E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Basilisco.
A braggart; a character in an old play entitled Solyman and Perseda. Shakespeare makes the Bastard say to his mother, who asks him why he boasted of his ill-birth, “Knight, knight, good mother, Basilisco-like”—i.e. my boasting has made me a knight. (King John, i. 1.)
