[959] See Brand’s “Pop. Antiq.,” 1849, vol. iii. pp. 229-231.
[960] “Folk-Lore of Northern Counties,” 1849, p. 57.
CHAPTER XXIII.
MISCELLANEOUS CUSTOMS, ETC.
Badge of Poverty. In the reign of William III., those who received parish relief had to wear a badge. It was the letter P, with the initial of the parish to which they belonged, in red or blue cloth, on the shoulder of the right sleeve. In “2 Henry VI.” (v. 1) Clifford says:
“Might I but know thee by thy household badge.”
Bedfellow. A proof of the simplicity of manners in olden times is evidenced by the fact that it was customary for men, even of the highest rank, to sleep together. In “Henry V.” (ii. 2) Exeter says:
“Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
Whom he hath dull’d and cloy’d with gracious favours.”
“This unseemly custom,” says Malone, “continued common till the middle of the last century, if not later.” Beaumont and Fletcher, in the “Coxcomb” (i. 1), thus refer to it:
“Must we, that have so long time been as one,
Seen cities, countries, kingdoms, and their wonders,
Been bedfellows, and in our various journey
Mixt all our observations.”