or tityre-tu, subs. phr. (old).—A roaring boy; a street-ruffian; a MOHAWK (q.v.). [Century: In some fanciful allusion to the first line of the first Eclogue of Virgil,—Tityre tu patulæ recubans, etc.]
1616–25. The Court and Times of James the First [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 73. Young gentlemen form themselves into a club bearing the name of TITYRE TU; these rioters kept the name until the Restoration].
1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Workes [NARES]. Roaring boyes, and Rough-hewd TITTERY TUES.
1647–8. HERRICK, Hesperides. ‘New Year’s Gift … to Sir Simeon Steward.’ No noise of late-spawned TITTYRIES.
d. 1826. W. GIFFORD [Note on FORD’S The Sun’s Darling, i. 1]. Some of the TITYRE-TU’S, not long after the appearance of this drama (1624), appear to have been brought before the Council, and committed on a suspicion of state delinquency.
