Six-and-Eightpence

used to be called a “noble” (q.v.), the third of a pound. The half-noble was often called “ten groats,” and was in Shakespeare’s time the usual lawyer’s fee.

“As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney.”—Shakespeare: All’s Well that Ends Well, ii. 2.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.