The subtilitie of the scoffe lieth in these Latin wordes [_eminus & cominus pugnare_.] Also we vse this kind of Extenuation when we take in hand to comfort or cheare any perillous enterprise, making a great matter seeme small, and of litle difficultie, & is much vsed by captaines in the warre, when they (to giue courage to their souldiers) will seeme to disable the persons of their enemies, and abase their forces, and make light of euery thing than might be a discouragement to the attempt, as _Hanniball_ did in his Oration to his souldiers, when they should come to passe the Alpes to enter Italie, and for sharpnesse of the weather, and steepnesse of the mountaines their hearts began to faile them. We vse it againe to excuse a fault, & to make an offence seeme lesse then it is, by giuing a terme more fauorable and of lesse vehemencie then the troth requires, as to say of a great robbery, that it was but a pilfry matter: of an arrant ruffian that he is a tall fellow of his hands: of a prodigall foole, that he is a kind hearted man: of a notorious vnthrift, a lustie youth, and such like phrases of extenuation, which fall more aptly to the office of the figure _Curry fauell_ before remembred. And we vse the like termes by way of pleasant familiaritie, and as it were for Courtly maner of speach with our egalls or inferiours, as to call a young Gentlewoman _Mall_ for _Mary_, _Nell_ for _Elner_: _Iack_ for Iohn_, _Robin_ for _Robert_: or any other like affected termes spoken of pleasure, as in our triumphals calling familiarly vpon our _Muse_, I called her _Moppe_. _But will you weet, My litle muse, nay prettie moppe: If we shall algates change our stoppe, Chose me a sweet._ Vnderstanding by this word (_Moppe_) a litle prety Lady, or tender young thing. For so we call litle fishes, that be not come to their full growth (_moppes_), as whiting moppes, gurnard moppes. Also such termes are vsed to be giuen in derision and for a kind of contempt, as when we say Lording for Lord, & as the Spaniard that calleth an Earle of small reuenue _Contadilio_: the Italian calleth the poore man by contempt _pouerachio_ or _pouerino_, the little beast _animalculo_ or _animaluchio_, and such like _diminutiues_ appertaining to this figure, the (_Disabler_) more ordinary in other languages than our vulgar.