subs. phr. (old).—The genuine article: also as adj.

1

  1717.  CENTLIVRE, A Bold Stroke for a Wife. Dramatis Personæ. SIMON PURE. [See Act v. 1.]

2

  1785.  WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), Lyric Odes, x. [Wks. (Dublin, 1795), i. 90].

        Flattery’s a mountebank so spruce—gets riches;
  Truth, a plain SIMON PURE, a Quaker preacher.

3

  1815.  SCOTT, Guy Mannering, lvi. A young seafaring man came forward.——“Here’s the real SIMON PURE—”

4

  1839.  LEVER, Harry Lorrequer, xvii. Fearing every moment the arrival of the real SIMON PURE should cover me with shame and disgrace.

5

  1871.  Spectator, 2 Dec., ‘George Cruikshank.’ Nagler, the author of the Kunstlerlexicon, studying the controversy about the Cruikshanks, read that ‘George Cruikshank was the true SIMON PURE’ with the utmost gravity, therefore catalogued him as ‘Pure (Simon),’ calling himself George Cruikshank.

6

  1879.  W. D. HOWELLS, The Lady of the Aroostook, xxv. I should like to see what you call the SIMON-PURE American.

7

  1889.  F. REMINGTON, Horses of the Plains, in The Century Magazine, xxxvii. Jan., 337. The home of the SIMON-PURE wild horse is on the southern plains.

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