hat it is a word of endearment from _petit_, little. See
notes on "The Taming of the Shrew," act i. sc. 1.

Again, in "The City Madam," by Massinger, act ii. sc. 2--

"You are _pretty peats_, and your great portions
Add much unto your handsomeness."

[222] Shirley, in his "Sisters," ridicules these hyperbolical
compliments in a similar but a better strain--

"Were it not fine
If you should see your mistress without hair,
Drest only with those glittering beams you talk of?
Two suns instead of eyes, and they not melt
The forehead made of snow! No cheeks, but two
Roses inoculated on a lily,
Between a pendant alabaster nose:
Her lips cut out of coral, and no teeth
But strings of pearl: her tongue a nightingale's!
Would not this strange chimera fright yourself?"

--_Collier_.

[223] [i.e., Doff it in salutation.]

[224] Alluding to the office of sheriff.

[225] "_Cassock_," says Mr Steevens, "signifies a horseman's loose coat,
and is used in that sense by the writers of the age of Shakespeare. It
likewise appears to have been part of the dress of rusticks." See note
to "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 3.

[226] "A _gimmal_ or _gimbal ring_, Fr. _gemeau_, utr. a Lat. Gemellus,
q.d. Annulus Gemellus, quoniam, sc. duobus aut pluribus orbibus
constat."--_Skinner_.

_Gimmal rings_ are often mentioned in ancient writers.

[227] "Quis nescit primam esse Historiae legem, ne quid falsi dicere
audeat; deinde, ne quid veri non audeat."--Cicero "De Orat." lib. ii. 15.

[228] This was called "The Clouds," in which piece Socrates was
represented hanging up in a basket in the air, uttering numberless
chimerical absurdities, and blaspheming, as it was then reputed, the
gods of his country. At the performance of this piece Socrates was
present himself; and "notwithstanding," says his biographer, "the gross
abuse that was offered to his character, he did not show the least signs
of resentment or anger; nay, such was the unparalleled good nature of
this godlike man, that some strangers there, being desirous to see the
original of this scenic picture, he rose up in the middle of the
performance, stood all the rest of the time, and showed himself to the
people; by which well-placed confidence in his own merit and innocence,
reminding them of those virtues and wisdom so opposite to the sophist in
the play, his pretended likeness, he detected the false circumstances,
which w