and weaving bone-lace, was more ancient than queen Elizabeth's time; for Shakspeare speaks of old and antick songs, which
“The spinsters and the knitters in the fun,
“And the free maids that weave their thread with bone,
“Did use to chaunt.”
It might be sussicient to observe, that the old songs which were chaunted by the spinsters and knitters of Shakspeare's days, do not veryclearly ascertain the antiquity of the operation on which they were employed; for I apprehend, though the art of knitting had not been invented till 1564, when the poet was born, the practisers of it might yet the very next day after it was known, sing ballads that were written a hundred years before.—In order, however, to give some colour to the forced inference that the commentator has endeavoured to extract from this passage, he has misquoted it; for Shakspeare does not say, as he has been represented, that the spinsters of old time did use to chaunt these songs: his words are,
“O fellow, come, the song we had last night;
“Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain:
“The spinsters and the knitters in the fun,
“And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,
“Do use to chaunt it.”
These lines, it must be acknowledged, prove that the art was as old as the time of Shak-
