No More Learning

68 to sindge your nayles off. = In the fool's song in _Twelfth
Night_ we have the exclamation to the devil: 'paire thy nayles dad'
(Furness's ed. , p. 273). The editor quotes Malone: 'The Devil was
supposed from choice to keep his nails unpared, and therefore to pare
them was an affront. So, in Camden's _Remaines_, 1615: "I will follow
mine owne minde, and mine old trade; who shall let me? the divel's
nailes are unparde. "'

Compare also _Henry V. _ 4. 4. 76: 'Bardolph and Nym had ten times
more valor than this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one
may pare his nails with a wooden dagger. '

=5. 6. 76 The Diuell was wont to carry away the euill. = Eckhardt, p.
100, points out that Jonson's etymology of the word _Vice_, which
has been a matter of dispute, was the generally accepted one, that
is, from _vice_ = evil.

=5. 7. 1 Iustice Hall. = 'The name of the Sessions-house in the Old
Bailey. '--G. Strype, B. 3. p. 281 says that it was 'a fair and
stately building, very commodious for that affair. ' 'It standeth
backwards, so that it hath no front towards the street, only the
gateway leading into the yard before the House, which is spacious.
It cost above ? 6000 the building. And in this place the Lord Mayor,
Recorder, the Aldermen and Justices of the Peace for the County
of Middlesex do sit, and keep his Majesty's Sessions of Oyer and
Terminer. ' It was destroyed in the Gordon Riots of 1780. --Wh-C.