Note 230 — SCENE VII.
Reading edition
Outcry was the ancient term for an auction. As in Massinger's "City Madam," act i. sc. 3—
"The goods of this poor man sold at an out-cry. His wife turn'd out of doors, his children forc'd To beg their bread."
And again in Middleton's "Chast Mayd in Cheape-side" [Dyce's edit. iv. 58:]
"I'll sell all at an out-cry."
Again in Ben Jonson's "Catiline," act ii. sc. 3—
"Their houses, and fine gardens, given away, And their goods, under the spear at outcry."
Upon which last passage Mr Whalley observes, that "the Roman way of selling things by auction was setting up a spear; and hence the phrase sub hasta vendere."