"_Please the Pigs_" (Vol. v., p. 13.).--The editorial reply to my query
about the origin of this expression is very ingenious, and appears at
first sight to be very probable; and, of course, if it can be shown to
rest upon authority, it will be accounted satisfactory. But [and here
let me say, how conscious I am that it savours something of presumption
to be butting my buts against editorial sapience which has been brought
to the aid of my own confessed ignorance; yet, as that "purry furry
creature with a tail yclept a cat" may with impunity cast its feline
glances at a king, I am emboldened to hope that "a pig without a tail"
may enjoy the immunity of projecting just one porcine squint at an
editor. And so to my _but_ right boldly, though perhaps as blunderingly
as pigs are wont] the sound of the word "pyx" has suggested to my mind
another solution which, while it is much less ingenious, appears to me
to be much more probable. May not the saying be a simple corruption,
_all' allegria_, of "please the _pixies_?" This would save the metonymy,
and would also avoid what I conceive to be a more formidable difficulty
attaching to the idea of "please the _Host_"--viz., the fact that,
although I have travelled and resided not a little in Roman Catholic
countries, in France, Italy, Spain, and the Mediterranean Islands, I
never yet have heard any expression which could be supposed to involve
the idea of favour or disfavour from the Host; albeit such expressions
applying to the several persons of the blessed Trinity, and to every
saint in the calendar, are rife in every mouth.
Having no authority, however, for my conjecture, I put it in the form of
a Query, in the hope of provoking an authoritative decision.