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-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. 



