It may be remarked that, at present, we apply several arbitrary adjectives, in this sense of sheer, to different liquors. Thus, to spirits we apply "raw," to wines and brandy "neat," to malt drink "stout" or "strong;" and then we reduce to "half and half," until at length we come to the very "small," a term which, like other lowly things, seems to have been permitted to endure from its very weakness. A. E. B. Leeds. "_Clamour your tongues," &c._-- "Clamour your tongues, and not a word more." _Wint. Tale_, Act IV. Sc. 4. Notwithstanding the comments upon this word _clamour_, both in the pages of "N. & Q.," and by the various editors of Shakspeare, I have not yet seen anything that appears to my mind like a satisfactory elucidation. Gifford, not being able to make anything of the word, proposed to read _charm_, which at all events is plausible, though nothing more. Nares says the word is in use among bell-ringers, though now shortened to _clam_. Unfortunately the meaning attached to the term by the ringers is at variance with that of _clamour_ in the text; for to _clam_ the bells is what we should now call putting them _on sette_ or _setting_ them, and this is but preparatory to a general crash: still it is possible that the words may be the same. MR. ARROWSMITH (Vol. vii., p. 567.) maintains the genuineness of _clamour_ in preference to _charm_; and, without a word of comment, quotes two passages from Udall's translation of Erasmus his _Apothegms_--"oneless hee chaumbreed his tongue," &c.; and again--"did he refrein or chaumbre the tauntying of his tongue." I confess I cannot fathom MR. ARROWSMITH'S intention; for the obvious conclusion to be drawn from these quotations is, that _charm_, and not _clamour_, is an abbreviation of the older word _chaumbre_. I am very much inclined to think that the verb in question comes directly from the A.-S. We find the word _clam_ or _clom_--a bond, that which holds or retains, a prison; in the latter form the word is frequently used, and for the use of the former in the same sense Bosworth quotes Boethius (Rawlinson's ed., Oxon. 1698, p. 152.), which work I am unable to consult. From these words, then, we have _clommian_, _clæmian_, &c., to bind or restrain. It seems not very unlikely that from this original came Shakspeare's word _clammer_ or _clamour_. I may add that Skinner explains the word _clum_ by _a note of silence_, quoting "Chaucer in fab. Molitoris" (I have no copy of Chaucer at this moment within reach); and in the A.-S. we find _clumian_, to keep close, to press, to mutter, comprimere, mussitare: all these words probably have the same root. An instance of the use of the word _clame_ or _clamour_ is to be found in a work entitled _The Castel of Helthe; gathered and made by Syr Thomas Elyot, Knight, &c.; printed by Thomas Berthelet_: London, 1539 (black-letter). At p. 52. is the following: