varlet

noun

Etymology: From Middle English varlet, varlette, from Old French varlet, variant of vadlet, vallet, vaslet. Doublet of valet.

1. A servant or attendant.

   “The varlet, or follower of the merchant, who was still a youth, though his vigorous frame and embrowned cheek denoted equally severe exercise and rude exposure, started and reddened at this free inquiry, which was enforced by a hand slapped familiarly on his knee, and such a squeeze of the leg as denoted the freedom of the camp.”

   “The Winchester Manorhouse has fled bodily, like a Dream of the old Night […]. House and people, royal and episcopal, lords and varlets, where are they?”

2. Specifically, a youth acting as a knight's attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood.

   “[T]here was a little, sleek, fat clerk of the name of Chaucer, who was so apt at rondel, sirvente, or tonson, that no man dare give back a foot from the walls, lest he find it all set down in his rhymes and sung by every underling and varlet in the camp.”

3. A rogue or scoundrel.

   “[W]hen the worlde is fraughted with ſo manye varlettes, that it will be a long time ere a man ſhall diſcerne the faythful from the Hipocrites.”

   “My lady to be called a nasty Scotch wh–re by such a varlet!—To be sure I wish I had knocked his brains out with the punchbowl.”

4. The jack.