adj. (old colloquial).—Honest: usually in contrast with ‘thievish,’ or TRUE MAN v. thief. Also (proverbial) TRUE AS TRUE (AS THE GOSPEL, GOD IN HEAVEN, AS I STAND HERE, etc.) = as true as may be.

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  d. 1400.  CHAUCER, The Legend of Good Women, 464.

        Forwhy a TREWE MAN, with-outen drede,
Hath nat to parten with a theves dede.

2

  1513–25.  SKELTON, Poems [DYCE], ii. 321.

                TREWE
AS THE GOSPELL.

3

  1592.  MARLOWE, Edward the Second [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), ii. 362].

        We will not wrong thee so,
To make away a TRUE MAN for a thief.

4

  1593.  SHAKESPEARE, Venus and Adonis, 724.

        Rich preys make TRUE MEN thieves.
    Ibid. (1594), Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv. 3. 187.
  King.        Soft! whither away so fast?
A TRUE MAN, or a thief that gallops thus?
    Ibid. (1598), 1 Henry IV., ii. 1. 98.
  Prince.  The thieves have bound the TRUE MEN.
    Ibid., iii. 3.
  Host.  Now, as I am a TRUE WOMAN, holland of eight shillings an ell.
    Ibid. (1608), Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 6.
  Eno.  But there is never a fair woman has a TRUE face.
  Men.  No slander; they steal hearts.

5

  1578.  The Mirour for Magistrates, 2. The TRUE MAN we let hang, somwhiles to saue a Thiefe.

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