Nigel Rees - A Word In Your Shell-Like стр 28.

après nous le déluge [after us, the flood] The Marquise de Pompadours celebrated remark to Louis XV was made on 5 November 1757 after Frederick the Great had defeated the French and Austrian armies at the Battle of Rossbach. It carries with it the suggestion that nothing matters once you are dead and has also been interpreted as a premonition of the French Revolution. Bartlett (1980) notes that this reputed reply by the kings mistress was recorded by three authorities, though a fourth gives it to the king himself. Bartlett then claims the saying was not original anyway but an old French proverb. However, the ODP has as an English proverb, After us the delugederiving from Mme de Pompadour. Its only citation is Burnabys Ride to Khiva (1876): Our rulers did not trouble their heads much about the matter. India will last my timeand after me the Deluge. Metternich, the Austrian diplomat and chancellor, may later have said après moi le déluge, meaning that everything would grind to a halt when he stopped controlling it. The deluge alluded to in all cases is a dire event like the Great Flood or universal deluge of Noahs time.

Aquarius See AGE OF.

Arabs See FOLD ONES TENTS.

arent plums cheap? Catchphrase of the British music-hall Naval Comic, Bob Nelson, of whom no other information is to hand. In The Bandsmans Daughter (1979), Irene Thomas recalls, One comedian acrobat who towards the end of his

act used to do a handstand balanced on the back of a chair. Then, upside down, hed turn his poor old beetroot coloured face towards the audience and croak, apropos nothing, Arent plums cheap today?

arent we all? In Frederick Lonsdales play Arent We All? (1924) the title proving that the phrase was well established by then the Vicar says, Grenham, you called me a bloody old fool, and Lord Grenham replies, But arent we all, old friend? Ray Henderson composed the song Im a Dreamer, Arent We All in 1929. The collusive use has possibly weakened and the phrase become a simple jokey retort or a way of coping with an unintentional double entendre: Im afraid Im coming out of my trousers Arent we all, dear, arent we all?

arent you the lucky one? Congratulatory phrase from the 1920s, tinged with mockery but no envy.

are there any more at home like you? Partridge/ Catch Phrases traces this chat-up line to the musical comedy Floradora (1899), which contains the song (written by Leslie Stuart) Tell Me, Pretty Maiden (Are There Any More At Home Like You?) Partridge adds that the line was obsolete by 1970 except among those with long memories. Indeed, Tom Jones may be heard saying it to a member of the audience on the album Tom Jones Live at Caesars Palace Las Vegas (1971).

are we downhearted? no! A morale-boosting phrase connected with the early stages of the First World War but having political origins before that. The politician Joseph Chamberlain said in a 1906 speech: We are not downhearted. The only trouble is, we cannot understand what is happening to our neighbours. The day after he was defeated as candidate in the Stepney Borough Council election of 1909, Clement Attlee, the future British Prime Minister, was greeted by a colleague with the cry, Are we downhearted? (He replied, Of course, we are.) On 18 August 1914, the Daily Mail reported: For two days the finest troops England has ever sent across the sea have been marching through the narrow streets of old Boulogne in solid columns of khakiwaving as they say that new slogan of Englishmen: Are we downhearted?Nooooo! Shall we win?Yessss! Horatio Nicholls (Lawrence Wright) incorporated the phrase into a song (1917).

are yer courtin [are you courting]? Stock phrase from the BBC radio show Have A Go (194667) what the host, Wilfred Pickles, would say when chatting up unmarried women contestants of any age (from nineteen to ninety).

are you all right? Fannys all right! Stock phrase of the American actress, comedienne and singer Fanny Brice (18911951).

are you a man or a mouse? Usually said by a female disparagingly of a timorous male, this seems to have originated in the US, by the 1930s. A correspondent, Irene Summers (1998), remembered it being a feature of an Eddie Cantor film, Strike Me Pink (1935): Eddie played a coward as usual, working in a dry cleaners. He triumphed in the end, beat the bullies and got the girl. When we came out, the attendants gave us little coins, with a mouse on one side and a man on the other, with the words, Are you a man or a mouse? and See Eddie Condon in Strike Me Pink. In the Marx Bros film A Day At the Races (1937) Alan Jones asks it of Groucho, who replies: You put a piece of cheese down here and youll find out. Later on, the fondly remembered Sabrina recorded the song Man Not a Mouse from the 1950s musical Grab Me a Gondola. In BBC TV, Yes, Minister (1980s), a minister overridden by a spokesman is asked, Are you a man or a mouth?

are you going to pardon me? Catchphrase from the BBC radio show Rays a Laugh (194960), spoken by Charles Hawtrey as Mr Muggs.

are you looking for a punch up the bracket? Stock phrase of Tony Hancock in his BBC radio show, Hancocks Half-Hour (19549), though merely popularized and not coined by him. For no accountable reason, bracket refers to the nose and mouth, but really the target area is unspecified. Compare: a punch up the conk, where the nose is obviously specified as in the BBC radio Goon Show, The Mysterious Punch-Up-the-Conker (7 February 1957).