Note 374 — ACT IV. SCENE I.

bard cater-tray] Properly, barred, &c., a sort of false dice, frequently mentioned by our early writers.—“The following passage from The Art of Juggling, or Legerdemaine, by S. R. 4to. 1612, sig. c 4, will sufficiently explain the terms above used: 'First you must know a langret, which is a die that simple men have seldom heard of, but often seene to their cost; and this is a well-favoured die, and seemeth good and square, yet it is forged longer upon the cater and trea than any other way: and therefore it is called a langret. Such be also call’d bard cater treas, because commonly the longer end will of his owne sway drawe downewards, and turne up to the eie sice sincke deuce or ace. The principal use of them is at Novum, for so longe a paire of bard cater treas be walking on the bourd, so long can ye not cast five nor nine, unles it be by great chance, that the roughnes of the table, or some other stoppe, force them to stay, and run against their kinde: for without cater or trea ye know that five or nine can never come.” Reed.