My Particular Friend footnotes: The Bride Who Wasn’t There 4
Beginning with Mr Simms’s Confession:
‘Oh ho! The plot thickens.’
The plot thickens: I am unsure when this phrase is first used, but I have found it in The Rehearsal by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, Act III, Scene 4.
BAYES: Ay, now the Plot thickens very much upon us.
It was a time for shopkeepers and costermongers and fishwives to be about but fortunately we attracted little attention, except for two children, a boy and girl, who approached us. I recognized the girl as Donna who immediately gave Charlotte her report.
costermonger: a seller of fruits and vegetables
fishwife: either a woman who sells fish (usually married to a fisherman) or a coarse-mannered woman who is prone to shouting
fishwife: either a woman who sells fish (usually married to a fisherman) or a coarse-mannered woman who is prone to shouting