says: "Let it
thunder to the tune of 'Green Sleeves,' hail kissing comfits, and snow
eringoes."

In "Measure for Measure" (iv. 1, song) kisses are referred to as "seals
of love." A Judas kiss was a kiss of treachery. Thus, in "3 Henry VI."
(v. 7), Gloster says:

"so Judas kiss'd his master,
And cried 'All hail!' when-as he meant all harm."

_Lace Songs._ These were jingling rhymes, sung by young girls while
engaged at their lace-pillows. A practice alluded to by the Duke in
"Twelfth Night" (ii. 4):

"O, fellow, come, the song we had last night.--
Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain;
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones
Do use to chant it."

Miss Baker, in her "Northamptonshire Glossary" (1854, vol. i. p. 378).
says, "The movement of the bobbins is timed by the modulation of the
tune, which excites them to regularity and cheerfulness; and it is a
pleasing sight to see them, in warm, sunny weather, seated outside their
cottage doors, or seeking the shade of a neighboring tree; where, in
cheerful groups, they unite in singing their rude and simple rhymes. The
following is a specimen of one of these ditties, most descriptive of the
occupation:

"'Nineteen long lines, bring over my down,
The faster I work it, I'll shorten my score,
But if I do play, it'll stick to a stay,
So heigh ho! little fingers, and twank it away.'"

_Letters._ The word Emmanuel was formerly prefixed, probably from
feelings of piety, to letters and public deeds. So in "2 Henry VI." (iv.
2) there is the following allusion to it:

"_Cade._ What is thy name?

_Clerk._ Emmanuel.

_Dick._ They use to write it on the top of letters."

Staunton says: "We can refer to one MS. alone, in the British Museum
(Ad. MSS. 19, 400), which contains no less than fourteen private
epistles headed 'Emanewell,' or 'Jesus Immanuel.'"

Another superscription of a letter in years gone by was "to the bosom"
of a lady. Thus Hamlet (ii. 2) says in his letter to Ophelia:

"In her excellent white bosom, these."

And in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (iii. 1), Proteus says:

"Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence;
Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd
Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love."

This custom seems to have originated in the circumstance of women having
a pocket in the forepart of th