"Manes. We great girders call it a short saying of a sharp wit, with a bitter sense in a sweet word."
Alexander and Campaspe, Old Plays,
vol. ii. p. 113. ed. 1780.
"Then for your Lordship's Quippes and quick jestes,
Why Gesta Romanorum were nothing to them."
Sir Gyles Goosecappe, a Com., Sig. G. 2. 4to. 1606.
Crank is used in a different sense by Drayton:—
"Like Chanticleare he crowed crank,
And piped full merily."
Vol. iv. p. 1402. ed. 1753.