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Blue Bottle

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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.

 

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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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Blue (A)
Blue-apron Statesman (A)
Blue Beans
Bluebeard
Bluebeard’s Key
Blue Billy (A)
Blue Blood
Blue Boar
Blue Bonnets (The)
Blue Books
Blue Bottle
Blue Caps
Blue-coat School
Blue Devils
Blue-eyed Maid (The)
Blue Fish (The)
Blue Flag
Blue Gown (A)
Blue-gowns
Blue Guards (The)
Blue Hen