[447]. ‘Littler’ and ‘littlest’ were once the common degrees of comparison. Shakespeare uses the superlative. Mr. Halliwell gives the Norfolk dialect a large range. Besides ‘less’ and ‘least’ he adds ‘lesser’ and ‘lessest,’ ‘lesserer’ and ‘lesserest,’ ‘lesserer still’ and ‘lessest of all,’ and ‘littler’ and ‘littlest.’
[448]. The former ‘Haut,’ that is, high or tall, is obsolete, I think. ‘Robert le Haut’ is met with in a Norfolk register. (Hist. Norf., Index.)
[449]. It is curious to compare local registers with local dictionaries. Thus the Promptorium Parvulorum gives as a familiar Norfolk term in the fourteenth century, ‘craske, fryke of fatte,’ or ‘lusty,’ as we should now say. This crask was a vulgar form of the French ‘cras’ (Latin, ‘crassus’). Turning to our registers, we find that while our ‘Crass’s’ are found in our more general rolls as ‘Richard le Cras’ or ‘John le Cras’ or ‘Stephen Crassus,’ our ‘Crasks’ must go to a Norfolk entry for a ‘Walter le Crask.’ (Vide Hist. Norfolk, Index. Blomefield.)
[450]. ‘Robert Manekin,’ A. Nevertheless this is a baptismal name also with the diminutive ‘kin’ appended. ‘Manekyn le Heaumer,’ H.
[451]. ‘To make a mow’ was to put on a mocking expression. The word was once very familiar, though rarely used now. Bishop Bradford, speaking of the Romish priesthood, says—‘They never preach forth the Lord’s death but in mockery and mows.’ (Parker Soc., p. 395.) Mow has no relation to mouth.
[452]. ‘William Malregard’ (T.), or ‘Geoffrey Malreward’ (T.), i.e. Evil-eye, would not possess enviable sobriquets, but the name lingered on for several centuries.
[453]. ‘John Monoculus’ occurs in Memorials of Fountains Abbey.
[454]. A ‘William Blackhead’ entered C. C. Coll. Cam. in 1669, and a ‘Thomas Hardhede’ in 1467. (Hist. C. C. Coll.)
[455]. The Abbot of Leicester in 1474 was one ‘John Sheepshead.’ ‘William Sheepshead’ is also mentioned in the Index to Nicholls’ Leicester.
[456]. We must not forget, however, that ‘swier’ is early found as a provincialism for ‘squier,’ so that it may be referred in some cases to that once important officer. (v. p. 199.)