First shall the snow be black, And pepper lose his smack, And stripes forsake my back: First merry drunk with sack, I will go boast and track, And all your costards crack, Before I do the knack Shall make me sing alack.

I thought to have borne it off with my back sword ward, And I receiv'd it upon my bare costard.

As an avowed atheist he received no quarter, and he might fairly say with Wilfred Osbaldistone, 'It's hard I should get raps over the costard, and only pay you back in make-believes.'

He is victor in the fray, and the most he is called upon to do is every now and again to hit his prostrate foe a blow over the costard just to keep him in his place.

COSTARD, a clown in "Love's Labour Lost," who apes the affected court-wits of the time in a misappropriate style.