I wish to note, and to suggest to students in ethnology, the Query, how
it comes to pass that John Bull has a peculiar propensity to call things
by his own name, his familiar appellative of _Jack_?
Of all the long list of abbreviations and familiar names with which
times past and present have supplied us, that which honest Falstaff
found most pleasing to his ears, "_Jack_ with my familiars!" is the
household word with which ours are most conversant. Were not _Jack_ the
Giant-killer, _Jack_ and the Bean-stalk, and Little _Jack_, the
intimates of our earliest days? when we were lulled to sleep by ditties
that told of _Jack_ Sprat and his accommodating wife (an instance of the
harmony in which those of opposite tastes may live in the bonds of
wedlock); of _Jack_, the bachelor who lived harmoniously with his
fiddle, and had a soul above the advice of his utilitarian friend; of
_Jack_ who, like Caliban, was to have a new master; of _Jack_[1] the
brother of Gill; and of the _Jack_ who was only remarkable for having a
brother, whose name, as a younger son, is not thought worthy of mention.
And were not our waking hours solaced by songs, celebrating the good
Jack[2], little _Jack_ Horner, and holding up to obloquy the bad Jack,
naughty _Jacky_ Green, and his treachery to the innocent cat? Who does
not remember the time when he played at _jack_-straws, fished for
_jack_-sharps, and delighted in a skip-_jack_, or _jack_-a-jumper, when
_jack_-in-a-box came back from the fair (where we had listened not
unmoved to the temptations of that eloquent vagabond cheap-_Jack_) and
popped up his nose before we could say _Jack_ {326} Robinson; and when
_Jack_-in-the-green ushered in May-day? While a halo of charmed
recollections encircles the memory of _Jack_-pudding, dear to the
Englishman as Jack Pottage and Jack Sausage (Jean Potage and Hans Wurst)
are to Frenchman and German.
Our childhood past, _Jack_ still haunts us at every turn and phase of
our existence. The smoke-_jack_ and bottle-_jack_, those revolutionary
instruments that threw the turnspit out of employment (and have
well-nigh banished him from the face of the earth), cook the _Jack_
hare, which we bring in in the pocket of our shooting-_jacket_. We wear
_jack_-boots, and draw them off with boot-_jacks_; prop up our houses
with _jack_-screws; wipe our hands on _jack_-towels; drink out of
black-_jacks_, and wear them on our backs too, at least our ancestors
did; while flap-_jacks_[3] gave a relish to their Lenten diet,
_jack_-of-the-clock[4] told them the hour; _Jack_ priests held rule over
them; and gentle exercise at the _jack_, at bowls, helped them to digest
their dinners. We ride upon _jack_-asses; _jacks_ flourish in our
fish-ponds; _jack_-a-lanterns and _jack_-snipes flit over our bogs, the
one scarcely less difficult to capture than the other; _jack_-daws
multiply in our steeples, and _jack_-herons still linger about our
baronial halls.
The four _jack_ knaves, _jack_-a-lents, _jack_-a-dandies,
_jack_-a-nasties, and _jacks_-in-office (_jack_-an-apeses every man
_jack_ of them), with that name fraught with mysterious terror, _Jack_
Ketch, are the scape-graces of this numerous family; and, at every
_Jack_ who would be the gentleman, at a saucy _Jack_ who attempts to
play the _jack_ with us, our indignation rises, like that of Juliet's
nurse. But, on the whole, _Jack_ is an honest fellow, who does his work
in this life, though he has been reproached with Tom's helping him to do
nothing; but let the house that Jack built vindicate him from this
calumny. _Jack_, we repeat, is an honest fellow, and is so more
especially, when as _Jack_-tar (Heaven protect him from _Jack_-sharks
both on sea and shore!) he has old Ocean beneath, and the union-_jack_
above him. Of black and yellow _jack_, who are foreigners, we make no
mention; neither of _Jack_-Spaniards, nor of _Jacko_ the monkey, whom we
detest; but, go where we will, _Jack_ meets us, and is master of all
trades, for that we hold to be the right, though, we are aware, not the
usual version of the saying. In short, with Merry _Andrews_, _Jerry_
Sneaks, _Tom_ Noddies, and Silly _Simons_, we may all have a casual
acquaintance; but _Jack_, sweet _Jack_, kind _Jack_, honest _Jack_,
_Jack_ still is our familiar.