[trans. med.L. regius morbus (in classical L. = jaundice); cf. MDu. conincsevel, OF. le mal le roy.] Scrofula, which in England and France was formerly supposed to be curable by the king’s (or queen’s) touch. (Cf. EVIL sb. 7 c.)
The practice of touching for the king’s evil continued from the time of Edward the Confessor to the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The Office for the ceremony has not been printed in the Prayer-book since 1719.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 49. [God] destroyed the secounde witnesse by the Kynges evel [1432–50 the kynges sekenesse]. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., XVII. cxxxiii. (MS. Bodl.), lf. 224/1. Þe smel of leke … heleþ þe kinges yuel and þe dropsie.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 90 a. Swellinges in the neck ful of matter, called the kinges evyll.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 322. There is nothing that can cure the Kings Euill, but a Prince.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 340. The seauenth Sonne is able to cure the Kings Euill.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 23 June. Staid to see the King touch people for the King’s evil.
1722. W. Beckett (title), A Free and Impartial Enquiry into the Antiquity and Efficacy of Touching for the Cure of the King’s Evil.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1887), I. 41–2. Young Johnson had the misfortune to be much afflicted with the scrophula, or King’s-evil,… His mother … carried him to London where he was actually touched by Queen Anne [1712].
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., I. 66. The Confessor was the first who touched for the king’s evil.
1899. Besant, Orange Girl, I. iv. 45 Rheumatism, gout, and the King’s Evil.
fig. 1692. Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., v. M.’s Wks. (1851), 134. You had not then been bribed with Charles his Jacobusses. You had not got the King’s-Evil.
Hence † King’s-evil’d, -evilly, adjs., affected with the king’s evil.
1706. Baynard, in Sir J. Floyer, Hot & Cold Bath., II. (1709), 257. Their Children … Rickety, King’s Evil’d, or Consumptive. Ibid., 335. Miserable small King’s-Evilly, Scabby, Rickety Infants, scarce worth the rearing
