ie."

Du Breul, in his "Antiquities of Paris,"[554] mentions the rush-ring as
"a kind of espousal used in France by such persons as meant to live
together in a state of concubinage; but in England it was scarcely ever
practised except by designing men, for the purpose of corrupting those
young women to whom they pretended love."

[554] Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," 1839, p. 194.

The "rush candle," which, in times past, was found in nearly every
house, and served as a night-light for the rich and candle for the poor,
is mentioned in "Taming of the Shrew" (iv. 5):

"be it moon, or sun, or what you please:
An if you please to call it a rush candle,
Henceforth, I vow, it shall be so for me."

_Saffron._ In the following passage ("All's Well that Ends Well," iv.
5) there seems to be an allusion[555] by Lafeu to the fashionable and
fantastic custom of wearing yellow, and to that of coloring paste with
saffron: "No, no, no, your son was misled with a snipt-taffeta fellow
there, whose villanous saffron would have made all the unbaked and
doughy youth of a nation in his colour."

[555] Dyce's "Glossary," p. 381.

_Spear-grass._ This plant--perhaps the common reed--is noticed in "1 Henry
IV." (ii. 4) as used for tickling the nose and making it bleed. In
Lupton's "Notable Things" it is mentioned as part of a medical recipe:
"Whoever is tormented with sciatica or the hip-gout, let them take an
herb called spear-grass, and stamp it, and lay a little thereof upon the
grief." Mr. Ellacombe[556] thinks that the plant alluded to is the
common couch-grass (_Triticum repens_), which is still known in the
eastern counties as spear-grass.

[556] "Plant-Lore of Shakespeare," p. 319.

_Stover._ This word, which is often found in the writings of
Shakespeare's day, denotes fodder and provision of all sorts for cattle.
In Cambridgeshire stover signifies hay made of coarse, rank grass, such
as even cows will not eat while it is green. In "The Tempest" (iv. 1),
Iris says:

"Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep."

According to Steevens, stover was used as a thatch for cart-lodges and
other buildings that required but cheap coverings.

_Strawberry._ Shakespeare's mention of the strawberry in connection with
the nettle, in "Henry V." (i. 1),

"The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ri