Chapter Blow a Cloud to Blue Devils of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

inferior persons. (See Sang.)
   True blue will never stain. A really noble heart will never disgrace itself. The reference is to blue aprons and blouses worn by butchers, which do not show blood-stains.
   True as Coventry blue. The reference is to a blue cloth and blue thread made at Coventry, noted for its permanent dye.
   'Twas Presbyterian true blue (Hudibras, i. 1). The allusion is to the blue apron which some of the Presbyterian preachers used to throw over their preaching-tub before they began to address the people. In one of the Rump songs we read of a person going to hear a lecture, and the song says-

“Where I a tub did view,
Hung with an apron blue;
'Twas the preacher's, I conjecture.”

   To look blue. To be disconcerted. He was blue in the face. Aghast with wonder. The effect of fear and wonder is to drive the colour from the cheeks, and give them a pale-bluish tinge.

Blue-apron Statesman (A). A lay politician, a tradesman who interferes with the affairs of the nation. The reference is to the blue apron once worn by almost all tradesmen, but now restricted to butchers, poulterers, fishmongers, and so on.

Blue Beans Bullets. Lead is blue.

“Many a valiant Gaul had no breakfast that morning but what the Germans call `blue beans,' i.e. bullets.”- W. Maccall: My School Days, 1885.

   Three blue beans in a blue bottle or bladder. (See under Beans.)

Bluebeard A bogey, a merciless tyrant, in Charles Perrault's Contes du Temps. The tale of Bluebeard (Chevalier Raoul) is known to every child, but many have speculated on the original of this despot. Some say it was a satire on Henry VIII., of wife-killing notoriety. Dr. C. Taylor thinks it is a type of the castle lords in the days of knight-errantry. Holinshed calls Giles de Retz, Marquis de Laval, the original Bluebeard. This Giles or Gilles who lived at Machecoul, in Brittany, was accused of murdering six of his seven wives, and was ultimately strangled and burnt in 1440.

“The Bluebeard chamber of his mind, into which no eye but his own must look.”- Carlyle.

    Campbell has a Bluebeard story in his Tales of the Western Highlands, called The Widow and her Daughters. A similar one is No. 39 of Visentini's collection of Italian stories. So is No. 3 of Bernoni's collection.

Bluebeard's Key When the blood stain of this key was rubbed out on one side, it appeared on the opposite side; so prodigality being overcome will appear in the form of meanness; and friends, over-fond, will often become enemies.

Blue Billy (A). A blue neckcloth with white spots, worn by William Mace. More likely the allusion is to the bill or nose. (See Billy .)

Blue Blood (See page 149, True Blue.)

Blue Boar A public-house sign; the cognisance of Richard III. In Leicester is a lane in the parish of St. Nicholas, called the Blue Boar Lane, because Richard slept there the night before the battle of Bosworth Field.

“The bristly boar, in infant gore,
Wallows beneath the thorny shade.”
Gray: The Bard.

Blue Bonnets (The). The Scotch Highlanders; the Scotch generally. So called from the blue woollen cap at one time in very general use in Scotland, and still far from uncommon.

“England shall many a day
Tell of the bloody fray,
When the blue bonnets came over the border.”
Sir W. Scott.

Blue Books In England, parliamentary reports and official publications presented by the Crown to both Houses of Parliament. Each volume is in folio, and is covered with a blue wrapper.
    Short Acts of Parliament, etc., even without a wrapper, come under the same designation.
   In America, the “Blue Books” (like our “Red Books”) contain lists of those persons who hold government appointments. The official colour of Spain is red, of Italy green, of France yellow, of Germany and Portugal white.