and affoording greatest perseuerance for the finding out of the heads of wells and fountaines, are the moneths of August or September."—The First Booke of the Countrie Farme, p. 8., by Stevens and Liebault, translated by Svrflet, and edited by G. Markham: London, 1616.
"He may also gather some perceiuerance by the other markes before specified; that is to say, by the prints of his foote vpon the grasse, by the carriages of his head, his dung, gate," &c.—Id., booke vii. p. 685.
"And this lyfe to men is an high perseveraunce,
Or a lyght of faythe wherby they shall be saved."
"God's Promises," by John Bale; Dodsley's Old Plays (Collier's edition), vol. i. Part II. Act I.
By-the-bye, as a specimen of the value of this edition, take the following passage of this very play:
"O perfyght keye of David, and hygh scepture of the kyndred of Jacob; whych openest and no man speareth, that speakest and no man openeth."—Act VII. p. 40.
On the word speareth the commentator treats his reader to a note; in which he informs him that speareth means "asketh," and in proof of this cites one passage from Chaucer, and two from Douglas's Virgil. It might almost appear to be upbraiding the reader with stupidity to mention that speareth signifieth "bolteth, shutteth;" and that "speaketh" is a misprint for speareth. This verb was a favourite with Bale. One word more closes my budget for the present.
More, a root. Still in use in Gloucestershire, once of frequent occurrence. To the examples alleged by Richardson, in his Dictionary, add the following:
"I se it by ensaunple
In somer tyme on trowes;
Ther some bowes ben leved,
And some bereth none,
There is a meschief in the more
Of swiche manere bowes."
At p. 302. you find the sentiment in Latin:
"Sicut cum videris arborem pallidam et marcidam, intelligis quod vitium habet in radice"—"a meschief in the more."
The Glossary of the editor is silent.
"It is a ful trie tree, quod he,
Trewely to telle;
Mercy is the more therof,
The myddul stok is ruthe;
The leves ben lele wordes,
The lawe of holy chirche;
The blosmes beth buxom speche,
And benigne lokynge;
Pacience hatte the pure tree," &c.
"It groweth in a gardyn, quod he,
That God made hymselve,
Amyddes mannes body,
The more is of that stokke,
Herte highte the herber,
That it inne groweth."
There should not be any comma, or other stop, at body, because the sense is—"The root of that stock is amid man's body."
Mr. Wright's Glossary refers to these last two instances as follows:
"More (A.-S.) 330, 331., the main or larger part, body (?)"
At p. 334. we meet with the word again:
"On o more thei growed."
And again, at p. 416.:
"And bite a-two the mores."
May I, in passing, venture to inquire of the editor on what authority he explains waselede (p. 476.) to be "the pret. of waselen (A.-S.) to become dirty, dirty oneself?"
"This Troilus withouten rede or lore,
As man that hath his joies eke forlore,
Was waiting on his lady evermore,
As she that was sothfast croppe and more,
Of all his lust or joyes here tofore."
Afterwards, in the same book, a few stanzas further on, he joins "crop" and "root" together.
"Last of all, if these thinges auayle not the cure, I do commend and allow above all the rest, that you take the iuyce of Celendine rootes, making them cleane from the earth that doth vse to hang to the moores."—The Booke of Falconrie, by George Turbervile, 1611, p. 236.
"Chiefely, if the moare of vertue be not cropped, but dayly rooted deepelyer."—The Fyrste Booke of the Nobles or of Nobilitye, translated from Laurence Humfrey.
The next and last example from the "Second Booke" of this interesting little volume I will quote more at large:
"Aristotle mencioneth in his Politikes an horrible othe vsed in certaine states, consistinge of the regimente of fewe nobles, in maner thus: I will hate the people, and to my power persecute them. Which is the croppe and more of al sedition. Yet too much practised in oure liues. But what cause is there why a noble man should eyther despise the people? or hate them? or wrong them? What? know they not, no tiranny maye bee trusty? Nor how yll garde of cotinuance, feare is? Further, no more may nobilitie misse the people, then in man's body, the heade, the hande. For of trueth, the common people are the handes of the nobles, sith them selues bee handlesse. They labour and sweate for them, with tillinge, saylinge, running, toylinge: by sea, by lad, with hads, wt feete, serue them. So as w'oute theyr seruice, they nor eate, nor drink, nor are clothed, no nor liue. We reade in ye taleteller Esope, a doue was saued by the helpe of an ant. A lyon escaped by the benefit of a mowse. We rede agayne, that euen ants haue theyr choler. And not altogether quite, the egle angered the bytle bee."
The reader will notice in this citation another instance of the verb miss, to dispense with. I have now done for the present; but should the collation of sundry passages, to illustrate the meaning of a word, appear as agreeable to the laws of a sound philology, as conducive to the integrity of our ancient writers, and as instructive to the public as brainspun emendations, whether of a remote or modern date, which now-a-days are pouring in like a flood—to corrupt long recognised readings in our idolised poet Shakspeare, in order to make his phraseology square with the language of the times and his readers' capacities—I will not decline to continue endeavours such as the present essay exhibits with a view to stem and roll back the tide.
Broad Heath, Presteign, Herefordshire.
A WORK ON THE MACROCOSM
I intended to have contributed a series of papers to "N. & Q." on the brute creation, on plants and flowers, &c.; and in a Note on the latter subject I promised to follow it up. However, as circumstances have changed my intentions, I think it may be well to mention that I have in hand a work on Macrocosm, or World of Nature around us, which shall be published in three separate parts or volumes. The first shall be devoted to the Brute Creation; the second shall be an Herbal, with a Calendar of dedicated Flowers prefixed; the third shall contain
