_Pillgarlick_ (Vol. iii., p. 74.).--That _to pill_ is merely another form
of the word _to peel_, appears from the book of Genesis, c. xxx., v. 37,
38: "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut
tree: and _pilled_ white strakes in them, and made the white appear which
was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had _pilled_ before the
flocks," &c.
On first seeing your correspondent's Query, it occurred to me that perhaps
"poor Pillgarlick" was in some way akin to "Pillicock," of whom Edgar, in
_King Lear_, records that "Pillicock sat on Pillicock's hill;" but the
connexion between these two worthies, if any, I confess myself quite unable
to trace.
I conceive that Pillgarlick means "peeler of garlick," _i.e._ scullion; or,
to borrow a phrase from a witness in a late case at the Middlesex sessions,
{151} which has attracted some attention, "a person in a low way of life."
The passage from Skelton, cited by your correspondent F. S. Q., may, I
think, be explained thus: the will is so powerful in man's moral
constitution, that the reason must content itself with an inferior place
(as that of a scullion compared with that of the master of the house); or
if it attempts to assert its proper place, it will find it a hopeless
endeavour--as hopeless as that of "rosting a stone."