BRASS. | NATURAL HISTORY. 41 
Brake. 
Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier. 
Mipsummer Nicut’s Dream, iil. I, 110. 
Brake is the female fern. 
Gerard, 
A Brake of fern, because wild beasts break out of them. 
Minsheu's Dictionary. 
Brach. 
Brach Merriman the poor cur is emboss’d ; 
And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth’d brach. 
TAMING OF THE SHREW, Induction 1, 17-8. 
{“Brach” is defined in Minsheu’s Dictionary as “a little 
hound,” and the Italian equivalent given is Bracca, which Florio. 
in his Dictionary gives “a brach, a bitch, a beagle.” In the 
last sense “brach” is used in ‘‘ King Lear” (iii. 6, 71-2): 
Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, 
Hound or spaniel, brach or lym. 
“ Brach,” z¢., bitch, occurs in “i. King Henry IV.,” iii. 1, 241: 
I had rather hear Lady my brach howl in Irish ; 
and in “ King Lear,” i. 4, 125; ¢f Nares’ Glossary.] 
Bramble. /. Blackberry. 
As You Like Ir, ili. 2, 380. 
Is dark and shadowy by reason of his thickness and is 
therefore friend to adders and other creeping worms. 
Therefore it is not sicher to sleep and rest nigh such bushes 
for such venomous worms. 
Bartholomew (Berthelet), bk. xvii. § 40. 
Brass—Brazen. 
Pewter and brass and all things that belong 
To housekeeping. 
Tamino oF THE SHREW, ii, 1, 356-7. 
Brass and copper be called AXs, for either is made of 
the same stone by working of fire, for a stone resolved 
