defence of thy fidelity."

The glove then thrown down was popularly called "a gage,"[983] from the
French, signifying a pledge, and in "Richard II." (iv. 1), it is so
termed by Aumerle:

"There is my gage, the manual seal of death,
That marks thee out for hell."

[983] The verb "to gage," or "to pledge," occurs in "Merchant
of Venice," i. 1:

"but my chief care
Is, to come fairly off from the great debts
Wherein my time, something too prodigal,
Hath left me gaged."

Cf. "1 Henry IV.," i. 3.

In the same play it is also called "honor's pawn." Thus Bolingbroke (i.
1) says to Mowbray:

"Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,
Disclaiming here the kindred of the king;
And lay aside my high blood's royalty,
Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.
If guilty dread hath left thee so much strength
As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop."

And further on (iv. 1), one of the lords employs the same phrase:

"There is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st."

It is difficult to discover why the glove was recognized as the sign of
defiance. Brand[984] suggests that the custom of dropping or sending the
glove, "as the signal of a challenge, may have been derived from the
circumstance of its being the cover of the hand, and therefore put for
the hand itself. The giving of the hand is well known to intimate that
the person who does so will not deceive, but stand to his agreement. _To
shake hands upon it_ would not be very delicate in an agreement to
fight, and, therefore, gloves may possibly have been deputed as
substitutes."

[984] "Pop. Antiq.," vol. ii. p. 127.

Again, the glove was often thrown down as a pledge, as in "Timon of
Athens" (v. 4), where the senator says to Alcibiades:

"Throw thy glove,
Or any token of thine honour else,
That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress,
And not as our confusion."

Whereupon Alcibiades answers: "Then there's my glove." In "King Lear"
(v. 2), Albany thus speaks:

"Thou art arm'd, Gloster:--let the trumpet sound:
If none appear to prove, upon thy person,
Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
There is my pledge; [_Throwing down a glove_] I'll prove it on
thy heart."

In "Troilus and Cressida" (iv. 5), Hector further alludes to this
practice: