Bandbox Plot (The)

Rapin (History of England, iv. 297) tells us that a bandbox was sent to the lord-treasurer, in Queen Anne’s reign, with three pistols charged and cocked, the triggers being tied to a pack-thread fastened to the lid. When the lid was lifted, the pistols would go off, and shoot the person who opened the lid. He adds that [dean] Swift happened to be by at the time, and seeing the pack-thread, cut it, thereby saving the life of the lord-treasurer.

“Two ink-horn tops your Whigs did fill

With gunpowder and lead;

Which with two serpents made of quill,

You in a bandbox laid;

A tinder-box there was beside,

Which had a trigger to it,

To which the very string was tyʹd

That was designed to do it.”

Plot upon Plot (about 1713).

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.