Definition of "woodman"

You, Polydote, have proved best woodman andAre master of the feast: Cadwal and IWill play the cook and servant; ’tis our match:The sweat of industry would dry and die,But for the end it works to.

1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene vi]

How daintily, and cunningly you drive me / Up like a Deere to’th toyle, yet I may leape it, / And what’s the woodman then?

c. 1611, John Fletcher, The Woman’s Prize, Act IV, Scene 3, in Comedies and Tragedies Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Gentlemen, London: H. Robinson & H. Moseley, 1647, p. 116

And to get the Mastery over they self in great matters, it will behove thee to exercise this Discipline first in lesser things: as he that would be a skilful Wood-man, will exercise himself thereunto first by shooting sometimes at a dead mark.

1636, Robert Sanderson, Ad Aulam. The Fourth Sermon, Beuvoyr, July, 1636 in XXXVI Sermons, London, 8th edition, 1689, p. 413

As thro’ the shrilling Vale, or Mountain Ground,The Labours of the Woodman’s Axe resound;Blows following Blows are heard re-echoing wide,While crackling Forests fall on ev’ry side.Thus echo’d all the Fields with loud Alarms,So fell the Warriors, and so rung their Arms.

1718, Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer‎, London: Bernard Lintot, Book 16, p. 267

Woodman, spare that tree!Touch not a single bough!In youth it shelter’d me,And I’ll protect it now.’Twas my forefather’s handThat placed it near his cot;There, woodman, let it stand,Thy axe shall harm it not!

1843, George Pope Morris, “Woodman, Spare That Tree”, in The Deserted Bride; and Other Poems‎, New York: Appleton, page 39

The world is full of woodmen who expel / Love’s gentle dryads from the haunts of life, / And vex the nightingales in every dell.

1862, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Woodman and the Nightingale” (written in 1818 and published posthumously) in Richard Garnett (editor), Relics of Shelley, London: Edward Moxon, p. 79

Our walk was far among the ancient trees:There was no road, nor any wood-man’s path,But the thick umbrage, checking the wild growthOf weed and sapling […]

1800, William Wordsworth, “Poems on the Naming of Places V”, in Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems‎, volume 2, London: Longman & Rees, page 195

“It is strange,” muttered Cardillac, “that so loud a roar in the forest at night should give such little indication of direction. I suppose a true woodman could not only point towards the spot, but might estimate the distance as well. I seem to be a very fool of the forest.”

1908, Robert Barr, chapter 14, in Cardillac‎, 4th edition, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, published 1909

One afternoon, I went with Mrs. Salter-Townshend on a tour of all her rental properties, which ranged from a woodman’s cottage on the old Somerville estate to a tower in the harbor-front castle.

1990 July 15, Pamela Redmond Satran, “Ireland with kids: The fairy tale comes alive”, in Washington Post

The second examination is for a woodman’s badge. To pass, he is required to light a fire, using no paper and striking no more than three matches.

1997, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 3, in Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life, New York: Penguin, page 15

[…] yonder in that faithfull wildernesseHuge monsters haunt, and many dangers dwell;Dragons, and Minotaures, and feendes of hell,And many wilde woodmen, which robbe & rendAll traveilers […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, page 40

There between the treesThe prying Fauns and Woodmen darkAnd prick-ear’d Satyrs her did mark,

1909, Maurice Hewlett, “Leto’s Child”, in Artemision: Idylls and Songs‎, London: Elkin Mathews, page 30