Bull

Bull, JOHN, a generic name for an Englishman as a personification of what is supposed to be the English type, from Arbuthnot's use of the name in his History of John Bull (1712; reprinted complete in Pope's 'Miscellanies' in 1728). The subject of that history is the 'Spanish Succession during the reigns of Queen Anne and Louis XIV.' Queen Anne is 'Mrs Bull;' 'John Bull's mother' is the Church of England; and 'John Bull's sister Peg' is the Scotch nation, represented as in love with Jack (Calvin). The description of Bull is so close to the familiar figure in the pages of Punch that a sentence or two must be quoted: 'Bull in the main was an honest plain-dealing fellow, choleric, bold, and of a very inconstant temper. He dreaded not old Lewis (Louis XIV.), either at back-sword, single falchion, or cudgel-play; but then he was very apt to quarrel with his best friends, especially if they pretended to govern him. If you flattered him, you might lead him as a child.'