134; vol. iii. p. 339.

{170} [_The Knightes Tale_, ed. Skeat, l. 2017.]

{171} [Yes; so in N.E.D.]

{172} I am indebted for these last four to a _Nominale_ in the _National
Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 216.

{173} The earliest example which Richardson gives of 'seamstress' is
from Gay, of 'songstress', from Thomson. I find however
'sempstress' in the translation of Olearius' _Voyages and
Travels_, 1669, p. 43. It is quite certain that as late as Ben
Jonson, 'seamster' and 'songster' expressed the _female_ seamer
and singer; a single passage from his _Masque of Christmas_ is
evidence to this. One of the children of Christmas there is
"Wassel, like a neat _sempster_ and _songster_; _her_ page bearing
a brown bowl". Compare a passage from _Holland's Leaguer_, 1632:
"A _tyre-woman_ of phantastical ornaments, a _sempster_ for
ruffes, cuffes, smocks and waistcoats".

{174} This was about the time of Henry VIII. In proof of the confusion
which reigned on the subject in Shakespeare's time, see his use of
'spinster' as--'spinner', the _man_ spinning, _Henry VIII_, Act.
i. Sc. 2; and I have no doubt that it is the same in _Othello_,
Act i. Sc. 1. And a little later, in Howell's _Vocabulary_, 1659,
'spinner' and 'spinster' are _both_ referred to the male sex, and
the barbarous 'spinstress' invented for the female.

{175} I have included 'huckster', as will be observed, in this list. I
certainly cannot produce any passage in which it is employed as
the _female_ pedlar. We have only, however, to keep in mind the
existence of the verb 'to huck', in the sense of to peddle (it is
used by Bishop Andrews), and at the same time not to let the
present spelling of 'hawker' mislead us, and we shall confidently
recognize 'hucker' (the German 'hoeker' or 'hoecker'), in hawker,
that is, the _man_ who 'hucks', 'hawks', or peddles, as in
'huckster' the _female_ who does the same. When therefore Howell
and others employ 'hucksteress', they fall into the same barbarous
excess of expression, whereof we are all guilty, when we use
'seamstress' and 'songstress'.--The note stood thus in the third
edition. Since that was published, I have met in the _Nominale_
referred to p. 155, the following, "haec auxiatrix, a _hukster_".
[Huckster, xiii. cent. _huccster_, it