Shenstone, Jemmy Dawson.

Dawson (Phoebe), “the pride of Lammas Fair,” courted by all the smartest young men of the village, but caught “by the sparkling eyes” and ardent words of a tailor.  Phoebe had by him a child before marriage, and after marriage he turned a “captious tyrant and a noisy sot.”  Poor Phoebe drooped, “pinched were her looks, as one who pined for bread,” and in want and sickness she sank into an early tomb.  This sketch is one of the best in Crabbe’s Parish Register (1807).

DAY (Justice), a pitiable hen-pecked husband, who always addresses his wife as “duck” or “duckie.”

Mrs. Day, wife of the “justice,” full of vulgar dignity, overbearing, and loud.  She was formerly the kitchen-maid of her husband’s father; but being raised from the kitchen to the parlor, became my lady paramount.

In the comedy from which this farce is taken, “Mrs. Day” was the kitchen-maid in the family of Colonel Careless, and went by the name of Gillian.  In her exalted state she insisted on being addressed as “Your honor” or “Your ladyship.”

Margaret Woffington [1718-1760], in “Mrs. Day,” made no scruples to disguise her beautiful face by drawing on it the lines of deformity, and to put on the tawdry habiliments and vulgar manners of an old hypocritical city vixen.—­Thomas Davies.

Abel Day, a puritanical prig, who can do nothing without Obadiah.  This “downright ass” (act i.  I) aspires to the hand of the heiress Arabella.—­T.  Knight, The Honest Thieves.

This farce is a mere rechauffe of The Committee, a comedy by the Hon. Sir R. Howard (1670).  The names of “Day,” “Obadiah,” and “Arabella” are the same.

Day (Ferquhard), the absentee from the clan Chattan ranks at the conflict.—­Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

DAY OF THE DUPES, November 11, 1630.  The dupes were Marie de Medicis, Anne of Austria, and Gaston, duc d’Orleans, who were outwitted by Cardinal Richelieu.  The plotters had induced Louis XIII. to dismiss his obnoxious minister, whereupon the cardinal went at once to resign the seals of office; the king repented, re-established the cardinal, and he became more powerful than ever.

DAYS RECURRENT IN THE LIVES OF GREAT MEN.

BECKET.  Tuesday was Becket’s day.  He was born on a Tuesday, and on a Tuesday was assassinated.  He was baptized on a Tuesday, took his flight from Northampton on a Tuesday, withdrew to France on a Tuesday, had his vision of martydom on a Tuesday, returned to England on a Tuesday, his body was removed from the crypt to the shrine on a Tuesday, and on Tuesday (April 13, 1875) Cardinal Manning consecrated the new church dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket.

CROMWELL’S day was September 3.  On September 3, 1650, he won the battle of Dunbar; on September 3, 1651, he won the battle of Worcester; on September 3, 1658, he died.