Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/573

 Glosses to Spenser's "Shepheardes Calender 11 569 designed to cover the somewhat too definitely Northern sug- gestion of glen. Inly (V) is glossed by E. K., entirely; and, when it occurs in the September gloss, he refers to it, "inwardly, aforesaid." Inwardly is unquestionably the meaning of the word and unquestionably the meaning of the September, and possibly that of the May, text. The sense given in the May gloss, moreover, seems to be unique in literature. It seems, then, that in the May gloss, E. K. misunderstood Spenser's text, and put down an impossible meaning for inly. But on the other hand, why should he have put down a wrong meaning for a simple word so obviously used? The mistake looks rather like an error of sheer carelessness; and carelessness might be due as probably to Spenser as to E. K. *Miscreaunce (V) may be wrong. Disbelief and the dispair arising from it, are possible enough meanings in Middle English; but the text seems rather to call for the general modern sense of any evil action, a sense which was coming in at the time. Spenser, himself, however, might have made such an error, either from running over the text hurriedly or from putting down the meaning of the word without consulting the text: we must take care not to attri- bute to our Elizabethan ancestors the scientific exactitude which is supposed to be characteristic of our own age. Pousse (VIII) is defined as pease; and it usually had that meaning in Middle English; but the meaning fits the text very poorly. The North-English dialect senses of dirt or weeds seems much better; but again the mistake may have been one of sheer carelessness on Spenser's part. Prevely or perte (IX), E. K. defines as openly, and adds a reference to Chaucer. The definition should, and obviously does, refer only to the last of the three words cited. The error is rather apparent than real. a Latin origin, which is quite plausible in view of the Latin incomptus. The Northern dialect unkempt, however, is a more probable source. Even if there is an error, on the other hand, Spenser, we know, was quite careless enough in his etymologies to have been guilty of it himself; and consequently, this is another of the words that seems to give an equivocal answer. E. K. notes after it in the gloss: "Y is a poetical addition, blent, blinded." An examination of Spenser's use of the
 * Unkempt (XI), however, is a locus desperatus. E. K. suggests
 * Yblent (IV) is perhaps the most exasperating of them all.