suits in a pack of cards. Fr. le galuchet, or le larbin savonné or le mistigris.
1662. Rump Songs, 'Rump Carbonado'd'. No admiral like an old Puritan Jack. A craftier knave you can't find in the pack.
1754. Martin, Eng. Dict. 2nd Ed. Knave, . . . or a jack at cards.
1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, viii. He calls the Knaves Jacks.
5. (old).—A post-chaise (Grose 3rd ed. 1823).
6. (old: now recognised).—A pitcher varying in capacity: generally made of leather; a black-jack (q.v.).
1592. Nashe, Summer's Last Will [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), viii. 59]. Rise up Sir Robert Toss-pot. [Here he dubs Will Summer with the black-jack.]
1606. Return from Parnassus [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ix. 207]. A black-jack of beer and a Christmas pie.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. s.v. Jack.
7. (old).—A Jacobite. [In the quot. there is a punning reference to the flag, sense 13].
1723. Swift, Elegy, on Judge Boat, [Works, Aldine ed. iii. 96]. With every wind he sailed, And well could tack; Had many pendents, but abhorred a Jack.
8. (old).—A term of contempt. [The usage is common in most modern languages: e.g. Fr. Jean-guêtré
peasant, Jean-bête
'cabbage-head', Jean-fesse or Jean-foutre = scamp; It. Gianni, whence Zany; Sp. Juan, as bobo Juan = foolish John, &c.].
[See also many of the combinations following. To play the jack = to act the fool (or goat (q.v.); cheap jack = a peddling tradesman; jack-fool (Chaucer) = a thundering idiot; jack-friar = a hedge-priest (q.v.); jack-slave = a vulgarian; jack-brag = a boaster; jack-snip = a botching tailor; jack-straw = a low-born rebel; jack-sprat = a mannikin; skip-jack = an upstart; jack-at-warts = a little conceited fellow; jack-in-the-box = the sacrament; jack-upaland (Chaucer) = a peasant].
1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales [Skeat (1894), p. 106]. 'Go fro the window, Jakke fool,' she said.
1580. H. Gifford, Posie of Gilleflowers (Grosart 1875), 'A delectable dream', p. 113. I know some pepper-nosed dame Will term me fool and saucy Jack.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii. A mad-cap ruffian, and a swearing Jack, That thinks with oaths to face the matter out.
1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4. Nurse. An a' speak any thing against me, I'll take him down, an a' were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks, and if I cannot, I'll find those that shall.
1596. Nashe, Have with You, Wks. [Grosart]. Teaching it to do tricks, Hey come aloft, Jacke, like an ape over the chain.
1597-8. Haughton, A Woman will have her Will [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), x. 496]. Some scoffing Jack had sent thee. . . . To tell a feigned tale of happy luck.
1600. Nashe, Summer's Last Will, in Works (Grosart, vi. 107). This sawcie upstart Jacke That now doth rule the chariot of the sun.
1606. Return from Parnassus [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ix. 101]. Scurvy in thy face, thou scurvy Jack.
1607. Wilkins, Enforced Marriage [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ix. 488]. Shall I be crossed by such a Jack.
1611. Davies, Scourge of Folly, Wks. (Grosart, p. 39, Epig. 282). Such jocund Jacks as mock thee.
1621. Burton, Anat. of Mel., 291. A company of scoffers and proud Jacks are commonly conversant and attendant in such places.
1636. T. Heywood, Love's Mistress, i. They call her Queen of Love, will know no other, And swear my Son shall kneel and call her mother. Cup. But Cupid swears to make the jacks forsworn.
