coistrel (
“coystrill,”
Cambridge
), TWELFTH NIGHT, i. 3.
37; PERICLES, iv. 6. 164.
“A coystril is a
paltry groom, one only fit to carry arms, but not to use them. So, in Holinshed's
[Harrison's] Description of England, vol. i. p. 162: ‘Costerels, or bearers of the armes of barons or knights,’ etc. ”
(TOLLET)
. Coistrel is often used as a general term
of reproach; and I believe, in spite of Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 109, that it is a distinct word from kestrel (
“Coustrell that wayteth on
a speare, cousteillier.”
Palsgrave's Lesclar. de la
Lang. Fr. 1530, fol. xxvii.
[Table of Subst.]:
“A carter a courtyer, it is a worthy warke,
That with his whyp his mares was wonte to yarke;
A custrell to dryue the deuyll out of the derke,”
Skelton's Magnyfycence,—Works, vol. i. p. 241, ed. Dyce.
“A carter a courtyer, it is a worthy warke,
That with his whyp his mares was wonte to yarke;
A custrell to dryue the deuyll out of the derke,”
Skelton's Magnyfycence,—Works, vol. i. p. 241, ed. Dyce.
