—In the Taming of the Shrew, Act IV. Sc. 1., Petruchio, on arriving at his house, says to his bride:
"Sit down, Kate, and welcome. Soud, soud, soud soud!"
The word soud puzzles the commentators.
Johnson takes it for soot or sooth, sweet. Mason supposes it to denote the humming of a tune, or an ejaculation, for which it is not necessary to find out a meaning. Malone conjectures it to be a word coined to express the noise made by a person heated and fatigued.
This seems a proper subject for a Query.
T. C.
Key Experiments.
—Can some one of your correspondents afford me an explanation of the principles controlling the following experiment: Two persons, taking a large key, hold it balanced by the handle upon the forefinger of their opposite hands; the key should be tied in a thin book, with the handle projecting so far that the finger may easily pass between the book and the handle; the book serves to balance the key by its weight, and exhibits more plainly any movement of the key; both persons then wish the key to turn to the right or left, and, after a few moments, the key will take the desired direction. The earnest and united wish of the operators appears to be the motive power. The divination by "the Bible and key," given in your Vol. i., p. 413., and Vol. ii., p. 5., is evidently based on the same principles; and the mention of that superstition will be an apology for my making your pages the medium of the present inquiry, which is perhaps scarcely fitted for a publication designed for literary purposes.
J. P. Jun.