Chapter Pascal's Thoughts to Patelinage of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Patch A fool; so called from the motley or patched dress worn by licensed fools.

“What a pied ninny's this! thou scurvy patch!”
Shakespeare: The Tempest, iii. 2.

   Cross-patch. An ill- tempered person. (See above.)
   Not a patch upon. Not to be compared with; as, “His horse is not a patch upon mine,” “My patch is better than his garment.”

Patch (To). To express certain political views. The allusion is to the custom, in Queen Anne's reign, of wearing on the face little black patches. If the patch was on the right cheek, it indicated that the wearer was a Whig; if on the left cheek, that she was a Tory; if on the forehead between the eyes, or on both cheeks, that she was of no political bias. (See Court Plaster .)

“Whatever might be her husband's politics, she was at liberty to patch as she pleased.”- Nineteenth Century, February, 1890, p. 58.

Patelin The artful dodger. The French say, Savoir son Patelin (to know how to bamboozle you). Patelin is the name of an artful cheat in a farce of the fifteenth century so called. On one occasion he wanted William Josseaume to sell him cloth on credit, and artfully fell on praising the father of the merchant, winding up his laudation with this ne plus ultra: “He did sell on credit, or even lend to those who wished to borrow.” This farce was reproduced in 1706 by Brueys, under the name of L'Avocat Patelin.

“Consider, sir, I pray you, how the noble Patelin, having a mind to extol to the third heaven the father of William Josseaume, said no more than this: `And he did lend to those who were desirous to borrow of him.' ”- Rabelais: Pantagruel, iii. 4.

Patelinage Foolery, buffoonery; acting like Patelin in the French farce.

“I never in my life laughed so much as at the acting of that Patelinage.”- Rabelais: Pantagruel, iii. 34.