=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:-- "He was no tavern cantabank that made it, But a squire minstrel of your Highness' court." _The Tale of Sir Topas._ One of Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, _The Rime of Sir Topas_, a burlesque upon the metrical romances of the time. It is written in ballad form. _Bevis of Southampton._ A fabulous hero of the time of William the Conqueror. He is mentioned in _Henry VIII._ i. 1. 38:--