BOND, JOHN, a commentator on Horace and Persius, was born in Somersetshire in 1550, educated at Winchester school, and at New College, Oxford, by which society he was appointed master of the free school at Taunton. In this situation he acquired some reputation; but growing weary of teaching he applied to physic, and practised, it is said, with considerable success. He died in 1612. His short marginal annotations upon Horace and Persius (1606 and 1614, 8vo) are generally feeble, and without erudition; yet his edition of the former has often been reprinted. Saxius describes him as minorum gentium philologus.
BONDAGE properly signifies slavery, but in old law books it is used for villenage. Tenants in bondage paid kenots, did fealty, and were prohibited from felling trees in their own garden, without license of the lord. The widow of a tenant in bondage held her husband's estate quandiu vixerit sine marito, as long as she lived single.
BONDAGE by the Forelock, or Bondagium per anteriores crines capitis, was when a freeman renounced his liberty, and became a slave to some great man, which was done by the ceremony of cutting off a lock of hair from the forehead, and delivering it to his lord. If he reclaimed his liberty, or became fugitive from his master, he might be drawn again to his servitude by the nose, whence the origin of the popular menace to pull the nose.