“Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence;
Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver’d
Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love.”
This custom seems to have originated in the circumstance of women having a pocket in the forepart of their stays, in which, according to Steevens, “they carried not only love-letters and love-tokens, but even their money and materials for needlework.”
Livery. The phrase “sue my livery,” which occurs in the following speech of Bolingbroke (“Richard II.” ii. 3),
“I am denied to sue my livery here,
And yet my letters-patents give me leave;
My father’s goods are all distrain’d, and sold,
And these, and all, are all amiss employ’d,”
is thus explained by Malone: “On the death of every person who held by knight’s service, the escheator of the court in which he died summoned a jury, who inquired what estate he died seized of, and of what age his next heir was. If he was under age, he became a ward of the king’s; but if he was found to be of full age, he then had a right to sue out a writ of ouster le main, that is, his livery, that the king’s hand might be taken off, and the land delivered to him.” York (“Richard II.,” ii. 1) also says:
“If you do wrongfully seize Hereford’s rights,
Call in the letters-patents that he hath
By his attorneys-general to sue
His livery.”
Love-Day. This denoted a day of amity or reconciliation; an expression which is used by Saturninus in “Titus Andronicus” (i. 1):
“You are my guest, Lavinia, and your friends.—
This day shall be a love-day, Tamora.”
Military Lore. Fleshment. This is a military term; a young soldier being said to flesh his sword the first time he draws blood with it. In “King Lear” (ii. 2), Oswald relates how Kent
“in the fleshment of this dread exploit,
Drew on me here again,”