Chapter Deal-fish to December of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Deal-fish to December

Deal-fish So called because of some fancied resemblance to a deal-board, from its length and thinness.

Dean (the Latin Decanus). The chief over ten prebends or canons.
   The Dean (Il Piovano). Arlotto, the Italian humorist. (1395-1483.)
   Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick. (1667-1745.)

Deans (Effie), in Scott's Heart of Midlothian, is Helen Walker. She is abandoned by her lover, Geordie Robertson [Staunton], and condemned for child-murder.
   Jeanie Deans. Half-sister of Effie Deans, who walks all the way to London to plead for her sister. She is a model of good sense, strong affection, and disinterested heroism. (See Walker.)

"We follow Pilgrim through his progress with an interest not inferior to that, with which we follow Elizabeth from Siberia to Moscow, and Jeanie Deans from Edinburgh to London." - Lord Macaulay.

Dear Oh, dear me! Regarded, but without evidence, as a corruption of the Italian O Dio mio!

Dear Bought and Far Brought or Dear bought and far felt. A gentle reproof for some extravagant purchase of luxury.

Dearest Most hateful, as dearest foe. The word dear, meaning "beloved," is the Saxon deor (dear, rare); but dear, "hateful," is the Anglo-Saxon derian (to hurt), Scotch dere (to annoy).

"Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven,
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio."
Shakespeare: Hamlet, i.2.

Death according to Milton, is twin-keeper with Sin, of Hell-gate.

"The other shape
(if shape it might be called that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
Or substance might be called that shadow
seemed;) ...
The likeness of a kingly crown had on."
Milton: Paradise Lost, ii. 666 - 673.

   Death. (See Black Death.)
   Death stands, like Mercuries, in every way. (See Mercury.)
   Till death us do part. (See Depart.)
   Angel of Death. (See Abou-Jahia, Azrael.)
   At death's door. On the point of death; very dangerously ill.
   In at the death. Present when the fox was caught and killed.

Death and Doctor Hornbook Doctor Hornbook was John Wilson the apothecary, whom the poet met at the Torbolton Masonic Lodge. (Burns.)

Death from Strange Causes
   Æ'schylus was killed by the fall of a tortoise on his bald head from the claws of an eagle in the air. (Valerius Maximus, ix. 12, and Pliny: History, vii. 7.)
   Agathocles (4 syl.), tyrant of Sicily, was killed by a toothpick at the age of ninety-five.
   Anacreon was choked by a grapestone. (Pliny: History, vii. 7.)
   Bassus (Quintus Lucanus) died from the prick of a needle in his left thumb.
   Chalchas, the soothsayer, died of laughter at the thought of having outlived the predicted hour of his death.
   Charles VIII., of France, conducting his queen into a tennis-court, struck his head against the lintel, and it caused his death.
   Fabius, the Roman praetor, was choked by a single goat-hair in the milk which he was drinking. (Pliny: History, vii. 7.)
   Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, died from the blow of a cricket-ball.
   Gallus (Cornelius), the praetor, and Titus Haterius, a knight, each died while kissing the hand of his wife.
   Gabrielle (La belle), the mistress of Henri IV., died from eating an orange.
   Itadach died of thirst in the harvest-field because (in observance of the rule of St. Patrick) he refused to drink a drop of anything.
   Lepidus (Quintus Æm'ilius), going out of his house, struck his great toe against the threshold and expired.
   Louis VI. met with his death from a pig running under his horse and causing it to stumble.
   Margutte died of laughter on seeing a monkey trying to pull on a pair of boots.
   Otway, the poet, in a starving condition, had a guinea given him, on which he bought a loaf of bread, and died while swallowing the first mouthful.
   Pamphilius (Cneius Babius), a man of praetorian rank, died while asking a boy what o'clock it was.
   Philomenes (4 syl.) died of laughter at seeing an ass eating the figs provided for his own dessert. (Valerius Maximus.)
   Placut (Phillipot) dropped down dead while in the act of paying a bill. (Bacaberry the Elder.)
   Quenelault, a Norman physician, of Montpellier, died from a slight wound made in his hand in extracting a splinter.
    Saufeius (Appius) was choked to death supping up the white of an under-boiled egg. (Pliny. History, vii. 33.)
   Torquatus (Aulus Manlius), a gentleman of consular rank, died in the act of taking a cheesecake at dinner.
   Valla (Lucius Tuscius), the physician, died in the act of taking a draught of medicine.
   William III. died from his horse stumbling over a mole-hill.
   Zeuxis, the great painter, died of laughter at sight of a hag which he had just