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 612 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 , 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)
2
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)
3
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)
4
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)
5
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)
6
Whitfield, Henry (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Gothic; Satirical; London; Newmarket; Vienna;
Dialect Speakers
Speakers: All , Mr Snug
"May-hap, Mr. Bergamot, you do not like the cut of my coat; though it was not made by a parley woo francais , it is of good cloth; aye , as good as ever came out of a tradesman's shop. I bought it of a near neighbour of mine, enough to make me a whole suit. Zooks , how you stare, just like a stuck pig. I shan't eat you, sir, so don't be afraid. Why, sir, you have a countenance sour enough to turn all the small beer in the cellar;" winking to the company. " What's look now-a-days. Pride rides in coaches, and honesty is content to take up with the ten-toe stage ."
(Vol. 2,p. 150)
7
Whitfield, Henry (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Gothic; Satirical; London; Newmarket; Vienna;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Speakers: All , Mr Snug, interlocutor
"Oddsbuds! I, for my part, likes sweet things." "Will you have some of these rabbits?" said the giver of the feast. "Shall I help you, Mr. Snug, to a wing?"
"Aye, a wing and a part of the back, and plenty of onion sauce. None of your Wauxhall bits for me. I says a wing. If people, sir, don't take care of themselves now-a-days, I don't know, for my part, what's to become of them."
(Vol. 2,p. 156)
8
Hurstone, J.P. (1808)
Courtship; Inheritance / Identity; Satirical; Worcester; London; Egypt;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
3. narrator
" Ah! Mr. Henry," he exclaimed, " be that you? I never thought you great folks , at the Hill, were wont to rise much betimes ." [...]
" Why , my dear Mr. Henry, you look downish a bit! nothing do go cross, I hope, at the great house?"
Henry shook his head in silence.
-- " Nay ," continued the good man, "you know I'm free like with you, come tell me now what's the matter -- that bundle too --"
Our hero endeavoured now to assume a more cheerful air, and taking Stephen by the hand, he said "Nothing, my dear friend, has happened that can possibly be of any material consequence: -- conduct me to the cottage -- I am thirsty -- let me have some milk, and your curiosity shall be satisfied."
" O ," replied Stephen, "story, or no story, you shall have the milk in preference to e'er a lord in the land. But you look mortal faintish , and you've lost your fine colour and -- Ah! Mr. Henry, Mr. Henry, I did not send you in that state to Rose Hill.
The day that I worked in yon field, now nineteen years come next month , you had two cheeks more larger and redder than the big cabbage roses as you see yonder ."
Henry could not refrain from smiling at the preposterous simile of the loquacious Stephen , who now entered the cottage, informing his wife, Molly, of the visitor he had brought with him, and directing her to get some milk for him in a moment.
(Vol. 1,p. 99-102)
9
Meeke, Mary (1800)
Biography; Courtship; Inheritance / Identity; Manners / Society; English country houses;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
"I shall be in better spirits by and by, Mama," cried Betsey, "if you would but give me something to eat."
"What a gut do you grow!" politely observed the sister.
"I am sure I an't half so greedy as you are, Patty," was the retort courteous, while their mother asked the new comers if they chose any soup; adding, by way of tempting them to taste it, "We had a leg of mutton for dinner yesterday, and this is the liquor it was boiled in, stewed up with some split pease. I always endeavour to make the most of everything."
(Vol. 1,p. 177)
10
Meeke, Mary (1800)
Biography; Courtship; Inheritance / Identity; Manners / Society; English country houses;
Dialect Speakers
Speakers: All , Mrs. Mackintosh
" Nae be surprised, gentlemen," she said, "to find, though we have got sic a large and gude hoose , that we prefer the back to the front of it. 'Tis my fancy, and my gude mon loves his Moggy sae weel , that he seldom contradicts her. I prefer comfort to shew , ye ken ; and though I live in my kitchen aw winter, I flatter mysel 'tis as clean as ony parlour in summer. I like the rooms next the street ; but here I can enjoy the morning sun, which delights me during my breakfast. We eat our dinner hot from the fire, and my tea is as gude again when my water is nae carried about frae the kitchen to the parlour; and this ye shall experience, my gude friends, for I wish ye to remember the comfortable dish of tea that ye met with at Sandy Mackintosh's that ye may be tempted to visit us again, though ye were received in a kitchen." [some narrative omitted]
(S)he declared, "if she had but had sic a bairn by her dear Sandy, she should be the happiest woman in aw Britain." [some narrative omitted]
She was pressing them to taste some cracknels , a sort of cake peculiar to the island , when a violent ringing at the street-door made her exclaim-- "Here comes my torment ; step and let the foolish fellow in, Mary," turning to her assistant rather than her servant, "for ten to one if ony of his men are at hame . 'Tis a pure silly body of a Baronet, an Officer in one of the regiments now here, wha , taking advantage of my gude temper, prevailed upon me to take him into my hoose ; but if I could once see the back of him, he should nae darken my doors again." [some narrative omitted] " Ye are parfectly reeght , my gude friend. I have heard this hopeful sprig of Nobility tauk about Winchester." [some narrative omitted]
" Yere fellows, Sir Peter, are nae in my keeping; I nae ken nor care what has got them; perhaps they are gone to the ball."
(Vol. 1,p. 226-229)
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