cheater

   A term associated with the ‘swaggering rascal’, ‘the foul-mouth’dst rogue in England’, namely Pistol, Sir John Falstaff’s ensign in Henry the Fourth Part Two (2:iv). Falstaff describes him as ‘no swaggerer, hostess; a tame cheater, i’ faith’. Doll Tearsheet soon afterwards addresses him as ‘thou abominable damn’d cheater’. Falstaff’s reference to ‘tame cheater’ was to a decoy duck or other tame animal used as a decoy in hunting. Doll, of course, was using ‘cheater’ in its more usual sense of one who cheats. Children are still quick to hurl this accusation at one of their number in the modern playground or classroom, often accompanied by the reminder that ‘Cheats never prosper’. Those who cheat during an examination are ‘cribbers’.