Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUSK'IN, n.

1. A kind of half boot, or high shoe, covering the foot and leg to the middle and tied underneath the knee, worn by actors in tragedy on the stage. The buskins of the ancients had very thick soles, to raise the actors and actresses to the stature of the persons they represented. – Encyc.
2. In classic authors, the word is used for tragedy.