"Decrepit miser! base ignoble wretch!"
Steevens says has no relation to avarice, but simply means a miserable creature. So in the interlude of Jacob and Esau, 1568:
"But as for these misers within my father's tent."
Again, in Lord Stirling's tragedy of Crœsus, 1604:
"Or think'st thou me of judgement too remiss,
A miser that in miserie remains."
Otway, however, in his Orphan, published in 1680, uses it for a covetous person:
"Though she be dearer to my soul than rest
To weary pilgrims, or to misers gold,
Rather than wrong Castalio, I'd forget thee."