[642] "Notes and Queries," 6th series, vol. i. p. 129.

_Shrove-Tuesday._ This day was formerly devoted to feasting and
merriment of every kind, but whence originated the custom of eating
pancakes is still a matter of uncertainty. The practice is alluded to in
"All's Well that Ends Well" (ii. 2), where the clown speaks of "a
pancake for Shrove-Tuesday."[643] In "Pericles" (ii. 1) they are termed
"flap-jacks," a term used by Taylor, the Water-Poet, in his "Jack-a-Lent
Workes" (1630, vol. i. p. 115): "Until at last by the skill of the cooke
it is transformed into the form of a flap-jack, which in our translation
is called a pancake." Shrovetide was, in times gone by, a season of such
mirth that _shroving_, or _to shrove_, signified to be merry. Hence, in
"2 Henry IV." (v. 3), Justice Silence says:

"Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;
For women are shrews, both short and tall;
'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all,
And welcome merry shrove-tide.
Be merry, be merry."

[643] Cf. "As You Like It" (i. 2). Touchstone alludes to a
"certain knight, that swore by his honour they were good
pancakes."

It was a holiday and a day of license for apprentices, laboring persons,
and others.[644]

[644] See Hone's "Every Day Book," 1836, vol. i. p. 258; "Book
of Days," vol. i. p. 239; see, also, Dekker's "Seven Deadly
Sins," 1606, p. 35; "British Popular Customs," pp. 62-91.

_Lent._ This season was at one time marked by a custom now fallen into
disuse. A figure, made up of straw and cast-off clothes, was drawn or
carried through the streets amid much noise and merriment; after which
it was either burned, shot at, or thrown down a chimney. This image was
called a "Jack-a-Lent," and was, according to some, intended to
represent Judas Iscariot. It occurs twice in the "Merry Wives of
Windsor;" once merely as a jocular appellation (iii. 3), where Mrs. Page
says to Robin, "You little Jack-a-Lent, have you been true to us?" and
once (v. 5) as a butt, or object of satire and attack, Falstaff
remarking, "How wit may be made a Jack-a-Lent, when 'tis upon ill
employment!" It is alluded to by Ben Jonson in his "Tale of a Tub" (iv.
2):

"Thou cam'st but half a thing into the world,
And wast made up of patches, parings, shreds;
Thou, that when last thou wert put out of service,
Travell'd to Hamstead Heath on an Ash Wednesday,
Where thou didst stand six weeks the Jack