[From the name of the ‘waiting gentlewoman’ in Beaumont and Fletcher’s popular play of The Scornful Lady; so named possibly in allusion to the expression ‘thine handmaid’ so frequently applied to herself by Abigail the Carmelitess, 1 Sam. xxv. 24–31; but Bible names were common at this date without any special allusion.] A waiting-woman; a lady’s-maid.
1666. Pepys, Diary, IV. 195. By coach to the King’s playhouse, and there saw ‘The Scornful Lady’ well acted; Doll Common doing Abigail most excellently, and Knipp the widow very well.
1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, III. vi. (1866), 157. Thou art some forsaken Abigail we have dallied with heretofore.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker (1815), 57. An antiquated Abigail, dressed in her lady’s cast clothes.
1849. Lytton, Caxtons, XIV. vi. 370 (1875). The woman was dressed with a quiet neatness that seemed to stamp her profession as that of an abigail—black cloak with long cape, of that peculiar silk which seems spun on purpose for ladies’ maids.
1864. Duke of Manchester, Court & Soc. Eliz. to Anne, I. 81. Her house remained full of dons and pages, ladies and abigails.
