In the Pickwick Papers, Mr. Wardle's replies to Mr. Pickwick regarding his family's Christmas Eve traditions: "...we wait, until the clock strikes twelve, to usher Christmas in, and beguile the time with forfeits and old stories.Trundle, my boy, rake up the fire."
According to Standford's Discovering Dickens page:
FORFEITS. - A pastime usually played by a number of persons of both sexes. The ordinary mode is to select some sentence, which each person of the party is to repeat without making a mistake, and in the event of his so doing, he has to forfeit to some person chosen for the purpose any trifling article, such as a card-case, smelling-bottle, fan ...
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rg210 commented on the word forfeits
In the Pickwick Papers, Mr. Wardle's replies to Mr. Pickwick regarding his family's Christmas Eve traditions: "...we wait, until the clock strikes twelve, to usher Christmas in, and beguile the time with forfeits and old stories.Trundle, my boy, rake up the fire."
According to Standford's Discovering Dickens page:
FORFEITS. - A pastime usually played by a number of persons of both sexes. The ordinary mode is to select some sentence, which each person of the party is to repeat without making a mistake, and in the event of his so doing, he has to forfeit to some person chosen for the purpose any trifling article, such as a card-case, smelling-bottle, fan ...
June 19, 2020