The prudent Prince, dothe give hem ofte their due,
Whiche is faire wordes, that right their humors serue:
For infantes hande, the rasor is vnfitte,
And fooles vnmeete, in wisedomes seate to sitte.”
The word “motley” is often made use of in Shakespeare’s plays. Jaques, in As You Like It (act ii. sc. 7, lines 12 and 42, vol. ii. pp. 405, 406), describes the “motley fool” “in a motley coat,”—
“I met a fool i’ the forest,
A motley fool; a miserable world!
As I do live by food, I met a fool;
Who laid him down and bask’d him in the sun,
And rail’d on Lady Fortune in good terms,