Aug. 20. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



169 



apart by itselfe) causeth the M'ine tempered therewith 

 to doe the lesse harme : in regard whereof, a student 

 ought to use himselfe to drinke twice or thrice every 

 day a draught of sheere water," &c. 



Here " sheere water " is put in apposition to 

 that with which " itwe is mingled;" the meaning 

 of sheer, therefore, is integer : and sheer milk 

 would be milk before it goes to the pump. 



But perhaps it will be objected that sheer, ap- 

 plied to water, as in this place, may mean clear, 

 bright, free from foulness. Well, then, here is 

 another example from Fletcher's Double Marriage, 

 where Castruccio is being tantalised after the 

 fashion of the Governor of Earataria : 

 "Cast, pastes.') Why, what is this ? Why, Doctor 1 



Doctor. Wine and water, sir. 'Tis sjvereign for your 

 heat : you must endure it. 



Villio. Most excellent to cool your night-piece, sir I 



Doctor. You're of a high and choleric complexion, 

 and must have allays. 



Cast. Shall I have no sheer wine then ? " 



The step from this to sheer ale is not very 

 difficult. 



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. 



K^otwithstanding 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. 



Gilford, 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. Akroavsmith (Vol. vii., p. 567.) maintains 

 the genuineness of clamour in preference to charm; 

 and, without a word of comment, quotes two pas- 

 sages 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 quota- 

 tions is, that charm, and not clamour, is an. abbre- 

 viation 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 Boe- 

 thius (Rawlinson's ed., Oxon. 1698, p. 152.), which 

 work I am unable to consult. From these words, 

 then, we have clommian, clcemian, &c., to bind or 

 restrain. It seems not very unlikely that from 

 this original came Shakspeare's word clammer or 

 clamour. 1 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 dame or 

 clamour is to be found in a work entitled The 

 Castel of Helthe ; gathered and made by Syr 

 Thomas Ehjot, Knight, Sfc. ; printed by Thomas 

 Berthelet : London, 1539 (black-letter). At p. 52. 

 is the following : 



" Nauigation or rowynge nigh to the lande, in a 

 dame water, is expedient for them that haue dropsies, 

 lepries, palseyes, called of the vulgar people, takyngcs, 

 and francies. To be carried on a rough water, it is a 

 violent exercise," &c. 



H. C. K. 



Rectory, Hereford. 



Shakspeare Suggestions (Vol. viil., p. 124.). — 

 Icon asks — "Has any one suggested 'Most 

 busy, when least I do.' The ' it ' seems mere sur- 

 plusage ?" 



The same suggestion, nearly verbatim, even to 

 the curtailment of the " it," may be found in this 

 present month's number o( Blackwood's Magazine, 

 p. 186. 



But Icon will also find the same reading, ivith 

 an anterior title of nearly three years, together with 

 some good reasons for its adoption, in " N. & Q.," 

 Vol. ii., p. 338. And he may also consult with ad- 

 vantage an illustrative quotation in Vol.iii., p. 229. 



In the original suggestion in " N. & Q.," there 

 is no presumption of surplusage : the word " it " is 

 understood in relation to labours ; that word being 

 taken as a collective singular, like contents, and 

 other words of the same construction. 



The critic in Blackwood disclaims consulting 

 " N. & Q. ; " and it is, no doubt, a convenient dis- 

 claimer. He follows the herd of menstrual Aris- 

 tarchi, by hailing, with wondering admiration, the 

 substitution of ethics for checks! And he shows 

 his fitness for the task he has undertaken, by stat- 



