In some of the earlier numbers of "N. & Q.," there occur disquisitions as
to the origin of the term _blackguard_, and the time at which it came into
use in England in its present sense. But the communications of your
correspondents have not been satisfactory upon either point--they have not
shown the period at which the word came to be accepted _in its present
sense_; and their quotations all apply to its use in a much more simple
meaning, and one totally different from that which we now attach to it.
One class of these quotations (Vol. ii., pp. 171. 285.), such as the
passages from BUTLER and FULLER, refer obviously to a popular superstition,
during an age when the belief in witchcraft and hobgoblins was universal;
and when such creatures of fancy were assigned as _Black Guards_ to his
Satanic majesty. "Who can conceive," says FULLER in the paragraph
extracted, "but that such a Prince-principal of Darkness must be
proportionally attended by a Black Guard of monstrous opinions?" (_Church
History_, b. ix. c. xvi.) And in the verses of BUTLER referred to,
Hudibras, when deceived by Ralpho counterfeiting a ghost in the dark,--
"Believed it was some drolling sprite
That _staid upon the guard_ at night:"
and thereupon in his trepidation discourses with the Squire as follows:
"Thought he, How does the _Devil_ know
What 'twas that I design'd to do?
His office of intelligence,
His oracles, are ceas'd long since;
And he knows nothing of the Saints,
But what some treach'rous spy acquaints.
This is some petty-fogging _fiend_,
Some under door-keeper's friend's friend,
That undertakes to understand,
And juggles at the second hand:
And now would pass for spirit Po,
And all men's dark concerns foreknow.
I think I need not fear him for't;
These rallying _devils_ do not hurt.
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With that he roused his drooping heart,
And hastily cry'd out, What art?--
A wretch, quoth he, whom want of grace
Has brought to this unhappy place.
I do believe thee, quoth the knight;
Thus far I'm sure thou'rt in the right,
And know what 'tis that troubles thee,
Better than thou hast guess'd of me.
Thou art some paltry, _blackguard sprite_,
Condemn'd to drudg'ry in the night;
Thou hast no work to do in th' house,
_Nor half-penny to drop in shoes_;
Without the raising of which sum
You dare not be so troublesome;
To pinch the slatterns black and blue,
For leaving you their work to do.
This is your business, good Pug Robin,
And your diversion, dull dry bobbing."
_Hudibras_, Part III. Canto 1. line 1385, &c.
It will be seen that BUTLER, like FULLER, uses the term in the simple sense
as a _guard_ of the Prince of Darkness. But the concluding lines of
Hudibras's address to Ralpho explain the process by which, at a late
period, this term of the _Black Guard_ came to be applied to the lowest
class of domestics in great establishments.
The Black Guard of Satan was supposed to perform the domestic drudgery of
the kitchen and servants' hall, in the infernal household. The extract from
HOBBES (Vol. ii., p. 134.) refers to this:--
"Since my Lady's decay, I am degraded from a cook; and I fear the Devil
himself will entertain me but for one of his _black guard_, and he
shall be sure to have his roast burnt."
Hence came the popular superstition that these goblin scullions, on their
visits to the upper world, confined themselves to the servants' apartments
of the houses which they favoured with their presence, and which at night
they swept and garnished; pinching those of the maids in their sleep who,
by their laziness, had imposed such toil on their elfin assistants; but
_slipping money into the shoes_ of the more tidy and industrious servants,
whose attention to their own duties before going to rest had spared the
goblins the task of performing their share of the drudgery. Hudibras
apostrophises the ghost as--
"... some paltry _blackguard_ sprite
Condemn'd to drudgery in the night;
Thou hast no work to do in th' house
Nor half-penny to drop in shoes;"
and therefore, as the knight concluded--"this devil full of malice" had
found sufficient leisure to taunt and rally him in the dark upon his recent
disasters.
This belief in the visits of domestic spirits, who busy themselves at night
in sweeping and arranging the lower apartments, has prevailed in the North
of Ireland and in Scotland from time immemorial: and it is explained in SIR
WALTER SCOTT'S notes to the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, as his
justification for introducing the goblin page Gilpin Horner amongst the
domestics of Branksome Hall. Perhaps, from the association of these elves
with the lower household duties, but more probably from a more obvious
cause, came at a later period the practice described by GIFFORD in his note
on BEN JONSON, as quoted by your correspondent (Vol. ii., p. 170.), by
which--
"in all great houses, but particularly in the Royal Residences, there
were a number of mean dirty dependents, whose office it was to attend
the wool-yard, sculleries, &c. Of these, the most forlorn wretches seem
to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, &c. To
this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses, and rode in the
carts with the pots and kettles, the people, in derision, gave the name
of the _black guards_."
This is no doubt correct; and hence the expression of BEAUMONT and
FLETCHER, quoted from the _Elder Brother_, that--
"... from the _black guard_
To the grim Sir in office, there are few
Hold other tenets:"
meaning from the lowest domestic to the highest functionary of a household.
This too explains the force of the allusion, in Jardine's _Criminal
Trials_, to the apartments of Euston House being "far unmeet for her
Highness, but fitter for the Black Guard"--that is, for the scullions and
lowest servants of an establishment. SWIFT employs the word in this sense
when he says, in the extract quoted by Dr. Johnson in his _Dictionary_ in
illustration of the meaning of _blackguard_,--
"Let a black-guard boy be always about the house to send on your
errands, and go to market for you on rainy days."
It will thus be seen, that of the six authors quoted in "N. & Q." no one
makes use of the term _black guard_ in an opprobrious sense such as
attaches to the more modern word "blackguard;" and that they all wrote
within the first fifty years of the seventeenth century. It must therefore
be subsequent not only to that date, but to the reign of Queen Anne, that
we are to look for its general acceptance in its present contumelious
sense. And I believe that its introduction may be traced to a recent
period, and to a much more simple derivation than that investigated by your
correspondents.
I apprehend that the present term, "a blackguard," is of French origin; and
that its importation into our language was subsequent to the Restoration of
Charles II., A.D. 1660. There is a corresponding term in French, _blague_,
which, like our English adaptation, is not admissible in good society. It
is defined by Bescherelles, in his great _Dictionnaire National_, to mean
"fanfaronnade, hâblerie, mensonge; bourde, gasconade:" and to {79} be "un
mot populaire et bas, dont les personnes bien élevées évitent de se
servir." From _blague_ comes the verb _blaguer_, which the same authority
says means "dire des blagues; mentir pour le plaisir de mentir." And from
_blaguer_ comes the substantive _blagueur_, which is, I apprehend, the
original of our English word _blackguard_. It is described by Bescherelles
as a "diseur de sornettes et de faussetées; hâbleur, fanfaron. Un
_blagueur_ est un menteur, mais un menteur qui a moins pour but de tromper
que de se faire valoir."
The English term has, it will be observed, a somewhat wider and more
offensive import than the French: and the latter being rarely to be found
amongst educated persons, or in dictionaries, it may have escaped the
etymologists who were in search of a congener for its English derivative.
Its pedigree is, however, to be sought in philological rather than
archæological records. Within the last two centuries, a number of words of
honest origin have passed into an opprobrious sense; for example, the
oppressed tenants of Ireland are spoken of by SPENSER and SIR JOHN DAVIES
as "_villains_." In our version of the Scriptures, "_cunning_" implies
merely skill in music and in art. SHAKSPEARE employs the word "_vagabond_"
as often to express pity as reproach; and I think it will be found, that as
a _knave_, prior to the reign of Elizabeth, meant merely a serving man, so
a _blackguard_ was the name for a pot-boy or scullion in the reign of Queen
Anne. The transition into its more modern meaning took place at a later
period, on the importation of a foreign word, to which, being already
interchangeable in sound, it speedily became assimilated in sense.