Mum-budget. See Mum.
Mum-glass, subs. (old).—The Monument on Fish St. Hill.
1760. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
Mummer, subs. (theatrical).—1. A player.
1599. Solyman and Perseda [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), v. 309]. I
was one of the mummers myself, simple as I stand here.
1605. Marston, Insatiate Countesse, iii. Dost make a mummer of me,
oxe-head? Make answer gentleman.
1610. Shakspeare, Coriolanus, ii. 1. If you chance to be pinched
with the cholick, you make faces like mummers.
1772. Coles, Dict., s.v.
1821. Egan, Tom & Jerry, p. 78.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab., iii. 141. ‘They talk of strolling
actors living so jollily and well, but I never knew it fall to my
share. What we call a mummer’s feed is potatoes and herrings.’
1871. Newark Advertiser, 18 Jan. A party of mummers visited the
towns and villages of North Notts during the past fortnight, and
highly diverted the inhabitants by their dancing, singing of old
songs, and the play of the Hobby Horse. The latter play was in
existence in the days of the Plantagenets, and probably the song
and tune which they sang, viz., ‘When Joan’s ale was new.’
1886. Fun, 4 August, p. 44. Now is the witching hour when country
companies are formed, and mummers go on tour.
1893. Daily Telegraph, 30 March. Mr. J. L. Toole has humorously
described how at the outset of his career he once took lodgings in
a house, the proprietor of which, when the popular comedian went
away, cordially shook hands with him, and said how delighted he
should be to see him again, although he was a mummer; for, the
prudent man added, ‘the last mummers took away the chairs and
tables.’