Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an excl. used to express indignant or amused surprise or contempt; ext. as marry come up, my dirty cousin!, used to tease one who is putting on airs.

1573		New Custom I ii: Marie auvaunt, Jackesauce, and pratling knaue.
1595		Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet II v: Are you so hot? Marry, come up, I trow; Is this the poultice for my aching bones?
1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 III ii: Mary come vp with a pox, haue you no body to raile against, but your Bawd now?
1608		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) V ii: Mary come out, y’are so busie about my Petticoate, you’ll creepe vp to my placket.
1648		‘Mercurius Melancholicus’ The cuckoo’s-nest a [sic] Westminster 8: Marry come up mother Damnable [...] Must you be Queen? yes you shall; Queen of Puddle-Dock, or Billingsgate, that is fittest for thee [...] Marry come up here, Mistris Wagg-tayle?
1652		A sea-cabbin dialogue [trans.] 6: Hearke I pray how this surley stallion snarles? marry come up, this would be a hot match, and a faire copulation indeed.
1660		J. Tatham The Rump II i: Marry come up Mrs. Minks.
1679		F. Smith Clod-pate’s ghost 11: To call him thy [...] Learned Reader, (marry, come up my Dirty Gossip!) when perhaps the poor man has not read one Line [...] on't, and if he be wise, be sure, never will.
1680		M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 82: Do ye think I’m meat for such a whorson? / Marry come up my Dirty Cousin.
1690		Dryden Don Sebastian 16: Marry come up Sir! Virtues quoth ah!
1690		‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests I 70: Out, you Lousie Bogg-trotting Skip [...] marry troop up, Bonny-clapper.
1715		‘Nickydemus Ninnyhammer’ Homer in a nut-shell 31: Pretend to Rule? Marry come up.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 14: Marry come up: What, plain Neverout, methinks you might have an M under your Girdle.
1742		Fielding Joseph Andrews (1954) I 51: ‘Marry-come-up’ cries Slipslop.
1757		Foote Author in Works (1799) I 132: Marry, come up, I keep as good company as your worship.
1764		K. O’Hara Midas act II: Marry come up a gain. / Indeed! my dirty cousin!
1773		‘Geoffrey Wildgoose’ Spiritual Quixote I Bk iv 232: You pot-gutted rascal! no more than yourself! marry come up!
1806		G. Colman Yngr John Bull III ii: Marry come up! And what should you be then?
1830		C. Lamb Pawnbrokers’s Daughter II ii: Marry come up! Drabs and servant wenches!
1840		Northern Star 17 Oct. 4/5: Marry, come up, indeed!
1855		C. Kingsley Westward Ho II 296: Marry come up, what says Scripture?
1857		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) III 282: If she had lived in the Elizabethan era she could have adjured him with a ‘Marry, come up!’ which would have brought him to the point without any further trouble.
1860		Fife Herald 5 Apr. 4/5: Who will readily forget the strange scorn [...] scattered through that letter where he speaks of the prince with a ‘Marry come up, my dirty cousin’?
1869		Reading Mercury 31 July 8/5: Agreed, have they? Ods boddikins! gads my life, and marry come up, sweetheart!
1878		Worcs. Chron. 7 Sept. 3/1: Marry Come Up —It is asserted that, in consequence of his marriage, Lord Carrington is about to resign.
1886		Northampton Mercury 24 Dec. 2/7: An’ it’s marry come up! at the Castle.
1886		Grantham Jrnl 11 Sept. 7/1: ‘Marry Come Up!’ By the Verdict recently given [...] it is legal for a clergyman to ‘marry himself’.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 28 July 4/7: Green made a few staccato steps towards the bar [...] ‘Bit wobbly, sir’ ‘Marry come up,’ quoth Green, ‘an’ what would you? Isn’t she supposed to be a “tight” ship?’.
1928		‘Miscellaneous Notes’ in AS III:3 259: Such terms as [...] ‘marry come up,’ and ‘Odd’s bodikins,’ were slang.
1940		E. Curry Hysterical Hist. of Aus. 42: But alas and marry-come-up, it was soon discovered.