Antedatings of ‘Ogre’ and ‘Ogress’

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first occurrence of the fairy-tale nouns ‘ogre’ and ‘ogress’ in the English language, spelled as ‘Hogre’ and ‘Hogress’, to a 1713 translation from French of the Arabian Nights, followed by Robert Samber’s translation of Charles Perrault’s Histories, or Tales of Past Times in 1729. This OED chronology, frequently cited in studies on the cultural legacy of the French fairy tale—and of Perrault’s in particular—in Britain, is, however, inaccurate. There are in fact at least two previously unremarked occurrences of ‘ogre’ and ‘ogress’ in English before 1713.