300 Notes and Illustrations. 
64. 17. ‘Would’st thou not be glad to have the niggardly 
rascally sheepbiter come by some notable shame.”’—Shakspere, 
Twelfth Night, Act ii. sc. 5. 
‘“Who is in this closet? let me see (dreaks zt open). Oh, sheep- 
biter, are you here ?””—Shadwell, Bury Fair, 1689. 
64. 18, ‘‘Coxcombe:” see Cotgrave, s.v. Effeminé, Enfourner, 
Fol, Lambut. 
64. 20. Davus is the common name in Terence for the cunning, 
plotting servant. 
64. 21. Thersites, the ugliest and most scurrilous of the Greeks 
before Troy. He spared in his revilings neither prince nor chief, 
but directed his abuse especially against Achilles and Ulysses. The 
name is often used to denote a calumniator. Cf. 
‘‘When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws, 
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle.” 
Shakspere, Troilus and Cressida, Act i. sc. 3. 
64. 22. ‘Shall swell like a tode.” Cf. 65, 6. 
64* .““To hold a candle to the devil is to assist in a bad cause or 
an evil matter.”’—Ray. Hazlitt (English Proverbs, p. 407) gives 
“Tis good sometimes to hold a candle to the devil.” ‘Thus we 
find an anonymous correspondent writing to John Paston: ‘‘ for 
howr Lords love, goo tharow with Wyll Weseter, and also plese 
Chrewys as ye thynke in yow hert best for to do; for it is a comon 
proverbe, ‘A man must sumtyme sef a candel befor the Devyle;’ and 
therfor thow it be not alder most mede and profytabyl, yet of ij 
harmys the leste is to be take.” —Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, ii. 73. 
64". 7. At Canterbury is a representation of Master Shorne hold- 
ing up his hand in a threatening attitude at the Devil, who is ina 
boot. 
64*. 8. “False birds can fetch the wind ;” an expression taken 
from hawking. To fetch the wind, to take the wind (Bacon), and to 
have the wind are various forms of the same expression, the meaning 
of which is to gain or take an advantage. We still use the expres- 
sion ‘to get to windward of another,” meaning to get the better or 
advantage of him. Mavor reads, “ false words can fetch the wind,” 
7.e. Slander will spread as though borne on the wind. I do not, 
however, know on what authority he has adopted this reading, as 
the text of 1577 gives “ birds.” 
65. The following poem on Evil Tongues is from a MS. of 
the 15th century, edited for the Percy Soc. by the late Mr. T. 
Wright, 1847: ‘‘A man that con his tong stere, 
He ther not rek wer that he go.” 
‘“‘Ittes knowyn in every schyre, 
Wekyd tongges have no pere ; 
I wold thei wer brent in the fer, 
That warke men soo mykyll wo. 
