Page 199.—Sheffield whittles. Knives made at Sheffield. Chaucer, in the Canterbury Tales (3931) refers to a "Shefeld thwitel," or whittle. Compare Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, v. 1. 173: "There's not a whittle in the unruly camp," etc.
Rings with posies. Rings with mottoes inscribed inside them. Posy is the same word as poesy, which we also find used in this sense. Compare Hamlet, iii. 2. 162: "Is this a prologue, or the poesy of a ring?" The fashion of putting such posies on rings prevailed from the middle of the 16th century to the close of the 17th. In 1624 a little book was published with the title, Love's Garland, or Posies for Rings, Handkerchiefs, and Gloves; and such pretty tokens, that lovers send their loves. Compare [page 53] above.
Page 201.—Qui est la? Who is there? (French). The reply is, "Peasants, poor French people."
Whipped three market-days. For some petty offence he had committed.
Page 202.—Wick-yarn. For making wicks for the oil-lamps then in common use. It was a familiar article in this country fifty years ago, when whale-oil was used for household illumination.
Napery. Linen for domestic use, especially table-linen.
Inkles, caddises, coifs, stomachers, pomanders, etc. All these things are found in the peddler's pack of Autolycus in The Winter's Tale (iv. 4). Compare [page 204] below. Caddises are worsted ribbons, or galloons. Inkles are a kind of tape. Pomanders were little balls made of perfumes, and worn in the pocket or about the neck, for the sake of the fragrance or as a mere ornament, and sometimes to prevent infection in times of plague.
The ivy-bush. A bush or tuft of ivy was in olden time the sign of a vintner. Compare the cut of the Morris-Dance, opposite page 178. The old proverb, "Good wine needs no bush" (As You Like It, v. epil.), means that a place where good wine is kept needs no sign to attract customers. Gascoigne, in his Glass of Government (1575), says: "Now a days the good wyne needeth none ivye garland."
Page 203.—The juggler with his ape. The ape being used to perform tricks, as monkeys are nowadays by organ-grinders to amuse their street audiences. In The Winter's Tale (iv. 3. 101) the Clown says of Autolycus: "I know this man well: he hath been since an ape-bearer"; that is, he carried round a trained ape as a show.
Cantabanqui. Strolling ballad-singers; literally, persons who sing upon a bench (from the Italian catambanco, formerly cantinbanco). Compare Sir Henry Taylor, Philip van Artevelde, i. 3. 2:—