Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRI'SAGE, n. [Fr. prise, from priser, to prize or value.]

A right belonging to the crown of England, of taking two tuns of wine from every ship importing twenty tuns more; one before and one behind the mast. This by charter of Edward I, was exchanged into a duty of two shillings for every tun imported by merchant strangers, and called butlerage, because paid to the king's butler. – Blackstone.