That is, made war by lieutenants, by deputy. Lieutenant is from the French, the holder under another, or tenant of a place. MERED. Act III., Sc. 11. "The mered question." Mere is a boundary, and to mere is to define limits. Spenser used the word both as a substantive and a verb. MERELY. Act III., Sc. 7. "The horse were merely lost." Merely is utterly, entirely. MODERN. Act V., Sc. 2. "As we greet modern friends." Modern, in Shakspere's time, was used to express anything common and ordinary. So in 'As You Like It'— "Full of wise saws and modern instances." MOUNT. Act II., Sc. 4. "As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount." The Mount no doubt means Mount Misenum. The original omits the article. Muss. Act III., Sc. 11. "Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth." A muss is a scramble, throwing things into a crowd to be scrambled for. "The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's." The nurse is unquestionably death; not the gross substance which nourishes equally the beggar and Cæsar, as Johnson interprets it. "As plates dropp'd from his pocket." Plates were pieces of silver money. In Marlowe's 'Jew of "He is worth three hundred plates;" which a previous line proves to be equal to two hundred crowns. PLEACH'D. Act IV., Sc. 12. "Thy master thus with pleach'd arms." Pleach'd is intertwined, folded. PROCESS. Act I., Sc. 1. "Where's Fulvia's process?" Process is used in the sense of order or summons in a suit at law. PYRAMIDES. Act V., Sc. 2. "My country's high pyramides." Pyramiaes is used as a quadrisyllable; it is the Latin plural of pyramid. "Were well deserv'd of rashness." That is, you would well deserve reproof on account of rashness. RANG'D. Act I., Sc. 1. "Of the rang'd empire fall." Ranged, as Capell (the most neglected of the commentators) properly explains, is orderly ranged; he refers to a passage in Coriolanus ' "Bury all which yet distinctly ranges, In heaps and piles of ruins." REGIMENT. Act III., Sc. 6. "And gives his potent regiment to a trull." Regiment is here used in its Latin sense of government or rule. RENEAGUES. Act I., Sc. 1. "Reneagues all temper." Reneagues is renounces. It is usually spelt reneges; Chaucer uses it in the form of reneyes in the same sense, but Coleridge suggested the form reneagues, which gives us the proper pronunciation, as in leagues, and we have adopted his suggestion. SAFE. Act I., Sc. 3. "Which most with you should safe my going." Safe is here used as a verb active, to make safe. In Act IV., "Best you saf'd the bringer." SEEL. Act III., Sc. 11. "The wise gods seel our eyes." To seel was to close up the eyes of the wild hawk, for the pur pose of taming. STATION. Act III., Sc. 3. "Her motion and her station are as one." Station is the act of standing, as motion is the act of moving STONE. Act II., Sc. 2. "Your considerate stone." An allusion, probably, to the old saying, " As silent as a stone;" a frequent comparison among our ancient writers. TAKE IN. Act III., Sc. 7. "And take in Toryne." To take in is to gain by conquest, to take. TOKEN'D PESTILENCE. Act III., Sc. 8. "On our side like the token'd pestilence." The token'd pestilence is that stage of the plague when the spots appear on the skin, and which were called God's tokens. TRIPLE. Act I., Sc. 1. "The triple pillar of the world." Triple is here used in the unusual sense of third or one of three, and except in 'All's Well that Ends Well' (Act II., Sc. 1), "bad me store up, as a triple eye, safer than mine own two," we know of no other instance of triple being used otherwise than in the ordinary sense of threefold. VILD. Act V., Sc. 2. "In this vild world." Vild was the old spelling for vile, and is used by Shakspere and the writers of his time. WEET. Act I., Sc. 1. "The world to weet." To weet, from the Anglo-Saxon witan, is to know. Chaucer uses it in the form of wete. YARE. Act III., Sc. 11. "For being yare about him." Yare is prompt, nimble. YIELD. Act IV., Sc. 2. See The Tempest.' "And the gods yield you for 't." This is equivalent to the gods reward you for it. In 'As You Like It,' God 'ild you" occurs, which is the same phrase. |