_Nose of Wax_ (Vol. vii., p. 158.).--Allow me to refer to a passage in "Ram
Alley, or Merry Tricks," by Lodowick Barry (which is reprinted in the fifth
volume of Dodsley's _Old Plays_), illustrative of this term. In Act I. Sc.
1., _Dash_ describes the law as
"The kingdom's eye, by which she sees
The acts and thoughts of men."
Whereupon _Throate_ observes:
"The kingdom's eye!
I tell thee, fool, it is the kingdom's nose,
By which she smells out all these rich transgressors;
Nor is't of flesh, but merely made of _wax_,
And 'tis within the power of us lawyers,
To wrest this _nose of wax_ which way we please."
This illustration was overlooked by Nares, to whose _Glossary_ you refer.