1676 (Licensed). William Wycherley, The Plain Dealer (play); reprinted in: 1981. Holland, Peter (ed.), The Plays of William Wycherley, London: Cambridge University Press, Plays by Renaissance and Restoration Dramatiats series. I.i.342-351, p. 366.
[H]ere you see a bishop bowing low to a gaudy atheist, a judge to a doorkeeper, a great lord to a fishmonger or a scrivener with a jack-chain about his neck, a lawyer to a sergeant-at-arms, a velvet physician to a threadbare chemist and a supple gentleman usher to a surely beefeater, and so tread round in a preposterous huddle of ceremony to each other whilst they can hardly hold their solemn false countenances.

It was assumed that the queen, as was her custom, would take the middle path, where the crowd was densest. No velvet rope was needed to contain it. No beefeaters needed pikes to hold the unruly back. Brixton aside, the rule of civility in England still holds.

Beefeater

Meaning

Noun

Origin

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