| This paper explores the evidence of an early social custom, Skimmington, whereby husbands who had been beaten by their wives were publicly humiliated. |
| Like the Skimmington riders, he employs his costume and spectacle as a kind of physic, though his intentions are to minister to himself rather than the community. |
| According to douce, skimmington is derived from skimming-ladle, used in the ceremony. |
| The play makes much of this image, depicting Swetnam muzzled by a group of angered women in a carnivalesque episode redolent of a skimmington. |
