ng it, it appears that a stale hare
might be used to make a pie in Lent; he says:

"No hare, sir: unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is
something stale and hoar ere it be spent.

An old hare hoar,
And an old hare hoar,
Is very good meat in Lent," etc.

_Scambling days._ The days so called were Mondays and Saturdays in Lent,
when no regular meals were provided, and our great families scambled.
There may possibly be an indirect allusion to this custom in "Henry V."
(v. 2), where Shakespeare makes King Henry say: "If ever thou beest
mine, Kate, as I have a saving faith within me tells me thou shalt, I
get thee with scambling." In the old household book of the fifth Earl of
Northumberland there is a particular section appointing the order of
service for these days, and so regulating the licentious contentions of
them. We may, also, compare another passage in the same play (i. 1),
where the Archbishop of Canterbury speaks of "the scambling and unquiet
time."

_Good Friday._ Beyond the bare allusion to this day, Shakespeare makes
no reference to the many observances formerly associated with it. In
"King John" (i. 1) he makes Philip the Bastard say to Lady
Faulconbridge:

"Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son:
Sir Robert might have eat his part in me
Upon Good Friday, and ne'er broke his fast."

And, in "1 Henry IV." (i. 2), Poins inquires: "Jack, how agrees the
devil and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good Friday
last, for a cup of Madeira and a cold capon's leg?"

_Easter._ According to a popular superstition, it is considered unlucky
to omit wearing new clothes on Easter Day, to which Shakespeare no doubt
alludes in "Romeo and Juliet" (iii. 1), when he makes Mercutio ask
Benvolio whether he did "not fall out with a tailor for wearing his new
doublet before Easter." In East Yorkshire, on Easter Eve, young folks go
to the nearest market-town to buy some new article of dress or personal
adornment to wear for the first time on Easter Day, as otherwise they
believe that birds--notably rooks or "crakes"--will spoil their
clothes.[648] In "Poor Robin's Almanac" we are told:

"At Easter let your clothes be new,
Or else be sure you will it rue."

[648] "Notes and Queries," 4th series, vol. v. p. 595.

Some think that the custom of "clacking" at Easter--which is not quite
obsolete in some counties--is incidentally alluded to in "Measure for
Measure"