I am very much inclined to think that the verb in question comes directly from the A.-S. We find the word clam or clom—a bond, that which holds or retains, a prison; in the latter form the word is frequently used, and for the use of the former in the same sense Bosworth quotes Boethius (Rawlinson's ed., Oxon. 1698, p. 152.), which work I am unable to consult. From these words, then, we have clommian, clæmian, &c., to bind or restrain. It seems not very unlikely that from this original came Shakspeare's word clammer or clamour. I may add that Skinner explains the word clum by a note of silence, quoting "Chaucer in fab. Molitoris" (I have no copy of Chaucer at this moment within reach); and in the A.-S. we find clumian, to keep close, to press, to mutter, comprimere, mussitare: all these words probably have the same root.
An instance of the use of the word clame or clamour is to be found in a work entitled The Castel of Helthe; gathered and made by Syr Thomas Elyot, Knight, &c.; printed by Thomas Berthelet: London, 1539 (black-letter). At p. 52. is the following:
"Nauigation or rowynge nigh to the lande, in a clame water, is expedient for them that haue dropsies, lepries, palseyes, called of the vulgar people, takynges, and francies. To be carried on a rough water, it is a violent exercise," &c.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
Shakspeare Suggestions (Vol. viii., p. 124.).—Icon asks—"Has any one suggested 'Most busy, when least I do.' The 'it' seems mere surplusage?"
The same suggestion, nearly verbatim, even to the curtailment of the "it," may be found in this present month's number of Blackwood's Magazine, p. 186.
But Icon will also find the same reading, with an anterior title of nearly three years, together with some good reasons for its adoption, in "N. & Q.," Vol. ii., p. 338. And he may also consult with advantage an illustrative quotation in Vol. iii., p. 229.
In the original suggestion in "N. & Q.," there is no presumption of surplusage: the word "it" is understood in relation to labours; that word being taken as a collective singular, like contents, and other words of the same construction.
The critic in Blackwood disclaims consulting "N. & Q.;" and it is, no doubt, a convenient disclaimer. He follows the herd of menstrual Aristarchi, by hailing, with wondering admiration, the substitution of ethics for checks! And he shows his fitness for the task he has undertaken, by stating that "Mr. Singer alone had the good taste to print it (ethics) in his text of 1826."