subs. (old).—A husband who knows of, and endures his wife’s unfaithfulness; a contented cuckold. As verb = to make a wittol. [SKEAT: From woodwale (a bird whose nest is often invaded by the cuckoo, and so has the offspring of another palmed off on it for its own; like Cuckold, from Cuckoo.]
1513–25. SKELTON, Works (DYCE), ii. 178 [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 394. The old WITTOL in the guise of a wetewold is now first used in its evil sense].
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer, well; Barbason, well; yet they are devils’ additions, the names of fiends: but Cuckold! WITTOL!—Cuckold! the devil himself hath not such a name.
1597. JOSEPH HALL, Satires, i. 7.
| Fond WIT-WAL that wouldst load thy witless head | |
| With timely horns, before thy bridal bed! |
1611. COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Jannin. A WITTALL; one that knowes, and bears with, or winks at, his wives dishonesty.
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 44. To see … a WITTOL wink at his wife’s dishonesty, and too perspicuous in all other affairs.
1661. DAVENPORT, The City Night-Cap, i. 1.
| Lor. He would WITTAL me, | |
| With a consent to my own horns. |
1631. F. LENTON, Characterismi, Char. 32. A Cuckold, is a harmelesse horned creature, but they [his horns] hang not in his eies as your WITTALS doe.
1638. FORD, The Fancies Chaste and Noble, ii. 1.
| Mark, Vespucci, how the WITTOL | |
| Stares on his sometime wife; sure, he imagines | |
| To be a cuckold by consent is purchase | |
| Of approbation in a state. |
1640. Witts Recreations.
| Thy stars gave thee the cuckold’s anadem, | |
| If thou wert born to be a WITTOLL, can | |
| Thy wife prevent thy fortune? foolish man! |
1693. CONGREVE, The Old Batchelor, v. 6. Sharp. Death! it can’t be—an oaf, an ideot, a WITTAL.
