Blue Bottle
.A beadsman, a policeman; so called from the colour of his dress. Shakespeare makes Doll Tearsheet denounce the beadle as a “blue-bottle rogue.”
“You proud varlets, you need not be ashamed to wear blue, when your master is one of your fellows.”—Dekker: The Honest Whore (1602).
“Iʹll have you soundly swinged for this, you blue-bottle rogue.”—Shakespeare: 2 Hen. IV., act v. 4.
