[120] 1 Henry IV. II. iv. 343.
[121] 3 Henry VI. I. iv. 61.
[122] Hamlet, I. iii. 115.
[123] Twelfth Night, II. v. 77.
[124] Winter’s Tale, IV. iv. 727.
[125] Much Ado about Nothing, II. i. 128.
[126] Othello, I. iii. 379. In Shakespeare’s time the bird was also called snite, under which form it is referred to by his contemporary poet, Drayton, who speaks of
The witless woodcock and his neighbour snite.
The use of the word “snipe” as a disparaging epithet for an individual is not yet extinct in the north.
[127] Antony and Cleopatra, II. iii. 34.