This month the poetical type of verdure (see GREEN) and inconstancy is frequently found in contemptuous combination. Thus APRIL-FOOL (or Scots APRIL-GOWK = cuckoo: Fr. poisson d’Avril) = one who is sent on a sleeveless errand (for ‘strap-oil,’ ‘pigeon’s milk,’ ‘the squad umbrella,’ ‘the diary of Eve’s grandmother,’ etc.), or who is the victim of asinine sport on APRIL-FOOLS’ (or ALL FOOLS’) DAY (1st April). This has given rise to the sarcastic APRIL-DAY = a wedding day; and APRIL-GENTLEMAN = a newly-married husband. Also APRIL-FISH = a pimp (Fr. maquereau); APRIL-SQUIRE = a new-made or upstart squire.
1592. GREENE, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier [Harleian Miscellany, II. 247]. Two pert APPLESQUIRES: the one had a murrey cloth gowne on. Ibid. (1871), i. That time when the Cuckoulds quirrister began to bewray APRILL, GENTLEMEN, with his never chaunged notes.
1687. CONGREVE, The Old Bachelor, i. 4. That’s one of Love’s APRIL-FOOLS, is always upon some Errand that’s to no purpose.
1694. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, V. xxx. In the days of yore, two sorts … used to abound in our courts of judicature, and rotted the bodies and tormented the souls of those who were at law … your APRIL FISH … your beneficial remoras.
c. 1710–12. ADDISON, Spectator [WALSH]. The whole family … made APRIL FOOLS … my landlady herself did not escape him.
[1712–3. SWIFT, The Journal to Stella, 31 March, lxii. This evening Lady Masham, Dr. Arbuthnot, and I, were contriving a lie for to-morrow.]
1728. HERRICK, Poor Robin.
| No sooner doth ST. ALL-FOOL’S morn approach | |
| But waggs … assemble to employ their sense | |
| In sending fools to get intelligence. |
1769. London Public Advertiser, 13 March. The APRIL FOOL custom arose from the …
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 395.
| We’re sent by our wise-looking owls | |
| Only to make us APRIL FOOLS. |
1776. BRAND, Observations on Popular Antiquities, 400, note. We in the North call Persons who are thus deceived APRIL-GOWKS.
c. 1830. T. P. THOMPSON, Exercises, Political and Others (1842), IV. 518. It will be difficult to make APRIL-FOOLS of a whole people that can read and write.
1892. W. S. WALSH, Curiosities of Popular Customs, 59. In character, though not in point of time, ALL FOOLS’ Day corresponds with the Roman Saturnalia … with the mediæval Feast of Fools … and is the Feast of Huli, in Hindostan.
TO SMELL OF APRIL AND MAY, verb. phr. (old).—A simile of youth and courtship.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 2. 67. What say you to young Master Fenton?… he SMELLS APRIL AND MAY.
Also PROVERBIAL SAYINGS: ‘A windy March and a rainy APRIL make a beautiful May’; ‘APRIL showers bring forth May flowers’; “When APRIL blows his horn it’s good for hay and corn’; ‘APRIL cling good for nothing’; ‘APRIL—borrows three days of March, and they are ill’; ‘A cold APRIL the barn will fill’; ‘An APRIL flood carries away the frog and her brood’; ‘APRIL and May are the keys of the year.’
