A select glossary of English words used formerly in senses different from their present

by Richard Chenevix Trench

I grant, my Lord, the damsel is as fair

As simple Suffolk’s homely towns can yield,

But in the court be quainter dames than she.

Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, sc. 1.

But you, my lord, were glad to be employed,

To show how quaint an orator you are.

Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI., act iii. sc. 2.

Whom evere I schal kisse, he it is; holde ye him, and lede ye warli, or queyntly.—Mark xiv. 44. Wiclif (earlier version).

A ladder quaintly made of cords.

Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iii. sc. 1.