Crotchet

“ It is one that will make you or mar you, Crotchet. I have myself important business here, or I would myself take this man to Newgate. As it is, Crotchet, I wish to entrust you with that important piece of duty, and I rely upon you, Crotchet, for keeping an eye upon him, and delivering him in safety."
"It's as good as done," said Crotchet. "If he gets away from me, he has only another individual to do, and that's the old gent as is down below, with the long tail. Lor' bless you, sir, didn't I say from the first, as Todd smugged the people as comed to him to be shaved?" ”

“ Here's a death for a beadle. Murder! robbery. Fire—oh—oh—oh."
The churchwarden groaned awfully.
"Ascend, and get a light," said Sir Richard. "Quick, Crotchet, quick! God only knows what is the matter with all these people."
Both Crotchet and Sir Richard Blunt scrambled over the bodies of the churchwarden and the beadle, and soon reached the church. The churchwarden made a desperate effort, and, shaking himself free of the beadle, he ascended likewise, and rolled into a pew, upon the floor of which he sat, looking a little deranged. ”

“ He shrunk back close to the wall, determined to seize, and with an iron hand, any one who should reach the landing. Suddenly, from quite the lower part of the building, he heard the cough again. The thought, then, that it must be Crotchet who was coming up, impressed itself upon him, but he would not speak. In a few moments some one reached the landing, and stretching out his right arm, Sir Richard caught whoever it was, and said in a whisper—
"Any resistance will cost you your life." ”

“ Crotchet heard this information with great attention; and when he and Sir Richard Blunt were alone, he said—
"I tell you what it is, sir—the country will never suit Todd."
"How do you mean, Crotchet?"
"I mean, sir, that, in my opinion, he has gone back to London again. The country, sir, ain't the sort of place for such men as he is. You may depend upon it, he only came to the little wood to get rid of Lupin, and he has gone back to try and hide in London till the row is over." ”

“ I never heard of that before, Crotchet.'
'O Lor' yes, it's enough to poison the devil himself, Sir Richard; and t'other day, when the blessed bishop went to firm a lot of people, he as good as told 'em they might all be damned first, afore he 'firm nobody in such a place.'
The magistrate was in deep thought for a few minutes, and then he said suddenly,-
'Well, well, Crotchet, you turn the matter over in your mind and see what you can make of it; I will think it over, likewise. Do you hear? mind you are with me at six this evening punctually ”

“ CROTCHET (from the Fr. croche, a hook; whence also the Anglicized “crochet,” pronounced as in French, for the knitting-work done with a hook instead of on pins) , properly a small hook, and so used of the hook-like setae or bristles found in certain worms which burrow in sand. In music, a “crotchet” is a note of half the value of a minim and double that of a quaver; it is marked by a round black head and a line without a tail or hook; the French croche is used of a “quaver” which has a tail, but in ancient music the semiminima, the modern crotchet, is marked by an open note with a hook. ”

“ Crotchet set up a long and melancholy whistle.
"In my heart I thought this might be," said Sir Richard, "and yet having no evidence to justify the suggestion of my fancy, I did not like to nurse the idea. Todd in this neighbourhood—Todd in his own house! Oh, what a chance!"
"Your worship," said Crotchet, shaking his head and speaking slowly, with an appearance of great wisdom. "Your worship, it's mostly always the case. There's a special providence that always brings back folks as has done a murder back again to the place where they has done it ”

“ Kill her! Tear her to bits and hang her on the lamp-post in the middle of Bell Yard! Out with her! Drag her out! Hang her! hang her!"
"The coach you say is waiting, Crotchet?" said the officer, who had been intrusted by Sir Richard Blunt with the conduct of the whole business connected with Mrs. Lovett's capture.
"It were," said Crotchet, "and that coachman ain't the sort of fellow to move on till I tell him. I knows him." ”

“ If you fancy somebody stood upon your ribs, Mr. Beadle, I am quite sure somebody did upon mine."
The workmen were now directed to replace the stone in its former position; and when that was completely done, and some mortar pressed into the crevices, Sir Richard Blunt gave a signal to Crotchet to follow him, and they both left the church together.
"Now, Crotchet, understand me."
"I'll try," said Crotchet.
"No one, for the future, is to be shaved in Sweeney Todd's shop alone." ”

“ It seems to work best by changing the dotted crotchet to a crotchet. Page 87 (Currants and Raisins) : The second section (bars 5-12) has repeat marks but the written guidance is to play it once. The repeat signs from this section are not used in the Midi music. The third section starting at bar 13 is more like a new beginning as it starts with an uptake bar of just one crotchet which is balanced at the end of the section with a minim. To keep it as a single piece, two crotchet rests have been added at the beginning of bar thirteen and a crotchet rest at the end of the last bar. ”

“ It conveys no clear idea of what a crotchet is. One hook includes nothing. Therefore Johnson said: "Hooks in which words are included [thus] ." But if each of the hooks is a crotchet, as Webster suggests, and almost every body supposes, then both lexicographers are wrong in not making the whole expression plural: thus, "Crotchets, in printing, are angular hooks usually including some explanatory words." But is this all that Webster meant? I cannot tell. He may be understood as saying also, that a Crotchet is "a sentence or a passage distinguished from the rest, thus [] ;" ”

“ Lovett in his arms, he said—
"My dear madam, you only distress yourself for nothing; all resistance is perfectly useless. Either I must take you prisoner, or you me, and I decidedly incline to the former alternative."
The knife that had been thrown through the window was not without its object, for in a moment afterwards Mr. Crotchet made his appearance in the shop.
"All right, Crotchet," said he who had captured Mrs. Lovett; "first clap the bracelets on this lady."
"Here yer is," said Crotchet. "Lor, mum! ”

“ If Mr Crotchet had no other good quality on earth, he still had that of listening most attentively, and he never opened his mouth while the magistrate related to him what had just formed the subject matter of Mr Jeffery's communication; indeed, Crotchet seemed to be looking out of the window all the while; but then Sir Richard knew the little peculiarities of his visual organs. ”

“ But if the crotchet slips, as the head is of a round figure, and may turn like a ball, they direct you to thrust the crotchet into the hole of the ear, then giving some one the handle to hold, you are to strike another crotchet of the same figure in the other ear, and so pulling with both crotchets at once, extract the head, that is to say, if possible. ”

“ The Rev. Dr. Folliott.—Then, sir, he will be in office next week. Peace be with him. Sugar and cream.
Mr. Crotchet.—But, Doctor, are you for Chainmail Hall on Christmas Day?
The Rev. Dr. Folliott.—That am I, for there will be an excellent dinner, though, peradventure, grotesquely served.
Mr. Crotchet.—I have not seen my neighbour since he left us on the canal.
The Rev. Dr. Folliott.—He has married a wife, and brought her home.
Lady Clarinda.—Indeed! If she suits him, she must be an oddity: it will be amusing to see them together.
Lord Bossnowl.—Very amusing. He! He! Mr. Firedamp. ”

“ But, sir, young Crotchet doubled, and trebled, and quadrupled it, and is, as you say, a striking example of the reward of industry; not that I think his labour has been so great as his luck.
The Stranger.—But, sir, is all this solid? is there no danger of reaction? no day of reckoning to cut down in an hour prosperity that has grown up like a mushroom?
The Rev. Dr. Folliott.—Nay, sir, I know not. I do not pry into these matters. I am, for my own part, very well satisfied with the young gentleman. ”

“ Mr Crotchet took his leave, and when he was alone the magistrate rose and paced his apartment for some time with rapid strides, as if he were much agitated by the reflections that were passing through his mind. At length he flung himself into a chair with something like a groan, as he said,-
'A horrible idea forces itself upon my consideration, most horrible! most horrible! most horrible! Well, well, we shall see, we shall see. It may not be so ”

“ Some people sneer at them, call them ‘crotchetty,’ ‘faddy,’ &c., but, for my own part, I have a great respect for crotchetty people, having learned long ago that every first great step that has ever been taken in the path of human progress was denounced as a crotchet by those it was leaving behind. ”

“ She says she won't walk, but I have a coach in Fleet Street, and we will pop her into that, and so take her along quite snug."
"Yes, yes," cried the people. "Bring her along, that will do."
"Oh, will it?" muttered Crochet to himself. "What a precious set of ninnies you are. If I get her once in the coach, and she gets out again except to step into the stone jug, may I be hanged myself."
"I think you have managed it, Crotchet," whispered Mr. Green, "I think that will do."
"To be sure it will, sir. All's right. Bless your heart, mobs is the stupidest beasts as is. ”

“ The cook opened the door, and before the mob could rush into the place, Crotchet stepped on to the threshold of the shop, and in a tremendous voice that made itself heard above all others, he cried—
"Hurrah! Hurrah!"
Nothing is easier than to throw a cry into a crowd, and to get it echoed to your heart's content; and so some couple of hundred voices now immediately cried—"Hurrah!" and when the vast volume of sound had died away, Crotchet in such a voice that it must have been heard in Fleet Street quite plainly, said—
"My opinion is, that Mrs. ”

“ I am delighted to fall in with a gentleman who daily appreciates the transcendental philosophy.” “Lady Clarinda is too good,” said the Captain; and was about to protest that he had never heard the word “transcendental” before, when the butler announced dinner. Mr. Crotchet led the way with Lady Clarinda: Lord Bossnowl followed with Miss Crotchet: the economist and transcendentalist pinned in the Captain, and held him, one by each arm, as he impatiently descended the stairs in the rear of several others of the company, whom they had forced him to let pass ”

“ The first Crotchet, in the succeeding bars, is subject to the same laws as the first Minim in the Second Order. The three remaining Crotchets may form either Concords or Discords, provided that, in the latter case, they proceed in Conjunct Movement, and lie between two Concords; in which respect they must be treated like the unaccented Minims in the Second Order. ”

“ Folliott.—A hero, sir, in his line. Never did angler in September hook more gudgeons.
The Stranger.—To say the truth, two very amiable young people, with whom I have some little acquaintance, Lord Bossnowl, and his sister, Lady Clarinda, are reported to be on the point of concluding a double marriage with Miss Crotchet and her brother; by way of putting a new varnish on old nobility. Lord Foolincourt, their father, is terribly poor for a lord who owns a borough. ”

“ And, sir, to show my contempt for cant in all its shapes, I have adorned my house with the Greek Venus, in all her shapes, and am ready to fight her battle against all the societies that ever were instituted for the suppression of truth and beauty.
The Rev. Dr. Folliott.—My dear sir, I am afraid you are growing warm. Pray be cool. Nothing contributes so much to good digestion as to be perfectly cool after dinner.
Mr. Crotchet.—Sir, the Lacedæmonian virgins wrestled naked with young men ”

“ In course, it ain't for me to say whether in this ere world there ought to be prigs, and sneaks, and cracksmen, and all that sort of thing or not; but I will say, sir, as I'm not a little surprised how anybody can do anything very wrong, sir, in the country."
"Indeed, Crotchet?"
"Yes, sir; it has an effect on me. When I gets among the old trees and sees the branches a waving about, and hear the wind a moaning among 'em, it makes me think as there ain't a great deal in this world as is worth the bothering about, you see, sir ”

“ That a note half the value of a minim should at any period have been written with a hook may help to account for the modern name crotchet, which being clearly derived from the French croc, or crochet, a hook, is somewhat anomalous as applied to the note in its present form, which has no hook. ”

“ Mr. Toogood had begun explaining his diagrams to Sir Simon Steeltrap; but Sir Simon grew testy, and told Mr. Toogood that the promulgators of such doctrines ought to be consigned to the treadmill. The philanthropist walked off from the country gentleman, and proceeded to hold forth to young Crotchet, who stood silent, as one who listens, but in reality without hearing a syllable. Mr. Crotchet, senior, as the master of the house, was left to entertain himself with his own meditations, till the Reverend Doctor Folliott tore himself from Mr. Mac Quedy, and proceeded to expostulate with Mr. ”

“ So of crotchets. I don't pretend that a person has any thing to boast of, because his head is full of crotchets. Perhaps he would be better without them. Perhaps he would. But warts [14] and crotchets are both found among mankind. Both are freaks of nature, so to speak; of course, both are worth examining. One thing at a time, though. Let us turn our attention, at present, to crotchets.
[15]
CHAP. II.ToC CROTCHETY FOLKS.
A crotchety person, according to this same Noah Webster, whom I have quoted before, is one who has whims or crotchets in the brain. Now a word about these crotchety folks. ”