courtnoll, courtnold, a contemptuous term for a courtier. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p. 516; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 51 From court, and noll, the head, hence, a person (nowl in Shakespeare).
court-passage, a game at dice. Middleton, Women beware, ii. 2 (Guardiano). See [passage].
coustreling, a lad, knave, groom. Only in Udall, Roister Doister, i. 4 (Merygreek). See [coistril].
covenable, fit, suitable, becoming, of becoming appearance; ‘A sonne called Philip, a right covenable and gracious man’, Berners, Froissart, ccclxxix. 635; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 11, § 6. OF. and Prov. convenable (cov-). ME. covenable, fit, proper, suitable, agreeable (Chaucer).
covent, a ‘convent’. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 849; Meas. for M. iv. 3. 133. ME. covent (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1827). The old form remains in ‘Covent Garden’. Anglo-F. cuvent (Rough List).
cover: phr. be covered, put on your hat. As You Like It, v. 1. 18; Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Sir O. Twi.). (There are endless compliments about wearing a hat in old plays.)
covert: phr. under covert-baron, in the condition of a woman who is protected by her husband. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 2 (Miss N.); under covert-barn, under protection, Phoenix, iii. 1 (Falso). Anglo-F. feme couverte baroun, for couverte de baroun, a woman protected by her husband (Rough List). See Cowell, Interp. (s.v. Coverture).
covetise, covetousness. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle); Kyd, Cornelia, i. l. 26. ME. covetyse, ‘avaricia’ (Prompt.), Anglo-F. coveitise, cp. Ital. cupidigia (Dante).
cowardry, cowardice. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 511; cowardree, Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 986.
cowith, the commonest form of Welsh bardic verse, Drayton, Pol. iv. 183 (notes 59 and 67). Wel. cywydd.