Obs. Also 6 sowltwyche, soultwhiche, -witch, 7 -wich; 7 soultage, sowtage, -ege. [Of obscure origin.] Coarse cloth or canvas used esp. for packing or as a material for bags.
α. 1532–3. in E. Law, Hampton Crt. Palace (1885), 351. Paid … for 2 pecys of sowltwyche, every pece conteynyng 33 ellys.
1545. Rates of Custom House, c iiij b. Soult-whiche the hundreth elles,… xxx. s.
1657. Acts of Interregn. (1911), II. 1215. Linnen Cloth called … Soultwich, the hundred Els.
β. 1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 136. Some close them vp drie in a hogshed or fat, yet canuas or soutage is better than that.
1591. Acts Privy Council (N.S.), XXII. 169. Duche canvas or counterfaicte borrace, harfordes, soutage or sowtwell and guttings are not sold to make sailes for ships.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XIV. Comm., That which they call our fustian, their plain writing being stuff nothing so substantial but such gross sowtege, or hairpatch, as every goose may eat oats through.
1631. Mabbe, Celestina, Ep. Ded. A iij b. I see no reason why they should … loath silke, because it is lapt in soultage.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., 276. Soutage, course Cloath, or Bagging for Hops, or such like.
attrib. 1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 215. She hath … silken words, but sowtage deeds.
