lither

After the same manner a Monk (I mean those lither, idle, lazie Monks) doth not labour and work, as do the Peasant and Artificer: doth not ward and defend the countrey, as doth the man of warre: cureth not the sick and diseased, as the Physician doth: doth neither preach nor teach, as do the Evangelical Doctors and Schoolmasters: doth not import commodities and things necessary for the Commonwealth, as the Merchant doth: therefore is it, that by and of all men they are hooted at, hated and abhorred.

Thou antique Death, vvhich laugh'ſt vs here to ſcorn, / Anon from thy inſulting Tyrannie, / Coupled in bonds of perpetuitie, / Tvvo Talbots vvinged through the lither Skie, / In thy deſpight ſhall ſcape Mortalitie.

Used here to mean “easily passed through; flexible”.

The follest slouen ondyr heuen, / Prowde, peuiche, lyddyr, and lewde, / Malapert, medyllar, nothyng well thewde, […]

The foullest sloven under heaven, / Proud, peevish, lither, and lewd, / Malapert, meddler, nothing well thewed, […]

[Y]it lyes / Aphipnas ſnorting faſt a ſléepe not mynding for to wake, / Wrapt in a cloke of Bearſkinnes which in Oſſa mount were take. And in his lither hand he hilld a potte of wyne.