My mother can oft be heard to say, upon hearing
someone giggling, ‘he/she has spied a titter’s nest and is laughing at the
eggs’. I cannot find any definitive reference
to this, but have found several clues
(perhaps). For example, one of the several collective
nouns for magpies is a tittering.
“Animals are
often alluded to in phrases of this sort, for example, lion's share, dog's
breakfast, bird's-eye view etc. Of
course, this one is different, in that mares don't make nests - the allusion
was meant to be comically ironic. That humour is reflected in several of the
early citations of 'mare's nest' (or horse's nest, as some early references
have it), which refer directly to laughter, for example, John Fletcher's
Jacobean tragedy Bonduca, circa. 1613
Why dost thou
laugh? What Mares nest hast thou found?
The joke was
pushed further by Dr. [Jonathan] Swift, in the play Miscellanies, 1751:
What! Have you
found a mare's nest, and laugh at the eggs?”
Or is it perhaps just one of those old
lines quoted by someone such as Frankie Howerd?
His well-known “Oooh no missus, titter ye not” doesn’t really have any
connection as such, but somehow I can just hear him saying “Oooh missus, he has
spied a titter’s nest and is laughing at the eggs”.
So, is there anyone else out there who
has heard of this saying? And if so, do they know from whence it originated?
2 comments:
I cannot recall ever hearing reference to "titter’s nest", but if someone was laughing quietly (trying not to be noticed and heard) at some stupid comment (made perhaps by a vicar at a funeral) my mother would say "stop that tittering".
I cannot recall ever hearing reference to "titter’s nest", but if someone was laughing quietly (trying not to be noticed and heard) at some stupid comment (made perhaps by a vicar at a funeral) my mother would say "stop that tittering".
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