SEA-MELLS. 269 



three times the money, and which was to be entered upon 

 by Hunks three months after his young friend came of 

 age an unpleasant thought, when the ox was roasting 

 whole, the bells ringing, and the tenants shouting." * 



Not only was the person duped called " a gull," but the 

 trick itself was also known as " a gull," just as we now-a- 

 days term it " a sell." 



" Benedick. I should think this ' a gull/ but that the 

 white-bearded fellow speaks it : knavery cannot, sure, hide 

 himself in such reverence." Much Ado about Nothing, 

 Act ii. Sc. 3. 



But it is not always synonymously with " fool " that 

 Shakespeare employs the word " gull." Caliban, address- 

 ing Trinculo, says, 



" Sometimes I '11 get thee 

 Young sea-mells from the rock." 



Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 2. 



Here it is evident that the sea-mall, sea-mew, or sea-gull, 

 is intended, the young birds being taken before they could 

 fly. Young sea-gulls were formerly considered great 

 delicacies, and in the old " Household Books " we often 

 find such entries as the following : 



" Item, it is thought goode that See-guiles be hade for 



* Thornbury, "Shakespeare's England," vol. i. pp. 311, 312. Doubtless com- 

 piled from Greene's "Art of Coney Catching," 1591, and Decker's "English 

 Villanies," 1631. 



