BRASS.] NATURAL HISTORY. 41 



Brake. 



Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier. 



MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, iii. I, no. 



Brake is the female fern. 



Gerard. 



A BRAKE of fern, because wild beasts break out of them. 



Minskeus Dictionary. 



Brach Merriman the poor cur is emboss'd ; 



And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach. 



TAMING OF THE SHREW, Induction I, 17-8. 



Brach. 



K]" Brach" is defined in Minsheu's Dictionary as "a little 

 und," and the Italian equivalent given is Bracca, which Florio 

 in his Dictionary gives " a brach, a bitch, a beagle." In the 

 last sense "brach" is used in "King Lear" (iii. 6, 71-2): 



Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, 

 Hound or spaniel, brach or lym. 



"Brach," i.e., bitch, occurs in " i. King Henry IV.," iii. I, 241 : 



I had rather hear Lady my brach howl in Irish ; 

 and in "King Lear," i. 4, 125; cf. Nares' Glossary.] 



Bramble. V. Blackberry. 



As You LIKE IT, iii. 2, 380. 



Is dark and shadowy by reason of his thickness and is 

 therefore friend to adders and other creeping worms. 

 Therefore it is not sicher to sleep and rest nigh such bushes 

 for such venomous worms. 



Bartholomew (Bertkelet\ bk. xvii. 40. 



Brass Brazen. 



Pewter and brass and all things that belong 

 To housekeeping. 



TAMING OF THE SHREW, ii. I, 356-7. 



BRASS and copper be called ^s, for either is made of 

 the same stone by working of fire, for a stone resolved 



