Rights and Lefts
Centuries ago shoes were made, as now, “rights and lefts.” The shoes found in the tomb of Bernard, King of Italy, were “rights and lefts.” Shakespeare describes his smith as—
“Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste,
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet.”
Scott, in his “Discoverie of Witchcraft,” observes, “that he who receiveth a mischance will consider whether he put not on his shirt wrong side outwards, or his left shoe on his right foot.”