By Hook or by Crook

I send you a note, which I made some years ago. This expression is much more ancient than the time of Charles I., to which it is generally referred. It occurs in Skelton, Colin Clout, line 31. a fine:— “Nor wyll suffer this boke By hooke ne by crooke Prynted for to be.” In Spenser, f. 2. v. ii. 27.:— “Thereafter all that mucky pelfe he tooke, The spoile of peoples evil gotten good, The which her sire had serap’t by hooke and crooke, And burning all to ashes pour’d it down the brooke.” In Holland’s Suetonius, p. 169:— “Likewise to get, to pill and poll by hooke and crooke so much, as that——” In…