“He throws away his wealth as heartily as young heirs, or old philosophers, and is so eager of a goal, or a mumper’s wallet, that he will not wait fortune’s leisure to undo him, but rides post to beggar’s bush, and then takes more pains to spend money than day-labourers to get it.”
A “mumper’s wallet” was a beggars bag, another symbol commonly associated with beggars. Thomas Blount (1656) Glossographia or a Dictionary has “To Dun, is a word lately taken up by fancy, and signifies to demand earnestly, or press a man to pay for commodities taken up on trust, or other debt”. The usage is typical of the standard literary usage. Specifically it refers to being brought to poverty by one’s own folly. It also refers to heirs throwing away their inheritances, as did Jane Anger almost one hundred years earlier.
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Posted: April 7th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Jane Anger, Literary, Londons Ordinary, Thomas Heywood, Twelve Ingenious Characters | No Comments »
“The great Patrimonies that wealthy men leave their children after their death, make them rich: but vice and other marthriftes happening into their companies, never leave them until they bee at the beggers bush, where I can assure you they become poore.”
Usage
This is one of the earliest recorded literary uses of the phrase. It is used in a literary sense of falling into poverty, in this instance by one’s own folly. The author did not feel any need to elaborate or explain it. This suggests it was already in common use. The usage is similar to the earlier alternative beggarly attributes – Isabel Plumpton’s Beggars Staffe and William Bullein’s Beggars Barne. There is no suggestion that it was a real location.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Isabel Plumpton, Jane Anger, Literary, William Bullein, proverb | No Comments »
“Sir for God sake take an end, for we are brought to begger staffe, for you have not to defend them withall.”
This comes from a moving personal letter from Isabel Plumpton (“your bedfellow”) to her husband Sir Robert Plumpton urging him to end the litigation that was ruining them. Sir Robert, Warden of Knaresborough Castle, was involved in numerous legal cases involving his inheritence, and actions by Sir Richard Empson, the King’s Agent. His title to the estates was bound up in such a way that he could not sell it to raise money to cover the costs. Having lost at York Assizes he had gone to London to appeal. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Isabel Plumpton, Jane Anger, William Bullein, proverb | No Comments »
