1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Workes.
| And Lais of Corinth, ask’d Demosthenes | |
| One hundred crownes for one nights BUSINESSE. |
1654. Witt’s Recreations.
| He’s proctor of a court, thou say’st and does | |
| Some BUSINESS of my wives: thou brainless goose! | |
| He does no BUSINESS of thy wives, not he, | |
| He does thy BUSINESS (Coracine) for thee. |
1692. DRYDEN, Juvenal, vi.
| The sotted moon-calf gapes, and staring on, | |
| Sees his own BUS’NESS by another done. |
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 33.
| But that as sure as cits of London | |
| Oft leave their spouses’ BUSINESS undone, | |
| And trudge away to Russel street | |
| Some little dirty whore to meet. |
2. (theatrical).—Dramatic action; bye-play.
1753. The World, 26. We are too much enamoured with what is called intrigue, BUSINESS, and bustle, in our plays.
1820. SCOTT, The Abbot, xxvii. (III., 6). [He] went, came, and returned, mingling in every scene of the piece, and interrupting the BUSINESS.
1860. Cornhill Magazine, Dec., 749. So well do performers understand this principle, that they give the literary composition the utmost contemptuous title of ‘words’ while they dignify the movements of the characters with the name of BUSINESS.
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 282. Tom observed, ‘I never saw such BUSINESS before; how do you do it…?’
1880. Punch, 18 Sept., 130. Ya-as—but—aw—I didn’t copy him in the least—aw—my own ‘BUSINESS.’ Aw—Entirely different reading.
1883. H. IRVING, Shakespeare on the Stage and in the Study, in Good Words, Jan., 34/2. Then consider what scope the ‘BUSINESS’ of the scene gives to the actor’s purpose.
1902. Daily Telegraph, 14 Jan., 7, 3. By Mr. Smith: On Dec. 21 she told me to get ready, she was not going to play any more, and she added, ‘Don’t do any of my BUSINESS; shall be in front to see.’
TO DO ONE’S BUSINESS FOR ONE, phr. (common).—To kill, to cause one’s death.
1750. FIELDING, Tom Jones, viii., x. He concluded he had pretty well DONE THEIR BUSINESS, for both of them, as they ran off, cried out with bitter oaths, that they were dead men.
1849. THACKERAY, Pendennis, xii. Then he took down his venerable and murderous duelling-pistols, with flint locks, that had DONE THE BUSINESS of many a pretty fellow in Dublin.
1856. C. READE, It Is Never Too Late to Mend, xvi. She was stronger than he was for a moment or two, and that moment would have DONE HIS BUSINESS. She meant killing.
1880. GREENWOOD, Grandmother Cooper (in Odd People in Odd Places), 7. They said it was his hurts as killed him…. It was the bricks and mortar that DID HIS BUSINESS, poor chap.
