Word: devilment
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...devil is active in Chatellerault, in Chinon and in Domfront, but above all he is active in Loudun." So said Rabelais four centuries ago; at least, that's what the people of Loudun say he said. Some people suspect that Loudun, a town of 5,313 in western France, is still a little proud of its reputation for casual wickedness. "I think," said a bookseller of Loudun last week, "it is because of our fine white wines. One can drink liters, like water, but suddenly it hits like a coup de fusil and even the old feel young...
...Devil's Disciple (by George Bernard Shaw; produced by the New York City Theatre Company) did something rare for City Center's dramatic productions : it left the critics cheering. This was a real victory for the Center's new regime under Maurice Evans; it raised fresh hopes for large-scale repertory. And inside 24 hours the production itself was scooped up and scheduled for Broadway...
Revolution, Shaw takes pretty heavy potshots at Puritanism and family affections, and the devil's own time to get going. But long before the end he is showering the audience with largess...
Partridge clears Charles Dickens of all responsibility for the expression "go to the dickens," a Victorian nice-nellyism for "go to the devil." But Dickens' perpetually optimistic Mr. Micawber produced micawberish and the pompous Mr. Bumble lent his name to incompetence forever after. Similarly, a hangman named Derrick is immortalized in hoisting devices, French Physician Joseph Guillotin in a machine which struck him as more humane than the ax, and be-trousered Suffragette Amelia Bloomer in billowing pantalets. It is a process that has never stopped, concludes Partridge happily-from Solon, who became a synonym for lawyer...
They were as different as two men could be. William Lloyd Garrison was the son of a hard-drinking sailor, Wendell Phillips the son of a rich Boston lawyer. Garrison had picked up scraps of knowledge as a printer's devil, Phillips had been a Harvard dandy. Garrison wore the solemn look of a New England preacher, Phillips sported the manners of a worldly sophisticate...