294 SHAKESPEARE'S [SPICE. 



Ticket: I bruised my side e'en now against a form's edge. 

 Rufflit : Parmaceti, Sir, is very good, or the fresh skin of 

 a flayed cat. Brome ^ The City Wit> Act> v> 



MY dear mummia, my balsamum, my Spermaceti ! 



Ben Jonson, " Poetaster," ii. I. 



Spice. 



MUCH Spice is a thief, so is candle and fire, 

 Sweet sauce is as crafty, as ever was friar. 



Tusser, "Five Hundred Points." Afternoon Works, 14. 



[Spice is a thief, because it was bought, and not home-grown, 

 and also because it increases appetite.] 



V. Cloves, Nutmeg, etc. 

 Spider. 



WINTER'S TALE, ii. I, 39. 



THE venomous Spinner is a little creeping beast with 

 many feet, and hath vi. feet or viii., and hath alway feet 

 even and not odd ; and that is very needful, that his going 

 and passing be alway even, as the charge is and burthens. 

 In the end of springing - time, and in the beginning of 

 summer, and sometime in harvest, and in the beginning of 

 winter, Spinners be most grievous, and their biting most 

 venomous. And a manner kind of Spinners hunteth a little 

 eft, and when they find him, they begin to weave upon 

 him, and all about, for to bind strongly his mouth, and 

 leap then upon him, and sting him till he dieth. Wonder 

 it is, how the matter of threads that come of the womb 

 of the Spinner may endure so great a work, and weaving 

 of so great a web. Also in Spinners be tokens of divina- 

 tion, and of knowing what weather shall fall, for oft by 

 weathers that shall fall, some spin and weave higher or 

 lower. Also multitude of Spinners is token of much rain. 

 Also sometime Spinners weave and make webs about 

 burgeoning and buds of vines, and also about flowers and 

 blossoms of trees, and by such beclipping [embracing] of 

 such cobwebs, both trees and vines be lost where they 



