Caʹleb Quoʹtem

A parish clerk or jack-of-all-trades, in Colman’s play called The Review, or Wags of Windsor, which first appeared in 1808. Colman borrowed the character from a farce by Henry Lee (1798) entitled Throw Physic to the Dogs.

“I resolved, like Caleb Quotem, to have a place at the review.”—Washington Irving.

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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.