Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/391

 n s.x. NOV. 14, i9i4.i NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ends with the following lines from the poet to t'selia :

My fairest (';e!i:i, when thine eyes shall view These, and all other lines ere writ by me,

Wherein all beauties are describ'd, and true, Think your devoted shepherd's fantasy

Uapt by those heavenly graces are in you, Had thence all matter fit for elogy.

Your blest endowments are my verses' mothers,

For by your sweetness I describe all others.

Browne was a good scholar, and probably drew directly from Apuleius. If he had no copy of the ' Metamorphoses,' however, \Villiam Adlington's translation, ' The Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche,' was available in several editions. To this translation the present writer lacks access, so he cannot make comparisons between it and Browne. WILLIAM CHISLETT, Jiin.

Stanford University, Cal.

WORDS USED IN THOMAS LODGE'S ' WITS MISERIE,' 1596. The 'New English Dic- tionary ' has had the help of very many excellent and careful readers. A few have not been praiseworthy. Here is a list of words from one of the most notable pieces of Elizabethan writing :

Barbary pur.ye.Hia mouth is like a Barbary lurse full of wrinkes. Op. cit., p. 90.

Bebeal. Another took a sticke out of his lather, and all to bebeat him. P. 81.

Bridges= Bruges. If you spie a paire of Bridges satten sleeues to it, you may oe assured it is a holy day.-P. 27.

Button cap. His homes are sometimes hidden in a button cap but now he is fallen to hia flat cap.

Coax, 1596. With him he plaieth as the Ape with liis yong ones, he kilshim with coaksing him. P. 8.

Cod's head. So did Auarice in y e concauity of his oodahed beget seuen Deuils. P. 26.

Come-on-tice. (Apparently a match at dicing.) Ere he wil want mony for Come-on-fiue, he will haue it by fiue and a reach, or hang for it. P. 41.

Copse. To weare wiers and great ruffes, is a comely cops to hide a long wrinckled face in. 1'. U

This drinkes too flat lohn, fill better. P. 80.

HH./M. (To hold by the neck, not amicably.) If they conspire any mans arrest, gogs wounds hee will haulse him. P. 63.

Lather, n. (A doubtful word.) See Bebeat.

Loquacity. Let therefore loquacitie be banished. P. 88.

Morniny*l>t,rie. (The dawn of day.) He wil hold you prattle from morningsbene to candle lighting. P. 35.

I'eniehine. (What is this ?) In their Peruchines and expositions vpon the sixt chapter of Genesis tlify say, &c. P. 66.

Purpow.t. At Riddles he is good : at Purposes, better ; but t Tales he hath no equall. P. 47.

Reatie= Rises (Y). Husbandry is giuen ouer, mar- chandize rease, and feare triumphs. P. 69.

Repine. [Minerua] cast away her instrument,. and repined the further vse of it. P. 75.

Rising (uncommon in plural). Only the miserable man he maligneth not, because he suspects not his risings. P. 60.

Shawme, v. (To crawl?) He shawmes like a cow [that] had broke her forelegs. P. 79.

Whittle, \.=to pump. Whittle him a little

hee will tell you the secrets of all the Common- weales of Christendome. P. 85.

Yaw, v. His browes bent, his hand shaking, his-

nostrils yawing A fellow stretching himselfe

at his window, yawing, and starting. Pp. 71, 103.

Barbary purse, bebeat, button cap, Come- on- five, lather, morningsberie, PerucfiinCf. arid shawme are not in the 'N.E.D.' Cod'* head, copse, flat, and loquacity are there, but with quotations later than 1596. I need hardly disclaim the casting of any slur upon the noble dictionary, of which every English- speaking man may well be proud.

KICHARD H. THORNTON.

" WEARIE VERIE MEANES " : 'As Yotr LIKE IT,' II. vii. 70-73. The Folio reads -.

laq. Why who cries out on pride, That can therein taxe any priuate party : Doth it not flow as hugely as the Sea, Till that the wearie verie meanes do ebbc.

It is quite clear from a careful study of the context that Jaques is " taxing " not pride generically, but the more specific pride- of " bravery," i.e., fine apparel, so often, referred to in Elizabethan literature, when men frequently wore " a manor on their backs." He proceeds to give two examples of the " pride " which he " taxes," viz.,. that of the " City woman " and of "he of basest function," in the latter case even, using the specific word " brauerie " (1. 80). It follows, therefore, as the night the day,. that both for the purpose of completing 1. 70, and of clearly indicating the particular form of " pride " to which Jaques refers, we should read in that line "pride of brauerie " which, it is believed, was in fact done by Keightley. The chief corruption, however* lies in the word, or rather fragment of a word, " verie," in 1. 73. It is merely the termination of "brauerie"; and " wearie " is the easy corruption of " wearers," as Singer seems to have been the first to point out. In a perfect modern text the passage should be printed as follows, the brackets showing the essential changes which must be made in the Folio text :

Jaq. Why who cries out on pride [of bravery], That can therein tax any private party ? Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea, Till that the [bra]very wearer's means do ebb ?

HENBY CUNINGHAM^