STOCKFISH, | NATURAL HISTORY. 297 
Sprat. 
Aut’s Wet, tHar Enps Weut, ili, 6, 112. 
Great lords sometimes 
For change leave calver’d salmon, and eat Sprats. 
Massinger, ‘‘Guardian,”’ iv. 2 
Aut-Saints do lay for pork and souse 
For Sprats and spurlings for their house. 
Tusser, “The Farmer’s Daily Diet.” 
[Sprats were caught at the mouth of the Thames, but young 
herrings were frequently substituted for them. The peck of 
Sprats or young herrings were sometimes sold at Billingsgate 
for two-pence. The best Sprats came from Orfordness, and 
Dunwich-bay. From “England’s Way to Win Wealth” (1614)]. 
Broirep red Sprat. 
Middleton, “Blurt, Master Constable,” iii, 3, 205. 
Stag. Y. Hart. 
Stockfish. 
TEMPEST, ili. 2, 79. 
Asovur the Isle Ebusus, the Stock-fish is much called for ; 
whereas in other places it is counted but a base, muddy 
and filthy fish. Holland's Pliny, bk, ix, ch. xviii. 
[From this it is clear that the Stockfish was a_ distinct 
species, but the word usually means dried fish as distinct from 
fresh. ] 
Tue Stock -fish-mongers [are seated] in Thames Street ; 
wet-fish-mongers in Knightriders Street and Bridge Street. 
Stock-fishes, so called for dried fishes of all sorts, as lings, 
haberdines, and other. Stow’s “Survey.” 
[Stephano, in the passage quoted from the ‘‘ Tempest,” 
means that he will beat Trinculo; so Mzddleton, “ Blurt, 
Master Constable,” iii. 3, 17: ‘‘I do not love to handle these 
dried Stockfishes, that ask so much tawing”; and Webster, 
“Westward Ho!” v. 4: ‘‘ Have you Stockfish in hand that 
you beat so hard?” and Beaumont and Fletcher, ‘The Captain,” 
iii. 3: ‘Beat him soft like Stockfish.”] 
