1671. R. HEAD, The English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 52 (1874). Tip the COLE to Adam Tyler, give what money you pocket-pickt to the next party, presently.
1676. A Warning for House-keepers (canting song).
| But when that we come out agen, | |
| As we walk along the street, | |
| We bite the Culley of his COLE. |
1688. SHADWELL, The Squire of Alsatia, I., in wks. (1720) IV., 16. Cheat. My lusty rustick, learn, and be instructed. COLE is, in the language of the witty, money; the ready, the rhino.
16[?]. Song of Seventeenth Century (quoted in Halliwell and Wright’s ed. of Nares’ Glossary).
| The twelfth a trapan, if a cull he doth meet, | |
| He naps all his COLE, and turns him i’ th’ street. |
1741. WALPOLE, ballad in Letters to Sir Horace Mann, i., 22.
| This our captain no sooner had finger’d the COLE, | |
| But he hies him aboard with his good Madam Vole. |
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Lay of the Old Woman Clothed in Grey’ (ed. 1862), p. 398.
| Moreover—The whole | |
| Of the said cash, or ‘COLE,’ | |
| Shall be spent for the good of said Old Woman’s soul! |
1844. Puck, p. 146. Thank you for the offer of your bill; but I can wait until you can finger the COLE, when I shan’t stand on ceremony about taking a cool hundred or two…
TO POST or TIP THE COLE, phr. (common).—To hand over money; to ‘shell’ or ‘fork out.’—See 1671 quot., subs. sense.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 13. ‘Will he POST THE COLE? Will he come down with the dues? Ask him that,’ cried Blueskin. Ibid. If he don’t TIP THE COLE without more ado, give him a taste of the pump, that’s all.
1883. G. A. S[ALA], in Illustrated London News, Nov. 10, p. 451, col. 3. The lamented J. B. Buckstone, at a Theatrical Fund Dinner, once entreated the guests present to POST THE COLE, i.e., to be prompt with their subscriptions and donations.
