Dialect in British Fiction: 1800-1836Funded by The Arts and Humanities Research CouncilSupported by The University of Sheffield
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Currently displaying 1 - 10 of 270 records    |    Next 10 records    |    Order results by: Publication Year ~ Novel Title
1
Whitfield, Henry (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Gothic; Satirical; London; Newmarket; Vienna;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Speakers: All , Facile, interlocutor
The obsequious foreigner in an instant made his appearance; his principal merit and utility were speaking the French language and broken English so as scarcely to be understood.
[some narrative omitted]
The following dialogue commenced between the master and his valet.
The honourable Mr. Pellet. Facile, are there any letters for me?"
Facile. "Oui, Monsieur, (with the lowest bow, giving the right honourable Mr. Pellet a letter) the honourable Monsieur Thomas Vortex has sent dis note for you."
[some narrative omitted]
Facile. "There have beside called on you, Monsieur (bowing) de tailleur, two jockies un marchand, qui vend du vin , Monsieur Soleil, un jeweller, Monsieur Did**ot, un opera dancer, Monsieur Issachar, the great broker, qui est ver rich."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "Very well, my good Facile. Honest Issachar is a d.....d good sort of fellow. He is the lily."
Facile. "Ah, mon Dieu! mais Monsieur , (emphatically shrugging up his shoulders) mais Monsieur (smiling, and putting his hand to his breast) une demoiselle charmante, tres belle , com this evening, she says dat she love you, that she, en verite , adore you, enfin elle dit que vous etes barbare, ingrat , and dat she will be ver inconsolable."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "Adorable creature! but if I hear a tittle of French from you, I'll break every bone in your skin."
Facile. "Maamselle look ver pretty, Sar ."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "You French devil, fetch my masquerade dress."
Facile. "Ah vous etes toujours gai, Monsieur, toujours plaisant, just like one Frenchman exactement ."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "None of your jabbering, Sir, depechez vous and be d.....d."
Facile. "I fly en verite , Sar , I fly, (scraping very low on the ground, and hobbling out of the room) ma foi! peste! le diable (muttering to himself) dis corn does plaguy me so, I must pay one visit to M. Gardiner, who has cured de Duchess of Rigadoon's pieds ."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "What is that you say, you old fool?" (shoving him violently out of the room.)
Facile. (returns and makes a low bow) "I have de honour of having received one big push from you, Sar . I am ver oblige, Sar , ver , ver much oblige indeed."
(Vol. 1,p. 33-36)
2
Whitfield, Henry (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Gothic; Satirical; London; Newmarket; Vienna;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Speakers: All , Facile, interlocutor
The obsequious foreigner in an instant made his appearance; his principal merit and utility were speaking the French language and broken English so as scarcely to be understood.
[some narrative omitted]
The following dialogue commenced between the master and his valet.
The honourable Mr. Pellet. Facile, are there any letters for me?"
Facile. "Oui, Monsieur, (with the lowest bow, giving the right honourable Mr. Pellet a letter) the honourable Monsieur Thomas Vortex has sent dis note for you."
[some narrative omitted]
Facile. "There have beside called on you, Monsieur (bowing) de tailleur, two jockies un marchand, qui vend du vin , Monsieur Soleil, un jeweller, Monsieur Did**ot, un opera dancer, Monsieur Issachar, the great broker, qui est ver rich."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "Very well, my good Facile. Honest Issachar is a d.....d good sort of fellow. He is the lily."
Facile. "Ah, mon Dieu! mais Monsieur , (emphatically shrugging up his shoulders) mais Monsieur (smiling, and putting his hand to his breast) une demoiselle charmante, tres belle , com this evening, she says dat she love you, that she, en verite , adore you, enfin elle dit que vous etes barbare, ingrat , and dat she will be ver inconsolable."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "Adorable creature! but if I hear a tittle of French from you, I'll break every bone in your skin."
Facile. "Maamselle look ver pretty, Sar ."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "You French devil, fetch my masquerade dress."
Facile. "Ah vous etes toujours gai, Monsieur, toujours plaisant, just like one Frenchman exactement ."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "None of your jabbering, Sir, depechez vous and be d.....d."
Facile. "I fly en verite , Sar , I fly, (scraping very low on the ground, and hobbling out of the room) ma foi! peste! le diable (muttering to himself) dis corn does plaguy me so, I must pay one visit to M. Gardiner, who has cured de Duchess of Rigadoon's pieds ."
The honourable Mr. Pellet. "What is that you say, you old fool?" (shoving him violently out of the room.)
Facile. (returns and makes a low bow) "I have de honour of having received one big push from you, Sar . I am ver oblige, Sar , ver , ver much oblige indeed."
(Vol. 1,p. 33-36)
3
Whitfield, Henry (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Gothic; Satirical; London; Newmarket; Vienna;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Speakers: All , John, interlocutor
"Greater fools than I first thought them," said John; "for my part, I would never fight about a female, who changes her mind as often as the weathercock points different ways."
" Ah, John," said Nanny smartly, "you forget the time when you and Tummus , our coachman, had stripped to fight about me, because I know who was jealous. Don't you recollect, John, when I came between you, and parted you; and yet it was a duced hard matter to make you put your clothes on and sit quiet , John, you know it was; and who, pray, was the fool then? Don't I recollect, Tummus telling you that your forks were so dirty, that a man might ride to Rumford on them, and that you were always the fiddle of the company?"
"No matter of that, " said John; "why don't they fight with fistes ? a bloody nose, or a blow in the bread-basket , is all they would get then; but here, dang it , Nanny, the very thoughts of it makes one's blood run cold: gemmen , who ought to know better, as having larning , will fight with barking irons or cold steel . Curse those barking irons , I cannot bear them; they suit thieves or pirates, but gemmen to fight with barking irons as they do, Nanny, is heathenish
(Vol. 1,p. 80-81)
4
Whitfield, Henry (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Gothic; Satirical; London; Newmarket; Vienna;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Speakers: All , John, interlocutor
"Greater fools than I first thought them," said John; "for my part, I would never fight about a female, who changes her mind as often as the weathercock points different ways."
" Ah, John," said Nanny smartly, "you forget the time when you and Tummus , our coachman, had stripped to fight about me, because I know who was jealous. Don't you recollect, John, when I came between you, and parted you; and yet it was a duced hard matter to make you put your clothes on and sit quiet , John, you know it was; and who, pray, was the fool then? Don't I recollect, Tummus telling you that your forks were so dirty, that a man might ride to Rumford on them, and that you were always the fiddle of the company?"
"No matter of that, " said John; "why don't they fight with fistes ? a bloody nose, or a blow in the bread-basket , is all they would get then; but here, dang it , Nanny, the very thoughts of it makes one's blood run cold: gemmen , who ought to know better, as having larning , will fight with barking irons or cold steel . Curse those barking irons , I cannot bear them; they suit thieves or pirates, but gemmen to fight with barking irons as they do, Nanny, is heathenish
(Vol. 1,p. 80-81)
5
Whitfield, Henry (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Gothic; Satirical; London; Newmarket; Vienna;
Dialect Speakers
Speakers: All , Bailiff
" Why as to the matter of that," answered the betteer looking of the two, though a regard to truth compels me to say that both of them wore the appearance of felons rather than officers who served his Majesty's court, "I am good-natured enough when there's a bit coming forward , but provisions, as my fellow officer Dick says, are so dear now a-days, that let a man be ever so industrious, I defies him to get an honest living, and pay every man his due. For my part, I pays as I goes , and therefore I can't , in justice, do you see, Miss Tankerville, afford to lose. Times are main ticklish , as brother Dick says; but, howsomever, tho' I can't take your bail, I would go a mile to oblige you, Miss. You are such a handsome, fine young lady, and withal look so good humoured."
(Vol. 1,p. 114-15)
6
Whitfield, Henry (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Gothic; Satirical; London; Newmarket; Vienna;
Dialect Speakers
When sir Henry and his friends reached Vienna, the English commander would force them to his lodgings; and, in the course of the evening, and so elevated at his late exploit, or as he properly called it, coup-de-main , that, with a view of paying deserved honour to it, he made them as drunk, he said, "as he ever loved to see his messmates." "Damn all palaver," added this son of the waves, " it don't matter a rope's end, or argufy a rummer of grog , if a man has a good tough oaken heart, what his outside is. There's that Lionel, a pretty youth, and though he looks all the world like a milk-sop , or one who never crossed the line , is as brave a fellow as the Isle ever produced. Come, give us your fist--a hearty good shake, young man. Here's not a dry soul on board; we all of us love good cheer; drink, sir, 'Success to Old England,' and fill again, signors. There's nothing like travelling; if it had not been for that, I should not have seen the coast of Holland, Aboukir, Copenhagen castle, or passed the gut of Gibraltar. Travelling clears our minds from all prejudice; and an English sailor is like his own ship--tight, and made of oak, plenty of hold in him, and, thank God, open to all nations but our enemies; and when we have beat them into a little sound reason, why then we parley vous as well as the best of them ; aye, and are on good terms with Mounseer , as we are with Italian, german, spaniard, or Dutchman. Who would have supposed we should have seen a Dutchman frenchified?
(Vol. 2,p. 133-35)
7
Whitfield, Henry (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Gothic; Satirical; London; Newmarket; Vienna;
Dialect Speakers
Speakers: All , Mr Snug
He could scarcely write intelligibly his own name, set all rules of grammar at defiance, breaking Priscian's and even Lowth's head most cruelly. He conceived, in his wisdom, that the use of musty proverbs and wise saws displayed a degree of knowledge superior to the generality of the world. His manners were blunt, his actions unpolished; and though frequently his phraseology was "Sir, and madam, if you please; I am highly obliged to you; will you please to have any of this, or would you possibly choose that; in what shall I serve you, sir, or madam;"--it was evident that this language arose from custom, and was the language of his shop.
"Gentlemen," said this man, who was about five feet one inch in height, and potbellied, dressed in a complete suit of the same cloth, "gentlemen, I begs pardon. It is werry , werry warm. I sweats like a town-bull, I declare," wiping his forehead; "my face is all a muck , and yet, upon my credit, I only walked a snail's pace from my house in Prospect-place, Newington, t'other side of the water. Ah, there's a number of warm men lives there; none of your wishy-washy skip-jack colonels, your spendthrift members of the parliament-house; many worth half a plum, some worth a whole one; gemini , they are warm fellows; they are your good men; men who can well afford to pay the old woman nine-pence, aye , and can afford to keep horses though they do eat of nights." This last remark was uttered with a look of profound sagacity.
(Vol. 2,p. 147)
8
Lister, Thomas Henry (1832)
Biography; Courtship; Crime; Inheritance / Identity; Manners / Society; Political; London; Northern Estate; Lake District;
Dialect Speakers
"It's an awsome thing, Mr. Jackson," said the park-keeper to the steward, after they had long plodded their way in silence, "to think what may have happened to my Lord. I'll be sworn there's poachers in this neighbourhood that would do a body a mischief as soon as look at him ; and so to my thinking –"
"They might touch you," said the Steward, "but I'm sure there's not a man hereabouts that would venture to lay a finger on his Lordship. There's not a set of tenants anywhere that have less reason to complain of their Landlord or them that manage for him ( though I say it ) than his Lordship's; and everybody will tell you the same; and if he's not liked, who is to be safe?"
" Oh, I never meant that my Lord wasn't liked, or you either, Mr. Jackson, but folks may do others an ugly turn; and as for poachers, I believe I ought to know something of them; and so to my thinking --?"
"Hark!" interrupted the Steward, as he heard at that moment a distant shout. "It is James, that went with my Lord this morning," said the other.
(Vol. 1,p. 6)
9
Lister, Thomas Henry (1832)
Biography; Courtship; Crime; Inheritance / Identity; Manners / Society; Political; London; Northern Estate; Lake District;
Dialect Speakers
"It's an awsome thing, Mr. Jackson," said the park-keeper to the steward, after they had long plodded their way in silence, "to think what may have happened to my Lord. I'll be sworn there's poachers in this neighbourhood that would do a body a mischief as soon as look at him ; and so to my thinking –"
"They might touch you," said the Steward, "but I'm sure there's not a man hereabouts that would venture to lay a finger on his Lordship. There's not a set of tenants anywhere that have less reason to complain of their Landlord or them that manage for him ( though I say it ) than his Lordship's; and everybody will tell you the same; and if he's not liked, who is to be safe?"
" Oh, I never meant that my Lord wasn't liked, or you either, Mr. Jackson, but folks may do others an ugly turn; and as for poachers, I believe I ought to know something of them; and so to my thinking --?"
"Hark!" interrupted the Steward, as he heard at that moment a distant shout. "It is James, that went with my Lord this morning," said the other.
(Vol. 1,p. 6)
10
Lister, Thomas Henry (1832)
Biography; Courtship; Crime; Inheritance / Identity; Manners / Society; Political; London; Northern Estate; Lake District;
Dialect Speakers
Speakers: All , American, Clarkson
"What, you?" said Clarkson, looking round, as his arm received a friendly support, that saved him from falling; "come, that's hearty. D—n it , you are a real good one. You bear no grudge, I see; that's right."
" No; we bear no grudge," said the American, "though it was your tarnation evidence that blew us out of Court entirely. It didn't leave us a splinter to stand upon. But it was old Ally's fault, I guess . He wouldn't give you enough, old boy, and who could expect that you shouldn't split if you had not your proper share of the Spanish ? But what did you get from the other side?"
"A d—d fine question to ask a gen'l'man ! Why, I'll tell you. I got what you couldn't give me."
"And what was that?"
" I've got it here -- a precious yarn of old Holford's spinning; a confession in black and white, and I may publish it if I like."
"And what the 'mighty is this confession?"
"Why, look you, I was tried once for shooting a man: -- you know his name : -- but I didn't do it."
"I thought," interrupted the American, "you let out once --"
" Hold your jaw ; what if I meant to do it? I didn't do it. Old Holford did it by accident. Think of the old fellow coming between us and taking my work out of my hands ! He let me be tried, though, d—n him ! and then I came over to your free-and-easy rip of a country."
"Then he has confessed that he did it, and cleared you?"
"Yes; that's part of the story."
"And then -- the money?"
"A thumping annuity -- none of your promises -- all signed and sealed, by G—d ! I shall live a d—d fine life of it now!"
(Vol. 3,p. 33-35)
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Version 1.1 (December 2015)Background image reproduced from the Database of Mid Victorian Illustration (DMVI)