There saw I first the dark imagining The Pickpurse; and eke the palè Dread; LYCURGUS OF THRACE. THERE may'st thou see, coming with Palamon, They gloweden betwixten yellow and red; 1 Treacherous circumvention or contrivance. The medieval Latin word compassum, a pair of compasses, is said by Menage to be compounded of the prep. con, and passus, a step. From this word the verb in the modern languages signifies sometimes to distribute, or proportion; to measure; sometimes to enclose, to reach, to accomplish, to circumvent. "In Chaucer and others it seems equivalent to contrive."-(Tyrwhit.) From association with some of these ideas, the term may have been applied to the card and the magnetic needle. 2 A coal; gicid (Scotch), a small fire on the hearth; that which has glowed, from Ang.Sax. gleowan, to glow. 3 Sheep burning. Be is often an intensive prefix. $ Contention Chirk, to chirp as a sparrow. It also signifies to crash, to creak, corresponding to the Latin stridere; (Ang.-Sax. cearcian.) 7 Sorry, woeful; compare, "This is a sorry sight."--Shakesp., Macbeth. Sorry and wretched are both used as implying contemptible qualities. 8 Heart. • Bush of hair; the head. "Skinner thinks it may be from Ang -Sax. scade, a grove, i.e. nemus capillorum.” "Schede, line of division of the hair;" Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. 10 Above. 11 Madness, from Ang.-Sax. wedan, to be mad; (wud, mad; Scotch.) 12 Outcries. 13 Carved, cut. 14 Dead of sickness: qualm; Ang.-Sax. cwellan, to quell, to quail; ystorven, dead, starved; Ang.-Sax. steorfan; Germ. sterben, to die. 15 Reft. 16 This passage is an instance of the allegorical style of the age of Chaucer, so fully developed by the Italian poets." This group is the effort of a strong imagination unac quainted with the selection and arrangement of images."-Warton. 17 Griffin or gryphon, from Greek Tpv, gryps, a fabulous animal, having the form of a lion and an cagle: Esch. Prom. Vinct. 804; Milton, Par. Lost, ii. 943. The animal plays a conspicuous part in romances and heraldry; but the idea is not one derived from the With kempéd1 herés on his browés stout, And followed him with muzzle fast ybounde, EMETRIUS, KING OF INDIA. 12 WITH Arcita, in stories as men find,1 Covered with cloth of gold, diapred11 wele, northern mythology. Gripe, in old English, an cagle-("as it were a gripe's eye," Gower)-is derived from'Ang.-Sax. gripan, to gripe, to clutch; gryps is from Youros, grypos, crooked. 1 Combed. "Chaucer uses it generally as equivalent to decked;" of uncertain etymo logy. Comb or coomb is also a hollow enclosed valley; hence applied to bee-hives. Both words have been by some connected with the Greek naμra, kampo, I bend. 2 Muscles. Baren or bawren was the ancient adjective; bar or bawr, a bear or boar. By the common transposition of the r, (vid. note, 7 p. 8,) it became brawen, brawn, so that the term means boar's (flesh), alluding to the large muscles of that animal. Tooke. Bran, in Scotch, is the calf of the leg. Manner. Ang.-Sax. wise We retain this form in likewise, otherwise, coastwise, &c. Traces of the car. (Lat. Traho, I draw.) 5 "A coat worn over the armour, on which the armorial ensigns of the wearer were embroidered." Harness; military equipment. See above, note 13, p. 8. 7 French forms. A species of hound much esteemed in the middle ages. More; from Ang.-Sax. mac; retained in Scotch, with the superl. maist. For an ac count of these words, see Tooke's Diversions of Purley; Richardson's English Dictionary; Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. 10 Polished rings (for fastening the collars.) Torrets "are often mentioned in the Inventory of furniture in the palaces of Henry VIII."-Warton. Probably from French, tort, twisted; Latin, torqueo, I twist; torques, a collar, a wreath. A company. The word has various forms and applications in the modern languages. For its origin, etymologists are divided between the Latin ruptus, (burst), and rota, (a wheel). Except in its application to the line of a journey, we now throw away the final Rout, a fashionable assembly-a disorderly defeat-a riotous rabble. "Riot is undoubtedly the same word with rout."-Richardson. Row, a low word for an uproar. 12 For the origin of the fable of the "Knight's Tale," see Warton's History of English Poetry, Section 12. e. 13 Clad, from French drap, cloth (?)—having generally the idea of ornament. "Trappors (trappings) of their steeds."-Chauc. Flower and Leaf, Stanza 35. 14 Diversified with lines and flourishes. The Fleinish towns were the great seats of ma Came riding like the God of Arms, Mars. His lippés round, his colour was sanguine; Betwixen yellow and black, some dele13 ymeint ;14 of five and twenty years his age I cast.16 nufactures; hence this word has been derived from Ypres in Flanders, the original form being dipre. Other examples are, arras and cambric, from Arras and Cambray in France; worsted, from Worstead in Norfolk; calico, from Calicut. Instances of the same kind are very numerous. 1 Abbreviation for Tartarium. "A broad banner Of fine tartarium."-Chauc. Flower and Leaf, Stanza 31. "It is often mentioned in the wardrobe accounts for furnishing tournaments;-a fine cloth manufactured in Tartary. Du Cange. Gloss. Tartarium."-Warton. 2 Laid or trimmed, (Tyrwhitt). French, coucher; Ital. colcare, pro; Lat. collocare, to lay, to place; to couch a lance, to lay it in the rest. Burnished, see notes 7 p. 8, and 2, p. 10. Brent also signifies high, straight, upright, (Jamieson); brent rocks, steep rocks. "It is perhaps be-rent, i. e. riven, torn," Richardson. Scar, a cliff, (as in Scarborough), rock, cliff, have the same idea. Beaten, stamped, or imprinted. $ Diminutive of mantle. Etymologists go back for this word to Mandyas, a Persian cloak. It exists in all the European languages. Mantelet is also a covering for the protection of miners and besiegers. Mantel (of a chimney), that which protects from smoke and dust; to mantle (applied to a hawk), to spread out the wings. The word is applied to trees-" the mantling vine;" and to fermented liquors, from the covering of froth"the mantling cup." The second syllable should be here sunk as much as possible in pronunciation, as in French words ending in re. 7 Quite full. The sense is much clearer than the etymology. From Lat. crispus, curled. 9 Run, close, twisted. 10 Citron, lemon-coloured. 11 Freckles. Conjectured etymologies are, Latin, fricare, to rub; German, fleck, a spot; Ang. Sax. fraetan, to eat: freaks or freckles, therefore, spots eaten into the skin. 12 Forms of the participles of the Saxon verbs corresponding to sprinkle and mingle. 13 Somedeal; somewhat. 14 See note 12. 15 Darted his glance. 16 I reckoned his age to be of, &c. from the phrase "to cast accounts;" alluding to the manner of reckoning with the abacus and calculi (counters). Shakspeare makes Iago call Cassio in derision a "counter-caster."-Othello, Act i. Sc. 1. The word cast has an immense number of applications of great beauty and interest. See the Dictionaries. 17 The medieval poets and painters are by no means scrupulous about chronology or locality in their grouping of the parts of a picture. An Indian king wears a Greek laurel; and the chivalry, nay the religion and philosophy of the 14th century A. D. luxuriate in Thebes and Athens in the age of Theseus, almost as many centuries B. C. 18 Garland; written girlond always in Spencer. Some connect it with Lat. corolla; Greek yugos, a circle; Ang. Sax. girdan, to gird. 19 Luxuriant. "How lush and lusty the grass looks; how green!"-Shakesp. Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 1. "The sun hath Twice clad the earth in lively lustiness."-Surrey. The original idea of this word, will, has branched out in various languages into porter, pleasure, luxuriance, love, &c. (Greek, Law.) 20 Sec. Upon his hand he bare for his deduit1 An eagle tame, as any lily white. An hundred lordés had he with him there, Full many a tame lion and leopart.3 ARCITA, DYING IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE WOUND RECEIVED IN THE "NOUGHT may the woeful spirit in my heart Sing that my life ne may no longer dure.9 "Alas the wo! alas, the pains strong What is this world? What axen11 men to have? Now with his 12 love-now in his colde grave- Farewell, my sweet! farewell, mine Emilie! 1 Pleasure; (French, déduire; Lat. deducere, to lead from.) Deduit has the idea enjoyment, on the same principle that diversion and amusement have it. 2 For usages of chivalry illustrative of this, see Scott's "Ivanhoe." Of the pictures of Lycurgus and Emetrius, Hazlitt says, "What a deal of terrible beauty there is contained in this description! The imagination of the poet brings such ob jects before us, as when we look at wild beasts in a menagerie; their claws are pared; their eyes glitter harmless lightning; but we gaze at them with a pleasing awe, clothed in beauty, and formidable in the sense of abstract power." Completely, accurately. French, à point. 5 Only. 10 Separation of our society. 9 Last; we now write endure. 6 A lover's attachment. 12 There is perhaps an intended beauty in the transition from the general reflection implied in the plural "axen men;" to the specialty of Arcita's own case implied in the singular "his.' 13 The imperative has often this form, especially in the plural. 14 Denoting friendly connection or relationship; alleged etymologies, Lat. cognatus, of same birth; consanguineus, of same blood;-"Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son."-Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. 15 Certainly from Ang. Sax. wittan, to know. 18 Guide. So may Jupiter certainly guide my soul to speak, &c. This is a common use of so in oaths and vows: Comp. Horace, Odes i. 3. "Sic te diva," &c. 17 A lover: one of the terms of the worship chivalry paid to woman; applied to any knight who chose a lady, as the lady of his worship, without any idea of the character lover. Thus James IV. of Scotland made himself knight of the Queen of France; and, as bound by the laws of chivalry to obey his lady's request, he marched for her sake "three miles" 3 That is to sayn,-truth, honour, and knighthède, As in this world right now ne know I none That serveth you, and wol done all his life; And with that word his speeché fail began; That dwelled in his herté1o sike11 and sore, PRAISE OF WOMEN. FOR, this ye know well, tho' I wouldin lie, and more on English ground, and lost his life by his devotion. For the use of the terin "servant" in this sense, see "The two Gentlemen of Verona," Act ii. Sc. 1 and Sc. 4. 1 Modesty. The termination esse in English now takes a before it. 2 Rank. 3 Kindred; alınost the only instance in which we retain this shape of the termination is Godhead; but Chaucer and Spencer write knighthed, lustyhed, &c. 4 It must be remembered that some of the theology of the "Knight's Tale" is of the age of Theseus and Hippolyta. 5 Truly; this sense is retained in "right well; right trusty," &c. Will do; done, i. e. doen, infinitive governed by col; wol, past tense wold (would.) Infinitive governed by shall. Overtaken: German, nehmen, to take; part. genommen, taken. Gone; the prefix a (on, to, or in,) is obsolete except in poetry ; **Does Lord Eneas go afield to-day."-Shakesp. Troilus and Cressida. and in the adverbs away, against, &c.; ago is applied only to time;" as some have long agone."-Bunyan. A was very often prefixed to the present participle, awanting, adying, a-fishing. 10 The heart, the liver, and the kidneys (reins) have been made the seat of passion and feeling, hence chicken-hearted, "lily-livered,"-(Shakesp.), "that searchest the heart and triest the reins."-Psalms. 11 Sick. 12 This whole picture is as truly pathetic as any to be found in the whole range of poetry. The fervour of his love represented as maintaining the principle of life in the vital seat, while death is creeping over the members of his body, is peculiarly affecting; and the supremacy of this feeling when all is dissolving, whendusked his eyen two, and failed his breath," is pictured in the most intense style of pathos. 13 Saw. 14 Demeanour; if the punctuation be altered, coming may be viewed as one of the predicates of the succeeding verb is. |