subs. (old local).—A room in Southgate Debtors’ Prison.
PHRASES, COLLOQUIALISMS, and PROVERBIAL SAYINGS.—TO WIN ONE’S SHOES (old tournament) = to vanquish one’s adversary; TO DIE IN ONE’S SHOES (or BOOTS) = to be hanged: see LADDER; TO SHOE THE WILD COLT = to be initiated, ‘to exact FOOTING’ (q.v.); also TO SHOE; TO SHOE ALL ROUND = to provide hat-band, gloves, and scarf at a funeral; many SHOEINGS being only partial (GROSE); TO MAKE CHILDREN’S SHOES = to look ridiculous; TO LICK ONE’S SHOES = to fawn on; to cringe; TO MAKE FEET FOR CHILDREN’S SHOES = to copulate: see GREENS and RIDE; IN ANOTHER’S SHOES = in his place; TO PUT THE SHOE ON THE RIGHT FOOT = to lay blame (or praise) where justly due; TO TREAD ONE’S SHOE STRAIGHT = to do what is right and proper; TO TREAD ONE’S SHOE AWRY = (1) to play fast and loose; and spec. (2) to play the whore; TO SHOE THE GOOSE = to undertake anything absurd or futile: cf. ‘He that will meddle with all things may go SHOE THE GOSLINS’; and (2) to get tipsy: TO SHOE THE COBBLER = to tap the ice quickly with the forefoot when sliding: see COBBLER’S-KNOCK; TO WAIT FOR DEAD MEN’S SHOES (see DEAD MEN’S SHOES); TO THROW AN OLD SHOE = ‘to wish them Luck on their Business’ (B. E.); ‘THE SHOE PINCHES (of untoward circumstances or events); also ‘No man knows where THE SHOE PINCHES but he who wears it’ (B. E.); ANOTHER PAIR OF SHOES = something quite different: Fr. une autre paire de manches; OVER SHOES, OVER BOOTS = ‘in for a sheep, in for a lamb’; ‘ONE SHOE will not fit all feet’ = ‘People nor circumstances are not all alike’; ‘He came in hosed and SHOD’ = ‘He was born to a good estate.’
[?]. MS. Lincoln. A. 1. 17 f. 149. How that thir knyghtis hase WONE THAIR SCHONE.
1383. CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales, 9426, ‘The Marchantes Tale.’ I wot best wher WRINGETH ME MY SHO.
d. 1529. SKELTON, Colyn Clout.
| What hath laymen to doe | |
| THE GRAY GOSE FOR TO SHOE? |
c. 1530. The Parlament of Byrdes [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, III. 179].
| Who wyll smatter what euery man doose | |
| May go helpe TO SHOO THE GOOSE. |
1546. HEYWOOD, 46, sign. C. [NARES]. Now for good lucke CAST AN OLD SHOE after me.
1573–9. G. HARVEY, Letters [Camden Society, 83 [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 591. Men know where THE SHOE PINCHETH;… substituted for Chaucer’s wringeth].
1606. The Return from Parnassus, i., 4 [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ix. 125]. London may shortly THROW AN OLD SHOE after us.
1609. SHAKESPEARE, Tempest, iii. 2. Cal. How does thy honour? Let me LICK THY SHOE.
1611. COTGRAVE, Dictionarie [HALLIWELL]. A woman to play false, enter a man more than she ought, or TREAD HER SHOOE AWRY.
1613. FLETCHER, The Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 1.
| Mal. Captain, YOUR SHOES are old; pray put ’em off, | |
| And LET ONE FLING ’em after us. |
1621. JONSON, Masque of Gypsies. Hard AFTER AN OLD SHOE, I’ll be merry.
1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Workes, ii. 145.
| For where true courage roots, | |
| The Prouerb sayes, ONCE OUER SHOOES, O’R BOOTS. |
1633. MARMION, A Fine Companion iv. 4. Cro. Well, mistress, pray THROW AN OLD SHOE after us!
1653. URQUHART, Rabelais, IV., xlv. [BOHN]. Whoever refused to do this should presently swing for it and DIE IN HIS SHOES.
1663. R. STAPYLTON, The Slighted Maid, ii. 30. Iber. I’ll THROW MARC ANTONY’S OLD SHOO after you.
1663. KILLIGREW, The Parson’s Wedding, iv., 7 [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), 4th ed., 1875, xiv., p. 501]. Par. Ay, with all my heart, there’s AN OLD SHOE AFTER YOU.
1682. BEHN, The Roundheads, iv. 2. Hews. Who, pox shall we stand MAKING CHILDRENS SHOES all the year? No, No, let’s begin to settle the Nation, I say, and go throw stich with our Work.
1708–10. SWIFT, Polite Conversation, i. Col. … Mr. Buzzard has married again! Lady Smart. This is his Fourth Wife; Then he has been SHOD ROUND.
d. 1734. R. NORTH, The Life of Lord Guildford, ii. 96. He used to say George (his son) would DIE IN HIS SHOES.
1742. BRANSTON [WALPOLE, Letter to Mann (1833), I. 180]. At the end of the walk hung a rogue on a gibbet! He beheld it and wept, for it caus’d him to muse on Full many a Campbell, that DIED WITH HIS SHOES ON.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 146. I promised to place him IN MY LATE MISTRESS’S SHOES.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Execution’ (ed. 1862), p. 196.
| And there is M‘Fuze, | |
| And Lieutenant Tregooze, | |
| And there is Sir Carnaby Jenks, of the Blues, | |
| All come to see a man ‘DIE IN HIS SHOES!’ |
1842. H. TAYLOR, Edwin the Fair, iii. 8.
| Not alone | |
| Them that were placed by Edred IN THE SHOES | |
| Of seculars that by Edred were expulsed. |
1861. DICKENS, Great Expectations, xl. We’ll show ’em ANOTHER PAIR OF SHOES than that, Pip; won’t us?
1868. BREWER, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, s.v. SHOEING THE WILD COLT. Exacting a fine called ‘footing’ from a new comer, who is called the ‘colt.’ Of course, the play is between the words ‘shoeing’ and ‘footing.’
