| 释义 |
king's evil
[tr. med.L. regius morbus (in classical L. = jaundice); cf. MDu. conincsevel, OF. le mal le roy.]
Scrofula, which in England and France was formerly supposed to be curable by the king's (or queen's) touch. (Cf. evil n. 7 c.)
The practice of touching for the king's evil continued from the time of Edward the Confessor to the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The Office for the ceremony has not been printed in the Prayer-book since 1719.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 49 [God] destroyed the secounde witnesse by the Kynges evel [1432–50 the kynges sekenesse]. 1398― Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxxxiii. (MS. Bodl.) lf. 224/1 Þe smel of leke..heleþ þe kinges yuel and þe dropsie. 1533Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 90 a, Swellinges in the neck ful of matter, called the kinges evyll. 1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 322 There is nothing that can cure the Kings Euill, but a Prince. 1615Crooke Body of Man 340 The seauenth Sonne is able to cure the Kings Euill. 1660Pepys Diary 23 June, Staid to see the King touch people for the King's evil. 1722W. Beckett (title) A Free and Impartial Inquiry into the Antiquity and Efficacy of Touching for the King's Evil. 1791Boswell Johnson (1887) I. 41–2 Young Johnson had the misfortune to be much afflicted with the scrophula, or King's-evil,..His mother..carried him to London where he was actually touched by Queen Anne [1712]. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 66 The Confessor was the first who touched for the King's evil. 1898Besant Orange Girl i. iv, Rheumatism, gout, and the King's Evil.
fig.1692Washington tr. Milton's Def. Pop. v. M.'s Wks. (1851) 134 You had not then been bribed with Charles his Jacobusses. You had not got the King's-Evil.
Hence † king's-ˈevil'd, -ˈevilly adjs., affected with the king's evil.
1706E. Baynard in Sir J. Floyer Hot & Cold Bath. ii. (1709) 257 Their children..Rickety, King's Evil'd, or Consumptive. Ibid. 335 Miserable small King's-Evilly..Infants. |