Twelfth Night

Watched a film production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.  Had forgotten that they called Malvolio a sheep-biter.  I have no idea what that is but it sounds like a very pithy insult.

The director must have cut the bawdy joke about the distaff that I remember from watching my friends in high school rehearse the play.

I like what the Duke says better:

O, fellow, come, the song we had last night.

Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain;

The spinsters and the knitters in the sun

And the free maids that weave their threads with bones

Do use to chant it: it is silly sooth,

And dallies with the innocence of love,

Like the old age.

-Twelfth Night 

ETA: I am told that a sheep-biter is a dog that harms sheep, or a mean person who nips at the heels of others.