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Bonʹiface

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A sleek, good-tempered, jolly landlord. From Farquhar’s comedy of The Beauxʹ Stratagem.

“A regular British Boniface.”—The John Bull.

St. Boniface. The apostle of Germany, an Anglo-Saxon whose original name was Winifrid or Winfrith. (680–750.)

St. Boniface’s cup. An extra cup of wine (to the health of the Pope). Pope Boniface, we are told in the Ebrietatis Encomium, instituted an indulgence to those who drank his good health after grace, or the health of the Pope of the time being. An excuse for an extra glass.

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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.

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