Gallery, subs. (Winchester College).—A commoner bedroom. [From a tradition of galleries in Commoners.] See gallery-nymphs.
To play to the Gallery, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To act so as to win the applause of the vulgar: i.e., to abandon distinction and art for coarseness of means and cheapness of effect. Said indifferently of anyone in any profession who exerts himself to win the suffrages of the mob; as a political demagogue, a ‘popular’ preacher, a ‘fashionable’ painter, and so on.
1872. Standard, 23 Oct. ‘New York Correspondence.’ His dispatches were, indeed, too long and too swelling in phrase; for herein he was always playing to the galleries.
Hence, Gallery-hit, shot, stroke, etc. = a touch designed for, and exclusively addressed to, the non-critical.
To play the Gallery, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make an audience; to applaud.
1870. Echo, 23 July, p. 5, c. 4. He seemed altogether a jovial, amusing sort of fellow, and as we were close by him, and constantly called in to play the gallery to his witty remarks, we asked him, when his friends left him, to join our party.
Gallery Nymph, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—A housemaid. See Gallery.
Galley—put a brass galley down your back, verb. phr. (printers’).—An admonition to appear before a principal; implying that the galley will serve as a screen.
Galley-foist, subs. (old).—The state barge, used by the Lord Mayor when he was sworn in at Westminster.
1609. Ben Jonson, Silent Woman, iv., 2. Out of my doores, you sons of noise and tumult, begot on an ill May day, or when the galleyfoist is afloate to Westminster.