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 1845. Punch, viii. 190. If the paper were limited in its knowledge to facts, what on earth would become of the penny-a-liners.

1853. Diogenes, ii. 21. An idea worth, we should say, a very great deal more than a penny a line.

1857. Bradley, Verdant Green, ii. viii. Young ladies, moreover, who, as penny-a-liners say, are possessed of considerable personal attractions.

1865. Atlantic Monthly, June, 711. There must be an end to all temporal things, and why not to books. The same endless night awaits a Plato and a penny-a-liner.

1872. Kington Oliphant, Standard English, 244. The penny-a-liners now write about a splendid shout.

Penny-boy, subs. phr. (old).—A boy who haunted the cattle markets on the chance of driving beasts to the slaughter-house, an ankle-beater [q.v.). [They were paid a penny per head.]

Penny-dreadful (or -awful), subs. phr. (colloquial).—A sensational story, newspaper, or print. [Published at a penny.]

See Awful, Blood-and-Thunder, and Shilling Shocker.

1883. Daily News, 30 Jan., 5, 2. Persons of culture are apt to speak harshly of penny dreadfuls, as they call the novels which appear in cheap weekly journals.

1885. Daily Telegraph, 3 Oct. From whatever penny dreadful she had got the chloroform incident.

1891. Morning Advertiser, 18 Mar. The chairman said he must have been reading some penny dreadpuls or other low literature.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Nov., 7, 2. A victim of the penny dreadful [Title].

Penny-father (or peni-father), subs. phr. (old).—A miser; a niggard.

1551. More, Utopia, 11. vi. And yet knowing them to be such niggish peny-fathers, that as long as they live, not the worth of one farthing of that heap of gold shall come to them.

1594. Drayton, Idea, x. 1262. To nothing fitter can I thee compare Than to the son of some rich penny-father.

1595. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Ghiarone, old gold laide vp by mizers, or pennie-fathers.

1607. Topsell, Beasts, 262. The great men, the rich mysers and penny-fathers.

d.1612. Harrington, Epigrams, ii. 21. Alas, this reconfirms what I said rather, Cosmus has ever been a penny-father.

d.1627. Middleton, Father Hubbert's Tales [Century]. Illiterate hinds, rude boors, and hoary penny-fathers.

1629. Pasquil's Jests [Halliwell]. Hee (good old penny-father) was glad of his liquor, and beganne to drinke againe.

d.1693. Morgan, Phoenix Brit., 33. Ranck penny-fathers scud, with their halfe hammes Shadowing their calves, to save their silver dammes.

Penny-gaff, subs. (obsolete).—A low-class theatre or music-hall. [The charge for admission being a penny or two.] See quot. 1851. Also penny-room and dukey: cf. penny-hop.

1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i. 42. In many of the thoroughfares of London shops have been turned into a kind of temporary theatre Rude pictures of the performers are arranged outside, to give the front a gaudy and attractive look, and at night-time coloured lamps and transparencies are displayed to draw an audience. These places are called by the costers penny-gaffs; and on a Monday night as many as six performances will take place, each one having its two hundred visitors.

1866. Annie Thomas, Walter Goring, ii. 131. The difference between a penny-gaff and a fair, or, as we call it, a canvas-clown.

Penny-hop, subs. phr. (old).—A country dancing club. [Each person paid a penny to the fiddler.]

Penny-lattice-house, subs. phr. (old).—A low ale-house: see Lush-crib and Red-lattice.