TO BEG (or BEG A PERSON FOR A FOOL), verb. phr. (old).—1. To petition the Court of Wards for the Custody of an idiot. [This Court was instituted by Henry VIII. and suppressed under Charles II; under a writ de idiota inquirendo a man if legally proved an idiot, the profits of his land and the custody of his person might be granted by the king to any subject: the Court also dealt in a similar manner with minors and heiresses]. Hence (2) = to take a man for (or set him down as) a fool.
1584. D. FENNER, Defence of the Godlie Ministers (1587), 51. Then would you have proued vs asses, not BEGGED vs for innocents.
1589. Hay any Work, 71. It is time to BEGG the for a swagg.
1609. DEKKER, The Honest Whore [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), iii. 261]. If I fret not his guts, BEG ME FOR A FOOL.
1598. HARINGTON, Epigrams, i. 10.
| Leaue begging, Lynus for such poore rewards, | |
| Else some will BEGGE THEE IN THE COURT OF WARDS. |
1609. JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, iii. Faith, through a common calamity, he BOUGHT me, sir; and now he will marry me to his wife’s brother, this wise gentleman, that you see; or else I must pay the value of my land.
1604. T. WRIGHT, The Passions of the Minde, iii, 1. 81. He may be BEGD FOR AN IDEOT.
1636. DAVENANT, The Wits [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED) viii. 509.]
| I fear you will | |
| BE BEGG’D AT COURT, unless you come off thus. |
1639. MAYNE, The Citye Match, ii. 7 [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED) ix. 314.]
| Plotwell. And that a great man | |
| Did mean TO BEG YOU——FOR his daughter. |
1666–7. STILLINGFLEET, A Sermon Preached before the King, 13 March. That we may not therefore seem to BEG all wicked men FOR FOOLS, till we have heard what they have to say for themselves.
1736. HERVEY, Memoirs of the Reign of George the Second (1884), II. 318. Moyle either deserved to be broke for a coward, BEGGED FOR A FOOL, or hanged for a knave.
