Those M&D words 5: Orange-girls

[Monte Davis]

"Orange-girls" -- fruit vendors, what else? Nell Gwyn, Charles II's
mistress, is supposed to have been one. Wikipedia sez "The work exposed her
to multiple aspects of theatre life and to London's higher society: this was
after all the "King's playhouse" and Charles frequently enough attended the
performances. The orange-girls would also serve as messengers between men in
the audience and actresses backstage; they received monetary tips for this
role and certainly some of these messages would end in sexual assignations.
Whether this activity rose to the level of pimping may be a matter of
semantics. Some sources think it also likely that Gwyn prostituted herself
during her time as an orange-girl..."

(Nothing specially vicious about oranges that I know of. My impression is
that for a long time pretty much *any* occupation that put a young woman
unchaperoned in public  -- let alone at the <wink, nudge> THEATER! --
unchaperoned could be named with a leer. A faint bit of it clings to
shellfish monger Molly Malone, and to Eliza the flower girl of Pygmalion /
My Fair Lady.)  

"Simpleton-silver": I've no specific reference, but surely parallel to
today's "chump change": a sum too small to tempt anyone but a fool
 
"Dad-dums" -- a childlike (or in this context satirically pseudo-childlike)
variation on "dad", a la "daddy" itself, "daddikins," and other
saccharinities.