"Clown. Oh, Maister, you are half-hanged!
"Nobody. Hanged. Why, man?
"Clown. Because you have an ill name: a man had almost as good serve no master as serve you."—"Nobody and Somebody," 1606.
[166:A] "Qui veut noyer son chien, l'accuse de rage."
[167:A] A school-boy, writing an essay on the cat, put down that it was said to have nine lives, but he added that he did not now need them, because of Christianity. This, quaint as it is, has a great truth wrapped up in it—the love of mercy, including kindness to animals, that is one of the points of the teaching of Christ.
[168:A] John Dunton, for instance, wrote in the year 1705, "A cat may look on a Queen, or a Satyr on her present Majesty."
[168:B] Tusser. "Fray" may be taken as foray, while "fay" is faith—i.e. by my faith.
[170:A] The Germans vary this into, "Wenn der Esel auch eine Löwenhaut trägt, die Ohren gucken vor"—"Even when the donkey wears the lion's skin its ears peep out and betray it."
"As long as I am riche reputed
With solemn voyce I am saluted;
But wealthe away once worne,
Not one wyll say 'Good morne.'"