Jenny [Diver]. Captain Macheath says, “What, my pretty Jenny! as prim and demure as ever? There’s not a prude, though ever so high bred, hath a more sanctified look, with a more mischievous heart.” She pretends to love Macheath, but craftily secures one of his pistols, that his other “pals” may the more easily betray him into the hands of the constables (act ii. 1.).—J. Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1727).
Jenny l’Ouvrière, the type of a hard-working Parisian needle-woman. She is contented with a few window-flowers which she terms “her garden,” a caged bird which she calls “her songster,” and when she gives the fragments of her food to some one poorer than herself, she calls it “her delight.”
Entendez-vous un oiseau familier?
C’est le chanteur de Jenny l’Ouvrière,
Au cœur content, content de peu
Elle pourrait être riche, et préfére
Ce qui vient de Dieu.
Emile Barateau (1847).
Jeph´thah’s Daughter. When Jephthah went forth against the Ammonites, he vowed that if he returned victorious he would sacrifice, as a burnt offering, whatever first met him on his entrance into his native city. He gained a splendid victory, and at the news thereof his only daughter came forth dancing to give him welcome. The miserable father rent his clothes in agony, but the noble-spirited maiden would not hear of his violating his vow. She demanded a short respite, to bewail upon the mountains her blighted hope of becoming a mother, and then submitted to her fate.—Judges, xi.
An almost identical tale is told of Idomeneus, king of Crete. On his return from the Trojan war, he made a vow in a tempest that, if he escaped, he would offer to Neptune the first living creature that presented itself to his eye on the Cretan shore. His own son was there to welcome him home, and Idomeneus offered him up a sacrifice to the sea-god, according to his vow. Fénelon has introduced this legend in his Télémaque, v.