upon every small occasion to geue your maister the bagge.
2. In another respect to give the bag was used in a sense analogous to that conveyed in TO GIVE THE SACK (q.v.), i.e., to dismiss a person from one's employment, with this important difference that primarily the 'bag' or 'sack' was not given by the master or mistress to the servant, but vice versâ, and, therefore, the expression meant 'to leave without warning.' This was the earliest usage.
1592. Defence of Conny Catching, in Greene's works XI., 86. If he meane to giue her the bagge, he selleth whatsoever he can, and so leaues hir spoild both of hir wealth and honestie.
1647. Speedy Hue and Crie, I . . . He being sometime an Apprentice on London Bridge . . . gave his master THE BAG. [M.]
Gradually the meaning of to give the bag changed to that which, even to-day, is dialectically current, i.e., 'to dismiss a person from one's employment,' though in large centres of population to give or receive the sack is, at present, the more popular equivalent. While dealing with variations of this kind, it is noteworthy that 'bag' was, in the seventeenth century, varied by 'canvas,' as Shirley has it
1652. Shirley, The Brothers, Act ii. I have promis'd him as much as marriage comes to, and I lose my honour, if my don receive the canvas.
Gifford and Dyce in a note say 'the phrase is taken from the practice of journeymen mechanics who travel in quest of work, with the implements of their profession. When they are discharged by their masters, they are said to receive THE CANVAS, Or THE bag; because in this their tools and necessaries are packed up, preparatory to their removal.' This suggested derivation would possibly pass muster were it not that, treated historically, the phrase though identical in form is shown to have had an earlier usage, and one, more-*over, of an entirely antagonistic character; unless indeed, in the first instance, it was customary for employers to find 'bags' of tools and working implements for their employees, in which case the workman or servant in leaving his work would naturally give the master the bag. The transition in sense which the phrase has undergone would then become perfectly clear, as far as the why and wherefore of the change is concerned. Cf., Sack.
TO GIVE ONE THE BAG TO hold, phr. (old).—To leave in the lurch; to engage a person's attention in order to deceive. Cf., To give the bag, sense 1.
1793. T. Jefferson, Writings (1859), iv., 7. She will leave Spain the bag to HOLD. [M.]
1823. Scott, Peveril of the Peak, vii. She gave me the bag to hold and was smuggling in a corner with a rich old Puritan.
In the bottom of the bag, phr. (old).—An expression equivalent to what, in modern slang, is termed 'having a trump card in reserve'; some-*thing in hand as a last resource or expedient.
1659. Reynolds, in Burton Diary (1828), iv., 447. If this be done which is IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG, and must be done, we shall . . . be able to buoy up our reputation, [m.]
