The original picture, or sign as it sometimes was, seems to have been two _fools_. Thus in Shirley's _Bird in cage_, Morello, who counterfeits a _fool_, says, "_We be three of old_, without exception to your lordship, only with this difference, I am the wisest fool." In Day's comedy of _Law tricks_, 1608, Jul. says, "appoint the place prest." To which Em. answers, "At the _three fools_." Sometimes, as Mr. Henley has stated, it was two asses. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's _Queen of Corinth_, Act III. Scene 1, "NEAN. He is another _ass_, he says, I believe him. UNCLE. _We be three_, heroical prince. NEAN. Nay then we must have the _picture_ of 'em, and the word _nos sumus_." SCENE 3. Page. 53. CLO. I did impeticos thy gratility. This is undoubtedly the true reading, for the reason assigned by Mr. Malone. From the discordant notes on the passage, a question has arisen whether the fool means to say that he had put the six-pence into his own petticoats, or given it to his petticoat companion, his _leman_. Mr. Steevens has observed that "petticoats were not _always_ a part of the dress of fools, though they were of idiots;" and on this assertion, coupled with another by Dr. Johnson, that "fools were kept in long coats to which the allusion is made," Mr. Ritson maintains that "it is a very gross mistake to imagine that this character (_i. e._ our clown's) was habited like an _idiot_." Now it is very certain, that although the idiot fools were generally dressed in petticoats, the allowed fool was occasionally habited in like manner, as is shown more at large in another part of this volume; which circumstance, though it may strengthen the opinion that the clown has alluded to his own dress, by no means decides the above question, which remains very equally balanced. SCENE 3. Page 63. SIR TO. Dost thou think because thou art virtuous, there shall beno more _cakes and ale_? The holiday cakes referred to in Mr. Letherland's note were the yule or Christmas cakes; those on the lying-in of the Virgin; cross-buns, and twelfth cakes. Mr. Lysons, in his account of Twickenham, mentions an ancient custom of dividing two great cakes in the church on Easter-day among the young people. This was regarded as a superstitious relic; and it was ordered by the parliament in 1645, that the parishioners should forbear that custom, and instead thereof buy loaves of bread for the poor of the parish. SCENE 4. Page 70. DUKE. And the _free_ maids that weave their threads with bones. The private memoirs of Peter the wild boy, if they could be disclosed, would afford the best comment on the above disputed epithet, as applied to the _websters_ in question. SCENE 4. Page 71. CLO. And in _sad cypress_ let me be laid.