NOT TO KNOW B (or A B) FROM A BATTLEDORE (or BULL’S FOOT) = to be utterly illiterate, to be ignorant; TO SAY B (or BO) TO A BATTLEDORE = to open one’s mouth, to speak: cf. BO TO A GOOSE.
1401. Political Poems, II. 57. I know not an A from the wynd-mylne, ne a B FROM A BOLE FOOT.
1553–87. FOXE, Acts and Monuments, II. 474. He KNEW NOT A B FROM A BATTLEDORE nor ever a letter of the book.
1592. NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell, 30b. Now you TALKE OF A BEE. ILE TELL YOU A TALE OF A BATTLEDORE and write in prayse of vertue. Ibid. (1599), Lenten Stuffe (1885), v. 197. EVERY MAN CAN SAY BEE TO A BATTLEDORE and write in prayse of Vertue.
1609. DEKKER, The Guls Horne-booke, 3. You shall not neede to buy bookes; nor scorne to DISTINGUISH A B FROM A BATTLEDORE.
1621. MONTAGU, Diatribœ, 118. The clergy of this time were … NOT ABLE TO SAY BO TO A BATTLEDORE.
1613. KING, Halfepennyworth of Wit, ‘Dedication.’ Simple honest dunce, as I am, that CANNOT SAY B TO A BATTLEDORE, it is very presumptuously done of me to offer to hey-passe and repasse it in print so.
1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Motto, ‘Dedication.’ For in this age of criticks are such store, That OF A B WILL MAKE A BATTLEDOOR. Ibid., ‘Dedication’ to Odcomb’s Complaint. To the gentlemen readers that UNDERSTAND A B FROM A BATTLEDOOR.
1663. HOWELL, English Proverbs, 16. He KNOWETH NOT A B. FROM A BATTLEDOOR.
1672. RAY, Proverbs, s.v.
1677. G. MIEGE, Dictionary, French and English, 128. BATTLEDORE … formerly a term for a hornbook, and hence no doubt arose the phrase TO KNOW A B FROM A BATTLEDORE.
1846. BRACKENBRIDGE, Modern Chivalry, 43. There were members who SCARCELY KNEW B FROM A BULLS-FOOT.
1877. PEACOCK, Manly (Lincolnshire) Glossary, s.v. BATTLEDOOR. He does N’T KNOW HIS A.B.C. FRA A BATTLEDOOR.
1884. W. BLACK, Judith Shakespeare, xxi. Fools that SCARCE KNOW A B FROM A BATTLEDORE.
