"Nay, iape not with hym, he is no smal fole.
It is a solemnpne syre and solayne."
—Skelton's Works, [1843, vol. i., p. 17.]
[305] i.e., To meddle.—S.
[306] Old copy, Scole.
[307] [Parties.]
[308] Minsheu, in his Dictionary, 1627 (as quoted by Mr Tollet, in his "Notes on Shakspeare," vol. v. p. 433, says: "Natural ideots and fools have and still do accustome themselves to weare in their cappes cockes feathers, or a hat with a necke and head of a cock on the top," &c. From this circumstance Diccon probably calls Dr Rat a cox; that is, a coxcomb, an idiot.)
[309] See the "History of Reynard the Fox," chap, vii., edit. 1701.—S.
[310] [Wicked.] Lither is used sometimes for weak or limber, at other times lean or pale. Several examples of the former are collected by Mr Steevens ("Notes on Shakspeare," vol. vi., p. 263).
Again, in "Euphues and his England," 1582, p. 24: "For as they that angle for the tortoys, having once caught him, are driven into such a lythernesse, that they loose all their spirites, being benummed so," &c. Of the latter, the following will serve as a proof (Erasmus's "Praise of Folie," Chaloner's translation, 1549, sig. F 2): "Or at lest hyre some younge Phaon for mede to dooe the thyng, still daube theyr lither chekes with peintyng," &c.