or commandments, subs. phr. (old).—The ten fingers: spec. of a woman. Also BY THESE TEN BONES! (once a common oath: in punning reference to the Mosaic Decalogue).

1

  c. 1485.  Digby Mysteries (1882), 4, note. By thes BONYS TEN thei be to you vntrue.

2

  c. 1540.  HEYWOOD, The Four P’s. [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), i. 92].

        Now ten tymes I beseche hym that hye syttes,
Thy wives X COMMAUNDEMENTES may serch thy v wittes.

3

  1542.  UDALL, The Apophthegmes of Erasmus, 27. [Socrates is advised to use his TENNE COMMAUNDEMENTES in a brawl.]

4

  1562.  Jacke Juggeler [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), ii. 125]. Jenkin Careaway. I am a servant of this house, BY THESE TEN BONES.

5

  c. 1575.  Ane Ballat of Matrymonie [LAING, Early Popular Poetry of Scotland, ii. 76].

        She … pylled the barke even of hys face
With her COMMAUNDEMENTS TEN.

6

  1589.  Pappe with an Hatchet (1844), 28. Martin sweares BY HIS TEN BONES.

7

  1593.  SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry VI., i. 3. Could I come near your beauty with my nails, I’d set my TEN COMMANDMENTS in your face. Ibid., i. 4. BY THESE TEN BONES, my lord [holding up his hands], he did speak to me in the garret one night.

8

  1595.  Locrine, iv. 2. I trembled, fearing she would set her TEN COMMANDMENTS in my face.

9

  1597.  J. LYLY, Woman in Moon, v. Now he swears BY HIS TEN BONES.

10

  1607.  DEKKER, Westward Ho! v. 3. Your harpy that set his TEN COMMANDMENTS upon my back.

11

  1609.  FLETCHER, Monsieur Thomas, iv. 2.

          Serv.  BY THESE TEN BONES, sir, if these eyes and ears
Can hear and see.
    Ibid., (c. 1613), The Woman’s Prize, i. 3.
  Petru.  I’ll devil ’em, BY THESE TEN BONES I will.

12

  1621.  JONSON, Masque of Gipsies, vi. 84.

        I swear BY THESE TEN,
You shall have it again.

13

  1648.  HERRICK, Hesperides [HAZLITT, i. 209].

        Skurffe by his NINE-BONES sweares, and well he may,
All know a fellon eate the TENTH away.

14

  1814.  SCOTT, Waverley, xxx. I’ll set my TEN COMMANDMENTS in the face of the first loon that lays a finger on him.

15

  1830.  MARRYAT, The King’s Own, xl. I’ll write the TEN COMMANDMENTS on your face.

16

  1842.  LONGFELLOW, The Spanish Student, iii. 3. In with you, and be busy with the TEN COMMANDMENTS, under the sly.

17

  1903.  Pall Mall Gazette, 6 April, 2, 3. The mother attacked the unfortunate master, and began the time-honoured but painful ceremony of setting her TEN COMMANDMENTS in his face, while her hopeful offspring got the school cane and belaboured his instructor.

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