subs. (common).—1. in pl., the occupants of the gallery at a theatre. [Said to have been first used by Garrick because they were seated on high, and close to the sky-painted ceiling.] Fr., paradis = gallery; also poulailler. In feminine, GODDESS.
1772. CUMBERLAND, Fashionable Lover [in the character of a printer’s devil].
| ’Tis odds | |
| For one poor Devil to face so many GODS. |
1812. H. and J. SMITH, Rejected Addresses, p. 128 [ed. 1869].
| Each one shilling GOD within reach of a nod is, | |
| And plain are the charms of each Gallery GODDESS. |
1843. THACKERAY, The Irish Sketch-Book, ch. xxvii. The gallery was quite full … one young GOD, between the acts, favoured the public with a song.
1872. M. E. BRADDON, Dead-Sea Fruit, ch. xiv. There come occasionally actors and actresses of higher repute, eager to gather new laurels in these untrodden regions, and not ill pleased to find themselves received with noisy rapture and outspoken admiration by the ruder GODS and homelier GODDESSES of a threepenny gallery.
1890. Globe, 7 April, p. 2, c. 2. The GODS, or a portion of them, hooted and hissed while the National Anthem was being performed.
1892. SYDNEY WATSON, Wops the Waif, iii., iv. It is only when we have paid our ‘tuppence’ and ascended to the gallery just under the roof, known as ‘among the GODS,’ that we begin to understand what is meant by the lowest classes, the ‘great unwashed.’
1892. Pall Mall Gazette, 20 April, p. 2, c. 3. If theatre managers would only give the public the chance of as good a seat as can be got at the Trocadero or the Pavilion, at the same price, and manage the ventilation of their houses so as not to bake the GODS and freeze the ‘pitites,’ I venture to think that fewer people would go to the music halls.
2. In pl. (printers’).—The quadrats used in JEFFING (q.v.).
3. (tailors’).—A block pattern. GODS OF CLOTH = ‘classical tailors.’—GROSE. See SNIP.
4. (Eton).—A boy in the sixth form.
1881. PASCOE, ed. Everyday Life in Our Public Schools, 36. A ‘GOD’ at Eton is probably in a more exalted position and receives more reverence than will ever afterwards fall to his lot.
A SIGHT FOR THE GODS, phr. (common).—A matter of wonderment.
1892. HUME NISBET, The Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 31. Stringy Bark prepared to greet his native land, was A SIGHT FOR THE GODS to behold with satisfaction, and men to view from afar with awed respect.
GOD PAYS! phr. (old).—An expression at one time much in the mouth of disbanded soldiers and sailors (who assumed a right to live on the public charity). The modern form is, ‘If I don’t pay you, God Almighty will.’
1605. The London Prodigal, ii. 3.
| But there be some that bear a soldier’s form, | |
| That swear by him they never think upon, | |
| Go swaggering up and down from house to house, | |
| Crying, ‘GOD PAYS all.’ |
1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Workes, ‘The Begger.’
| These feather’d Fidlers sing, and leape, and play, | |
| The Begger takes delight, and GOD DOTH PAY. |
1640. JONSON, Epigram XII.
| To ev’ry cause he meets, this voice he brays: | |
| His only answer is to all, GOD PAYS. |
GOD (or BRAMAH) KNOWS: I DON’T, phr. (common).—An emphatic rejoinder.
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Come Iddio vel dica., a phrase, as wee would say: GOD HIMSELFE TELL YOU, I CANNOT.
