ng._ Various remedies were in use in Shakespeare's day to stop
bleeding. Thus, a key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which
it is composed, was often employed; hence the term "key-cold" became
proverbial, and is referred to by many old writers. In "Richard III."
(i. 2), Lady Anne, speaking of the corpse of King Henry the Sixth, says

"Poor key-cold figure of a holy king."

In the "Rape of Lucrece" (l. 1774) the same expression is used:

"And then in key-cold Lucrece' bleeding stream
He falls, and bathes the pale fear in his face."

In Beaumont and Fletcher's "Wild Goose Chase" (iv. 3) we read: "For till
they be key-cold dead, there's no trusting of 'em."[589]

[589] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 482; also, Brand's
"Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. p. 311; Henderson's "Folk-Lore
of Northern Counties," 1879, pp. 168, 169.

Another common remedy was the one alluded to in "King Lear" (iii. 7),
where one of the servants says:

"I'll fetch some flax, and whites of eggs,
To apply to his bleeding face."

This passage has been thought to be parodied in Ben Jonson's play, "The
Case is Altered" (ii. 4): "Go, get a white of an egg and a little flax,
and close the breach of the head; it is the most conducible thing that
can be." Mr. Gifford, however, has shown the incorrectness of this
assertion, pointing out that Jonson's play was written in 1599, some
years before "King Lear" appeared, while the allusion is "to a method of
cure common in Jonson's time to every barber-surgeon and old woman in
the kingdom."[590]

[590] Aldis Wright's "Notes to King Lear," 1877, p. 179.

Cobwebs are still used to stanch the bleeding from small wounds, and
Bottom's words seem to refer to this remedy of domestic surgery: "I
shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb; if I cut my
finger, I shall make bold with you."

Anciently, says Mr. Singer, "a superstitious belief was annexed to the
accident of bleeding at the nose;" hence, in the "Merchant of Venice"
(ii. 5), Launcelot says: "It was not for nothing that my nose fell
a-bleeding on Black Monday last." In days gone by, it was customary with
our forefathers to be bled periodically, in spring and in autumn, in
allusion to which custom King Richard refers ("Richard II.," i. 1), when
he says to his uncle:

"Our doctors say this is no month to bleed."

Hence the almanacs of the time generally gave particular seasons as th