subs. (old).—A prison: see CAGE: specially the prison in the old North Gate of Oxford, demolished in 1771.
1548. LATIMER, Sermons, fol. 105 C. Was not this [Achab] a seditious fellow?—Was he not worthy to be cast in BOCARDO or little-ease?
1582. STANYHURST, Aeneis [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 604. Virgil’s words are Englished by such terms as BOCARDO … Bedlam, limbo].
1596. LODGE, Incarnate Devils. There are many in London now adaies that are besotted with this sinne, one of whom I saw on a white horse in Fleetstreet, a tanner knaue I neuer lookt on, who with one figure (cast out of a schollers studie for a necessary seruant at BOCARDO) promised to find any mans oxen were they lost, restore any mans goods if they were stolne, and win any man loue, where or howsoeuer he setled it.
1772. T. WARTON, The Oxford Newsman’s Verses.
| Rare tidings for the wretch whose ling’ring score | |
| Remains unpaid, BOCARDO is no more. |
