play up vs wallow in the mire

play up

verb
  • To misbehave. 

  • To make or attempt to make something appear more important, likely, or obvious; to showcase or highlight. 

  • To play more vigorously. 

  • To be unfaithful to a lover; to cheat; used with on. 

wallow in the mire

verb
  • To revel in baseness or scandal. 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see wallow, mire. 

How often have the words play up and wallow in the mire occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )