Volume 1

A glossary, or, Collection of words, phrases, names, and allusions to customs, proverbs, etc., which have been thought to require illustration, in the works of English authors, particularly Shakespeare, and his contemporaries / [Robert Nares].

  • Robert Nares
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A glossary, or, Collection of words, phrases, names, and allusions to customs, proverbs, etc., which have been thought to require illustration, in the works of English authors, particularly Shakespeare, and his contemporaries / [Robert Nares]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    463/494 (page 449)
    man whose judgement shews it is constant, and hath stood still these five and twenty or thirty years. Though it be an ignorance, it is a virtuous and staid ignorance. B. Jons. Induct, to Barth. Fair. JESSES. The short straps of leather, but sometimes of silk, which went round the legs of a hawk, in which were fixed the varvels, or little rings of silver, and to these the leash, or long strap which the falconer twisted round his hand; from gect, or get, the same in old French; or geste, a bandage in general. In a passage of Hey wood’s Woman kill’d with Kindness, gets and gesses are distin- guished : So, seize her qets, her gesses, and her bells. 0. PL, vii, 269. If I do prove her haggard. Though that her jesses were my dear heart strings, I’d whistle her off, and let her down the wind To prey at fortune. Othello, iii, 3. That, like an hauke, which feeling herself freed, From bels and jesses which did let her flight, Him seem’d his feet did fly, and in their speed delight. Spens. F. Q., VI, iv, 19. In the old play of Edw. II it is printed gresses by mistake : Soar ye ne’er so high, I have the gresses [jesses] that will pull you down. 0. PL, ii, 346. A hawk he esteems the true burden of nobility, and is exceeding ambitious to seem delighted in the sport, and to have his fist gloved with his jesses. Earle's Microcosm., § xviii, p. 54; Bliss’s edition. To JEST. To act any feigned part in a mask or interlude, &c. As gentle and as jocund as to jest Go I to fight. Rich. II, i, 3. A JEST. A mask, pageant, or inter- lude. But where is old Hieronimo our marshal ? He promis’d us, in honour of our guest, To grace our banquet with some pompous jest. Spanish Trap., O. Pl., iii, 138. On which immediately follows the mask, which satisfies the king as the fulfilment of the promise. It seems to be applied to actions in general, real or fictitious. See Gest. Jest is sometimes written for gest : There [in Homer] may thejestes of many a knight be read, Patroclus, Pyrrhus, Ajax, Hiomed. Jasper Hey wood, in Cens. Lit., ix, 393. To JET. To strut, or walk proudly; to throw the body about in walking. Jetter, French. 0 peace! Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him; how ht jets under his advanc’d plumes! Twelfth Night, ii, 6. Not Pelops’ shoulder whiter than her hands, IN or snowie swans that jet on Isca’s sands. Browne, Br. Past., II, iii, p. 94. Of those that prank it with their plumes, And jet it with their choice perfumes. Herrick's Noble Numbers, p. 44. And, Midas like, he jets it m the court. Edw. II, 0. PL, ii, 340. See also 0. PI., iii, 390. It is used in the following passage for to rejoice, exult, or be proud: The orders I did set. They were obey’d with joy, which made me jet. Mirr.for Magist., Queen Helena, p. 202. [To encroach insultingly upon.] tinsuiting tyranny begins to jet Upon the innocent and aweless throne. Rich. Ill, ii, 4. tit is hard when Englishmens pacience must be thus jetted on by straungers, and they not dare to revendge their owne wrongs. Play of Sir Thomas More. A JETTER. A strutter; from the pre- ceding. So were ye better, What shulde a begger be a jetter? Four Ps, 0. Pl., i, 94. •[JEWS’ EARS. Funguses or excre- scences of the elder-tree, called auriculce Judce in Latin, and there® fore it is probably a corruption of Judas's ears. Judas was supposed to have hanged himself on an elder- tree. They that have any pains or swellings in the throat, let them take Jevos-ears (which is to be had at the apothecaries), and lay it to steep in ale a whole night, and let the party drink a good draught thereof every day once or twice. Lupton’s Thousand Notable Things. JEW’S EYE. This phrase does not require explanation, but its origin may be worth remarking. The ex- tortions to which the Jews were subject in the thirteenth century, and the periods both before and after, exposed them to the most tyrannical and cruel mutilations, if they refused to pay the sums demanded of them. ‘‘King John,” says Hume, “once demanded 10,000 marks from a Jew of Bristol, and on his refusal, ordered one of his teeth to be drawn every day, till he should consent. The Jew lost seven teeth, and then paid the sum required of him.’’ Chap, xii, a.d. 1272. The threat of losing an eye would have a still more powerful effect. Hence the high value of a Jew's eye. The allusion was familiar in the time of Shakespeare : There will come a Christian by Will be worth a Jewess' eye. Mer. Ven., ii, 5. The fine black eye of the Jew does not seem sufficiently to account for the saying. fJEWLEPS. 29