Forms: α. (3 coeverfu), 4 corfu, -feu, 4–7 corfew, curfewe, 5 curfu, 5–6 courfeu(e, curpheue, 6–7 curfue, 7 curphew, & corfeu, -fue, -phew, curfeu, 5– curfew; β. 4 corfour, 5–6 curfur, 6 courfyre, curfoyr, 7 curfure, -phour; 6 curfle. Also (etymological restorations) 7 couvrefeu, coverfeu, -few. [a. AF. coeverfu, = OF. cuevre-fu, quevre-feu, covrefeu (131h c.), f. couvre, imper. of couvrir to cover + feu fire: cf. the med.L. names ignitegium, pyritegium, from tegĕre to cover. The corrupt forms in -four, -fur, etc., appear to be of phonetic origin, though in some cases associated with fire.]
1. a. A regulation in force in mediæval Europe by which at a fixed hour in the evening, indicated by the ringing of a bell, fires were to be covered over or extinguished; also, the hour of evening when this signal was given, and the bell rung for the purpose. b. Hence, the practice of ringing a bell at a fixed hour in the evening, usually eight or nine o’clock, continued after the original purpose was obsolete, and often used as a signal in connection with various municipal or communal regulations; the practice of ringing the evening bell still survives in many towns.
The primary purpose of the curfew appears to have been the prevention of conflagrations arising from domestic fires left unextinguished at night. The earliest English quotations make no reference to the original sense of the word; the curfew being already in 13th c. merely a name for the ringing of the evening bell, and the time so marked.
[1285. Stat. London Stat. I. 102. Apres Coeverfu personé a Seint Martyn le graunt.]
c. 1320. Seuyn Sages (W.), 1429. Than was the lawe in Rome toun, That, whether lord or garsoun That after Corfu be founde rominde, Faste men scholden hem nimen and binde.
c. 1386. [see 3].
c. 1400. Leges Quat. Burgorum, lxxxi. in Sc. Acts, I. 349. [He] sal gang til his wache wyth twa wapnys at þe ryngyng of þe courfeu.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 110/2. Curfu, ignitegium.
1495. in Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 90. Yf ther bee any Parishe Clarke yt ringyth curfew after the curfue be ronge at Bowe chirche.
1530. Palsgr., 210/1. Courfewe, a ryngyng of belles towarde evenyng.
1570. Levins, Manip., 190. Curfle, operitio ignis.
1561. Bp. Parkhurst, Injunctions. If they doo ring at the buriall of the deade, noone or Curpheue.
1570. Burgh Rec. Peebles, 324 (Sc. Burgh Rec. Soc.). To regne xij houris, vj houris, and courfyre nychtlie.
1608. Merry Devil Edm., in Hazl., Dodsley, X. 251. Well, ’tis nine o’clock, ’tis time to ring curfew.
1610. Shaks., Temp., V. i. 40. You, whose pastime Is to make midnight-Mushrumps, that reioyce To heare the solemne Curfewe.
1632. Milton, Penseroso, 74. Oft on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound.
1750. Gray, Elegy, i. The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
1825. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1830), I. 317. I got to this place about half an hour after the ringing of the eight o’clock bell, or Curfew.
1850. Lyell, 2nd Visit U.S., II. 43. Every evening, at nine o’clock, a great bell, or curfew, tolls in the market-place of Montgomery, after which no coloured man is permitted to be abroad without a pass.
¶ The statement that the curfew was introduced into England by William the Conqueror as a measure of political repression has been current since the 16th century, but rests on no early historical evidence. See Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1875), III. 185–6 as to what ‘seems to be the origin of the famous and misrepresented curfew.’
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 9.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. lvi. (1739), 102. It is affirmed, that the Normans did impose a new custom called Coverfeu.
1743–6. Shenstone, Elegies, xv. So droop’d, I ween, each Britons breast of old When the dull curfew spoke their freedom fled.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 412.
† c. Applied also to the ringing of a bell at a fixed hour in the morning. Obs.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. iv. 4. Come, stir, stir, stir, The second Cocke hath Crow’d, The Curphew Bell hath rung, ’tis three a clocke.
1673. in L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 342. Ring Curphew all the yeare long at 4 a clock in the morning & eight at a night. Ibid. (1704), II. 83. Ringing Curfew Bell at four of ye clock in ye morning, and eight at night.
2. A cover for a fire; a fire-plate, a cover-fire.
a. 1626. Bacon, Wks. (1859), III. 801 (J.). For pans, pots, curfews, counters, and the like.
1779. Gentl. Mag., XLIX. 406. He had gotten a piece of household furniture of copper, which he was pleased to call a curfew…. F. G. … has described it as a curfew, from its use of suddenly putting out a fire.
1837. [see COVER-FIRE].
3. attrib. and Comb., as curfew-knoll, -note, -time.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 459. The dede sleepe … Fil on this carpenter … Aboute corfew tyme [v.r. corfeu, curfewe].
1778. W. Pearce, Haunts of Shakespeare, 12.
| At day-spring awoke by the lark’s floating swell, | |
| At curfew-time lull’d by the lone village bell. |
1814. Wordsw., Excursion, VIII. 172. The curfew-knoll That spake the Norman Conqueror’s stern behest.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxvii. That sleep should have visited his eyes after such a curfew-note, was impossible.
4. Curfew-bell. (See sense 1.) Also fig.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 1497. Corfour belle ringge gan.
1509. Bury Wills (1850), 112. I gyve toward ye ryngers charge off the gret belle in Seynt Mary Chirche, callyd corfew belle.
1597–8. Bp. Hall, Sat., III. iv. 15. But a new rope, to ring the couure-feu bell.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Consid. Parl., Wks. (1711), 187. That there shall be cover-feu bells rung … after the ringing of which no man shall be found upon the streets.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., III. III. (1852), 542. He … would ring a loud courfeu bell wherever he saw the fires of animosity.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., I. 103. A law of police which directed all fires to be put out at the tolling of a bell called Curfew (Couvre feu) bell is by later chroniclers ascribed to William [the Conqueror], but without any countenance from the early writers.
