Nothing, indeed,
can present the mind with a stronger or more picturesque emblem of
desolation and ruin. Its malignity is terrible.
There are also mock imprecations as well as mock oaths. Of this
character are, "The devil go with you an' sixpence, an' thin you'll
want neither money nor company!" This humorous and considerate curse
is generally confined to the female sex. When Paddy happens to be in a
romping mood, and teases his sweetheart too much, she usually utters it
with a countenance combating with smiles and frowns, while she stands in
the act of pinning up her dishevelled hair; her cheeks, particularly the
one next Paddy, deepened into a becoming blush.
"Bad scran to you!" is another form seldom used in anger: it is the same
as "Hard feeding to you!" "Bad win' to you!" is "Ill health to you!"
it is nearly the same as "Consumin' (consumption) to you!" Two other
imprecations come under this head, which we will class together, because
they are counterparts of each other, with this difference, that one of
them is the most subtilely and intensely withering in its purport that
can well be conceived. The one is that common curse, "Bad 'cess to you!"
that is, bad success to you: we may identify it with "Hard fortune to
you!" The other is a keen one, indeed--"Sweet bad luck to you!" Now,
whether we consider the epithet sweet as bitterly ironical, or deem it
as a wish that prosperity may harden the heart to the accomplishment of
future damnation, as in the case of Dives, we must in either sense grant
that it is an oath of powerful hatred and venom.
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