GULL-CATCHERS. 267 



The gull is said to have derived its name from its 

 voracious habits, i.e., from " gulo onis" a gormandizer. 

 Tooke holds that gull, guile, wile, and guilt, are all from 

 the Anglo-Saxon " wiglian, gewiglian" that by which any 

 one is deceived. Archdeacon Nares suggests that gull is 

 from the old French guiller. 



Malvolio asks : 



" Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd, 

 Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest, 

 And made the most notorious geek* and gull, 

 That e'er invention play'd on ? tell me why." 



Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. i . 



In the same play we find the word " gull " occurring 

 several times in a similar sense, as in Act ii. Sc. 3, and 

 Act iii. Sc. 2 ;-f- and Fabian, on the entry of Maria (Act ii. 

 Sc. 5), exclaims, 



" Here comes my noble gull-catcher ! " 



When sharpers were considered as bird-catchers, a gull 

 was their proper prey.J " Gull -catchers," or "gull- 

 gropers," therefore, were the names by which, in Shake- 

 speare's day, these sharpers were known. 



" The gull-groper was generally an old gambling miser, 



* Geek a laughing-stock. According to Capel, from the Italian ghczzo. Dr. 

 Jamieson, however, derives it from the Teutonic geek, jocus. 



t See also Othello, Act v. Sc. 2, and Timon of Athens, Act ii. Sc. i. 

 % See D'Israeli's " Curiosities of Literature," iii. p. 84. 



