‘Julian,’ the abbreviated form of ‘Juliana,’ as a Norman-introduced name became very popular, and its after history was a very curious one. Such appellations as ‘Gillian Cook,’ or ‘Gilian of the Mill,’ found in the Hundred Rolls, or that of the well-known ‘Dame Julyan Berners,’ whose work on household management I shall have occasion to quote by-and-by, only represent in fuller forms the ‘Gill’ or ‘Jill’ who is so renowned in our nursery literature as having met with such a dire disaster in the dutiful endeavour ‘to fetch a pail of water’ from the hill-side. I have already mentioned ‘Cocke Lorell’s Bote,’ where allusion is made to Jelyan Joly at signe of the Bokeler. The shorter and curter form is given us in Heywood’s Epigrams, where the following marital dialogue occurs:— I am care-full to see thee carelesse, Jylle: I am wofull to see thee wytlesse, Wyll: I am anguisht to see thee an ape, Jyll: I am angry to see thee an asse, Wyll: I am dumpyshe to see thee play the drabbe, Jyll: I am knappyshe to see thee plaie the knave, Wyll. But ‘Gill’ at some time or other got into evil odour, and this brought the name into all but absolute disuse. As a term for a wanton flirt or inconstant girl, it was familiarly used till the eighteenth century. It would seem as if the poet I have just quoted were referring to this characteristic when he writes:— All shall be well, Jacke shall have Gill; Nay, nay, Gill is wedded to Wyll;[60] or where in another place he says:— How may I have thee, Gill, when I wish for thee? Wish not for me Jack, but when thou mayest have me.[61] The diminutive ‘Gilot’ or ‘Juliet’ is used in the same way. In an old metrical sermon it is said— Robin will Gilot Leden to the nale, And sitten there togedres, And tellen their tale.