;o 
COCK-A-HOOP. 
The ale-house sign of “The Cock and Hoop” repre¬ 
sents a game-fowl standing upon a hoop, but we have 
little doubt that the original sign was a cask flowing, with 
the tap laid on the top. The modern version is no doubt 
a corruption, just as we have “ The Swan with Two 
Necks ” for “The Swan with Two Nicks” i. e. marks on 
the bill to distinguish it; “ The Devil and the Bag o’ 
Nails” for “Pan and the Bacchanals;” “The Goat and 
Compasses ” for the ancient motto “ God encompasseth 
us ;” &c., &c.* 
The popular adjuration, “by cock and pye,” which 
Shakespeare has put in the mouth of Justice Shallow, was 
once supposed to refer to the sacred name, and to the 
table of services, called “ the pie but it is now thought 
to be what Hotspur termed a mere “protest of pepper 
gingerbread,” as innocent as Slender’s, “ By these gloves,” 
or, “By this hat.” In “ Soliman and Perseda” (i 599 >) ^ 
occurs coupled with “ mousefoot ;”—“ By cock and pye and 
mousefoot.” Again, in “The Plaine Man’s Pathway to 
Heaven,” by Arthur Dent (1607), we have the following 
dialogue :— 
Asunetus .—“ I know a man that will never swear but by 
cock or Ay, or mousefoot. I hope you will not say these be 
* Apropos of ale-house signs, Shakespeare gives us the origin of “The Bear 
and Ragged Staff.” It is the crest of the Earls of Warwick. 
Way wick. “ Now, -by my father’s badge, old Neville’s crest, 
The rampant bear chain’d to the ragged staff.” 
Henry VI. Part II. Act v. Sc. i. 
