Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Knave
Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used.
Shakespeare.—Othello, Act II. Scene 1. (Iago after Roderigo leaves him.)
A man is not born a knave; there must be time to make him so, nor is he presently discovered after he becomes one.
Holt.—Chief Justice, Rex v. Swendsen, 14 Howell’s State Trials 596. (On Character Evid.)
Well there’s knavery in’t;
I see that without spectacles.
Beaumont and F.—The Coxcomb, Act V. Scene 1.
Whip me such honest knaves.
Shakespeare.—Othello, Act I. Scene 1. (Iago to Roderigo.)
1.There’s ne’er a villain, dwelling in all Denmark,
But he’s an arrant knave.
2.There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave,
To tell us that.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 5. (Hamlet and Horatio.)
Thy beard and head are of a diff’rent dye;
Short of one foot, distorted in an eye;
With all those tokens of a knave complete,
Should’st thou be honest, thou’rt a dev’lish cheat.
Martial.—Epig. LIV. Line 12.
A knave’s a knave to me, in every state.
Pope.—Epi. to Arbuthnot, Line 361.
Knaves starve not in the land of fools.
Churchill.—The Ghost, Book I. Line 374.
Strip the gilding off a knave.
Pope.—Imit. of Horace, Satire I. To Fortescue. Line 115.