1575. Laneham’s Letter (ed. 1871). p. 40. With yoor paciens, Gentlmen, … be it said: wear it not in deede that hornz bee so plentie, hornware I beleeue woold bee more set by than it iz, and yet thear in our parts, that wyll not stick too auoow that many an honest man both in citee and cuntree hath his hoous bv horning well vphollden, and a daily freend allso at need.
c. 1580. Collier of Croydon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, viii., 436). My head groweth hard, my horns will shortly spring.
1586. Lupton, 1,000 Not. Things, ed. 1675, p. 261. Take heed thou art not horn’d, and then fetcht home.
1597. Hall, Satires, i., 8. Fond wittol that would’st load thy witless head, With timely horns before thy bridal bed. Idem, ii., 7. If chance it come to wanton Capricorne, And so into the Ram’s disgraceful horne.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., Act i., sc. 2. Well, he hath the horn of abundance and the lightness of his wife shines through it.
1598. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, v., 1. See, what a drove of horns fly in the air, Winged with my cleansèd and my credulous breath.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, ed. 1641, v., 41. The adulterous Sargus.… Courting the Shee Goates on the grassie shore Would horn their husbands that had horns before.
1599. Jonson, Every Man Out of his Humour, iv., 4. Now horn upon horn pursue thee, thou blind, egregious, dotard.
1600. Look About You, Sc. 10 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, v., 415). By adding horns unto our falcon’s head.
1600. Shakspeare, As You Like it, iv., 2. Take thou no scorn to wear the horn, It was a crest ere thou wast born.