Chapter Great Harry to Green Horse of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Greece (The two eyes of), Athens and Sparta.

Greedy (Justice), thin as a thread-paper, always eating and always hungry. He says to sir Giles Overreach (act iii. 1), “Oh, I do much honour a chine of beef! Oh, I do reverence a loin of veal!” As a justice, he is most venial—the promise of a turkey will buy him, but the promise of a haunch of venison will out-buy him.—Massinger: A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1628).

Greek (A), a pander; a merry Greek, a foolish Greek, a Corinthian, etc., all mean either pander or harlot. Frequently used by Shakespeare in Timon of Athens (1678) and in Henry IV. (1597–9).

Greek Church (Fathers of the): Eusebius, Athanasius, Basil “the Great,” Gregory Nazianzenus, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Cyril of Alexandria, and Ephraim deacon of Edessa.

Greek Kalends, never. There were no kalends in the Greek system of reckoning the months. Hence Suetonius says it shall be transferred ad Grœcas calendas, or, in parliamentary phrase, “to this day six months.”

They and their bills…are left
To the Greek Kalends.
   —Byron: Don Juan, xiii. 45 (1824).

Greeks (Last of the), Philopœmen of Megalopolis, whose great object was to infuse into the Achæans a military spirit, and establish their independence (B.C. 252–183).

When Greeks joined Greeks. Clytus said to Alexander that Philip was the greater warrior—

I have seen him march,
And fought beneath his dreadful banner, where
The boldest at this table would have trembled.
Nay, frown not, sir, you cannot look me dead;
When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war.
   —Lee: Alexander the Great, iv. 2 (1678).

(Slightly altered into When Greek joins Greek, then is the tug of war, this line has become a household phrase.)

To play the Greek, to act like a harlot. When Cressid says of Helen, “Then she’s a merry Greek indeed,” she means that Helen is no better than a fille publique. Probably Shakespeare had his eye upon “fair Hiren,” in Peel’s play called The Turkish Mahomet and Hyren the Fair Greek. “A fair Greek” was at one time a euphemism for a courtezan.

Green (Mr. Paddington), a clerk at Somerset House.

Mrs. Paddington Green, his wife.—Morton: If I had a Thousand a Year.

Green (Verdant), a young man of infinite simplicity, who goes to college, and is played upon by all the practical jokers of alma mater. After he has bought his knowledge by experience, the butt becomes the “butter” of juveniles greener than himself. Verdant Green wore spectacles, which won for him the nickname of “Gig-lamps.”—Cuthbert Bede [Rev. Edw. Bradley]: Verdant Green (1860).

Green (Widow), a rich, buxom dame of 40, who married first for money, and intended to choose her second husband “to please her vanity.” She fancied Waller loved her, and meant to make her his wife, but sir William Fondlove was her adorer. When the politic widow discovered that Waller had fixed his love on another, she gave her hand to the old beau, sir William; for if the news got wind of her love for Waller, she would become the laughing-stock of all her friends.—Knowles: The Love-Chase (1837).

Green-Bag Inquiry (The). A green bag full of documents, said to be seditious, was laid before parliament by lord Sidmouth, in 1817. An “inquiry” was made into these documents, and it was deemed advisable to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, and forbid all sorts of political meetings likely to be of a seditious character.