_Page 73. Feminine Oaths._--Among the number of feminine expletives may be reckoned Ophelia's adjuration "by Gis." The derivation has been a source of trouble to the commentators, who profess to see in it a corruption of Saint Cecily, an abbreviation of Saint Gislen, or else, as is more probable, a phonetic form of the letters I.H.S. But whatever its derivation, the oath was commonly attributed to the female sex. Thus, in Preston's 'Cambyses,' 1561, it is so employed; and again in the pre-Shakespearian play of 'King John' the nuns swear by Gis, and the monks, by way of distinction, take their oaths by Saint Withold. In 'Gammer Gurton's Needle' the oath is placed in the mouth of the old housewife. _Page 84. Foreign Oaths._--We learn from Miss Bunbury's 'Summer in Northern Europe,' that the most common form of swearing in Sweden is a contraction of "God preserve us," and that hardly a sentence can escape from the lips of the lower orders without being supplemented by this expression--"bevars," the lengthened form of which is "Gud bevarva oss." Another form of imprecation is "Kors" or "Kors Jesu," the Cross of Jesus, which the same writer intimates is in great request among the educated orders in Sweden. _Page 85. Pre-Reformation Swearing._--The testimony of Elyot in 'The Boke named the Governour,' written in 1531, is very conclusive upon the question. He says: "In dayly communication the mater savoureth nat, except it be as it were seasoned with horrible othes. As by the holy blode of Christe, his woundes whiche for our redemption he paynefully suffred, his glorious harte, as it were numbles chopped in pieces. Children (whiche abborreth me to remembre) do play with the armes and bones of Christe, as they were chery stones. The soule of God, whiche is incomprehensible, and nat to be named of any creature without a wonderfull reverence and drede, is nat onely the othe of great gentilmen, but also so indiscretely abused, that they make it (as I mought saye) their gonnes, wherwith they thunder out thretenynges and terrible menacis, whan they be in their fury, though it be at the damnable playe of dyse. The masse, in which honourable ceremony is lefte unto us the memoriall of Christes glorious passion, with his corporall presence in fourme of breade, the invocation of the thre divine persones in one deitie, with all the hole company of blessed spirites and soules elect, is made by custome so simple an othe that it is nowe all most neglected and little regarded of the nobilitie, and is onely used among husbandemen and artificers, onelas some taylour or barbour, as well in his othes as in the excesse of his apparayle, will counterfaite and be lyke a gentilman."--ii. 252, _ed. Croft_. So also Roger Hutchinson in his 'Image of God,' 1550:--"You swearers and blasphemers which use to swear by God's heart, arms, nails, bowels, legs, and hands, learn what these things signify, and leave your abominable oaths."