--Virgidemiarum, lib., ii., sat. 7. Astrology is ridiculed in a masterly manner in King Lear, 1608. Mason mentions in his list of the then prevailing superstitions : "" erecting of a figure to tell of stolne goods. Philip Henslowe has a receipt To know wher a thinge is that is stolne :-Take vergine waxe and write upon yt Jasper Melchisor Balthasar and put yt under his head to whome the good partayneth, and he shall knowe in his sleape wher the thinge is become.' Diary, ed., 1845. Johnson speaking of Hudibras, says: 66 Astrology, however, against which SO much of the satire is directed, was not more the folly of the Puritans than of others. It had at that time a very extensive dominion. Its predictions raised hopes and fears in minds which ought to have rejected it with contempt. In hazardous undertakings care was taken to begin under the influence of a propitious planet; and, when the King was prisoner in Carisbrook Castle an astrologer was consulted as to what hour would be found most favourable to an

escape." Astrology," says a person of honour," "imagines to read in the constellations, as in a large book, every thing that shall come to pass here below, and figuring to itself admirable rencounters from the aspects and conjunctions of the planets, it draws from thence consequences as remote from truth as the stars

themselves are from the earth. I confess I have ever esteemed this science vain and ridiculous; for indeed it must be either true or false if true, that which it predicts is infallible and inevitable, and consequently unuseful to be foreknown. But, if it is false, as it may easily be evinced to be, would not a man of sense be blamed to apply his mind to and lose his time in, the study thereof? It ought to be the occupation of a shallow Braine, that feeds itself with chimerical fancies, or of an impostor who makes a mystery of every thing which he understands not, for to deceive women and credulous people. Courtier's Calling, 1675, p. 241. Agrippa exposes astrology as the mother of heresy,

and adds: "Besides this same fortunetelling astrology not only the best of moral philosophers explode, but also Moses, Isaias, Job, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets of the ancient law; and among the Catholick writers, St. Austin condemns it to be utterly expelled and banish'd out of the territories of Christianity. St. Hierome argues the same to be a kind of idolatry. Basil and Cyprian laugh at it as most contemptible. Chrysostome, Eusebius, and Lactantius utterly condemn it. Gregory, Ambrose, and Severianus inveigh against it. The Council of Toledo utterly abandon and prohibit it. In the Synod of Martinus and by Gregory the younger and Alexander III. it was anathematized and punished by the civil laws of the Emperors. Among the ancient Romans it was prohibited by Tiberius, Vitellius, Diocletian, Constantine, Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodo sius, ejected also, and punish'd. By Justinian made a capital crime, as may appear in his Codex."-Vanity of Sciences, p 98. He pleasantly observes of astrologers, that "undertaking to tell all people most obscure and hidden secrets abroad, they at the same time know not what happens in their own houses and in their own chambers. Even such an astrologer as Henry More laught at them in his epigram:

"The Stars, ethereal bard, to thee shine clear,

And all our future fates thou mak'st appear.

But that thy wife is common all men know, Yet what all see, theres not a star doth

show.

Saturn is blinde, or some long journey

Avenor. From Fr. avoine, the person who, in great towns, formerly had the superintendence of the horse-meat. See Halliwell in v.

Babies in the Eyes.. See Nares, Glossary, 1859, in v. In Braithwaite's "Two Lancashire Lovers," 1640, p. 19, in Camillus' speech to Doriclea, in the Lancashire dialect, he tells her, in order to gain her affections, "We han store of goodly cattell; my mother, though shee bee a vixon, shee will blenke blithly on you for my cause; and we will ga to the dawnes and slubber up a sillibub; and I will looke babbies in your eyes, and picke silly-cornes out of your toes: and we will han a whiskin at every rush-bearing, a wassel cup at Yule, a seed-cake at Fastens, and a lusty cheese-cake at our sheepewash; and will not aw this done bravely, Jantlewoman?" In her answer to this clown's addresses, she observes, among other passages, "What know you but I may prove untoward, and that will bring your mother to her grave; make you, pretty babe, put finger ith' eye, and turné the door quite off the hinges. The above romance is said to have been founded on a true history; the costume appears to be very accurate and appropriate.

Bachelor's Buttons.-There is a rustic species of divination by bachelor's buttons, a plant so called. There was an ancient custom, says Grey, amongst the country fellows, of trying whether they should succeed with their mistresses by carrying the bachelor's buttons, a plant of the lychnis kind, whose flowers resemble also a button in form, in their pockets: and they judged of their good or bad success by their growing or not growing there. Notes on Shakespear, i., 108. Bachelor's buttons are described as having been worn also by the young women, and that too under their aprons. "Thereby I saw the batchelors butons, whose vertue is to make wanton maidens weepe, when they have worne it forty weekes under their aporns for a favour."-Greene's Quip, 1592, reprint Collier, p. 10.

Backgammon.-See Tables. Badger-in-the-Bag. In the tale of Pwyll Prince of Dyved, in the Mabinogion, an account is furnished of the alleged circumstances under which this game was first played, where Rhiannon persuades Gnawl, the son of Clud, to put his feet into the bag to tread down the food within, and he finds himself overhead in it, whereupon all present kicked the bag with their foot, or struck it with a staff. Every one as he came in asked, "What game are you playing at thus ?" "The game of Badger-in-the Bag." said they. And then was the game of Badgerin-the-Bag first played." Ed. 1877, p. 350.

Badger-the-Bear.-A rough game played by boys, and described by Halliwell in v.

Bagatelle. A well-known game played with one black and eight coloured or white balls, and a cue and mallet, and somewhat following the lines of billiards, but without pockets in the table. It is said to have been well established in 1827. Its origin is uncertain, but it is said not to be French, although the name is so. It is played with variations.

Baker's Clem..-At Cambridge the bakers have an annual supper, which is called "The Bakers' Clem. A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" (Cuthbert Bede) testifies to its celebration in 1863. Baker's Dozen. Originally a Devil's Dozen. Comp. Nares, Glossary, 1859, in v., and see Numbers. Ballad - Monger. Braithwaite, describing a ballad-monger, in his Whimzies, 1631, writes: By this time they (his ballads) are cashiered the City, and must now ride poast for the countrey: where they are no lesse admir'd than a gyant in a pageant: till at last they grow so common there too, as every poore milkmaid can chant and chirpe it under her cow, which she useth as an harmlesse charme to make her let downe her milke."

Ball-Money. See Nuptial Usages.

Ball. - In the Odyssey, Nausicaa, daughter of the King of Phoacia, is represented playing at this game with her handmaidens; and there are Greek coins. where a girl is seen engaged in the same sport. At a period posterior to Homer, it was known as Phoeninda. Sophocles the tragedian, in his play of Nausicaa, distinguished himself in the performance by his skill at the game. Playing at ball, as early as the fourteenth century, is denounced by a bishop of London as one of the ways in which the precincts of St. Paul's Church, London, were then desecrated (1385); and this disorderly and licentious condition of affairs continued during centuries. There used to be a practice of rolling a ball down the table after dinner; it is thought that this was, when a match had been recently played, where the ball was used, and the victorious party, to whom it belonged, thus exhibited it as a trophy.

Balloon. This was played with an inflated ball of leather, which was struck by the arm, the latter being protected by a bracer of wood. In "Eastward Hoe," 1605, Sir Pretonel Flash is represented as having a match at balloon with my lord Whackham for four crowns. Donne also mentions it:

"'Tis ten a clock and past; all whom the

mues,

Baloun, tennis, diet, or the stewes

Had all the morning held, now the second Time made ready, that day, in flocks are found."

And in a writer of somewhat later date it is coupled with several other diversions of the period: "also Riding the Great Horse, Running at a ring, Tilts and Tournaments, are noble exercises as well as healthy, and becoming his (the gentleman's) grandeur. In like manner, Balon, Quintan, Stop-Ball, Pitching of a Bar, Casting of a Weight, are healthy and laudable." The Gentleman's Companion, 1676, p. 136-7. Randolph, in his eclogue on the revival of the Cotswold Games by Dover, seems to speak of balloon as a sort of football. The whole passage is curious: Colin, I once the famous Spain did see, A nation famous for her gravity. Yet there a hundred knights on warlike

steeds

Did skirmish out a fight arm'd but with reeds;

At which a thousand ladies' eyes did gaze,
Yet 'twas no better than our prison-base.
What is the barriers but a worthy way
Of our more downright sport, the cudgel-
play?

-Works, 1875, 621.

Balls, Three. The three blue balls prefixed to the doors and windows of pawnbrokers' shops, (by the vulgar humorously enough said to indicate that it is two to one that the things pledged are ever redeemed) were is reality the arms of the Medici family, a branch of whom, with many other Lombard houses, settled in London at an early date, and concentrated themselves chiefly in a quarter which was called after them Lombard street. But in the Medici cognizance there are six balls. On a Brabantine coin anterior to the rise of the Medici appear nine balls.

Ballock. See Halliwell in v. Bally-bleeze. Speaking of the Cleveland word Bally-bleeze (a bonfire), in his Glossary of that dialect, 1868. Mr. Atkinson remarks: "It need scarcely be added that any assumption of an etymological connection between the name Baal and this word bally-bleeze must be groundless. Even in the Gaelic form baltein, while tein is equivalent to our bleeze, Dan. blysse, Sw. blosse, &c., I doubt if bal be radically distinct from E. bale, Sw. bal, &c. In other words, I do not for a moment suppose the worship of Baal, any more than that of Balder, or Apollo. or Phobus, considered as persons with distinct ethnic names, was intended in these balefires. It was the worship of the Sun-god simply, and his name not even hinted at in that of the fire-rites involved."

Banbury Cross.-Halliwell, in his Nursery Rhymes, prints two versions of

Which appears to indicate some custom in cidental to Banbury Mop or Michaelmas Statute Fair, where perhaps some female character on horseback was one of the perfcrmers in a procession or sport. The suggestion is offered, that there was some local imitation of the Godiva pageant.

Banks's Horse.-See Halliwell in v. At Hereford Midsummer Fair, in 1640, there was, it seems, a fellow, a second Bankes, who exhibited a dancing horse; for in the account book of Mrs. Joyce Jeffries under this year occurs a payment to him.-Archæologia, xxxvii.

Banns. The following account of this subject is derived from the information of my friend Mr. Yeowell: Notes and Queries, 4th S. i., 149-50. "We learn from Tertullian, Ad Uxorem, De Pudicitiâ, c. 4, that the Church, in the primitive ages, was forewarned of marriages. The earliest existing canonical enactment on the subject, in the English Church, is that in the 11th canon of the synod of Westminster or London, A.D. 1200, which enacts that no marriage shall be contracted without banns thrice published in the church, unless by the special authority of the bishop.' Wilkins' Concilia, i., 507. It is supposed by some that the practice was introduced into France as early as the ninth century; and it is certain that Odo, Bishop of Paris, ordered it in 1176. The council of Lateran, in 1215, prescribed it to the whole Latin Church. Before publishing the banns, it was the custom for the curate anciently to affiance the two persons to be married in the name of the Blessed Trinity; and the banns were sometimes published at vespers, as well as during the time of mass. In the early ballad of Robin Hood and Allen a Dale we have a curious reference to the banns, where the bishop says, in answer to Robin:

"That shall not be, the bishop he said: For thy word shall not stand; They shall be three times askt in the church,

As the law is of our land." Banyan Day..-See Davis, Suppl. Glossary, 1881, in v.

Barbara, St.-(December 4). Although Nicholas, in his " Chronology of

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notice.

"Anniversary Calendar" as martyred in A.D. 306, and whose life is in the "Golden Legend," as well as in a separate biography printed by Julian Notary in 1518, where she is styled virgin and martyr, is not, in reality, the only canonized lady of this name. It was formerly the usage at York to preach a sermon in St. William's Chapel on St. Barbara's Day, and Davies, in his "Extracts from the Municipal Records of York," 1843, mentions a payment of two shillings to a Bachelor of Divinity for this purpose in 18 Edw. IV. "In time of thunder," remarks Aubrey (1678), "they invoke St. Barbara. So Chaucer, speaking of the great hostess, says that her guests would cry St. Barbara, when she let off her gun." Barbers. The sign of a barber's shop being singular, has attracted much It is generally distinguished by a long pole, with coloured bandages depicted on it, instead of a sign. The true intention of that party-coloured staff, it is explained correctly in the " Antiquarian Repertory, was to shew that the master of the shop practiced surgery, and could breathe a vein as well as mow a beard: such a staff being to this day, by every village practitioner, put into the hand of a patient undergoing the operations of phlebotomy. The white band, which encompasses the staff, was meant to represent the fillet thus elegantly twined about it. In confirmation of this opinion the reader may be referred to the cut of the barber's shop in Comenii "Orbis pictus," where the patient under phlebotomy is represented with a pole or staff in his hand. And that this is a very ancient practice appears from an illumination in a missal of the time of Edward I. I find the following odd passage in Gayton: "The barber hath a long pole elevated; and at the end of it a labell, wherein is in a fair text hand written this word Money. Now the pole signifies itself, which joined to the written word makes Pole-money. There's the rebus, that Cut-bert is nobody without Pole-money. Festivous Notes, 1654, p. 111. Lord Thurlow in his speech for postponing the farther reading of the Surgeons' Incorporation Bill, July 17th, 1797, to that day three months, in the House of Peers, stated "that by a statute still in force, the barbers and surgeons were each to use a pole. The barbers were to have theirs blue and white, striped, with no other appendage; but the surgeons', which was the same in other

Stephanus ridicules the grosse ignorance of the barbers: "This puts me in minde of a barber who after he had cupped me (as the physician had prescribed) to turn away a catarrhe, asked me if I would be sacrificed. Sacrificed? said I. Did the Phisition tell you any such thing? No (quoth he) but I have sacrificed many, who have bene the better for it. Then musing a little with myself I told him, Surely, Sir. you mistake yourself, you mean scarified. O Sir, by your favour (quoth he) I have ever heard it called sacrificing, and as for scarifying I never heard of it before. In a word I could by no means perswade him, but that it was the barber's office to sacrifice men. Since which time I never saw any man in a barber's hands. but that sacrificing barber came to my mind.". World of Wonders, transl. by R. C., 1607, p. 125. Rowlands, in his Pair of SpyKnaues," 1619, describes the humours of "A Fanatical Knaue," and pictures him giving directions to his servant:

"First to my barber, at his bason signe, Bid him be heere to-morrow about nine."

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As to the barber's chair and basin, see Nares, Glossary, 1859, in v., and under basins were hired by the mob, when any Basin, where it is shown that barbers' infamous person was carted, in order, by beating them ahead of the procession, to draw the attention of spectators. Barbers' Chaire," says Gabriel Harvey, in the Trimming of Thomas Nash, 1597," is the verie Royall-Exchange of newes, barbers the head of all trades." little farther on: "if they be happie, He adds, a whom pleasure, profit, and honor make attaine to happiness.

if at home and

happie, then barbers with great facilitie at worke, they are in pleasing conference; if idle, they pass that time in life-delighting musique." The beating down the barbers' basins on Shrove Tuesday, I have not found elsewhere than in Fennor's Pasquils Palinodia, 1619 :—

"It was the day of all deys in the yeare, That unto Bacchus hath his dedication, When mad-brained prentices, that no men feare,

O'erthrow the dens of bawdie recrea

tion:

When tylors, cobblers, plaist'rers, smiths, and masons

And every rogue will beat down Barbers' basons,

Whereat Don Constable in wrath appeares, And runs away with his stout halbardiers.