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Puttenham, George, -1590

"The Arte of English Poesie"


And we vse the like termes by way of pleasant familiaritie, and as it were
for Courtly maner of speach with our egalls or inferiours, as to call a
young Gentlewoman _Mall_ for _Mary_, _Nell_ for _Elner_: _Iack_ for Iohn_,
_Robin_ for _Robert_: or any other like affected termes spoken of
pleasure, as in our triumphals calling familiarly vpon our _Muse_, I
called her _Moppe_.
_But will you weet,
My litle muse, nay prettie moppe:
If we shall algates change our stoppe,
Chose me a sweet._
Vnderstanding by this word (_Moppe_) a litle prety Lady, or tender young
thing. For so we call litle fishes, that be not come to their full growth
(_moppes_), as whiting moppes, gurnard moppes.
Also such termes are vsed to be giuen in derision and for a kind of
contempt, as when we say Lording for Lord, & as the Spaniard that calleth
an Earle of small reuenue _Contadilio_: the Italian calleth the poore man
by contempt _pouerachio_ or _pouerino_, the little beast _animalculo_ or
_animaluchio_, and such like _diminutiues_ appertaining to this figure,
the (_Disabler_) more ordinary in other languages than our vulgar.
[Sidenote: _Epanodis_, or the figure of Retire]
This figure of retire holds part with the propounder of which we spake
before(_prolepsis_) because of the resumption of a former proposition
vuttered in generalitie to explane the same better by a particular
diuision.


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