lubberland

plural lubberlands

1. Synonym of Cockaigne, a land of plenty

   “Truth!” I cried, “though the Heavens crush me for following her: no Falsehood! though a whole celestial Lubberland were the price of Apostasy.”

   1831, Thomas Carlyle, chapter VII, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 113

   4 more examples

   Good mother, how ſhall we finde a pigge, if we doe not looke about for't? will it run off o'the ſpit, into our mouths thinke you? as in Lubberland? and cry, we, we?

   1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, […], published 1631, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 34

   In such prophesied Lubberland, of Happiness, Benevolence, and Vice cured of its deformity, trust not, my friends! Man is not what one calls a happy animal; his appetite for sweet victual is so enormous.

   1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Contrat Social”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book II (The Paper Age), page 54

   All action and story, all individuality of persons, objects, and events, is merged in a pervading atmosphere of tranquil, sunny repose,—as of a holiday-afternoon. It may seem to us an idle lubberland, a paradise of do-nothings;—Mr. Ruskin sees in it only a "dim, stupid, serene, leguminous enjoyment."

   1864 March, “On the Relation of Art to Nature”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 13, number 77

   Lubberland symbolized a place of relaxed, lusty ease, a place of unimpeded libidinal energies and uninterrupted flows of carnal desire that stood in sharp contrast to the disciplined, ordered, and morally upright culture of Byrd's world—the social and cultural universe of the eighteenth century tidewater planter.

   2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 25

   Synonyms: Cockaigne