Heading
Old St. Paul's, from which one part of the church was termed Duke Humphrey's Walk. Old Paul's was a regular promenade, especially for lackeys out of livery, and ruffians and sea-captains out of luck. Thus Falstaff explains of Bardolph that he 'got him in Paul's,' while Jonson actually lays the scene of Every Man Out of His Humour (1599), in 'The Middle Aisle of St. Paul's,' to introduce his cavaliero Shift. Shift and Bardolph, in fact, were what is now called 'inspectors of public buildings'; they walked in Paul's on the chance of a pick-up, and they dined by looking at the monuments. The Bodleian Library was founded by the same Duke Humphrey, and the Gentleman's Mag. (1794, p. 529) records that when a student stayed on during the dinner hour, at which time it used to be closed, he was said to dine with Duke Humphrey. An alternative traces the saying to the report that Duke Humphrey was starved to death. Chambers, in his Historical Sketch of St. Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh, records a similar pleasantry concerning the tomb of the Earl of Murray, and quotes a Scots poet, one Sempill (16th cent.), who makes a hungry idler say: I dined with saints and gentlemen, E'en sweet St. Giles and the Earl of Murray. See Wharton, Hist, of Eng. Poetry (ed. 1824), vol. IV., p. 361.
1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, in wks., ii., 18. I . . . retired me to Paules, to seeke my dinner with Duke Humfrey.
1592. Gab. Harvey, Four Letters. To seek his dinner in Poules with Duke Humphrey.
1608. The Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets. And if I prove not that a mince-pie is the better weapon, let me DINE twice a week at Duke Humphry's TABLE.
1664. H. Peacham, Worth of a Penny, in Arber's Garner, vol. VI., p. 273. Who, having been troubled with over much money, afterward, in no long time, have been fain, after 'a long dinner with Duke Humphrey,' to take a nap on 'penniless bench,' only to verify the old proverb, 'A fool and his money is soon parted.'
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. lv. My mistress and her mother must have dined with Duke Humphrey, had I not exerted myself in their behalf.
1884. Daily Telegraph, 22 Jan., p. 5, col. 3. In future, not even the most impecunious of diners-out must accept an invitation from Duke Humphrey.
Ding, verb (Old Cant, in some
senses).—Used as a colloquialism
(as in Scott) it signifies to
knock, to strike down, to pound
or (as in quot., 1786) to give
way: while in slang it means
to get rid of; to pass to a confederate;
'to steal by a single
effort.' To ding a castor = to
snatch a hat and run with it: the
booty being dinged if it has to
be thrown away. Going upon
the ding = to go on the prowl.
Ding the tot! = Run away
with the lot!
c. 1340. Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 7015 (ed. Morris). Right swa pe devels salle ay dyng, on pe synfulle, withouten styntyng.
1600. Sir John Oldcastle, Act III., Sc. ii. For the credit of Dunstable, ding down the money to-morrow.
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, V., iii. Sur. [without]. Down with the door. Kas. [without]. 'Slight, ding it open.
1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act II. If I'm to have any good, let it come of itself; not to keep dinging it, dinging it into one so.
1786. Burns, A Dream. But facts are chiels that winna ding.
1821. Pierce Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 78. Oh I took him such a lick of his mummer, and dinged his rattle clean out of his hand.
b. 1793, d. 1872. Dean Ramsey. Our meenister's dinged the guts out of twa Bibles.
