Note 239 — GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE.
Reading edition
"Callet, a lewd woman, a drab." [See Nares, edit. 1859, p. 128.] So in the "Supposes," by Geo. Gascoigne, act v., sc. 6: "Come hither, you old kallat, you tatling huswife: that the deuill cut oute your tong."
Again, in Jonson's "Fox," act iv., sc. 3—
"Why, the callet You told me of here I have ta'en disguis'd."
Callett is elsewhere used for stupid, inactive—
"Bid maudlin lay the cloth, take up the meat; Look how she stirres; you sullen elfe, you callett, Is this the haste you make?" —Englishmen for my Money, 1631.—O. G.
See other instances in Dr Grey's "Notes on Shakspeare," vol. ii., p. 41.