Green’s Dictionary of Slang

used in combs. to mean syphilis and as a general adj. referring to the disease; thus Neapolitan n., the disease or a person who has syphilis; thus buttoned, diseased ; note use as v. in the 1624 Davenport cit.

1591		Greene Notable Discovery of Coosnage in Grosart (1881–3) X 44: Some fond men are so farre in with these detestable trugs, that they consume what they haue vpon them, and find nothing but a Neapolitan fauor for their labor.
1598		J.H. van Linschoten [trans.] Voyages 188: The Admiral and chiefe commaunder of those shippes [...] was sicke of the Neapolitan disease, & was broght to land, whereof not long after he dyed.
a.1600		in R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 124: The Frenchmen at that siege got the buttons of Naples (as we terme them) which doth much annoy them at this day.
c.1602		Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida II iii: After this, the vengeance on the whole camp! or, rather, the Neapolitan bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse dependant on those that war for a placket.
1604		A vvonderful prognostication or prediction for these seuen yeeres insuing 7: [M]oyst and hot Sicknesses, Collickes, Passions, Head-aches, and the Neapolitan disease vnto the common people.
1607		Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe I i: His cloak shrouding his face, as if he were a Neopolitan that had lost his beard in April.
1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 53: He had the pyning of the Poxe and the Neapolitane Scurffe.
1612		J. Cotta The vnobserued dangers of [...] practisers of physicke in England 43: Vnto another so far ingaged in the Neapolitan disease, that discreete counsell durst not oppose equipollent remedies.
1617		‘Blasius Multibibus’ A solemne ioviall disputation 92: Tobacco is the onely soveraigne experimentall cure, not onely for the Neapolitan itch, but generally for all maladies.
1618		Owles almanacke 45: Barber-Svrgeons [...] Oh the income, that is, Neopolitan shall bring in an hot summer.
1619–20		I.C. Two Merry Milke-Maids IV i: The Neopolitan Canker has searcht into his bones: and he lies buried in vicers.
1624		R. Davenport City-Night-Cap (1661) IV 39: mor.: Came this nice piece from Naples, with a pox to her? tim.: And she has not Neapolitanis’d him, I’ll be flead fo’t.
1624		T. Heywood Captives I i: The Frenshe monster Neapolitan Seignor, the man-makarel and merchant of madens-fleshe.
1633		Massinger Guardian III iv: The Neapolitan Court a place of exile Where thou art absent.
1635		H. Glapthorne Hollander II i: If I should obtain the Neapolitan beneach [i.e. ‘bone-ache’], a creeke ith’ backe, or so from her [...] I should be forc’d to swim ith tub for it, or be hang’d by the armes, and smoak’d like a bloat herring.
1641		Brothers of the Blade 5: [T]he like Cocatrice of yours sent you to the French Doctors, where you lay so long in Cornelius his tub to pickle, that at last the hungry Neopolitan ate away a part of your right tubified rose.
1643		T. Neal Treatise of Direction 13: [of syphilitic buboes] Italian suspitions (with Naples buttons sometimes to boot) run them into many irrecoverable hazards.
1643		Parliament Scout 18 20–27 Oct. 156: Prince Maurice ... dead of the Neopolliton disease, or the Armie disease.
1652		A. Ross The history of the world 503: [T]he French return home, having brought nothing with them but the Neapolitan disease, which the Spaniards conveyed thither from America.
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony I iii: I [...] got a snap by a Neapolitan Ferret at the very same time.
1660		Wandring Whore II 14: If any of our wanton Girles catch the Neapolitan disease,’tis a constant custom to send them to the Hospitals appointed where they are clarified [i.e. cured].
1669		‘Captain Squiers Lettany’ in Antidote against Melancholy 121: From a Whore that's never pleasant / But in lusty Wine and Pheasant, / From the watch at twelve a Clock, / And from Bess Broughtons [i.e. a notorious whore] button’d Smock.
1673		E. Maynwaringe History and Mystery of the Venereal Lues 2: [I]t is called by the French, the Neapolitan Disease [...] the Italians return it back again, and call it the French Malady, and in England it is commonly known by the French Pox.
1680		N. Lee Cæsar Borgia 13: Ha! what a jerk was that? it grates my bones; / Pray Heav'n it ben’t a Spice, a little Tang / Of the Neapolitan Itch.
1683		Whores Rhetorick 178: If you would desire to maintain your Body in good order, you must be nicely cautious not to allow any commerce with Men noted to fly at all Games, and famous for never wanting a Neapolitan running-Nag.
1697		J. Dunton Night-Walker Feb. 2: Strangers, instead of saying the French Pox may [...] call it the English-Pox, and the London Disease, rather than the Neapolitan Disease.
1699		The Maze 17: This leprous Lecher, I say, may attempt any Ladies honour: and returne piping-hot from his Neapolitan Stove [i.e. the diseased vagina], and his Common Whoores,.
1723		C. Walker Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 58: The chief Motive of my leaving her was the Present of a New-Year’s-Gift she made me; but whether French or Neopolitan, I leave to the Determination of the Sons of Galen.
1779		Nocturnal Revels 2 213: His Lady having (innocently, we will suppose) [...] conferred upon his Lordship a certain Neapolitan complaint, a favour she had received a few days before from a Foreign Minister.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 124: †buttons of naples. Syphilitic buboes.
1843		Sheffield Indep. 20 May 1/4: The Napolitaines Pills are sold in boxes [...] Dr Hallett’s Gold Anti-Venereal Pills [...] for the care of every stage and sympton of a Certain Complaint.
1851		(con. 1547) Huddersfield Chron. 23 Aug. 2/3: [She] now lies in the next apartment dying from the horrid Neapolitan disease.