[908] Ibid. p. 273.

[909] See “Romeo and Juliet” (iii. 5), where Capulet says, “My fingers itch,” denoting anxiety.

[910] See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 44.

[911] See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 249; Jones’s “Credulities Past and Present,” pp. 529-531; “Notes and Queries,” 5th series, vol. viii. p. 201.

[912] The following is from Holinshed, who copies Sir Thomas More: “In riding toward the Tower the same morning in which he (Hastings) was beheaded his horse twice or thrice stumbled with him, almost to the falling; which thing, albeit each man wot well daily happeneth to them to whome no such mischance is toward; yet hath it beene of an olde rite and custome observed as a token oftentimes notablie foregoing some great misfortune.”

[913] See Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 127; Dyce’s “Glossary,” pp. 61, 230.

[914] The quartos of 1602 read “a kane-coloured beard.”

[915] See Jaques’s Description of the Seven Ages in “As You Like It,” (ii. 6).

[916] “Parnassus Biceps,” 1656.

[917] See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. p. 179.