This is a glossary of idioms that were recognizable to literate English-speaking people in the late 19th century - and have become unfamiliar since. The often obscure references or shared values that lie behind idioms will themselves lose applicability over time, although the surviving literature of the period relies on their currency for full understanding.

Terms

A

Abbot of Misrule – Lord of Misrule.
Admirable Doctor – Roger Bacon (calque of Doctor Mirabilis)
Attic Bee – Sophocles, from the sweetness and beauty of his productions.

B

Bidding Prayer – an exhortation to prayer in some special reference, followed by the Lord's Prayer, in which the congregation joins.
Blue-gown – in Scotland a beggar, a bedesman of the king, who wore a blue gown, the gift of the king, and had his license to beg.
Bonnet-piece – a gold coin of James V of Scotland, so called from the king being represented on it as wearing a bonnet instead of a crown.
Brown, Jones, and Robinson – three middle-class Englishmen on their travels abroad, as figured in the pages of Punch (magazine).

C

Chicard – (French loanword) the harlequin of the French carnival, grotesquely dressed up.
Circumlocution Office – a name employed by Charles Dickens in Little Dorrit to designate the wearisome routine of public business.
Cockney School – An epithet, originally abusive, for the second generation of Romantic writers, centered about Leigh Hunt, of whom John Keats is the most famous, as centered in London, and by implication lower-middle-class. (Revived by a school of London working-class writers in the 1890's).
Comity of Nations – the name given for the effect given in one country to the laws and institutions of another in dealing with a native of it.
Corn-cracker – the nickname of a Kentucky man (pejorative).
Corpuscular Philosophy – the philosophy which accounts for physical phenomena by the position and the motions of corpuscles.
Cincinnatus of the Americans – George Washington after the original Roman Cincinnatus.
Conscript Fathers – Translates Latin Patres Conscripti; this is a term for members of the Roman senate.

D

Diamond Necklace – specifically, the one belonging to Marie Antoinette
Dircaean Swan or Dircæan Swan – Pindar, so called from the fountain Dirce, near Thebes, his birthplace.

F

Fagot vote – a vote created by the partitioning of a property into as many apartments as will entitle the holders to vote.
First Gentleman of Europe – George IV of the United Kingdom, from his fine style and manners.
Federal Union – generally any union of states in which each State has jurisdicition in local matters, such as the United States.

G

Gehenna Bailiffs – ministers of hell's justice, whose function is to see to and enforce the rights of hell.
Gens Braccata – the Gauls, from braccæ or breeches.
Gens Togata – the Romans, from wearing the toga.
German Voltaire – name given sometimes to Wieland and sometimes to Goethe.
Gothamite – New York equivalent of cockney (still in use in some contexts).

H

Hectic Fever – a fever connected with tuberculosis, and showing itself by a bright pink flush on the cheeks.
Horn Gate – the gate of dreams which come true, as distinct from the Ivory Gate, through which the visions seen are shadowy and unreal.

I

In-and-in – breeding of animals from the same parentage. Also an old two-dice game, where 'in' is a double and 'in-and-in' is double doubles, which sweeps the board.
Island of Saints and Scholars – a poetic name given to Ireland in the Middle Ages.
Ivan Ivanovitch – a term invoking a lazy, good-natured Russian.

J

Jack Brag – a pretender who ingratiates himself with people above him.

O

The Open Secret – the secret that lies open to all, but is seen into and understood by only few, applied especially to the mystery of the life, the spiritual life, which is the possession of all (Thomas Carlyle).

P

Passing-bell – a bell tolled at the moment of the death of a person to invite his neighbours to pray for the safe passing of his soul.
Penny wedding – a wedding at which the guests pay part of the charges of the festival.
Persiflage – a light, quizzing mockery, or scoffing, specially on serious subjects, out of a cool, callous contempt for them.
Peter Bell – a simple rustic (Wordsworth).
Petite Nature – a French loanword applied to pictures containing figures less than life-size, but with the effect of life-size.
Pot-wallopers – a class of electors in a borough who claimed the right to vote on the ground of boiling a pot within its limits for six months.
Pourparler – a diplomatic conference towards the framing of a treaty.
Punic Faith – a promise that one can put no trust in.

R

Revival of Letters – a term for literary aspects of the Renaissance, specifically the revival of the study of Greek literature.

T

The Temple of Immensity – the universe as felt to be in every corner of it a temple consecrated to worship in.

References

Browse at the online Nuttall Encyclopedia (1907)