268 SHAKESPEARE'S [SABLES. 



Sables. 



HAMLET, iv. 7, 81. 



THE fur-marten is most excellent, for princes and great 

 nobles are clothed therewith, every skin being worth a 

 French crown, or four shillings at the least. 



Topsell, "Four-Footed Beasts," p. 386. 



[A thousand ducats were sometimes given for a suit of sables 

 (Bishop's "Blossoms," 1577), and none under the degree of an 

 earl might use Sables (" Statute of Apparel," 24 Henry VIII, 

 c. 13, this quotation and the last being from Malone's note on 

 this passage).] 



Sack. 



[Condensed from NareJ Glossary : " Sack, a Spanish wine of 

 the dry or rough kind; vin Sec, French ; Sac'' (Sekt, which also 

 means a dry champagne), "German. It was spelt 'seek,' and 

 came from Xeres, and therefore was the same as sherry. 

 Gervase Markham mentions other kinds of Sack, as Canary 

 and Malaga " [which he says are stronger, those of Galicia 

 and Portugal being smaller (" English Housewife's Skill in 

 Wines," p. 118, 1656)]. "Sack was the general name for 

 white wines ; where sherry was meant, it was distinguished as 

 sherris Sack (' Bartholomew Fair,' v. 4). In ' Pasquil's Palinodia' 

 (1619) Sack and sherry are used throughout as perfectly 

 synonymous : 



' Give me Sack, old Sack, boys, 



To make the Muses merry, 

 The life of mirth, and the joy of the earth, 

 Is a cup of good old sherry.' " 



But Falstaff generally drank his Sack "brewed," or mulled, or 

 "burnt" ("Merry Wives of Windsor," iii. 5, I. 30, and ii. i, 223), 

 or with sugar (i. " King Henry IV.," i. 2, 125, and ii. 4, 515), and 

 perhaps a toast in it (" Merry Wives of Windsor," iii. 5, 3), or 

 eggs (ibid., iii. 5, 31) ; and the eggs were sometimes rotten 

 (Heywoo&s " Fair Maid of the West," iii. 4, ad fin}. Ginger 

 was put into mulled Sack (Beaumont and Fletcher. " The 

 Captain," iv. 2). Lime was used to adulterate Sack (i. "King 

 Henry IV.," ii. 4, 130, and " Merry Wives of Windsor," i. 3, 10; 

 and Sir Richard Hawkins' " Voyages," as quoted by War- 

 burton) ; and horseflesh was hung in the cask to keep it quick 

 (" Webster, "Westward Ho!" iv. i, and Glapthornes "Hol- 

 lander ").] 



