His methodical execution of the plan was a mixture of the old Nixonian cunning and also pathos; considerable intelligence and focused determination.
They include: Cent, a dumb and overconfident man, and the lover of the Intoner Two; Octa, an old and cunning man obsessed with sex; Decadus a gentlemanly warrior with a masochistic streak; and Dito, a sadistic young man.
There were those ho-ho circumlocutions to avoid using Shakespeare's name ("the cunning old bard", "the old professional back in Stratford with his paunch and his shekels intact"); the jaunty no-frills assessments of character (Cymbeline was "a mean-minded old fart", Cloten "a dumbhead", etc); and the sweating self-mentions.
Pessimists fear that pluck and popularity will not be enough to defeat a cunning old despot who is determined to use all the machinery of the state to preserve his power.
The fourth, Claudio Ranieri, was described this week by Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso as "a cunning old fox, a coach we need to be wary of because he has great experience and understands everything".
"Happy" might work, because it's great fun trying to outwit the heirs of a cunning old woman whose eccentric will forces them to compete in a wordplay contest to inherit her fortune.
As a meditation on unfulfilled passion written from the perspective of old age, The Cunning Little Vixen is scarcely Beatrix Potter: however, the more grown-up content, including the character of the seductive gypsy girl, has been edited out, leaving a playful woodland fable with little hint of the work's darker inspiration.
Sigurd is raised by Regin, a cunning old man, and when he grows to manhood he asks for a horse from king Elf.
An old saying describes cunning as "finding the path that your enemy has chosen, then digging holes along that path".
"Innocent" sounds like you definitely didn't do it, and just being called innocent turns your skin as blushing fresh as a 12-year-old's, you cunning little criminal bastard.
