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Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2008Deuce a bit of a lady in the case
Hello: I'm not getting this part: "No; deuce a bit of a lady in the case, Mr. Pip, except one" I could take it to mean "the devil was incarnated in a woman in this case" but the "except one" throws me off ... BTW, I guess that "his game" means "(his) prostitutes." Seems to be a slang term during that period. ------ [Wemmick, the legal factotum, plays with the mask of a murderer executed at Newgate, one of Mr. Jagger's former clients, and talks to it in front of Pip. Then he touches a brooch given as a gift to him by that killer, representing a lady and a weeping willow with an urn, probably in a cemetery] "Is it like him?" .... "Like him? It's himself, you know. The cast was made in Newgate, directly after he was taken down. You had a particular fancy for me, hadn't you, Old Artful?" said Wemmick. He then explained this affectionate apostrophe, by touching his brooch representing the lady and the weeping willow at the tomb with the urn upon it, and saying, "Had it made for me, express!" "Is the lady anybody?" said I. "No," returned Wemmick. "Only his game. (You liked your bit of game, didn't you?) No; deuce a bit of a lady in the case, Mr. Pip, except one - and she wasn't of this slender ladylike sort, and you wouldn't have caught her looking after this urn - unless there was something to drink in it." Wemmick's attention being thus directed to his brooch, he put down the cast, and polished the brooch with his pocket-handkerchief. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, p. 296 http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Dickens/Expect/Expect24_2.htm ------ > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > "except one" > throws me off ... No. It means there /was/ no lady in this case. 'Deuce/Devil a bit' means 'not a bit'. Not used now! There was no lady involved in this case, except one and she was fat, not thin like the one on the brooch (I think). > BTW, I guess that "his game" means "(his) prostitutes." Seems to be a > slang term during that period. I rather think it means joke in this context. The lady on the brooch was a jocular message to the recipient (again, I think). > No. It means there /was/ no lady in this case. 'Deuce/Devil a bit' means > 'not a bit'. Not used now! There was no lady involved in this case, > except one and she was fat, not thin like the one on the brooch (I think). Wow! I was quite far:-) Didn't even think about it. Thank you very much. Marius Hancu >> Hello: >> [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > I rather think it means joke in this context. The lady on the brooch was > a jocular message to the recipient (again, I think). Seems unlikely to me. "Game" was 19th century slang for a whore. It survives in the modern slang phrase "on the game" = working as a prostitute. >> I rather think it means joke in this context. The lady on the brooch >> was a jocular message to the recipient (again, I think). >>> > Seems unlikely to me. "Game" was 19th century slang for a whore. It > survives in the modern slang phrase "on the game" = working as a > prostitute. Yep. 'Twas only conjecture on my part. I thought 'you liked your bit of game' might mean 'you liked your little joke' but I bow to others' better knowledge of Victorian slang! > "No; deuce a bit of a lady in the case, Mr. Pip, except one" Pip has just asked if "the lady" was anybody , as in "anybody notable", Wemmick's reply is that she wasn't even a lady, only the criminal's mistress (his "game"). In this case, "deuce" is used as a euphemism; what Wemmick is essentially saying is "Hell no, she wasn't a lady." There apparently was one lady involved in the case in some way, though, that's what the "except one" is about. > I could take it to mean > "the devil was incarnated in a woman in this case" [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > he put down the cast, and polished the brooch with his > pocket-handkerchief. >> "No; deuce a bit of a lady in the case, Mr. Pip, except one" > > Pip has just asked if "the lady" was anybody , as in "anybody > notable", Wemmick's reply is that she wasn't even a lady, only the > criminal's mistress (his "game"). Yes, and "bit of game" means "sex", generally if not always, I think, with a professional. I have heard "a bit of pro" in our own time.  SignatureMike. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com On Feb 27, 11:34 am, "Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote: > > Pip has just asked if "the lady" was anybody , as in "anybody > > notable", Wemmick's reply is that she wasn't even a lady, only the > > criminal's mistress (his "game"). > > Yes, and "bit of game" means "sex", generally if not always, I think, > with a professional. I have heard "a bit of pro" in our own time. OK. Thank you all. Marius Hancu >>> "No; deuce a bit of a lady in the case, Mr. Pip, except one" >> Pip has just asked if "the lady" was anybody , as in "anybody >> notable", Wemmick's reply is that she wasn't even a lady, only the >> criminal's mistress (his "game"). > Yes, and "bit of game" means "sex", generally if not always, I > think, with a professional. I have heard "a bit of pro" in our own > time. Quite likely, but maybe not the whole story. "Lady" appears to be being used here to mean "woman", not "woman of the upper classes". In that case, "deuce of a bit of a lady" would mean "no women involved" (except one who could not have been the one depicted). The "lady" Pip asked about must be the one depicted on the brooch, and Pip must have been asking if the image represented anyone. Wemmick may be playing a bit with Pip himself, in claiming that the brooch is a portrait, or even that this servant condemned for murdering his master would have the means, opportunity, or inclination to have a piece of conventional mourning jewelry custom-made for his lawyer. More likely, perhaps, is that it was stolen property, of the portable kind that Wemmick is fond of. And in Wemmick's apostrophe to the dead criminal, "(You liked your bit of game, didn't you?)" it seems strange that he would turn aside from talking to this young person, to address a dead man about sex. This might be an intended second meaning of "game", though, making Wemmick's own game with the new boy even more amusing. |
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