Note 711 — FATHER HUBBURD’S TALES; OR, THE ANT AND THE NIGHTINGALE.
Reading edition
the quarter-jacks in Paul’s, that are up with their elbows] Compare Dekker’s Gull’s Hornbook, 1609, “If Paul’s jacks be once up with their elbows, and quarrelling to strike eleven,” p. 96, reprint. The figures which in old public clocks struck the bell on the outside were called Jacks of the clock or clockhouse: many readers will recollect those which a few years ago were to be seen at St. Dunstan’s Church, Fleet-street.