nvisible.

_Chamberlain._ Nay, by my faith, I think you are more
beholding to the night, than to fern-seed, for your walking
invisible."

This superstition is mentioned by many old writers; a proof of its
popularity in times past. It is alluded to in Beaumont and Fletcher's
"Fair Maid of the Inn" (i. 1):

"Did you think that you had Gyges' ring?
Or the herb that gives invisibility?"

Again, in Ben Jonson's "New Inn" (i. 1):

"I had
No medicine, sir, to go invisible,
No fern-seed in my pocket."

As recently as Addison's day, we are told in the _Tatler_ (No. 240) that
"it was impossible to walk the streets without having an advertisement
thrust into your hand of a doctor who had arrived at the knowledge of
the green and red dragon, and had discovered the female fern-seed."[496]

[496] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. i. pp. 314-316.

_Fig._ Formerly the term fig served as a common expression of contempt,
and was used to denote a thing of the least importance. Hence the
popular phrase, "not to care a fig for one;" a sense in which it is
sometimes used by Shakespeare, who makes Pistol say, in "Merry Wives of
Windsor" (i. 3), "a fico for the phrase!" and in "Henry V." (iii. 6)
Pistol exclaims, "figo for thy friendship!" In "Othello" (i. 3) Iago
says, "Virtue! a fig!"

The term "to give or make the fig," as an expression of insult, has for
many ages been very prevalent among the nations of Europe, and,
according to Douce,[497] was known to the Romans. It consists in
thrusting the thumb between two of the closed fingers, or into the
mouth, a practice, as some say,[498] in allusion to a contemptuous
punishment inflicted on the Milanese, by the Emperor Frederic
Barbarossa, in 1162, when he took their city. This, however, is
altogether improbable, the real origin, no doubt, being a coarse
representation of a disease, to which the name of _ficus_ or fig has
always been given.[499]

[497] "Illustrations of Shakespeare," pp. 302-308.

[498] See Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 305.

[499] See Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 52;
Dyce's "Glossary," p. 161; Du Cange's "Glossary;" Connelly's
"Spanish and English Dictionary," 4to.

The "fig of Spain," spoken of in "Henry V." (iii. 6), may either allude
to the poisoned fig employed in Spain as a secret way of destroying an
obnoxious person, as in Webster's "White Devil:"[500]