Jay (John), sarcastic artist and man of the world, who seeks solitude at Misery Landing, and falls in love with little Marthy, a backwoods maiden.—Constance Fennimore Woolson, Misery Landing (1875).
Ja´zer, a city of Gad, personified by Isaiah. “Moab shall howl for Moab, every one shall howl ... I will bewail, with the weeping of Jazer, the vine of Sibmah; I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon.”—Isaiah xvi. 7-9.
It did not content the congregation to weep all of them; but they howled with a loud voice, weeping with the weeping of Jazer.—Kirkton, 150.
Jealous Traffick (Sir), a rich merchant, who fancies everything Spanish is better than English, and intends his daughter, Isabinda, to marry Don Diego Barbinetto, who is expected to arrive forthwith. Isabinda is in love with Charles [Gripe], who dresses in a Spanish costume, passes himself off as Don Diego Barbinetto, and is married to Isabinda. Sir Jealous is irritable, headstrong, prejudiced, and wise in his own conceit.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy Body (1709).
Jealous Wife (The), a comedy by George Colman (1761). Harriet Russet marries Mr. Oakly, and becomes “the jealous wife;” but is ultimately cured by the interposition of major Oakly, her brother-in-law.
⁂ This comedy is founded on Fielding’s Tom Jones.
Jeames de la Pluche, a flunky. Jeames means the same thing.—Thackeray, Jeames’s Diary (1849).
Jean des Vignes, a French expression for a drunken blockhead, a good-for-nothing. The name Jean is often used in France, as synonymous with clown or fool, and etre dans les vignes is a popular euphuism, meaning “to be drunk.” A more fanciful explanation of the term refers its origin to the battle of Poietiers, fought by King John, among the vines. Un mariage de Jean des Vignes, means an illicit marriage, or, in the English equivalent, “a hedge marriage.”
Jean Folle Farine, a merry Andrew, a poor fool, a Tom Noodle. So called because he comes on the stage like a great loutish boy, dressed all in white, with his face, hair, and hands thickly covered with flour. Scaramouch is a sort of Jean Folle Farine.
Ouida has a novel called Folle Farine, but she uses the phrase in quite another sense.