SEA-MELIS, 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. 1 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 ’ll 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-gulles 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. 
