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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—I

Ice-brook

A sword of ice-brook temper. Of the very best quality. The Spaniards used to plunge their swords and other weapons, while hot from the forge, into the brook Salo [Xalon], near Bilbilis, in Celtiberia, to harden them. The water of this brook is very cold.

“It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook temper.”

Shakespeare: Othello, v. 2.

Sævo Bilbilin optimam metallo
Et ferro Plateam suo sonantem
Quam fluctu tenui sed inquieto
Armorum Salo temperator ambit.

Martial.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Ice Saints
Ice-blink
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  • William Shakespeare: Othello, Act V, Scene II - It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,— Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!— It is the cause. Yet I'll not shed her blood; Nor scar that
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