QUEEN ANNE (QUEEN ELIZABETH, MY LORD BALDWIN [RAY, 1670]—or any personage whose decease is well-known) IS DEAD, phr. (old).—A retort on stale news: also QUEEN ANNE IS DEAD AND HER BOTTOM’S COLD. Whence (in quot. 1753) QUEEN ELIZABETH’S WOMEN = ensigns of antiquity. Cf. NEWS. Fr. C’est vieux comme le Pont-Neuf: Henri Quatre est sur le Pont-Neuf.
c. 1619. CORBET, Elegy on Death of Queen Anne [of Denmark, Consort of Jas. I.].
| Noe; not a quatch, sad poets; doubt you, | |
| There is not griefe enough without you? | |
| Or that it will asswage ill newes, | |
| To say, SHEE’S DEAD, that was your muse? |
1708–10. SWIFT, Polite Conversation, i. Lady Smart. … What news Mr. Neverout? Neverout. Why, Madam, QUEEN ELIZABETH’S DEAD.
1753. RICHARDSON, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, I. 296. We will leave the modern world to themselves, and be QUEEN ELIZABETH’S WOMEN.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Some Account of a New Play.’ Lord Brougham, it appears, isn’t DEAD,—though QUEEN ANNE IS.
1859. THACKERAY, The Virginians, lxxiii. ‘He was my grandfather’s man, and served him in the wars of Queen Anne.’… On which my lady cried, petulantly, ‘Oh Lord! QUEEN ANNE’S DEAD, I suppose, and we ain’t a-going into mourning for her.’
