the bedstead, and, in length, about equal to the rapier. The socket is a few inches deep; and the bedstaff has (to steady it) a projecting rim which overlays the socket like a lid. The part of the bedstaff which enters the socket will then be the hilt of the rapier; the projecting rim will be the guard; and the rest of the staff will do duty as the blade. In the bedstaff we have then the form of a rapier; and, with this implement of wood, Captain Bobadil would have no difficulty in exhibiting his passado and stoccado. The rapier of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, moreover, was by no means the light and foil-like weapon now known as the small sword. It was of great length and heavy, and a bedstaff such as that suggested above, with a species of guard, and most likely about the weight of a heavy single-stick, would have been no bad instrument wherewith to indoctrinate a tyro in the noble art of self defence.
Hence, probably, if this be so, the derivation of the expression, in the twinkling of a bedstaff; more especially if, as would occasionally be the case, it were used as a weapon of defence against intruders, when possibly even life itself might hang upon a dexterous use of the implement.
1660. Charac. Italy, 78. In the twinkling of a Bedstaff he disrobed himself . . . and was just skipping into bed. [m.]
1676. T. Shadwell, Virtuoso, I., i. 'Gad, I'll do it instantly, in the twinkling of a bedstaff.
1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. XI., 259. Shake 'em off and leap into bed, in the twinkling of a bedstaff.
1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. i. 'I'll adown and be with you in . . . the twinkling of a bedpost.'
Among English Synonyms may be included:—In a jiffy; in two two's; in a brace of shakes; before you can say Jack Robinson; in a crack; in the squeezing of a lemon.
Between you and me and the bedpost, phr. (familiar).—humorous tag to an assertion; i.e., 'between ourselves';—'I know what you say, but, between you and me, etc. . . . the thing is absurd.' Sometimes the last word is varied by 'post,' 'door post,' or 'gate post'—any prop seems to serve.
1831. Bulwer Lytton, Eugene Aram, p. 234. Ah, sir, all very well to say so; but, between you and me and the bedpost, young master's quarrelled with old master.
1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, p. 127. And between you and me and the post, sir, it will be a very nice portrait too.
1879. Punch, March 8, p. 108. Discussing an absent friend. 'Yes, Robinson's a clever feller, and he's a modest feller, and he's a honest feller; but betwixt you and I and the post, Mr. Tones,' said Brown, confidentially, picking his wisdom tooth with his little finger nail, 'Robinson ain't got neither the Looks, nor yet the Language, nor yet the Manners of a Gentleman.'
'Right you are, sir!' said Jones, shovelling the melted remains of his Ice Pudding into his Mouth with a Steel Knife (which he afterwards wiped on the Table Cloth). 'You've 'it 'im orf t' a T!'
Bedrock. To get down to bedrock
[in anything; whether in
an enquiry, or in one's circumstances,
etc.].—To the bottom;
to the lowest level. A miner's
term, alluding to the solid rock
underlying superficial and other
formations. Therefore, metaphorically,
'to reach bedrock'
