Benford's G&S Lexicon Entries for Cox and Box
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Act
Go on living, as in a stop-over.
Former spelling of doting, to be foolishly sentimental or sloppily affectionate.
A holiday resort town in Kent. Stedman (273) notes that Burnand lived there after he retired.
Another holiday resort town in Kent. Those gates have nothing to do with hinged doors; they come from the Danish word for “road” and are an echo from the ancient days of the Scandinavian immigrations.
A regiment of the Household Cavalry (142). For more details see Utopia, Limited.
A slang term applied to certain companies of soldiers distinguished by their blue uniforms. (142, 158).
An awkward way of saying slop basin, which can be a bowl for holding the dregs from tea cups at the tea table, or a container for kitchen garbage, or (shudder!) a chamber pot! (142, 320).
“To put one’s back up” means to antagonize (274) or annoy (142). I suppose it is derived from the way a threatened cat arches its back. (The clumsy way Burnand expresses this shows why he could not compete with Gilbert as a librettist.)
A break, a falling-out, a domestic spat.
Probably a court action for breach of promise.
Washing –– usually hands and face.
A colloquialism for “in secret” or “in confidence” (115). Presumably derived from the Latin sub rosa (which has the same meaning) “from the ancient use of the rose at meetings as a symbol of the sworn confidence of the participants” (250).
Funeral music, from the Latin dirige, the first word of the prescribed service for the dead. See also The Yeomen of the Guard.
Two interpretations can apply. One proposal is that the coastal patrol’s path showed up white on the chalk cliffs that are characteristic of the English south coast (251). The other is that the Guard’s route was shown by chalk marks on stones (142). My vote is with the first interpretation. Readers may want to know that in the days before electronic communications, Coast Guardsmen patrolled the shore on foot watching for vessels in distress.
In the old British monetary system, this meant one pound, seventeen shillings, and six pennies. There were twenty shillings to the pound, and twelve pennies (or pence) to the shilling. In our opinion the system was invented to confuse American tourists, and we are gratified that the British gave it up. Now if they would just learn to drive on the righteous side of the road.
A British coin worth two shillings and six pence, or about sixty cents (American) at that time.
A coin worth six old pennies or half a shilling. Prestige (245) proposes that a “tossing coin” is one with two heads or two tails. In the conAct that seems altogether likely.
Pronunciation: leds
Sheet-lead roof covering.
Pronunciation: boo-LONE
A French seaport on the English Channel, popular with the British upper crust. As Rees (251) puts it, “Mrs. Wiggins was really moving above her station in Boulogne. Ramsgate and Margate were visited more commonly by the Coxes and Boxes of this world.”