The "third ventricle is the cerebellum, by which the brain is connected
with the spinal marrow and the rest of the body; the memory is posted in
the cerebellum, like a warder or sentinel, to warn the reason against
attack. Thus, when the memory is converted by intoxication into a mere
fume,[902] then it fills the brain itself--the receipt or receptacle of
reason, which thus becomes like an alembic, or cap of a still."[903]

[902] Cf. "Tempest," v. 1:

"the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason."

[903] Clark and Wright's "Notes to Macbeth," 1877, p. 101.

A popular nickname, in former times, for the skull, was "brain-pan;" to
which Cade, in "2 Henry VI." (iv. 10) refers: "many a time, but for a
sallet, my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown bill." The phrase "to
beat out the brains" is used by Shakespeare metaphorically in the sense
of defeat or destroy; just as nowadays we popularly speak of knocking a
scheme on the head. In "Measure for Measure" (v. 1), the Duke,
addressing Isabella, tells her:

"O most kind maid,
It was the swift celerity of his death,
Which I did think with slower foot came on,
That brain'd my purpose."

The expression "to bear a brain," which is used by the Nurse in "Romeo
and Juliet" (i. 3),

"Nay, I do bear a brain,"

denoted "much mental capacity either of attention, ingenuity, or
remembrance."[904] Thus, in Marston's "Dutch Courtezan" (1605), we read:

"My silly husband, alas! knows nothing of it, 'tis
I that must beare a braine for all."

[904] Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. viii. p. 123.

The notion of the brain as the seat of the soul is mentioned by Prince
Henry, who, referring to King John (v. 7), says:

"his pure brain,
Which some suppose the soul's frail dwelling-house,
Doth, by the idle comments that it makes,
Foretell the ending of mortality."

_Ear._ According to a well-known superstition, much credited in days
gone by, and still extensively believed, a tingling of the right ear is
considered lucky, being supposed to denote that a friend is speaking
well of one, whereas a tingling of the left is said to imply the
opposite. This notion, however, varies in different localities, as in
some places it is the tingling of the left ear which denotes the friend,
and the tingling of the right ear the enemy. In "Much Ado About Nothing"
(i