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faint-puling W. A. Wright: That is, whining. Elsewhere used by Shakespeare as an adverb or adjective. Compare Two Gentlemen, II, i, 26, ‘To speak puling like a beggar at Hallowmas,’ And Rom. & Jul., III, v, 185, ‘A wretched puling fool.’ Cotgrave has: ‘Piauler. To peepe, or cheepe (as a young bird); also to pule or howle (as a young whelpe).’ And again: ‘Piuler. To pule, or cheepe like a little chicken.’—Miss C. Porter (First Folio Sh.): This ineffective, inactive lamenting. The verb in the original text is a compound. Taking out the hyphen, following Rowe, as all the modernised editions do, is but a slight change, it is true, but inartistic. This seems to be Shakespeare's one use of ‘puling’ as a verb.
William Shakespeare. Horace Howard Furness, Jr., A. B.; Litt. D. The Tragedie of Coriolanus. Philadelphia and London. J. B. Lippincott Company.
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