_Nice_, in the sense of _foolish_, is also used by Gower, who likewise
employs the substantive _nicete_ in a similar way:--
"But than it were a _nicete_
To telle you, how that I fare!"
_Confessio Amantis_, lib. vi.
Chaucer employs the word in a similar sense very frequently. In the
_Cuckoo and the Nightingale_, is the following passage:--
"To telle his might my wit may not suffice,
For he can make of wise folks ful nice."
P. 103. Crakers.--See the last edition of Nares, voce _Crake and
Craker_. But an earlier example of the use of the word than any given in
the Glossary occurs in Lupset's _Works_, 1546, 12mo
(_A Compendious Treatise teachying the waie of dying well_, fol. 34
_verso_; this treatise was first printed separately in 1541). In a
reprint of the _C. Mery Talys_, which appeared in 1845, the Editor, not
knowing what to make of _crake_ and _craker_, altered them, wherever
they occurred, to _crack_ and _cracker_ respectively!
P. 113. Ch' adde.--In _Wits Interpreter, The English Parnassus_, by J.
Cotgrave. 1655, ed. 1662, p. 247, is "the Devonshire Ditty," from which
the following is an extract:--
"Cockbodikins, chil work no more,
Dost think chi labour to be poor?
No, no, ich chave a do--" &c.
But this phraseology is not peculiar to Devonshire.
P. 113, note 2.--Some additional particulars of interest, relative to
ancient wines, may be found in _Morte Arthure_, ed. 1847, pp. 18, 20;
and in the _Squyer of Low Degre_ (Ritson's _Ancient Engl. Met.
Renancees_, iii).