1893 text
The ‘poor john’ is a hake salted and dried. It is frequently referred to in old authors as poor fare.
This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.
Poor John/Jack
Log in to post an annotation.
If you don't have an account, then register here.
References
Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.
3 Annotations
First Reading
pedro • Link
Poor Jack or John
Dried hake.
We have “john-dory,” a “jack” (pike), a “jack shark,” and a “jack of Dover.” Probably the word Jack is a mere play on the word “Hake,” and John a substitute for Jack.
“ 'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-john.”- Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, i. 1.
We have a similar perversion in the school-boy proof that a pigeon-pie is a fish-pie. A pigeon-pie is a pie-john, and a pie-john is a jack-pie, and a jack-pie is a fish-pie.
(Brewer's)
cum salis grano • Link
OED:
Poor John, n.
1. a. Fish, usually hake, salted and dried for food; a fish preserved in this way. Now hist.
1589...
1657 R. LIGON True Hist. Barbados 113 Two barrels of salt Fish, and 500 poore-Johns, which we have from New England. 1695
Second Reading
Bill • Link
JACK, a Fish, called also a Pike.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.