Extra Credit Questions

[Eva Elisabeth]

Laurie, this is A. Lincoln's explanation to Julia Taft whom he called a "flibbertiggibet": "It's a small, slim thing with curls and a white dress and a blue sash who flies instead of walking."

Most likely he had it from Shakespeare's King Lear (IV, i):

"EDGAR
...Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits. Bless thee, goodman’s son, from the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once: of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing, who since possesses chambermaids and waiting-women. So bless thee, master."

I found Shakespeare got the name from Samuel Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), where one reads of 40 fiends, which Jesuits cast out and among which was Fliberdigibbet, described as one of "foure deuils of the round, or Morrice, whom Sara in her fits, tuned together, in measure and sweet cadence."
Orignally it is a middle English word for a flighty, whimsical or talkative person, usually a young woman.