant for a wife to desert her husband (a legal term), and to abscond or run away in general. Dickens mentions a valet eloping with all the valuables. To lope meant to escape long before it was generalized to simply “run”.

  Egalitarian

  Relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities regardless of circumstances of birth. “Laborers deserve the same treatment as Lords.”

  Escheat

  The reversion of property to the state, or (in feudal law) to a lord, on the owner's dying without legal heirs. Since the legal proceedings to transfer such property back to the Crown were necessarily involved and prolonged, a popular wit of the day referred to them as “peregrinations through escheat” or “wandering through the laws of reversion”.

  Factotum

  A man of all work, although usually thought of as a “white-collar” worker, an agent, administrator, accountant, etc. A man who serves in many areas. Generally he was not considered a “servant” but rather a skilled employee.

  Fagged to death

  Run off your feet, exhausted

  Farthing

  A division of money. In 1814 the pound was divided into shillings and pennies. The pennies (or pence) were further divided:

  2 farthings = 1 halfpenny (or “ha’penny”)

  2 halfpence = 1 penny

  3 pence = 1 thruppence

  6 pence = 1 sixpence (a “tanner”)

  12 pence = 1 shilling (a “bob”)

  2 shillings = 1 florin (a “two bob bit”)

  2 shillings and a sixpence = 1 half crown

  5 shillings = 1 crown

  20 shillings = 1 pound

  Fiancée

  1853. The masculine fiancé appeared in 1864.

  Follow the drum

  A married woman who followed her soldier husband wherever the army went. Also referred to camp followers such as prostitutes, etc.

  Foreplay

  Although the practice itself might be of greater antiquity, the word was invented in 1929. It replaced “forepleasure”, coined by Freud (vorlust) in 1910.

  Fountain pen

  1710 in English; even earlier in French.

  Fuck

  The earliest verifiable use of the word in an unambiguously sexual context in any stage of English appears in court documents from Chester County, England, which first mention a man called "Roger Fuckebythenavele" on December 8, 1310. Compare Scots fuk, fuck, attested slightly earlier. A range of folk-etymological backronyms has been advanced, such as "fornication under consent of the king" and "for unlawful carnal knowledge", which are all demonstrably false. Because of its highly vulgar meaning, it did not make the approved dictionaries of the English language until 1598. Its spoken usage was largely confined to the lower classes and the military (among whom its use was prevalent). It is consistent that this is an unvoiced curse Duncan would use.

  Gorgeous

  It now is a synonym of beautiful, but until the 20th century, the only meaning was showy or extremely colorful, and it was only used to describe inanimate objects — usually clothing but occasionally other showy things like a gorgeous sunset or carriage. It was never applied to people.

  Half seas over

  Drunk

  Hoyden

  A girl or woman of saucy, boisterous or carefree behavior. Perhaps from obsolete Dutch heiden meaning country lout, or from Middle Dutch, heathen; akin to Old English hǣthen heathen. First known use was 1676.

  In the altitudes

  Drunk.

  Jiffy<
br />
  1785. Done quickly.

  Kerfuffle

  This looks like relatively modern slang for an agitated disturbance, but as kafuffle or curfuffle it goes back to 1583. The simple fuffle, to disorder, is even earlier.

  Lingerie

  1835 as “linen garment” in general; 1850 as women’s underclothing.

  Light ‘o love

  Mistress or woman of easy virtue

  Math/maths

  Math is American and maths British as short forms of “mathematics” as a course of study. The former term was first recorded in 1847 as the explicit abbreviation “math.”; it didn’t lose the period and become a standalone word until almost 1900. The British form is found in 1911 as an abbreviation (maths.), which it lost in 1917. Both are therefore anachronistic for Regency or early Victorian times.

  Marine, A

  An empty bottle of beer or wine. In the old days of hard drinking at sea, this expression was generally accepted as synonymous with an empty bottle. The story is told that William IV, when Duke of Clarence and Lord High Admiral, pointed to some empty bottles at an official dinner and said, "Take away those marines." A dignified and elderly major of marines rose from the table and said, "May I respectfully ask why your Royal Highness applies the name of the corps to which I have the honor to belong to an empty bottle?" The Duke, with what tact and characteristic grace that was his, retorted promptly, "I call them marines because they are good felows who have done their duty and are ready to do it again." In Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, one finds under the word "marine officer" the libelous explanation, "an empty bottle'." The story about the Duke of Clarence is perhaps too elegant to be true. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first use of 'marine' referring to an empty bottle in 1785. A 'marine' first referred to 'marine officer' -- 'marine officers being held useless by the seamen' as Francis Grose nicely puts it. Since words have usually been in general circulation for some time before they are included in dictionaries (which also take time to compile and publish), and the Duke would have been a mere twenty at the time of the publication of Grose's work, I doubt that a teenager would have conjured up such repartee and its becoming common parlance. Furthermore, would Grose have identified an heir apparent's witticism as "Vulgar" suggesting that it was a commonplace used by the lower-class? As our hero, the Honorable Lord, Captain Duncan Worthinton Everleigh, was used to associate with the lower classes as the cavalrymen he ordered into battle were predominantly made of such, he would be quite familiar with the term. As he was inebriated at the time, he would more than likely have used it.