C. T. W.
NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS.
Mechal is from the mint of Thomas Heywood; but, like many other words of the same stamp, it continued a private token of the party who issued it, and never, as far as I am aware, became current coin. Four times, at least, it occurs in his works; and always in that sense only which its etymon indicates, to wit, "adulterous." In his "Challenge for Beauty:"
"... her own tongue
Hath publish'd her a mechall prostitute."
Dilke's Old English Plays, vol. vi. p. 421.
In his "Rape of Lucrece:"
"... that done, straight murder
One of thy basest grooms, and lay you both