[E398] "Would'st thou not be glad to have the niggardly rascally sheepbiter come by some notable shame."—Shakspere, Twelfth Night, Act ii. sc. 5.
"Who is in this closet? let me see (breaks it open). Oh, sheepbiter, are you here?"—Shadwell, Bury Fair, 1689.
[E399] "Coxcombe:" see Cotgrave, s.v. Effeminé, Enfourner, Fol, Lambui.
[E400] Davus is the common name in Terence for the cunning, plotting servant.
[E401] Thersites, the ugliest and most scurrilous of the Greeks before Troy. He spared in his revilings neither prince nor chief, but directed his abuse especially against Achilles and Ulysses. The name is often used to denote a calumniator. Cf.
"When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle."
—Shakspere, Troilus and Cressida, Act i. sc. 3.
[E402] "Shall swell like a tode." Cf. [65], 6.
[E403] "To hold a candle to the devil is to assist in a bad cause or an evil matter."—Ray. Hazlitt (English Proverbs, p. 407) gives "'Tis good sometimes to hold a candle to the devil." Thus we find an anonymous correspondent writing to John Paston: "for howr Lords love, goo tharow with Wyll Weseter, and also plese Chrewys as ye thynke in yow hert best for to do; for it is a comon proverbe, 'A man must sumtyme set a candel befor the Devyle;' and therfor thow it be not alder most mede and profytabyl, yet of ij harmys the leste is to be take."—Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, ii. 73.
[E404] At Canterbury is a representation of Master Shorne holding up his hand in a threatening attitude at the Devil, who is in a boot.