Note 294 — GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE.
Reading edition
A base, contemptible fellow. So, in "Tom Tyler and his Wife," 1661, p. 19—
"It is an old saying, praise at the parting, I think I have made the cullion to wring. I was not beaten so black and blew, But I am sure he has as many new."
In "Wily Beguiled:" "But to say the truth, she had little reason to take a cullion lug loaf, milksop slave, when she may have a lawyer, a gentleman that stands upon his reputation in the country;" in Massinger's "Guardian," act. ii., sc. 4—
"Love live Severino, And perish all such cullions as repine At his new monarchy."
And Bobadil, in Ben Jonson's "Every Man to his Humour," act. iii., sc. 5, when beating Cob, exclaims:
"You base cullion, you."