No More Learning

'--G.

This is what is alluded to in 4. 6. 42. The use of the metaphor is
common. Gifford quotes Beaumont & Fletcher. _Bonduca_ and _Sea Voyage_.
Many examples are given in Nares and the _NED. _, to which may be added
_Damon and Pithias_, _O. Pl. _ 4. 68; Nash, _Wks. _ 3. 171; and Butler's
_Character of a Fantastic_ (ed. Morley, p.
401): 'He alters his gait
with the times, and has not a motion of his body that (like a dottrel)
he does not borrow from somebody else. ' Nares quotes _Old Couple_ (_O.
Pl. _, 4th ed. , 12. 41):

_E. _ Our Dotterel then is caught?
_B. _ He is and just
As Dotterels use to be: the lady first
Advanc'd toward him, stretch'd forth her wing, and he
Met her with all expressions.

It is uncertain whether the sense of 'bird' or 'simpleton' is
the original. _Dottrel_ seems to be connected with _dote_ and
_dotard_. The bird is a species of plover, and Cunningham says
that 'Selby ridicules the notion of its being more stupid than
other birds. ' In _Bart. Fair_ (_Wks. _ 4. 445) we hear of the
'sport call'd Dorring the Dotterel.