152 SHAKESPEARE’S [ HEMP. 
Hemp. 
ii. Kine Hewry IV., ii. 1, 64. 
[‘‘ Hemp-seed” here, of course, refers to the use of Hemp for 
making ropes.] 
Tue female Hemp [is] barren and without seed, contrary 
unto the nature of that sex; which is very like to the 
male, and one must be gathered before the other be ripe, 
else it will wither away, and come to no good i 
Gerard’s “Herbal,” s 
Ir you lay the wick of a candle to infuse or steep in 
the oil of Hemp-seed, and after make a tallow candle 
thereof, which if you do light after it be cold, the same 
candle will not go out with any wind, so long as the whole 
candle lasteth. And in like sort may lights be made to 
serve in the night-time, if that fine linen rags be first 
soaked in the oil of Hemp-seed, and dipped into molten 
tallow, being so bound or wrought on a staff’s end, or other- 
wise lying in an iron or plate at the end of a ‘staff, 
Lupton, ‘A Thousand Notable Things,” bk. x. § 23. 
Tue juice of green Hemp-seed, being dropped into the 
ears, driveth out any worms or vermin there engendered, 
yea, and what ear-wigs or such like creatures that are gotten 
into them; but it will cause head-ache withal. So forcible 
is this plant, that if it be put into water, it will make it to 
gather and coagulate. Holland's Pliny, bk. xx. ch. xxiii, 
Hen. 
Short-legged hens. 
ii. Kinc Henry IV., v. 1, 28. 
As some men mean if her members were meddled with 
gold when it is molten, the gold should waste. The Hen 
is a fowl of great laying, and layeth many eggs without 
treading, and they be called wind-eggs, and be more un- 
savoury and less worthy than other eggs. A Hen is a mild 
bird about chickens; for she taketh sickness for sorrow of 
