So lost the Dogge the flesh in his mouth.
Spenser, The Shepherd’s Calendar, September.
‘Uncouthe, unkiste,’ sayde the old famous poete Chaucer; which proverb very well taketh place in this our new poete, who for that he is uncouthe (as said Chaucer) is unkist; and, unknown to most men, is regarded but of a few.—E. K., Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar.
Unequal. From the constant use made of ‘unequal’ by our early writers, for whom it was entirely equivalent to unjust, unfair, one might almost suppose they were influenced by sense association with ‘iniquus’ in their naturalization of ‘inæqualis.’ At any rate they had no scruple in using it in a sense, which ‘inæqualis’ never has, but ‘iniquus’ continually.
To punish me for what you make me do
Seems most unequal.
Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, act ii. sc. 5.
These imputations are too common, sir,
And easily stuck on virtue when she’s poor:
You are unequal to me.