subs. (common).—A man coarse in speech, and offensive in manner; a scamp; a scoundrel; a disreputable fellow: the term, as now used, is one of opprobrium, and although a good deal of uncertainty hangs about its history and derivation, it seems pretty clear that a certain amount of odium has always been attached to the word. Between two of its primary significations, however,—(1) a kitchen knave or scullion, and (2) a guard of attendants, black in person, dress, or character, generally in reference to the devil’s body-guard—and the modern usage, there is a somewhat marked line to be drawn.—As adj. = of, or pertaining to, a blackguard, to the scum or refuse of society; vile; vicious. As verb = to act like a ruffian; to use filthy (or scurrilous) language; to play the vagabond (or scoundrel). Also derivatives and compounds—BLACKGUARDISM, BLACKGUARDIZE, BLACKGUARDLY, BLACKGUARDRY, etc.
1532. M.S. Churchwarden’s Accompts. St. Margaret’s, Westminster (Receipts for burials). Item Receyvid for the lycens of iiij. torchis of the BLAKE GARDE vjd.
1535. SIR W. FITZWILLIAMS, 17 Aug., in Calendar of State Papers. Two of the ringleaders had been some time of the BLACK GUARD of the king’s kitchen.
1558. FOXE, Acts and Monuments [CATTLEY], IV. 169. The BLACK GUARD of the Dominics (Black Friars).
1579. W. FULKE, A Refutation of Rastel, 779. We affirme they ought not, nor yet any of the scullerie or BLACKE GARDE,as some yet liuing were made Priestes in Queene Maries time.
1583. W. FULKE, A Defence of the Sincere and True Translations of the Holy Scriptures into the English tongue, x., 380. Pelagius, Celestius, and other like heretics of the devil’s BLACK GUARD.
1637. NABBES, Microcosmus [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), ix. 162]. I am degraded from a cook, and I fear the devil himself will entertain me but for one of his BLACK-GUARD, and he shall be sure to have his roast burnt.
1609. H. SMITH, Sermons. When iniquitie hath played her part, vengeance leapes vpon the stage, the comedie is short, but the tragedie is longer: the BLACKE GUARD shall attend vpon you, you shall eate at the table of sorrowe, and the crowne of death shall bee vpon your heads, many glistring faces looking on you, and this is the feare of sinners.
1609. DEKKER, Lanthorne and Candlelight, Wks. [1884–5] III., 214. The great Lord of Limbo did therefore commaund all his BLACKE GUARD that stood about him, to bestirre them in their places.
16[?]. JONSON, Mercury Vindicated. So the BLACK-GUARD are pleased with any lease of life, especially those of the boiling-house.
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 42. Though some of them are inferior to those of their own ranke, as the BLACKE GUARD, in a prince’s court.
1637. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Elder Brother, v. 1.
| It is a faith, | |
| That we will die in, since from the BLACKGUARD | |
| To the grim sir in office, there are few | |
| Hold other tenets. |
1655. FULLER, The Church History of Britain [1845], V., 160. For who can otherwise conceive but such a prince-principal of darkness must be proportionately attended with a BLACK GUARD of monstrous opinions.
1678. BUTLER, Hudibras, III., 1. l. 1403.
| Thou art some paltry, BLACKGUARD sprite, | |
| Condemn’d to drudg’ry in the night; | |
| Thou hast no work to do in th’ house, | |
| Nor half-penny to drop in shoes; | |
| Without the raising of which sum | |
| You dare not be so troublesome; | |
| To pinch the slatterns black and blue, | |
| For leaving you their work to do. | |
| This is your business, good Pug Robin, | |
| And your diversion, dull dry bobbing. |
1683. MS., in Lord Steward’s Office Windsor Castle [Notes and Queries, 1 S., ix., 15]. 7 May, Whereas of late a sort of vicious, idle, and masterless boys and rogues, commonly called the BLACK-GUARD, with divers other lewd and loose fellowes, vagabonds, vagrants, and wandering men and women, do usually haunt and follow the Court.
1695. CONGREVE, Love for Love, iii., 10. Or if that won’t do, I’ll bring a Lawyer that shall out-lye the Devil: and so I’ll try whether my BLACK-GUARD or his shall get the better of the day.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BLACK-GUARD, Dirty, Nasty, Tatter’d, roguish Boys, that attend (at the Horse-Guards) to wipe Shoes, Clean Boots, water Horses, or run of Errands.
1744. Nov. 26. WALPOLE, Letter to Sir Horace Mann (1833), II., 57. The whole stage filled with BLACKGUARDS, armed with bludgeons and clubs.
1760. SMOLLETT, Sir Launcelot Greaves, II., ix. He is become a BLACKGUARD gaol-bird.
1780. Parody on the Rosciad, etc., p. 13. Like him I’m a BLACKGUARD and sot.
1781. G. PARKER, A View of Society, I., 124. The talent of common BLACKGUARDISM.
1788. G. A. STEVENS, The Adventures of a Speculist, i., 59. As BLACK-GUARDS at Newmarket meeting bawl about the lists of horses.
1803. C. K. SHARPE, in Correspondence (1888), I., 178. His friends were ill-natured, and behaved like BLACKGUARD beasts.
1816. GIFFORD, The Works of Ben Jonson, II. 170. Note. In all great houses, but particularly in the Royal Residences, there were a number of mean dirty dependents, whose office it was to attend the wool-yard, sculleries, &c. Of these … the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, etc. To this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, which, with every other article of furniture, were then removed from palace to palace, the people, in derision, gave the name of BLACK GUARDS; a term since become sufficiently familiar, and never properly explained.
1821. NARES, Dictionary, s.v. The BLACK-GUARD. Originally a jocular name given to the lowest menials of the court, the carriers of coals and wood, turnspits, and labourers in the scullery, who all followed the court in its progresses, and thus became observed. Such is the origin of this common term.
1849. C. KINGSLEY, Alton Locke, v. I was awakened by being shoved through the folding-doors of a gin-shop, into a glare of light and hubbub of BLACK-GUARDISM.
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, xxix. ‘I have been called names, and BLACKGUARDED quite sufficiently for one sitting.’
1861. H. KINGSLEY, Ravenshoe, xxvi. ‘I beg your pardon, sir, for saying that; I said it in a hurry. It was BLACKGUARDLY.’
1874. E. WOOD, Johnny Ludlow, I, iii., 37. ‘I must request you to be a little more careful in your language. You have come amidst gentlemen here, not BLACKGUARDS.’
1883. WILLIAM MORRIS, reported in Illustrated London News, March 10, 243, col. 3. Almost all ordinary wares now made by man were shabbily and pretentiously ugly … Not even the pinetrees and gardens could make the rich men’s houses at Bournemouth tolerable. They were simply BLACKGUARDLY; and even as he spoke they were being built by the mile.
