The Aside Podcasts are a free resource supported by Drama Victoria - Australia’s oldest Drama Association
In this episode of The Aside, we translate a number of words from Liz Morden's Monologue from Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker.
Links below for the sources.
Please feel free to email asidepodcast@outlook.com to ask a question. We will try and answer on a future podcast.
Sources:
https://www.hamptonhilltheatre.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-07/Programme%20-%20Our%20Country%27s%20Good_0.pdf
https://www.mansioningles.com/recursos149.htm
https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/convict-sydney/flash-language
https://sites.google.com/site/motman/Home/information/slang
https://writinginmargins.weebly.com/home/nymphidia-and-the-fairies-of-michael-drayton#:~:text=Katharine%20Briggs%20suggested%20in%20An,hang%20for%20a%20halfpenny.%22
https://sites.google.com/site/motman/Home/information/slang
https://www.definition-of.com/mother+of+all+saints
List of words:
Shifts it’s bob – moves out of the way
A bob can be the weight attached to a plumb line. A ship is said to bob out when it bounces and bobs in heavy seas without making any remarkable headway. This is a particularly distressing occurrence for those afflicted with seasickness. Waves bobble when they seem to crash without any specific set or direction as during cross currents or riptides.
Born under a Ha’penny planet - halfpenny = worthless, planet – circumstances of births
Said of any person remarkably unsuccessful in his attempts or profession.
Nibbler -nibbler a pilferer or petty thief
Crapped - crap’d - hanged
Titter – girl, young girl, toddler girl, small laugh of a child, women’s breast
Wiper – Handkerchief
Shoulder-clapped – arrested
Cudgel – short thick stick/weapon
Prig – a thief, or stolen, to steal or pilfer
Trine for a maker – wait for a
Wap for a winnie – pull for a horse
If she will not lie with a man for a penny, let her hang for a halfpenny
Dimber mort -pretty girl
Swell – elegantly dressed, or stylishly dressed
mollisher – a woman, a villian’s mistress
Miss Laycock – female genitals, prostitute
Mug – face
Sell my Mother of saints – female genitals
Swell cove – “swell” man.
Bobcull – good natured man
Mossie face - a slang, potentially endearing term for the pudendal region of a woman
Shiners - money
Spice (steal) the swells – steal from the gentlemen (steal the loot)
Lifts it – steal it /take it
Stir my stumps – move my legs
Swell Squeals beef – gentleman shouts ”thief”
Snoozie – constable for the night watch
Nibbed – caught / arrested
Up the ladder to rest – walk up the ladder/stairs to be hanged.
Nap – get/receive
Across the herrring pond – across the coean
Rantum scantum – sex (for food/water or preferential treatment on the ship – which was common)
Nob it here - become A person of wealth or high social position (short for noble)
Bobcull gov – good natured government person
Niffynaffy - easy
Rufflers – vagabonds/vagrant
Nibbed – arrested again
Up the ladder to rest – up the ladder/stairs to be hanged to death
