272, contains the
following
passage:
'The other is his dressing-block, upon whom my lord lays all his
clothes and fashions ere he vouchsafes them his own person:
you shall see him .
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
_King._ Thou art that Asse.
=3. 3. 214 Much good do you.= So in _Sil. Wom._, _Wks._ 3.
398: 'Much good do him.'
=3. 3. 217 And coozen i' your bullions.= Massinger's _Fatal
Dowry_, _Wks._, p.
272, contains the
following
passage:
'The other is his dressing-block, upon whom my lord lays all his
clothes and fashions ere he vouchsafes them his own person:
you shall see him .
.. at noon in the Bullion,' etc. In a note
on this passage (_Wks._ 3. 390, ed. 1813) Gifford advanced the
theory that the _bullion_ was 'a piece of finery, which derived
its denomination from the large globular gilt buttons, still in
use on the continent.' In his note on the present passage, he
adds that it was probably 'adopted by gamblers and others, as a
mark of wealth, to entrap the unwary.'
Nares was the next man to take up the word. He connected it with
'_bullion_; Copper-plates set on the Breast-leathers and Bridles
of Horses for ornament' (Phillips 1706). 'I suspect that it also
meant, in colloquial use, copper lace, tassels, and ornaments in
imitation of gold. Hence contemptuously attributed to those who
affected a finery above their station.'
