1598. Shakspeare, 1 Hen. IV., ii. 4, 438. Peace, good pint-pot: peace, good tickle-brain. Ibid., 2 Henry VI., ii. 3. And here's a pot of good double beer. Ibid. (1602), Othello, ii. 3. I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are most potent in potting: your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander . . . are nothing to your English.
1614. Time's Whistle [E. E. T. S.], 59. One pot-companion and his fashion I will describe.
1620. Feltham, Resolves, 84. It is less labour to plow than to pot it.
1630. Taylor, Works [Nares]. And being mad perhaps, and hot pot-shot, A crazed crowne or broken pate hath got. Ibid. This valiant pot-leach that upon his knees Has drunke a thousand pottles up-se-freese.
c.1650. Brathwayte, Barnaby's J. (1723), iii. 119. Kindly drink to one another Till pot-hardy. Ibid., 167. If thou dost love thy flock, leave off to pot.
1651. Cartwright, Royal Slave [Nares]. Arc. Faith, landlord. Mol. I'd have sworn thou hadst bin of a better nature, than to remember pot-quarrels.
1653. Walton, Complete Angler, 181. Let's each man drink a pot for his morning's draught.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. xl. Well-antidoted with pot-proof armour.
1659. Legend of Captain Jones [Nares]. When these rough gods beheld him thus secure, And arm'd against them like a man pot-sure.
1703. Ward, London Spy, xv. 366. He had made himself Pot Valiant with his Countryman's Liquor.
d.1704. L'Estrange, Quevado [Latham]. For fuddling they shall make the best pot-companion in Switzerland knock under the table.
1715. Hearne, Diary, 11 Oct. Tho' he [a posture-master] is a well-growu fellow yet he will appear . . . as huncht-back'd, pott-bellyd, sharp-breasted.
1729. Swift, Directions to Servants, iv. They will wait until you slip into a neighbouring ale-house to take a pot with a friend.
b.1744. Arbuthnot and Pope, Martin Scriblerus [Ency. Dict.]. He will find himself a forked stradling animal, and a pot-belly.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 179. A long bench, such as usually graces a pot-house porch. Ibid., 266. He told me . . . they could only be coffee-house politicians. Ibid. (1771), Humphrey Clinker, l. 30. Like a man who has drunk himself pot-valiant, I talked to her in such a style of authority and resolution, as produced a most blessed effect.
1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, iv. viii. You pot-gutted rascal.
1803. Lamb, To Coleridge, 13 Ap. Last night . . . a pipe, and some generous Port, and King Lear had their effects as solacers. I went to bed pot-valiant.
18[?]. Gray, To Mason [Latham]. He appears to be near forty; a little pot-bellied and thick-shouldered, otherwise no bad figure.
1834. Southey, The Doctor, xliv. Barnabee, the illustrious potator, saw there the most unbecoming sight that he met with in all his travels.
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xii. The little pot-valiant master, primed with two tumblers of grog, in defiance of the Captain's presence, fairly fastened on him.
1837. Dickens, Pickwick, li. 'Perhaps we had better retire,' whispered Mr. Pickwick. 'Never, sir,' rejoined Pott, pot-valiant in a double sense, 'never.' Ibid., lii. A sequestered pot-shop on the remotest confines of the Borough.
1849. Kingsley, Alton Locke, xiii. It is a part of his game to ingratiate himself with all pot-boy-dom.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. The coarse dialect which he had learned in the pot-houses of Whitechapel.
1851. S. Judd, Margaret, iii. The old man is still mecurial; but his pot-valiantry is gone.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii. 17. I could get a pot-boy's place again, but I'm not so strong as I were, and its slavish work in the place I could get.
1855. Kingsley, Westward Ho, xv. She was too good for a poor pot-head like me.
1860. Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller, xiii. The potman thrust the ast brawling drunkards into the street.
1864. Eton School Days, viii. Bird's-eye's patrons would . . . sit in his cottage and smoke and drink beer, for they were potent at potting.
