Horn-mad, adj. (old).—1. See quot. 1690.
1593. Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, ii., 1. Why, mistress, sure my
master is horn-mad.
1599. Henry Porter, The Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old
Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii.). And then I wound my horn, and he’s
horn-mad.
1604. Marston, Malcontent, i., 7. I am horn mad.
1605. Jonson, The Fox, iii., 6. Yet I’m not mad, Not horn-mad, see
you.
1639–61. Rump Songs, [1662], 293. The Country has grown sad, The
City is horn-mad.
1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Woman’s Prize, ii., 6. After my
twelve strong labours to reclaim her, Which would have made Don
Hercules horn-mad.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horn-mad, stark staring Mad,
because Cuckolded.
1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iv., 22. Ay, I feel it here; I
sprout; I bud; I blossom; I am ripe horn-mad.
1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iv., 20. She forks out cuckoldom
with her fingers, and you are running horn-mad after your fortune.
1695. Congreve, Love for Love, v., 8. She’s mad for a husband, and
he’s horn-mad.
1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iv., 3. Thou’rt horn-mad.
Prithee, leave impertinence.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxvi. Ye might as well expect
brandy from beanstalks, or milk from a crag of blue whunstane. The
man is mad, horn-mad, to boot.
1825. Harriette Wilson, Memoirs, ii. 228. The little he did say was
chiefly on the subject of cuckolds and cuckolding. His lordship was
horn-mad.