dments," which, says Nares,[918] "doubtless led to the
swearing by them, as by the real commandments." Thus, in "2 Henry VI."
(i. 3), the Duchess of Gloster says to the queen:

"Could I come near your beauty with my nails
I'd set my ten commandments in your face."

[918] "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 871.

In the same way the fingers were also called the "ten bones," as a
little further on in the same play, where Peter swears "by these ten
bones."

The phrase "of his hands" was equivalent to "of his inches, or of his
size, a hand being the measure of four inches." So, in the "Merry Wives
of Windsor" (i. 4), Simple says: "Ay, forsooth: but he is as tall a man
of his hands as any is between this and his head," "the expression being
used probably for the sake of a jocular equivocation in the word tall,
which meant either bold or high."[919]

[919] Ibid. vol. i. p. 402.

Again, in the "Winter's Tale" (v. 2), the Clown tells the Shepherd:
"I'll swear to the prince, thou art a tall fellow of thy hands, and that
thou wilt not be drunk; but I know thou art no tall fellow of thy hands,
and that thou wilt be drunk; but I'll swear it, and I would thou wouldst
be a tall fellow of thy hands."

A proverbial phrase for being tall from necessity was "to blow the
nail." In "3 Henry VI." (ii. 5) the king says:

"When dying clouds contend with growing light,
What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails,
Can neither call it perfect day, nor night."

It occurs in the song at the end of "Love's Labour's Lost:"

"And Dick the shepherd blows his nail."

"To bite the thumb" at a person implied an insult; hence, in "Romeo and
Juliet" (i. 1), Sampson says: "I will bite my thumb at them; which is a
disgrace to them, if they bear it."

The thumb, in this action, we are told, "represented a fig, and the
whole was equivalent to a _fig_ for you."[920] Decker, in his "Dead
Term" (1608), speaking of the various groups that daily frequented St.
Paul's Church, says: "What swearing is there, what shouldering, what
justling, what jeering, what byting of thumbs, to beget quarrels?"

[920] See page 218.

_Hare-lip._ A cleft lip, so called from its supposed resemblance to the
upper lip of a hare. It was popularly believed to be the mischievous act
of an elf or malicious fairy. So, in "King Lear" (iii. 4), Edgar says of
Gloster: "This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he ... squints the
eye, and makes the hare-li