[219] A busk-point was, I believe, the lace of a lady's stays. Minsheu explains a _buske_ to be a part of dress "made of wood or whalebone, a plated or quilted thing to keepe the body straight." The word, I am informed, is still in common use, particularly in the country among the farmers' daughters and servants, for a piece of wood to preserve the stays from being bent. _Points_ or laces were worn by both sexes, and are frequently mentioned in our ancient dramatic writers. [220] [Edits., _hu, hu_.] [221] [i.e., Our modern _pet_, darling, a term of endearment.] Dr Johnson says that it is a word of endearment from _petit_, little. See notes on "The Taming of the Shrew," act i. sc. 1. Again, in "The City Madam," by Massinger, act ii. sc. 2-- "You are _pretty peats_, and your great portions Add much unto your handsomeness." [222] Shirley, in his "Sisters," ridicules these hyperbolical compliments in a similar but a better strain-- "Were it not fine If you should see your mistress without hair, Drest only with those glittering beams you talk of? Two suns instead of eyes, and they not melt The forehead made of snow! No cheeks, but two Roses inoculated on a lily, Between a pendant alabaster nose: Her lips cut out of coral, and no teeth But strings of pearl: her tongue a nightingale's! Would not this strange chimera fright yourself?" --_Collier_. [223] [i.e., Doff it in salutation.] [224] Alluding to the office of sheriff. [225] "_Cassock_," says Mr Steevens, "signifies a horseman's loose coat, and is used in that sense by the writers of the age of Shakespeare. It likewise appears to have been part of the dress of rusticks." See note to "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 3. [226] "A _gimmal_ or _gimbal ring_, Fr. _gemeau_, utr. a Lat. Gemellus, q.d. Annulus Gemellus, quoniam, sc. duobus aut pluribus orbibus constat."--_Skinner_. _Gimmal rings_ are often mentioned in ancient writers. [227] "Quis nescit primam esse Historiae legem, ne quid falsi dicere audeat; deinde, ne quid veri non audeat."--Cicero "De Orat." lib. ii. 15.