Posted by Alan Hakim on September 08, 2002 at 15:47:32 from 212.137.171.108 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re: Pull devil, pull baker posted by Peter Roche on September 07, 2002 at 21:25:48:
My - much newer (Centenary Edition, 1977) - Brewer has a different definition: Lie, cheat, wrangle away, have a go at each other
. Sometimes parson
is substituted for baker
.
It also cites Walter Scott, Old Mortality (1816):Then my mither and her quarrelled, and pu'ed me twa ways at anes, as if ilk ane had an end o' me, like Punch and the Deevil rugging about the Baker at the fair.
So it looks to have come from Punch and Judy, probably based on an old folk tale. And Andrew's fairground game would have been derived from it.