[677] Douglas’s “Criterion,” p. 68, cited by Ritson; see Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 475.
[678] This is, perhaps, a corrupt abbreviation of “By Jesus.” Some would read “By Cis,” and understand by it “St. Cicely.”
[679] See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 57; Morley’s “Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair,” 1859.
[680] “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” p. 21.
[681] Dyce’s “Glossary,” p. 47; Douce has given a representation of this instrument of torture from Millœus’s “Praxis Criminis Persequendi,” Paris, 1541.
[682] “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 95.
[683] Cf. “1 Henry IV.” (i. 3):
“His chin, new reap’d,
Show’d like a stubble-land at harvest-home.”
[684] See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. ii. pp. 16-33.
[685] See “British Popular Customs,” pp. 372, 373. In Lincolnshire this day is called “Hally-Loo Day.”