JIttfara, New lortt 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY 
 
 COLLECTED BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 I854.I9I9 
 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
" Cornell university Library 
 
 PR3088.M841899 
 
 AstudyintheWSijail^SSiM 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013165331 
 
^^e ^M^^peaire ^ocuifo^ Qte^ ^oirfi 
 
 3ncoif»ot«fe5> (^tfxi( 20ri8?5 
 
 ^0 )>romofe f ^e finotvfebse anb sfu^g of f ^ 
 nWorfto of <Wm. ^9ftft«ije«iife, anb fge' 
 
 In Executive Committee— June isthj-iSSj, 
 Resolved, That in order that the papers printed under authority of this Society 
 may be of the highest character, and of value from all standpoints, the Society 
 does not stand pledged as responsible for the opinions expressed or conclusions 
 arrived at in the said papers, but considers itself only responsible in so far as it 
 certifies by its Imprimatur that it considers them as original contributions .to 
 Shakespearean study, and as showing upon their fac% care, labor and research. 
 
i'T-.. 
 
VENVS 
 
 AND ADONIS 
 
 VilkmiretUftjalgm.'mihiJlauuiLy^pollo 
 JPocula Cajialtapkmmmjtretaqua. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 Imprinted by Richard Field, and are to be fold at 
 
 thefigne of the white Greyhound in 
 
 Paules Church-yard. 
 
 155 5- 
 
l&ubUcations of Sbe Sbalftcapeare Socictg of Iftew f orh 
 mo. 10 
 
 A STUDY 
 
 IN 
 
 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT 
 
 WITH A GLOSSARY 
 AND 
 
 Notes Touching the Edward the Sixth Grammar Schools 
 
 AND THE Elizabethan Pronunciation as Deduced 
 
 FROM the Puns in Shakespeare's Plays, and 
 
 AS TO Influences which may have 
 
 Shaped the Shakespeare 
 
 Vocabulary 
 
 BY 
 
 APPLETON MORGAN, A. M., LL. B., (colvmb.) 
 
 President of the Shakespeare Society of New York : Author of 
 ^^The Law of Literature^* ^^Shakespeare in Fact and 
 in Criticism"; Editor of the Bankside 
 ^ Shakespeare, etc. 
 
 THE FOURTH EDITION 
 (Revised and Augmented) 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS 
 
 Printers to the Shakespeare Society of New York 
 
 LONDON : KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Ltd. 
 paternoster house, charing cross ROAD 
 
 igoo 
 
I\-(pI4'\3 
 
 Copyright, 
 
 
 EY 
 
 APPLETON MORGAN. 
 All rights reserved. 
 
NOTE PREFATORY TO THE FOURTH 
 EDITION. 
 
 Opportunity of the call for a Fourth Edition of 
 this work has been taken to add an extra chapter to 
 suggest that, while Shakespeare practically ignored 
 the English Bible, — the four greatest versions of 
 which were extant during the period covering his 
 lifetime, — yet the Liturgy and Psalter of Edward 
 the Sixth, — attendance upon which was compelled 
 by Elizabeth's Acts of Uniformity, during Shakes- 
 peare's nonage, and until long afterward — may have 
 insensibly influenced his vocabulary. 
 
 I trust that the Index to the Warwickshire 
 Dialect, added to this Fourth Edition, may facilitate 
 the use of the work as a sort of representative 
 dictionary of that Dialect, no less than as a study of 
 its characteristics. 
 
 Many of the words presented in this work as dia- 
 lect forms are now common to English speech 
 wherever it is spoken, while still others certainly 
 cannot be limited to Warwickshire to-day. But, 
 wherever provincially used in 1564-93, it was in 
 Warwickshire and not elsewhere that the child and 
 boy Shakespeare first heard them, before he could 
 have grafted them (if he did graft, or help to graft, 
 them) upon English speech! 
 
 A. M. 
 
 PiNECROFT, WESTFIELD, 
 
 Union County, N. J. 
 April 16, 1899. 
 
A PREFACE TO THE THIRD 
 EDITION. 
 
 Is there any possible room for a doubt as to 
 Shakespeare's authorship of the poems so univer- 
 sally conceded to be his? 
 
 The earliest collected edition of his works did 
 not include them. But this rnay have been because 
 of their non-dramatic character. 
 
 Late in 1616 (the year in Which Shakespeare died, 
 April 23), one of these poems, the "Lucrece, " was 
 printed in the usual quarto form with many varia- 
 tions from the text of May 9, 1594, with a state- 
 ment on the title-page that it was " newly revised 
 and corrected." As Shakespeare was dead, some- 
 body still alive, it would seem, felt a supervisory 
 interest in the poems, or at least in one of them. 
 
 There is supposed to be internal evidence enough 
 that the poems are all by the same author; at least, 
 the inclusion of one by Heywood — which was 
 removed from that collection on his protest — and 
 of the one by Marlowe (which is still printed in the 
 series known as "The Passionate Pilgrim") does 
 not interfere with that evidence. 
 
 But, assuming that the " Venus and Adonis '' — the 
 "Lucrece," and the "Sonnets" — are by the same 
 author-poet, was that author-poet Shakespeare? 
 
IV A PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 Hallam, in his "Literature of Europe," expresses a 
 doubt as to whether the " Sonnets" now known as 
 Shakespeare's were " the sugared sonnets among 
 his [Shakespeare's] private friends," which Meres 
 mentions as undoubtedly authentic. The following- 
 pages are devoted to an examination of a question 
 as to Shakespeare's authorship of the first to appear 
 of the poems — the "Venus and Adonis," only. 
 Whether that examination shall or need be extended 
 to the " Lucrece," the "Passionate Pilgrim," the 
 "Threnos," and the "sonnets," is for further con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Some, possibly only apparent, difficulties — not 
 structural or literary — of a Shakespearean author- 
 ship of the "Venus and Adonis," are as follows: 
 
 I. Throughout the -poem there appears to run 
 the same stream of argument (as close readers of 
 the Sonnets claim to have discovered), viz. : the 
 urging of some young man (preferentially South- 
 ampton) to marry and beget offspring, and not to 
 die " unkind." 
 
 How came it that a rustic youth lately from War- 
 wickshire, an interior county, at that time servitor 
 in a theater, or farmer of the horse-holding business 
 at its doors — or its clever and competent re-writer 
 of plays (or even writer of new plays) — became so 
 deeply and suddenly interested in the posterity of 
 a noble lord — or of any London gentleman? 
 
 There was a wider gulf, if possible, then than 
 now fixed between peer and peasant. Would not 
 such an interference, except in a social equal as 
 well as an intimate, have been the sheerest im- 
 pertinence? 
 
A PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION: V 
 
 II. The title-page to the first edition of the poem 
 bore a legend from Ovid : 
 
 Vilia miretul: valgus : mihi flavus Apollo 
 Pocula castalia plena ministret aqua — 
 
 Either as referring to its subject-matter, or as to 
 its significance as a legend, this is utterly mean- 
 ingless as a legend for the poem. It certainly has 
 no connection with Venus or with Adonis, or with 
 the boar, or with the begetting of offspring. Ovid, 
 in this eclogue (which had not been translated, by 
 the way, in 1596), is defending himself against the 
 charge of being 3i flaneur and an idler. He admits 
 that he does not work as others may. But he 
 enumerates by name the greatest poets, in his esti- 
 mation, and then exclaims, "with these I take my 
 part. Their labors and rewards are the only objects 
 of my ambition. Their life is the only life I care to 
 lead," and then the above lines come in: 
 
 " The vulgar let the vulgar herd adtnire : 
 To me may the golden-haired Apollo serve cups 
 Brimming from Castaly." 
 
 But William Shakespeare was an industrious, hard- 
 toiling young man, not in poetry, but in and about 
 Burbage's theater. He was willing to accept any 
 employment, and as the records abundantly show, 
 became rich at many trades and occupations. In- 
 deed, so multifarious were his employments that 
 one of his rivals called him a Johannes-Factotum. 
 Surely he had to make no apology for being a fla- 
 neur and an idler! 
 
 III. The poem is, in theme and suggestion, the 
 
VI A PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 evident work of a sensualist, or, at least, of a 
 voluptuary, as well as of a Priscian — severe and 
 classic in literary taste and in the mold, cadence, 
 and prosody. Every fair and frail dame in London, 
 we are assured, kept the poem on her toilet table. 
 But William Shakespeare was no sensualist, and 
 certainly no voluptuary, in the year 1593. His 
 record is exactly the other way. He had married a 
 peasant girl early in life and, being unable to sup- 
 port her and their children, had come to London to 
 find work and had found it. Neither in Warwick- 
 shire nor London had his attention been drawn 
 toward, or his means equal to, the career of a 
 Sybarite or of a man about town. 
 
 IV. Ben Jonson, in a familiar passage in his " Dis- 
 coveries," declared that Shakespeare " wanted art "! 
 Would he have volunteered such an assertion if 
 Shakespeare had been the author of the poems and 
 " Sonnets "? of the " Venus and Adonis," so calmly 
 classic, so severely formal that even Voltaire — who 
 called Shakespeare an " inspired barbarian " — would 
 have admitted it into the school? 
 
 Surely the " Venus and Adonis " as little suggests 
 the irregular genius of the plays as it resembles the 
 patois of Warwickshire. 
 
 Was this what Jonson meant when he said that 
 Shakespeare "wanted art": that he talked with 
 that fluency that it was often necessary that 
 he should be stopped (sufflaminandus eraf, as Au- 
 gustus said of Haterius): namely, that Shakes- 
 peare could not content himself with such 'Aira^ 
 Xeyo/AEvo as " purple-colored," to describe the sun at 
 dawn rising through morning mist, but must break 
 
A PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. Vll 
 
 out, perforce, into such metaphor on the wings of 
 metaphor as : 
 
 When the morning sun shall raise his car 
 Above the border of this horizon — 
 
 or say plain " sunset," but make it: 
 
 The sun of heaven, methought, was loath to set 
 But stayed to make the Western welkin blush. 
 
 Was this that lack of " art," and of artificiality, that 
 must overleap itself to capture other every meta- 
 phor which metaphor suggested — the dainty defiance 
 of rule that could not rest with calling a lady " rose- 
 red " or " rose-cheeked " as in the poems, but must 
 have it: 
 
 There is a beauteous lady. . . 
 
 When tongues speak sweetly then they name her name 
 
 And Rosa — line they call her ? 
 
 " Dew-bedabbled," says the poem. But in the 
 plays, no 'Aira^ Xfyojueva of a compound will suffice : 
 
 That same dew, which, sometimes, on the buds. 
 Was wont to dwell like round and orient pearls. 
 
 "Outstripping" or "overfly" is the severe de- 
 scriptive of the poem — but in the play: 
 
 When you do dance 
 I wish you were a wave of the sea that you might ever do 
 Nothing but that. 
 
 Surely the gentleman who will occupy his leisure 
 in tabulating the nice and precise formalities of the 
 poems over against the opulence of their identities 
 in the plays, will go far in the way of disposing of 
 
Vlll A PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 Voltaire's " inspired barbarian " as the poet of the 
 " Venus and Adonis." 
 
 Such considerations as these led me, fourteen 
 years ago, in 1885, to present the first edition of 
 this work, being an attempt to discover a common 
 or " parallelism" between the poems and the plays. 
 I attempted this by means of the Warwickshire dia- 
 lect, from the influence of which — however modified 
 by an Edward the Sixth grammar school known to 
 have been in existence in the town of Stratford- 
 upon-Avon — Shakespeare had recently arrived at 
 the capital, when, April 19, 1593, the poem was reg- 
 istered on the books of the Stationers' Company. 
 And, in the course of the survey, I attempted a 
 Glossary of the Warwickshire dialect, which, with 
 considerable excision and augmentation, is also in- 
 cluded in the present edition. 
 
 My purpose in these pages is, however, to pre- 
 sent the reader with something more than a Glos- 
 sary. I have aimed, by grouping the Warwickshire 
 forms around their vernaculars, to exhibit the War- 
 wickshire methods, modes, habits (so to speak), as 
 well as its corruptions — often picturesque corrup- 
 tions — of vernacular English, and I have subordi- 
 nated my method to my chief purpose, namely, to 
 illustrate Shakespeare. I have been myself sur- 
 prised to find how the luxury of Shakespearean 
 study even was increased by study of these War- 
 wickshire forms, and I am sure anyone who will 
 test for himself the demonstrations in these pages 
 will be startled to see how new ideas of the Mas- 
 ter (and new readings of him, too) will suggest 
 
A PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. IX 
 
 themselves as he proceeds. In such examination, 
 my purpose has been to be fair and honest, and to 
 avoid the temptation of producing a tour deforce, or 
 that most delicious of all literary things — a paradox. 
 
 But I must admit to have only found two words 
 in the poem which I could even with effort succeed 
 in tracing to Warwickshire — one, the word "tem- 
 pest," which, in Warwickshire usage, means "a 
 rainstorm," and the other the word "cop," spelled 
 cope in the poem and in the plays (from which, 
 meaning to catch, I suppose our metropolitan 
 gamin get their name for a policeman). In the 
 plays, however, the word "tempest" does not ap- 
 pear to be used in the Warwickshire sense — though 
 "cope" appears in them as well as in the poem. 
 But, as the reader will see, there is no absolute cer- 
 tainty about the matter. 
 
 After fifty years of Shakespearean study and re- 
 search, my friend, the late Dr. Halliwell-Phillipps, 
 was only able to say that those who had lived as long 
 as he in the midst of matters Shakespearean had 
 learned not to be too certain about anything. 
 
 In my own twenty years' immersion in the same 
 pursuit, I can only echo this dictum. My own 
 idea of a Shakespearean "school" is one wherein 
 every man is his own pupil-teacher, and wherein, 
 only as he enters into or keeps out of the pretty 
 quarrels of the commentators (always like Sir 
 Lucius O'Trigger's — very pretty as they stand, and 
 only spoiled by. explanation) — precisely as the hu- 
 mor takes him, and as he himself sees fit — will he 
 find eitTier pleasure or profit, or enjoy himself in 
 the least. 
 
X A PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 If anyone ever yet made a statement about 
 Shakespeare, or about all or any of his works, 
 which somebody did not immediately rise to con- 
 tradict, I have yet to hear of- it. 
 
 And I suppose that even if somebody should some 
 day suggest that Lord Southampton himself wrote 
 all those poems and dedicated them to himself, 
 somebody else would cavil! 
 
 Appleton Morgan. 
 
 Rooms of the Shakespeare Society of New York, 
 October 2, 1898. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Environment, i 
 
 PART II. 
 A Glossary of the Warwickshire Dialect, . . 63 
 
 PART III. 
 How Shakespeare Heard His English Pronounced 
 
 IN London, 405 
 
 PART IV. 
 Some Influences which may have Helped to Shape 
 
 the Shakespeare Vocabulary, .... 435 
 
 Index to the Glossary, ... . . 471 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Title Page of the Venus and Adonis 
 
 OF 1593, Frontispiece 
 
 Seal of an Edwakd the Sixth Gram- 
 mar School 48 
 
 The Southampton Dedication to the 
 
 Venus and Adonis, 52 
 
 Dedication to Sir John Salisburie of 
 THE Fragmentary Poems Inclusive 
 
 OF THE PhCENIX AND THE TURTLE, . . .55 
 
 The Threnos, 58 
 
 Title Page of the Love's Labor's 
 
 Lost, . . 465 
 
A STUDY IN THE WARWICKSHIRE 
 DIALECT. 
 
 PART I. 
 THE ENVIRONMENT. 
 
 Circumstantial evidence — the evidence of cir- 
 cumstances — may be explained away by the testi- 
 mony of other circumstances. Internal evidence 
 may be upset by context. But words are detectives 
 that never fail to detect, and whose reports cannot 
 be bribed, distorted, or gainsaid. No man can write 
 in a language he has never heard, or whose written 
 form he has never learned. 
 
 It would not have been strange or impossible that, 
 in the numberless editions through which the Shakes- 
 peare plays passed (without the slightest editorial 
 responsibility), in Shakespeare's own lifetime as well 
 as in their copying and recopying in lines and 
 parts, for those who acted in them during their 
 stage life, their text was curtailed by passages lost 
 or distorted, or augmented by interpolations or lo- 
 calisms of actors or interpolations of reporters. 
 But the poems are before us to-day practically as 
 they were first printed. There has been no rear- 
 rangement of verses or of stanzas, and, whether we 
 read them in the last sixpenny edition or in the best 
 
2 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 and most scholarly texts, or in the original quarto 
 broadsides of Shakespeare's own day, the text is 
 identical. 
 
 In London, in the year 1593, there appeared un- 
 heralded, from the press of Richard Field, one of 
 Her Majesty's Stationers' Company, a poem in thin 
 quarto, with the title "Venus and Adonis." It 
 was exposed for sale at the sign of the Greyhound 
 in St. Paul's Churchyard. It was rapidly sold and 
 eagerly read by the ladies and gentlemen of the 
 court, and made a certain literary sensation. It 
 became, in a sense, the fashion. 
 
 Nothing like it had been seen before. The coarse 
 and libidinous broadside was familiar enough. For 
 the general it appeared couched in vulgar puns — 
 or in what was just then more popular than puns — 
 in euphuism and double-entendre. 
 
 But this poem, at once stately and sumptuous, 
 voluptuous and eloquent, despotic in the classic of 
 its prosody and the cadence of its verse, was new 
 matter. Nothing like it had ever appeared before. 
 Its authorship as William Shakespeare's appears to 
 have been accepted — and the appearance of other 
 poems and sonnets by the same author tended to 
 confirm the statement, which certainly there was 
 then no reason whatever to doubt. 
 
 But, later on, this same William Shakespeare be- 
 came known as a mighty dramatist. The fame of 
 his work crowded theaters, and kept the presses of 
 Her Majesty's Stationers in employment outside 
 of them. 
 
 Still, there was external evidence that the poet 
 was also the dramatist. When Falstaff and his 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 3 
 
 irregular humorists took the town by storm, and 
 in the flood of that first success, everything that 
 could bear Shakespeare's name was rushed into 
 print, who was there to remember the "Venus and 
 Adonis" and the poems? They remembered that 
 the same name was on the title-pages. That was 
 all. 
 
 But did anybody ask for any internal evidence? 
 Nobody then, for the comparative criticism of 
 literary matter was not, in those days, thought of. 
 But to-day, it has been suggested that between the 
 poems and the plays there is no accord of internal 
 evidence. Nothing which, in the absence of title- 
 pages, would pronounce them as by one and the 
 same master. Except the superiority of each, in 
 its own kind, nothing to bind them together. 
 
 The question is a bold one to raise to-day, three 
 centuries too late. But some, nevertheless, have 
 asked it. And it is the scope and purpose of these 
 pages, with a deference born of that awe which en- 
 circles the Master, but in the surety that all honest 
 inquiry must lead to knowledge, to prepare for its 
 discussion. It is proposed to treat the question 
 principally in the light of the fact that, prior to the 
 appearance of the poem — which itself preceded the 
 plays — William Shakespeare had been, up to his 
 eighteenth year, a resident of Stratford-upon-Avon, 
 a Warwickshire village, where were spoken a 
 dialect and a patois quite as distinguishable from 
 other British dialects as from the urban English — 
 mellowed with the many foreign contributary 
 formatives which the commercial character of 
 Elizabeth's London brought, as it were, into 
 
4 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 entrepdt — in that city, in the years, 1585-16 16. 
 For this Warwickshire-born boy to have achieved 
 the plays was one thing — was, let us admit, of all 
 the miracles of genius, the most miraculous Heaven 
 has vouchsafed mankind. To have written the 
 poem, however inferior to the plays, genius itself 
 would have been inadequate without the absorption 
 of certain arbitrary rules of composition and the 
 learning by rote (or so at least it seems to me) of 
 the existence of certain arbitrary trammels and 
 limitations of diction, vocabulary, and of prosody. 
 
 Everybody remembers the expressive dialect 
 spoken by Mrs. Poyser in George Eliot's "Adam 
 Bede." George Eliot lays the story of her novel in 
 " Loamshire," which, it appears, is intended to be 
 recognized as Leicestershire. But "it must not be 
 inferred," says Dr. Sebastian Evans, of the English 
 Dialect Society, "that Mrs. Poyser and the rest of 
 the characters introduced into 'Adam Bede' speak 
 pure Leicestershire. They speak pure Warwick- 
 shire; and although the two dialects naturally ap- 
 proximate very closely, they are far from being 
 identical in pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary. 
 The truth is that George Eliot was herself War- 
 wickshire-born, and used the dialect in the midst 
 of which she been reared, for her Leicestershire 
 characters; which was not much of a solecism, 
 seeing that the two had so many points of contact." 
 But if the English George Eliot heard in her 
 village, among her neighbors in her youth, was 
 Warwickshire, it could not have been a much purer 
 speech that her young fellow-shireman, William 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. . 5 
 
 Shakespeare, heard in his day — almost three cen- 
 turies earlier. But we know where and when 
 George Eliot went to school, and how, relieved from 
 Warwickshireisms herself, she realized their humor 
 and their individuality, and so bestowed them upon 
 Mrs. Poyser. There was not much of an Academy, 
 not much of a cult, in Stratford town, to purify the 
 burgher's patois in Shakespearean times. Nay, 
 even up at the capital — in London — it was very 
 little, if any, better than down in Warwickshire. 
 The members of Elizabeth's Parliament could not 
 comprehend each others' speech. This was long 
 before there was any standing army in England. 
 (Falstaff might have been marching through Coventry 
 with his pressed men at about that time.) But when 
 the soldiers Elizabeth summoned were grouped in 
 camps, they could not understand the word of com- 
 mand unless given by officers from their own par- 
 ticular shire. And — with Stratford grammar school, 
 or any other grammar school, in full blast — the 
 youngsters were not taught English, rigorously as 
 they might be drilled in Lily's "Accidence," and in 
 the three or four text-books prescribed by the crown. 
 Dr. Halliwell-PhiUipps and Mr. Furnivall have each 
 prepared lists of these text-books. But, amongst 
 them all, there is not one that suggests instruction 
 in the mother tongue. T/iai the aforesaid young- 
 sters were supposed to learn at home, if they 
 learned it at all. And at home, as well as in this 
 grammar school (now held sponsor for so much of 
 the occult and elaborate introspection and learning 
 of the plays), it is absolutely impossible that the lad 
 Shakespeare acquired or used any other dialect than 
 
6 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 the Warwickshire he was born to, or that his father 
 and mother, their coetaneans, neighbors and 
 gossips, spoke. For demonstration of this state- 
 ment the credulous need not rely on the so-called 
 Shakespearean epitaphs, and the lampoon on Sir 
 Thomas Lucy with their puns on the names of John 
 a'Coombe ("John has come ") and Lucy (" Lowsie") 
 [which were doubtless written by that worthy lunatic 
 John Jordan, who so amply fooled in his time 
 the ponderous Malone, Boswell, Ireland, and their 
 contemporaries], but are referred to any compe- 
 tent chronicle of the times themselves. In fact, 
 there is no converse to the proposition at all. It is 
 as one-sided as a proposition in Euclid. So far, 
 then, we are unable to supply the literary biography 
 we had in Miss Evans's case, as to the scholastic 
 career of William Shakespeare, baptized in Stratford 
 Church, April 23, 1564. 
 
 When William Shakespeare, at about eighteen, 
 went up to London, he must have been, like Robert 
 Burns, competent, even fluent, in the dialect of his 
 own vicinage. We know that when, later in his 
 life, Robert Burns tried to abandon the patois in 
 which he had earned immortality, and to warble in 
 urban English, "he was seldom" (says his most 
 careful biographer, Shairp) "more than a third- 
 rate, a common, clever versifier." In considering 
 the question whether William Shakespeare still con- 
 tinued to use the Warwickshire dialect or lost it in 
 London, we must make up our minds to leave his 
 plays out of the question. For, in the first place, a 
 play is a play. It is the representation of many 
 characters in a juxtaposition where the identity of 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 7 
 
 each must be exaggerated to preserve the perspec- 
 tive, and to tell — within the hour — the story of days 
 or years, as the case may be. And this perspective 
 must be shaped by experiment, altered and amended 
 by actual representation, made to fit the date, the 
 circumstances, the player, and the audience, and, 
 except to conclude from the direct testimony of 
 contemporaries, or of an author himself, that this 
 or that author wrote himself into any one character 
 of any play, is, and always must be, purely and 
 fancifully gratuitous. In the second place, the 
 fact that the Shakespeare plays contain not only 
 Warwickshire, but specimens of about every other 
 known English dialect, and quite as much of any 
 one as other, cannot be omitted from this Shakes- 
 peare authorship problem. Now the condition in 
 life implied by a man's employment of one patois 
 would seem to dispose of the probability of his 
 possessing either the facilities or the inclination for 
 acquiring a dozen others. The philologist or 
 archaeologist may employ or amuse himself in 
 collecting specimens of dialects and provincialisms. 
 The proletarian to whom any one of these dialects 
 is native will probably be found not to have that 
 idea of either bread-winning or of pastime. 
 
 There are a great many^trange things about these 
 plays. They make a classical Duke of Athens men- 
 tion St. Valentine's Day, and send a young girl to a 
 nunnery — they have pages and king's fools figuring in 
 Alcibiades' time. Pandarus speaks of Sunday and of 
 Friday at the siege of Troy; there are marks, guild- 
 ers, ducats, and allusions to Henry IV. of France, 
 to Adam, Noah, and to Christians, in Ephesus in the 
 
8 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 time of Pericles; a child is "baptized" in "Titus 
 Andronicus" ; Mark Antony comes to " bury" Caesar. 
 There are "Graves in the Holy Churchyard" 
 in Coriolanus, there are billiards and "trumps" in 
 Cleopatra's time and capital, and there are always 
 French and Spaniards in plenty for the audienees 
 which expected them, and plentiful use of terms of 
 English law and practice, whether the play were 
 in Cyprus or Epidamnum, or Rome or Athens; 
 whether the days were ancient or contemporary. 
 France and Spain were the countries with which 
 England was oftenest at war, and which, therefore, 
 it was most popular to disparage. The Frenchman 
 and Spaniard were relied upon to make the ground- 
 lings roar again, pretty much as, in New York to-day, 
 we have a plantation negro or a Chinaman, as indis- 
 pensable for certain audiences. But in these same 
 plays, however a Roman or a Bohemian may use an 
 English idiom, there is no confusion in the dialects 
 when used as dialects, and not as vernacular. The 
 Norfolk man does not talk Welsh, nor does the 
 Welshman talk Norfolkshire, nor does the Welsh- 
 man Sir Hugh Evans, who lives in Warwickshire, 
 use Welsh- Yorkshire, but Welsh-Warwickshire, 
 patois, and " Fluellen " (which is of course pho- 
 netic for " Llewellen" a typical Welsh name) 
 speaks broken English as a Welshman would, with 
 no trace of an English dialect of any sort. The 
 dictionary-makers assure us that there are thou- 
 sands upon thousands of dialect words in the plays, 
 or, to be exact, thousands upon thousands of words 
 not dialectic per se, but used in their local sense. 
 Moreover, sometimes these words will be used 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 9 
 
 in their local or dialect, and in their pure or 
 vernacular, senses in the same play, or even in the 
 same passages. Of this I shall give some ex- 
 amples later on, but it seems proper to note here 
 that at least once in the plays Shakespeare intro- 
 duces a dialect, quoad dialect, in a locality where it 
 does not belong, and so calls attention to it and to 
 the contrast between it and the speech of the other ' 
 characters present. The occasion referred to is, of 
 course, where Edgar meets Oswald in the fields 
 near Dover and disguises his speech by using the 
 Somersetshire dialect.* 
 
 Osw. Wherefore, bold peasant. 
 Barest thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence; 
 Lest that the infection of his fortune take 
 Like hold on thee. Let go his arm. 
 
 Edg. Chi'U not let go, zir, without vurther 
 'casion. 
 
 Osw. Let go, slave, or thou diest! 
 
 Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor 
 volk pass. An ch'ud ha' bin zwaggered out of my 
 life, 'twould not ha' bin zo long as 'tis by a vortnight. 
 Nay, come not near th'old man; keep out, che vor, 
 ye, or ise try whether your costard or-my ballow be 
 the harder: chill be plain with you. 
 
 Osw. Out, dunghill! 
 
 Edg. Chi'll pick you teeth, zir: come; no matter 
 vor your foins. 
 
 On another occasion he uses mere jargon : 
 
 * " King Lear," IV. vi. 239. Q. 2438, F. 2648, Baiikside 
 notation. 
 
10 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 " Throca, movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo . . . 
 villanda par, corbo, cargo . . Boskos thromuldo 
 Boskos. Boskos vauvado. Kerelybonso . . . manka 
 revania dulche . . . Oscorbidulchos volivorco, 
 accordo linta. . . Bosko chimurcho. Boblibindo 
 chermurco," * 
 
 which the soldiers invent, to confound Parolles, not 
 only with proof of his own cowardice and treachery, 
 but with his ignorance of the language in which he 
 claimed proficiency. And the scrap of an Irish 
 ballad which Pistol mutters in response to the 
 French prisoner who believes that Pistol has cap- 
 tured him on the field of Agincourt, is another of the 
 numerous examples in the plays of Shakespeare's 
 fondness for dialect forms. That what the early 
 printer "pied" into " qualtite calme custure me " 
 was really "gae maith cas tu re me," Mr. O'Keefe's 
 demonstration of the real meaning of this jargon f 
 has convinced most of us. Pistol was a linguist. 
 He breaks out into French, Latin, and Italian, 
 and nobody knows why he could not have picked 
 up a snatch of Irish! But these episodes prove 
 that Shakespeare knew perfectly well what a 
 dialect was, and that the dialect of one section of 
 England was unintelligible to the native of another 
 just as it is in fact to-day — (to such an extent 
 that I am assured that one of the difiBculties at first 
 experienced in the use of our American invention 
 of the telephone — and a very considerable one — 
 arose from this source). 
 
 * All's Well that Ends Well," IV. i. 71, iii. 141. 
 f " Henry V.," IV. iv. 4. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. II 
 
 All this is accounted for by our knowledge of Lon- 
 don in the days when Shakespeare was writing the 
 plays, its cosmopolitan character, and the motley 
 crowds on its narrow streets. He did not need to 
 take them — at least it is apparent that he did not 
 take them— out of books already in print, as he did 
 his plots and situations. His characters were all 
 there, and he photographed them. But how, when 
 he himself was a provincial, and came up from 
 Stratford — when he himself was one of the motley 
 throng in those same narrow streets? Our question 
 does not arise as to the "Lucrece." Whoever 
 wrote the "Venus and Adonis" could have written 
 (and doubtless did write) that poem. Nor does it 
 arise as to the" Sonnets," if the " Sonnets printed in 
 1609 were the 'Sugred Sonnets among his private 
 friends,'" of which Meres makes mention, which 
 only appeared in 1609, seven years before Shakes- 
 peare's death, (when he had become rich and — 
 doubtless endowed with that culture which wealth 
 can bring — may have used most unexceptionable 
 urban, courtly, and correct English) — were those 
 we have to-day. But, as to this, others than Mr, 
 Hall am have doubted. 
 
 But that poem, " Venus and Adonis," which its 
 dedication declares to have been the very "first 
 heir of" the "invention" of William Shakespeare; 
 surely, if written in Warwickshire and by a War- 
 wickshire lad who had never been out of it, it ought 
 somewhere to contain a little Warwickshire word to 
 betray the precincts of its writer and its concep- 
 tion! Richard Grant White loved to imagine young 
 Shakespeare, like young Chatterton and many 
 
12 THE WARWIClCSHlli£ DIALECT. 
 
 another young poet, coming up to London with his 
 first poem in his pocket. "In any case, we maybe 
 sure that the poem," he says, "was written some 
 years before it was printed; and it may have been 
 brought by the young poet from Stratford in manu- 
 script, and read by a select circle, according to the 
 custom of the time, before it was published." If 
 William Shakespeare wrote the poem at all, it would 
 seem as if Mr. White's proposition is beyond ques- 
 tion, so far as mere dates go. But if the result of a 
 glossary of the Warwickshire dialect, as paralleled 
 with the poem, is to discover no Warwickshire in a 
 poem written by a Warwickshire man in Warwick- 
 shire, or soon after he left it to go elsewhere, it 
 would look extremely like corroboration of the 
 evidence of the dates by that of the dialect. 
 
 Now, the annexed Glossary — while, of course, 
 sharing the incompleteness of all dictionaries of 
 current provincialisms-^-is at least quite complete 
 enough to prove the existence of a Warwickshire 
 dialect to-day; and, inferentially, what must have 
 been the barbarisms of that dialect three centuries 
 ago. But by that Glossary it certainly does appear: 
 
 First, that there is and was a Warwickshire 
 dialect; 
 
 And, second, that specimens of this dialect occur 
 in every one of the admitted Shakespeare plays, but 
 not to the exclusion of specimens of other dialects, 
 and therefore, since the writer of the plays must 
 have been acquainted with more than one English 
 dialect, it is fair to conjecture that he could 
 not have been an exclusive user of any one of 
 them. 
 
THE EHVtkONMENT. i3 
 
 But this entire absence of Warwickshire dialect 
 in "Venus and Adonis," written by a Warwickshire 
 lad (which Mr. Grant White could not account far 
 on the date of its appearance in print except by 
 believing that its young author brought it with him 
 to London in his pocket), is not the only mystery' 
 created by the internal evidence. For it cannot be 
 urged that, in treating the classical theme, no op- 
 portunity occurred for employment of words and 
 idioms peculiar to Shakespeare's own native local 
 dialect; the growth of the necessity in the ex- 
 pression of rustic wants and emergencies only. 
 The fact is exactly in this instance the reverse. For 
 example: In line 657, Venus calls jealousy a " carry- 
 tale," that is, a gossip or telltale. There happen 
 to be (as we see from our Glossary) two War- 
 wickshire words, "chatterer" and "pick-thanks," 
 for this descriptive. The latter is used in the 
 plays in " i Henry IV." III. ii. 25, while, in " Love's 
 Labor's Lost" (V. ii. 464) the descriptive appears 
 as "mumble news." But for the picturesque com- 
 pound "carrytale," certainly no recourse to any 
 dialect was had. And again — whenever the dialect 
 consists in the usage rather than the form of the 
 word — the word is used in the plays, sometimes in 
 the common and sometimes in the local sense; 
 but in the poem, always in the proper and usual 
 sense. For example: we find by our Glossary 
 that "braid" and "braided" in the plays are 
 used in the sense of shopworn — or not worn out 
 by use. But in *' Venus and Adonis" we have 
 the word as we employ it to-day: "His ears 
 u.ppricked — his braided hanging mane." Again: 
 
14 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 in the plays we have the word "gossip" con- 
 tinually, sometimes in the sense of a " Godparent " 
 (which is Warwickshire and other provincial usage), 
 and sometimes in the ordinary sense, to express 
 which a Warwickshire man would have said " pick- 
 thanks" or "chatterer." The word "chill," which, 
 in Warwickshire, means to warm, to take the chill 
 off, is used in that sense once ("As You Like It, 
 IV. V. 56), but everywhere else in its ordinary sense of 
 to touch with frost, or to cool. Again, any musical 
 instrument is called in Warwickshire "a music," 
 and here in the single play of " Hamlet" we find it 
 so used (" Let him play his music," II. i. 83), while 
 everywhere else the word has its usual meaning. 
 Side by side in " Macbeth " we find the word 
 "lodged" used in its vernacular meaning of pro- 
 viding with sleeping quarters ("There be two 
 lodged together," II. ii. 26), and in the Warwick- 
 shire sense of corn that a heavy storm has ruined 
 ("Though bladed corn be lodged," IV. i. 55). 
 Not to multiply instances, which the reader can 
 select for himself from Mr. Bartlett's or from 
 Mrs. Clarke's concordance, or (but less accu- 
 rately) from Dr. Schmitt's "Shakespeare Lexicon" 
 — note that in " Henry VIII." " stomach" is used in 
 the sense of a masterful, or overbearing, disposition, 
 as in Warwickshire to-day; as the name of the proper 
 digestive organ; again in the sense of appetite; 
 and, yet again, to mean valor or spirit, just as in 
 "Richard III." the word "urge" occurs side by 
 side in its good old English meaning and anon in 
 its present Warwickshire sense of to irritate, annoy, 
 or tease; and never are the above instances of 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. IS 
 
 double usage by way of pun or play upon the words 
 themselves. 
 
 It further appears that there are in this entire 
 poem of eleven hundred and ninety-four verses 
 scarcely a score of words to comprehend which even 
 the most ordinary English scholars of to-day would 
 need a lexicon. But on examining even these 
 words, it will be found that they have a source 
 entirely outside of Warwickshire or any other one 
 dialect — are, in fact, early English words, mostly 
 classical; never in any sense local or sectional. 
 The following schedule renders this apparent: 
 
 Banning (326) — Cursing. The word is used in this 
 sense in " Lucrece,'' line 1460, "2 Henry 
 VI." II. iv. 25, and is so used by Gower, 
 "Confessio Amantis, (1325), ii. 96, " Laya- 
 mon" (1180), ii. 497, and is good middle 
 English. 
 
 Bate-Breeding (655) — In the sense of a stirrer-up 
 of strife. Bate in the sense of strife — is 
 middle English — occurs in the Coventry 
 Mysteries, p. 12, and is the origin of our 
 word debate. — To bait a bull was later : Shake- 
 spearean English, and the verb to bait, 
 meaning to worry to death, is still common. 
 
 Billing (366) — Is the act of birds putting their bills 
 together. It is impossible to trace it further 
 back than Layamon, who wrote, perhaps, 
 about 1 180. 
 
 Clepes (995) — She clepes — she calls him — in its 
 various forms of clepe, to call, yclept, called, 
 named, is so old that it was even practically 
 
1 6 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 obsolete before Shakespeare's time, or at least 
 pedantic. 
 Coasteth (870)— To coast— to grope one's way— a 
 beautiful metaphor — to sail or steer as by 
 sounds or lights on a coast; to move as a 
 ship does in the dark — gropingly. Venus 
 guides herself by the sound : 
 
 Anon she hears them chant it lustily, 
 And in all haste she coasteth to the cry. 
 
 A boy, Stratford-born, whose first journey 
 was to London, would know nothing of the 
 seacoast. 
 
 Combustions (1162) — A good, though not a common 
 English word. 
 
 Crooked (134) — Had, long before Shakespeare's day, 
 assumed the meaning, which is now reappear- 
 ing, i. e., out of the ordinary — ill-favored, 
 dishonest, ugly in person or character — is of 
 Scandinavian or Celtic origin. 
 
 Divedapper (86) — A dabchick, a species of greve, 
 a small bird common all over England, some- 
 times printed dapper; the only dialectic form 
 is the Linconshire " dop-chicken." 
 
 Flap-mouthed (920) — Long-lipped — like a dog — as 
 old as Piers Plowman (B., vi. 187, 1396). 
 
 Fry (526) — Meaning the spawn of fishes — is Scandi- 
 navian. " To the end of the fri mi blissing 
 graunt i." To thee, and to thy seed, I grant 
 my blessing. — Wyckliffe's Bible. 
 
 Jennet (260) — Comes from the Spanish, and is used 
 repeatedly in the plays. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 17 
 
 Ltire (1027) — In the sense of decoy or call. Used 
 
 in Chaucer, "Canterbury Tales," 17,021. 
 
 Middle English. 
 Musits (683) — Musit is a hole in a hedge. It comes 
 
 from the French musser, to hide, conceal, 
 
 and is nowhere a local word. 
 Nuzzling (iirs) — To root, or poke with the nose, 
 
 as a hog roots. Older than Shakespeare and 
 
 not yet obsolete. 
 O'erstrawed (1143) — Overstrewn. In Anglo-Saxon 
 
 means to put in order. Used in Palsgrave; 
 
 also in the plays frequently. 
 Rank (71) — A poetical use of the word, applying it 
 
 to a river overflowing its banks. 
 Scud (301) — In the sense of a storm, or a gust 
 
 of wind. This is an English provincial 
 
 (though not a Warwickshire) word. In the 
 
 sense used in the plays, to carry, or run 
 
 along. It is of Scandinavian origin. 
 Teen (808) Used by Chaucer in "Canterbury 
 
 Tales," 3108. Anglo-Saxon in its oldest 
 
 form. In Icelandic it appears as tjon — 
 
 means sorrow or woe. 
 Trim (1090) — "Of colors trim." To apply this 
 
 word (meaning, of course, neat') to colors is 
 
 a poetical, not a local usage. 
 Unkind (204) — A poetical use— rshe died unkind ; that 
 
 is, died a virgin — not in the plays in this 
 
 sense, 
 Wat (697) — Is a familiar term for a hare; similar to 
 
 Tom for a cat, Billy for a goat, Ned for ass, 
 
 etc. In old English it was spelled wot. It 
 
 occurs in Fletcher, thus: "Once concluded 
 
1 8 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 out the teasers run all in full cry and speed, 
 till Wat's undone." But it does not appear 
 to linger (if it ever was used) in Warwick- 
 shire. 
 Urchin (1105) — Not a dialect word. In all diction- 
 aries, archaic and contemporary, and familiar 
 throughout England in Shakespeare's time. 
 The peculiarity of its use in the poem, " Ur- 
 chin-snouted («. e., hpdgehog-snouted) — 
 boar — seems to me to arise from the fact 
 •that, though used in the poem in the sense of 
 hedgehog, curiously enough the word is used 
 in some other sense or senses (what exactly 
 it is perhaps difficult to say) in the plays. 
 To wit: in the " Tempest," we have " Fright 
 me with urchin-shows " (II. ii. 5). Evi- 
 dently Caliban could not well be fright- 
 ened by shows of hedgehogs, for earlier in 
 the same play Prospero has threatened ur- 
 chins as plagues to come at night. " Urchins 
 shall, for that vast of night," etc. (I. ii. 326). 
 In the line, "ten thousand swelling toads, so 
 many urchins" ("Titus Adronicus," II. iii. 
 loi), the word may be used in its proper sense 
 of hedgehog, but in "The Merry Wives of 
 Windsor" (IV. iv. 48), when Mrs. Page pro- 
 poses to dress "her daughter, her little 
 son, and three or four more of their growth " 
 "like urchins, ouphs, and fairies," she must, 
 like Prospero and Caliban, have had in mind 
 something very different from the small 
 quadruped which rolls itself into a ball to re- 
 sist attack, but attacks nobody itself. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 19 
 
 Did Shakespeare write "Venus and Adonis"? 
 The tendency of the following pages is to prove it 
 doubtful, if not impossible; and yet, frankly, I am 
 unable to convince myself either way. The subor- 
 dinate argument of the poem is the same as that of 
 the Sonnets — viz., to encourage a handsome youth 
 to beget offspring, which may prove something; and 
 Hallam ventured to doubt if Shakespeare wrote the 
 Sonnets now called his, though he may have written 
 those which Meres mentioned. The single passage 
 in the poem which sounds to me like " Shakes- 
 peare " is where Venus sobs in the midst of her 
 commonplace monologue over the departed Adonis: 
 "What tongue hath music now?" I do not place 
 much stress upon the banalities of the poem, such as 
 
 he intends 
 To hunt the boar with certain of his friends — 
 
 or 
 
 the queen 
 Intends to immure herself and not be seen — 
 
 for Shakespeare often nods in just that way. 
 
 But there are some touches in the poem which 
 seem to me to show a country lad's, or a recent 
 country lad's, hand. In the dedication the phrase 
 " never after ear (that is, plow) so barren a land " 
 is one of them. Another striking one is where 
 Adonis, outstripping the wind in speed, is said "to 
 bid the wind a base." This is an allusion to the 
 rustic game of "prisoner's base" — the point of 
 which every country lad knows is for the prisoner 
 to run to a goal or " base," and for the jailer to 
 head for it also, to prevent his reaching it. If 
 
20 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 Southampton, or any courtier, had written the 
 passage, plenty of other figures would have occurred 
 to him. Again, in the passage where, with extrava- 
 gant euphuism, Adonis' open mouth is said to 
 resemble 
 
 Red morn, that ever yet betokened 
 Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field, 
 
 the first allusion is, of course, to the old saw 
 that at 
 
 A rainbow in the morning the sailors take warning, 
 
 and the other to a rainstorm — which, in Warwick- 
 shire dialect, is called a " tempest." 
 
 Euphuism is said to have been so popular in Lon- 
 don that experts advertised to give instruction in 
 the art, and there are three other instances at least 
 in the poem that are quite too extravagant, viz. : 
 
 When he beheld his shadow in the brook, the 
 fishes spread it {i.e., the shadow) on their gills; 
 where Adonis is said to be buried in the dimple on 
 his own cheek; or where Venus, beholding the dead 
 body of Adonis through her tears, sees double, and 
 so is said to be herself the murderer of the extra 
 Adonis! Of the words " cabin," "cabinet," it seems 
 odd that the boar's den and the socket of one of Ve- 
 nus' eyes should equally be called a "cabin," and 
 that the nest, or lighting-place, of a lark should 
 be called a "cabinet. 
 
 I confess, too, to a difficulty with the word 
 " cope," in the line, 
 
 They all strain courtesy who shall cope him first. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 21 
 
 The phrase, to cope with, that is, to strive with, or 
 to fight with, or to emulate something, is good 
 classical English, but, used transitively, it may be 
 the Warwickshire dialect word " cop " — pronounced 
 coop — meaning to catch. 
 
 The word " coop " is once used in the plays in this 
 sense : 
 
 And coops from other lands her islanders. 
 
 — King John, II. i. 25. 
 
 And the word " cope " (unless it is the same word) 
 seems to be used also in that sense three times, 
 viz. : 
 
 Ajax shall cope the best. 
 
 — Troilus and Cressida, II. iii. 275. 
 
 How long ago, and when he hath , and is again to cope your 
 wife. — Othello, IV. i. 57. 
 
 I love to cope him in these sullen fits. 
 
 — As You Like It, II i. 65. 
 
 As there is no means of determining the matter, 
 one conjecture is as good as another as to these, for 
 unfortunately the orthography of the quartos is un- 
 reliable, and of the folios no better. 
 
 The words " musits " (openings in hedges) — 
 " slips " (counterfeit money) — " unkind "(used four 
 times in the poem in the sense of disinclination in 
 either sex to the procreation of children) ; "over- 
 shut " (to conclude or close a transaction) ; " crank " 
 (to run back and forward, crossing one's own track, 
 or dodging a pursuer); "direction" (meaning a 
 physical instinct); "lawnd" (for a lawn or green- 
 sward); "chat" (meaning conversation — the War- 
 
2 2 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 wickshire form would be "clat")— may be mis- 
 prints. But they are not, anyliow, Warwickshire 
 words. When Venus says her eyes are gray (blue 
 eyes being called " gray " eyes in Elizabeth's day), 
 she certainly does not use Warwickshire dialect. 
 
 Scholars who have within the last forty years 
 raised the most interesting questions as to whether 
 Shakespeare was, after all, the author of the 
 plays called his have always laid much stress upon 
 what are known as the parallelisms between the 
 plays and contemporary and neighboring literature. 
 These " parallelisms," however, have not strength- 
 ened whatever strength the anti-Shakespeareans 
 have been able to marshal. For what poet, 
 predecessor, contemporary, or successor does not 
 Shakespeare — who was not one, but every man's 
 epitome — "parallel"? or, what writers or sets of 
 writings, produced in an identical era and genera- 
 tion, in an identical neighborhood, and political, 
 social, and economical environment, would not 
 "parallel"? It is notable, however, that what- 
 ever else may or may not parallel, the poems and 
 the plays certainly cannot be paralleled either in 
 style, method, diction, or music. In the hundreds 
 of differing moods and styles of the plays there is 
 absolutely not a line which suggests the poem; 
 the single exception (if it is an exception) being in 
 the line of the " Venus and Adonis " : 
 
 And, beauty dead, black chaos comes again ! 
 
 and where Othello (III. iii. 92) says of Desdemona, 
 line 1000, 
 
 And when I love thee not, chaos is come again ! 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 23 
 
 In line 870 of the same poem occurs an analogy, 
 which seems, by reason of the surrounding con- 
 text, remarkable enough to warrant a paragraph by 
 itself. The line runs 
 
 And all in haste she coasteth to the cry. 
 
 Here Venus is represented as catching the cry of 
 the hunt in the distance, and endeavoring to come 
 up with it guided by her ear alone. To express 
 this, the poet selects a word which brings up the 
 image of a ship steering along a coast, blindly, as if 
 fog-bound; groping its way by means of signs or 
 sounds on shore. Is it possible that a poet, not a 
 seafaring man, nor himself familiar with a sea- 
 coast or the habits of mariners, whose whole life- 
 time had been passed in an interior country, should 
 have employed this figure? The word coasteth, in 
 this analogy, cannot be found in English literature 
 earlier than the poem,* and probably it has never 
 been used elsewhere from that day to this, except 
 in " Henry VIII.," supposed to have been written 
 fifteen years later (" The king in this perceiveth 
 him, how he coasts and hedges his own way " — III. 
 ii. 38). Now "Henry VIII." is the play which 
 Spedding, Gervinius, Fleay, and the English verse- 
 testers think was written in great part by Fletcher. 
 But scene ii. of Act III., where the above lines 
 occur, is by nearly all of these gentlemen assigned 
 to Shakespeare. As to the word " cabin " we may not 
 speak with equal confidence. Its use in "The Tem- 
 
 * It is used later, in the play, " The Loyal Subject " (1618) : 
 " Take you these horses and coast 'em," Act V. scene ii. 
 
24 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 pest " four times,* and once each in " The Winter's 
 Tale,"fthe "Richard III., "J the "Hamlet, "§ and the 
 "Antony and Cleopatra,"| in its modern nautical 
 sense, is, on the other hand, offset by its use in 
 "Twelfth Night, "1[ in its modern landsmen's sense 
 of a hut or small dwelling-place on shore, and the 
 use of cabin as a verb in " Titus Andronicus " ** and 
 of "cabined" as a participle in " Macbeth, "ff And 
 it may have been natural enough to find a country 
 lad speaking of the sockets of a goddess's eyes as 
 cabins (line 1038), since if he had before spoken 
 (line 637) of a boar's den as a cabin, the Warwick- 
 shireian did not use the word in his dialect. He 
 said " whoam " and " house " and " housen "—and 
 the verb to cabin would naturally have been to 
 housen, that is, to put into a house to shelter. How- 
 ever, as the root is the mediaeval Latin capanna or 
 cabanna, the word might have been used in that 
 sense in Warwickshire! 
 
 But, as to even what unmistakable traces of War- 
 wickshire the plays present, the commentators are 
 unable to agree. While, for example, Mr. KingJJ; 
 urges that the use of "old" ior frequent, by the 
 drunken porter in "Macbeth," proves the Shakes- 
 pearean authorship of the porter's soliloquy, Cole- 
 ridge §§ dismisses the whole soliloquy as containing' 
 "not one syllable" of Shakespeare. "The low 
 
 * I. i. 15-18, 28, II. 197. -j. III. iii. 24. 
 
 fl- iv. 12. §V. ii. 12. I II. vii. 137. 
 
 fl. V. 285. **IV. ii. 179. tf III. iv. 24. 
 
 %% " Bacon and Shakespeare, a Plea for the Defendant," 
 Montreal, 1877. 
 §§ " Literary Remains," ii. 246-247. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 25 
 
 soliloquy of the porter," says Coleridge, "and his 
 few speeches afterward, I believe to have been 
 written for the mob by some other hand, perhaps 
 with Shakespeare's consent, and finding it take, 
 he — with the remaining ink of a pen otherwise 
 employed — just interpolated the words, 'I'll devil 
 porter it no further; I had thought to let in some 
 of all professions that go the primrose way to the 
 everlasting bonfire.' However, of the rest not one 
 syllable has the ever-present being of Shakespeare." 
 But he fails to notice the almost literal repetition of 
 the sentiment in "All's Well that Ends Well" (IV. 
 V. 54): "They'll be for the flowery way that leads 
 to the broad gate and the great fire." (A. capital 
 illustration of the value of internal evidence in 
 writing Shakespearean biography!) 
 
 As a rule, dialect is used by the low-comedy 
 characters of the plays, and in the comic situations. 
 While the source of the plot of almost every play 
 is known, and the original of many of the speeches, 
 in Hollinshed and Plutarch and elsewhere, yet, of 
 these comic situations, speeches, dialogues, and 
 personages, no originals can be unearthed by 
 the most indefatigable commentator. Whatever 
 else Shakespeare borrowed, these — so far as any 
 traces exist — we find to have been his own. He 
 often repeats his own conceptions, amplifying and 
 perfecting them, as Launce is enriched into Launce- 
 lot Gobbo, or Elbow into Dogberry, Parolles into 
 Pistol, etc. But there was no model for them. 
 They are creations pure and simple, and, for one of 
 them — the character of Ancient Pistol — it may be 
 said that nowhere in all literature or in any Ian- 
 
26 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 guage has even an imitation been attempted. Yet 
 it is in these very plays, side by side with the patois 
 of the clowns and wenches, that the English lan- 
 guage rises to flights the sublimity of which it was 
 but once more — in the King James Version of the 
 Scriptures — to attain. 
 
 "The Warwickshire dialect even to-day is un- 
 mistakable. The vowel always has a double sound, 
 the jy sometimes present, sometimes not; either aal 
 or yaal. D and / interchangeable (as juke for 
 duke): the nominative and accusative transposed — 
 (as us done it, He done it to we. ) Thou never heard. 
 In general the 2d person singular not used in War- 
 wickshire, except occasionally to young members 
 of a family, and then always in the form of thee — 
 that is '■ ee.' For the emphatic nominative — yo\\k.e. 
 the Lancashire. For the accusative, yer without 
 any sound of the r. The demonstrative those never 
 heard among the common people (unless when 
 caught by infection from the parson, etc.) j^//" pro- 
 nounced sen. The/ never heard in of, nor the n in 
 in. Thejaswell as the h silent or compensated 
 for, in words where it does not belong. So ear will 
 be pronounced Year. But head will be pronounced 
 Yed. Ah, the long sound of a, prefixed to most 
 active verbs and adjectives, as a-coming, a-shear- 
 ing, a-ploughing: adry, athirsty, acold, a-ungry, 
 or for the preposition, on — as atop, awheel, a- 
 foot; or, for in — ato for in two: (Cut it ato ooth 
 thee knife = cut it in two with your knife), or even 
 prefixed to prepositions themselves: as come anear 
 me noo! Don't get anigh them 'osses. A (ah) is 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 27 
 
 almost unvariably used for the verb has. ' Ho, ho) ' 
 quoth the devil. ' 'Tis my John a' Coombe,' as in 
 Shakespeare's familiar pun — to-day." 
 
 I am indebted to Mr. Jesse Salisbury of Little 
 Comberton for the following specimens of pure 
 modern Warwickshirean. Here is a village wag, 
 drawing on the credulity of his fellows : 
 
 "Wer did I get ere big taters from? well, I'll 
 tell yu. Ower Tom un I wus at work in brickyard, 
 look, un bwutman as 'ad come up river from 
 Gloucester, thraowed two or three goodish taters 
 out o' bwut; so we picks 'em up un peels 'em fur 
 dinner. Well, atter we'd peeled 'em we thraows 
 pedin' on to a yup o' rubbidge, bricks' inds un 
 that, un thought no moore about it. Well, in a 
 faow wicks' time I siz a bit uv a wimblin top a 
 comin' up among bricks' inds, un I sez to Tom, sez 
 I, ' Now we wunt touch that theare tater, but we'll 
 wait un see what sart uv a one 'e is, look thii.' So 
 when it wus time to dig um up (un there seemed 
 smartish faow at the root), we dug round um 
 keerful like so as nat to spwile eny on um, un on 
 you'll believe I, thay wus biggest taters as I ever 
 sin. The biggest on um wus so 'eavy that ower 
 Tom un I 'ad to carry 'im away between us on 
 'ond-borrow. Now, chaps, let's 'ave another 'arn 
 cider un get on." 
 
 And here is a local folk-tale — a story told by a 
 thrasher-man, who has tramped to hire out for 
 harvesting time, to his mates in the field. 
 
 " The Devil once called on a farmer and exed 'im 
 
28 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 if he could give him job. 'What con'st do?' said 
 the farmer. 'Oh! enything bout farm,' said devil. 
 'Well, I wans mon to 'elp mu to thresh mow o' 
 whate,' sez farmer. ' All right,' sez devil, 'I'm yer 
 mon.' When they got to barn, farmer said to devil, 
 'Which oot thee do, thresh or thraow down?' 
 'Thresh,' says devil. So farmer got o' top o' 
 mow and begun to thraow down shuvs on to barn 
 flur, but as fast as 'e cud thraow 'em down devil 
 ooth one stroke uv 'is nile,"^ knocked all the earn out 
 on um, un send shuvs flying out o' barn dooer. 
 Farmer thought as had got queer sart thresher- 
 mon; un as 'e couldn't thraow down fast enough 
 far 'im 'e sez to 'im, * Thee come un thraow down 
 oot?' 'AH right,' sez devil. So farmer gets down 
 off mow by ladther, but devil 'e just gives lep up 
 from barn flur to top o' mow, athout waiting to goo 
 up ladther. ' Be yii ready?' sez devil. 'Iss, ' sez 
 farmer. Ooth that devil sticks 'is shuppick into 
 as many shuvs as ood kiver barn flur, an thraows 
 um down. 'That '11 do fur bit,' sez farmer, so 
 devil sat down un waited t'U farmer 'ud threshed 
 lot, un when a was ready agyun, 'e thraow'd down 
 another flur full; un afore night they'd finished 
 threshin' whole o' mow o' whate. Farmer couldn't 
 'elp thinkin' a good dyull about 'is new mon, fur 
 'e'd never sin sich a one afore. ('E didn't knaow 
 it wus devil, thu knaowst, 'cos he took keer nat to 
 let farmer see 'is cloven fut.) So marnin' 'e got up 
 yarly un went un spoke to cunnin' mon about it. 
 Cunnin' mon said it must be th' devil as 'ad come 
 to 'im, un as 'e 'ad exed 'im in, 'e couldn't get shut 
 * S?e Glossary, post. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 29 
 
 on 'im athout 'e could give 'itn job as 'a couldn't do. 
 Soon alter farmer got wum agyun, is new mon 
 (the devil) wanted to knaow what he wus do that 
 day, and farmer thought 'e'd give 'im 'tazer; so he 
 sez, ' Goo into barn, look, un count number o' earns 
 there be in that yup o' whate as we threshed out 
 istaday.' 'All right,' sez Old Nick, un off a went. 
 In faom minutes 'e comes back and sez, ' Master, 
 there be so many' (namin' ever so many thousan' or 
 millions un odd, Id'na 'ow many). 'Bist sure 
 thee'st counted um all? ' sez farmer. 'Every earn,' 
 sez Satan. Then farmer ardered 'im goo un fill 
 'ogshead borrel full a water ooth sieve. So off 'e 
 shuts agyun, but soon comes back un tells farmer 
 e'd done it; un sure anough 'a 'ad; un every job 
 farmer set 'im to do was same. Poor farmer didn't 
 know what to make on it, fur thaough 'e wus a 
 gettin' work done up sprag, 'e didn't like new 
 mon's company. 'Owever, farmer thought he'd 
 'ave another try to trick 'im, un teld devil 'e wanted 
 'im goo ooth 'im a-mowin' come marnin.' 'All 
 right,' sez old un, 'I'll be there, master.' But 
 soon as it was night farmer went to the fild, un in 
 the part the devil was to mow, 'e druv lot o' borrow 
 tynes into ground amongst grass. In marnin' they 
 got to the fild smartish time, un begun to mow; 
 farmer 'e took 'is side, and teld devil to begin o' 
 tother, where 'e'd stuck in borrow tynes thu 
 knaowst. Well, at it went devil, who but 'e, un 
 soon got in among the stuck up borrow tynes; but 
 thay made no odds, 'is scythe went thraough 'em 
 all, un only every time 'e'd cut one on um thraough, 
 esezt farmer 'bur-dock, master '; un kep on just the 
 
3° THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 same. Poor farmer 'e got so frightened last, 'e 
 thraough'd down 'is scythe un left devil to finish 
 fild. As luck ood 'ave it, soon atter 'a got wum, 
 gipsy ooman called at farm 'ouse, and seein' farmer 
 was in trouble exed 'im what was matter; so 'e up 
 un tell'd 'er all about it. 'Ah, master,' 'er sez to 
 'im, when 'e 'ad tell'd 'er all about it; 'you 'a 
 got devil in 'ouse sure enough, un you can ainst 
 get shut on 'im by givin' 'im summut to do as a' 
 caunt manage.' 'Well, ooman,' sez farmer, 'what's 
 use o' telling mil that? I a tried eve.ry thing I con 
 think on, but darned uf I cun find 'im eny job as a' 
 caunt do.' 'I'll tell you what do,' sez gipsy ooman; 
 'when 'a comes wum, you get missis to give 'im 
 one uv 'er curly 'airs; un then send 'im to black- 
 smith's shap, to straighten 'im on smith's anvil. 
 'E'll find 'a caunt do that, un 'e'll get so wild over 
 it as 'e'll never come back to yii agyun. ' Farmer 
 was very thenkful to gipsy ooman, and said 'e'd 
 try 'er plan. So bye 'n bye in comes devil, un sez, 
 'I a finished mowin', master; what else a you got 
 far mu to do?' 'Well, I caunt think uv another 
 job just now,' sez farmer, 'but I thinks missis a got 
 a little job for thu.' So 'e called missis, un 'er gan 
 devil a curly 'air lapped up in bit o' paper, un 
 tell'd 'im goo smith's shap, un 'ommer that there 
 'air straight; un when 'a was straight to bring 'im 
 back to 'er. 'All right, missis,' sez devil, un off a 
 shut. When 'a got to smith's shap, 'e 'ommer'd un 
 'ommer'd at that there 'air on anvil, but moore 'e 
 'ommered, the cruckeder 'air got; so at last 'e 
 thraowed down 'oomer and 'air and baowted, un 
 niver corned back to farmer agyun." 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 31 
 
 This is nineteenth-century. The following is of 
 earlier date: 
 
 Old Man (meeting lad with fishing pole on his way 
 to the Avon). E waund thu bist agwain fishun? 
 
 Lad. Yus, gaffer, E be gwan pint umbit. You 
 used go aince a whiles, didn't yu? 
 
 Old Man. Oy breckling, E 'ad girt spurt times. 
 E mind gwain Bricklund Bank aince und reckons 
 Tasker Payne went an all. Doost mind oawd 
 Tasker? Uns yused ca 'im Bo Naish cos weared 
 white 'at. Wul, uns baited ole come marning, and 
 uns forcasted t' ave old spart, but daas 't, we 'd 
 naught but one or two nibbles fust. Ainse summat 
 tuk float as if auld hundud 'd a bin on yend ov 
 line. So E picks up stale and pugged an' pugged 
 un fish 'e pugged like es ed pug me into river. 
 Well, E let fish ave girt run sowst' tire 'im bit thu 
 knaowst. Then E yuzzies 'im up bit. But lars, E 
 reckoned E ad summat on line bigger 'n E yever 
 ketched afore. So E sez Tasker, " Tasker, us shall 
 ave pother getting this ir oot, look thu!" Well, 
 doost reckon me 'n Tasker could land 'em? Na, 
 no moore ner as ad been Oawd Ingleund ooked on 
 line. Bit furder, thaough wuz zum Pawsha chaps, 
 Mark Russell, oawd Red-nob Chucketts, un er two 
 thayrebuttys. Thee mindst Red-nob, doosn't? Ah, 
 thu shoodst sin un, reklin, when Lard Coventry 
 come age, when Brud strit long o' Pashaws' wuz a 
 chock tables un faolks sittin' down dinner at un an 
 caddie enow t' pheeze divil 'imself! Plum puddins 
 in waggin loads bless thu, trews E stons there. 
 Poor aowd Red-nob, E con zee um naow, walkin' 
 
32 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 daown chiver arm un arm long yung Gunneral, as 
 masterful as if ees is even Christian und Lard 
 Coventry's carredge keepin' tune long o' musi- 
 cianers uth' and bell. 
 
 Lad. But wha bout fish, gaffer? 
 
 Old Man. Ah, uns all maniged t' get in oot 
 water, un e wuz roomthy! WuU, there! e was dyul 
 t' big to 'elp 'long, E wuz grumpus er summat that. 
 Zo uns cut shive oot o midst ov um all roun' un left 
 arts on Bank. Never sin sich fish afore nar sense. 
 
 Lad. Maybe E shull find bwns agin Bricklund 
 Bank naow, gaffer? 
 
 Old Man. Doesnt thee terrify un, reklin! That 
 thee oont fiir Master Bomfud 'elped farry un chats 
 in cyart und burned mang un sewed ashes in feld o 
 mangles, un Master Bumfud canks yit that wuz best 
 crap mangles ever kindled that lay. Fain they 
 all'd fishlike! Them wnz ussun words. But 'z 
 wear in soon reklin. Better shog. Mind nat 
 tumble water! 
 
 Of course, in all of the above, then is transposed. 
 
 As to the conjugation of the verbs most in use 
 in colloquial speech, the Stratford-on-Avon, War- 
 wickshire usage, was doubtless in Shakespeare's 
 day practically as at present. Certainly it was not 
 less barbarous. 
 
 
 TO BE. 
 
 
 Present. 
 
 I be. 
 
 We be. 
 
 Thee bist. 
 
 You be. 
 
 'E or 'er is. 
 
 Thaay be, 
 
I wuz. 
 Thee wust, 
 'E wuz. 
 
 I byunt. 
 Thee bissent. 
 'E yunt. 
 
 THE ENVIRONMENT. 
 
 Past. 
 
 We wuz. 
 You wuz. 
 Thaay wuz. 
 
 Negative {present). 
 
 We byunt. 
 You byunt. 
 Thaay byunt. 
 
 33 
 
 Negative (past). 
 
 I wuzzent, or wornt. We wuzzent, or wornt. 
 
 Thee wussent. You wuzzent, or wornt. 
 
 'E wuzzent, or wornt. Thaay wuzzent, or ■wornt. 
 
 Inter rog. {present). 
 
 Be J1 or be e? Be we^ or be us? 
 
 Bist thee2 Be. you? or be yu? 
 
 Is 'e? or is tt? Be thaay? or be 'um? 
 
 Interrog. (past). 
 
 Wuz /? Wus rej^? or wiiz-us? 
 
 Wust t/iee? Wus ybu? or rviiz yu7 
 
 Wuz 'e? Wuz tMay? or wiiz um? 
 
 Interrog. Neg. (present). 
 
 Byunt I? 
 Bissent thee? 
 Yunt 'e? or yunt u? 
 
 Byunt us? 
 
 'Byunt you? or byunt yii? 
 Byunt thaay? or byunt 
 'um? 
 
34 
 
 THE WARWJCkSHiRE DIALECT. 
 
 Interrog. Neg. {past). 
 
 Wuzzent I? Wuzzent we? or wuzzent 
 
 us? 
 
 Wussent thee? or wussent? Wuzzent you? or wuzzent 
 
 yii?. 
 
 Wuzzent 'e? or wuzzent li? Wuzzent thaay? or wuz- 
 zent 'urn? 
 
 
 TO HAVE. 
 
 
 Present. 
 
 I 'ave, or 'a. 
 
 We 'ave or 'a. 
 
 Thee 'ast. 
 
 You 'ave or 'a. 
 
 'E 'ave, or 'a. 
 
 Thaay 'ave, or 'a. 
 
 
 Past. 
 
 I 'ad. 
 
 We 'ad. 
 
 Thee 'adst. 
 
 You 'ad. 
 
 'E 'ad. 
 
 Thaay 'ad. 
 
 
 Negative {present). 
 
 I 'ant, or 'aint. 
 
 We 'ant, or 'aint. 
 
 Thee 'assn't. 
 
 You 'ant or 'aint. 
 
 'E 'ant or 'aint. 
 
 Thaay 'ant or 'aint. 
 
 
 Negative {past). 
 
 I 'adn't. 
 
 We 'adn't. 
 
 Thee 'adn'st. 
 
 You 'adn't. 
 
 'E 'adn't. 
 
 Thaay 'adn't. 
 
 
 Interrog. {present). 
 
 'Ave I? ox 'ave e? 
 'Ast thee? or 'ast? 
 'Uv 'e? or '«W(f il? 
 
 'Ave we? or 'az/,? us? 
 'Kv^you? or 'aw^ yii? 
 'Uv thaay? or 'a»i?'um? 
 
TttE ENVIRONMENT. 35 
 
 Interrog. (Jiast). 
 'Ad /? or 'ad e? 'Ad we? or 'ad us? 
 
 'Adst tAee? or 'ai/j/? 'Adjc^«? or 'ady&? 
 
 Ad 'tf? or 'ad u? 'Ad /y^aaj? or 'ad 'um? 
 
 Interrog. Neg. (^present). 
 'An't /? or 'a«V e? 'An't wel or 'a«'^ us? 
 
 'Assn't thee2 or 'assn'tl 'An't you? or 'a«7 yu? 
 'An't V? or 'an't ii? 'An't //%««)'? or 'an't um? 
 
 Interrog. Neg. [past). 
 'Adn't /? or 'a'^«'/ e? 'Adn't we? or '«^«'/ us? 
 
 'Adn'st //ziftf? ov'adns't? 'Adn't you? ov 'adn't yu? 
 'Adn't 'e? or '«(/«'/ u? 'Adn't tAaay? or '«^«'/ 
 
 um? 
 
 SHALL. 
 
 I shoU. We sholl. 
 
 Thee shot. You sholl. 
 
 'E sholl. Thaay sholl. 
 
 f shud, or I s/iood. We shttd, or we shood. 
 
 T/iee shudst, orthee s/ioodst. You shud, or you shood. 
 ' E shild, ^r 'E .f/^wi/. Thaay shud, ^r thaay 
 
 shood. 
 Imperative. 
 A — I. e. Stop that. A dun 66t. 
 
 Negative. 
 I shaunt. We shaunt. 
 
 Thee shotn't. You shaunt. 
 
 'E shaunt. Thaay shaunt. 
 
 I shoodn't. We shoodn't. 
 
 Thee shoodn'st. You shoodn't. 
 
 'E shoodn't. Thaay shoodn't. 
 
36 
 
 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 Interrogative. 
 
 Sholl /, or sholl e? ShoU we] or shall us? 
 
 Shot7 or shot theel Sholl you? or sholl ytt? 
 
 Sholl 'el or i/^t?// a? Sholl thaay? or .f/^i?// um? 
 
 Interrogative Negative. 
 
 Shaunt I? or shaunt e? 
 Shotn't? or shotn't ///^if? 
 Shaunt 'e? or shaunt ti. 
 
 Shaunt 7w? or shaunt nsl 
 Shaunt jfJM? or shaunt y^l 
 Shaunt thaay? or shaunt 
 um? 
 
 WILL. 
 
 I '661. 
 Thee 66t. 
 'E '661. 
 
 We '661. 
 You '661. 
 Thaay '661. 
 
 I '66d. 
 Thee 66dst. 
 'E '66d. 
 
 We '66d. 
 You '66d. 
 Thaay ■66d. 
 
 
 Negative. 
 
 I wunt. 
 Thee 66tn't. 
 'E wunt. 
 
 We wunt. 
 You wunt. 
 Thaay wunt. 
 
 
 Interrogative. 
 
 'Ool J? or ool e? 
 'Oot thee? or dot? 
 '061 'e? or ool u? 
 
 '061 we? or ool us? 
 'C)o\you? or 'ooly^l 
 'Ool thaay? or ^(?/ um? 
 
 Interrogative Negative. 
 
 Wunt I? or w««/' e? Wunt we? or «'««/ us? 
 
 'Oetn't thee? or w7«'/? Wunt j<?«? or wunt yd? 
 
 Wunt V? or wunt ytt? Wunt thaay? or wuntum} 
 
I con. 
 
 Thee const. 
 'E con. 
 
 THE ENVIRONMENT. 
 CAN. 
 
 We con. 
 You con. 
 Thaay con. 
 
 37 
 
 I caunt. 
 Thee cosn't. 
 'E caunt. 
 
 Negathw. 
 
 We caunt. 
 You caunt. 
 Thaay caunt. 
 
 Interrogative. 
 
 Cun /? or con e? 
 Cun'st theel or const? 
 Cun 'el or con u. 
 
 Cun wei or con us? 
 Cun you? or con y<i? 
 Cun thaay? or ftf« um? 
 
 Interrogative Negative. 
 
 Caunt I? or ca««/ e? 
 Cosn't thee? or cosn't? 
 Caunt 'e? or caunt ii? 
 
 Caunt w^.? or ^aa^/ us? 
 Ca.\int you? or caunt yH? 
 Caunt thaay? or caunt 
 um? 
 
 The American negro — or " po white trash " — par- 
 adigm reminds of this. For example, the verb To 
 Do — would be: 
 
 I done it. 
 You done it. 
 He done it. 
 
 Present. 
 
 We uns done it. 
 You uns done it. 
 They uns done it. 
 
38 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 Preterite. 
 
 I done gone done it. We uns done gone done 
 
 it. 
 You done gone done it. You uns done gone done 
 
 it. 
 He done gone done it. They uns done gone 
 
 done it. 
 
 Future. 
 
 I go for to done it. We uns go for to done it. 
 
 You go for to done it. You uns go for to done 
 
 it. 
 He goes for to done it. They uns go for to done 
 
 it. 
 
 Future Perfect. 
 
 I go for to done gone We uns go for to done 
 
 done it. gone done it. 
 
 You go for to done gone You uns go for to done 
 
 done it. gone done it. 
 
 He goes for to done gone They uns go for to done 
 
 done it. gone done it, etc. 
 
 It has not escaped remark that much of the 
 dialect spoken prior to the Civil War by the Ameri- 
 can plantation negro was quite as akin to much 
 of the English provincial dialects as was the best 
 English spoken in America, in that portion settled 
 in the Shakespeare day, from 1607 to 1623, to the 
 English of the plays; the explanation of this phe- 
 nomenon being a very simple one, if we allow for the 
 usual rule that deterioration is a more powerful 
 tendency than improvement everywhere, and that in 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 39 
 
 association of classes speaking a purer with other 
 classes speaking a more corrupted speech, the better 
 will imitate the lesser culture rather than the reverse. 
 The Southern negro says, and after him his master 
 was apt to say, strucken for struck. Just as in 
 "The Comedy of Errors" (I. ii. 45), Dromio of 
 Ephesus says "The clock hath strucken twelve 
 upon the bell," "I had thought to have strucken 
 him blind with a cudgel." Says the servant in 
 "Coriolanus," {IV. v. 156). And "What is't 
 o'clock? Caesar, 'tis strucken eight" ("Julius 
 Csesar," II. ii. 114). "He that is strucken blind, 
 cannot forget the precious treasure " (" Romeo and 
 Juliet," I. i. 238), and Biron in "Love's Labor's 
 Lost," IV. iii. 221, who usually speaks the purest 
 English in that play, asks who sees the heavenly 
 Rosaline that does not bow his vassal head 
 
 And, strucken blind, 
 Kisses the base ground with obedient breast ? 
 
 And the use of the word " trash " to indicate what 
 are considered no-account mortals (even the negroes 
 of that date indicating white people too poor to 
 own slaves as " po' white trash ") is clearly Shakes- 
 pearean. As "what trash is Rome — what rubbish 
 and what offal," says Cassius ("Julius Csesar," 
 I. iii. 108), clearly alluding to the Roman citizens 
 who have offended him. So lago calls Roderigo 
 and Bianca "trash " ("I do suspect this trash to be 
 a party in this injury," " Othello," V. i. 85), having 
 already so alluded to Cassio, Desdemona, and prob- 
 ably Othello himself (Idem, II. i. 296). And I am 
 assured that the word "swinge," in the sense of, to 
 
4° THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 whip, or to beat, is a Southern United States usage: 
 "Swinge me them soundly forth," "Taming of the 
 Shrew," V. ii. 104; " I would have swinged him or 
 he should have swinged me," "Merry Wives," 
 V. V. 197; "I swinged him soundly," "Measure 
 for Measure," V L 130; "Saint George that 
 swinged the Dragon," " King John," II. i. 288; " I 
 will have you as soundly swinged for this," 2 
 Henry IV., V. iv. 21; "If you be not swinged I'll 
 forswear halfkirtles," Idem, V. iv. 23 ; " You swinged 
 me for my love," " Two Gentlemen of Verona," II. 
 i. 88; "Now will he be swinged for reading my 
 letter," Idem, III. i. 392. 
 
 As for the H, we need not go beyond the plays 
 themselves to find that unfortunate letter hustled 
 back and forth from the beginning to the end of 
 words, or even put into the middle of words where 
 it did not belong and taken out where it did. 
 
 The pith of Beatrice's answer to Margaret's 
 
 " For a hawk, a horse or a husband." 
 " For the letter that begins them all — H." (" Much 
 Ado About Nothing," III. iv. 55) 
 
 undoubtedly referred to the pronunciation of the 
 word "ache" as H, i.e., aitch. But there would 
 have been no opportunity for it, had not the dis- 
 placement been then, as now, proverbial. But it is 
 curious to find that not only even the H at the 
 beginning of a word, but even that at the end or in 
 the middle of a word, was sometimes eliminated. 
 Thus the name of the little page, in "Love's 
 Labor's Lost," "Moth," was pronounced " Mote," 
 and "nothing," pronounced "noting," as in the 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 41 
 
 pun in lines 51, 52, 53, scene iii. Act II., " Much 
 Ado About Nothing." So we owe the name of 
 Shakespeare's masterpiece and its title r61e to the 
 Frenchman of that date (who also transposed his 
 H's). And Belleforest, by bringing the h from the 
 silent to the aspirated end of the name, made Saxo's 
 hero from Amleth into Hamlet. 
 
 In the word " abhominable " (from the Latin a 
 a.nd hominem), however, was pronounced, in Shakes- 
 peare's day precisely as at present, "abominable,'' as 
 we learn from Holof ernes' criticism on Armado's pro- 
 nunciation in the "Love's Labor Lost" (V. i. 21). 
 
 So much for the Warwickshire dialect into which 
 young William Shakespeare was born, and in the 
 midst of which he lived until, in his eighteenth or 
 nineteenth year, he goes (according to Richard 
 Grant White) to London with the poem, "Venus 
 and Adonis," in his pocket. 
 
 Of course "Venus and Adonis" might have been 
 written in the Warwickshire dialect by a man not 
 Warwickshire born and bred. But would the con- 
 verse proposition be true? Could "Venus and 
 Adonis " — as we have it — have been written by one 
 Warwickshire born and bred in the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, who had not been first qualified by drill in the 
 courtly English in which we happen to find that 
 poem written? 
 
 A man of education and culture, one practiced 
 in English composition, may forge the style of a 
 letterless rustic. Thackeray in his " Yellowplush 
 Papers" and Lowell in his "Biglow Papers," have 
 done it; and so have Charles Dickens and hundreds 
 of others. But could a letterless clown forge the 
 
42 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 Style of a gentleman of culture? Tennyson could 
 write "The Northern Farmer" in Yorkshire dia- 
 lect. But could a Yorkshire farmer, who knew 
 nothing of any vernacular except the Yorkshire, 
 have written the " Princess," or " Maud," or 
 "In Memoriam "? or could a Jeames Yellowplush 
 have written "Vanity Fair" or " Pendennis?" 
 And if they could have done it after training, 
 could they have done it without the opportunity 
 for training? A great many wise and eminent 
 people, no doubt, may have left Warwickshire in 
 mid-England for London in Elizabeth's day, earlier 
 than even the period of posts or coach roads. 
 Did learned men journey into Warwickshire to 
 carry the culture of the court there? Nothing is 
 more natural for the lover and worshiper of Shakes- 
 peare than to resent any suggestion or hint as to a 
 possible want in his, William Shakespeare's, equip- 
 ment. But it was not certainly William Shakes- 
 peare's fault that he was deprived of resources and 
 opportunities, not only not at hand, but not to 
 arrive until some centuries after his funeral. The 
 best school to which he could have been sent — and 
 the only one which his biographers have ever been 
 able to assign him — was a grammar school in Strat- 
 ford; but the idea of anybody being taught Eng- 
 lish grammar — let alone the English language — in 
 an English grammar school in those days, is not 
 derivable from the record before us. There was 
 no such branch, and mighty little of anything in its 
 place, except birchen rods, the Church catechism, 
 the Criss Cross Row, and a few superfluous Latin 
 declensions out of Lily's "Accidence." 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 43 
 
 The first English grammar was published in the 
 year 1586, when Shakespeare was a young man of 
 twenty-two, with a wife and two children, the oldest 
 three years of age, and when he certainly could not 
 have been a pupil at an institution of learning, and 
 five years earlier than the poem "Venus and 
 Adonis " left Mr. Field's press in Paul's Church- 
 yard. 
 
 As far as the plays are testimony, Shakespeare 
 himself had no very high estimation of pedagogues, 
 as see "Taming of the Shrew," III. i. 4, 48, 87; 
 IV. ii. 63; "Twelfth Night," III. ii. 80; and the 
 character of Holofernes, where no power of ridicule 
 is spared to make the fat-headed old ignoramus of 
 a pedagogue ridiculous, and everybody's butt. In 
 the only play whose scene is laid in Warwickshire 
 he inserts a travesty upon the method of instruction 
 pursued in these very EHzabethan "grammar 
 schools," Here it is: 
 
 Master. Come hither, William, hold up your 
 head. Come, William, how many numbers is in 
 nouns?- 
 
 WiLLiAM. Two. 
 
 M. What is fair, William? 
 
 W. Pulcher. 
 
 M. What is lapis, William? 
 
 W. A stone. 
 
 M. And what is a stone? 
 
 W. A pebble. 
 
 M. No, it is lapis. I pray you remember in your 
 prain. 
 
 W. Lapis. 
 
44 THE WAkWrCKSBIRE DIALECT. 
 
 M. That is good, William. What is he, William, 
 that does lend articles? 
 
 W. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, and be 
 thus declined: Singulariter nominitavo, hie, hsec, 
 hoc. 
 
 M. Nominitavo hig, hag, hog; pray you, mark, 
 genitive hugus. Well, what is your accusative case? 
 
 W. Accusatavo, hinc. 
 
 M. I pray you have your remembrance, child. 
 Accusatavo: hing, hang, hog. What is the voca- 
 tive case, William? 
 
 W. O; vocative, o. 
 
 M. Remember, William, focative is caret. What 
 is your genitive case plural, William? 
 
 W. Genitive case? 
 
 M. Ay. 
 
 W. Genitive: horum, harum, horum. 
 
 M. Show me now, William, some declensions of 
 your pronouns. 
 
 W. Forsooth, I have forgot. 
 
 M. It is qui, quae, quod; if you forget your quies 
 and your quaes and your quods, you must be 
 preeches.* 
 
 Is this a wanton and utterly unfounded attack 
 upon a worthy, honorable, and conscientious pro- 
 fession and an excellent educational system, or the 
 verbatim report of an eyewitness? If it is, let 
 Pinch and Holofernes answer. Let us see. There 
 is no exactly contemporary testimony; but in 1634 
 the author of the "Compleate Gentleman" says 
 
 *You must be breeched, i. e., flogged, " Merry Wives of 
 Windsor,'' Act IV. scene i. 8l. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 45 
 
 that a country school-teacher " by no entreaty 
 would teach any scholar farther than his (the 
 scholar's) father had learned before him. His 
 reason was that they would otherwise prove saucy 
 rogues and control their fathers." In 1771, when 
 Shakespeare had been dead a century and a half, 
 John Britton, who had attended a provincial gram- 
 mar school in Wilts, says that the pedagogue was 
 wont to teach the "Criss Cross Row," or alphabet, 
 as follows: 
 
 Teacher. Commether, Billy Chubb, an' breng 
 the horren book. Ge ma the vester in tha wendow, 
 you, Pat Came. Wha! be a sleepid! I'll waken 
 ye! Now, Billy, there's a good bwoy, ston still 
 there, an' min whan I da point na! Criss cross 
 girta* little ABC. That is right, Billy. You'll 
 soon learn criss cross row; you'll soon avergit 
 Bobby Jiffrey! You'll soon be a schollard! A's a 
 purty chubby bwoy. Lord love en! 
 
 It could not have been much better in William 
 Shakespeare's boyhood days than in 1634 and 1771. 
 Says Mr. Goadby : "It is evident that much school- 
 ing was impossible, for the necessary books did not 
 exist. The horn-book, for teaching the alphabet, 
 would almost exhaust the resources of any common 
 day school that might exist in the towns and 
 villages. The first English grammar was not 
 published until 1586." f Even Furnivall (who, 
 whatever his crochets, cannot be accused of being a 
 disbeliever in the Shakespearean authorship of the 
 
 * See Glossary, post. 
 
 •j-Goadby's " England of Shakespeare," p. loi. 
 
46 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 plays) says: "I think you would be safe in con- 
 ceding that at such a school as Stratford, about 
 1570, there would be taught (i) an A B C book, for 
 which a pupil teacher (or ' ABCdarius ') is some- 
 times mentioned as having a salary; (2) a catechism 
 in English and Latin, probably Nowell's; (3) the 
 authorized Latin grammar, i.e., Lily's, put out with 
 a proclamation adapted to each king's reign; (4) 
 some easy Latin construing book, such as Erasmus' 
 'Colloquies,' Corderius's 'Colloquies,' or ' Bap- 
 tista Mantuanus,' and the familiar 'Cato' or 
 'Disticha de Moribus.'"* Says Dr. Halliwell- 
 Phillipps: "Unless the system of instruction 
 (in Stratford grammar school) differed essentially 
 from that pursued in other establishments of a 
 similar character, his (Shakespeare's) knowledge of 
 Latin was derived from two well-known books of 
 the time — the 'Accidence' and the ' Sententise 
 Pueriles "... a little manual containing a large 
 collection of brief sentences, collected from a variety 
 of authors, with a distinct selection of moral and 
 religious paragraphs, the latter intended for the 
 use of boys on Saints' days. . . Exclusive of 
 Bibles, church services, psalters, etc., there were 
 certainly not more than two or three dozen books, 
 if as many, in the whole town (Stratford-on-Avon). 
 The copy of the black-letter English history, so 
 often depicted as well thumbed by Shakespeare 
 in his father's parlor, never existed out of the 
 imagination." \ 
 
 But, even had there been books, it seems there 
 
 * " Int. to Leopold Shakespeare, "p. ii. 
 
 f " Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare," 3d Ed., pp. 55-57. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 47 
 
 were no schoolmasters in the days when young 
 William went to school who could have taught him 
 what was necessary. Ascham, who came a little 
 earlier than Shakespeare, said such as were to be 
 had amounted to nothing, and "for the most so 
 behave themselves that their very name is hateful to 
 the scholar, who trembleth at their coming, rejoiceth 
 at their absence, and looketh him returned as a 
 deadly enemy." * Milton (who came a little later) 
 says their teaching was "mere babblement and 
 notions." f " Whereas they make one scholar they 
 mar ten," says Peacham, who describes one country 
 specimen as whipping his boys on a cold winter 
 morning " for no other purpose than to get himself 
 into a heat." J In fact, the birch-rod seems to have 
 been, from the days of Ascham at least to the days 
 when Sergeant Ballantyne and Anthony Trollope 
 went to school, the principal agent of youthful 
 instruction and instructors in England. Thomas 
 Tusser, a pupil of Nicholas Udal, master of Eton, 
 says he used to receive forty-three lashes in the 
 course of one Latin exercise. § Sergeant Ballantyne 
 
 * " Works," Bennet's Ed., p. 212. 
 
 f " Works," Symonds' Ed., London: Bentley, 1806, vol. iii. p. 
 
 348. 
 X Goadby's " England of Shakespeare," p. 100. 
 § Udal was convicted of immoralities with his boys and con- 
 fessed: but it did not interfere with his promotion. 
 From Powles I went to Eton sent 
 To learnye straight the Latine phrase 
 Where strypes forty-three, given to me 
 
 At once I had 
 See Udall see — the mercye of thee 
 
 To me poor lad. 
 — Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrye (1573). 
 
48 
 
 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 (whose schooling must have been somewhere circa 
 1810-1820) said that his teachers were cold-blooded, 
 unsympathetic tyrants, who "flogged continu- 
 ously"* and taught nothing in particular. And 
 Anthony Trollope's experiences, as related in his 
 autobiography, and Charles Reade's, as related in 
 his memoirs by his brother, are directly to the same 
 
 effect. And that there was no desire to conceal 
 the fact that the curriculum of an Edward the Sixth 
 grammar school was principally flogging, there is 
 proof enough. The seal of the grammar school at 
 Lowth, which was also one of the grammar schools 
 founded by Edward VI., bears as its device a school- 
 master flogging a pupil, and doubtless, were the 
 
 *"Some Experiences of a Barrister's Life," London, 1878, p. 
 100. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 49 
 
 seal of Stratford school extant, it would be found to 
 display the same device. 
 
 If any further confirmation of the ways of the 
 sixteenth-century pedagogue is needed, let the 
 reader consult "The Disobedient Child," a rhymed 
 interlude made in 1560 by "Thomas Ingleland, late 
 student in Cambridge," wherein a boy begs his 
 father not to send him to school, where children's 
 
 " tender bodies both night and day 
 Are whipped and scourged and beat like a stone ; 
 That, from top to toe, the skin is away." 
 
 The conclusion is that a maximum of caning and 
 a minimum of parrot-work on desultory Latin para- 
 digms which, whether wrong or right, were of no 
 consequence whatever to anybody, was the village 
 idea of a boy's education in England for long cen- 
 turies, easily inclusive of the years within which 
 William Shakespeare lived and died. The great 
 scholars of those centuries either educated them- 
 selves, or by learned parents were guided to the 
 sources of human intelligence and experience. At 
 any rate they drew nothing out of the country 
 grammar schools. In other words, the forcing 
 systems of Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt, or of that 
 eminent educator Wackford Squeers, Senior, seem 
 to have been, so far as the English branches are 
 concerned, improvements on the methods of rural 
 pedagogues in the sixteenth century. We are not 
 advised whether or no the boys were taught to 
 cipher, but if they were it probably exhausted their 
 scientific course. At any rate, beyond the horn- 
 book, very little reading and writing could have 
 
5° THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 been contemplated in a land where, from a time 
 when the memory of man runneth not to the con- 
 trary to the eighth year of George the Fourth, 
 immunity from the penalty of felonies was granted 
 to anyone who could make profert of those accom- 
 plishments.* 
 
 But, while there is not much of an argument to 
 be drawn from the use of a language, idiom, dialect, 
 or patois, in a literary composition; the absolute 
 absence of any trace or suggestion of any of these 
 may be worthy of very serious consideration indeed 
 in searching for the nativity and vicinage of a 
 writer. A linguist born and resident in France, for 
 example, could hardly be demonstrated to be a 
 modern Greek from an occasional or even a con- 
 stant use of that speech in his books. But, sup- 
 posing that, in the course of very voluminous 
 writings, no trace or suspicion of a single French 
 phrase, idiom, word, peculiarity, turn of expres- 
 sion, or tendency could be unearthed? Would it 
 be safer to conclude that he was or was not a 
 Frenchman? Again, even geniuses like Goethe or 
 Tennyson might perhaps pause in their composi- 
 tion to choose a word that would scan in their 
 prosody; or between one that would rhyme and 
 one that would not. Poetry has its artificial as 
 well as its natural laws. And it is not, perhaps, 
 too heroic or too bizarre to infer that so perfect a 
 poem as "Venus and Adonis" was, as to its form, 
 
 * The curious reader is referred to the fact that in the year 
 1872 benefit of clergy was pleaded in the United States — see 
 State V. Betansky, 3 Minnesota, 246. Probably this is the last 
 date of its appearance anywhere. 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. S^ 
 
 as well as its method and matter, considered by its 
 author. A London-born poet, searching for a 
 rhyme, might well — with all England's pictur- 
 esque dialects before him — select a Yorkshire or 
 a Warwickshire word as precisely to his need. 
 Videlicet Ih.ova.-A.?, Hood, in " Miss Kilmansegg": 
 
 " A load of treasure ? alas! alas! 
 Had her horse but been fed on English grass 
 
 And shelter'd in Yorkshire Spinneys 
 Had he scorn'd the sand with the desert Ass 
 
 Or where the American whinnies — " 
 
 That was because — we will say — Hood happened 
 to want a rhyme for "whinnies." But, while no- 
 body would dream of trying to prove that Hood 
 was Warwickshire- or Yorkshire-born because he 
 used the word "spinneys," which word is common 
 in both dialects, yet would it have been possible 
 for him, had he been Warwickshire- or Yorkshire- 
 born, — in the course of his search for rhymes, — 
 never, in all he wrote, to have taken advantage of 
 a quantity, rhyme, or vowel sound to which his ears 
 had been habituated and his tongue attuned, by 
 birth and heredity, or for an entire lifetime — of a 
 single picturesque phrase, or word that was to him 
 mother tongue? Could he have cut loose, any 
 more than could Burns, from the characteristic, 
 the birthmark, the shibboleth, of his race and kind? 
 If Burns was unable, after a metropolitan drill, to 
 lose his native patois, is it perfectly likely that 
 William Shakespeare, a couple of centuries earlier 
 in English history, could have done it on the 
 instant, or even with a day's metropolitan training? 
 
52 
 
 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 So, if the "Venus and Adonis" was written by 
 William Shakespeare at all, certainly Mr. Richard 
 Grant White is right in saying that it was written 
 either in Warwickshire or very soon after its author 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE 
 Henrie VVriothefleyjEarle of Southampton, 
 
 and Baron of Titchfield. 
 
 IgU Honour able i Iknorv }:othofKi}hall(^endiit 
 ^dicating my vnpolisht lines toyourLomhipjior 
 hot} the worlds will cenfuremee for choojwg/o 
 flrong aproppe tofuppcrt fo weah a burthen ^ 
 ^■\ onelye if your Honour feems hut pleafed, I ac- 
 count myfelfe hiMy praifed^ and njcme to take aduititage of all 
 idle houresjtilllhaue henouredyou -with fame grauer labour. But 
 if the fir H heire of my inuentionproue deformed^ fhall be forte it 
 hadfo noble egod father : andneuer after eare (o barren a land^ 
 forfeare ityeeldmefliUfo badaharuefi, lleaueittopur HonoU" 
 rablefirueyjtndyour Honor to your hearts content/vvhichlvrifh 
 may ahvaiesanf'wereyour ovvne'vvifh,axdthevvorldshope- 
 fuUex^eBation, 
 
 YourHonorsinalldutieji 
 
 William ShakeQieare. 
 
 left that county for the great city in which he made 
 his name and fortune. Did this country lad of 
 eighteen or nineteen, while getting his bread at, 
 as some say, the theater doors by horseholding — 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. S3 
 
 at any rate in some exceedingly humble employ- 
 ment — manage at the same time to forget his War- 
 wickshire dialect, and launch himself ci Vinstant 
 into new modes of thought as well as expression. 
 Let us not leave the theme as well as the structure 
 and the diction of " Venus and Adonis " out of the 
 account. Southampton and his compeers might 
 revel in meretricious and amorous verses — for their 
 mistresses to read aloud, or in camera. But did 
 Southampton and his compeers employ or enable a 
 Warwickshire peasant lad to sing the opulence of 
 illicit love! Whether he found a teacher in the city 
 or not, or whether he taught himself, we cannot 
 tell. But the marvelous thing is, after all, that 
 he should be conscious of his own linguistic dis- 
 ability. The rule is apt to be quite the other way. 
 The dialect speaker sees keenly the absurdity of 
 another man's patois, but is inclined to think him- 
 self speaking his own tongue in its classical purity, 
 nor can he recognize his own solecisms in print. 
 I remember reading somebody's comments upon a 
 series of novels whose scenes were laid among 
 what we in this country call " Hoosiers " (that is, 
 the descendants of settlers who, at a very early 
 day, soon after the War of the Revolution, settled 
 in what was then called "the Western Reserve," 
 and, in the then scarcely settled forests, obtained 
 a speech which they bequeathed with more or less 
 refinement to their posterity — possibly the nearest 
 correspondence to the English dialects which exists 
 in the United States), as follows: "I have been 
 been assured by a well-educated Hoosier that the 
 dialect in Mr. Eggleston's Indiana novels had not 
 
54 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 the slightest foundation in fact, and the assurance 
 was given in tones which to me were exactly rep- 
 resented by the printed page. Conversely, to a 
 Scotchman the written dialect of Burns will appear 
 perfect, while to one not a Scotchman it might fail 
 of carrying any perception of the reality." 
 
 If all of the above, or any part of it, is evidence, 
 then, of course, the only existing pieces of external 
 evidence that William Shakespeare wrote the" Venus 
 and Adonis " are the title-page and the Southampton 
 dedication. But, admitting the title- page, this 
 dedication is not at all satisfactory. We have gone 
 into this at such length elsewhere * that it would 
 be supererogation to rehearse it all again. Of the 
 dilemma which is thus presented we were discussing, 
 at that time, the other horn. But we should be glad 
 to know, if this poem was written by Shakespeare, 
 why Field printed it, and if Field was Southampton's 
 printer, why he (Field) printed no more Shakes- 
 peare quartos? And, if Southampton's printer, 
 Richard Field, printed at his patron's direction, 
 the two great poems of his grace's prot6g6 Shakes- 
 peare, how did it happen that other poems of 
 Shakespeare went flying into other, or any other, 
 hands? Richard Field prints no more of them. 
 This title-page introduced several poems into a 
 book of the period, among them being one, "The 
 Phoenix and the Turtle," to which Shakespeare's 
 name was attached. We all know how one of 
 Hey wood's poems was signed "William Shakes- 
 peare," in the collection called "The Passionate 
 
 *The " Bankside Shakespeare," Int. to vol. xiv. p. xlviii. 
 
HEREAFTER 
 
 FOLLOW DIVERSE 
 
 PoeticallEffaies on the former Sub* 
 iedjviz: the l^urtle and Phcenix. 
 
 tDone hy the heji andchiefejl of our 
 
 moderne writers, with their names fub- 
 
 fcribed to their particular workes: 
 
 neuer Before extant. 
 
 And (how firft)conlccratedby themall generally, 
 
 toihtlouemdmiriUofthetme.mlkKnighty 
 
 Sir lohn Salisburfe. 
 
 Dignum laude virum (J^ufavetatmori. 
 
 MDCI. 
 
5^ THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 Pilgrim," and how, at Heywood's prayer, Jaggard 
 the printer corrected the error (a very unusual 
 thing for an Elizabethan printer to do). But it 
 appears that the dedication of poems to Lord 
 Southampton was rather the rule or the fashion 
 of the time than otherwise; that the fact that the 
 publisher was Richard Field, a townsman of Shakes- 
 peare's, is not altogether as conclusive as it ap- 
 pears, since it is unlikely that Southampton should 
 have sent Shakespeare to his own countryman, a 
 poor and unknown printer, when there were fash- 
 ionable printers and court printers, and printers 
 who knew Southampton and whom Southamptom 
 knew, in plenty in London. The story of the thou- 
 sand pounds gift from Southamptom to Shakes- 
 peare, and the alleged intimacy of the peer and the 
 poet, are merely imaginary facts, and the figment 
 of a fancy which long ago yielded to the searchlight 
 of modern methods of investigation. 
 
 In 1601 there was printed in London a curi- 
 ous little quarto entitled, "Love's Martyr; or, 
 Rosalin's Complaint, Allegorically Showing the 
 Truth of Love in the Constant Fate of the Phcenix 
 and the Turtle : To these are added some new com- 
 positions of several modern writers, whose names 
 are subscribed to their several works." Upon the 
 first subject, viz., "The Phoenix and the Turtle," 
 the sub-title adds, that these additions are "done 
 by the best and chiefest of our modern writers, 
 with their names subscribed to their particular 
 workes, never before extant, and now first con- 
 secrated by them all generally to the love and 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 57 
 
 merite of the true, noble knight, Sir John SaHs- 
 burie." This Robert Chester, who thus "floated " 
 his production by the aid of well-known names, 
 such as Shakespeare, Marston, Jonson, and Chap- 
 man, was a would-be litterateur of the day. But 
 with the "Love's Martyr" all record of him ends. 
 Even the great names he borrowed did not serve to 
 "float," much less sell, his poem. (For it appears 
 to have laid on the bookshelves unsold, — non dii, 
 non homines, non cohimnce, tolerating it.) The 
 printers, as a last endeavor to save themselves on 
 the expense of its publication, tore up the book, 
 and used the sheets over again, with a new title- 
 page, — " The Annals of Great Brittaine, or a most 
 Excellent Monument, wherein may be Scene all the 
 Antiquities of this Kingedom, to the satisfaction of 
 both of the Universities, or any other place stirred 
 with Emulation of long Continuance," — in 1611. 
 But the book-buying public easily detected the 
 fraud, and the book fell flat again, and was prob- 
 ably sold for waste paper soon after, for very few 
 copies are known to have survived. 
 
 Our only possible interest in the matter is the 
 fact that Chester's, or Chester's publisher's, friend 
 Shakespeare seems to have been willing to help sell 
 his book, and so contributed a poem. A sugges- 
 tion that he did more, and went so far as to intro- 
 duce Chester to one of his own printers, is evolved 
 from the fact that the vignette of the anchor used 
 on the sub-title page is that used by one of the 
 printers of a Shakespeare quarto, whereas the head- 
 piece and tail-piece over the "Threnos" are the 
 same as used in " The Passionate Pilgrim," printed 
 
58 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 by W. Jaggard in 1599; in the " Titus Andronicus," 
 printed by James Roberts for Edward White in 
 1600; and "The Midsummer Night's Dream," 
 printed by James Roberts himself in 1600, one 
 edition of which latter was issued as published by 
 Thomas Fisher, though supposed to have been 
 actually printed by Roberts. But Shakespeare's 
 name was certainly not added to the title-page of 
 the "Venus and Adonis " to make it sell, for Shakes- 
 peare was entirely unknown to anybody when he 
 came to London. Nor does it appear that, until 
 the success of the character of Falstaff in the i and 
 2 Henry IV. — a success which led to the printing 
 of not only his beautiful comedies, " The Mid- 
 summer Night's Dream" and "The Merchant 
 of Venice," but of the " Titus Andronicus " and the 
 "Pericles," in the same year with them — the name 
 "Shakespeare " on a title-page had any commercial 
 value whatever. 
 
 But to return to the "Venus and Adonis," which 
 preceded this. In stanzas 56, 86, 87, and 122, the 
 author employs similes drawn from legal principles 
 and the conveyancer's craft. Had William Shakes- 
 peare been a lawyer or a conveyancer in Stratford 
 before ever seeing London? For a mere scrivener, 
 employed by a lawyer or a conveyancer, would 
 scarcely have been equal to the technical use of 
 them. Again, in stanza 60, the author uses similes 
 drawn from stage usages. Had William Shakes- 
 peare been connected with matters theatrical in 
 Stratford, and before he ever saw London? 
 
 It is computed that the English peasant employs 
 
Threnos, 
 
 BEautic.Truth.and Raritic^ 
 Grace in all <implicitie. 
 Here endofdejn cinders lie. 
 
 Death is nowtbci'^^»/*ncft. 
 And the Turtles loy all breft, 
 Toeternitic doth reft. 
 
 Leauing no pofteritie^ 
 Twasnotthejrinfirmidc, 
 It was married Chaftitie. 
 
 Truthmay fecroe,but cannot be, 
 Beautiebragge,buttis not nie> 
 Tnith andBeautie buried be. 
 
 To this vrnelctthofe repaire. 
 That arc either true otfaire, 
 Fottheledeadfiirds^Iigl] aprayer. 
 
 WiUum Shal^e-J^earLj* 
 
6o THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 in his dialect, or his share of the vernacular, some 
 five hundred words, which entirely cover his desires, 
 his pleasures, and his necessities. Again, the aver- 
 age tradesman, man of commerce or of affairs, 
 will require at the most but four thousand. It is 
 computed that Milton, enriched by classical, bibli- 
 cal, and contemporary studies, used in his published 
 writings seven thousand words. Professor Craik 
 finds that Shakespeare used twenty-one thousand 
 words. This miraculous man of business, manager 
 of theaters, actor and writer of plays, in thirty 
 years reduced to his possession, that is to say, 
 three times as many words as did Milton, the man 
 of the pen, in a lifetime of scholastic leisure. 
 
 Admittingthis, if William Shakespeare only seven 
 years after this Warwickshire residence * wrote the 
 
 * Mr. Edward James Castle, an English Q. C, in his work 
 " Shakespeare, Bacon, Jonson and Greene " (London : Sampson 
 Low, Marston&Co., 1897, pp. 153, 154, 185, 190), thinks the ex- 
 planation lies in the fact that ' ' Shakespeare may have gone to 
 London earlier than is supposed." He says, " It is by no means 
 impossible that, when Shakespeare went forth as a mere lad to 
 improve his fortunes, he found an easy introduction to Burbadge's 
 company, and when there either played women's parts himself, or 
 was an associate with those who did: that he may have been in 
 receipt of a good income, and have mixed in good society. His 
 talents would have given him introductions everywhere,'' and 
 again " the actors, as is well-known, were highly paid, surrounded 
 by all the amenities of fashionable existence, introduced into the 
 best society (so that Shakespeare was) . . . perhaps taken 
 in hand by some high-born and well-bred ladies." Mr. Castle, 
 however, elsewhere says that players, playwrights, and persons of 
 theatrical associations were considered of low caste, tabooed in 
 good society and, as Ben Jonson complains, "like tinkers, 
 rogues by statute," and that " it was a presumption for an actor, 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 6l 
 
 " Venus and Adonis," it tends to prove that, in those 
 seven years, he was deeply at his exercises. And 
 in the " Venus and Adonis," and the other poems — 
 perhaps in the Sonnets — we may have some of these 
 exercises — the trial heats, which the Master flung 
 aside in training for his masterpieces. 
 
 who was a vagabond at law, or a nobleman's servant, to try and 
 get a. grant of arms." Mr. Castle's proposition, that it is to 
 Elizabeth's " high-born and well-bred ladies " that we are in- 
 debted for Shakespeare, does not meet with the approval of Dr. 
 John Fiske, however. Dr. Fiske's explanation is that "the world's 
 greatest genius, one of the most consummate masters of speech 
 that ever lived, could not tarry seven years in the city without 
 learning how to write what Hosea Biglow calls citified English." 
 — The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1897. 
 
PART II. 
 
 A GLOSSARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
64 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 A 
 
 
 Abundance — see Plenty. 
 
 Old. 
 
 Abuse— (verb). 
 
 Becall— Go on at, Gleek. 
 
 Accent. 
 
 Tang or Twang. 
 
GLOSSAR y. 
 
 6S 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Here will be old Utis 
 [that is, plenty of 
 Holidays], "2 Henry 
 IV.," II. iv. 21. 
 
 If a man were porter of 
 Hell gate he should 
 have old the turning 
 the key, "Macbeth," 
 
 II. iii. 2. 
 
 Nay, I can gleek upon 
 occasion, "Midsum- 
 mer Night's Dream," 
 
 III. i. . 150. Now 
 Where's the bastard's 
 braves, an Charles his 
 gleeks? "i Henry 
 VI.," III. ii. 123. What 
 will you give us? No 
 money on my faith, 
 but the gleek, "Ro- 
 meo and Juliet," IV. 
 V. 115. I have seen 
 you gleeking and gall- 
 ing at this gentleman, 
 "Henry v.," V. i. 78. 
 
 For she had a tongue 
 with a tang, "Tem- 
 pest," II. ii. 52. Let 
 thy tongue tang ar- 
 guments of state, 
 
66 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Active — see Ready. 
 
 Sprag. 
 
 Across (diagonally). 
 
 Girta. 
 
 Acquiescent — see Will- 
 ing. 
 
 Agreeable. 
 
 Adder (the serpent). 
 
 Ether. 
 
 Addition (the wing of a 
 house), see Shed. 
 
 Lean to. 
 
 Adjacent— see Near. 
 
 Agin. 
 
 Ado — see Trouble. 
 
 
 Adultery. 
 
 Commit. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 67 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 "Twelfth Night," II. 
 V. 134. Let thy 
 tongue tang with 
 arguments of state. 
 Idem, III. iv. 66. 
 With a swaggering ac- 
 cent, sharply twanged 
 off. Idem, III. iv. 171. 
 
 He is a good sprag 
 wit, "Merry Wives 
 of Windsor," IV. i. 84. 
 
 What? Committed? O 
 thou public Com- 
 moner! What, com- 
 mitted? Heaven stops 
 the nose at it, and the 
 moon winks. What, 
 committed? Impu- 
 
68 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Afford (to afford time). 
 
 A while — A 'cant a while 
 = 1 can't afford, or 
 spare the time to do 
 it. 
 
 Aftermath. 
 
 Lattermath. 
 
 Amorous, see Bedfellow, 
 Concupiscent. 
 
 Codding — (from Cod, 
 a female companion, 
 which see). 
 
 Aftercrop, 
 
 Aftermath — The after- 
 crop of wheat is tail 
 wheat. 
 
 Aggravate (verb). 
 
 Terrify — 'Eas caowf 
 terrifies 'um = His 
 cough aggravates him. 
 
 Alley— see Lane. 
 
 Chewer. 
 
 Also. 
 
 An all. 
 
 Always. 
 
 Constant. 
 
 Ample. 
 
 Roomthy. 
 
 Annoy. 
 
 Irk, Back-up. 
 
GLOSSAH y. 
 
 69 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 dent strumpet! — 
 
 "Othello," IV. ii. 72, 
 76, 80. 
 
 This codding spirit had 
 they from their 
 mother, "Titus An- 
 dronicus," V. i. 156. 
 
 And yet it irks me, 
 "AsYouLikelt," II. 
 
70 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Ankle, or Ankle joint. 
 
 Ankley. 
 
 Ant-Hill. 
 
 Anty-tump. 
 
 Anticipate, see Foresee. 
 
 Forecast. 
 
 Anxious. 
 
 Longful — I ha' been 
 longful to see you 
 again = I was anxious 
 to see you again. 
 
 Apple — see Wild Apple. 
 
 Russet. 
 
 Appetite. 
 
 Take away — Take away, 
 my appetite is satis- 
 fied. We's take away 's 
 swaggered. 
 
 Apple (a small, sweet 
 variety). 
 
 Crink, scrumps. 
 Another variety, a win- 
 ter apple, is a sour- 
 
 
 ing. 
 
 Approach — to near in 
 
 Going in. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 71 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 i. 22. It irks his heart 
 he cannot, " i Henry 
 VI.," I. iv. 105. It 
 irks my very soul, 
 "3 Henry VI.," II. ii. 
 46. 
 
 Used as a noun in 
 "3Henry VI.," VI. i. 
 42 ; Alas that Warwick 
 had not more forecast. 
 
72 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 point 
 Reach, 
 
 of time — see 
 
 Apron (Pinafore). 
 
 Astonish. 
 
 At — (at a certain point of 
 time). 
 
 Argue — see Dispute. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Pinner, Coverslut. A 
 long apron to hide an 
 untidy dress. 
 
 Lick me — It licks me 'ou 
 un makes the brass= 
 I am astonished to see 
 how fast he makes 
 money. 
 
 Come — She'll be seven 
 come Michelmass = 
 she'll be seven at 
 Michelmass. 
 
 Arg. or Argal — " Er 
 argald me out, as your 
 new shawl was blue, 
 un it's green now, 
 yunt it? " "He arg, 
 as I did now, for cred- 
 ance again." (Hey- 
 wood, 1566). Gaelic 
 largall, a skirmish, a 
 fight. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 n 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 His child is a year and 
 a quarter old, come 
 Philip and Jacob, 
 "Measure for Meas- 
 ure," III. ii. 213. 
 Come Lammas eve at 
 night, she shall be 
 fourteen, "Romeo and 
 Juliet," I. iii. 17. 
 
 Argal, she drowned her- 
 self willingly. Argal, 
 He that is not guilty 
 of his own death 
 shortens not his own 
 life. Argal, the gal- 
 lows may do well to 
 thee, "Hamlet," V. 
 i- 21, 55- 
 
74 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 At least. 
 
 
 Least ways. 
 
 Attack. • 
 
 
 Tank. 
 
 Attempt. 
 
 
 Aim — ('Er aimed to 
 pick it up, but f wuz 
 oer 'eavy fur er to lift. 
 
 Attenuated, thin. 
 
 
 Scraily. 
 
 Away. 
 
 
 Abroad ^— Shoo them 
 chuckins abroad! 
 
 Awry. 
 
 
 Whiff. 
 
 Awkward — see Clown. 
 
 Hocklin — He's a hocklin 
 sort walker = He walks 
 awkwardly. 
 
 Aint. 
 
 
 Naint. 
 
 Axle grease. 
 
 
 Dodment. 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 Baker's Shovel. 
 
 
 Peel — (The instrument 
 or "slide" upon which 
 bread is taken from 
 the oven). 
 
 Bacon. 
 
 
 Griskin syke — the skin 
 of the bacon-sword. 
 
 Baby — infant, 
 
 small 
 
 Reckling. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 75 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
76 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 child- 
 ing)- 
 
 -(see Child, Dill- 
 
 
 Babyish 
 
 
 
 Tiddy— to tiddle is to 
 bring up carefully by 
 hand — pronounced 
 approximately 'Addle. 
 An Addling is a lamb 
 brought up artificially. 
 
 Bagman 
 
 
 
 Outride. 
 
 Bastard. 
 
 
 
 Oos Bird. 
 
 Banns. 
 
 
 
 Asked (or askings) outs 
 — To be asked out=: 
 to have the banns pub- 
 lished. 
 
 Barter, Swop. 
 
 
 Rap, 
 
 Basket, 
 
 used in 
 
 mills; 
 
 Skip. 
 
 do,, used to carry 
 luncheon; do,, used to 
 
 Frail. 
 
 feed h 
 
 orses. 
 
 
 Server. 
 
 Bushel basket. 
 
 
 Scuttle. 
 
 Bastard. 
 
 
 
 Chance-child. 
 
 Batten- 
 
 -a stick used in 
 
 Maid. 
 
 washing clothes 
 
 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 77 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
78 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Burnish. 
 
 Frush. 
 
 Beak (of a bird), the 
 bill— see Lordling. 
 
 Neb. 
 
 Beat (verb)— See Pound, 
 
 AVarm or Lace. Fullock, 
 
 Whip. 
 
 Wop — I'll warm ye= 
 I'll beat you. — I'll lace 
 
 
 ye — would be an 
 
 
 equivalent. 
 
 Beating. 
 
 Bunching. 
 
 Beater — (An instrument 
 
 Batlet. 
 
 to beat clothes in 
 
 
 washing.) 
 
 
 Beckon (verb). 
 
 Hike. 
 
 Bedclothes. 
 
 Hillings. 
 
 Bedfellow — see Amor- 
 
 Cod — Coddy. By an 
 
 ous, Concupiscent. 
 
 association of ideas. 
 
 
 Cod piece = a sort of 
 
 
 protective pack for 
 the male organs worn 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 79 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 I like thy armor well. 
 I'll frush it, and un- 
 lock the rivets all, 
 " Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," V. vi. 29. 
 
 How she holds up the 
 neb, the bill to him, 
 "Winter's Tale," I. ii. 
 183. (See as to this 
 curious word, posi, 
 
 LORDLING.) 
 
 remember the kissing 
 ofherbatlet, "As You 
 Like It," II. iv. 49- 
 
 You must needs have 
 them with a cod-piece, 
 "Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona," II. vii. 53. 
 Unless you have a 
 
8o 
 
 GLOSSAR v. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Beetle. 
 Because. 
 
 Beggar. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 outside of the armor 
 or dress. 
 
 Blackbat. 
 
 Along of — It was all 
 along of that boy=It 
 was all because of that 
 boy. 
 
 Cadjer. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 8i 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 cod-piece to stick pins 
 in, Idem, 56. For the 
 rebellion of a cod- 
 piece to take away the 
 life of a man, " Meas- 
 ure for Measure," III. 
 ii. 122. The cod-piece 
 that will house before 
 the head has any, 
 "King Lear," III. ii. 
 27. Here's grace and 
 a cod-piece! Idem, III. 
 ii. 40. His cod-piece 
 seems as massy as his 
 club, " Much Ado 
 about Nothing," III. 
 iii. 146. Dread prince 
 of plackets, king of 
 cod-pieces, "Love's 
 Labor's Lost," III. i. 
 186. 'Twas nothing 
 to geld a cod-piece 
 of a purse, "Win- 
 ter's Tale," IV. iv. 
 623. 
 
82 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Begin (verb). 
 
 Buckle to. 
 
 Begging. 
 
 
 Thomassing — To go 
 a-" thomassing," is 
 to go a-begging 
 for gifts (according 
 to an old custom, 
 on St. T homas's 
 day), and so, gene- 
 rally, to beg is to 
 thomas. 
 
 Begone. 
 
 
 Morris— You bwoys 'd 
 better morris = you 
 boys had better take 
 yourselves off — or be- 
 gone. 
 
 Behaved. 
 
 
 Conditioned — He's well 
 conditioned = he's well 
 behaved; he's ill con- 
 ditioned=he's ill be- 
 haved. 
 
 Begrimed, 
 
 Smeared, 
 
 Ditched, A's mug's 
 ditched = His face is 
 smeared as with mud. 
 
 Behavior. 
 
 
 Condition. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 83 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 The best conditioned 
 and unwearied spirit, 
 "Merchant of Venice," 
 III. ii. 295. 
 
 Here is the catalogue of 
 her conditions, "Two 
 Gent, of Verona," III. 
 ii. 273. "Much Ado," 
 III. ii. 68; Yes, and 
 his ill conditions. 
 
84 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Behind. 
 
 Beehive. 
 
 Belongings — Luggage. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Assudbackards. 
 
 Beeskep. 
 
 Nails — Pack up ons nails 
 and shog = Pick up 
 your belongings and 
 get out. 
 
 Belabor — To pound Pun or Pug.— Quilt- 
 (which see). Leather. To quilt or 
 
 to leather a man is to 
 pound or punish him 
 severely. 
 
 Benighted — See De- 
 layed. 
 
 Between. 
 Blear-eyed. 
 
 Lated. 
 
 Atween. 
 Wall-eyed. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 8S 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 He would pun thee into 
 shivers with his fist, 
 "Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," II. i. 42. 
 
 Now spurs the lated 
 traveler to gain the 
 timely inn, "Mac- 
 beth," III. iii. 6. I am 
 so lated in the world 
 that I have lost my way 
 forever, "Antony and 
 Cleopatra," III. ii. 3. 
 
 That ever wall-eyed 
 wrath or staring rage 
 presented, " King 
 
 John," IV. iii. 147. 
 Say, wall-eyed slave, 
 whither wouldst thou? 
 "Titus Andronicus," 
 II. ii. 102. 
 
86 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Blind Alley. 
 
 Pudding bag. 
 
 Blow. 
 
 Polt — He got polt on 
 conk=:He got a blow 
 on the nose. 
 
 Bendweed — (The minor 
 Convolvulus). 
 
 Waiweind. 
 
 Bind — to bind books. 
 Bind tightly. 
 
 Heal. 
 
 Guss — Don't guss that 
 recklin = Don't bind 
 the child too tightly. 
 
 Bit, part of harness. 
 
 Bettock. 
 
 Bit — see morsel. 
 
 Scrump. 
 
 Blab, to give away 
 secrets (verb.) 
 
 Twit. 
 
 Blackened, see darkened. 
 
 CoUied. 
 
GLOSSAJi y. 
 
 87 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 The word occurs three 
 times in the plays 
 ("Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona," IV. ii. 8; 
 "I Henry VI.," III. 
 ii. 55; "2 Henry VI.," 
 III. i. 178), but not in 
 this sense. 
 
 Brief as the lightning 
 in the collied night, 
 " Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," I. i. 145. 
 Passion, liaving my 
 best judgment col- 
 
88 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Blackbird. 
 
 Blade of grass. 
 
 Blown — To lay corn by 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Blackie (a "black stare " 
 is Warwickshire for 
 a starling). 
 
 Bent of grass. 
 
 Lodge — The corn is 
 
 WIUU Ul Ictlll. 
 
 laid. 
 
 Blaze. 
 
 Blizzy. 
 
 Blunt. 
 
 Dubbid. 
 
 Boar. 
 
 Brim. 
 
 Boast — to put on airs. 
 
 Scawt. 
 
 Boast, Brag, verb or 
 
 noun. 
 Boasting. 
 
 Crack. 
 
 Goster. 
 
 Gostering, also used 
 as a noun — meaning 
 something to boast of. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 89 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 lied, "Othello," II. iii. 
 206. 
 
 They shall lodge the 
 summer corn, "Rich- 
 ard II.," III. iii. 162. 
 Though bladed corn 
 be lodged and trees 
 blown down, " Mac- 
 beth," IV. i. 55. 
 
 And Ethiops of their 
 sweet complexions 
 crack, " Love's Labor's 
 Lost," IV. iii. 268. 
 Though all the world 
 should crack their 
 duty to you, " Henry 
 VIII.," III. ii. 193. 
 Indeed it is a noble 
 
90 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Boasting — Boastful- 
 consequential. 
 
 -see 
 
 Crostering — He's a cros- 
 tering fellow=He's a 
 boasting fellow. 
 
 Boisterous. 
 
 
 Lungerous. 
 
 Blunder — Failure. 
 
 
 Mull. 
 
 Blunt, verb. 
 
 
 Dub — E'el dub they 
 knife agin brick=You 
 will take the edge off 
 your knife against the 
 brick. 
 
 Boaster. 
 
 
 Cracker. 
 
 Boor — Tramper. 
 
 
 Chop-goss. 
 
 Booby — See Clown. 
 
 
 
 Bosom — (of a garm( 
 
 :nt). 
 
 Craw — Wi my shift craw 
 up = with my shirt 
 bosom unbuttoned. 
 
 Borders. 
 
 
 Adlands — Them's his 
 adlands = Those are 
 borders of his field. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 91 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 child. A crack, 
 madam, " Coriolanus," 
 I. iii. 74. 
 
 What cracker is this 
 same that deafs our 
 ears? "King John," 
 II. i. 46. 
 
92 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Botch. 
 
 Boage. 
 
 Bother— ta harass — see 
 
 Irk — [Also in several 
 
 Annoy. 
 
 other dialects.] 
 
 Bow — (A curtesy). 
 
 Obedience — Make your 
 
 
 obedience to the par- 
 
 
 son = Bow (or drop a 
 
 
 curtesy) to the parson. 
 
 Bowlful — see Jorum. 
 
 Jordan. 
 
 Bragging — see Boast. 
 
 Gostering. 
 
 Brand new. 
 
 Fire-new. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 93 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 We charged again, but 
 out, alas, we botched 
 again! "3 Henry VI.," 
 I. iv. 19. 
 
 Why, they will allow us 
 ne'era Jordan, "iHen. 
 IV., IL i. 22. When 
 Arthur first in court. 
 Empty the Jordan, " 2 
 Henry IV., "II. iv. 37. 
 
 A man of fire-new words, 
 fashion's own knight, 
 "Love'sLabor'sLost," 
 I. i. 179. Some excel- 
 lent jests, fire-new 
 from the mint, 
 "Twelfth Night," 
 III. ii. 23. Your fire- 
 new stamp of honor is 
 scarce current, "Rich- 
 ard III.," I. iii. 256. 
 Dispute thy victor 
 sword and fire- new for- 
 tune, "Lear,"V.iii.i32. 
 
94 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Breeze — see Forerunner, 
 Herald. 
 
 Bruise — see Batter. 
 
 Bud (verb). 
 
 Breezy — See Gusty, 
 
 Whiffle— A "whiffle" is 
 more particularly a 
 breeze which stirs the 
 growing grain, and 
 bends it as if to make 
 a path through it, 
 whence the word — 
 whiffler, one who goes 
 before, making a path 
 for one to come after. 
 
 Frush. 
 
 Chip. 
 
 Hurden. 
 
 Bully— In the 
 
 sense 
 
 of 
 
 Knag— Go on at; They 
 
 to ruff, to 
 
 chaff. 
 
 to 
 
 knag (or go on at) 
 
 abuse — see T 
 
 ease. 
 
 
 me so — they chaff 
 (or bully or ruff) me. 
 
 Bundle of Hay. 
 
 
 
 Bottle of hay — [Also in 
 Yorkshire and several 
 other dialects.] 
 
 Bungle. 
 
 
 
 Mongle. 
 
 Burden. 
 
 
 
 Fardel — [Also in various 
 other dialects.] 
 
 
 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 95 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Methinks I have a great 
 desire to a bottle of 
 hay, "Midsummer N. 
 D.," IV. i. 36. 
 
 Who would fardels bear, 
 "Hamlet," III. i. 83. 
 I heard them talk of 
 a fardel, "Winter's 
 Tale," V. ii. 25. 
 
96 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Burst. 
 
 Busybody, Newsmonger, 
 Bushel. 
 
 Buttercups. 
 
 By-bidder at an auc- 
 tion. 
 
 By God (an oath as sub- 
 stitute for by God). 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Squot— What ye squot 
 that pod fur = Why 
 have you burst that 
 pod. 
 
 Blobchops. 
 
 Scuttle— (More properly 
 a basket that holds a 
 bushel.) 
 
 Craisies. 
 
 Sweetener. 
 
 Cox. 
 
 Cackle. 
 
 Cake, small cake. 
 
 Cake (verb) — see Col- 
 lect. 
 
 Chackle — Our hen she 
 do chackle. 
 
 Pikelet. 
 
 Bolter. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 97 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Cox my passion, give 
 me your hand, how 
 doesyourdrum? "All's 
 Well that Ends Well," 
 V. ii. 42. 
 
 Bolted by the northern 
 blast, "Winter's Tale," 
 IV. iv. 376. So finely 
 bolted didst thou 
 
98 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Calf. 
 
 Stagger-bob. 
 
 Candle. 
 
 Dummy. 
 
 Candle lighter, a bit of 
 paper or wood. 
 
 Sprill. 
 
 Cannot — see Not. 
 
 Canna. 
 
 Cap — Especially a child's 
 cap. 
 
 Biggin. 
 
 Captious, Irritable. 
 
 Tutly. 
 
 Caress (verb). 
 
 Pither — (pid-hur) see 
 she pither him = see 
 
 
 her caress him. 
 
 Carelessly, to wear care- 
 lessly. 
 
 Slanged — Slanged on 
 anyhow — carelessly 
 put on. 
 
 Carrion crow. 
 
 Goarrin' crow. 
 
 Carry (verb). 
 
 Help— I'll help it back 
 to 'un = I'll carry it 
 back to its owner. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 99 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 seem, " Henry V.," ii. 
 137- 
 
 With homely biggin 
 bound, "2 Hen. IV.," 
 V. 27. 
 
 Help me away, " Merry 
 Wives of Windsor," 
 III. iii. 150, and per- 
 haps very frequently 
 in that sense distin- 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Catch. 
 
 Certainly not, on no ac- 
 count. 
 
 Cesspool. 
 
 Chaff (Verb). — See 
 Abuse. 
 
 Chatter (verb). 
 
 Celebrated, or, as an ad- 
 verb. Famously. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Cop, pronounced coop, 
 sometimes spelled 
 
 cope in plays. 
 
 Ever so — I wud not go 
 daown that chewer 
 nights, ever so = I 
 would not on any 
 account go down that 
 lane at night. 
 
 Stockhole. 
 
 Go on at — They go on 
 at me about going to 
 church = They chaff 
 me about going to 
 church. 
 
 To cank: 
 antly. 
 
 :to talk incess- 
 
 Deadly — He's -a deadly 
 man ^ for going to 
 church = He's cele- 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 They all strain courtesy 
 which shall cope him 
 first.— Line 888. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 guished from the ordi- 
 nary one. 
 
 And coops from other 
 lands her islanders, 
 "KingJohn,"II. i. 25. 
 I have to cope him in 
 these sullen fits, "As 
 You Like It," II. ii. 65. 
 Ajax shall cope the 
 best, "Troilus and 
 Cressida," II. iii. 275. 
 
 Thou didst hate her 
 deadly and she is dead, 
 "All's Well That Ends 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 brated for going to 
 church (a great church- 
 
 
 goer.) 
 
 Chaffinch. 
 
 Pink. 
 
 Charcoal. 
 
 Charles. 
 
 Chatter, gossip. 
 
 Chelp, chirp, cag-cank, 
 cank — All those words 
 
 
 or forms are used. A 
 
 
 chatterbox is some- 
 
 
 times called a pralla- 
 
 
 piece. 
 
 Chatterbox. 
 
 Chatterpie. 
 
 Cheat (verb). 
 
 Fob or Fub. 
 
 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 i°3 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Well," V. iii. 117. Not 
 now, sir, she's a deadly 
 theme, " Troilus and 
 Cressida," IV. v. 181. 
 Yet they lie deadly, 
 that tell you you have 
 good faces, "Corio- 
 lanus," II. i. 67. 
 
 And chattering pies in 
 dismal discords sung, 
 "3 Henry VI.," V. vi. 
 48. 
 
 Fubbed off, and fubbed 
 off, and fubbed off, 
 from this day to that, 
 "2 Henry IV.," II. i. 
 37. Resolution thus 
 fobbed as it is with 
 the rusty curb of old 
 father Antic the law, 
 "I Henry IV.," I. ii. 
 68. 
 
I04 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Chestnut. 
 
 
 Hoblionkers. 
 
 Chemise. 
 
 
 Shimmy. 
 
 Chew (verb). 
 
 
 Chawl, or chobble 
 (chawl perhaps means 
 to chew slowly). 
 
 Chicken (any 
 fowl). 
 
 young 
 
 Biddy. 
 
 Child— see Small Child. 
 
 Recklin. 
 
 Childbed. 
 
 
 Groaning. 
 
 Childbed. 
 
 
 Panzy bed — As if a 
 child would ask where 
 a baby came from, 
 the neighbors would 
 say, " oot ov 'ts 
 mither's Panzy-bed." 
 
 Chimney. 
 
 
 Chimbley. 
 
 Chum — an associate or 
 hail-fellow — a favor- 
 ite. 
 
 Butty. 
 
 Clever. 
 
 
 Sprag, Sprakt, 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 I OS 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 What shall be done, Sir, 
 with the groaning Ju- 
 liet? She's very near 
 her hour. "Measure 
 for Measure," II. ii. 15. 
 
 He is a good sprag mem- 
 
io6 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Clown — see 
 Idiot, Fool. 
 
 Dunce, 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Clumsy. 
 Chimney-piece. 
 
 Geek— Patch. 
 
 Noggen. 
 Shelf. 
 
 Chirp (verb). 
 
 Chelp. 
 
 Chips. 
 
 Chats. 
 
 Chitterlings of Pork. 
 
 Mudgin. 
 
 Clean out. 
 
 Do out. Do out pig- 
 
 
 stye = clean out the 
 
 
 pigstye. It is a ques- 
 
 
 tion whether this is 
 
 
 not the contraction 
 
 
 Dout — used in the 
 
 
 Shakespearean sense 
 
 
 of extinguish (which 
 
 
 see). 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 107 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 ory, " Merry Wives of 
 Windsor," IV. i. 84. 
 
 And to become the geek 
 and scorn of th' other's 
 villainy, "Cymbeline," 
 V. iv. 67. And made 
 the most notorious 
 geek and gull, 
 "Twelfth Night," V. 
 
 i- 35- 
 
 (Perhaps) in "Hamlet," 
 III. iv. 112; from the 
 shelf the precious dia- 
 dem stole. 
 
 And dout them with 
 superfluous courage. 
 "Henry V.," IV. ii. 
 II. 
 
io8 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Climb (as a tree), verb. 
 
 Swarm. 
 
 Claw — (of a fowl). 
 
 Talent. 
 
 Clever— see Talon. 
 
 Fierce— That's a fierce 
 little 'un = That's a 
 clever baby. 
 
 Clot (verb)— see Col- 
 lect. 
 
 Bolter. 
 
 Clown — Ignoramus; see 
 Fool, Idiot. 
 
 Patch-Yawrups — Yer 
 great Patch, or you 
 great Yawrups = you 
 booby, you clown. 
 
 Crack, a fissure. 
 
 Chaun. 
 
 Clover— see White Clo- 
 
 . 
 
 ver. 
 
 
 Coat (short coat). 
 
 Slop or Slops. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 109 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 If talent be a claw, 
 look how he claws 
 him with a talent, 
 "Love's Labor's," 
 IV. ii. A double pun, 
 to "claw " being also 
 Warwickshire dialect 
 for "to toady to," "to 
 flatter."— See Toady, 
 post. 
 
 Thou scurvy patch, 
 "Tempest," III. ii. 
 71; capon, coxcomb, 
 idiot, patch, "Com- 
 edy of Errors," III. i. 
 33- 
 
 O, rhymes are guards on 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Cob, Stout, compactly 
 
 Galloway. 
 
 built horse. 
 
 
 Cock — (The male of any 
 
 Tone. 
 
 fowl). 
 
 
 Comb. 
 
 Shade — Shade this 'eir= 
 
 
 comb your hair. 
 
 Comely. 
 
 Eyeable. 
 
 Collect — To clog or 
 
 Bolter— The snow bolt- 
 
 cake (verb). 
 
 ers i' his hoof = the 
 
 
 snow cakes or collects 
 
 
 in the horse's hoof. 
 
 Companion — in the 
 
 Butty. 
 
 sense of a partner— or 
 
 
 mate, a "pal"— or 
 
 
 associate, a chum, 
 
 
 see Bedfellow. 
 
 
 Commodious. 
 
 Roomthy. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 wanton Cupid's hose. 
 Disfigure not his 
 slop, "Love's Labor's 
 Lost," IV. iii. 50. 
 Bon Jour, there's a 
 French salutation for 
 French slop, " Ro- 
 meo and Juliet," II. 
 iv. 47. 
 
 Know we not Galloway 
 nags? "2 Henry IV.," 
 II. iv. 203. 
 
 Blood boltered, "Mac- 
 beth," IV. i. 123. 
 
112 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Common, Vulgar. 
 
 Article — an expression 
 of contempt, for man, 
 beast, or commodity. 
 
 Comparatively. 
 
 Accardin — (according) 
 — It's as much bigger 
 accardin' as my fut is 
 nur that mawkins = 
 It's as much larger as 
 my foot is larger than 
 that child's. 
 
 Complete. 
 
 Slow. 
 
 Completely. 
 
 Slow — He turned it slow 
 over = He overturned 
 it completely. 
 
 Conceited. 
 
 Coxey. 
 
 Concupiscent, Lecher- 
 ous. 
 
 Frum, Randy, Codding. 
 
 Confidence. 
 
 Heart — He ain't no 
 
GLOSSAR y. 
 
 113 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 In the verity of extole- 
 ment I take him to be 
 a soul of great article; 
 (that is, a soul of great 
 vulgarity), "Hamlet," 
 V. ii. 122. 
 
 Backward pull our slow 
 designs, "All's Well," 
 I. i. 233. Wrung from 
 me my slow leave, 
 "Hamlet," I. ii. 
 
 This codding spirit had 
 they from their 
 mother, "Titus An- 
 dronicus," I. iv. 71. 
 
114 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 heart in it = He has 
 
 
 no confidence in it; 
 
 
 also used in the sense 
 
 
 of quality, as "there 
 
 
 ain't no heart in the 
 
 
 land " = this land is 
 
 
 good for nothing. 
 
 Conceited, vain. 
 
 Fritch. 
 
 Concede. 
 
 Allow. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 "5 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 For I can sing, and 
 speak to him in many 
 sorts of music, that 
 will allow me very 
 worth his service. 
 (This is one of the 
 most curious of sur- 
 vivals. The idiom, 
 in the Africo-Ameri- 
 can of the Southern 
 United States, is the 
 most common and uni- 
 versal of any. " I 
 'low dat its a fine 
 day," means, I said to 
 him it's a fine day. 
 "Brer Rabbit 'low 
 dat he jes a mite 
 hungry, too," = Bro- 
 ther Rabbit said, " I 
 am hungry," etc.). See 
 Joel Chandler Har- 
 ris's "Uncle Remus" 
 books. 
 
ii6 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Concubine. 
 
 
 Kicky-wicky. 
 
 Confine. 
 
 
 Stive up — Cub-up. 
 
 Confusion. 
 
 
 Caddie. Everything is 
 all of a caddle = every- 
 thing is in confusion. 
 
 Consequential. 
 
 
 Cocksey. 
 
 Contrive— To 
 to live. 
 
 manage 
 
 Raggle, Scrabble — 'Ees 
 scrabblin' along = He 
 lives from hand to 
 mouth = manages to 
 get along. 
 
 Convalescent. 
 
 
 Hand — Ae's 'and now = 
 I am now on the mend. 
 
 Coquetting — see 
 
 iPry. 
 
 Brevetting. When one 
 hangs around as if to 
 pry, but generally 
 "wenching." 
 
 Costs, expenses- 
 lawsuit. 
 
 —as in a 
 
 Cusses. 
 
 Courting — See 
 ting. 
 
 Coquet- 
 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 117 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 He spends his honor in 
 a box unseen; that 
 keeps his kicky-wicky 
 hen at home, "All's 
 Well that Ends Well," 
 II. iii. 297. 
 
 What's become of the 
 wenching rogues? 
 
 " Troilus and Cressi- 
 da," V. iv. 35. 
 
ii8 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Convince. 
 
 Swagger. 
 
 Cowslip. 
 
 Tooty. 
 
 Constable. 
 
 Bum or Bum baily — 
 
 
 'Ee's got the Bums in 
 
 
 's 'ouse for rent = The 
 
 
 constables have dis- 
 
 
 trained his goods for 
 
 
 rent. A constable who 
 
 
 takes up stray cattle is 
 
 
 called a " Hay ward." 
 
 Copulate (verb). 
 
 Grouse. 
 
 Core. 
 
 Corple. 
 
 Court, courting. 
 
 Comes to see. 'E comes 
 
 
 to see our Mary=: 
 
 
 He is courting our 
 
 
 Mary — sometimes 
 
 
 " setting up with " (as 
 
 
 in New England to- 
 
 
 day) means the same 
 
 
 thing. A country 
 
 
 girl's affianced is her 
 
 
 "Steady company " or, 
 
 
 briefly, her "Steady." 
 
 Cover (verb) to cover 
 
 Rake. 
 
 the fire. 
 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 119 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Scout me for him at the 
 bottom of the garden 
 like a bum baily, 
 "Twelfth Night," III. 
 iv. 68. 
 
 Where fires thou find'st 
 unraked and hearths 
 unswept, " Merry 
 Wives of Windsor, "V. 
 iv. so. 
 
GLOSSAR y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Covetous. 
 
 
 Muckerer. 
 
 Cramped. 
 
 
 Cubbed up — we are a 
 cubbed up — we are 
 cramped for room. 
 
 Crack. 
 
 
 Chan. 
 
 Crawl. 
 
 
 Scrabble. 
 
 Crease (verb). 
 
 
 Ruck — Braid. 
 
 Criticise (verb), To 
 fault with. 
 
 find 
 
 Fault it — can you fault 
 it? = can you criticise 
 or find fault with it? 
 
 Crusts, crumbs. 
 
 
 Crusses. 
 
 Cucumber. 
 
 
 Cunger. 
 
 Cunning. 
 
 
 Pimping. 
 
 Curdle (verb). 
 
 
 Cruddle. 
 
 Cut (verb) — Also to bar- 
 gain. 
 
 Haggle, a pedlar is a 
 Haggler. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 121 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 On US both did haggish 
 age steal on, " All's 
 Well that End's 
 Well," I, ii. 29. Suf- 
 folk died first, and 
 York, all haggled 
 over, comes to him, 
 "Henry V.," IV. vi. 
 II. 
 
122 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Crockery. 
 
 
 Cracks. 
 
 Cross — vixenish 
 
 
 Contrary. 
 
 Cruel — See Boisterous. 
 
 Lungerous. 
 
 Crumpet. 
 
 
 Pickelet. 
 
 Crusted. 
 
 
 Padded— Th e ground's 'a 
 padded = the ground 
 is crusted or baked 
 with drouth. 
 
 Cucumber. 
 
 
 Conger. 
 
 Curtesy. 
 
 
 Obedience — mak yer 
 obedience to she = 
 curtesy to her. 
 
 D 
 
 
 
 Dam (noun), mi 
 
 11 dam. 
 
 Fletcher. 
 
 Dam (verb), to 
 
 dam up. 
 
 Stank. 
 
 Dandelion. 
 
 
 Piss a bed. 
 
 Darkened — See 
 ened. 
 
 Black- 
 
 Coilled (possibly de- 
 rived from Coil, which 
 see, under Trouble). 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 "3 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 'Tis pity — love should 
 be so contrary, "Two 
 Gentlemen of Ve- 
 rona," IV. iv. 90. 
 
 Brief as the lightning 
 in the coiled night, 
 "Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," I. i. 145. 
 
124 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Dainty, Fastidious. 
 
 Choice. 
 
 Dandle (to toss a cbiild 
 
 Dink. To toss a child on 
 
 in the air). 
 
 the knee— is to dink- 
 
 
 fart it. 
 
 Darkness. 
 
 Murk. 
 
 Daughter (legitimate). 
 
 Wench — Her be the par- 
 son's wench = She is 
 
 
 the parson's legitimate 
 daughter. ("Used all 
 over England without 
 any depreciatory in- 
 tention.) 
 
 Dash — See remarks 
 
 Yerk. 
 
 under Thrust. 
 
 
 Dawdler— see Trifler. 
 
 Slacken-twist. 
 
 Daub, to smear. 
 
 Bemoil. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 125 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Passion having my 
 best judgment coilled, 
 "Othello," II. iii. 206. 
 
 'Ere twice in murk 
 and occidental damp, 
 "All's Well that 
 End's Well," II. i. 166. 
 
 And with wild rage yerk 
 out their armed heels, 
 "Henry V.," IV. vii. 
 
 83- 
 
 In how miry a place how 
 was she bemoiled, 
 " Taming of the 
 Shrew," IV. i. 77. 
 
126 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Delicate, unable to bear 
 cold or wet weather. 
 See Sapling, Slender. 
 
 Delirious, dazed — in 
 sickness. 
 
 Death-sign. 
 
 Deceitful. 
 
 Decorate (verb). 
 
 Dedicate (Verb). 
 
 Defile — See Lane, 
 sage. 
 
 Deformed. 
 
 Pas- 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Starven, Wimpled. 
 
 Moithered. 
 
 Token — I am certain 
 sommat has come to 
 my son, for I saw his 
 token last night; it 
 was a white dove flew 
 out the curtain. 
 
 Fornicating — Ees a for- 
 nicating chap = He is 
 a treacherous, or de- 
 ceitful, fellow. 
 
 Dizzen — Wha' be you diz- 
 zenin yoursel' before 
 the glass= Why are you 
 decorating yourself? 
 
 Wake — The church was 
 waked = The church 
 was dedicated. 
 
 Chewer. 
 
 Gammy (of an arm or 
 member only). 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 127 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 This wimpled, whining, 
 purblind, wayward 
 boy, "Love's Labor's 
 Lost," III. i. 81. 
 
128 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Dent. 
 
 Dinge. 
 
 Depressed. 
 
 Cut up. 
 
 Destroy (Verb). 
 
 Rid — [Also in several 
 other dialects; occurs 
 
 
 in a glossary of Swale- 
 dale, Yorkshire, in this 
 
 
 sense.] 
 
 Destroy. 
 
 Terrify — Thee's been 
 terrifying my cab- 
 bages = You have 
 destroyed my cab- 
 bages. 
 
 Delayed — See Draw- 
 
 Lated — I am lated an 
 
 back. 
 
 hour = I have been 
 
 
 delayed an hour [also 
 in several other dia- 
 
 
 lects]. 
 
 Depart — See Part. 
 
 Shogg off — Morris. 
 You'd best morris 
 
 
 now = You had better 
 
 
 depart — take yourself 
 off. 
 
 Detriment. 
 
 Denial. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 129 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 The red plague rid ye, 
 "Tempest," I. ii. 64. 
 
 Now spurs the lated 
 traveler, "Macbeth," 
 III. iii. 6. 
 
 Shogg off! I would have 
 you solus, " Henry 
 v.," II. i. 48. Shall 
 we shogg off, Idem, 
 II. iii. 48. 
 
 Make denials increase 
 your services, " Cym- 
 beline," II. iii. 53. 
 Prejudicates the busi- 
 ness, and would seem 
 to have us make denial. 
 
13° 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Devil, the. 
 
 
 
 Old Harry. 
 
 Devour, or 
 
 devouring. 
 
 Ravin, Raven, or Ra- 
 vine — In most English 
 dialects; perhaps this 
 is only a shortening of 
 Raving. 
 
 Dew. 
 
 
 
 Dag — There'sbeen a nice 
 flop o' dag = there's 
 been a nice fall of dew. 
 
 Diaper. 
 
 
 
 Dubble. 
 
 Die, to cease to 
 (verb). 
 
 live 
 
 Croak. Go back — Pass — 
 I'm afeard my dilling 
 '11 pass hereby=I am 
 fearful that my child 
 will die this time. 
 
 Different. 
 
 
 
 Odds — It '11 all be odds 
 inabit=It will be dif- 
 ferent in a moment. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 131 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 "All's Well that 
 End's Well," I. ii. 9. 
 
 Meet the ravin lion, 
 "All's Well that Ends 
 Well," III. ii. 120. 
 (Benjamin shall raven 
 as a wolf, King James 
 Bible, Gen. xliv. 27.) 
 
 Vex not his ghost. O let 
 him pass, " Lear," V. 
 iii. 213. Disturb him 
 not, let him pass peace- 
 ably, "2 Hen. VI.." 
 III. iii., 29. 
 
 Were still at odds, but 
 being three, "Love's 
 Labor's Lost," III. i. 
 91; nothing but odds 
 with England, "Henry 
 V." IL iv. 129. 
 
132 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE, 
 
 Dig (Verb). 
 
 Earth— Earth it up=dig 
 
 
 it up. 
 
 Digestion. 
 
 Digester — His digester 
 is bad=His digestion 
 is out of order. 
 
 Dissolve. 
 
 Resolve. 
 
 Direct, directly — see 
 Immediately, Pres- 
 
 Next — Next away. 
 
 ently. 
 
 
 Disorder — Disorderly. 
 
 Huggermugger — Mul- 
 locks — This rooms all 
 
 
 on a mullock; it wans 
 
 
 fettlin up a bit = This 
 
 
 room is in disorder 
 
 
 and needs setting to 
 rights. 
 
 Dirty. 
 
 Grubby. 
 
 Disagree, quarrel. 
 
 Chip out, or drop out — 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 133 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Whose liquid surge re- 
 solves the moon into 
 soft tears, "Timon 
 of Athens," IV. iii. 
 442. Thaw and Re- 
 solve itself into a 
 dew, " Hamlet," I. ii. 
 130. Even these re- 
 solved my reason into 
 tears, " The Lover's 
 Complaint," 296. 
 
 'Tis the next way to turn 
 tailor, "i Henry VI.," 
 III. i. 264. 
 
 And we have done but 
 greenly. In Hugger- 
 mugger to inter him, 
 "Hamlet," IV. v. 
 87. 
 
134 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 Me and him chipped 
 out (or dropped out) 
 other day = He and I 
 quarreled the other 
 day. 
 
 Disarrange. 
 
 Midge. 
 
 Disorder, confusion. 
 
 Pucker. 
 
 Disturb. 
 
 Raise the place. 
 
 Ditch. 
 
 Grimp. 
 
 Does. 
 
 Do— He do like it = He 
 does like it. 
 
 Dolt— see Stupid. 
 
 Nozman. 
 
 Dog-tooth. 
 
 Puggin-tooth. 
 
 Domineering. 
 
 Masterful, or Missising. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 135 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 He raised the place with 
 loud and coward cries, 
 " King Lear," II. iv. 
 
 43- I'll 
 Windsor, 
 Wives of 
 V. V. 223. 
 
 raise all 
 " Merry 
 Windsor," 
 This busi- 
 
 ness will raise us all, 
 "Winter's Tale," II. 
 i- 193- 
 
 Doth set my puggin- 
 tooth on edge, "Win- 
 ter's Tale," IV. iii. 
 437- 
 
136 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Donkey. 
 
 Jerusalem Pony. 
 
 Doubtful. 
 
 Dubersome— It's duber- 
 
 
 some he goes = It's 
 doubtful if he goes. 
 
 Dough, sometimes a 
 pudding. 
 
 Duff, or Dunch. A pud- 
 ding made of flour and 
 water and eaten with 
 salt, is a Dunch-dump- 
 ling. 
 
 Down. 
 
 Dowle. 
 
 Drain. 
 
 Grimp. 
 
 Drab — a shiftless 
 woman — see Slattern. 
 
 Shackle. 
 
 Draw (as to draw tea). 
 
 Mash — The tea was 
 ready mashed — The 
 tea was drawn. 
 
 Drawback, or Delay 
 (sometimes). 
 
 Denial — It's a great 
 denial to him to be 
 shut up in the house 
 — It's a great draw- 
 back for him to be 
 kept in-doors. 
 
 Dregs. 
 
 Dribblins, Swatchell or 
 Swappel. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 137 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 The dowle that's in my 
 plume, ''Tempest," 
 III. iii. 65. 
 
 Make denials increase 
 your services, " Cym- 
 beline," II. iii. 53. 
 
138 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Drenched — see Wet. 
 
 Dried — see Crusted. 
 Drink (noun). 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Watched — or Wet- 
 chered. 
 
 Padded. 
 
 Drench, 'As in 's drench. 
 = He is in drink, ;. e., 
 is drunken. 
 
 Drip. 
 
 
 Gutter, usually of a can- 
 dle. The dummy gut- 
 ters — The candle is 
 dripping, or burning 
 unevenly. 
 
 Drive out. 
 
 
 Scouse — Scouse them 
 dawgs out = Drive 
 out the dogs. 
 
 Drizzling. 
 
 
 Damping. 
 
 Drop — see 
 
 Expectorate. 
 
 Gob, Gobblets. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 139 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Give my roan horse a 
 drench, says he, " i 
 Henry IV.," II. iv. 
 120. Sodden water, a 
 drench for surreined 
 jades, "Henry V.," 
 III. V. 19. 
 
 With gobbets of thy 
 mother's bleeding 
 
 heart, 2 "Henry VI.," 
 IV. i. 85. Into as 
 many gobbets will I 
 cut it, as wild Me- 
 dea young Absyrtus 
 did, Idem, V. ii. 
 58. 
 
140 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Droop — see Sink. 
 
 
 Sagg. 
 
 Drool — a 
 low. 
 
 waggish 
 
 fel- 
 
 Dryskin — 'Ees a droll 
 wag — 'Ees a dryskin. 
 
 Drunken. 
 
 
 
 Fresh, Muzzy — He's 
 fresh, or muzzy=:He's 
 drunken. 
 
 Dry. 
 
 
 
 Starky. 
 
 Dull — 
 Sleepy. 
 
 see Heavy, 
 
 Urked. 
 
 Dumpling- 
 
 —see Dough. 
 
 Dunch. 
 
 Dunce — see Idiot, 
 
 Fool. 
 
 Geek, Patch— [Common 
 to several dialects]. 
 
 Dung, Manure. 
 
 
 Sharm — Cow sharm = 
 Cow manure. 
 
 Dungeon. 
 
 
 
 Dungill. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 141 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Shall never sagg with 
 doubt, " Macbeth," V. 
 iii. 10. 
 
 Perhaps so used in a 
 withered serving man; 
 a fresh tapster, 
 "Merry Wives of 
 Windsor," I. iii. 19. 
 
 And made the most no- 
 torious geek and gull, 
 "Twelfth Night," V. 
 i. 351. And to be- 
 come the geek and 
 scorn of th' other's 
 viUany, "Cymbeline," 
 V. iv. 67. 
 
142 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Dwarf. 
 
 Earrings, probably the 
 false earrings worn to 
 keep the perforation 
 open. 
 
 Economy. 
 
 Eel Basket. 
 Elm Tree. 
 
 Election. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Emaciated, in the sense 
 of down to a fine 
 point — see Pinched, 
 Thin. 
 
 Durgey. Sometimes 
 
 called a "go by the 
 ground." 
 
 Sleepers. 
 
 Salvation — It's no salva- 
 tion to scrum a reasty 
 shive = It's no econ- 
 omy to stuff one's self 
 with sour bread. 
 
 Putcheon. 
 
 Elven. 
 
 Ond Shaken Time—?, e., 
 the local election, 
 when the candidates 
 shake hands with the 
 voters. 
 
 Picked. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 143 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 At gaming, perhaps in 
 this sense in swearing, 
 or about some act 
 that has no relish of 
 salvation in it, " Ham- 
 let," II. i. 58. 
 
 Used in the sense of 
 nice (perhaps thin or 
 sharp), in " Hamlet," 
 V. i.; "The age is 
 grown so picked." 
 See also " Love's 
 
144 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Embers. 
 
 Elegant (splendid). 
 
 Embarrassed, 
 
 Embarrass, also in the 
 sense of put out, Ex- 
 tinguish — see Extin- 
 tinguish, Put Out. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 deeds. 
 
 Clinking, Perial. 
 Graveled. 
 
 Dout — He douts me 
 He embarrasses me. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 145 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAVS. , 
 
 Labor's Lost," V. i. 
 14; "He is too picked, 
 too spruce." 
 
 When you were gravelled 
 for lack of matter you 
 might take occasion to 
 kiss, "As You Like 
 It," IV. i. 75. 
 
 The dram of Eale doth 
 all the noble substance 
 often doubt to his own 
 scandal, " Hamlet," 
 L iv. If this is a use 
 of the Warwickshire 
 word, I think this cele- 
 brated crux is simpli- 
 fied, viz. : the morsel 
 of evil born in the man 
 embarrasses and extin- 
 guishes (or eclipses) 
 all his good points. 
 
 fEale being a misprint 
 or evil). See use of 
 the word dout in 
 "Henry V.," IV. ii. 
 II ; and again in 
 "Hamlet," IV. 7. I 
 have a speech of fire 
 
146 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Ember (a live ember 
 only). 
 
 Empty (verb). 
 
 Encourage, to urge on. 
 
 Encourage. 
 
 Endure. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Gleed. 
 
 Shit, Shit them taters 
 out o' scuttle = Empty 
 those potatoes out of 
 that bushel-basket. 
 
 Age on. 'Ee aged ' 'em 
 on = He urged or en- 
 couraged him to pro- 
 ceed. 
 
 Hearten. 
 
 Abide, Abear — I can't 
 abide (or abear) it = I 
 can't endure it. 
 
GLOSS AR Y. 
 
 147 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 that fain would blaze, 
 but that this folly 
 douts it. The mis- 
 printof doubt for dout, 
 and of eale for evil, 
 both occurring in one 
 sentence, have caused 
 the greatest and most 
 exploited Shakes- 
 
 pearean crux. 
 
 My royal father, cheer 
 those noble lords and 
 hearten those that 
 fight in your defense, 
 "3 Henry VI." II. ii. 
 78. 
 
 Good natures could not 
 abide to be with, 
 "Tempest," I. ii. 360, 
 
148 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Enough. 
 
 Enu (Enew). 
 
 Equal — (an equal in 
 
 Even — Christian. 
 
 station). 
 
 
 Entangle (Entangle- 
 
 Twizzle, Ravelment, a 
 
 ment.) 
 
 tangle of yarn — is a 
 
 
 Robbie. 
 
 Entirely — Completely. 
 
 Slom, Clean. E turned 
 
 
 slom (or clean) over 
 
 
 = He turned a com- 
 
 
 plete somersault. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 149 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAVS. 
 
 see also " Merry 
 Wives," I. i. ; "Meas- 
 ure for Measure," III. 
 ii. ; " Midsummer 
 
 Night's Dream," III. 
 i. ; " Merchant of 
 Venice," IV. i. ; 
 "Julius Caesar," III. 
 ii., etc., etc. 
 
 That great folk should 
 have countenance to 
 drown or kill them- 
 selves more than their 
 even Christian, "Ham- 
 let," V. i. 31. 
 
 Roaming clean through 
 the bounds of Asia, 
 "Comedy of Errors," 
 I. i. 134. Though 
 not clean past your 
 youth, "2 Henry IV.," 
 
 I. ii. 110. And domes- 
 tic broils clean over- 
 blown, " Richard III.," 
 
 II. iv. 61. Renounc- 
 ing clean the faith 
 they have in tennis 
 
'SO 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Entrails. 
 
 
 Chittlins. Aggies: (per- 
 haps the Scotch Hag- 
 gis) — The Entrails and 
 Ropes of a Sheep. 
 
 Erase (verb) — 
 Scratch out. 
 
 see 
 
 Scrat. 
 
 Equitable — Fair-play 
 tween men. 
 
 be- 
 
 As good as — Ayzum- 
 Tazzum. Ul give 
 one as good as him 
 = I will get as much 
 as he does. 
 
 Ewe. 
 
 
 Yoe. 
 
 Exactly. 
 
 
 Justly — It fits him justly 
 = It fits him exactly. 
 — Pronounced jussly. 
 
 Excel (verb). 
 
 
 Cap. 
 
 Excellent. 
 
 
 Undeniable. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 151 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 and tall stockings, 
 "Henry VIII.," I. iii. 
 29. 
 
 Be justly weighed, 
 "Twelfth Night," V. 
 i. 375. Equal bal- 
 ance justly weighed, 
 "2 Henry IV.," IV. 
 i. 67. 
 
 I will cap that proverb 
 with there's flattery in 
 friendship, " Henry 
 V." III. vii. 129. 
 
152 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Excellent. 
 
 Reeming. 
 
 Excrement. 
 
 Gold dust. 
 
 Excited, nervous. 
 
 Puthery. 
 
 Expectorate (verb). 
 
 Gob, Yaux. See Drop, 
 Mouthful. 
 
 Excessive, Excessively 
 — see Very. 
 
 Terrible — Above a bit. 
 He's terrible fond of 
 the little 'un = He is 
 excessively fond of the 
 child — or Er's worrit 
 above a bit = He's 
 extremely worried. 
 
 Exchange (verb). 
 
 To chop = to trade one 
 thing for another. 
 
 Exhausted. 
 
 Sadded, Forwearied— or 
 Sadded. He's gone 
 forwearied = He's ex- 
 hausted or worn out. 
 
 Expert. 
 
 Dabster, Dabhand. 
 
 Expertly, neatly. 
 
 Gainly. In print — E dost 
 it in print like = He 
 does it expertly. 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 Cusses. 
 
 Extension of a house — 
 
 Lean to. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 IS3 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Were as terrible as her 
 terminations, " Much 
 Ado about Nothing," 
 II, i. What is the 
 reason of this terrible 
 summons? "Othello," 
 II. i. 246. 
 
 Forwearied in this, 
 John," II. i. 233. 
 
 K. 
 
IS4 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 see Addition, Shed, 
 Wing. 
 
 Extinguish — (Verb) see 
 Embarrass, Put out. 
 Shut. 
 
 Extremely. 
 
 Fade, Decrease or dis- 
 appear. 
 
 Fagot (any piece of fire- 
 wood). 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Dout. 
 
 Douk (verb), to duck the 
 head. "You must 
 douk yer yud to get 
 thraough that little 
 doer." 
 
 Dowst (noun), a blow. 
 
 Dowt (verb), to extin- 
 guish (? "do out"). 
 " Mind as you dowts 
 the candle safe, w'en 
 yii be got into bed." 
 
 Like — As, as (with the 
 adjective), It's as like 
 as like = It's very 
 like, or it's pleasant 
 like = It's very pleas- 
 ant. 
 
 Sigh, The posies be sigh- 
 in' — or in the case of 
 a humor — This boils 
 aginnin to sigh = This 
 boil is decreasing. 
 
 Bangle, Bavin — Kid. 
 
GLOSSAR y. 
 
 155 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 And dout them with 
 superfluous courage, 
 "Henry V." IV. ii. 
 II. I have a speech of 
 fire which fain would 
 blaze, but that thisfolly 
 douts it, " Hamlet," 
 IV. vii. 192. 
 
 And rash bavin wits, 
 " I Hen. IV." III. 61. 
 
156 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Fagged — worn out, very 
 wearied — see Fa- 
 tigued. 
 
 Failure. 
 
 Fairies. 
 
 Fancy. 
 
 Fall — see Dew. 
 
 Famished. 
 
 Fat, usually Hog's fat. 
 
 Fatigued — utterly worn 
 out, see Exhausted. 
 
 Faultfinder, a captious 
 person (as in mod- 
 ern argot perhaps a 
 "kicker "). 
 
 Feeble. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Mull— Mulled = foiled. 
 
 Pharasees, a mispronun- 
 ciation confounded 
 with a Biblical word. 
 
 Fainty. 
 
 Flop. 
 
 Famelled — or clommed. 
 
 Scam. 
 
 Forwearied — [also in 
 several other dialects]. 
 
 Pickthanks. 
 
 Casualty — He's getting 
 old and casualty now 
 =: He's getting old 
 and feeble. Also 
 
GLOSSAR v. 
 
 IS7 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Peace is a very apoplexy, 
 lethargy ; mulled, deaf, 
 " Coriolanus," IV. v. 
 239- 
 
 Forwearied in this, 
 "King John," II. i. 
 233- 
 
 By smiling pickthanks 
 and base news- 
 mongers, " I Henry 
 IV.," III. ii. 25. 
 
iS8 
 
 GLdSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 Creechy, Grouchy, 
 Croffing, or Fodder- 
 
 
 ing. 
 
 Feed (verb). 
 
 Fother, Serve — The pigs 
 are served (or foth- 
 ered) = The pigs are 
 fed. 
 
 Feel. 
 
 Find of — I find of thus 
 foot irks me = I feel 
 this foot paining 
 me. 
 
 Feeling (noun). 
 
 Felth. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Hummocks — Keep thy 
 
 Fell. 
 
 Fellow (Especially a fel- 
 low workman, or part- j 
 ner in a job). j 
 
 hummocks home = 
 Keep your feet where 
 they belong. 
 
 Fall— We must fall that 
 tree = We must cut 
 down that tree. 
 
 Butty. 
 
 Fennel (and umbellifer- 
 ous plants generally). 
 
 Kex or Keks [also in Sus- 
 sex, Whitby, Mid-York- 
 shire, and several other 
 dialects]. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 159 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 For the table, sir, it shall 
 be served in? "Mer- 
 chant of Venice," III. 
 V. 75- 
 
 Thistles, keeksies, burs, 
 "Henry v.," V. ii. 52. 
 
i6o 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Fetched. 
 
 Fet. 
 
 Fitches. 
 
 Vetches. 
 
 Fever. 
 
 Faver. 
 
 Field (when inclosed). 
 
 Close, 
 
 Fields. 
 
 Ground. 
 
 Fidget (verb), to worry 
 one's self. 
 
 Fissle — with the fingers. 
 Fither. 
 
 Fidget (verb), to worry 
 another. 
 
 Roil. 
 
 Fine. 
 
 Ferial — That's a perial 
 nag now = That's a 
 fine mount, or that's a 
 beautiful saddle horse. 
 
 Finery — see Trinkets. 
 
 Bravery [also in several 
 other dialects]. 
 
 First milk (of a cow after 
 calving). 
 
 Bisnings. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 i6i 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 On, on, ye noble English, 
 whose blood was fet 
 from fathers of war- 
 proof, "Henry V.," 
 III. i. 17. 
 
 Which grows here in my 
 close, " Timon of 
 Athens," V. ii. 
 
 With scarfs and fans 
 and double change of 
 bravery, "Taming of 
 Shrew," IV. iii. 57. 
 
l62 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Fists. 
 
 Fises, Fisses. 
 
 Flail. 
 
 Nile. 
 
 Flatter (verb). 
 
 Claw — He claws 'un = 
 
 
 He flatters me. [Also 
 
 
 in several other dia- 
 
 
 lects.] 
 
 Fledged. 
 
 Fleshy. 
 
 Fledgeling. 
 
 Batchling. 
 
 Flirt, to coquette. 
 
 Brevet, used probably 
 
 
 only as a participle. 
 
 
 She is flirting — she is 
 
 
 brevetting. 
 
 Flogged (in school). 
 
 Breeches, 
 
 Flutter (verb). 
 
 Flicket. 
 
 Flower. 
 
 Flur. 
 
 Flower bed. 
 
 Flur, Knot. 
 
 Friendly. 
 
 Great. They be great 
 
 
 this day = They are 
 
 
 very friendly to-day. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 163 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 If yau forget your quies, 
 your qusees, and your 
 quods you must be 
 preeches, " Merry 
 Wives of Windsor, " IV. 
 i. 81. 
 
1 64 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Fluent (over ready). 
 
 Food. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Food — in bad condition, 
 especially meat. 
 
 Fond. 
 
 Fondle — see Caress. 
 
 Fool — see Idiot, Simple- 
 ton. 
 
 Foolish — see Fool, Sim- 
 pleton, Stupid. 
 
 Limber — How limber 
 your tongue is = 
 How fluent (or talka- 
 tive) you are. 
 
 Chuff (one full of food 
 is called a chuff). 
 
 Cag-mag. 
 
 Partial to — I be so par- 
 tial to onions = I am 
 very fond of onions. 
 
 Pither. 
 
 Patch — (Wise says that 
 loon means a mischie- 
 vous or rascally fool; 
 one who does inten- 
 tional harm; in this 
 latter sense common 
 to a great many Eng- 
 lish north country and 
 Scotch dialects; in the 
 female, Gomeril). 
 
 Crudy. 
 
GLOSSAJi y. 
 
 i6S 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Me off with limber vows, 
 "Winter's Tale," I. ii. 
 47- 
 
 Hang ye, gorbellied 
 knaves, are ye un- 
 done? No, ye fat 
 chuffs, "I Henry IV.," 
 n. ii. 94. 
 
 I am not partial to in- 
 fringe, "Comedy of 
 Errors," I. i. 4. 
 
 What patch is made our 
 porter? "Comedy of 
 Errors," III. i. 35. 
 The patch is kind 
 enough, but a huge 
 feeder, " Merchant of 
 Venice," II. v. 46. So 
 were there a patch set 
 on learning, to see 
 him in a school, IV. 
 ii. 3»- 
 
 It . . dries me there 
 all the foolish and 
 
1 66 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Forerunner, see Breeze, 
 Herald. 
 
 Foresee — to Anticipate. 
 Also a noun — Fore- 
 knowledge. 
 
 Footstep. 
 
 Forthwith — see 
 stantly. 
 
 In- 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Whiffler. 
 
 Forecast — What do ye 
 forecasts What do you 
 anticipate, or foresee. 
 
 Grise, Footstich. 
 
 Straight [also to several 
 other dialects]. 
 
GLOSSAR y. 
 
 167 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 crudy vapors, 
 Henry IV.," IV. 
 106. 
 
 111. 
 
 The deep-mouth'd sea, 
 Which like a mighty 
 whiffler 'fore the king. 
 Seems to prepare his 
 way, "Henry V.," 
 Chorus to Act V. 
 
 Alas! that Warwick 
 had no more forecast, 
 "3 Henry VI.," V. i. 
 
 pity you — that's a de- 
 gree to love — not 
 a grise, " Twelfth 
 Night," III. i. 135. 
 Every grise of fortune 
 is smoofhed by that 
 below, " Timon of 
 Athens," IV. iii. 16. 
 Say a sentence, which, 
 as a grise or step may 
 help these lovers, 
 "Othello," I. iii. 
 200. 
 
1 68 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Frail, unsafe. 
 
 Sidder — The ladder's 
 sidder = The ladder 
 is unsafe to stand on. 
 
 Forward, Brazen. 
 
 Fast— in a young woman. 
 
 Foul. 
 
 Frousty. 
 
 Foundered, Worthless. 
 Frail, unsafe 
 
 (of a Horse only). 
 
 Drummill. 
 
 Freckled. 
 
 Bran-faced. 
 
 Freeze (verb) — see 
 Frozen. 
 
 Fry, Starve. 
 
 Frighten (verb). 
 
 Gallow. 
 
 Frenchman. 
 
 Mounseer (a corruption 
 of Monsieur). 
 
 Frequent (in this sense 
 of repetition) — see 
 Plenty of, Abundance. 
 
 Old— There old work for 
 him yet = There's 
 plenty of work for 
 him yet. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 169 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Lest the bargain should 
 catch cold and starve, 
 "Cymbeline," I. iv. 
 180. 
 
 The wrathful skies, gal- 
 low the very wander- 
 ers of the dark, 
 "Lear," III. ii. 44. 
 
 If a man were porter of 
 hell-gate, should have 
 old turning the keys, 
 "Macbeth," II. iii. 2. 
 We shall have old 
 swearing, " M. of V.," 
 IV. iii. 16. Here will 
 
170 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 FrighteneJ. 
 
 
 
 Frit— He's frit = He's 
 frightened. 
 
 Frock (the 
 
 garment 
 
 Slop. 
 
 worn by laborers, 
 
 one 
 
 
 gathered in 
 
 by 
 
 the 
 
 
 waist). 
 
 
 
 
 From. 
 
 
 
 Off — I bought um off 
 Jones = I bought 
 them from Jones. 
 
 Frozen. 
 
 
 
 Starved — Perished. 
 
 Full (stuffed). 
 
 
 
 Chock, Chad (more par- 
 ticularly with eating) 
 — His bag was chock 
 full = His bag was 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 171 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 be an old abusing of 
 God's patience and the 
 King's English, "Mer- 
 ry Wives," I. i. 2; also 
 "2 Hen. IV.," II. 4. 
 "Much Ado," V. ii. 98. 
 
 Disfigure not his slop, 
 " Love's Labor's Lost," 
 IV. iii. 58. Satin for 
 my short cloak and 
 slops, "2 Hen. IV." 
 
 I. ii. 83. Salutation 
 to your French slop, 
 "Romeo and Juliet," 
 
 II. iv. 47. As a Ger- 
 man from the waist 
 downward, all slops, 
 " Much Ado About 
 Nothing," IIL ii. 35. 
 
172 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Fumaria (the rank class 
 of weeds). 
 
 Funnel. 
 
 Furrow — see Ridge. 
 Fuss— see Scrimmage. 
 
 Fussy. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 very full, as chock as 
 chock. As chad as 
 ched = I have eaten 
 all I want. My appe- 
 tite is satisfied. 
 
 Fumatory. 
 
 Tun-dish. 
 
 Land. 
 
 Work — Bull-squilter — 
 Fad. There'll be 
 work agin that broken 
 glass = There will be 
 a fuss about that 
 broken glass. Ees all 
 in a work, or in a Bull- 
 squilter = He is fussing 
 or worrying or fuming. 
 
 Faddy. Ees a faddy old 
 gaffer = He is a fussy 
 old man. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 173 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 The darnel, hemlock 
 and rank fumatory, 
 "Henry V.," V. ii. 45. 
 Crowned with rank 
 fumiter and furrow 
 weeds, "Lear," IV. 
 iv. 3. 
 
 For filling a bottle with 
 a tun-dish, "Measure 
 for Measure," III. ii. 
 182. 
 
 Here's goodly work! I 
 would they were abed! 
 "Coriolanus," I. i. 56. 
 A likely work that 
 you should find it, 
 "Othello," IV. i., 156. 
 
174 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 G 
 
 
 Gadfly. 
 
 Brize [also in several 
 other dialects]. 
 
 Gain (verb). 
 
 Gets — My watch gets = 
 My watch gains time. 
 
 Game, Sport. 
 
 Ecky. 
 
 Gander. 
 
 Gondered. 
 
 Gate. 
 
 Yat — Yat-pwust singin = 
 talking over the gate- 
 post — /. e., saying dif- 
 ferent things to differ- 
 ent persons; about 
 equiv. to the Ameri- 
 
 
 canism, over the fence. 
 
 Gather (verb). 
 
 Gether. 
 
 Generally. 
 
 Mwist-an-ind. 
 
 Gaudy (smartly attired). 
 
 Spif, Spiffy. 
 
 Gentle (timid). 
 
 Soft — When applied to a 
 girl it means gentle, 
 timid, confiding; ap- 
 plied to a man it sig- 
 
 nifies dolt or idiot. A 
 dialect synonym is 
 cade. A gentle, lov- 
 
GLOSSAR v. 
 
 175 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 The brize upon her, like 
 a cow, "Ant. and Cleo- 
 patra," III. X. 14. 
 
 For we are soft as oUr 
 complexions, " Meas- 
 ure for Measure," II. 
 iv. 138, and undoubt- 
 edly often used in this 
 sense throughout the 
 plays. 
 
176 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 able girl is a "pretty 
 cade Jill." 
 
 Gentlemanly — see Re- 
 spectable. 
 
 Still. 
 
 Getting on, Progressing. 
 
 Frogging. Owar's frog- 
 
 
 gin? = How are you 
 
 
 progressing? 
 
 Ghastly — see Horrible. 
 
 Unked. 
 
 Giddy. 
 
 Gidding. 
 
 Gimlet. 
 
 Nailpercer. 
 
 Girl — see Daughter. 
 
 Gell— Wench. 
 
 Gladly. 
 
 Lief— I'd lief go=I'd 
 gladly go. 
 
 Glance, a (of the eye). 
 
 Blether, Flinch. I don't 
 
 
 get a flinch from her 
 
 
 = 1 don't get a glance 
 from her. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 177 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Perhaps so used in Troi- 
 lus and Cressida, I. iii. 
 The still and mental 
 parts, or " a still and 
 quiet conscience," 
 "Henry VIII.," 11. 
 iii. 379. 
 
 Used with "as"— al- 
 ways in the sense of 
 willing in the plays. 
 Mrs. Clark gives 
 twenty cases in her 
 " Concordance." 
 
178 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Glide. 
 
 
 Glir. 
 
 Glimpse. 
 
 
 Blether. 
 
 Glean (Verb). 
 
 
 Lecse: to Poke, is to 
 glean a second or 
 third time. 
 
 Gleaners. 
 
 
 Lazers. 
 
 Glutton. 
 
 
 Forty-guts. 
 
 Gnash — to grind 
 teeth. 
 
 the 
 
 Gnaish. 
 
 God-parents. 
 
 
 Gossips — They two are 
 my gossips=They are 
 my god-fathers or god- 
 mothers. 
 
 Going on — Happening, 
 transpiring. 
 
 Agate — What's agate? 
 What is going on? 
 
 Good-for-Nothing, 
 A worthless perso 
 
 a — 
 
 n. 
 
 Faggott. Sin' the faggot's 
 come under her nose 
 I doant get a flinch 
 
GLOSSAR y. 
 
 179 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Perhaps used in this 
 sense in "Richard 
 III.," I. i. 83, "are 
 mighty gossips in 
 our monarchy." Un- 
 doubtedly so used 
 in the Christening 
 scene, " Henry VIII.," 
 V. V. 13, My noble 
 gossips, ye have been 
 too prodigal. 
 
i8o 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Gorge, or stuff (to eat 
 greedily), verb. 
 
 Gosling — see Nestling. 
 
 Gossip — see Tattler, 
 Tale-bearer. 
 
 Grab, Clutch after 
 (verb). 
 
 Grandfather. 
 
 Gradually. 
 
 Grate (verb). 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 from her= since that 
 good-for-nothing fel- 
 low has appeared, I 
 don't get a glance from 
 her. 
 
 Stodge, Scrum — Don't 
 scrum (or stodge) 
 them crinks that a 
 way = Don't eat those 
 small apples so greed- 
 ily. 
 
 Gull. 
 
 Pickthanks [also in Mid- 
 Yorkshire, and various 
 other dialects]. 
 
 Clozen. 
 
 Gaffer. 
 Inchmeal. 
 
 Race — Raced ginger= 
 powdered or grated 
 ginger. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 i8i 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Yond gull Malvolio 
 is turned heathen, 
 "Twelfth Night," III. 
 
 ii- 73- 
 
 Pickthanks and base 
 newsmongers, " i Hen- 
 ry IV.," III. ii. 25. 
 
 Make him, by inchmeal, a 
 disease! "Temp." II. 3. 
 
 A race or two of ginger, 
 "Winter's Tale," IV. 
 iii. 52. 
 
l82 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Greasy. 
 
 Glorry. 
 
 Great. 
 
 Girta. 
 
 Greensward — see Turf. 
 
 Grinsard. 
 
 Grin (verb). 
 
 Nicker. 
 
 Grub (verb). 
 
 Stock. 
 
 Grove, especially a small 
 
 Durable. 
 
 grove. 
 
 
 Grumbling. 
 
 Guess — see Suppose. 
 Guide post. 
 
 Crak, Cag-mag. 
 
 Her's on the Crake — 
 Allers on the crake, or 
 she's allers cagmaggin 
 = She's always grumb- 
 ling. 
 
 Reckon (common in the 
 Southern States of 
 America). 
 
 Cross an' hands. 
 
 Gush, perhaps in the Pash. 
 sense of to attack — 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 183 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Perhaps used in an ob- 
 scene pun in "Two 
 Gentlemenof Verona," 
 III. i. 311. "What 
 need a man care for a 
 stock with a wench." 
 
 Thou wantest a rough 
 pash and the shoots 
 
1 84 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 with either words or 
 blows. 
 
 - 
 
 Gusty — see Windy. 
 
 Hurden. 
 
 H 
 
 
 Haggard (gaunt). 
 
 Clem gutted. 
 
 Halfpenny. 
 
 Meg. 
 
 Half-witted— see Wit- 
 less, Dunce, Fool, 
 Idiot, etc. 
 
 Sorry. 
 
 Hames (the iron fitting 
 outside a horse collar). 
 
 Eames. 
 
 Handkerchief. 
 
 Muckkinder, 'Andker- 
 cher. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 i8S 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 that I have, "Win- 
 ter's Tale," I. ii. 128. 
 If I go to him with my 
 armed fist I'll pash 
 him o'er the face, 
 "Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," II. iii. 213. 
 
 And how, and why 
 this handkercher was 
 stained, " As You 
 Like It," IV. iii. 98. 
 I counterfeited to 
 swoon when he showed 
 me your handkercher. 
 Idem, V. ii. 30. Good 
 Tom Drum, lend me a 
 handkercher, "All's 
 Well that Ends Well," 
 
i86 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Hand (of a child). 
 
 Handle — (when a stick 
 or pole). 
 
 Handful. 
 
 Handy — Easy, simple. 
 
 Hangnail, also a Surety, 
 or a Backer. 
 
 Harass. 
 
 Hard times. 
 
 Donney. 
 
 Stock (of a mug or cup). 
 Stale — Broom stale= 
 broom handle; mop 
 stale = mop handle; 
 rake stale=rake han- 
 dle. 
 
 Ontle. 
 
 Gain. Allhalluns. That'll 
 be the gainest way=: 
 That way will be the 
 easiest. 
 
 Backfriend. 
 
 Harry. 
 
 Cold-crowdin 
 
 gs. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 187 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 v. iii. 322. I knit my 
 handkercher about 
 your brows, " King 
 John," IV. i. 42. 
 
 Is it your will to make a 
 stale of me? "Tam- 
 ing of the Shrew," J. 
 i. 58. Had he none else 
 to make a stale but 
 me? "3 Henry VI.," 
 III. iii. 260. 
 
 A back friend, a shoulder 
 clapper, "Comedy of 
 Errors," IV. ii. 37. 
 
 A proper man — Indeed 
 he is so — I repent me 
 much that I so hurried 
 him, "Antony and 
 Cleopatra," III. iii. 43. 
 
 The idea of a cold day, 
 as adayof misfortunes, 
 appears current in the 
 
i88 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Hardy — See healthy. 
 
 Harness (verb or noun). 
 
 Harvesters (persons who 
 go from place to place 
 to work during har- 
 vest.) 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Frem — Your plants do 
 look frem = Y o u r 
 plants look vigorous 
 (or hardy). 
 
 Gear the horse=Har- 
 ness the horse. Put 
 on the gear=put on 
 the harness. 
 
 Cokers. 
 
 Hatchet. 
 
 Hook bill. 
 
 Have (auxiliary verb). 
 
 A'. 
 
 Head. 
 
 Yed. 
 
 Headstall (the headgear 
 of a horse). 
 
 Mullen. 
 
GLOSSARY, 
 
 189 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 play. It would make 
 me cold to lose, 
 "Timon of Athens," 
 I. i. 93. It has lately 
 appeared in the phrase 
 " It's a cold day when 
 I get left ! " in U. S. 
 
 Used in the sense of 
 "trappings," "uni- 
 form," or "dress"; un- 
 doubtedly in the plays. 
 Muscovitesin shapeless 
 gear, "Love's Labor' s, ' ' 
 V. ii. 364. I will rem- 
 edy this gear ere long, 
 "2 Henry VL,"IIL i. 
 
igo 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Headstrong — see Obsti- 
 nate. 
 
 Health (a condition of). 
 
 Healthy — see Hardy, 
 Thriving. 
 
 Heap, to pile up (verb), 
 syn., to accumulate 
 grievances against an 
 enemy. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Awkward. 
 
 Liver-pin, Liver-vein, 
 'Avedrap more soop — 
 t'll oil yer liverpin (or 
 liver vein). 
 
 Pert — He's quite pert to- 
 day=He is in good 
 health or spirits to- 
 day. A lively, healthy 
 child is called a 
 "rile"; a weak or 
 sickly old person is a 
 " wratch "; a sickly 
 child is a "scribe." 
 Applied to an animal, 
 the adjective is kind — 
 As, that cow aint kind 
 =That cow doesn't 
 thrive. Applied to 
 plants, the adjective 
 used is "frem." 
 
 Hudge (participle Hud- 
 dled, Fetched). 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 191 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 By awkward wind from 
 England's bank, "2 
 Henry VI.," III. ii. 
 83- 
 
 This is the liver vein, 
 which makes flesh a 
 deity, "Love's Labor's 
 Lost," IV. iii. 74. 
 
 Glancing an eye of pity 
 on his losses, that have 
 of late so huddled on 
 his back, " Merchant 
 of Venice," IV. i. 28. 
 I'll potch at him some 
 way, or wrath or craft 
 
[92 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Heavy rain— see Rain- 
 storm. 
 
 Heavens hard. Tem- 
 pest. 
 
 Heavily. 
 
 Baulch. — Ecoom daown 
 clommer (or baulch) 
 =He fell heavily. 
 
 Heavily. 
 
 Clommer, only with the 
 verb to tread, or walk. 
 A steps clommer like 
 =He treads heavily. 
 
 Hedge Sparrow. 
 
 Hedge Betty. 
 
 Heel Rake (the big rake 
 that follows the har- 
 
 Hellrak. 
 
 vesting wagon.) 
 
 
 Heap. 
 
 Yup. 
 
 Hemlocks — see Fennel. 
 
 Kecks. 
 
 Helped — to help. 
 
 Helped. 
 
 Herald, one who goes be- 
 fore to announce. 
 
 Whiffler. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 193 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 may get him, " Corio- 
 lanus," I. X. 15. 
 
 We were blessedly holp 
 hither, "The Tem- 
 pest." 
 
 The deep-mouthed sea, 
 which like a mighty 
 whiffler for the King, 
 Seems to prepare his 
 way, "Henry V.," 
 chorus to Act V. 
 
194 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Herbs. 
 
 Yarbs. 
 
 Hermaphrodite. 
 
 Will-Jill. 
 
 Hers. 
 
 Shis'n — They be shisn 
 dillings = Those are 
 her little children. 
 
 High spirited. 
 
 Aunty— Stomachful. 
 
 Hindrance — see Draw- 
 back. 
 
 Denial. 
 
 Hindside-before. 
 His. 
 
 Assundbackward. 
 His'n. 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 195 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Stomach, in this sense, 
 common enough in 
 the plays. Enterprise 
 that hath a stomach 
 in't, "Hamlet," I. i. 
 103. My little stom- 
 ach to the war, " Troi- 
 lus and Cressida," III. 
 iii. 220. Man of an 
 unbounded stomach, 
 "Henry VIII.," IV. 
 ii. 34, etc. 
 
 He's fortified against 
 any denial, "Twelfth 
 Night," I. V. 154. Be 
 not ceased with slight 
 denial, "Timon of 
 Athens," II. i. 17. 
 Make denials increase 
 your services, "Cym- 
 beline," II. iii. 53. 
 
196 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Hit (perfect of verb to 
 hit). 
 
 Hot — I hot hini=I have 
 hit him. 
 
 Hoe (verb). 
 
 Hoove. 
 
 Hold (verb). 
 
 Haowt. 
 
 Home. 
 
 Whoam. 
 
 Horrible. 
 
 Unked— His leg is an 
 unked sight=His leg 
 is in a horrible condi- 
 dition (i. e., wounded 
 or diseased). (Also 
 dull, lonely, solitary, 
 which see). 
 
 Horse (for riding). 
 
 Nag [but in every other 
 English dialect]. 
 
 Horse Hair in a horse's 
 
 Courser's Hair. 
 
 eye. 
 
 
 Houses. 
 
 Housen [this old Saxon 
 plural IS used still in 
 many words in War- 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 197 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Gait of a shuffling nag, 
 "I Henry IV.," iii. i. 
 135. Know we not 
 Galloway nags? "2 
 Henry IV.," II. iv. 
 205. 
 
 Much is breeding, which, 
 like the courser's hair, 
 hath yet but life, and 
 not a serpent's poison, 
 "Antony and Cleo- 
 patra," I. ii. 200. 
 
198 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 wickshire, such as 
 
 
 Hosen, plural of hose, 
 
 
 etc.]. 
 
 However. 
 
 Howsomdever or Weev- 
 
 
 er (both forms are 
 
 
 used). 
 
 Human Being. 
 
 Christian. 
 
 Hungry. 
 Hurrying, Bustling. 
 
 Famelled. 
 
 Pelting— E saw im go 
 pelting by=I saw him 
 hurrying by. 
 
GLOSS AR Y. 
 
 199 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Howsomever their 
 hearts are severed in 
 religion, their heads 
 are both one, "All's 
 Well that Ends Well," 
 I. iii. 56. 
 
 It is spoke as a Chris- 
 tian ought to speak, 
 "Merry Wives of 
 Windsor," I. i. 103. 
 
 The more pity that great 
 folks should have 
 countenance in this 
 world to hang or 
 drown themselves 
 more than their even 
 Christian, " Hamlet," 
 V. i. 32. 
 
 Every pelting petty offi- 
 cer, " Measure for 
 Measure," II. ii. 112. 
 Have every pelting 
 river made so proud, 
 that they have over- 
 borne their continents, 
 "Midsummer Night's 
 
200 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Hurry (verb). 
 
 Nip. 
 
 Husk (verb). 
 
 Leam. 
 
 Husk (verb). 
 
 Hud — Leam. 
 
 I 
 
 
 Idiot — see Fool, Ignora- 
 mus, Supernumerary. 
 
 Geek— Patch. 
 
 Idle (verb)— see Loiter. 
 
 Mess — Doant mess along 
 = Don't idle by the 
 way. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Dream," II. 1.91. We 
 have pelting wars, 
 " Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," IV. V. 267. 
 
 The most notorious geek 
 and gull that e'er in- 
 vention played on, 
 "Twelfth Night," V. 
 i. 35. To become the 
 geek and scorn o' the 
 other's villany, "Cym- 
 beline," V. iv. 67. 
 
 Thou scurvy patch! 
 "Tempest," III. ii. 71. 
 What patch is made 
 our porter? "Comedy 
 of Errors," III. i. 36. 
 The patch is kind 
 enough, but a huge 
 feeder, " Merchant 
 of Venice," II. v. 46. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Idler. 
 
 Idling. 
 
 Ignoramus — see Idiot, 
 Fool. 
 
 Illegitimate Child — see 
 Bastard. 
 
 Immediately — see 
 ently, Instantly. 
 
 Improperly. 
 
 Image — see Model. 
 
 Pres- 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Feeder — They're a' feed- 
 ers = They are idlers, 
 good-for-nothing per- 
 sons. [Also in several 
 other dialects.] 
 
 Gogging — goggitting. 
 Widdin about — Play. 
 
 Patch, 
 
 Wench. 
 
 Awhile — Crack, Quick- 
 stitch =: You'd best do 
 job quickstitch = You 
 had better go at that 
 job at once. 
 
 Out of — To call a man 
 out of his name = To 
 give his name im- 
 properly. 
 
 Mortal — Ees mortal 
 moral o's gaffer = He 
 is the exact image of 
 his grandfather. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 203 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 I will your very faithful 
 feeder be, "As You 
 Like It," II. iv. 99. 
 The tutor and the 
 feeder of my riots, 
 "2 Henry IV.," 
 V. V. 
 
 And death shall play 
 for lack of work, 
 "All's Well that Ends 
 Well," I. i. 24. 
 
204 
 
 GLOSSAR y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Incite— see Induce. 
 
 Kindle. 
 
 Inconvenient. 
 
 inconvenient. 
 
 Indigestion. 
 
 Repeat — I repeat tha 
 mutton = I cannot di- 
 gest mutton. 
 
 Industrious. 
 
 Work-brittle— Es work- 
 brittle knaaps = He is 
 an industrious young 
 man. 
 
 Induce — see Instigate, 
 Urge. 
 
 Kindle— I'll kindle him 
 — I'll induce (or pre- 
 vail upon) him to do 
 it. [Also in South 
 Yorkshire and several 
 other dialects.] 
 
 Impudent (in malicious 
 sense). 
 
 Gallus — /. e., Gallows 
 — a gallows face = A 
 face of one who, being 
 
 U«-« 4.^ U« U.. ^ -III 
 
 Indecision. 
 
 Infant — very small. 
 
 Infirm. 
 
 Injure (/. e., to carelessly 
 injure by handling). 
 
 born to be hung, will 
 not be drowned. 
 
 Iffin and Offin. 
 
 Lug tit. 
 
 Tottery. 
 
 Gawm. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 205 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 But that I kindle the boy 
 thither, "As You Like 
 It," I. i. 179. Used in 
 Wyclif s translation of 
 Bible, Luke, iii. 7. 
 
 He hath no drowning 
 mark upon him, his 
 complexion is perfect 
 gallows, "Tempest," 
 I. i. 32. 
 
2o6 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Intercourse, Familiarity 
 — see Talk. 
 
 Instantly. 
 
 Instigate (in the sense of 
 to stir up a quarrel, to 
 bring on a fight). 
 
 Interfere (verb). 
 
 Scrawl, Truck— I'll 'ave 
 no truck wi' um = I 
 will have no inter- 
 course with him. 
 
 Awhile — see remarks 
 post, under Quickly. 
 
 Tarre. 
 
 Meddle and make — I'm 
 not going to meddle 
 an' make = I'm not 
 going to interfere. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 207 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 To it lustily awhile, 
 " Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona," IV. ii. 25. 
 
 And like a dog that is 
 compelled to fight, 
 snatch at his master 
 that dothe tarre him 
 on, "King John," IV. 
 i. 117. Pride alone 
 must tarre the mastiffs 
 on, as 'twere their 
 bones, " Troilus and 
 Cressida," I. iii. 392. 
 And the nation holds 
 it no sin to tarre them 
 to controversy, 
 "Hamlet," II. ii. 3-70. 
 
 I will teach a scurvy 
 Jack-priest to meddle 
 an' make (written 
 "or"), "Merry 
 Wives of Windsor," I. 
 iv. 116. The less you 
 meddle or make with 
 them the better, 
 " Much Ado about 
 Nothing," III. iii. 55. 
 
208 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Invention — Any clever 
 contrivance. 
 
 Irregularly. 
 
 Irritate (verb). 
 
 Intestines. 
 
 J Oram 
 
 Juice. 
 
 Key. 
 Kiss. 
 
 K 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Morum. 
 
 Fits and girds. 
 
 Rifle. 
 
 Innards — I'm that bad 
 in my innards = I'm 
 suffering internally. 
 
 Jordan. 
 
 Vargis. 
 
 Kay. 
 
 Smudge — Doher face. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 209 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 For my part I'll med- 
 dle and make no fur- 
 ther, " Troilus and 
 Cressida," I. i. 14. 
 
 When Arthur first in 
 court — Empty the Jor- 
 dan ! "2 Henry IV.," 
 II. iv. 37. They will 
 allow us ne'er a Jor- 
 dan, " I Henry IV.," 
 II. i. 22. 
 
2IO 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Kindle. 
 
 Make = Make the fire= 
 Kindle the fire. 
 
 L 
 
 
 Lack — see Spare. 
 
 
 Laid— see Lay. 
 
 Lodged. 
 
 Lambkin — see Yearling. 
 
 Earling— Teg, Baalam 
 (probably Baa-lamb). 
 
 Lands outlying. 
 Lane — see Passage. 
 
 Lay (verb). 
 
 Lazy. 
 
 Grounds. 
 
 Chewer, or Entany — or 
 Sling (all three words 
 are common). 
 
 Lodge — The corn is 
 lodged = The corn is 
 laid. [Also in Kent, 
 Surrey, Sussex, and 
 Westmoreland dia- 
 lect.] 
 
 Stiving. 
 
GLOSSAHy. 
 
 211 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Though bladed corn be 
 lodged, and trees, 
 "Macbeth," IV. i. 55. 
 Summer's corn by 
 tempest lodged, " 2 
 Henry VI.," III. ii. 
 176. 
 
 That all the earlings 
 which were streaked 
 and pied, " Merchant 
 of Venice," I. iii. 80. 
 
212 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Lard. 
 
 Scam. 
 
 Layer. 
 
 Stelch. 
 
 Large — see Commodi- 
 ous, Roomy. 
 
 Roomthy. 
 
 Lean (verb), Incline. 
 
 Teel — Teel th' dish 
 
 
 gainst sock to draw 
 = Lean the bowl a- 
 
 
 gainst the sink to 
 drain. 
 
 Lease (verb) — To hire 
 
 Set — I reckon th' ows be 
 
 or rent. 
 
 all set now — I sup- 
 
 
 pose the house is al- 
 ready rented. 
 
 Leaky. 
 
 Giggling — Tha's a gig- 
 gling boot = That is a 
 leaky boat. 
 
 Leavings — see Rem- 
 
 Orts— I don't stan' to 
 
 nants. 
 
 eat their orts = I don't 
 
 
 have to eat their leav- 
 
 
 ings. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 213 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 The fractions of her 
 faith, orts of her love, 
 "Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," V. ii. 158. Some 
 slender ort of his re- 
 mainder, " Timon of 
 Athens," IV. iii. 400. 
 One that feeds on ab- 
 jects, orts, and imita- 
 tions, " Julius Caesar," 
 IV. i. 37. 
 
214 
 
 GLOSSAR y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Lecherous — see Bedfel- 
 low. 
 
 Forum. 
 
 Lechery— see Concupis- 
 cence, Amorous. 
 
 Horning — Alluding to 
 cuckolding, mostly. 
 
 Lid. 
 
 
 Stopliss— a Pwut-lid = 
 The Ud of a pot. 
 
 Lie (verb) — To 
 down. 
 
 lie 
 
 Lig. 
 
 Lifetime. 
 
 
 Puff— I neer seen sich 
 things my puff = I 
 never have seen the 
 like in my lifetime. 
 
 Lights (the liver 
 lights of a sheep). 
 
 and 
 
 Pluck. 
 
 Likely. 
 
 
 Like— I was like to fall 
 = I was likely to fall. 
 
 Lilac. 
 
 
 Laylock. 
 
 Litter (noun or verb). 
 
 Live from hand to mouth 
 (verb) — To contrive, 
 to worry along. 
 
 Farry. 
 
 Raggle (or scrabble)— I 
 can raggle along=:Ican 
 manage to get along. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 215 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 'Twas thought you had 
 a goodly gift in horn- 
 ing, "Titus and An- 
 dronicus," II. iii. 67. 
 
 Ay'll do gud service, or 
 ay'll lig i' the grund 
 for it, "Henry V.," 
 III. ii. 124. 
 
 Used as an adverb con- 
 tinually in the plays. 
 
2l6 
 
 CLOSSARV. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Lively— see Healthy. 
 
 Peart. 
 
 Litter (in the sense of 
 Confusion) — see Mess. 
 
 Lagger, or Caddie. 
 
 Litter — to bring forth 
 
 Kindle. 
 
 young. 
 
 
 Loaf. 
 
 Batchling (more prop- 
 erly freshly baked 
 loaf). 
 
 Lock-keeper (on a canal). 
 
 Rodney. 
 
 Log. 
 
 Cleft. 
 
 Loiter — To idle, to waste 
 time. 
 
 Lobbat — Perhaps from 
 Lobby, a loitering 
 place. 
 
 Mess — Her's only mess- 
 ing about home=She's 
 idling or loitering, and 
 accomplishing noth- 
 ing, about the house. 
 A loiterer is a logger- 
 head. 
 
 Look (imperative verb). 
 
 Akere! 
 
 Lordling — A youngLord 
 or " Boss " — anyone in 
 authority; most large- 
 
 Nab, Nob. My Nabs. 
 
GLOSSAK V. 
 
 217 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 As the cony that you 
 see dwell where she 
 is kindled, "As You 
 Like It," III. ii. 
 
 You loggerheaded and 
 unpolished grooms, 
 "Taming of the 
 Shrew," IV. i. 28. 
 
 Perhaps we find here an 
 early source of the 
 very common modern 
 
2l8 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 ly, if not always, used 
 in sarcasm, for an 
 intrusively imperious 
 person. Perhaps de- 
 rived from Neb, a beak 
 (of a bird) or promi- 
 nent nose on a man — 
 see Beak, 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 219 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 argot, "His Nibs," 
 applied to a chief, or 
 "boss" or superior 
 person — anyone in au- 
 thority. But the word 
 " Nibs " is so evident- 
 ly a corruption of 
 Knave, the German 
 Knabe — the allusion 
 being to the knave in 
 the pack of cards 
 (called "the nob " in 
 Cribbage) — that the 
 forced derivation is 
 quite unnecessary. "I 
 would not be Sir Nob 
 in any case," says 
 Faulconbridge ("King 
 John," I. i. 147). There 
 is also the Icelandic 
 Snapr, an idiot, ig- 
 noramus, and the 
 Scotch Snab, a cob- 
 bler, which are invidi- 
 ous terms. But there 
 are, on the other hand, 
 those who eschew any 
 pedantry at all in the 
 matter, and claim that 
 " Nob " is simply a 
 contemptuous abbre- 
 viation of "Noble." 
 In Warwickshire the 
 phrase is sometimes 
 
220 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Lonely — Lonesome. 
 
 Unked. 
 
 Look (a glance). 
 
 Flinch. 
 
 Loosened. 
 
 Roxed. 
 
 Long Story. 
 
 Pedigree— 1 heard old 
 pedigree or that this 
 day — I was told all 
 about it at great 
 length to-day. 
 
 Lounge (verb). 
 
 Lunge — What's the odds 
 if I lunge or kneel? = 
 What's the difference 
 whether I kneel or 
 lean forward on my 
 elbows? 
 
 Luncheon (especially a 
 workman's luncheon). 
 
 Bait. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 My Nabs— as " I had 
 suspicions as 'e took 
 some a thtt eggs, so I 
 took un 'id [hid] my- 
 self in the 'ens'-roost, 
 an' I just ketched my 
 nabs in thii act." 
 
 Can Oxford, that did 
 ever fence the right, 
 now buckler falsehood 
 with a pedigree? "3 
 Henry VI.," III. iii. 
 99. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Lurk — to loiter secretly 
 — see Loiter — or to 
 lurk as a disease — see 
 Sapless. 
 
 Mose (perhaps a lack of 
 marrow). 
 
 M 
 
 
 Mad. 
 
 Off is yed — /. e., off his 
 head. 
 
 Magpie. 
 
 Maggit. 
 
 Manage — see Contrive. 
 
 Raggle — Scrabble. 
 
 Mangle (verb). 
 
 Mollicrush. 
 
 "Mare's Nest." 
 
 Nothingnest — Ees been 
 an fund a nothin' nest, 
 is exactly equivalent 
 to the proverb, to find 
 a mare's nest. 
 
 Market. 
 
 Mop. 
 
 Marriage, A Certificate 
 of. 
 
 Lines. 
 
 Married Man, A — see 
 Mister. 
 
 
 Marshy (soft, sloppy). 
 
 Flacky. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 223 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 And like to mose in the 
 chine, " Taming of the 
 Shrew," III. ii. 51 
 (apt to lurk in the 
 spine). 
 
224 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Mason. 
 
 
 Massenter. 
 
 May. 
 
 
 Maun — I maun an' I 
 maunt = I may and I 
 may not. 
 
 Me. 
 
 
 'Un — Don't claw 'un = 
 Don't flatter me. 
 
 Meadow. 
 
 
 Lezzow. 
 
 Mean (stingy). 
 
 
 Near. 
 
 Medicine — A remedy or 
 potion. 
 
 Doctor's stuff — Phisiken 
 stuff — when for ani- 
 mals it is drink, or 
 drench. 
 
 Medlar. 
 
 Meddler — see Busybody. 
 
 Open-arse. 
 
 Mend, Repair (verb). 
 
 Codge — To mend clothes 
 only — but see Miser. 
 
 Mess — Disorder, 
 die, a litter. 
 
 a mud- 
 
 Lagger — Caddie, Mug- 
 ger. 
 
 Mid-lent Sunday. 
 
 
 Mothering Sunday (be- 
 cause girls out at ser- 
 vice were usually al- 
 lowed to spend that 
 Sunday at home). 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 225 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 And we have done but 
 greenly in hugger- 
 mugger to inter him, 
 " Hamlet," IV. v. 84. 
 
226 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Milking (noun). 
 
 Milkteeth. 
 
 Mild (in the sense of 
 gentle). 
 
 Miller (keeper of a mill). 
 
 Minnow. 
 
 Miry (sloppy, soft) — see 
 Muddy. 
 
 Mix — to mix up, disar- 
 range, muddle, or 
 (perhaps) neglect. 
 
 Mischievous — see Trou- 
 blesome, and distinc- 
 tion noted thereun- 
 der. 
 
 Miser. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Meal — Cow giv ten 
 quarts mawning meal 
 = That cow's morn- 
 ing milking amounted 
 to ten quarts. 
 
 Peggins. 
 
 Cade — A pretty cade 
 Jill = a soft, lovable 
 girl. 
 
 Millud. 
 
 Soldier. 
 
 Flacky — Slobbery. [Also 
 East Norfolkshire.] 
 
 Slobber. 
 
 Anointed, unlucky — 
 He's an anointed (or 
 unlucky) rascal = He's 
 a mischievous rascal 
 (innocently mischiev- 
 ous) = Mischiefful ; ma- 
 liciously mischievous 
 is usually gammilts. 
 
 Codger. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 227 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Slobber not business for 
 my sake, Gratiano, 
 " Merchant of Ven- 
 ice," II. viii. 39. 
 
 When you shall these 
 unlucky deeds relate 
 (?), "Othello," V. ii. 
 344. Some ill, un- 
 lucky thing, "Romeo 
 and Juliet," V. iii. 
 137- 
 
228 
 
 GLOSSAR y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Mock — to make derisive 
 faces at one. 
 
 Mop an' mow. 
 
 Modest— see Timid. 
 
 Soft— Smock-faced, as 
 
 
 soft as an empty 
 pocket = very timid. 
 
 Mole. 
 
 Oont. 
 
 Money. 
 
 Brass. 
 
 Mortar. 
 
 Grout. 
 
 Morsel. 
 
 Bittock — Skurruck or 
 Scrump, Spot — Hast a 
 mossel o' backy? Na, 
 lad, I aint got a skur- 
 ruck. Gi' me a spot o' 
 drink. A spot is per- 
 haps a smaller portion 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 229 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Flibbertigibbett of mop- 
 ping and mowing, 
 "King Lear," IV. i. 
 64. 
 
 Each one tripping on 
 his toe — will be here 
 with mock and moe, 
 
 "Tempest," IV. i. 47. 
 
 Brass, cur! Thou 
 damned and luxurious 
 mountain cur, offer'st 
 
 me brass? 
 v.," IV. iv. 
 vide neither 
 silver, nor 
 your purses, 
 9.) 
 
 " Henry 
 19. (Pro- 
 gold, nor 
 brass in 
 
 Mat. X. 
 
23° 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Model. 
 
 Moment (an instant of 
 time). 
 
 Moth. 
 
 Mottled, or pox-marked, 
 syn., a scurvy fellow. 
 
 Move along (verb) — In 
 the sense of "Clear 
 out," " Be off with 
 you." 
 
 Mouth. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 than a skurruck, and 
 a skurruck than a bit- 
 tock. 
 
 Moral— E's the mortal 
 moral o's dad = He is 
 the very image of his 
 father. 
 
 Stitchwhile — It takes me 
 every stitchwhile to 
 the reklin = It 
 me every mo- 
 
 mind 
 takes 
 ment 
 child. 
 
 to watch that 
 
 Hodbowlud. 
 
 Measeled — German 
 mase, masel, a speck, 
 or knot in trees. 
 
 Budge — Come noo, you 
 budge! = Move along 
 at once! 
 
 Tater-trap. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 231 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 While thou, a moral fool, 
 sitst still, " Pericles," 
 II. i. 39. 
 
 So shall my lungs coin 
 words till their decay 
 against these measles, 
 " Coriolanus," III. i. 
 
 You shall not budge, 
 "Hamlet," III. iv. 
 Must I budge? "Ju- 
 lius Csesar," IV. iii. 
 44. I'll not budge an 
 inch, " Taming of the 
 Shrew, "Induction (and 
 in severalotherplaces). 
 
232 
 
 GLOSSAS Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Mouthful — see Expecto- 
 rate, Drop. 
 
 Gob. 
 
 Move (verb). 
 
 Rim. 
 
 Moving (to move from 
 one house to another). 
 
 Rimming — We be a rim- 
 ming o' Monday — 
 We move to a new 
 house on Monday. 
 
 Move off (imperative). 
 
 Budge. 
 
 Mister (Mr.), 
 
 Master (common to vari- 
 ous English dialects) 
 — In Sussex it means a 
 married man, unmar- 
 ried men being ad- 
 dressed by their given 
 names. 
 
 Mrs. 
 
 Missus. 
 
 Muddy (sloppy). 
 
 Slobbery — [Also East 
 Norfolkshire]. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 233 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Budge, says the fiend, 
 Budge not, says my 
 conscience, "Mer- 
 chant of Venice," II. 
 ii. 20. Must I budge? 
 Must I observe you? 
 "Julius Csesar," IV. 
 iii. 44. 
 
 I will sell my dukedom, 
 to buy a slobbery and 
 dirty farm, " Henry 
 v.," III. V. 12. 
 
234 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Muddy (verb) — To soil 
 with one's feet. 
 
 Traipse. 
 
 Muffle. 
 
 Buff— To buff the bell = 
 to muffle the bell. 
 
 Mug (especially a small 
 mug). 
 
 Tot. 
 
 Musical Instrument. 
 
 Music (as applied to all 
 instruments alike). 
 
 Must. 
 
 Mun — I mun do it = I 
 must do it. 
 
 Mutter, grumble (verb). 
 
 Chaunter. 
 
 N 
 
 
 Narrow. 
 
 Slang. 
 
 Nasty. 
 
 Frousty. 
 
 Near (personal proxim- 
 ity). 
 
 Anigh — Don't come 
 anighme = Don't come 
 
 
 near me. 
 
 Near (in place or posi- 
 tion). 
 
 Agin — He lives just agin 
 us = He lives handy 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 235 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 With musics of all sorts, 
 "All's Well," III. vii. 
 40. And let him ply 
 his music, " Hamlet," 
 II. i. 75. 
 
236 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 to, or handy to us ; or, 
 He lives near us. 
 
 Nearly. 
 
 Handy to — In quantity 
 (in the sense of nearly 
 equal)— That bit of 
 ground is handy to 
 twenty pole — That 
 piece of land is nearly 
 twenty rods long. 
 
 Neatly (properly). 
 
 In print — E' potched it 
 in print = He piled it 
 up neatly. 
 
 Needle. 
 
 Neeld. 
 
 Neighborhood. 
 
 Hereabouts. 
 
 Nervous. 
 
 Pathery. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 237 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 I love a ballad in print 
 o' life, "As You Like 
 It," V. iv. 74. I will 
 do it, sir, in print, 
 "Love's Labor's 
 Lost," in. i. 173. 
 
 With her neeld com- 
 poses nature's own 
 shape, of bud, bird, 
 branch, or berry, "Per- 
 icles," Gower to Act 
 V. Change their neelds 
 to lances, and their 
 gentle hearts, "King 
 John," V. ii. 152. 
 
 I do remember an apoth- 
 ecary, and hereabouts 
 he dwells, "Romeo 
 and Juliet," V. i. 38. 
 
238 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Nestling — An unfledged 
 bird, a gosling. 
 
 Gull. 
 
 Nimble (in the 
 deceitful). 
 
 sense 
 
 of 
 
 Limber. 
 
 Noise — Noisy. 
 
 
 
 Blearing,Blunder — Blun- 
 dering— H'a done that 
 blundering=Stop that 
 noise. 
 
 None — no one. 
 
 
 
 Nobody. 
 
 Nonsense. 
 
 
 
 Flothery. 
 
 Nostrils. 
 
 
 
 Noseholes. 
 
 Nose — (noun). 
 
 
 
 Conk. 
 
 Not. 
 
 
 
 Na— Used as a suffix, as 
 shanna = Shall not. 
 Shouldna= Should not. 
 Doesna = Does not. 
 Hadna = Had not. 
 Wouldna (sometimes 
 wotna) = Would not, 
 etc. 
 
 Not (is not). 
 
 
 
 Yent — He yent yourn = 
 He is not yours. 
 
 Not (not so much as). 
 
 Noways — Her's never 
 
GLOSSAJ; Y. 
 
 239 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Lord Timon will be left 
 a naked gull, " Timon 
 of Athens," II. i. 31. 
 
 Put me off with limber 
 vows, "Winter's 
 Tale," I. ii. 47. 
 
 (The word "blunder" 
 does not occur in the 
 plays or poems in any 
 sense whatever.) 
 
 Nerrun. 
 
24° 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 (or noways) a bonnet= 
 She has not so much as 
 a bonnet. 
 
 Noted — see Celebrated. 
 
 Deadly— He's deadly for 
 church-going=He is 
 noted for church- 
 
 
 going. 
 
 Notions — see Whim. 
 
 Megrims — It's a pity she 
 do take such megrims 
 into her head = It's a 
 pity she has such 
 notions. 
 
 Notorious. 
 
 Nineted — a ninety-bird 
 is a notorious scamp 
 or scoundrel. 
 
 Nudge (verb) — To touch 
 with the elbow. 
 
 Dunch. 
 
 Numerous (any large 
 number). 
 
 A sight of — There was a 
 sight of people=There 
 were a great many 
 people. 
 
 Nursed (a female 
 nursed by her young). 
 
 Lugged. 
 
 O 
 
 
 Oaf — see Clown. 
 
 Yawrups. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 241 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 I am as melancholy as a 
 gib cat or a lugged bear, 
 "i Henry VI.," I. ii. 34. 
 
242 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Oats. 
 
 Wuts. 
 
 Obeisance — see Curtsey. 
 
 Obedience. 
 
 Obstinate — see Head- 
 strong. 
 
 Awkward — A Standy — 
 A standy=:an obsti- 
 nate person. 
 
 Occasion (a pretext). 
 
 Call— He han't no call to 
 do it=He has no pre- 
 text for doing it. 
 
 Odds and ends — see 
 Rubbish. 
 
 Bits and bobs. 
 
 Of. 
 
 In or on — They be just 
 come out in school — 
 They have just come 
 out of school. 
 
 Offal. 
 
 Sock, Pelf (vegetable). 
 
 Often — (as often as 
 necessary). 
 
 Every hands while. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 243 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Twice by awkward 
 wind from England 
 Drove back again, 
 "2 Henry VI., "III. ii. 
 83. 'Tis no sinister nor 
 no awkward claim. 
 " Henry v.," II. iv. 85. 
 
 Many thousand on us. 
 "Winter's Tale." 
 
 Would I were fairly 
 out on't, "Henry 
 v.," III. He cannot 
 come out on's grave, 
 "Macbeth." 
 
244 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Often. 
 
 Many a time and oft. 
 
 Once. 
 
 Aince— Aince a whiles= 
 Once in a while. 
 
 One-eyed, 
 
 Gunner. 
 
 in the sense of un- ' Unfasten the door, 
 fasten) or, possibly, to 1 
 open and shut — see 
 Shut. 
 
 Opportunity. 
 Opposite (in place). 
 
 Opposite. 
 
 Oration, or Narration. 
 
 Chancet. 
 
 Anant — He lives anant 
 here=He lives oppo- 
 site, or across the road 
 from here. 
 
 Annenst. 
 
 Preachment. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 245 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Signer Antonio, many a 
 time and oft, on the 
 Rialto, have you rated 
 me, " Merchant of 
 Venice." Many a time 
 and oft have you 
 climbed up to walls, 
 " Julius Caesar," I. i. 
 42. 
 
 And dupped the chamber 
 door, "Hamlet," IV. 
 
 S3- 
 
 V. 
 
 And make a preachment 
 
246 
 
 GLOSSAIi Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Ordinary. 
 
 
 Arnary — in the Western 
 United States "or- 
 nery." 
 
 Ordural, a privy. 
 
 
 Dunnekin. 
 
 Ornament (verb), 
 decorate. 
 
 See 
 
 Dizzen. Tiddivate.— '0, 
 'e's gwun a-kwertin', 
 I ricken, fur 'e put 
 on 'is tuther 'at un 
 coowut, un tiddi- 
 vated hisself up a 
 bit' 
 
 Ours. 
 
 
 Ourn. 
 
 Ourselves. 
 
 
 Oursens, 
 
 Outlook, Prospect. 
 
 
 Look-out. 
 
 Overbearing. 
 
 
 Masterful. 
 
 Overcome — (in the sense 
 of survive, "get over 
 the effect of.") 
 
 Overgo, or overget — I 
 shan't overget it = I 
 shall not get over the 
 effects of it. 
 
 Over-ripe. 
 
 
 Roxy. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 247 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS, 
 
 of your high descent. 
 "3 Henry VI.," I. iv. 
 172. 
 
 Overgo thy plaints and 
 drown. " Richard 
 
 III.,"II. ii. 61. 
 
248 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 P 
 
 
 
 Pail, Bucket. 
 
 
 Piggin. 
 
 Painful. 
 
 
 Teart— The wind's teart 
 this mawnin = The 
 wind is painfully sharp 
 this morning. 
 
 Pale (see wan). 
 
 
 Wanny. 
 
 Paltry, insignificant, 
 worth mentioning 
 
 not 
 
 Nigglin, Picksniff, 
 
 Pant (verb). 
 
 
 Pantle. 
 
 Pansy (the wild variety). 
 
 Love-in-idleness. 
 
 Parish. 
 
 
 Field— That bit lies in 
 Alkerton field=That 
 land is in Alkerton 
 parish. [Also in York- 
 shire and several other 
 dialects.] 
 
 Part (verb) — To part 
 company, depart, sepa- 
 rate. 
 
 Shog off— We'll shog off 
 =:We'll part company 
 now and journey to- 
 gether no further. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 249 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 And maidens call it 
 love in idleness. — 
 " Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," II. i. 169. 
 
 Shog off. I would have 
 you solus, "Henry 
 v.," II. i. 48.- Shall we 
 shog? "Henry V.," 
 II. iii. 48. 
 
25° 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Particular. 
 
 Parsley (and umbellifer- 
 ous plants generally). 
 
 Part company. See sepa- 
 rate. 
 
 Passage. 
 
 Passionate. 
 
 Pasture. 
 Pasturage. 
 
 Peacod (unripe). 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Choice — He's very 
 choice over his victuals 
 = He's very particular 
 as to what he eats. 
 
 Kex or kecks. 
 Shog. 
 
 Chewer — Her lives up 
 the chewer=She lives 
 in a narrow passage. 
 
 Franzy — the master's 
 such a terrible franzy 
 man=The master is a 
 very passionate man. 
 
 Lay — A small pasture is 
 a Donkey Bite. 
 
 Joisting — What must I 
 pay for this joisting= 
 What must I pay for 
 this pasturage. 
 
 Squash. 
 
GLOSSAJi Y. 
 
 ^5^ 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Shall we shog? "Henry 
 v.," II. iii. 48. 
 
 How like methought I 
 was to this kernel, 
 This squash, "Win- 
 ter's Tale," I. ii. As 
 a squash is before a 
 
252 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Pea-Finch. 
 
 Picod. 
 
 Peaked (see pale, Picked— (Pronounced as 
 pinched, wan). i a dissyllable). 
 
 Pebble. 
 
 
 
 — _, ^. 
 
 Pibble. 
 
 Peck. 
 
 
 
 Stock. 
 
 Peculiarities (see 
 tions, whim). 
 
 no- 
 
 Megrims — She has her 
 own megrims = She has 
 her own notions or 
 peculiarities. 
 
 Peevish. 
 
 
 
 Frecket — A's got 'er 
 frecket frock on=she 
 is peevish. 
 
 Pedlar. 
 
 
 
 Heggler. 
 
 Peep (verb). 
 
 
 
 Peek. 
 
 Peevish. 
 
 
 
 Purgy. 
 
 Pendulum. 
 
 
 
 Pendle. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 253 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 peascod, "Midsum- 
 mer Night's Dream," 
 I. V. i66, Idem, III. 
 i. 191. 
 
 Wiiat need a man for a 
 stock with a wench, 
 "Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona," III. i. 311. 
 
254 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Perfect (verb) — in the 
 sense of put into good 
 order — good condi- 
 tion. 
 
 Fettle. 
 
 Perhaps. 
 
 Happen — Happen it '11 be 
 a long time=Perhaps 
 it will be a long time. 
 
 Perplex. 
 
 Mither. 
 
 Perspiration — Sweat. 
 
 Muck. 
 
 Piecemeal, Piecework or 
 Stint. 
 
 Grit — To do work by the 
 grit=To do work little 
 by little. 
 
 Persuade. 
 
 Hamper. 
 
 Pet, a fit of passion. 
 
 Fantey. 
 
 Pickle, Preserve (verb). 
 
 Maislin. 
 
 Pig. 
 
 Shug. ■- 
 
 Pilfer. 
 
 Gouge. 
 
 Pimple, boil, pustule. 
 
 Quat. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 255 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Fettle your fine joints 
 'gainst Thursday next, 
 " Romeo and Juliet," 
 III. V. 152. 
 
 She'll hamper thee and 
 dandle thee like a 
 baby, "2 Henry VI.," 
 I. iii. 148. 
 
 I have rubbed this young 
 quat, almost to the 
 sense, "Othello," V. 
 i. II. 
 
2S6 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Pinafore, see Apron. 
 
 Piebald. 
 
 Pinch. 
 
 Pincers. 
 
 Pitchfork. 
 
 Pinched (attenuated or 
 emaciated, sickly, un- 
 healthy looking). See 
 Healthy. 
 
 Pity, or shame (in the 
 sense of "too bad"). 
 
 Plenitude (see below). 
 
 Plentiful. 
 
 Plenty of — plenitude 
 (see Frequent). 
 
 Pinny. 
 
 Skewebald. 
 
 Pinse. 
 
 Pinsens. 
 
 Shuppick. 
 
 Picked — Pronounced as 
 a dissyllable. A weak, 
 sickly-looking child is 
 a scribe, as opposed to 
 a rile, a healthy-look- 
 ing child. 
 
 Poor tale — It's a poor 
 tale ye couldn't come 
 = It's a pity you 
 couldn't come. 
 
 Don't share. 
 
 Old — There's been old 
 work to-day = There's 
 been plenty of work 
 to-day. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 257 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Leave your desires, and 
 fairies will not pinse 
 you, " Merry Wives of 
 Windsor," V. v. 137. 
 
 By the mass, here will be 
 old Utis (a plentiful or 
 extraordinary celebra- 
 tion of any festival. 
 Utis is the octave of 
 
2S8 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Pliant, supple (in sense 
 
 Limber. 
 
 of insincere). 
 
 
 Plover. 
 
 Bennet. 
 
 Plummet. 
 
 Pline, or Plumbob, to 
 make anything plumb 
 is to pline it. 
 
 Posts. 
 
 Posses, Edge — Posses = 
 Hedge posts. 
 
 Potatoes. 
 
 Spuds. 
 
 Pothook. 
 
 Crow. 
 
 Pound, to belabor — 
 (verb). 
 
 Pun —Leather— Quilt — 
 A'll pun — or leather, 
 or quilt 'un = I will 
 thrash him. 
 
 Pout (verb), see Peev- 
 ish. 
 
 Glout or glump. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 259 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 any feast), " 2 Henry 
 IV.," II. iv. 21. Yon- 
 der's old coil at home 
 (?■. e., Plenty of trouble 
 or confusion), "Much 
 Ado about nothing." 
 V. ii. 98. 
 
 You put me off with 
 limber vows, "Win- 
 ter's Tale," I. ii. 47. 
 
 He would pun him into 
 shivers with his fist. 
 " Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," II. i. 42. 
 
26o 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Precocious, 
 
 Bright. 
 
 
 Fierce, of a very young 
 child — or infant. 
 
 Prevalent. 
 
 
 
 Brief — The fever's brief 
 now = The fever is 
 prevalent at present. 
 
 Pride — courageous, 
 Proud. 
 
 see 
 
 Stomachfulness. 
 
 Private Entrance, 
 
 side- 
 
 Foredraft. 
 
 door. 
 
 
 
 
 Pregnant. 
 
 
 
 Childing. Hers child- 
 ing=She is pregnant. 
 
 Presently. 
 
 
 
 Awhile — I'll do it pres- 
 ently — To do a thing 
 presently, in the sense 
 of as soon as evening 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 261 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 A thousand businesses 
 are brief in hand, 
 "King John," IV. iii. 
 158. 
 
 That furious Scot can 
 vail his stomach, 
 "2 Henry IV.," I. i. 
 129. Which raised in 
 me an undergoing 
 stomach to bear up, 
 "Tempest," I. ii. 157. 
 They have only stom- 
 achs to eat and none 
 to fight, "Henry v.," 
 III. vii. 166. He was 
 a man of unbound- 
 ed stomach, "Henry 
 VIII.," IV. ii. 3. 
 
 The childing autumn — 
 "Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," II. ii. 112. 
 
 In such passages as the 
 following, — "Soon at 
 five o'clock I'll meet 
 with you," ("Com. of 
 
262 
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 comes, appears on 
 good authority to be 
 to do a thing soon. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 263 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Errors," I. ii. 26); 
 " Soon at supper shalt 
 thou see Lorenzo," 
 ("Mer. of Yen.," II. 
 iii. s); "Come to me 
 soon at after supper," 
 ("Rich. III.," IV. iii. 
 31); " You shall bear 
 the burden soon at 
 night," ("Romeo and 
 Juliet," II. V. 78); 
 "We'll have a posset 
 for 't soon at night," 
 ("Merry Wives," I. 
 iv. 8), and a dozen 
 more, it is evident that 
 " soon " has other 
 meaning than "in a 
 short time." Antipho- 
 lus bids his servant go 
 to the inn. 
 
 " The Centaur, where we hist, 
 And stay there, Dromio, till I 
 
 come to thee ; 
 Within this hour it will be 
 
 dinner time." 
 
 He then invites his 
 friend, the First Mer- 
 chant, to dinner: 
 
 ' ' What, will you walk with me 
 
 about the town, 
 And then go to my inn, and 
 
 dine with me ? " 
 
264 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 265 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 To which the Merchant 
 replies: 
 
 ' ' I am invited, sir, to certain 
 
 merchants, 
 Of whom I hope to make much 
 
 benefit ; 
 I crave your pardon. Soon at 
 
 five o'clock, 
 Please you, I'll meet with you 
 
 upon the mart, 
 And afterward consort you till 
 
 bed-time." 
 
 Now, bearing in mind 
 that noon is the uni- 
 versal dinner-hour in 
 Shakespeare, six hours 
 must intervene ere 
 they meet again, which 
 could hardly be called 
 "soon." An examina- 
 tion of the other pas- 
 sages will present the 
 same inconsistency. 
 Halliwell's " Diction- 
 ary of Archaic and 
 Provincial Words " 
 tells us that in the 
 West of England the 
 word still signifies 
 "evening"; and Mr. 
 Laughlin says that Gil, 
 a contemporary of 
 Shakespeare, a head- 
 master of St. Paul's 
 
266 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Prevent, Hinder, Post- 
 
 Backer—This coowd '11 
 
 pone. 
 
 backer 'is coomin = 
 
 
 This cold weather will 
 
 
 prevent (or postpone) 
 
 
 his arrival. 
 
 Produce, induce — see In- 
 
 Kindle. 
 
 duce, Reason. 
 
 
 Probabilities. 
 
 Lections — There be no 
 
 
 lections o' rain=there 
 
 
 is no probability of its 
 
 
 raining. 
 
 Procrastination, Delay. 
 
 Burning daylight. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 267 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 School, declares that 
 the use of "soon "as 
 an adverb, in the 
 familiar sense of "be- 
 times," "by and by," 
 or "quickly," had, 
 when he wrote, been 
 eclipsed with most men 
 by an acceptation re- 
 stricted to " night- 
 fall." 
 
 We burn daylight! here 
 read! read! read! 
 "Merry Wives of 
 Windsor," II. i. 59. 
 Come, we burn day- 
 light, " Romeo and 
 Juliet," I. iv. 43. 
 
268 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Prolific. 
 
 Kind — also perhaps the 
 word has come to be 
 used in the sense of 
 
 
 easy virtue. 
 
 Prod, Poke, with a stick 
 or sword. 
 
 Bodge. 
 Job. 
 
 Properly. 
 
 A'Form (pronounced 
 faum) — We sing it 
 a'form — We sing it 
 
 
 properly. 
 
 Prophecy. 
 
 Forecast. 
 
 Prodigal, carelessly. 
 
 Random. 
 
 Prosecute. 
 
 Persecute — He was per- 
 secuted for larceny = 
 He was prosecuted for 
 larceny. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 269 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Is she kind as she is 
 fair? For beauty lives 
 by Icindness, "Two 
 Gentlemen of Ver- 
 ona," IV. ii. 44. Your 
 cuckoo sings by kind, 
 "All's Well that Ends, 
 Well," I. iii. 67. In 
 doing the deed of kind, 
 " Merchant of Ven- 
 ice." I. iii. 86. 
 
 Alas that Warwick had 
 no more forecast, 
 "3 Hen. VI.," V. 7. 
 
 The great care of goods 
 at Random left, 
 " Comedy of Errors," 
 I. i. 43- 
 
270 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Prospect, outlook. 
 
 Lookout. 
 
 Prosperous. 
 
 Smartish (adjective and 
 adverb). 
 
 Prosperously. 
 
 I'm getting on smartish 
 
 = 1 am prospering (or 
 
 doing well). 
 Un's smartish a'day= 
 
 He is prosperous at 
 
 present. 
 
 Protected (see Shelter- 
 ed). 
 
 Burrowed. 
 
 Proud— see StaUc. 
 
 Flash, stomachful. 
 
 Provide (verb). Also in 
 
 Forecast — He forecast it 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 271 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Stomach is used for 
 Pride frequently in the 
 plays, and the two 
 meanings of the word 
 are employed con- 
 stantly for puns: To 
 some enterprise that 
 hath a stomach in 't, 
 "Hamlet," I. i. 100. 
 He was a man of an 
 unbounded stomach, 
 "Henry VIIL," IV. 
 ii. 34. They have only 
 stomachs to eat and 
 none to fight, " Henry 
 v.," III. vii. 166. 
 
272 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 sense of foresee. 
 Which see. 
 
 = He provided for it 
 beforehand. 
 
 Provoke (verb). 
 Tempest. 
 
 See 
 
 Urge — That 'oman do 
 urge me so=That wo- 
 man always provokes 
 me. 
 
 Provoked. 
 
 
 Mad as mad. 
 
 Pry (verb). 
 
 
 Brevitt — I've brevitted 
 thraow all them drahrs 
 an' I caunt find 'im. 
 ' E'l get nuthin' from 
 we, it's uv no use far 
 'im to come brevittin' 
 about ower place. 
 
 Pry (verb). 
 
 
 Toot. 
 
 Pudding or Dough. 
 
 
 Duff. 
 
 Pull. 
 
 
 Pug. 
 
 Pummel (verb). See 
 labor. 
 
 Be- 
 
 Pun. 
 
 Punishment. 
 
 
 Piff. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 273 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Urge not my father's 
 anger, " Two Gent, 
 of Verona," IV. iii. 
 27. 
 
 How canst thou urge 
 God's dreadful, " Rich- 
 ard III.," I. iv. 214. 
 
 Doth set my pugging 
 tooth on edge, "Win- 
 ter's Tale," IV. iii. 7. 
 
274 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Purveyor. 
 
 Push — syn. a hint, a. 
 nudge with the elbow. 
 
 Put on airs (verb). 
 
 Put out. 
 Shut. 
 
 See Embarrass. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Pantler. 
 
 Gird— Potch. 
 
 Jets — A' jets = He is put- 
 ting on airs; assuming 
 too much. 
 
 Dout — Pronounced Doot 
 to rhyme with boot. 
 See Holofernes ridi- 
 cules Armado for 
 speaking Doubt fine to 
 rhyme with oot, and 
 debt d-e-t.— "Love's 
 Labor's Lost," VI. i. 
 18. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 275 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 She was both pantler, 
 butler, cook. "Win- 
 ter's Tale," IV. ix. 67. 
 Would have made a 
 good pantler. A' would 
 ha' chipped bread well, 
 "2 Henry IV.," II. iv. 
 258. 
 
 I thank thee for that 
 gird, good Tranio, 
 "Taming of the 
 Shrew," V. ii. 58. I'll 
 potch at him, some 
 way, or wrath or craft 
 may get him, " Corio- 
 lanus," I. X. 65. 
 
 How he jets under his 
 advantage, "Twelfth 
 Night," II. V. 36. That 
 giants may jet, "Cym- 
 beline,"III.iii.5. 
 
 And dout them with 
 superfluous courage, 
 "Henry V.," IV. ii. 
 II. The dram of eale 
 that doth the noble 
 substance often dout, 
 "Hamlet," I. iv. 36. 
 I have a speech of fire 
 that fain would blaze 
 But that his folly douts 
 
276 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Q 
 
 
 Quality. 
 
 Hit — A good hit 0' grout 
 
 
 = A good quality of 
 
 
 mortar. 
 
 Quarrel (verb). 
 
 Square — Cagmag — They 
 
 
 be a squarein', or they 
 
 
 be cagmaggin'=They 
 
 
 are quarreling. 
 
 Quantity— a large quan- 
 
 Power — Power ov megs 
 
 tity. 
 
 = A large quantity of 
 
 
 half pence. 
 
 Quick, in the sense of 
 
 Ready — A's ready = I am 
 
 active. 
 
 active, and equal to 
 
 
 the job. 
 
 Quickly, in the Impera- 
 
 Straight— Do 't straight 
 
 tive. See Instantly. 
 
 = Go ahead at once 
 
 
 with it. 
 
GLOSSAR y. 
 
 277 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 it, "Hamlet," IV. vii. 
 192. 
 
 Make her grave 
 straight, "Hamlet," 
 V. i. 3, is a direc- 
 tion to make the grave 
 properly, i. e., east and 
 west— as in Christian 
 burial — and not, as it 
 is sometimes con- 
 strued — a direction 
 to proceed hurriedly. 
 The grave-diggers in 
 that scene evidently do 
 not hurry themselves. 
 
278 
 
 GLOSSAli V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Quittance — Riddance. 
 
 Shut on — Ee had my 
 shut on scrumps=I 
 have got rid of my 
 apples. 
 
 R 
 
 
 Ragged. 
 
 All of a jilt — My muck- 
 ender's allof a jilt = my 
 handkerchief is rag- 
 ged. 
 
 Rain (verb). 
 
 Scud. 
 
 Rainstorm. 
 
 Tempest. 
 
 Raise (verb). 
 
 Higher — Higher that 
 line = Raise that rope. 
 
 Ram (hence a verb — to 
 ram — to get with foal). 
 
 Tup. 
 
 Rancid. 
 
 Raisty. 
 
dtOSSAR Y. 
 
 279 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Wreck to the seaman, 
 tempest to the field, 1. 
 453- 
 
 Between them from the 
 tempest of my eyes, 
 " Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," I. i. 131. 
 Such crimson tempest 
 should bedrench the 
 fresh green lap, 
 "Richard II.," I. iii. 
 187. 
 
 We '11 higher to the 
 mountains, there se- 
 cure us, " Cymbe- 
 line," IV. iv, 8. 
 
 An old black ram is tup- 
 ping your white ewe, 
 "Othello," I. i. 89. 
 
28o 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Rascal — usually a man 
 or woman, inclined to 
 be malicious but stu- 
 pid. 
 
 Rascal — a stupid rascal. 
 
 Ravelings. 
 Raveled. 
 
 Ready. 
 
 Reaching. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Loon. 
 
 Loon or lown. 
 
 Rovings. 
 
 Sally (as the end of a 
 rope which has become 
 unwound), or gagged 
 condition of any tex- 
 tile fabric. 
 
 Fit — Af the best fit we 
 '11 roout a moore a' 
 these spuds=:If you 
 are ready we will weed 
 a few more of these 
 potatoes. 
 
 Going in — Ees goin' in 
 twelve==He is reach- 
 ing his twelfth year. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Thou cream-faced loon, 
 "Macbeth," V. iii. ii. 
 
 The devil dam thee 
 black, thou creamfaced 
 loon, " Macbeth," V. 
 iii. II. With that he 
 called the tailor lown, 
 "Othello," II. iii. 95. 
 We should have both 
 lord and lown, "Peri- 
 cles," IV. vi. 19. 
 
 Tell Valeria we are fit 
 to bid her welcome, 
 " Coriolanus," I. iii. 
 46. Fit for treasons, 
 stratagems, and spoils, 
 "Merchant of Ven- 
 ice," VI. 85. 
 
282 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Reason — for doing any- 
 thing (pretext). 
 
 Rebound. 
 
 Rebuke. 
 Reproof- 
 
 -see Snub. 
 
 Reference — as to char- 
 acter. 
 
 Refined— see Gentle, Re- 
 spectable. 
 
 Regret — something to be 
 regretted. See Pity. 
 
 Refuse — see Rubbish. 
 
 Remain (verb). Also in 
 the imperative, wait. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Kindle— 'Eed no Kindle 
 to do it=He had no 
 reason for doing it. 
 
 Rear. 
 
 Miss-word, Snape or 
 Sneap — Word-of-a-sort 
 — Bide till I see my 
 Knaaps, I'l giv 'im 
 word of a sort=Wait 
 until I meet my young 
 man, I'll reprove him 
 (or snub him). 
 
 Character — A' took 'er 
 wi' out a character= 
 I took her without any 
 reference as to her 
 character. 
 
 Still— Es a still 'un = He 
 is a gentleman. 
 
 Poor tale. 
 
 Rammel, 
 
 Bide— We'll bide here = 
 We'll wait here. Bide 
 where you be=Remain 
 where you are. [In 
 all English dialects.] 
 
GLOSSAR y. 
 
 283 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 tLAYS. 
 
 Very common in the 
 plays. Also in the 
 Scriptures. Bide not 
 in unbelief, Romans 
 xi. 25. In the sense 
 
284 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Remember (verb). See 
 Remind. 
 
 Remnants (see Leav- 
 ings). 
 
 Mind me — Common to 
 almost all English dia- 
 lects. 
 
 Orts. 
 
 Remind. 
 
 Resentment. To bear 
 a grudge for past 
 wrongs (see Remind). 
 
 Remember. 
 
 Reap at — A's reapin' it 
 up agin un=He bears 
 me a grudge yet. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 285 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 of hide it is used 
 once in the poems, 
 viz., in "The Lover's 
 Complaint," 33. 
 
 In addition to the exam- 
 ples cited infra, un- 
 der Leavings, see 
 " Merry Wives of 
 Windsor," I. i. 232, 
 where Parson Evans 
 tries to play upon the 
 word as meaning a 
 mental reservation. 
 "It is a fery discre- 
 tion answer: save the 
 fall is in the ort disso- 
 lutely; the ort is, ac- 
 cording to our mean- 
 ing, resolutely." 
 
 I'll not remember you 
 of my own lord who 
 is lost too, " Winter's 
 Tale," III. ii. 231. 
 
286 
 
 GLOSSAR y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Rent (see Leases). 
 
 
 Resemble. 
 
 Favor — He favors his 
 father = He resembles 
 his father.* 
 
 Common to many Eng- 
 lish dialects, and a 
 proper word in the 
 vernacular. 
 
 Respectable. 
 
 Still— He's a still, quiet 
 man = He's a respecta- 
 able, refined (or gentle- 
 manly mannered) man. 
 
 Reserved (see Proud). 
 
 Stomachful. 
 
 Restrain (verb). 
 
 Keep — He cannot keep 
 hisself=He cannot re- 
 strain himself. 
 
 Revenge (verb). 
 
 Even up. 
 
 Rheum — cold in the 
 head. 
 
 Sneke — A raw, chilly day 
 liable to give one a 
 
 * In Yorkshire the dialect word is Breeds. She breeds with 
 her mother, means she resembles her mother. Sometimes pro- 
 nounced braid. " She speaks, and 'tis such sense my sense 
 breeds with it." — "Measure for Measure," II. ii. 142. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 2S7 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 And the complexion of 
 the element. In fa- 
 vour's like the work 
 we have in hand, 
 "Julius C^sar," I. 
 iii. 129. 
 
 O, 'tis a foul thing when 
 a cur cannot keep him- 
 self, " Two Gent, of 
 Verona," IV. 14. 
 
 I will be even with thee, 
 doubt it not, " Antony 
 and Cleopatra," III. 
 vii. I. 
 
288 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 cold in the head is a 
 Snekey day! 
 
 Rheumatism. 
 
 Rheumatics, Rheumatiz 
 — If in a single limb it 
 is rheumatiz — If all 
 over the body it is 
 rheumatics. 
 
 Rick frame— The frame- 
 work on which the 
 ricks are placed. 
 
 Staddle. 
 
 Rickety. 
 
 Shacklety. 
 
 Rid (verb par.), to be 
 rid of. 
 
 Shut on— I was glad to 
 be shut on she=I was 
 glad to be rid of 
 her. 
 
 Riddle. 
 
 Riddliss. 
 
 Rinse (verb)— To bathe 
 or submerge. 
 
 Swill. 
 
 Ripened. 
 
 Roxed. 
 
GLOSSAH Y. 
 
 289 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Swills your warm blood 
 like wash, and makes 
 his trough, "Richard 
 III.," V. ii. 9. A 
 galled rock — swilled 
 with the wild and 
 wasteful ocean, 
 "Henry V.," III. i. 
 12. 
 
290 
 
 GLOSSAJfY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Road. 
 
 Roar (verb). 
 Robin. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Ride — Especially a new 
 road cut through a 
 wood. 
 
 Belluck. 
 
 Bobby. 
 
 Robin — or 
 goldfinch. 
 
 Derhaps a 
 
 Tailor. 
 
 Rod (used for correction 
 
 in schools). 
 
 Vester (evident mispro 
 nunciation of "Dus 
 ter.") 
 
 Rogue. 
 
 
 Scruff. 
 
 Romping. 
 
 
 Pulley-hawley. 
 
 Rook. 
 
 
 Crow. 
 
 Roomy. 
 
 
 Roomthy. 
 
 Rough grass. 
 
 
 Couchgrass, or Fog. 
 
 Rough (in behavior). 
 
 Lungerous. 
 
 Row — (a quarrel). See 
 Scrimmage. 
 
 Work. 
 
 Rubbish — see 
 
 Litter. 
 
 Mullock. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 291 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 I will not sing. 'Tis the 
 next best way to turn 
 tailor or redbreast 
 teacher, "2 Henry 
 IV.," III. i. 126. 
 
292 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Ruin — to destroy. 
 
 Ruinate — Ruination — 
 
 
 Any structure out of 
 
 
 repair is schlackety. 
 
 Ruin — Destroy. 
 
 Rid. 
 
 Rush. 
 
 Yerk. 
 
 Russet apple. 
 
 Leather coat. 
 
 Rustle (noun). 
 
 Fidther — Any slight 
 
 
 sound, as of a mouse. 
 
 S 
 
 
 Saddler. 
 
 Whittaw. 
 
 Same. 
 
 A' one — It's a' one=It's 
 
 
 all the same thing. 
 
 Sapling — see Slender, 
 Delicate. 
 
 Wimbling, or Wimpling. 
 
 Sapless, dead (for a 
 plant) — syn. worth- 
 less. 
 
 Dadocky, Mozey, Meas- 
 ley— see Mose under 
 Lurk. 
 
 Sated (satisfied with 
 food). 
 
 Ched. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 293 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 I will not ruinate thy 
 father's house, " Hen- 
 ry VII." 
 
 The red plague rid you, 
 "Tempest," I. ii. 364. 
 
 Their steeds yerk out 
 their armed heels, 
 " Henry V." 
 
 Here is a dish of leather 
 coats for you, "2 
 Henry IV.," V. iii. 44. 
 
294 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Satiety — a plenitude or 
 abundance of any- 
 thing. See Frequent, 
 Plenty of, Abundance. 
 
 Satisfy. 
 
 Saturated. 
 
 Saucy (pert). 
 
 Saw — perfect of verb to 
 see. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Old. 
 
 Swagger — You was want- 
 ing to see some big 
 dahlias, come into my 
 garden, an' I'll swag- 
 ger ye=I will satisfy 
 you if you will step 
 into my garden. 
 
 Watched — A person who 
 has been out in the 
 rain or has fallen into 
 the river, and so is 
 wet through, is said to 
 be " watched." 
 
 Canting — She's a canting 
 wench = She's a saucy 
 girl. 
 
 See — I never see she = 
 I never saw her. [Not 
 peculiar to Warwick- 
 shire. ] 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 29s 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 If wet through =satu- 
 rated, and saturated^ 
 sated, this is proba- 
 bly the meaning in 
 which the word 
 "watched " is used by 
 Pandarus when he ex- 
 claims, You must be 
 watched ere you be 
 made tame, must you? 
 "Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," III. ii. 42. 
 
396 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Scaffolding — in building 
 houses. 
 
 Scanty — see short. 
 
 Scarecrow — an unsightly 
 or grotesque object. 
 
 Settlas. 
 
 Cop, cob, cobby — Acob- 
 loof=A very small or 
 stumpy loaf. 
 
 Moikin or Malkin. 
 
 Scarecrow — a dummy to 
 scare crows. 
 
 Scarecrows. 
 
 Crowkeeper. 
 
 Bugs — Mawkin. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 297 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 In "Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," II. i. 41, Ajax 
 calls Thersites a cob- 
 loaf, i. e., a small loaf. 
 
 A malkin not worth the 
 time of day, " Peri- 
 cles," IV. iii. 34. The 
 kitchen malkin pins 
 her richest lokram 
 'bout her reechy neck, 
 "Coriolanus," II. i. 
 224. 
 
 Scaring the ladies like a 
 crow-keeper, "Romeo 
 and Juliet," I. iv. 6. 
 That fellow handles 
 his bow like a crow- 
 keeper, "King Lear," 
 IV. vi. 88. 
 
 Fright boys with bugs, 
 "Taming of the 
 Shrew," I. ii. 182. The 
 bug which you would 
 fright me with, I seek, 
 "Winter's Tale," III. 
 ii. 113. (So yt thou 
 shalt not need to be 
 afraid of any bugges 
 
298 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Scavenger (for night- 
 soil). See Excrement. 
 
 Gold-digger. 
 
 Scold — a female of vio- 
 
 Mankind witch. 
 
 lent temper. 
 
 
 
 Scold (verb). 
 
 
 Scog — To get a scoggin' 
 = To get a scolding. 
 
 Scorn. 
 
 
 Scowl 0' brow. 
 
 Scrape (v e r b). 
 Grate. 
 
 See 
 
 Race. 
 
 Scraps ^especially what 
 is left in lard boiling). 
 
 Scratching. 
 
 Scratch (verb). 
 Scratch out — to erase. 
 Scrimmage. 
 
 Scratch (verb or noun). 
 
 Skant — He skanted it= 
 He scratched it. 
 
 Scrat — Don't scrat me = 
 Don't erase my name. 
 
 Work — What work then 
 was up there=What a 
 scrimmage then was up 
 there. 
 
 Scawt, Scrattle — To 
 graze is to scradge, 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 299 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 by night, nor for 
 ye arrow that flyeth 
 by day, Coverdale's 
 Translation, Ps. XCI.) 
 
 A mankind witch — hence 
 with her, "Winter's 
 Tale," II. iii. 67. 
 
300 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Scrutinize. Examine 
 carefully (verb), im- 
 perative. 
 
 Season (a short duration 
 of time). 
 
 Skulk — see Lurk. 
 See-saw. 
 Seat (settee). 
 Second-rate — poor. 
 Separate — see Part. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 doubtless another pro- 
 nunciation of this same 
 word. 
 
 Eyepiece — Eyepiece this 
 =Examine this care- 
 fully. 
 
 Bout— He's had a bout 
 o' drinking— He's been 
 drunk for some time. 
 
 Weigh-jolt. 
 
 Settle. 
 
 Keffle. 
 
 As where two have been 
 journeying together. 
 
 We must be shogging 
 now=We must sepa- 
 rate now. 
 
 Shog off now=Go your 
 ways and let me go 
 mine. 
 
 [Also in various other 
 dialects.* Is also used 
 
 * In Yorkshire dialect the peasant would say, " Go your gate," 
 or " get out o' my gate7' And in the plays, this Yorkshire word 
 is employed. " If he had not been in drink he would have tickled 
 you other gates than he did." — " Twelfth Night," V. i. 185. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 301 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Shog off now, "Henry 
 v.," II. i. 48. Shall 
 we shog? Idem, III. 
 48. 
 
302 
 
 GLOSSAHY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 
 in Wyclif's translation 
 of the Bible.] 
 
 Senses. 
 
 
 Sinks — 'Ees out o's sinks 
 =He is out of his 
 senses. 
 
 Sermon. 
 
 
 Sarmint. 
 
 Shabby — shabbily 
 dressed, See Slattern. 
 
 Scribe. 
 
 Shafts (of a wagon). 
 
 
 Tills. 
 
 Shallow. 
 
 
 Flew. 
 
 Sharpen (verb). 
 
 
 Keen. 
 
 Sharper (a cunning, 
 ceitful person). 
 
 de- 
 
 File. 
 
 Sheath. 
 
 
 Share — The short wood- 
 en sheath stuck in the 
 waistband to rest one 
 of the needles in whilst 
 knitting. Hence plow- 
 share. 
 
 She (nominative ( 
 feminine). 
 
 :ase 
 
 Her. 
 
 Shear (verb). 
 
 
 Daggle— Especially to 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 303 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
304 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 shear around a sheep's 
 tail. Dag locks are 
 the bits of wool cut off 
 around the tail stump. 
 
 Shed — or the addition, 
 
 Lean to. 
 
 wing of, or extension 
 to a house. 
 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 Ship — The ship be dag- 
 gled = Sheep are com- 
 pletely sheared. (Even 
 the dag-locks around 
 their tails cut off.) 
 
 Shiftless. 
 
 Whip-stitch (pron. per- 
 haps whipster). 
 
 Shiftless. 
 
 Slip string. 
 
 Shiver — Tremble with 
 cold. 
 
 Dither— also Ditter. 
 
 Sheltered — Protected (as 
 from the weather). 
 
 Burrow — It's burrow as 
 burrow here=It's very 
 sheltered here. 
 
 Shoes. 
 
 Shoon [in other dialects; 
 also, a common dia- 
 lect plural, as housen 
 for houses, hosen for 
 stockings or socks]. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 30s 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 I am not valiant neither, 
 but every puny whip- 
 ster gets my sword, 
 "Othello," V. ii. 244. 
 
 Spare none but such as 
 go in clouted shoon, 
 "2 Henry VI.," IV. 
 ii. 195. 
 
 By his cockle hat and 
 
3o6 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Shirt. 
 
 Shopworn — Worn 
 See To wear out. 
 
 out. 
 
 Short. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Shift — Also used as a 
 verb. To change one's 
 linen=To shift one's 
 self. 
 
 Braid, braided. 
 
 Cob, cop, or cobby, e. g., 
 cop nuts=very small 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 3°7 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Staff and his sandall 
 shoon, "Hamlet," IV. 
 V. 26. 
 
 Sir, I would advise you 
 to shift a shirt. — 
 " Cymbeline," I. ii. i. 
 
 If my shirt were bloody 
 then to shift it. — Id. 6. 
 
 Taught me to shift into 
 a madman's rags. — 
 "Lear," V. iii. 186. 
 
 The rest of thy low 
 countries have made 
 a shift to eat up thy 
 holland'. — "2 Henry 
 IV.," II. ii. 25. 
 
 Has he any un-braided 
 wares? — "The Win- 
 ter's Tale," V. iv. 201. 
 
 'Twould braid yourself 
 too near for me to tell 
 it.— " Pericles," I. i. 
 
 93- 
 Since Frenchmen are so 
 
 braid — marry who will, 
 
 I'll live and die a 
 
 maid!—" All's Well 
 
 that Ends Well," IV. 
 
 ii- 73- 
 
 Ajax calls Thersites 
 "Cob-loaf!"— "Troil- 
 
3o8 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 or stumpy nuts, with 
 very minute or innu- 
 tritious kernels; any- 
 thing small or stunted. 
 
 Short. 
 
 Breff. 
 
 Shout— Shriek (verb). 
 
 Bellock, blart. 
 
 Shovel— Spade. 
 
 Shool. 
 
 Showery — Drizzling. 
 
 Dampin' — It's rather 
 dampin' to-day = It's a 
 rather showery day. 
 
 Showery weather — see 
 Rainstorm. 
 
 Falling-weather. 
 
 Shuffle — to drag one's 
 self along. 
 
 Hockle, or hotchle. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 309 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 US and Cressida," II. 
 i. 41- 
 
 That is thebreff and the 
 long of it, "Henry 
 v.," III. ii. 126. 
 
 The simile of falling 
 for lowering, cloudy, 
 rainy weather is not 
 uncommon in the 
 plays. 
 
 Contagious fogs, which 
 falling in the land, 
 " Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," II. i. 90. 
 
 My cloud of dignity is 
 held from falling with 
 so weak a wind, 
 "2 Henry VI.," IV. 
 V. 100. 
 
3IO 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Shut — probably in sense 
 of "open and shut." 
 
 Dup. 
 
 Skittles. 
 
 Loggats. 
 
 Slender — see Sapling. 
 
 Wimpled. 
 
 Shriveled. 
 
 Corky. 
 
 Sickly person. See 
 Baby. 
 
 Wratch or scribe, or (if 
 a child) dilling. 
 
 Sigh (verb). 
 
 Sithe. 
 
 Side door — Private en- 
 
 Foredraft. 
 
 trance. 
 
 
 Simpleton. See Idiot, 
 Fool. 
 
 Attwood — Soft Sammy, 
 clouter-headed, fat- 
 
 
 headed, jolt-headed. 
 
 
 or jolter-headed. 
 
 Since. 
 
 Sen. 
 
 Sink, Cesspool. 
 
 Gubbon hole. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 311 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS, 
 
 Then up he rose and 
 donn'd his clothes and 
 dupp'd the chamber 
 door, "Hamlet," IV., 
 V. 53- 
 
 But to play at loggats 
 with, "Hamlet," V. 
 i. 100. 
 
 Ingrateful fox! Bind 
 fast his corky arms, 
 " King Lear," III. vii. 
 29. 
 
 Fie on thee, jolthead! 
 thou canst not read, 
 " Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona," III. i. 200. 
 
312 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Skein. 
 
 Sing, singing — applied 
 to a bird or animal. 
 
 Sink — To droop or be- 
 come tired. 
 
 Slate. 
 
 Slattern — hence, some- 
 times, old clothes, foul 
 linen, etc. 
 
 Slatternly. See Slattern. 
 Sleepy. 
 
 Slice. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Boltom— It's all of a 
 robble like a boltom 
 o' yarn = It's all tan- 
 gled up like a skein of 
 yarn. 
 
 Whistle — The whistling 
 thrusher=A singing 
 thrush. 
 
 Sagg — She be sagged 
 out=:She is drooping 
 with weariness. 
 
 Slat. 
 
 Datchet, dotcher-dratch- 
 er,flommacks, shackle, 
 slommocks. 
 
 Flommacky. 
 Mulled. 
 
 Shive — A shive 'a uns 
 loaf=A slice of his 
 loaf of bread. 
 
glossar y. 
 
 313 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Shall never sag with 
 doubt or shake with 
 fear, "Macbeth," V.iii. 
 
 To carry me in the same 
 foul clothes to Datchet 
 mead, "Merry Wives 
 of Windsor," III. iii. 
 is; Id. 141-157; V. loi. 
 
 Peace is a very apo- 
 plexy, lethargy, 
 mulled, deaf, sleepy, 
 insensible, " Corio- 
 lanus," IV. V. 239. 
 
 Of a cut loaf to steal a 
 shive, " Titus An- 
 dronicus," II. i. 88. 
 
314 
 
 GLOSSAR y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Slice (verb). 
 
 Slide (verb), as on ice. 
 
 Slippery. See Miry, 
 Muddy. 
 
 Sloes. 
 
 Sloppy. See Muddy. 
 
 Small. See Short, 
 Stumpy, Scanty. 
 
 Small portion of any- 
 thing. 
 
 Small child. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Sliver. 
 
 Glir— Slether. 
 
 Slippy. 
 
 Slans. 
 Slobbery. 
 
 Cob, cobby, cop. 
 
 Dab (used also as an 
 adjective) — A large 
 portion of anything is 
 a dollop. 
 
 Billing, anything very 
 small — a very small 
 child, a small apple in 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 31S 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 She that herself will 
 sliver and disbranch, 
 "King Lear," IV. ii. 
 34. 
 
 I will sell my dukedom 
 to buy a slobbery and 
 dirty farm, "Henry 
 v.," III. V. 12. 
 
 Ulysses calls Thersites 
 "Cobloaf," "Troilus 
 and Cressida," II. i. 41. 
 
3i6 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Smear — To daub. 
 
 Smoke (very black and 
 thick). 
 
 Smolder (verb). 
 Sneak (noun). 
 
 Warwickshire would 
 be called a dilling. 
 The same smallness, 
 with the added idea of 
 wailing or fretting, as 
 a puny crying child or 
 young of any animal, 
 would be said to be 
 a nesh. 
 
 Bemoil. 
 
 Smoke and smother. 
 
 Domber. 
 Mizzle. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 317 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 In how miry a place, 
 how was she bemoiled, 
 "Taming of the 
 Shrew," IV. i. 77. 
 
 From smoke to smother, 
 "As You Like It," 
 I. iii. 322. " Fire 
 then, O, marcy what a 
 roar, said my grand- 
 father, and such a 
 smoke and smother 
 you could scarcely see 
 your hand afore you " 
 (New England Dialect, 
 Major Jack Downing, 
 "Thirty Years Out of 
 the Senate," 1859). 
 
3i8 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Snub — Reproof, 
 
 slander. 
 
 Sneap. 
 
 Soaked. 
 
 
 Sobbed— Sobbed in th' 
 tempest = Soaked 
 through in a heavy 
 rainstorm. 
 
 Sobs. 
 
 
 Broken tears. 
 
 Soliciting gratuities on 
 St. Clement's Day— 
 hence, any respectable 
 kind of asking alms. 
 
 elementing. 
 
 Soon — Immediately. 
 
 Aforelong. 
 
 Sore — Bruise. 
 
 
 Quat. 
 
 Sour. 
 
 
 Reasty — A reasty shine 
 =A slice of sour 
 bread. 
 
 Sour (verb). 
 
 
 Summer — The beer is 
 summered=The beer 
 has turned sour. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 2,-^9 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 I will not undergo this 
 sneap without reply, 
 "2 Henry VI.," II. 
 '• 133- 
 
 Distasted with the salt 
 of broken tears, 
 "Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," IV. iv. 50. 
 
 I have rubbed this young 
 quat almost to the 
 sense, "Othello," V. 
 i. II. 
 
 Maids, well summered 
 and well kept, are like 
 flies at Bartholomew 
 
320 
 
 GLOSSAIi Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Snuff, sniff— To snuff or 
 scent as a dog, to 
 hunt. 
 
 Soft (marshy, sloppy, 
 wet). See Miry, 
 Muddy. 
 
 Solitary. 
 
 Spare (verb)— To get 
 along without. 
 
 Speed — Pace or gait. 
 
 Spent, exhausted. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Spider web. 
 Something. 
 
 Brevet — How the dog 
 do brevet about=How 
 the dog sniffs around. 
 
 Flacky — Sappy. 
 
 Unked. 
 
 Miss — I cannot miss him 
 at harvesting=I can- 
 not spare him at har- 
 vesting. 
 
 Bat — Ees coome a god- 
 dish bat=:He came 
 with good speed. 
 
 Forewearied. 
 
 Cobwail. 
 Summat. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 321 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 tide, "Henry V.," 
 V. ii. 335- 
 
 But as 't is we cannot 
 miss him = He does 
 make our fire — fetch 
 in our wood, "Tem- 
 pest," I. ii. 311. 
 
 He would miss it rather 
 than carry it, but by 
 the suit of the gentry 
 to him, "Coriolanus," 
 II; i. 253. 
 
 Forewearied in their 
 action of swift speed, 
 "King John," II. i. 
 233- 
 
322 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Soot — as from a chim- 
 
 CoUey. 
 
 ney. 
 
 
 Sour apple. See Apple, 
 Russet Apple. 
 
 Bitter-sweeting. 
 
 Spacious. 
 
 Roomthy. 
 
 Sparkling. 
 
 Sousy (applied to li- 
 quors). 
 
 Specks on the finger- 
 nails. 
 
 Gifts. 
 
 Spectacles, a pak of. 
 
 Barnacles. 
 
 Spiritless — Cowardly. 
 
 Lozel. 
 
 Sparrow — especially the 
 hedge sparrow. 
 
 Betty, or hedgebetty. 
 
 Spite (in spite of). 
 
 Afrawl — I sh'U come a- 
 frawl o' ye=I shall 
 proceed in spite of all 
 you say. 
 
 Splinter. 
 
 Spaul. 
 
 Spittle — see Drop, 
 Mouthful. 
 
 Gob. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 323 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Thy wit is a very bitter 
 sweeting, " Romeo 
 and Juliet," II. iv. 83. 
 
 And lozel, thou art 
 worthy to be hanged, 
 "Winter's Tale," II. 
 iii. 109. 
 
324 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Splinter. 
 
 
 Spaul. 
 
 Split (verb). 
 
 
 Scag. 
 
 Sport. 
 
 
 Ecky. 
 
 Spoke — preterite of to 
 speak, used as a prov- 
 erb of inanimate 
 things, never of per- 
 sons. 
 
 Quoth. Jerk, quoth the 
 plowshare = The 
 plowshare went jerk 
 or said "jerk." 
 
 Sprawl. 
 
 
 Retch — Resty. Mind 
 not sprawl on settle = 
 Do not sprawl over the 
 chimney seat (perhaps 
 mispronunciation of 
 restive). 
 
 Sprouts. 
 
 
 Chits. 
 
 Stab— see Thrust. 
 
 
 Yerk. 
 
 Stale — As stale as « 
 fish. 
 
 I dead 
 
 Fishlike. 
 
 Squint (verb). 
 
 
 Squinny. 
 
GLOSSAJi Y. 
 
 325 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 True it is, my incorpor- 
 ate friends, quoth he 
 (the stomach), "Corio- 
 lanus," I. i. 23. 
 
 Shake, quoth the dove- 
 house, " Romeo and 
 Juliet," I. iii. 33. 
 
 Weariness can snore 
 upon the flint, when 
 resty sloth finds downy 
 pillow hard, " Cym- 
 beline," III. vi. 34. 
 
 I had thought to have 
 yerked him here under 
 the ribs, "Othello," 
 I. ii. 5- 
 
 A very ancient and a 
 fishlike smell, "Tem- 
 pest," I. ii. 35. 
 
 Dost thou squinny at me, 
 " Lear," IV. vi. 120. 
 
326 
 
 GIOSSAHY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Squeeze. 
 
 Scrouge. 
 
 Squint (verb). 
 
 Squinny. 
 
 Squint- (or cross-) eyed. 
 
 Boss eye, bank eye — a 
 one-eyed man is a 
 gunner. 
 
 Starve (verb). 
 
 Clam — or clem. 
 
 Stalk, Strut— to walk 
 proudly. 
 
 Jet. 
 
 Starving. 
 
 Fameled. 
 
 Stately — see Pride. 
 
 Stomachful. 
 
 Stave (of a cask or bar- 
 rel). 
 
 Chime. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 327 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 What! will he clem me 
 and his following! 
 "The Poetaster," I. 
 ii. 
 
 How he jets under his 
 advanced plumes, 
 
 "Twelfth Night," II. 
 V. 36. To jet upon a 
 Prince's right, "Titus 
 Andronicus," II. i. 64. 
 That giants may jet 
 through, ' ' Cymbeline," 
 III. iii. 5. Insulting 
 tyranny begins to jet 
 upon the innocent 
 and aweless throne, 
 "Richard III." II. iv. 
 SI- 
 
328 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Stickleback. 
 
 
 Daddy Rough. 
 
 Stile. 
 
 
 Clapgate. 
 
 Sticks, faggots. 
 
 
 Fardel. 
 
 Sticky, mucilaginous. 
 
 Terry. 
 
 Stinging insect, 
 Bee or hornet. 
 
 gadfly. 
 
 Breese, brise, bree. 
 
 Stingy. 
 
 Near. 
 
 Stint (piece of work). 
 
 Graft, Grit. A certain 
 
 
 allotted bit of work. 
 
 Stock — see Handle. 
 
 Stale. 
 
 Stop (imperative verb). 
 
 Gie over, or a' done — 
 
 
 A' done will 'ee (or. 
 
 
 gie over) = Ha' done 
 
 
 (stop) at once! 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 329 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Who would fardels bear, 
 "Hamlet," III. i. 76. 
 
 The herd hath more 
 annoyance by the 
 breese than by the 
 tiger, " Troilus and 
 Cressida," I. iii. 54. 
 The breeze upon her 
 like a cow in June [a 
 pun here on breeze — 
 a light wind], "An- 
 tony and Cleopatra," 
 III. X. 21. 
 
 Give o'er the play, give 
 me some light! away! 
 "Hamlet," III. ii. 79. 
 Elsewhere used as 
 equivalent to surren- 
 
33° 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Stoop (verb, to bend). 
 Story — see Long Story. 
 Stout. 
 
 Strumpet — see Cour. 
 tesan. Whore. 
 
 Straightway — that is 
 quickly, at once. See 
 Instantly, Quickly. 
 
 Strut (verb) — to walk 
 proudly. See Stalk. 
 
 Stubble stack. 
 
 Croodle. 
 
 Bibleback (if a man). 
 Bundle — Graunchen. 
 Fussock (if a woman). 
 Bussock (with added 
 meaning of vulgar). 
 
 Baigle — Faggott, Be- 
 som — a loose young 
 woman is a Fizgig — 
 one who has been se- 
 duced by a gentleman 
 is a Doxy. 
 
 Straight. 
 
 Jet. 
 
 Hallow. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 331 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 der, as Shall we give 
 over and drown ? 
 "Tempest," I. i. 41, 
 and in thirteen other 
 places, but not in the 
 imperative. 
 
 Note the pun in Because 
 she is a maid, spare 
 for no faggots, " i 
 Henry VI.," V. iv. 
 56. 
 
 Make her grave straight, 
 " Hamlet," V. i. 3. (So 
 used in the Scriptures 
 — see St. Luke iii. 4.) 
 
332 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Stubborn— see Obstinate. 
 Stump (of a tree). 
 
 Awkward. 
 Stowl. 
 
 Stumpy — see Short, Cob, cobby, cop— A cob 
 Small, Scanty. loaf = A short or very 
 
 scant loaf of bread. 
 [Also in Oxfordshire, 
 Kent, Surrey, York- 
 shire, and Stafford- 
 shire dialects.] 
 
 Stupid (noun). See 
 Clown, Simpleton. 
 
 Stutter, hesitate. 
 
 Sty (in the eye). 
 Suckle, Nurse. 
 
 Suckling. 
 
 Yawrups, Jolter-headed, 
 Clouter-headed, Fat- 
 headed. 
 
 Huck and haow — Ee 
 stood 'acken and 
 'aowen or atchen = he 
 stammered and hesi- 
 tated at doing it. 
 
 Quot (or Puck). 
 
 Nousle. 
 
 Billing — The smallest 
 pig in the litter, used 
 as a term of endear- 
 ment for a small child. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 333 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Cobloaf! — "Troilus 
 and Cressida," II. i. 
 41- 
 
 These mothers who, to 
 nousle up their babies, 
 "Measure for Meas- 
 ure," III. ii. 237. 
 
334 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 as There, be a good 
 
 
 dilling now, an' go to 
 sleep quiet. 
 
 Sulky — ill-tempered. 
 
 Aitredans. 
 
 Superior. 
 
 Bettermost — A's Better- 
 
 
 most nor him = I'm 
 
 
 better than he. 
 
 Supernumeraries — Idle 
 or useless servants. 
 
 Feeders. 
 
 Suppose. 
 
 Reckon — " Suppose " is 
 only used when telling 
 facts. As: So John is 
 
 
 going to Lunnon, I 
 
 
 suppose = John is go- 
 ing to London. 
 
 
 In some of the Southern 
 
 
 States of the United 
 
 
 States, reckon is used 
 
 
 just as the Warwick- 
 
 
 shire peasant uses 
 "suppose." I reckon 
 you' 1 dine with us to- 
 
 
 day — We shall rely 
 on your diningwith us. 
 
GLOSSAJi Y. 
 
 335 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 I will your very faithful 
 feeder be, "As You 
 Like It," II. iv. 99. 
 When all your offices 
 have been oppressed 
 with rotten feeders, 
 "Timon of Athens," 
 IV. ii. 
 
 It is somewhat difficult 
 to say whether Shakes- 
 peare ever uses the 
 word suppose in the 
 Warwickshire sense. 
 The following looks 
 like such a use of it: 
 
 " I'll be supposed upon 
 a book his face is the 
 worst thing about 
 him," "Measure for 
 Measure," II. i. 162. 
 But here supposed may 
 be an elipsis for super- 
 imposed, which is the 
 
336 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 <A 
 
 That is, it is a pressing 
 invitation to dinner, 
 and not exactly the 
 statement of an exist- 
 ing arrangement. 
 
 Sure. 
 
 Safe— He's safe to do it 
 = He's sure to do it. 
 
 Surety. 
 
 Back up, back friend. 
 
 Surfeit. 
 
 Sick — I 'ud my sick on 
 plums = I have had 
 all the plums that I can 
 eat. 
 
 Surfeit. 
 
 Sick. 
 
GLOSS/1 J? y. 
 
 337 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 radical meaning of the 
 word suppose. 
 
 Is used very frequently 
 in the plays. My 
 ships are safe to road, 
 " Merchant of Venice, " 
 V. i. 285, etc. 
 
 A back friend and 
 shoulder capper, 
 "Comedy of Errors," 
 IV. ii. 37. 
 
 I would be blind with 
 weeping, sick with 
 groans, "2 Henry 
 VI," III. ii. 62. My 
 most honorable lord, I 
 am e'en sick of shame, 
 " Timon of Athens," 
 III. vi. 46. I am 
 sick of many griefs, 
 "Julius Caesar," IV. 
 iii. 144. 
 
 Quietness, grown sick of 
 rest, " Antony and 
 Cleopatra," I. iii. 5. 
 The commonwealth is 
 sick of their own 
 
338 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Surmount (or surpass). 
 
 Surpass — see aroupe. 
 Suspect (verb). 
 
 Suddenly. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Overgo or overget. 
 
 Judge — I judge him guil- 
 ty = I suspect that he 
 is guilty. 
 
 Suddent. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 339 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 choice, "2 Henry VI," 
 I. iii. 87. The follow- 
 ing puns allude to this 
 Warwickshire meaning 
 of the word apparently. 
 They are as sick that 
 surfeit on too much as 
 they that starve on 
 nothing, " Merchant 
 of Venice," I. ii. 6. 
 That nature, being 
 sick of man's unkind- 
 ness, should yet be 
 angry, " Timon of 
 Athens," IV. iii. 106. 
 When we are sick in 
 fortune — often the sur- 
 surfeit of our behavior, 
 "King Lear," I. ii. 
 129. 
 
 To overgo thy plaints, 
 and drown thy cries, 
 "Richard III.," II. ii. 
 61. 
 
34° 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Surpass — see 
 (verb). 
 
 Excel 
 
 Cap. 
 
 Swing (verb). 
 
 
 Geg, gaig— Let's gaig no' 
 = Let's take a swing. 
 
 Sweat (verb). 
 
 
 Gibber. 
 
 Sweat (noun). 
 
 
 Muck — I'm all of a muck. 
 I'm sweaty. 
 
 Sweet. 
 
 
 Candy. 
 
 Sweetmeats. 
 
 
 Humbugs. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 341 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 And the sheeted dead 
 did squeak and gibber 
 in the Roman streets, 
 "Hamlet," I. i. 116. 
 The word "gibber" 
 here is commonly- 
 taken to mean gabble 
 or chatter, but if the 
 word were used in the 
 Warwickshire sense, 
 how much more ghast- 
 ly and horrible the 
 picture! The dead — 
 out of place in the 
 Roman streets — wor- 
 ried and sweated. 
 
 What a candy deal of 
 courtesy, this fawning 
 greyhound did then 
 proffer me, " i Henry 
 IV.," I. iii. 251. 
 
342 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Swipes (stale beer). 
 
 
 Swanky. 
 
 
 Swipes (sour beer 
 cider). 
 
 or 
 
 Bellyvengeance. 
 
 
 Swell (verb) in cooking. 
 
 Plim. 
 
 
 Swollen. 
 
 
 Bluffy— My hands 
 bluffy as bluffy 
 hands are very 
 swollen. 
 
 are as 
 
 = My 
 
 much 
 
 Swing — a see-saw 
 merry-go-round. 
 
 or 
 
 Gay. 
 
 
 Swop, Barter (verb 
 noun). 
 
 or 
 
 Rap. 
 
 
 Syrup. 
 
 
 Jessup. 
 
 
 T 
 
 
 
 
 Tadpole. 
 
 
 Jackbonnial. 
 
 
 Talon— Singular of Tal- 
 ons. The claw of a 
 bird. 
 
 Talon. 
 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 343 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 There is a pun on this 
 provincial mispronun- 
 ciation in : If a talent 
 be a claw, see how 
 he claws him with a 
 talent! "Love's La- 
 bor's Lost," IV. ii. 
 64. 
 
344 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Tail— a short tail, as a 
 rabbit's. 
 
 Scut. 
 
 Tailor— See Botch. 
 
 Bodger. 
 
 Talebearer - 
 tale. See 
 
 - A carry- 
 Tattler. 
 
 Clatterer. 
 
 Talebearer, 
 
 
 Pickthanks. Gossip is 
 pickthanking work. 
 
 Talk. 
 
 
 Scrowl. 
 
 Tame. 
 
 
 Cade— Cade lamb=Pet 
 lamb. 
 
 Tangle. 
 
 
 Robbie. 
 
 Tap (verb). 
 
 
 Tabber. 
 
 Tape. 
 
 
 Inkle, Inkles [Also in 
 Whitby dialectj. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 345 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 My doe with the black 
 scut, "Merry Wives 
 of Windsor," V. v. 
 
 20. 
 
 Pickthanks and base 
 newsmonger, " i Hen- 
 ry IV.," III. ii. 25. 
 
 See how with signs and 
 tokens she can scrowl, 
 "Titus Andronicus," 
 II. iv. s. 
 
 What's the price of this 
 inkle, "Love's La- 
 bor's Lost,"III. i. 140. 
 Inkles, caddices, cam- 
 brics, "Winter's Tale," 
 IV. iv. 207. Her 
 inkle, silk, twin with 
 
346 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Taste (verb). 
 
 Tatters, Shreds. 
 Tattle (verb). 
 Tattler — see Gossip. 
 
 Tallow, a lump of. 
 
 Tardy, belated. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Smack, Smatch. 
 
 Jimrags. 
 
 Clat. 
 
 Pickthanks, clatterer. 
 
 Keech. 
 
 Lated. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 347 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 the rubied cherry, 
 "Pericles," V. (Gow- 
 er's Prologue, 8.) 
 
 All sects, all ages smack 
 of this vice, " Meas- 
 for Measure," II. ii. 5. 
 He hath a smack of 
 all neighboring lan- 
 guages, "All's Well 
 that Ends Well," IV. 
 i. 18. 
 
 Pickthanks and base 
 newsmongers, "i Hen- 
 ry IV.," III. ii. 25. 
 
 I wonder that such a 
 Keech can, with his 
 very bulk, take up the 
 rays of the beneficial 
 sun, "Henry VIII.," 
 I. i. 55. Did not good 
 wife Keech, the 
 butcher's wife, come 
 in then, " 2 Henry 
 IV.," II. i. loi. 
 
 I am so lated in the 
 world, that I have lost 
 
348 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Taste— to taste of. 
 
 All— What's this bottle 
 
 
 
 all of?=What do the 
 
 
 
 contents of this bottle 
 
 
 
 taste of? 
 
 Tavern. 
 
 
 Smokeshop, Jerry 'Ouse. 
 
 Tea. 
 
 
 Tay. 
 
 Tea-kettle. 
 
 
 Sukey, Shookery. 
 
 Teach. 
 
 
 Larn. 
 
 Tear (verb). 
 
 
 Scag. 
 
 Tease (verb), 
 
 see Worry. 
 
 Mummock, mammocked 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 349 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 my way forever, " An- 
 tony and Cleopatra," 
 III. ii. 3. How spurs 
 the lated traveler 
 apace, "Macbeth," 
 III. iii. 6. 
 
 The use of the verb 
 learn for teach was 
 not uncommon in 
 Shakespeare's time. 
 You must not learn 
 me how to remember, 
 "As You Like It," I. 
 ii. 6. They will learn 
 you by rote where 
 services were done, 
 "Henry V.," III. vi. 
 74- 
 
 O, I warrant how he 
 
35° 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 (uncertain which) — A' 
 done mummicking me 
 — Stop teasing me. 
 
 Teeth, see Milkteeth. 
 
 
 Tender — see Frail. 
 
 Sidder. Applied to 
 vegetables — also to an 
 unsafe ladder or scaf- 
 folding. 
 
 Termagant — see Scold. 
 
 Mankind Witch. 
 
 Tempt — see Provoke. 
 
 Urge. 
 
 Thatch (verb). 
 
 Thack— He thacked the 
 housen=He thatched 
 the houses. 
 
 Thatch (over a beehive). 
 
 Hackle. 
 
 Theirs. 
 
 Theirn. 
 
 Thick — see Stumpy. 
 
 Cob, Cop, Cobby— Cob 
 loaf=A short, thick 
 loaf. 
 
 Thickset (person). 
 
 Dumpty. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 351 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 mammocked it, " Co- 
 riolanus," I. iii. 71. 
 
 A mankind witch — hence 
 with her, "Winter's 
 Tale," II. iii. 67. 
 
352 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAK. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Thief. 
 
 Lifter. 
 
 Thief. 
 
 Lifter. 
 
 Thankless, discourag- 
 ing. 
 
 Heartless — It's heartless 
 work getting this 
 ground clear of stuns. 
 
 Thin, Attenuated — see 
 Emaciated, Pinched. 
 
 Poor, scraily— He's as 
 poor as poor=He's 
 very thin. 
 
 Thirsty. 
 
 Puckfyst— The " Puck- 
 fyst is a dried toad- 
 stool." Hence, 'A feels 
 Puckfyst=I feel as 
 dry as a dried toad- 
 stool. 
 
 Thoroughly, entirely. 
 
 
 Thoughtless. 
 
 Gidding. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 353 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 And so old a lifter, 
 " Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," I. ii. 128. 
 
 Is he so young a man 
 and so old a lifter? 
 " Troilus and Cres- 
 sida," I. ii. 129. 
 
 Art thou drawn among 
 these heartless hinds? 
 "Romeo and Juliet," 
 I. i. 73. 
 
 Under yon yew trees lay 
 theeallalong, "Romeo 
 and Juliet," V. iii. 3. 
 That is, conceal your- 
 selves completely un- 
 der those yew trees. 
 
 Of these most thought- 
 less and giddy-pated 
 
354 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Thoughtless. 
 
 Thrash — see Whip. 
 
 Thrive (verb). 
 
 Thriving— see Healthy, 
 see Prolific. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Throb (verb). 
 Thrush. 
 
 Thrust, as with a dagger 
 or rapier. 
 
 Thwart (verb). 
 
 Gidding, giddy-pated. 
 
 Warm. 
 
 Pick up. 
 
 Kind — That cow aint 
 kind=That cow does- 
 n't have calves. 
 
 Quop. 
 
 Thrusher — Whistling 
 thrusher = The song 
 thrush. Gore thrusher 
 =The missel thrush. 
 
 Yerk (but this word is 
 also sometimes used in 
 the sense of dash, 
 throw out — see Dash). 
 
 Boffle. 
 
GLOSSAR V. 
 
 355 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 times, " Twelfth 
 Night," I. iv. 6. 
 
 Perhaps used in this 
 sense by chorus to Act 
 II. of "Henry V.," I. 
 i. 19, "O England, 
 what mightest thou 
 do, were all thy chil- 
 dren kind and nat- 
 ural." 
 
 I had thought to have 
 yerk'd him here under 
 the ribs. 
 
3S6 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Timid — see Gentle. 
 
 Tired — see Exhausted. 
 
 Thus. 
 
 Toad. 
 
 Toadstool. 
 
 Toady, to flatter. 
 
 Toil (noun and verb). 
 
 Tolerably. 
 
 Soft— 'Es as soft as u 
 empty packet=He is 
 a very timid person. 
 
 Sadded — 1 be quite sad- 
 ded wi' being in 'a 
 house— I am tired of 
 staying indoors. 
 
 Athissens=in this way 
 =Athatuns=in that 
 way. 
 
 Tosey. 
 
 Canker-blossom 
 
 Claw. 
 
 Moil — I've been moiling 
 'a day=I've been toil- 
 ing all day. 
 
 Middling or Pretty Mid- 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 357 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 You canker blossom, 
 you thief of love, 
 " Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," II. ii. 282. 
 
 Laugh when I am merry, 
 and claw no man in 
 his humor, " Much 
 Ado about Nothing," 
 I. iii. 18. Look how 
 he claws him, " Love's 
 Labor's Lost," IV. ii. 
 
35S 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Tolerably bad. 
 
 Toll (verb)— More ex- 
 actly to toll a bell 
 properly. 
 
 Torment or aggravate. 
 
 Tottering — see 
 steady. 
 
 Un- 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 dling — We gets on 
 pretty middling=We 
 are doing tolerably 
 well; but see below 
 for opposite meaning. 
 
 Very Middling — He is 
 doing very middlings 
 He is doing badly. 
 The word middling 
 has opposite meanings 
 according as it is pre- 
 fixed by pretty or very, 
 thus "pretty mid- 
 dling" might mean 
 " tolerably good." 
 
 Knoll (Noal)— Have the 
 bell knowled = Have it 
 properly tolled. 
 
 Tar, or terrify — 'Is 
 cough terrifies him = 
 His cough worries 
 him. 
 
 Tickle, Wungle. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 3S9 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Where bells have knoUed 
 to church, "As You 
 Like It, II. vii. 114; 
 also Ibid., line 131. 
 And so his knell is 
 knolled, " Macbeth," 
 V. vii. 54. Knolling 
 a departed friend, " 2 
 Hen. IV," I. i. 103. 
 
 Thy head stands so tickle 
 on thy shoulders that 
 
360 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Treacherous — see 
 ceitful. 
 
 De- 
 
 Fornicating. 
 
 Treacle. 
 
 
 Dirty Dan'l. 
 
 Trifle (verb). 
 
 
 Mummock. 
 
 Trifles, Trifling. 
 
 
 Fads, Small Beer— Fad- 
 ding or Friggling. 
 
 Treasure Trove. 
 
 
 Findliss. 
 
 Tremble (verb). 
 
 
 Dither. 
 
 Tow — Oakum. 
 
 
 Herds — Anything made 
 of tow or oakum is 
 Herden. To herd a 
 boat = to calk it. 
 
 Trinkets — see Decorate. 
 
 Bravery — She is all brav- 
 
 
 
 ery=She wears a great 
 many ribbons or trink- 
 ets, /. e., much finery. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 361 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 a milkmaid, if she be 
 in love, may sigh it off, 
 "Measure for Meas- 
 ure," I. iii. 177. 
 
 To suckle fools and 
 chronicle small beer, 
 "Othello," II. i. 160. 
 
 Where youth and cost 
 and witless bravery 
 keeps, "Measure for 
 Measure," I. iii. 10. 
 With scarfs and fans, 
 and double changed 
 bravery, "Taming of 
 Shrew," IV. iii. 57. 
 
362 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Trowsers. 
 
 Trifle (verb). 
 
 Toss, or shake (as in 
 hay-making). 
 
 Trouble (reflexive verb). 
 
 Trouble, to bother, (tran- 
 sitive verb). 
 
 Trouble (noun). 
 
 Trouble — see Darkened, 
 Blackened. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Strides. 
 
 Mummock. 
 
 Ted— He's teddin=He's 
 tossing (or shaking up) 
 the hay out of the 
 swath. To toss a 
 baby in the air = to 
 dink the dilling or 
 "reckling." 
 
 Fash — He do fash his- 
 self =He troubles him- 
 self. 
 
 Moither — He moithers 
 me — He troubles me. 
 
 Cumber — The cumber I 
 ha' had wi' that lad's 
 breedin'=The trouble 
 or labor I have had 
 with that lad's rearing. 
 
 Coil — not distinctly 
 Warwickshirean. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 363 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Let it not cumber your 
 better remembrance, 
 "Timon of Athens," 
 III. vi. 52. 
 
 Here is a coil without 
 protestation, "Two 
 Gentlemen of Ve- 
 rona," I. ii. 99. 
 What a coil is there, 
 Dromio! "Comedy 
 of Errors," III. i. 48. 
 All this coil is 'long 
 of you, "Midsummer 
 
3^4 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Troublesome — see Mis- 
 
 Tageous — The boy's 
 
 chievous. 
 
 tageous = The boy is 
 
 
 troublesome, or (per- 
 
 
 haps) inclined to be 
 
 
 vicious. Mere frolic- 
 
 
 someness, or innocent 
 
 
 mischief is expressed 
 
 
 by the adjectives 
 
 
 "anointed "or " un- 
 
 
 lucky." 
 
 Tub. 
 
 Kiver— Properly a butter 
 
 
 tub, the tub the butter 
 
 
 is worked in after be- 
 
 
 ing taken from the 
 
 
 churn. 
 
 Tuft (of grass). 
 
 Tussock. 
 
 Tumor. 
 
 Substance — Like 'ers got 
 
 
 substance on ers dugs 
 
 
 = Maybe she has a 
 
 
 tumor growing on her 
 
 
 breast. 
 
 Turf (Greensward). 
 
 Grinsard. 
 
 Turnstile. 
 
 Clap-gate. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 365 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Night's Dream," III. 
 ii. 339. Yonder's old 
 coil at home, "Much 
 Ado about Nothing," 
 V. ii. 98. 
 
366 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Twilight. 
 
 u 
 
 Unaccustomed — out of 
 practice — see Wrong- 
 ly. 
 
 Uneven. 
 
 Unfasten (as a door). 
 
 Unhealthy. 
 
 Unknown. 
 
 Unsteady — see Totter- 
 ing, Leaky. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Blind man's holiday. 
 
 Out. 
 
 Gobby — A gobby bit 'o' 
 sharm = an irregular 
 or uneven lump of 
 manure. 
 
 Dup — Dup the door = 
 Open the door. Wise, 
 however, says the 
 word is used as an 
 order either to fasten 
 or unfasten a door. 
 
 Unkind — (This word 
 sometimes means bar- 
 ren, as — She died un- 
 kind=she died a maid 
 or childless). 
 
 Unbeknownt. 
 
 Tickle. Giggling. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 367 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Very good orators, 
 when they are out, 
 they will spit, "As 
 You Like It," IV. i. 
 76. 
 
 And dupped the cham- 
 ber door, "Hamlet," 
 IV. V. 56. 
 
 Thy head stands so 
 tickle on thy shoul- 
 ders that a milkmaid, 
 if she be in love, may 
 
368 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Useless, a good-for- 
 nothing person. 
 
 Dummill or Dummock. 
 
 Untidy — But more Slommocks. 
 generally as a noun, 
 an untidy person, a 
 slattern (which see). 
 
 Untidy — see Slattern. 
 
 Upside-down. 
 Unusual. 
 
 Upstart. 
 
 Urge — see Induce. 
 
 Blowsy, Udder-mucklin. 
 An untidy girl is a 
 Blowse. 
 
 Arsy-versy. 
 
 Unaccountable (Unake- 
 ountable) — It's unac- 
 countable weather = 
 It's unusual weather. 
 
 Whipster. 
 
 Kindle. 
 
GLOSSAR Y 
 
 369 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 sigh it off, " Measure 
 for Measure," I. iii. 
 177. Paris is lost. 
 The state of Nor- 
 mandy stands on a 
 tickle point, " 2 Henry 
 VI.," I. i. 216. 
 
 Sweet blouse — you are 
 a beauteous blossom 
 sure, " Titus Androni- 
 cus," IV. ii. 72. 
 
 I am not valiant neither, 
 but every puny whip- 
 ster gets my sword, 
 "Othello," V. ii. 244. 
 
 Nothing remains but to 
 
37° 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Useless. 
 
 Usher — see Forerunner, 
 Herald, a master of 
 ceremonies at rural 
 ceremonies — who goes 
 before with a staff or 
 wand, a sort of Drum 
 Major. 
 
 Urine. 
 
 Usually. 
 
 Vagrant. 
 
 V 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Mufflin — I'm as mufflin as 
 the babe unborn=I'm 
 as useless as a baby. 
 
 Whiffler. 
 
 Stale. 
 
 Most in general. 
 
 Chop goss (probably one 
 who chops the gorse). 
 Gaubshite. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 371 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 kindle the boy thither, 
 "As You Like It," I. 
 i. 139. So used in the 
 Scriptures: My heart 
 is turned within me, 
 my. repentings are 
 kindled together, 
 
 Hosea, xi. 8. 
 
 The deep mouth'd sea. 
 
 Which, like a mighty 
 
 whiffler 'fore the king. 
 
 Seems to prepare the 
 
 way, "Henry V.," 
 
 Chorus to Act V. 
 
 Thou didst drink the 
 stale of horses, and 
 the gilded puddle, 
 "Antony and Cleo- 
 patra," I. iv. 62. 
 
372 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Vermin, lice in the 
 head. 
 
 Variance, disagreement. 
 
 Very — see Excessive, 
 Extremely. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Crippers. 
 
 Two Folks — Ye'll be 
 goin' on like two 
 folks = You are quar- 
 reling. 
 
 As, As or That — (with 
 the repetition of the 
 adjective) — It's as hot 
 as hot = It's very hot. 
 Or, I'm that bad in 
 my innards — I'm suf- 
 fering very much 
 internally — Martle 
 (Mortal). Nation — 
 'Ees martal good, or 
 'Ees nation good=He 
 is very good. Well, I 
 be 'eart well (Heart 
 well), but I a' the 
 rheumatics in me 
 shoolder martle bad. 
 These two latter may 
 suggest the superla- 
 tives, "all creation," 
 or "tarnation" (dar- 
 nation) which foreign 
 comic papers claim is 
 "American." 
 
 "It sounded just like 
 father's gun. 
 
 Only a Nation louder! " 
 
GLOSSAH Y. 
 
 373 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
374 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 ("Yankee Doodle," 
 1776.) The familiar 
 poxy— («■ e., plaguey) 
 is often used, as It's 
 
 
 poxy 'ot, or It's poxy 
 cauwld, for It's very 
 hot, or very cold. 
 
 Very (superlative ad- 
 verb). 
 
 Mortal— 'Ee the mortal 
 moral '0 's dad=He is 
 the very image of his 
 father. 
 
 Vicious — see Mischie- 
 vous, Troublesome. 
 
 Tageous. 
 
 Victuals— see Food. 
 
 Belly-timber. 
 
 Vigorous (applied to 
 plants) see Hardy, 
 Healthy, Thriving. 
 
 Frem — Your plants do 
 look frem — Your 
 plants look hardy (or 
 vigorous). 
 
 W 
 
 
 Wag— a droll person. 
 
 Dryskin. 
 
 Wages. 
 
 Saturday nights. 
 
GLOSSAS Y. 
 
 375 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 (Very general as a super- 
 lative in the plays.) 
 So is all nature in 
 love mortal in folly, 
 "As You Like It," II. 
 iv. 53. I have pro- 
 claimed myself thy 
 mortal foe, "3 Henry 
 v.," III. iii. 257. 
 
376 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Wan. 
 
 Warm (verb) — The word 
 " warm " in Warwick- 
 shire means to beat 
 with a stick or club. 
 
 Washing Tub. 
 
 Washing — a wetting 
 gotten at the wash. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Wash out (verb) — see 
 Rinse. 
 
 Wasp. 
 
 Wanny — How wanny 
 her looks = How pale 
 (or wan or ill) she 
 looks. 
 
 Hot, Chill— I hot it = I 
 warmed it over the 
 fire. I chilled a drop 
 of milk = I warmed 
 {i. e., took the cold 
 off) a drop of milk. 
 
 Maiding-Tub. 
 
 Buck or Bucking — " I 
 was out in all that 
 tempest last night, un 
 it was lucky as I'd got 
 this ere awd top coo- 
 wut on. I sh'd a got 
 a good Bucking else." 
 The wash-basket is a 
 Buck-basket. 
 
 Swill — I will swill 
 will wash it out. 
 
 it=I 
 
 Waps — [This is the 
 almost universal word 
 for wasps among the 
 negroes of the South- 
 ern United States to- 
 day]. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 377 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 She washes bucks here 
 at home. "2 Henry 
 VI.," IV. ii. 52. 
 Throw foul linen upon 
 him as if it were go- 
 ing a-bucking. "The 
 Merry Wives of Wind- 
 sor," III. iii. 140-166. 
 
378 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Waste (to waste time) — 
 
 Mess, Burn daylight — 
 
 see Idle, Loiter. 
 
 She might as lief be 
 
 
 at school, she's only- 
 
 
 messing about home 
 
 
 = She's only wasting 
 
 
 her time at home. The 
 
 
 phrase to burn day- 
 
 
 ight, is frequent in 
 
 
 Warwickshire — in the 
 
 
 second person mostly. 
 
 
 In "Shakespeareana," 
 
 
 vol. X. , account is given 
 
 
 of an American slave, 
 
 
 said to be pure Congo, 
 
 
 who used the expres- 
 
 
 sion in such forms as, 
 
 
 " But, brass yo' soul, 
 
 
 honey, dis won't do. 
 
 
 we's burnin' daylight. " 
 
 Waver — to show inde- 
 
 Hiver-hover — To veer 
 
 cision. 
 
 as the ^wind = To 
 
 
 whififit. 
 
 Weak — a plant or vege- 
 
 Spiry. 
 
 table. 
 
 
 Weak-lunged (delicate 
 
 Tisiky. 
 
 in the lungs). 
 
 
 Weak-minded — see 
 
 Cakey. 
 
 Fool. 
 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 379 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Perhaps in this sense in 
 " Lear" I. i. 119: He 
 that makes his genera- 
 tion messes to gorge 
 his appetite. — We burn 
 daylight ; here, read, 
 read, read, "Merry 
 Wives," II. i. 114. 
 Come, we burn day- 
 light, ho ! " Romeo 
 and Juliet," I. iv. 27. 
 
38° 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Weaning-bottle. 
 
 Titty-bottle. 
 
 Wearied (only in the 
 
 Forewearied. 
 
 sense of very weary — 
 worn out, fagged). 
 
 
 Weed (verb). 
 
 Paddle — Especially 
 when using a long, 
 narrow spade or 
 " spud " — Paddle the 
 garden = Weed the 
 garden. 
 
 Weeds — see Fumaria. 
 
 Kecks — Thaay be kecks 
 =Those are weeds. 
 
 Well. 
 
 Lusty — He's as lusty as 
 lusty = He's perfectly 
 well. 
 
 Wet through — see satu- 
 rated. 
 
 1 
 
 Watched — He was 
 watched ::= He was wet 
 through. 
 
 Wheedle, coax. 
 
 Carney, Creep up your 
 sleeve. 
 
 Wheelhorse — The horse 
 that does most of the 
 work. 
 
 Tiller— Thill-horse. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 381 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Forewearied in the 
 action of swift speed, 
 "King John," II. i. 
 233- 
 
 A good babe, lusty and 
 like to live, "Win- 
 ter's Tale," II. ii. 27. 
 
 Thou hast more hair on 
 thy chin than Dobbin 
 my thill horse has on 
 his tail, " Merchant 
 of Venice," II. ii. 
 102. 
 
382 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Whiff. 
 
 Wift. 
 
 Whim — see Notions. 
 
 Fad, Megrims — Hers 
 
 
 always as full o' her 
 fads = She's always 
 full of whims or no- 
 
 
 tions. A silly or 
 weak-minded old man 
 
 
 is sometimes called a 
 
 
 "half-soaked gaffer." 
 
 Whine (verb). 
 
 Yammer, Wangle. 
 
 Whip — see Beat, Thrash. 
 
 Warm. Lace — I'll warm 
 =ye I'll beat (or thrash 
 
 
 or whip) ye, — I'll lace 
 ye, would mean the 
 
 
 same. 
 
 Whip handle. 
 
 Whipstock. 
 
 Whisper (verb). 
 
 Cuther. 
 
 White Clover. 
 
 Honey Stalk — [Also in 
 Sussex dialect] 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 383 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Malvolio's nose is no 
 whipstock, "Twelfth 
 Night," II. iii. 28. 
 He appears to have 
 practiced more with 
 the whipstock than 
 with the lance, "Peri- 
 cles," II. ii. 151. 
 
 Than baits to fish, or 
 honey stalks to sheep, 
 "Titus Andronicus," 
 IV. iv. 91. 
 
384 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Will 0' the Wisp. 
 Who. 
 
 Whole of a class (noun). 
 
 Whole (adjective). 
 
 Whooping-cough. 
 
 Whore — see Bedfellow, 
 Strumpet. 
 
 Wicked — see Mischie- 
 vous, Troublesome. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Jack an' his Lantern, 
 Hobaday lantern. 
 
 As — There be those as 
 know = There are 
 those who know. 
 
 Boiling — Best o' the 
 boiling=:Best of the 
 lot. 
 
 Clean. 
 
 Chin-cough. 
 
 Doxy. Customer. Salt. 
 Properly, a country 
 girl the mistress of 
 a gentleman. [Also in 
 several other dialects. ] 
 The folk saying is, 
 that a Doxy is one 
 who is neither maid, 
 wife, nor widow. 
 
 Tageous, Gallus — Wick- 
 ed or malicious jokes 
 are gammits. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 385 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 With heigh ! the doxy 
 over the dale, "Win- 
 ter's Tale," IV. iii. 2. 
 I think thee now some 
 common customer, 
 "All's Well that Ends 
 Well," III. V. 287. 
 I, marry her? what, a 
 customer? "Othello," 
 IV. i. 140. But all the 
 charms of love, Salt 
 Cleopatra, "Antony 
 and Cleopatra," II. i. 
 
 25- 
 
386 
 
 GLOSSAR V. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Wife. 
 
 Willful. 
 
 Wild — see Prodigal. 
 
 Wild Apple — see Russet 
 Apple, Sour Apple. 
 
 Willing — see 
 cent. 
 
 Acquies- 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Willing (in the sense of 
 anxious to assist or co- 
 operate). 
 
 Willingly. 
 
 Willow. 
 
 Old 'ooman. 
 Masterful. 
 
 Random — as a crop 
 which has grown with- 
 out planting. 
 
 Pomewater — (Another 
 species is called A/>ple 
 John. ) 
 
 Agreeable = I'm agree- 
 able to that = I am 
 willing to do that. 
 
 Cunning — Anybody ud 
 be cunning to do any- 
 thing for you = Any- 
 body would be willing 
 to help you. 
 
 Lief. Probably form of 
 "leave myself" or 
 give myself leave — 
 common to all familiar 
 speech. 
 
 Withy — Etherings are 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 387 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Ripe as a pomewater, 
 "Love's Labor's 
 Lost," IV. ii. 5. 
 
388 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Wing (of a house — see 
 Addition, Extension, 
 Shed). 
 
 With (accompany). 
 
 Withered. 
 
 Witless — As by birth, dis- 
 tinguished from Dunce 
 or Fool (which see). 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 slips cut from willow 
 trees or oziers. 
 
 Lean to. 
 
 Along of=Go along of 
 father=Go with your 
 father. 
 
 Wizen. 
 
 Sorry — He's a sorry fel- 
 low = He's half-witted, 
 or of no account. 
 
 Windpipe. 
 
 
 Wizzund — or Guzzle. 
 
 Windy. 
 
 
 Harden — It's hurden 
 weather = It's very 
 windy weather. 
 
 Woman. 
 
 
 Ooman. 
 
 Wood. 
 
 
 Ood (uod). 
 
 Wood — A piece of wood- 
 land, especially when 
 small in extent. 
 
 Spinney. 
 
 Woodlands — A 
 larger in extent 
 the foregoing. 
 
 piece 
 than 
 
 Holt. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 389 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
39° 
 
 GLOSS A Ji Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Woodpecker, especially 
 the green variety. 
 
 Wood Pigeon. 
 
 Woolen Cap. 
 
 Worn Out — see Fa- 
 tigued. (Applied to 
 Merchandise — see 
 Shopworn.) 
 
 Worry, as a child its 
 mother (verb) — see 
 Tease. 
 
 Worth, Worthy — Adjec- 
 tive, and adverb, worth- 
 ily. 
 
 Hickle (also written 
 Hickwall) — pronounc- 
 ed Eekle, — or Steek 
 Eekle. 
 
 Quice, sometimes Quist. 
 
 Statute Cap — The cap 
 worn by Act of 1571 
 to encourage woolen 
 manufacture, whence 
 any cap made of wool- 
 en, or wool-like ma- 
 terial. [Also in other 
 dialects.] 
 
 Forwearied. [Also in 
 several other dialects.] 
 
 Mammock, put out, put 
 about — The child do 
 mummock, or fillip, me 
 so = The child worries 
 me. 
 
 Account — He bean't o' 
 account=He is not 
 worth anything. He 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 391 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Better wits have worn 
 plain statute caps, 
 Love's Labor's Lost," 
 V. ii. 281. 
 
 Forwearied in this ac- 
 tion, " King John," 
 -n. i.233. 
 
 O, I warrant how he 
 mammocked it, "Co- 
 riolanus," L iii. 71. 
 
392 
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 
 don't do o' any ac- 
 count=He doesn't act 
 worthily. 
 
 Worthless person — a 
 good-for-nothing. 
 
 Faggott. 
 
 Would — (auxiliary 
 verb). 
 
 Ood. 
 
 Wren— The female of 
 any bird. 
 
 Jenny. 
 
 Wrinkle. 
 
 Rivvel. 
 
 Wrongly, Improperly- 
 adjective or adverb- 
 see Unaccustomed. 
 
 Yard. 
 
 Out of — To call a man 
 out of his name=To 
 call him by his wrong 
 name. To name him 
 improperly. 
 
 Fizzle. 
 
GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 393 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 I have forgot my part, 
 and I am out, " Corio- 
 lanus," V. iii. 41. If 
 I cannot recover your 
 niece I am a foul ways 
 out, "Twelfth Night," 
 II. iii. 201. Your hand 
 is out, " Love's La- 
 bor's Lost," IV. i. 135. 
 
 A blister on his sweet 
 tongue that put Ar- 
 mado's page out of his 
 part, " Love's Labor's 
 Lost," V. ii. 336. 
 
 You bull's pizzle, you 
 stockfish, " Henry 
 IV.," IL iv. 271. 
 
394 
 
 GLOSSAR Y. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Yearling — Especially of 
 sheep. 
 
 Yeast. 
 
 Yellowhammer. 
 
 Yes. 
 
 Yoke (for cattle). 
 
 Yoke. 
 
 Youngster. 
 
 Yonder. 
 
 You. 
 
 Young man (in sense 
 of beau or lover), see 
 Lordling. 
 
 Teg — In theplural the 
 word is Earrings, 
 though properly Ear- 
 rings are the very 
 young lambs, or lambs 
 just dropped. 
 
 Barm. 
 
 Grecian. 
 
 Ah— Yea. 
 
 Bow [also in several 
 other dialects]. 
 
 Bow. 
 
 Nipper. 
 
 Yon, or Yond. [But in 
 all dialects.] 
 
 Thee'stit (or Thou'st it) 
 =You have it, or. You 
 are the one. 
 
 Naabs or Knaaps. Its 
 she's Knaaps = It's her 
 young man, or beau. 
 
GLOSSAR y. 
 
 395 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 That all the Earlings 
 which were streaked 
 and pied, "Merchant 
 of Venice," I. iii. 80. 
 
 And sometimes makes 
 the drink to bear no 
 barm, " Midsummer 
 Night's Dream," I. ii. 
 39- 
 
 As the ox has his bow, 
 sir, "As You Like 
 It," III. iii. 80. 
 
396 
 
 LIST OF VERNACULAR WORDS. 
 
 Following is a suggestive list of vernacular words 
 not dialectic except in the pronunciation (though 
 the separation from the dialectic form is not always 
 without difficulty), which shows that Warwickshire 
 pronunciation is purely arbitrary: 
 
 WORD 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Acorn. 
 
 Accun. 
 
 Across. 
 
 Acrass. 
 
 Afraid. 
 
 Afeared. 
 
 Afternoon. 
 
 Atternoon. 
 
 Against. 
 
 Ago. 
 
 Almost. 
 
 Agyun. 
 
 Agoo. 
 
 Amwust. 
 
 Always. 
 Ankle. 
 Apple. 
 Ask. 
 
 Allwuz. 
 
 Ankley or Ankler. 
 
 Opple. 
 
 Ex. 
 
 Askew. 
 
 Skew. 
 
 Ashes. 
 
 Esses. 
 
 Asparagus. 
 Attacked. 
 
 Sparrow grass. 
 Attacted. 
 
 Awkward. 
 
 Accud. 
 
 Beans. 
 
 Beat. 
 
 Beadle. 
 
 Byuns. 
 
 Byut. 
 
 Battel. 
 
 Because. 
 
 Acuz. 
 
 Beg. 
 Belly. 
 
 Bag. 
 Bally. 
 
 Besom. 
 
 Bizzum. 
 
 Bleat. 
 
 Blat. 
 
 Board. 
 
 Bwurd. 
 
 Boat. 
 
 Bwut. 
 
 Bone. 
 
 Bwun. 
 
LIST OF VERl^ACULAR WORDS. 
 
 397 
 
 WORD 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Both. 
 
 Bwuth. 
 
 Bottle. 
 
 Bwuttle. 
 
 Breadth. 
 
 Breuth. 
 
 Brooding. 
 
 Bruddy. 
 
 Brook. 
 
 Bruck. 
 
 Busybody. 
 
 Bessy. 
 
 Cackle. 
 
 Chackle. 
 
 Causeway. 
 
 Causey. 
 
 Cart. 
 
 Kyart. 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Cavaltry. 
 
 Celery. 
 
 Soldery. 
 
 Certificate. 
 
 Stivvykate. 
 
 Chair. 
 
 Cheer. 
 
 Cheap. 
 
 Chup. 
 
 Cheat. 
 
 Chut. 
 
 Children. 
 
 Chuldrum. 
 
 China. 
 
 Chaney. 
 
 Choke. 
 
 Chalk. 
 
 Churn. 
 
 Churm. 
 
 Close. 
 
 Clauss. 
 
 Clot. 
 
 Clat. 
 
 Cold. 
 
 Caowd. 
 
 Come. 
 
 Coom. 
 
 Colt. 
 
 Caowt. 
 
 Corpse. 
 
 Carpts. 
 
 Corn. 
 
 Karn. 
 
 Cornice. 
 
 Cornish. 
 
 Cord. 
 
 Kwerd. 
 
 Courting. 
 
 Kwartin'. 
 
 Cream. 
 
 Crem. 
 
 Dance. 
 
 Darnse. 
 
 Darn. 
 
 Dern. 
 
398 
 
 LIST OF VERNACULAR WORDS. 
 
 WORD 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Deadly. 
 
 Dudley. 
 
 Deal. 
 
 DyuU. 
 
 Desperate. 
 
 Despert. 
 
 Dew. 
 
 Dag. 
 
 Digest. 
 
 Disgest. 
 
 Drop. 
 
 Drap. 
 
 Duke. 
 
 Jook. 
 
 Dusty. 
 
 Dowsley. 
 
 Early. 
 
 Yarley. 
 
 Easy. 
 
 Yuzzy. 
 
 Earnest. 
 
 Yarnest. 
 
 Earth. 
 
 Yuth. 
 
 Eat. 
 
 Yut. 
 
 Enough. 
 
 Anew. 
 
 Ever. 
 
 Err. 
 
 Extra. 
 
 Exter. 
 
 Fairies. 
 
 Pharisees. 
 
 Felloes (of a wheel). 
 
 Fallies. 
 
 Few. 
 
 Faou. 
 
 Farrow. 
 
 Farry. 
 
 Feature. 
 
 Faater. 
 
 Fault. 
 
 Fawt. 
 
 Fern. 
 
 Fearn. 
 
 Fetch. 
 
 Fatch. 
 
 Field. 
 
 Fald. 
 
 Filbert. 
 
 Fill-beard. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Fit. 
 
 Fetch. 
 
 Futch. 
 
 Fleas. 
 
 Flaes. 
 
 Flannel. 
 
 Flannin. 
 
 Floor. 
 
 Flur. 
 
 Fodder. 
 
 Fother. 
 
LIST OF VERNACULAR WORDS. 
 
 399 
 
 WORD 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Fought. 
 
 Fowt. 
 
 Further. 
 
 Furder. 
 
 First. 
 
 Fust. 
 
 Foot. 
 
 Fut. 
 
 Gulp. 
 
 Gallup. 
 
 Gash. 
 
 Gaish. 
 
 Gallon. 
 
 Gallund. 
 
 Glimpse. 
 
 Clinch. 
 
 Gold. 
 
 Goold. 
 
 Gleaning. 
 
 Lazin. 
 
 Grease. 
 
 Grace. 
 
 Graze. 
 
 Scrage. 
 
 Gone. 
 
 Gwun. 
 
 Gulp. 
 
 Gullup. 
 
 Game. 
 
 Gyum. 
 
 Handkerchief. 
 
 Ankitcher. 
 
 Hanker. 
 
 Onker. 
 
 Heifer. 
 
 Ayfer. 
 
 Hungry. 
 
 Ongry. 
 
 Heighth. 
 
 Eckth. 
 
 Hew. 
 
 Yaow. 
 
 Hair. 
 
 Yar. 
 
 Head. 
 
 Hud. 
 
 Heap. 
 
 Yup. 
 
 Hit. 
 
 Hot. 
 
 Horn. 
 
 Arn. 
 
 Horse. 
 
 Oss. 
 
 Is it? 
 
 Yunt it. 
 
 It. 
 
 Him. 
 
 Joist. 
 
 Jice. 
 
400 
 
 LIST OF VERNACULAR WORDS. 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Join. 
 Key. 
 
 Jine. 
 Kyoy. 
 
 Lodge. 
 Ladder. 
 
 Laidge. 
 Ladther. 
 
 Lard. 
 
 Laird. 
 
 Lash. 
 
 Laish. 
 
 Loiter. 
 Loin. 
 
 Layter. 
 Line. 
 
 Lane. ) 
 Lean. \ 
 
 Leyun. 
 
 Left. 
 
 Lafft. 
 
 Linnet. 
 
 Lennet. 
 
 Loins. 
 
 Lines. 
 
 Laugh. 
 Lukewarm. 
 
 Loff. 
 Lewwarm. 
 
 Meaning. 
 
 Mercy. 
 
 Mischief. 
 
 Myunin*. 
 
 Mossy. 
 
 Mishtiff. 
 
 Morsel. 
 
 Mossil. 
 
 Moult. 
 
 Mult. 
 
 Mire. 
 
 Mwire. 
 
 Noise. 
 
 Nase. 
 
 Not. 
 
 Nat. 
 
 Notch. 
 
 Nutch. 
 
 Nest. 
 
 Nist — plural, Nisses. 
 
 Orchard. 
 
 Archud. 
 
 Often. 
 
 Aften. 
 
 Oil. 
 Ordinary. 
 
 Ayl. 
 Arnery. 
 
LIST OF VERNACULAR WORDS. 
 
 401 
 
 WORD 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Opinionated. 
 
 Opiniated. 
 
 Peas. 
 
 Pase. 
 
 Peel. 
 
 Pill. 
 
 Pole. 
 
 Paowl. 
 
 Pith. 
 
 Peth. 
 
 Pebble. 
 
 Pibble. 
 
 Pot. 
 
 Pyut. 
 
 Pour. 
 
 Power. 
 
 Point. 
 
 Pwynt. 
 
 Prompt. 
 
 Promp. 
 
 Quiet. 
 
 Qwate. 
 
 Quench. 
 
 Squinch. 
 
 Rocket. 
 
 Racket. 
 
 Reason. 
 
 Raisin. 
 
 Reckon. 
 
 Ricken. 
 
 Restive. 
 
 Restey. 
 
 Rope. 
 
 Rop. 
 
 Rat. 
 
 Rot. 
 
 Rusty. 
 
 Rowsty. 
 
 Rubbish. 
 
 Rubbidge. 
 
 Roof. 
 
 Ruff. 
 
 Soft. 
 
 Saft. 
 
 Sigh. 
 
 Sithe. 
 
 Sash. 
 
 Saish. 
 
 Salad. 
 
 Sallit. 
 
 Scholar. 
 
 Scullud. 
 
 Scratch. 
 
 Scrat. 
 
 Sinews. 
 
 Senness. 
 
 Shafts. 
 
 Shaives. 
 
 Shop. 
 
 Shap. 
 
402 
 
 LIST OF VERNACULAR WORDS. 
 
 WORD 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Short. 
 
 Shart. 
 
 Sheep. 
 Shelf. 
 
 Ship. 
 Shilf. 
 
 Slate. 
 
 Slat. 
 
 Salad. 
 
 Sallet. 
 
 Split. 
 
 Spear. 
 
 Singe. 
 
 Suit (of clothes.) 
 
 Spault. 
 Spiry. 
 Swinge. 
 Shoot. 
 
 Sheaf. 
 
 Shuff. 
 
 Shell. 
 
 Shull. 
 
 Shame. 
 
 Shum. 
 
 Shepherd. 
 Sheath. 
 
 Shippud. 
 Shuth. 
 
 Show. 
 
 Shond. 
 
 Swoon — Swooned. 
 
 Swound — Swounded. * 
 
 Such. 
 
 Sitch. 
 
 Seed. 
 
 Sid. 
 
 Sleep. 
 Slab. 
 
 Slep. 
 Slob. 
 
 Sniff. 
 
 Snift. 
 
 Sneeze. 
 Spit. 
 Squeal. 
 Stand. 
 
 Sneedge. 
 Spet. 
 Squale. 
 Stond. 
 
 Stem. 
 
 Stom. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Stem. 
 
 * I swound to see thee, " Timon of Athens," IV. iii. 373. 
 
 What, did Caesar swound ? " Julius Caesar," I. ii. 253. 
 
 How does the Queen ? She swounds to see them bleed," Ham- 
 let," V. ii. 319. 
 
 All in gore blood. I swounded at the sight, " Romeo and 
 Juliet," HI. ii. 56. 
 
 He swounded and fell down at it, " Julius Caesar," I. ii. 249. 
 
LIST OF VERNACULAR WORDS. 
 
 403 
 
 WOJUD 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Stream. 
 
 Strem. 
 
 Strike. 
 
 Strik. 
 
 Straddle. 
 
 Stroddle. 
 
 Stone. 
 
 Stun. 
 
 Soot. 
 
 Sut. 
 
 Singe. 
 Sort. 
 
 Swinge. 
 Swurt. 
 
 Sparrow. 
 Squeeze. 
 Strap. 
 
 Spug. 
 
 Squoze. 
 
 Stirrup. 
 
 Talents. 
 
 Talons. 
 
 Thread. 
 
 Thrid. 
 
 Trust. 
 
 Trusten. 
 
 Thorn. 
 
 Thurn. 
 
 Turnips. 
 Trowel. 
 
 Turnits. 
 Trewell. 
 
 Vetches. 
 
 Patches. 
 
 Value. 
 Violets. 
 
 Valley. 
 Fillets. 
 
 Violets. 
 
 Firelights. 
 
 Verjuice. 
 Victuals. 
 
 Varges. 
 Fittles. 
 
 Vermin. 
 
 Varmant. 
 
 Waistcoat. 
 
 Wascut. 
 
 Wash. 
 
 Wash. 
 
 Week. 
 
 Wick. 
 
 With. 
 
 Ooth. 
 
 Will. 
 
 Ool. 
 
 Wooden. 
 
 Ooden. 
 
404 LIST OF VERNACULAR WORDS. 
 
 WORD 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Woiry. 
 
 Yours. 
 Yes. 
 
 Yesterday. 
 Yet. 
 
 Werry. 
 
 Yourn. 
 
 Yus, or Iss, or I— i! 
 
 Istady. 
 
 It. 
 
PART III. 
 
 HOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS ENG- 
 LISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 
 
 From the foregoing it seems reasonable to 
 conclude that Shakespeare, in his early years, 
 spoke and heard spoken the Warwickshire dialect. 
 What did he hear and speak in his first London 
 life? 
 
 Certainly a very varied speech, and a very varied 
 pronunciation. A multiplicity of dialects from the 
 interior shires, added to the commercial jargon of 
 Frenchman, Spaniard, Dutchman, Italian, and Slav 
 (for Shakespeare disguises his players as "Russians " 
 in "Love's Labor's Lost," and so must either himself 
 have met some of that nation, or believed that some 
 of his audiences had). All this must have produced 
 a rich and picturesque ensemble. Nor does it 
 appear that the learned clerks, whom the very 
 recent dissolution of the monasteries and religious 
 houses had thrown on their wits for livelihood and 
 who flocked to London {and from whom it has been 
 conjectured that much of the lore and learning in 
 the plays may have come), spoke a much purer 
 speech than the rustics. Worst of all, one hundred 
 times worse than to-day, was the mischievous H 
 transposition, which had even penetrated written 
 
4°6 NOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 speech to the jeopardizing of documentary evidence 
 and of official records. It is undoubtedly to the 
 omitting of the first and second H in Hathaway that 
 we owe the necessity of going on to the end of wise 
 discussions as to whether Shakespeare's wife was a 
 Hathaway or a Whateley! (It led, as we have seen, 
 to the transposition of that aspirate from the end 
 to the beginning of the name of the Norse hero, 
 Amleth, who thus became, as he will always remain, 
 Hamlet). And H, as clipped off the end of a word — 
 as in the name of the youngster Motk in "Love's 
 Labor's Lost," pronounced Mote, or even as elided 
 in the middle of a word, as nothing, pronounced 
 noting, and stranger than all, where it was intro- 
 duced into the middle of a word, as suitor, pro- 
 nounced shooter! — we have already considered! 
 
 How did Shakespeare himself speak? Did London 
 life remove the Warwickshire accent, as well as the 
 Warwickshire dialect, from his diction? Old Dr. 
 Johnson after forty-seven years of London resi- 
 dence, though he wrote poems, tragedies, speeches 
 for members of Parliament, essays, and everything 
 else, including dictionaries, to his last day pro- 
 nounced "(mnch—pddntch, and great — greet* as his 
 tongue brought these words from Litchfield. And 
 it were difficult to find a literary man in any age who 
 mixed more with life and action, from lowliest to 
 loftiest, than did Dr. Johnson. 
 
 * In Boswoith's " Life " I find it noted that Dr. Young recom- 
 mended that this pronunciation be given by the lexicographer in 
 the dictionary, but that Lord Chesterfield desired it to be given 
 (as it vfas given) as pronounced, grate. 
 
MhTGLlSH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 4o7 
 
 Mr. Richard Grant White, whose study of the 
 subject in his "Memorandums on English Pro- 
 nunciation in the Elizabethan Era " forms an 
 appendix to the concluding and twelfth volume 
 of his earliest edition of the plays and poems,* 
 remarks, " Some readers shrink from the con- 
 clusion to which the foregoing memorandums lead, 
 because of its strangeness: and, they will think, 
 the uncouthness of the pronunciation which 
 they will involve. They will imagine Hamlet 
 exclaiming: 
 
 ' ' A baste that wants discoorse hof rayson 
 Would 'aive moorn'd longer ! 
 O, me prophetic sowl, me hooncle ! 
 A broken vice and 'is 'ole foonction shooting 
 Wit forms to 'is consayt; hand hall for noting. f " 
 
 But, admitting all these, — which the following 
 tabulation tends to prove, — it seems to me marvelous 
 that there are so few — so very few — differences 
 between the Shakespearean pronunciation and our 
 own. 
 
 Let us go at once to the plays, which Shakespeare 
 framed in London, after his itratford-on-Avon-War- 
 wickshire dialect days were over, and when, as any 
 newcomer to London would, he kept his ears open 
 and attentive. In his thirty-four years of metro- 
 politan life, he touched elbows with all its varied 
 and panoramic life — with men of his own craft, men 
 
 * Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1861. 
 
 \ " The H was probably more often dropped than at present," 
 says Mr. White, and this is all he says as to the letter H. 
 
4o8 HOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 of the taverns, the theaters, the lawyers, physicians; 
 with the "learned clerks " above mentioned from 
 the dismantled monasteries, merchants, costers; 
 with courtiers and, as is claimed, with the court and 
 royalty itself! As these are all in the plays, Shakes- 
 peare must have seen them all; and as they spoke 
 in life, just so they speak in the plays; and, in some 
 form at least, we hear this very speech, formal or 
 familiar, stilted or convivial. And as it happens, 
 these plays are loaded, loaded even to tediousness, 
 with puns. On every occasion, from the most 
 trivial to the most solemn, every character, from 
 the oafs and the peasant in the greenwood to 
 old Gaunt on his deathbed, is constantly employ- 
 ing puns.* 
 
 In the following table I have endeavored to 
 include only such puns as touch upon the Shakes- 
 pearean pronunciation of vowels, aspirates, or 
 vowel sounds, or consonants, which differ from 
 our present pronunciation. Puns which preserve 
 customs, or add to our information as to the charac- 
 ters or to our knowledge of the comparative chro- 
 nology, or are brilliant in repartee, are valuable for 
 those purposes and should be catalogued by all 
 means. (And I hope somebody will yet find leisure 
 to catalogue them. It would be, in my opinion, a 
 
 *Mr. Ellis thinks, however, that there are no puns in " Antony 
 and Cleopatra." The most familiar thing in the plays is given 
 no name in them. The pun, so exuberantly used, often to 
 tediousness, is never called a pun. There are "quips,'' 
 "snatches," "double meanings," "equivocations," "crochets," 
 "jests," "conceits," "quillets," but no puns, so named in the 
 text. 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 4^9 
 
 much more beneficial method of studying the plays 
 than the methods now so frequently recommended 
 to Shakespeare classes and clubs.) Neither have I 
 included puns which are founded on our present 
 idem sonans (and these are, after all, by far the 
 largest in number and so as perfect to our ears as if 
 made to-day), such as /, eye, aye; ear, e'er; too, to 
 two; done, dun; sun, son; so, sew; soul, sole; ne'er, 
 near; pray, prey; main, maine; waist, waste; tale, 
 tail; all, awl; bass (in music), base; you, U, ewe 
 (which excuses us from cataloguing the tedious 
 pun in ten lines, "Love's Labor's Lost," V. i. 41-51); 
 knight, night; presents, presence; dear, deer; guilt, 
 gilt; council, counsel; tide, tied; fowl, foul; dam, 
 damn; medlar, meddler; capital, capital; heart, hart; 
 upon all of which, as upon hundreds of others, the 
 plays are incessantly punning. Nor yet have I 
 included those made upon mispronunciation of 
 foreign proper names, such as Seville, civil; Pucelle 
 (the maid of Orleans), pronounced in so many ways 
 by Henry the. Sixth's soldiers that Talbot exclaims 
 " Puzzel or Pussel, Dolphin (Dauphin') or Dog- 
 fish. Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horses' 
 heels! " and the like, which are very numerous. 
 Where, however, the pun on the mispronunciation 
 describes itself, as where the foreigner pronounces 
 well, veel, and Katherine says, " veal, quoth the 
 Dutchman, is not veal a calf?" it is a useful testi- 
 mony at least, as to the pronunciation of veal being 
 the same in Shakespeare's day as in ours. Such puns 
 as these are, of course, useful. Mr. Alexander J. Ellis 
 (whose monumental work, in four stout volumes, on 
 early English pronunciation, with special reference to 
 
4IO HOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 Shakespeare and Chaucer, published in 187 1 by the 
 Early English Text Society, cannot be overlooked by 
 any student of the subject) says he does not think we 
 learn much from Shakespeare's puns. This is of 
 course said from his standpoint of years of pro- 
 found study of thousands of authorities. But for 
 the casual reader, who desires a passing familiarity 
 with the matter, the puns, in my opinion, are very 
 helpful indeed. Of course there are othermethods of 
 determining the Shakespearean pronunciation from 
 the internal evidence of the plays, such as the 
 rhymes, the rhythms, and the stress, but these are 
 exhaustively treated in the works of Ellis and 
 Guest, and nothing can be added to these two 
 authorities. Of the Elizabethan license in rhymes, 
 too, Shakespeare took most liberal advantage 
 everywhere. 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 411 
 
 WORD. 
 
 Art. 
 
 Ass. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Heart. 
 
 Bairns. 
 
 Ace. 
 
 Barns. 
 
 I read that I profess the 
 art to love. And may 
 you prove, sir, master of 
 your art. When you, 
 sweet dear, prove mis- 
 tress of my heart. — 
 " Taming of the Shrew," 
 IV. ii. 8. 
 
 The antithesis being, of 
 course, master of my art 
 with mistress of my 'art. 
 
 Now die, die, die, die, die. 
 No die but an ace. Less 
 than an ace, man ; for he 
 is dead — he is nothing. 
 With the help of a sur- 
 geon he might recover 
 and prove an ace.— 
 " Midsummer Night's 
 Dream," V. i. 310. 
 
 Then if your husband have 
 stables enough, you'll see 
 he shall lack no bairns. 
 — " Much Ado about 
 Nothing," III. iv. 21. 
 
 (However, this may be 
 cloudy — as the first folio 
 has barnes and the sec- 
 ond bearnes, which leaves 
 us in doubt whether it be 
 the proper orthography 
 or only a typographical 
 
412 
 
 HOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 Beat. 
 
 Choler. 
 
 Cinque. 
 
 Consort. 
 
 Court. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Bait. 
 
 Collar. 
 
 Sink. 
 
 Concert. 
 
 Cart. 
 
 error — and if so, which 
 is typographical error, 
 and which correct?) 
 
 A callant of boundless 
 tongue, who late hath 
 beat her husband and 
 now bates me. — "Win- 
 ter's Tale," I. ii. 32. 
 
 An we be in choler we'll 
 draw. Ay, while you 
 live draw your neck out 
 of the collar. — "Romeo 
 and Juliet," I. i. 4. 
 
 Falls into the cinque pace 
 faster and faster until he 
 sinks into his grave. — 
 " Much Ado about Noth- 
 ing," II. i. 82. 
 
 Mercutio, thou consort'st 
 with Romeo. Consort? 
 What, doth thou make 
 us minstrels? — "Romeo 
 and Juliet," III. i. 
 49. 
 
 Leave shall you have to 
 court her at your pleas- 
 ure, to cart her rather. — 
 "Taming of the Shrew," 
 I- i- 55- 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 413 
 
 Dolour. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Dollar. 
 
 Doubt. 
 
 Enfran- 
 chise. 
 
 Fair. 
 
 Debt (det). 
 
 One 
 Francis. 
 
 Fear. 
 
 Comes to the entertainer — 
 a dollar. Dolour comes 
 to him indeed. — "Tem- 
 pest," II. i. 19. 
 
 Three thousand dolours a 
 year! Aye and more. — 
 " Measure for Measure," 
 I. ii. so. 
 
 Thou shalt have as many 
 dolours for thy daughters 
 as thou canst tell in a 
 year. — " King Lear," II. 
 iv. 54. 
 
 As to speak doubt fine. 
 When he should pro- 
 nounce debt d-e-bt, not 
 d-e-t. — " Love's Labor's 
 Lost," V. i. 27. 
 
 Not a pun, but direct evi- 
 dence. 
 
 Enfranchise thee. O marry 
 me to one Frances. — 
 "Love's Labor's Lost," 
 IIL i. 121. 
 
 (Perhaps not a pun from 
 which much can be 
 learned — the dialogue 
 being between Armado, 
 a foreigner, and Costard, 
 a clown.) 
 
 Having no fair to lose. 
 
414 
 
 HOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Full. 
 
 Goths. 
 
 Fool. 
 
 Goats. 
 
 you need not fear. — 
 "Venus and Adonis," 
 1083. 
 
 The equivalent in War- 
 wickshire dialect to this 
 would be " Having no 
 wench to miss, don't 
 pheeze yourself " (or, 
 perhaps. Don't mum- 
 mocks yourself). If the 
 sentence, however, should 
 be spoken in Warwick- 
 shire speech, it would be 
 pronounced, " Having no 
 feere to lose, you need 
 not faire. " So this would 
 appear to be valuable as 
 suggesting a non-War- 
 wickshire authorship of 
 the poem, since the pun 
 would have been impossi- 
 ble both derivatively 
 and phonetically in that 
 dialect. 
 
 Why, thou full dish of fool, 
 from Troy!— "Troilus 
 and Cressida," V. i. 10. 
 
 I am a fool, and full of 
 poverty. — "Love's La- 
 bor's Lost," V. ii. 380. 
 
 I am here with thee and 
 thy goats, as the most 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 4IS 
 
 WORD. 
 
 Gravity. 
 
 Holiday. 
 
 Hair 
 Heir 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Grave-ity. 
 
 Holy day. 
 
 Here (that 
 is, 'Ere). 
 
 PUN. 
 
 capricious poet, Ovid, 
 was among the Goths! — 
 "As You Like It," III. 
 iii. 7 (see Mote, post^. 
 
 There is not a white hair 
 on your head but should 
 have its effect of gravity. 
 (Falstaff loq.) Gravy, 
 gravy, gravy. — " 2 Hen- 
 ry IV.," I. ii. 183. 
 
 Shall never see it but a 
 holiday. — A wicked day, 
 and not a holy-day. — 
 "King John," III. i. 82. 
 
 Where France? In her 
 forehead armed and re- 
 verted, making war a- 
 gainst her heir. — "Com- 
 edy of Errors," III. ii. 
 127. 
 
 The pun is on the word 
 hair, Dromio is describ- 
 ing a downward growth 
 of hair on his mistress's 
 forehead. He has made 
 his description tally with 
 a map of the world. The 
 allusion is to the civil 
 war raging in France, 
 originating about the 
 
4i6 
 
 HOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Him. 
 
 Jupiter. 
 
 Hem. 
 
 Gibbet-er. 
 
 year 1584-89, when 
 France was fighting over 
 the sucessorship of 
 Henry IV. He touches 
 his own forehead as if to 
 say "Here." (See In- 
 troduction to the Bank- 
 side Supplement Shakes- 
 peare, vol. xxii. p. vii.) 
 Probably a variety of the 
 second H displacement 
 elsewhere noted. 
 
 Well, you have heard, but 
 something hard of hear- 
 ing. — "Taming of the 
 Shrew," II. i. 184. 
 
 We have the same pronun- 
 ciation left now in the 
 words "heart, hearken, 
 searge, clerk (dark), ser- 
 geant (sargent), bread, 
 sheard." Beard was 
 probably also pro- 
 nounced bard in Shakes- 
 peare's time. 
 
 Celia. Hem them away. 
 
 Ros. I would try if I 
 could cry hem and have 
 him.—" As You Like It," 
 I. iii. 19. 
 
 Shall I have justice — what 
 says Jupiter — O the gib- 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 41? 
 
 WORD. 
 
 Laced. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Lief. 
 
 Lover. 
 
 Luce. 
 
 Lost. 
 
 Live. 
 
 Lubber. 
 
 Louse. 
 
 PUN. 
 
 bet-maker! — " Titus An- 
 dronicus," IV. iii. 79. 
 (At least this passage is 
 hard to understand, from 
 its context, except as a 
 pun. ) 
 
 I, a lost mutton, gave your 
 letter to her, a laced 
 mutton; and she, a laced 
 mutton, gave me, a lost 
 mutton, nothing for my 
 pains. — "Two Gentle- 
 men of Verona," I. i. 
 
 I02. 
 
 I had as lief not be as 
 live to be in awe of such 
 a thing as myself. — " Ju- 
 lius Csesar," I. ii. 95. 
 
 My master is become a 
 notable lover? I never 
 knew him otherwise. 
 Than how? A notable 
 lubber.— "Two Gentle- 
 men of Verona," IL v. 
 47- 
 
 May give the dozen white 
 luces in their coat. It is 
 an old coat. The dozen 
 white louses do become 
 an old coat well. It 
 
4i8 
 
 ffOlV SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 Mary. 
 
 Married. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Marry (pro- 
 nounced 
 Mahry). 
 
 Marred. 
 (Mard). 
 
 agrees well, passant. It 
 is a familiar beast to 
 man. — " Merry Wives of 
 Windsor," I. i. i6. 
 (But otherwise, perhaps, 
 if Shakespeare was only 
 lampooning his old en- 
 emy, the Sir Thomas 
 Lucy, of his youth, of 
 whom he is alleged to 
 have written the bal- 
 lad: 
 "If Lucy be Lowsie, as 
 
 some volk miscall it, 
 Then sing Lowsie Lucy 
 
 whatever befall it.") 
 
 The constant ejaculation 
 spelled "marry" is, of 
 course, a sort of oath, 
 using the name of the 
 Virgin, but the pro- 
 nunciation is shown in 
 the puns: 
 
 A young man married 
 is a man that's marred. 
 —"All's Well that Ends 
 Well," IL iii. 315. 
 May I quarter, coz? 
 You may, by marring. It 
 is marrying, indeed, if 
 he quarter it. — "Merry 
 Wives of Windsor," I. i. 
 24. 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 419 
 
 Moor. 
 
 Moth. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 More. 
 
 Mote. 
 
 Muddy. 
 
 Moody. 
 
 What mar you then? 
 Marry, sir. I am help- 
 ing to mar that which 
 God made. — "As You 
 Like It," II. iii. 109. 
 
 It is much that the Moor 
 should be more than 
 reason. — " Merchant of 
 Venice," III. v. 44. 
 
 You found his moth, the 
 King your moth did see. 
 — "Love's Labor's Lost," 
 IV. iii. 161. (This ex- 
 plains Arthur's speech. 
 —"King John," IV. i.). 
 O heaven were there but 
 a moth in yours (in the 
 First Folio). So in Wyc- 
 clif's Bible (Matthew 
 vi: "Were rust and 
 mouthe destroyeth." A 
 mothe or motte that 
 eateth clothes (Withal's 
 "Short Dictionary for 
 Young Beginners," 1568). 
 They are in the air like 
 atomi in sole, mothes in 
 clothes (Lodge's "Wit's 
 Miserie "). 
 
 I am now, sir, muddied in 
 
420 
 
 HOiV SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 WORD. 
 
 Nay, 
 neigh, 
 neighbor. 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Knee, 
 nebour. 
 
 Note-ing. 
 
 Fortune's mood. — "All's 
 Well that Ends Well," 
 I. ii. 4. 
 (Or possibly these should 
 be reversed, and moody 
 pronounced muddy. Mr. 
 A. J. Ellis and Mr. R. 
 Grant White appear to 
 differ here sometimes. 
 But if punch was pro- 
 nounced poontch down to 
 Dr. Johnson's date, the 
 above appears to stand 
 as it should.) 
 
 Neighbour vacatur nebour, 
 neigh abbreviated ne. — 
 "Love's Labor's Lost," 
 V. i. 26. 
 
 Note this before my notes. 
 Why, these are very cro- 
 chets that he speaks. 
 Notes, notes, forsooth, 
 and nothing. — "Much 
 Ado about Nothing," II. 
 iii. 60. 
 
 Mr. White thinks that per- 
 haps the title of this 
 play is itself a pun — 
 " Much Ado about Noth- 
 ing " — and remarks, in 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 421 
 
 WORD. 
 
 Parson, 
 Person, 
 Purse. 
 
 Raisin. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Pierce-on, 
 Pierce. 
 
 Reason 
 (reezin). 
 
 favor of this idea, that 
 the business of the play 
 is mostly eavesdropping 
 or noting. 
 
 No pun occurs in the plays 
 to indicate this pronun- 
 ciation exactly, but we 
 infer it from the word- 
 play, "Love's Labor's 
 Lost," IV. i. 85: "God 
 give you good morrow, 
 master Parson. — Master 
 Parson, quasi person. 
 And if one should be 
 pierced, which is the 
 one?" The e is used in 
 the First Folio always 
 for a in the word then — 
 meaning than. (I have 
 thought, perhaps, be- 
 cause the compositors of 
 that date in London were 
 Germans.) But here the 
 e is not used for a. The 
 proper name Pierce is 
 pronounced almost in- 
 variably Purse in the 
 New England States of 
 America. 
 
 If reasons were as plenty 
 as blackberries, I would 
 give no man a reason on 
 
422 
 
 HOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 Rome. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Room. 
 
 compulsion. — "i Henry 
 IV.," II. ii. 264. 
 
 O lawful let it be 
 
 That I have room with 
 Rome to curse awhile. 
 —"King John," III. i. 
 180. 
 Now it is Rome indeed and 
 room enough. — "Julius 
 Csesar," I. ii. 155. 
 So fares it with this faultful 
 lord of Rome, 
 For now against him- 
 self he sounds this 
 doom. 
 — "Rape of Lucrece," 
 line 715. 
 And never be forgot in 
 mighty Rome 
 The adulterate death of 
 Lucrece and her 
 groom. 
 
 — Id., line 1645. 
 (So confident are scholars 
 of this pronunciation that 
 Dyce says that one of 
 the proofs that Shakes- 
 peare did not write the 
 Third Part of "King 
 Henry VI." is that its au- 
 thor pronounced Rome, 
 Rome: that is, as we do 
 now.) 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 423 
 
 Salad. 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Sallet. 
 
 Ship. 
 
 Bishop of Winchester. Rome 
 shall remedy this. 
 Warwick. Roam thither, 
 
 then. 
 — "I Henry VI.," III. 
 i. 52. 
 (And see ante. Fair, in this 
 table. ) 
 
 Many a time, but for a 
 sallet, my brain-pan had 
 been cleft with a brown 
 bill . . . and now the 
 word "sallet" must 
 serve me to feed on. — 
 "2 Henry VI.," IV. x. 
 12. 
 
 (Cade's pun is in his own 
 mispronunciation of sal- 
 ad, to resemble the word 
 sallet — a headpiece of 
 armor.) 
 
 Two hot sheeps marry 
 And wherefore not ships. 
 No sheep, sweet lamb, 
 unless we feed on your 
 lips. 
 — "Love's Labor's Lost," 
 II. i. 220. 
 (A Somersetshire farmer 
 once asked me if I had 
 seen some sheep at the 
 
424 
 
 HOiV SHAKESPkARE HEARD HJS 
 
 Stoic. 
 
 Suit. 
 Suitor. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Stock. 
 
 Shoot. 
 Shooter. 
 
 fair, but I understood 
 him to speak of a ship 
 on fire. — Ellis.) 
 
 Let's be no stoicks nor no 
 stocks, I pray. — " Tam- 
 ing of the Shrew, " I. i. 3 1. 
 
 (See note following.) 
 
 This pronunciation, which 
 provokes the word-play 
 and equivoque in 
 " Love's Labor's Lost," 
 IV. i. 117, et seq., was 
 very old English speech, 
 as this play, written 
 prior to 1598, abundant- 
 ly proves. Mr. Aldis 
 Wright suggests that the 
 compositors might have 
 had that pronunciation, 
 and so, in the Quarto i of 
 " Lear," set up the word 
 three-suited, three shew- 
 ted, except in Quarto 2, 
 where it is spelled three- 
 snyted, evidently mis- 
 printed for three-suyted. 
 But Mr. A. A. Adee, 
 who finds that the ' ' Lear" 
 compositors were from 
 Germany, would not a- 
 gree to this. — The Bank- 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 4^5 
 
 WORD. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 side Shakespeare, vol. x., 
 Introduction. Perhaps 
 this is the reason that in 
 the First Folio we have 
 constantly whan for 
 when, than for then, then 
 for than, which do not 
 indicate pronunciation at 
 all. More likely the 
 writer wrote shewted 
 when he meant to write 
 sewted, which, with the 
 optional orthography of 
 the date, would have 
 been a proper spelling of 
 suited. In the " Chroni- 
 cle History of Henry V." 
 (see Bankside Shakes- 
 peare, where that old 
 play is reprinted verb. lit. 
 et punct.), sute is printed 
 shout. However, we have 
 ample evidence that 
 suitor was pronounced 
 shooter, and that all 
 sorts of equivoque, coarse 
 and otherwise, were made 
 on that circumstance, 
 e. g., " There was a lady 
 in Spaine, who after the 
 decease of her father 
 had three sutors; and 
 yet neere a good Archer. " 
 — Lily's " Euphues and 
 
426 
 
 HOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 Title. 
 
 Withe. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 Tittle. 
 
 With. 
 
 His England," 1580, Ar- 
 ber Reprint, p. 293. The 
 pronunciation of the 
 word picture as pickter, 
 was occasion for many 
 puns of the day, as pict- 
 ure=picked-her, etc. 
 Mr. Ellis mentions an 
 old black-letter treatise 
 on pronunciation, in 
 which the pronouncing 
 of «'.as ash: as fashio 
 for facto, is reprobated. 
 
 What shall thou exchange 
 for rags? Robes. For 
 titles, tittles. — "Love's 
 Labor's Lost," IV. i. 86. 
 
 (Doubtful, as this may be 
 merely alliteration.) 
 
 O well knit Samson, strong 
 jointed Samson. . . 
 Who was Samson's love, 
 
 my dear Moth? 
 A woman, master. 
 
 Green indeed is the color 
 of love, but to have a 
 love of that color, me- 
 thinks Sampson had 
 small reason for it. . . 
 He surely affected her 
 for her wit. 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 42? 
 
 WORD. 
 
 PRONUNCIA- 
 TION. 
 
 PUN. 
 
 Wode. 
 
 Wood. 
 
 It was so, sir, for she 
 had a green wit. — 
 "Love's Labor's Lost," 
 
 I. ii. 88. 
 
 The allusion is said to be 
 to the green withe with 
 which Delilah bound 
 Samson. (Though there 
 is no mention of green 
 withes in Judges xvi., 
 probably some certain 
 version of the Scrip- 
 ture story is referred 
 to.) See supra, where it 
 is noted that moth was 
 pronounced mote. See 
 also the word noting 
 in this table. 
 
 And here am I, and wode 
 within this wood. — "Mid- 
 summer Night's Dream," 
 
 II. i. 192. 
 
428 HOiV SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 But the most curious testimony we liave to the 
 peculiarities (to us) of the London pronunciation of 
 Shakespeare's time is in the first scene of the fifth 
 act of the " Love's Labor's Lost." 
 
 My own explanation of that curious scene is as 
 follows: 
 
 It seems to have been established that Shakes- 
 peare's first literary work in London was in con- 
 nection with the various companies of players 
 (which, in order to evade the well-known law that 
 made strolling players, "like tinkers, rogues by 
 statute " took the name of some nobleman in favor 
 at court), and was in remodeling old "Histories." 
 Meanwhile, on his own account, the young man 
 had tried his hand at an original play. This play 
 was the " Love's Labor's Lost." This play appears 
 to have been read to the company, and the company 
 determined to play it. Moreover, it seems to have 
 been so highly esteemed by them that, when — as it 
 was the custom of the court to hear a play per- 
 formed at holiday time by one or another favored 
 company of players — they were summoned to pre- 
 pare a piece to act before the Queen at the 
 Christmas festivities of 1598, they sent the manu- 
 script of this play to the Lord Chamberlain, as the 
 one which, if the Lord Chamberlain approved, 
 they thought would be acceptable to her Majesty. 
 
 It was, of course, imperative to submit the pro- 
 posed play to the Lord Chamberlain for his exami- 
 nation lest there should be (as the King asks 
 Hamlet, before he allows the Interlude in that 
 play to be begun) "any offense in it." It seems 
 that the Lord Chamberlain found none, and the 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 429 
 
 manuscript of the play was returned and the com- 
 pany (I suppose it was "Lord Strange's Company ") 
 was ordered to prepare to perform it. We know 
 that it was customary that the play so selected 
 should be revised especially for this royal repre- 
 sentation, nor was it unusual for the Lord Cham- 
 berlain in returning the MS. to make suggestions, 
 which of course would have the weight of royal 
 commands, which would require such a revision. 
 In any event, the author would zealously revise 
 his MS. for the great event. This is how it hap- 
 pens that the play, which was the first of Shakes- 
 peare's plays ever printed, or at least the first one 
 which ever bore his name on its title-page, was 
 announced on its title-page as, " A pleasant conceited 
 comedie called Love's Labor's Lost. As it was 
 presented before Her Highness this last Christvias. 
 Newly corrected and augme^ited by W. Shakespere. 
 {Imprinted at London by W. W. for Cuthbert Burby, 
 
 159SV 
 
 The play, perhaps, did not include this first scene 
 of the fifth act. At any rate, if it were not sug- 
 gested by the fact of its selection, it would have 
 been very appropriate. For the scheme of the 
 titled lords and ladies, with a king and a princess at 
 their head, after flirting themselves out in pastoral, 
 proposing that the clowns and villagers, with the 
 parish priest and schoolmaster at their head, get up 
 a play for their amusement, which by the villagers 
 was to be taken seriously, but to the courtly audi- 
 ence was to afford full opportunity for gibe and ridi- 
 cule, was apropos of the occasion of the royal 
 summons. And I think that Shakespeare, who had 
 
43° BOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 kept his ears and eyes wide open in London, liad 
 determined to introduce an innovation, viz. : a 
 pleasant hit or two at the conceits of better men 
 than he represented Holofernes, Dull, and Sir 
 Nathaniel, and Armado and the rest, to be. 
 
 Accordingly, he kieeps the more important and 
 imposing of the villagers at airing the scraps of 
 learning they had picked up. They quiz each other 
 on pronunciations; Holofernes says that Armado 
 speaks : 
 
 " Dout, fine, when he should say doubt; det when 
 he should pronounce debt, d-e-b-t not d-e-t ; he 
 clepeth a calf, caulfj neighbour vocatur nebour; 
 neigh abbreviateth ne. This is abhominable which 
 he would call abbominable " 
 
 And so on plentifully. 
 
 Much of the pedantry and punning in this 
 scene loses its force by sheer exuberance; and by 
 becoming tedious is overlooked by those of us who 
 are interested in Shakespearean speech. Little 
 Mote (spelled Moth) is especially a nuisance as he 
 breaks in here to air his knowledge of the mean- 
 ing of the words cuckold (with the old joke about 
 the horns lugged in), and wittold, which means not 
 only a cuckold, but a cuckold who is a mari com- 
 plaisant — the bitterest insult, it would seem, which 
 one man in Elizabethan days could fling at 
 another. A child of Moth's age ought to know 
 nothing of these things, and he does not seem to be 
 justified in the allusion, either. For, if there is a 
 cuckold in the play, it is Costard, not Armado, 
 whom Moth is at that moment guying with the 
 word. However, let us see if we can extract some 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 431 
 
 meaning from the passage between Holofernes, 
 Armado, and Moth. 
 
 While Holofernes, the schoolmaster, and "Sir" 
 Nathaniel, the village priest (these village priests 
 were called Sir by courtesy, a poor and despised 
 lot, a sort of chartered beggars), are flinging 
 scraps of Latin at each other, enter Armado, 
 Moth, and Costard. They overhear the solemnly 
 ridiculous dialogue, and Moth remarks, sotto 
 voce, to Costard, whom he loves (as he knows 
 that both are rivals for the attentions of Jaque- 
 netta) to set up against Armado, — making him 
 guy the Spaniard unconsciously, and enjoying the 
 fun, — "They have been at a great feast of lan- 
 guages and have stolen the scraps." And then 
 Costard says to Moth, "I wonder thy master 
 hath not eaten thee for a word," and then, to 
 air his own scraps, he repeats the long Latin 
 word (since Rabelais a familiar schoolboy catch), 
 honorificabilitudinitatibus. There is something 
 appropriate and not far-fetched in Costard's intro- 
 ducing this long word. As who would say, "You 
 are such Priscians in pronunciation — pronounce 
 this!" 
 
 But Armado stalks up, and Moth catches Costard 
 by the sleeve and whispers, "Peace! the peal be- 
 gins," that is, "Keep quiet and let us see the fun." 
 
 " Monsieur, are you not lettered? " says Armado 
 to Holofernes; but, before Holofernes can find 
 a reply, Moth, himself, who has just told Costard 
 to be quiet, breaks in himself with, " Yes, he [Holo- 
 fernes] teaches boys the hornbook." Now the 
 hornbook (that is, a piece of horn in a rude frame 
 
432 HOW SHAKESPEARE HEARD HIS 
 
 with a handle on which was written the alphabet in 
 capitals, the alphabet again in small letters, the 
 nine digits and a few hyphenated words) was always 
 used in village schools. And the word horn (sug- 
 gesting the relations as to Jaquenetta, which 
 Armado and Costard had unknowingly to each 
 other, but which Moth had guessed, assumed) gives 
 Moth his opportunity to air his unsavory adult 
 knowledge of the covert meaning of the word 
 "horns." All have forgotten, if they had ever no- 
 ticed. Costard's attempt at joining in the pedantry 
 by pronouncing the long Latin word. Moth now 
 begins to cross-question the schoolmaster. " What 
 is b-a spelt backwards?" "It is ba," says Holo- 
 fernes, and this, to the quick-witted Moth, sug- 
 gests a sheep. Moth then tries him on the five 
 vowels, but he cannot do this without the inevi- 
 table pun. He adds : the third of the five vowels 
 (which is I) is I, the speaker, the personal pro- 
 noun, when he, Moth, the speaker, speaks of himself, 
 but if you (Holofernes) are alluded to, it is U, and 
 therefore not the third vowel, but the fifth. And 
 so on laboriously, ad nauseam. The next pun is 
 so circumferent and involved, even for those days, 
 that it is tiresome to trace it. But it must be, I 
 suppose, disposed of. 
 
 When Holofernes stated that the first two letters 
 of the hornbook, a-b, spelt ba backwards, ba sug- 
 gested to Moth the animal which utters that sound, 
 viz., a sheep — only the male sheep has horns. But 
 this was excuse enough for Moth to work in his 
 joke again about a cuckold and horns on Costard 
 or Armado, or both, and in it goes. The rest of 
 
ENGLISH PRONOUNCED IN LONDON. 433 
 
 the pun is on the third vowel U, that \s you or — in 
 allusion to the sheep again — ewe. 
 
 The examination has been tiresome. But as 
 divers occult readings of this encounter between 
 Moth and the schoolmaster have been labored out, 
 it may as well be simply disposed of. Tiresome as 
 it has been, the above appears to be the simplest 
 explanation possible, and the rules of evidence 
 require that the simplest explanations shall be 
 exhausted first. 
 
PART TV. 
 
 SOME INFLUENCES WHICH MAY HAVE 
 HELPED TO SHAPE THE SHAKESPEARE 
 VOCABULARY. 
 
 The Shakespeare Poems have never been sub- 
 jected to that rigid external criticism which the Plays 
 have undergone. Nor can it hardly be claimed that 
 any comparative internal evidence afforded by them- 
 selves is final as to their identical authorship. For 
 while the "Venus and Adonis" is written in 
 stanzas consisting of alternately rhyming quatrains 
 followed by a couplet: the "Lucrece" and "A 
 Lover's Complaint " are in stanzas of seven lines — 
 a quatrain as before, then one line rhyming to the 
 fourth line thereof being inserted before the 
 couplet. "The Passionate Pilgrim" again, is a 
 heterogeneous collection of irregular and regular 
 verses, two of which were by Thomas Heywood — 
 one at least by Christopher Marlowe, and the rest 
 mainly by Richard Barnefield (though no editor 
 seems to have the courage to remove any of these 
 verses from our Shakespeares). The " Phoenix and 
 the Turtle" and the "Threnos" are again, respec- 
 tively, in stanzas unlike each other or any of the 
 above-named pieces. The Sonnets (which Steevens 
 said nothing but an act of Parliament would bring 
 anybody to read, but which Armitage Brown, in 
 
 435 
 
436 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 1836, appears to have read nevertheless) are again 
 of a prosody by themselves. But no one of these 
 seems either structurally or substantively to suggest 
 any other of them; or, still less, to suggest an 
 identity of authorship with the dainty and incom- 
 parable Songs scattered throughout the Plays. 
 Thrown back upon title-pages and dedications we 
 are, if possible, still more at sea! 
 
 As few things, probably, are less reliable as evi- 
 dence than the Elizabethan title-pages, the fact that 
 the "Venus and Adonis" bore no name of an 
 author upon its title-page is doubtless immaterial. 
 As to the dedication of that poem to Southampton; 
 almost everybody, in those days, dedicated things 
 to Southampton. The chapter of the history or 
 Letters which treats of the Patron in Literature is 
 the chapter which, most of all, Letters should care 
 to blot. And never was literarian more abject, or 
 patron more greedy of adulation, than in the early 
 days of Shakespeare's London. As Sir Philip Sid- 
 ney (who possessed that life-saving quality, a sense 
 of humor) said : as soon as a rich man showed an 
 interest in poetry or in the producer of poetry, the 
 poets declared him " to be most fair, most rich, 
 most wise, most all. You shall dwell on superla- 
 tives and your soul shall be placed with Dante's," 
 etc. And, as Southampton made a point of posing 
 as the Maecenas of Elizabeth's Court, and sought 
 out poets, instead of waiting for them to seek him, 
 he secured the lion's share of the sycophancy, and 
 most of the dedications, to himself. Nash, Chap- 
 man, Florio, Barnabie Barnes, Gervaise Markham, 
 Samuel Daniel, John Davies, Matthew Roydon, zxA 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 437 
 
 plenty of even lesser-known men, crooked to him 
 the pregnant hinges of the knees and some thrift 
 doubtless waited upon their fawning. If Shakes- 
 peare followed the mob and dedicated to his lordship 
 the Poems and the Sonnets, in sycophancy to a 
 youth ten years his junior, he of course surpassed 
 thenl all in that line as well as in any other. 
 
 It may well have been that Shakespeare, a new- 
 comer in London, condescended to this only at the 
 threshold; when he felt, like the rest, that he 
 needed patronage. If so, one of our difficulties is 
 removed, for it was only his lesser work that he so 
 degraded. He might, when he was dinnerless,say— 
 if he, indeed, wrote the Sonnets — that Southamp- 
 ton's eyes had taught the dumb on high to sing 
 
 And heavy ignoraftce aloft to fly, 
 
 Had added feathers to the learned's wing 
 
 And given grace a double majesty,* 
 
 fust as Barnabie Barnes declared that they were 
 "the heavenly lamps that gave the masses light," 
 or Gervaise Markham, who rhymes that Southamp- 
 ton's " eyes," " crown the most victorious pen," or 
 all the rest of that crowd of sycophants. But if 
 he did, he at least preserved his sense of the ab- 
 surdity in another sonnet in which — like Sidney-— 
 he laughed at the whole flatulent and ridiculous 
 business. In Sonnet CXXX. (if he wrote it) Shakes- 
 peare says plainly. 
 
 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun ; 
 Coral is far more red than her lips' red : 
 If snow be white, virhy then her breasts are dun ; 
 If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. 
 
 * Sonnet LXXVIII. 
 
438 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, 
 
 But no such roses see I in her cheeks ; 
 
 And in some perfumes is there more delight 
 
 Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. 
 
 I love to hear her speak, — yet well I know 
 
 That music hath a far more pleasing sound ; 
 
 I grant I never saw a goddess go. 
 
 My mistress when she walks, treads on the ground j 
 
 And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare 
 
 As any she belied with false compare. 
 
 Whether this sonnet is Shakespeare's or no, cer- 
 tainly in days when he dined, and wrote plays, he 
 dedicated his plays to no patron or no patron's eyes. 
 The only dedication they ever bore was written by 
 two of Shakespeare's fellows after his death, and 
 then not to Southampton, but to Lord Pembroke * to 
 whom — being at the time Lord Chamberlain, the 
 official censor of plays — it was rather proper that a 
 collection of plays should be dedicated. Since the 
 English vocabulary of the Plays bears no resem- 
 blance to the English vocabulary of those Poems 
 and Sonnets, this speculation only carries us further 
 afield. Nor is it without a bearing on the question, 
 that sonnets and dedicatory poems to everybody 
 (especially Southampton), and by everybody, were 
 the vogue of the day. And the collection of 
 rhymes by anonymous authors, sonnets and other- 
 wise, bound up with an anonymous title-page (bear- 
 ing neither name of author nor of publisher), put 
 forth in 1601, had the same vignette as the anony- 
 mous title-page, bearing no author's name, to the 
 
 * But why his brother Montgomery was coupled in that dedica- 
 tion, no reason has ever appeared. 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 439 
 
 " Veousand Adonis."* Possibly, however, it would 
 be unwise to lay too much stress upon this fact 
 alone, for it is notorious that, among the Eliza- 
 bethan printers, these vignettes and head- and tail- 
 pieces were passed along from one printing house to 
 another, t But the fact remains that these poetical 
 compositions, anonymous or assigned, were apt to 
 be dedicated to some patron; even the anonymous 
 collection of 1601 having as dedicatee " the true- 
 noble knight, Sir John Salisburie." 
 
 In searching for the sources of Shakespeare's Eng- 
 lish, students have naturally turned to the one book 
 known to have been certainly accessible to the War- 
 wickshire lad — the English Scriptures. Let us look 
 into this a bit. 
 
 The first Bible authorized to be publicly read in 
 the churches, by decree of Henry the Eighth 
 (which is called " the Great Bible "), was first 
 printed in November, 1539, twenty-five years before 
 Shakespeare was born, and was speedily made 
 accessible to everybody. Copies were chained not 
 only to the pulpits in churches, but to posts in public 
 places in the streets such as Paul's Cross, in Lon- 
 don. A copy was chained to a desk in the very 
 grammar school Shakespeare attended. At least so 
 much may be conjectured from the fact that, in 
 1674, a Mr. Aspinal presented a new book to the 
 school, and the town paid fourpence for a chain 
 for it; doubtless a renewal, and not an innovation, 
 for there do not appear to have been any decrees on 
 
 * See frontispiece and cut of the anonymous title-page, ante, 
 t See " The Baukside Shakespeare," vol. xx. pp. xx.-xxiii. 
 
440 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 the subject, or any fresh customs as to Bible 
 distribution in that year.* This "Great Bible" 
 was only very slowly superseded by "the Bishop»s' 
 Bible ' a new translation by the bishops, by decree 
 of Henry the Eighth (who said in effect to his 
 bishops, "if the present version of the Scriptures is 
 not right, make it right "), and so was probably the 
 Bible which young Shakespeare would have been 
 familiar with, if he were familiar with any. This 
 Bishops' Bible was given out in the year of its trans- 
 lation, 1568. 
 
 Meanwhile, in 1560, four years before the birth 
 of Shakespeare, there had come the Geneva, or 
 "Breeches" Bible. This translation, printed by 
 the Calvinists in Geneva, was the version used 
 chiefly by the Puritans, and not used at all in the 
 established Churches. 
 
 So here were three Bibles, to any one of which 
 Shakespeare might have had access. However 
 they may verbally differ, their variants in sense 
 are insignificant. The texts of all recogni/ed ver- 
 sions of the Scriptures from the Wycklif to the 
 King James version (which also was to come within 
 Shakespeare's day^thus making four great trans- 
 lations extant within his lifetime) convey sub- 
 
 * " To Walton for chaines for the book which Mr. Aspinall 
 gave to the school, 4 d." The annual charge on the town of 
 Stratford for support of its grammar school, was in 1568, 
 £'2o 13 ; ;£^20 of which was for the salary of the master and his 
 assistants. The pay of the superintendent was eight pence, or at 
 the rate of one-sixth of a penny a week. These figures seem to 
 suggest that the grammar school could not have been on the exten- 
 sive scale which is predicated for it on the intellectual output pf 
 one of its pupils. See ante, pp. 43-49. 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 44 1 
 
 stantially the same meaning to the reader. Which 
 of these Bibles, if any one of them, was Shakespeare 
 familiar with? This, perhaps, involves the ancil- 
 lary and antecedent question, was Shakespeare a 
 Papist or a Protestant? 
 
 But this question, at least, need detain nobody 
 long. WiUiam Shakespeare, son of John Shakes- 
 peare, was born and died in the Old Faith. Cer- 
 tainly that the father, John, was a Roman Catholic 
 and a recusant under Elizabeth's acts of uniformity, 
 and was repeatedly fined for refusing to attend the 
 Protestant services — the Stratford records pro- 
 fusely testify. 
 
 The only person within a century of Shakes- 
 peare's date who ever made a statement on the sub- 
 ject, one way or the other, verbally or on paper, 
 was Archdeacon John Davies, the Vicar of Sapper- 
 ton, Gloucestershire, a clergyman of the Establish- 
 ment. 
 
 In or about the year 1703, Archdeacon Davies 
 made some autograph notes upon the Diary of the 
 the Rev. William Fulman (also a clergyman of the 
 English Church) ; and, among these notes, is the 
 following direct statement : 
 
 "He (Shakespeare) died a Papist." Now, as 
 Archdeacon Davies was a Protestant clergyman, 
 this statement is what lawyers call " a declaration 
 against interest," and therefore one to which great 
 weight is to be reasonably given. Moreover, the 
 use of the word "Papist," instead of "of the old 
 Faith" or "Catholic," shows that the statement 
 was made reluctantly and with feeling. Even if 
 contradicted, these considerations would favor it. 
 
443 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 But it stands uncontradicted! In cases of a con- 
 flict of documentary or of oral evidence, or of 
 tradition, a historian has undoubted right to use 
 his own judgment to a certain extent, or, at least, 
 to give his opinion as to the burden of probability. 
 But where there is but one statement of fact, either 
 way, and that statement is made by a contemporary 
 and eye-witness, and it has stood untraversed for 
 three hundred years, an expression of judgment 
 personal to the historian seems rather uncalled 
 for. 
 
 Doubtless, had anyone, during Shakespeare's 
 active life, demanded of him whether he was 
 of the Old or the New religion, he would have 
 hesitated quite as long as the most circumspect of 
 his nineteenth-twentieth century commentators. 
 His life was not concerned with church polities, 
 with questions of discipline, or ritual or eccle- 
 siastical differentiations. He lived in an era. when, 
 more than ever before or since, polemical points 
 were undiscussed, were in a state of suppression, 
 of neutrality, and of peace. For Elizabeth, least 
 of anybody, was likely to forget that her own 
 birth, by any law civil or canonical, was doubtful, 
 her mother's marriage to the king having been 
 annulled; and, not unfortunately for her desire 
 to minimize ecclesiastical questions, she had 
 come to the throne of a people heartily tired 
 of religious quarrels, persecutions, and martyr- 
 doms. Her first care had been to initiate a neutral 
 and conciliatory policy, and she had never suffered 
 it to relax. She proposed making all her subjects 
 over into supporters and friends of her throne. 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 443 
 
 She allowed no criticisms, bickering reflections — 
 no comments even upon the absurdities of the 
 Puritansr— to be aired in public; uttering decrees* 
 and recommending statutes, when necessary, to 
 insure the performance of her will. As for the 
 differences between Roman and Anglican, for once 
 in English history they were for the nation as a 
 whole completely at rest. The transfer of the 
 throne from Mary to Elizabeth had operated as a 
 transfer of the supremacy of the church from 
 Roman to Anglican. But while here and there 
 a politician or a scholar may have looked askance 
 at the result, the people certainly knew no differ- 
 ence. Out of nine thousand four hundred of the 
 parochial clergy less than two hundred hesitated 
 to acquiesce in the change. 
 
 The strictest Roman Catholic families recog- 
 nized the rite of baptism as administered in 
 the Established Church. They could not do 
 otherwise, in fact, since there was no other to 
 recognize — nearly a century was to elapse before 
 Protestant baptism was declared by Rome invalid. 
 The same church edifices were there, the same 
 clergy read the same services and administered 
 the same sacraments. And — as we shall see — all 
 the people were church-goers, under penalties if 
 not otherwise. Moreover the priests were not only 
 their spiritual, but temporal advisers — the regulators 
 of the social intercourse, their business, their festi- 
 vals, and their sports. Most important of all, these 
 very priests were the schoolmasters of the children, 
 and what learning there was, or even what was 
 
 *See " The Bankside Shakespeare," vol. i. p. 7. 
 
444 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 called learning, namely the power to teach smatter- 
 ings of Latin, was possessed only by the clericals, 
 or clerks — who were of course hold-overs from the 
 old system of monasteries, foundations, and poor- 
 schools. Moreover, there was an attempt, even on 
 the part of those in authority, to promote acquies- 
 cence. De Quadra, in 1562, wrote to the Spanish 
 Minister at Rome, "begging him to ask the Pope, 
 in the name of English Catholics whether they 
 might be present without sin, at the common 
 prayers." The case was a new, and not at all an 
 easy one, for " the Prayer Book contained neither 
 new or false doctrine. The prayers themselves 
 were those of the Catholic Church, altered only so 
 far as to omit the merits and the intercession of 
 the saints; so that, except for the concealment and 
 the injury which might arise from the example, 
 there would be nothing in the compliance itself 
 positively unlawful." 
 
 Authority itself was more or less, in view of 
 Elizabeth's desire for conciliation, inclined to wink 
 at the letter of the statutes. At least up to the 
 date when Bishop Hooker wrote his "Ecclesiastical 
 Polity,"* numbers of clergymen had been ad- 
 mitted to the ministry of the Church of England 
 with no better than Presbyterian ordination. "No 
 one of the Church of England in those days 
 thought of calling into question the validity of the 
 orders and sacraments of the Reformed Churches," 
 says Dr. Blakeney, in his "Book of Common Prayer 
 in Its History and Interpretation." f "Near the end 
 of Elizabeth's reign, Hooker, in his celebrated work 
 
 * Cf. Keble's Edition, vol. i. p. Ixxv. f p. 630. 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 445 
 
 in defense of the Church of England, fully con- 
 cedes the Validity of Presbyterian ordination. , . 
 Ministers who had received Presbyterian ordina- 
 tion were admitted to take charge of English 
 parishes without a question as to the validity of 
 their orders." * 
 
 This state of affairs continued easily to 1665, of 
 which date Froude says: " There was still an es- 
 tablished church in England, and the constitution of 
 it had not yet been altered. The Presbyterian 
 platform threatened to take the place of the Epis- 
 copacy, and soon did take it. But the clergyman 
 was still a Priest, and was still regarded with pious 
 veneration in the country districts, as a semi-super- 
 natural being. The altar yet stood in its place, the 
 minister still appeared in his surplice, and the 
 prayers of the Liturgy continued to be read or in- 
 toned. The old familiar bell&, Catholic as they 
 were in all the emotions they suggested, still called 
 the congregations together with their musical peal, 
 though in the midst of triumphant Puritanism." 
 
 It is certain that, though his business interests 
 and investments compelled him like every other of 
 Elizabeth's subjects to outwardly "conform," at 
 some time before his death Shakespeare, by some 
 desired formality, expressed his wish"to die in the 
 old religion, the religion of his fatherand of his 
 race. Archdeac&n Davies' statement that "he died 
 a Papist " stands solitary and unimpeached to that 
 effect. As part owner of the tithes, he was a lay- 
 rector of the Foundation and so entitled t© sepul- 
 ture in the Chancel of Old Trinity, even though, at 
 ♦ Fisher's " History of the Reformatiow," pp. 333^335- 
 
44^ THE WARVyiCKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 that time, it was a Protestant church. So nothing 
 can be predicated to the contrary of the Arch- 
 deacon's statement from the fact of such sepulture. 
 
 It would seem that these considerations suffi- 
 ciently account for Shakespeare's practical ignoring 
 of the Scriptures in his plays, alluding to them if 
 not flippantly or contemptuously, at least only 
 when any of their familiar stories happened to 
 serve his purpose of the moment. As to the Scrip- 
 tural narratives, legends, and miracles, these, for 
 more than three hundred years, in Miracle Play, 
 Mystery, and Morality, had been acted, from plat- 
 forms in the streets and in inn yards. Grossly, 
 and, as we now regard it, obscenely, but still they 
 were acted, and from them, repulsive as it is to 
 contemplate, the people were left to learn all they 
 learned of Scipture lore. 
 
 These Miracle or Mystery plays did not dis- 
 appear from English custom until about the year 
 1580. They were so general and so near to the 
 masses of people, who drew their only familarity 
 with biblical lore from them, that even the priests 
 would appeal to them as proofs of what they them- 
 selves preached. There is a story, for example, of 
 a village priest in Warwickshire who preached a 
 sermon on the Articles of the Creed, ending with 
 this adjuration: ""These artycles ye be bounde to 
 beleve, for they be trew and of auctoryte and yf ye 
 beleve not me, then for more suretie, go your way 
 to Coventry, and there ye shall see them all playd in 
 Corpus Christi playe." Even as lately as 1644 the 
 Rev. John Shaw, temporary chaplain of a village in 
 Lancashire, says that he found an old man of sixty, 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 447 
 
 who " professed that he could not remember that 
 ever he heard of salvation by Jesus Christ but in a 
 play at Kendal called Corpus Christi Play, where 
 there was a man on a tree, and blood ran downe."* 
 And it is notable that in instances where the 
 Mystery or Miracle play departs from the Scriptural 
 description Shakespeare follows the Mystery or Mir- 
 acle, and not the Scriptural text. For example : King 
 Herod, in the New Testament, is a dignified, even 
 if a cruel, ruler — and acts rationally for his own pro- 
 tection as, he infers from the Magi, it is his policy 
 to do. But in the Miracle plays he is represented 
 as a sort of madman, who rants and rages, sword 
 in hand, even descending from the platform and 
 running amuck among the spectators, — crying, "I 
 stamp, I stare, I loke alle abowtt, I rant, I rave, and 
 now run I wode" (or as the stage direction had it, 
 "here Erode ragis in the pagoud and in the strete 
 also "). It is clearly this Herod, and not the 
 Herod of the New Testament, Shakespeare has in 
 mind when he cautions the actors not to "out- 
 Herod Herod!" Evidently also the allusion to St. 
 Peter keeping the keys of Heaven, the statement 
 that Judas was hanged on an elder tree, or that 
 Sampson was bound with green withesf, that " The 
 Scripture says ' Adam digged ' " when the Scripture 
 says nothing of the sort, Goliath with a weaver's 
 beam, etc., etc., had sources outside of the Scrip- 
 ture text. 
 
 * Cf. Welker Given's ' ' Further Study of the Othello, " New York, 
 The Shakespeare Press, iSgg, chapter v., as to Shakespeare's con- 
 stant indebtedness to the Miracle and Mystery plays of his youth. 
 \Ante, p. 428. 
 
44^ THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 That Shakespeare re-purged these Scriptural 
 stories of the repulsiveness in which the Mystery 
 actors had clothed them is only another exhibition 
 of the Shakespeare method. The dramatist who 
 spiritualized the seduction of a maid-of-honor by a 
 prince who, on being begged to make her an honor- 
 able lady, heartlessly told her to go to a " nunnery" 
 (a cant name for a brothel) into the romance of 
 Hamlet; who created the splendid "Merchant of 
 Venice " out of one of the grossest tales ever put on 
 paper, was of course the man to make anything he 
 handled pure and sweet.* But the employment of 
 Scriptural incident in the plays helps out in no wise 
 the question as to whether Shakespeare used one 
 Bible, or another Bible, or any Bible. Still less can 
 we predicate from the use of them any predilection 
 in the dramatist for Roman, Anglican, or Puritan 
 formularies, or any study by Shakespeare of Holy 
 Writ. 
 
 But Shakespeare saw that other, and sadder, pic- 
 ture to which we have already in passing alluded. 
 The times that he lived in were bad times for the 
 Church, still worse for the priests of the Church. 
 The stately Roman system, with all its wealth and 
 magnificence and social power, had just gone top- 
 pling down. The new Protestant Church was just 
 coming into life. Among the country folk that 
 clung, with peasant conservatism, to the old faith, 
 there was no reverence or love for the new faith 
 that came from Westminster or from Geneva. The 
 
 * See Mr. Given's ' ' Further Study of the Othello," New York. 
 The Shakespeare Press, 1895, for further examples of Shakes- 
 peare's refining art. 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 449 
 
 village pastors of the new church were desperately 
 poor, and for the most part miserably ignorant. If 
 they were pious at all, it was after the fantastic 
 piety of Puritan sects; ridiculed by people of cul- 
 ture, despised by the privileged and the gentle. If 
 they were not pious they lived mean and sordid 
 lives, not lifted above the average of their flock by 
 any superiority of learning or circumstances. Ab- 
 ject and crushed by their social degradation, many 
 or them broke from the restraints of old vows, and 
 married, and their wives, according to the view of 
 their neighbors, and of the Queen herself, were 
 hardly better than prostitutes, while their children 
 were held to be but bastards.* Even the priests 
 settled over the valuable livings were obliged 
 to be worldly, watchful, and time-serving to keep 
 their temporalities. The days of the "Vicars 
 of Bray," who had resolved that, whatever King 
 did reign, they would still be Vicars of Bray; the 
 sudden shif tings of the crown from Protestant 
 under Henry the Eighth to Papist under Mary, then 
 to Protestant again under Edward and Elizabeth, 
 had left their effect on many unfortunate clericals. 
 England was full of priests without cures, who lived 
 as they might, to whom little attention was paid ex- 
 cept in charity, and who were called "Jack priests" 
 and "hedge priests," and, in derision, addressed as 
 
 * Shakespeare's sketch of "Sir Nathaniel,'' who was one of these 
 " hedge priests," is therefore of the greatest historical value, just 
 as in the scene where Falstaiif goes on recruiting service is the 
 best extant sketch of the fraud and covin resorted to by the press- 
 ing officers in Tudor times. We could ill spare these photographs 
 from life. 
 
45° TttE WARWICKSHIRE btALECT. 
 
 " sir " (Sir Nathaniel in " Love's Labor's Lost" was 
 one of these. Sir Oliver Martext in " As You Like 
 It," who is called "a vicar" in the stage directions, 
 and Sir Hugh Evans in the "Merry Wives," were 
 types of them, and perhaps of Shakespeare's opinion 
 of them.) Of course the rich parish rectors and 
 vicars in government establishments were quite an- 
 other kind and class. But of these Shakespeare is 
 silent. Of theology as preached in the pulpit 
 Shakespeare is also silent. When he deals seri- 
 ously with the clergy at all he only mentions 
 Bishops, and his Bishops never talk religion, but 
 only statecraft and politics (just as Friar Law- 
 rence's ministrations were more medicinal than 
 spiritual). Moreover, at about the time of Shakes- 
 peare's youth, the people had grown tired of the 
 Morality (the successor of the Mystery, as the 
 mystery was the successor of the Miracle) Play. 
 Morality actors had seen this and had not hesitated 
 to introduce "Interludes" (J. e., horse-play and 
 antics of any sort) to amuse their audiences. And, 
 naturally, as this was all the people cared for, they 
 soon began to discard everything else, and "Inter- 
 ludes " became a name for popular performances and 
 the name began to appear in various prohibitive 
 statutes for their regulation. Except in the pomp 
 and circumstance of worship — ritual processions, 
 coronations, baptisms, marriages, and christenings 
 of the great — the England of Shakespeare could 
 hardly be called a religious nation. The civil mar- 
 riage was insisted on* (as Dr. Johnson said it should 
 
 * " Consider what importance to society the chastity of woman 
 is! all property depends on it! " Boswell's Life of Johnson (Birk- 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 451 
 
 be, a century and a half later), to preserve the suc- 
 cession of estates. 
 
 But though we may be forced to relinquish a 
 theory that the Scriptures, in any one of the three 
 versions extant in Shakespeare's earliest working 
 life, influenced him or taught him his English, per- 
 haps there was a religious agency which affected 
 both his style and his diction. In the days of Henry 
 the Eighth the ritual or liturgy of the estab- 
 lished churches had not included a book of com- 
 mon prayer, though there had been and were what 
 were called "Primers" in English, /. 1?., books of 
 prayer (any prayer that the compilers pleased to 
 insert *) for young people, as well as for the average 
 adult worshiper. In the reign of Edward the 
 Sixth came the first attempt at Uniformity, and, in 
 1549, and again in 1552, the two Prayer Books of 
 Edward the Sixth were promulgated. The act of 
 Uniformity, 1549, so called (2 and 3 Edw. VI. cap. 
 I. f) provided that the various books of Common 
 
 beck Hill's Ed., V. 207. I think it (the legitimation of offspring 
 by subsequent marriage of parents) a bad thing, because the chas- 
 tity of woman, as all property depends upon it, being of the ut- 
 most importance, . . . children by an illicit connection should 
 not attain rights of full lawful parties by the posterior consent 
 of the offending parties. — Id. II. 457. 
 
 * These Primers usually contained the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, 
 the Ten Commandments, the Seven Penitential Pslms, the 
 Litany, the Seven Works of Mercy, and the Seven Deadly 
 
 Sins. 
 
 f Tr. Statutes of the Realm IV. 37. The Second Edward VI. 
 Act of Uniformity — (5 and 6 Edw. VI. cap, i) — The Statutes of 
 the Realm IV. pt I. p. 130, confirmatory of the above, making only 
 minor additions. 
 
4S2 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 Prayers known as the " Uses of Sarum," the " Uses 
 of Lincoln," etc. (which were in Latin), were 
 thereby superseded and the Prayer Book in the ver- 
 nacular substituted. The Edwardian Act did in- 
 deed provide (2 and 3 Edw. VL cap. i) "always that 
 it shall be lawful to any man that understands the 
 Greek, Latin, Hebrew tongue or other strange 
 tongue, to say and have the said prayers — heretofore 
 specified — of Matins and Evensong, in Latin or any 
 such other tongue, saying the same privately as they 
 do understand and for further encouraging of learn- 
 ing in the tongues in the universities of Cambridge 
 and Oxford, to use and exercise in their common 
 and open prayer in their chapels (being no Parish 
 churches) or other places of prayer, the Matins, 
 Evensong, Litany and all other prayers (the Holy 
 Communion commonly called the Mass, excepted) 
 prescribed in the said book prescribed in Greek, 
 Latin or Hebrew, anything in the present Act to the 
 contrary notwithstanding." But the vernacular 
 Prayer Book was to be used in all the churches, 
 and attendance at Church was made compulsory 
 under pain of punishment by the censures of the 
 Church.* The Prayer Book of 1549 retained the 
 old phrases " Matins " and " Evensong." But the 
 later one of 1562, which, with modernizations as 
 required, is substantially the Book of Common 
 
 * This censure was made discretionary. The Act providing 
 that "the archbishops, bishops and all other their officers exercis- 
 ing ecclesiastical jurisdiction as well in places exempt as not ex- 
 empt, within their dioceses shall have full power and authority by 
 this Act to reform, correct and punish by censor of the Church all 
 and singular, persons," etc., etc. 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 453 
 
 Prayer of every service and of to-day, substituted 
 for these the words " Morning Prayer " and " Even- 
 ing Prayer." 
 
 In the swiftly succeeding reign of Philip and 
 Mary all these acts were abolished. But they were 
 restored again under Elizabeth when the ecclesias- 
 tical situation becomes interesting to this Inquiry, 
 by reason of the birth of Shakespeare. In the first 
 year of Elizabeth was issued the Act of Parliament 
 (I. Elizabeth, cap. 2., 1559) known as Elizabeth's 
 first Act of Uniformity. This restored as the law 
 of the realm the Act of Edward VI. above cited, 
 except that the section above quoted allowing wor- 
 ship in the Latin tongue was specifically abolished. 
 This Act contained also the following sections with 
 which this Inquiry is particularly concerned: " And 
 that from and after the (said) Feast of the Nativity 
 of St. John Baptist next coming, all and every per- 
 son and persons inhabiting within the realm or any 
 other the Queen's Majesty's dominions shall dili- 
 gently and faithfully, having no lawful or reason- 
 able excuse to be absent, endeavor themselves to 
 resort to their Parish church or chapel accustomed, 
 or upon reasonable let thereof, to some usual place 
 where common prayer and such service of God shall 
 be used in such time of let, upon every Sunday and 
 other days ordained and used to be kept as Holy 
 days and then and there to abide orderly and 
 soberly during the time of common prayer, preach- 
 ing or other service of God, there to be used and 
 ministered: upon pain of punishment by the censures 
 of the Church, and also upon pain that every per- 
 son so offending shall forfeit for every such offence^ 
 
454 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 twelve pence, to be levied by the church warden of 
 the parish where such offence shall be done, to the 
 use of the poor of the same parish of the goods, 
 lands and tenements of such offender by the way of 
 distress. " ' ' Provided also, and be it enacted by the 
 authority aforesaid, that the books concerning the 
 service shall, at the cost and charges of the par- 
 ishioners of every parish and Cathedral Church, be 
 attained and gotten before the said Feast of the 
 Nativity of St. John Baptist next following: and that 
 all such parishes and Cathedral Churches or other 
 places where the said books shall be attained and 
 gotten before the said Feast of the Nativity of St. 
 John Baptist shall, within three weeks next after the 
 said books so attained and gotten, use the said ser- 
 vice and put the same in use according to this act." 
 The words "all and every person or persons" in- 
 cluded all minors — wards, servants, and apprentices; 
 and the parents, guardians, or masters respec- 
 tively of the same, were charged thereby to enforce 
 it, as to these. 
 
 Even this was found insufficient, however, and a 
 penalty by way of cumulative fine was enacted by 
 23 Elizabeth, c. 2, which imposed a fine of twenty 
 pounds upon all persons over the age of sixteen 
 who should for an entire month absent themselves 
 from the church services. But the hardship of this 
 statute worked its own nullity. For by coming to 
 church once a month the heavier fine was avoided, 
 while the three twelvepences would be cheerfully 
 paid by those who deemed it a small tax for enjoy- 
 ing their own consciences. Such an one was John 
 Shakespeare, the poet's father, whose name con- 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 455 
 
 tinually appears as a recusant mulcted of the minor 
 fine; and that in his recusancy he had the sym- 
 pathy of his neighbors also unmistakably appears. 
 A survivor of the reign of Mary, and a follower of 
 the old Faith, he sturdily refused to conform except 
 outwardly for the sake of peace and safety, and 
 remained a recusant at heart, and paid his fines; 
 it being entered on the Records of his numerous 
 mulctings (with others) that "it is sayd that these 
 (nine) persons coome not to churche for feare of 
 processe for debte "; a perfectly transparent subter- 
 fuge, since never under English law was there a 
 time when process for debt was levyable on a Sun- 
 day except on afiSdavit that service could not be 
 served on the defendant on a weekday (Institutes, 
 II. 264, Coke's Reports, p. 602). But John 
 Shakespeare as a public officer could not have been 
 always in hiding — and there is never a record of a 
 process for debt against him returned inventus non 
 est. That entry was doubtless meant to bear a 
 grim humor of its own for those who knew! 
 
 In short, young Shakespeare saw neither religion 
 nor ecclesiastical systems in their attractive forms. 
 His father obliged to conceal his convictions, the 
 dominant church supporting a vagrant clergy, and 
 the common talk full of shrewd and coarse innuendo 
 concerning clerical orders: these all left their 
 impressions, and could not but have influenced his 
 own tendencies in later life! 
 
 But, in spite of it all, he would thus have been 
 obliged in his nonage to have attended the church 
 services, more or less regularly, and so must have 
 become more or less familiar — could not have 
 
45^ THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 avoided becoming familiar — with the church's 
 sonorous and stately liturgy, as it was intoned or 
 read, at least once a week in his boyish hearing, in 
 Trinity, the Stratford parish church. 
 
 Of this Liturgy, conducted in the vernacular, the 
 Psalter was the translation of David's Psalms taken 
 from the Great Bible (as indeed it remains to this 
 day in the prayer books of the English and Ameri- 
 can church alike). 
 
 But if it affected the diction of the growing 
 man, that influence was insensible and indirect. 
 For we look in vain, in the Plays, for any use of 
 the figures or tenets of either Bible or Psalter. 
 The word " Bible," as applied to bound volumes of 
 the Scriptures, though in constant employment,* is 
 not one of Shakespeare's twenty-one thousand 
 vocables. 
 
 There are numerous works entitled "Shakes- 
 peare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible," " Bible 
 Truths with Shakespeare Parallels," etc. But they 
 are of absolutely no value. Even the most ambitious 
 of them. Bishop Wordsworth's, hardly touches the 
 dignity of a parochial sermon. What the good 
 Bishop calls his " parallelisms," like the parallelisms 
 alleged by certain Baconians, are attenuated to 
 quite comic lengths, and could be managed equally 
 with any other contemporary literature. 
 
 Shakespeare uses the terms " Holy Writ," or 
 
 * " As for the Byble that the master hath, I wend the uttermost 
 pryze had not passed mark " (The Faston Letters, 592, II.) " To 
 force the Christians from their Bibles" (Nelson's Feasts and 
 Fasts, XVIII. 1537. Letter from Coverdale to Cromwell for the 
 sale of his Bibles.) 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 457 
 
 " Scriptures," but three times each, and then 
 familiarly and even slightingly in the course of other 
 matters.* 
 
 Certainly our good Bishop Wordsworth can 
 hardly predicate either Shakespeare's use of the 
 Bible, or eagerness to impress his readers with its 
 saintly precepts, from such passages as "There is 
 to be sure, another flood toward, and tbese people 
 are coming to the Ark"f: "Yet was Solomon so 
 seduced, and he had a very good wit "\; "He was 
 rheumatic and talked of the whore of Babylon ";§ 
 "A' saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose and a' 
 said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire;" || 
 "The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom " 
 (King Richard's comment on two children he has 
 just murdered); 1" or from Shylock's boast of his 
 making his money breed as fast as Joseph's trick 
 made Laban's sheep drop piebald lambs,** or Ham- 
 
 *The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose, " Merchant of 
 Venice," I. iii., 99. With a piece of Scripture tell them 
 that God bids us do good for evil [which the context shows to be 
 Richard's usual irony]. ' ' Richard Third," I. iii. 339- The 
 Scripture says Adam digged, and how could he dig without arms ? 
 " Hamlet," V. i. 4. So Holy Writ in babes hath judgment 
 shown, "All's Well," II. i.i4- With odd ends stolen out of holy 
 writ, " Richard Third," IV. iii. 52. Strong as proofs from Holy 
 Writ, " Othello," IV. iii. 32. 
 
 f "As You Like It," IV. iv. 36. 
 
 \ " Love's Labor's Lost," I. ii. 80. 
 
 § " Henry the Fifth," II. iii. 41- 
 
 \Id., II. iii, 43. This, Mr. Given thinks, comes direct from 
 a miracle play (" Further Study of the Othello," p. 105). 
 
 f " Richard the Third," IV. iii. 38. 
 
 «* " Merchant of Venice," I. iii. 72. 
 
4S8 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 let's guying of poor old Polonius about Jephtha's 
 daughter and the probability that her sacrifice was 
 to perpetual virginity rather than to death,* or 
 Clarence's reference to the same theory, f 
 
 But, be all this to the contrary notwithstanding, 
 Shakespeare, in his nonage at least, could not 
 have escaped being drilled in the Liturgy of the 
 English Church, or at least in important parts 
 thereof. In 1559 the Queen published what are 
 cited as "the Injunctions of Elizabeth, to be kept 
 by the people, as they will avoid her Highness's 
 displeasure and the pains of the same hereafter ex- 
 pressed." Here follow the two Injunctions more 
 especially relating to the young, viz.: 
 
 "V. Item: That every holy-day, through the 
 year, when they have no sermon, they [/. e., the 
 priest] shall, immediately after the Gospel, 
 openly and plainly recite to their parishioners, in 
 the pulpit, the Paternoster, the Creed and the Ten 
 Commandments in English, to the intent that the 
 people may learn the same by heart: exhorting all 
 parents and householders to teach their children 
 and servants the same, as they are bounden by 
 the law of God and conscience to do." 
 
 " XLIV. Item: Every parson, vicar and curate, 
 shall, upon every holy-day, and every second Sun- 
 day in the year, hear and instruct all the youth of 
 the parish for half an hour at the least before even- 
 ing prayer, in the Ten Commandments, the Articles 
 and the Belief, and in the Lord's prayer, and dili- 
 
 * " Hamlet," II. ii. 429. 
 
 f " 3 Henry the Sixth," V. i. 91. 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 459 
 
 gently examine them and teach the catechism set 
 forth in the book of Public Prayer." 
 
 So, without proceeding further in any specula- 
 tion as to what young Shakespeare's early training 
 or opportunity may have been, here at least, we 
 rest upon certainty, and know of at least one 
 regimen in the which he must have been instructed 
 and exercised,* in the formative years of his illus- 
 trious life. 
 
 But as to whether, when a man begins to put pen to 
 paper himself he can discharge himself of the influ- 
 ences with which his youth was surrounded; and 
 whether his style will discard the nobler, any more 
 than it will the meaner, influences which encom- 
 passed him as a lad — let everyone judge for him- 
 self. 
 
 The book most to Shakespeare's taste, and nearest 
 to his elbow, seems to have been the second edition 
 of the Chronicles of Raphael Holinshed, a fellow 
 Warwickshire man.f 
 
 Out of that work Shakespeare not only forged the 
 
 * An original copy of these Injunctions is preserved at the 
 British Museum cited as 5155, a. 14. 
 
 f In his will, made October i, 1578 (proved April 24, 1582), he 
 describes himself as Raphael Hollynshed of Bromecotte, in the 
 County of Warr (that is, Bramcott, in the County of Warwick). 
 It will be interesting to consulters of the foregoing Glossary to see 
 that the Warwickshire dialect word "pickthanks" (pp. 180, 
 344), which Shakespeare uses in the plays, Holinshed also uses, in 
 precisely the same sense of a busybody, newsmonger, or " carry- 
 tale." " Thus were the father and the sonne reconciled betwixte 
 whom the sayd Pickthanks had sowne division," Boswell Stone's 
 " Shakespeare's Holinshed," London, Longmans, 1896. III. 539, 
 2.28. 
 
46o THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 structural plots of his semi-historical "Cymbeline," 
 "Macbeth," and "King Lear," but practically 
 constructed his Plays of " King John," " Richard 
 II.,"and the first and second "Henry IV.," " Henry 
 v.," first, second, and third" Henry VI.," " Richard 
 III.," and "Henry VIII." Shakespeare's treat- 
 ment of "Richard III." quite parallels Holinshed's 
 account of that king; as does also the " Henry IV.," 
 especially the scene where the prince tries on his 
 sleeping father's crown, which is given by both. 
 There are long portions of the play of " Henry V." 
 which are practical paraphrases, in blank verse, of 
 Holinshed, as, for example, the Archbishop's long 
 speech in the second scene of the first act, in 
 Henry's speech to the traitors at Southampton, in 
 Exeter's enumeration of the captives in the eighth 
 scene of the fourth act, and in Queen Catharine's 
 speech in the fourth scene of the second act of 
 "Henry VIII." A great part of "Henry VIII." 
 substantially consists of centos from Holinshed, 
 and the dramatist often reproduces the speeches 
 given by the historian. Thus Holinshed says that 
 Henry answers the defiance of Mountjoy, the 
 herald: " I wish not anie of you so unadvised as to 
 be the occasion that I dye your tawnie ground with 
 your red blood." Shakespeare merely reduces this 
 to rhythm, thus: 
 
 " If we be hindered 
 We shall your tawny ground with your red blood 
 Discolor." * 
 
 Still more curious is the following: Holinshed 
 remarks, in his "History of Richard III." "Before 
 
 * " Honry v.," III. vi. 169. 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 461 
 
 such great things men's hearts of a secret instinct 
 of nature misgive them, as the sea, without wind, 
 swelleth himself before a tempest." Shakespeare 
 saw the appositeness of the simile and paraphrased it : 
 
 " By a divine instinct men's minds distrust 
 Pursning danger — as by proof, we see 
 The water swell before a boisterous storm." * 
 
 In " Cymbeline" Shakespeare again repeats Hol- 
 inshed, even to the proper names, though the or- 
 thography is revised, as, Cloten for Cloton, Imogen 
 for Innogen, Cadwall for Cadwallo, Morgan for 
 Margan, etc. But in "Macbeth," Shakespeare held 
 his imagination in abeyance, and, recognizing in the 
 story a character fit for tragedy on the Aristotelian 
 principle, simply dramatized the chronicle. The 
 circumstances under which Macbeth and Banquo 
 meet the witches, the witches themselves, their 
 prophecies, Macbeth's character, his wife's absolute 
 mental control of him, the plot against King Dun- 
 can, the details of the murder (adapted from 
 another narrative in the "Chronicles "), the drunken 
 sleep of Duncan's surfeited grooms, the tempestuous 
 night, the portents, Macbeth's terrors of conscience, 
 the murder of Banquo, the flight of Fleance, the 
 murder of Macduff's family, the exiles in England, 
 the episode of Edward the Confessor touching for 
 
 ♦ "Richard III."," III. ii. 2. So noticeable a token of an 
 approaching tempest even Lord Bacon had noticed, and he twice 
 alluded to it in his " Natural History of Winds." It is everywhere 
 taken notice of that waters do somewhat swell and rise before 
 tempests.'' And again : " As there are certain hollow blasts of 
 wind and secret swellings of seas before a tempest, so are there in 
 «tates." 
 
462 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 king's evil, the promises of the witches on which 
 Macbeth relied, the narrative of the fight and of his 
 death — are all given by Holinshed in the same order 
 in which Shakespeare uses them. Shakespeare does 
 little more than translate Holinshed's prose into 
 blank verse in Malcolm's and Macduff's speeches 
 in the third scene of the fourth act, which are almost 
 literal. Holinshed says that Macbeth's conscience 
 " caused him ever to fear lest he should be served 
 of the same cup as he had ministered to his prede- 
 cessor." Shakespeare renders it: 
 
 " This even-handed justice 
 Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice 
 To our own lips." 
 
 And the entire soliloquy at sight of the visionary 
 dagger, "Methought I heard a voice," etc., is but 
 the poetic amplification of Holinshed's descrip- 
 tion of the voice threatening vengeance, heard by 
 Macbeth in the dead of night and "preventing 
 anie sleepe coming in his eies." 
 
 Even for the comic characters, which are Shakes- 
 peare's own, and which cannot by the extremest 
 commentatorial ingenuity be assigned to anybody 
 else's original, Shakespeare finds details in Holins- 
 hed. Thus, when the Chronicle tells us that a 
 private soldier stole a pyx out of a church, for 
 which theft he was apprehended, Shakespeare 
 assigns the theft to Ancient Pistol. 
 
 But of the English Bible, known of all and 
 accessible of most, the dramatist makes no draft 
 upon any version whatever. Its 16 11 translators 
 were to draw upon his plays most liberally for 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 463 
 
 their vocabulary. But, reciprocally, no translation 
 or translators seem to have had any attraction for 
 the dramatist himself! 
 
 Allusion was made in the Preface to the third 
 editionof this work to Ben Jonson's '■^ sufflaminandus 
 erat," and to his complaint that Shakespeare was 
 over exuberant rather than artistic. It is curious 
 to find, in the solitary instance where we can feel 
 something like an assurance of a glimpse of Shakes- 
 peare's "second heat,'' something like a confirma- 
 tion of Jonson's predicate. A happy blunder of 
 some printer's devil, which appears to actually afford 
 us a glimpse into Shakespeare's workshop, occurred 
 on the occasion we have heretofore noticed * when 
 Shakespeare learned that " Love's Labor's Lost" 
 had been selected to be played at court, and he 
 took occasion to revise ; or, as the phrase seems to 
 have been, to " augment " it for such performance. 
 
 The evidence seems to be that Shakespeare, in 
 his revisal, either wrote his "augmentations" on 
 the margins of the original draft, or else on slips 
 of paper pinned thereto. And that thecopyreader, 
 who stood (as was the custom in printing houses of 
 that date f) at the compositor's elbow, read the 
 whole — text and augmentation alike — and the com- 
 positor set it all up together as he heard it. 
 
 * Ante, p. 428. 
 
 f It must be remembered that the spelling of the quartos was 
 not Shakespeare's, but that of the compositors, who set up bjr ear 
 entirely, and as these compositors were mostly Germans, this 
 fact alone accounts for many so-called base readings. For other 
 typographical causes, see " The Bankside Shakespeare, " vol. xiv., 
 Introduction. 
 
464 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 Without pausing to note that here is proof that 
 at least one of Shakespeare's plays (and lihat one 
 the first which ever bore a title-page with his name 
 upon it as author) was not all printed from stolen 
 actors' lines pieced together — let us run into 
 parallel columns the draft and the "augmenta- 
 tions," beginning at line 298 of Act IV., thus: 
 
 FIRST DRAFT. AUGMENTATION. 
 
 Line Line 
 
 298. From women's eyes 346. From women's eyes 
 this doctrine I de- this doctrine I de- 
 rive: rive: 
 
 299. They are the 347. They sparkle still 
 ground, the books, the right Prome- 
 the academes thean fire; 
 
 300. From whence doth 348. They are the books, 
 spring the true the arts, the aca- 
 Promethean fire. demes 
 
 349. That show, con- 
 tain, and nourish 
 all the world. 
 
 Nobody, surely, can fail to detect Ben Jonson's 
 " sufflaminandus erat." In the first draft, Shakes- 
 peare used the words "the ground" (line 299). 
 In revising he rejects this and substitutes the 
 words "the arts." His meaning in using "ground" 
 was to say that a lady's eyes were " the ground " of 
 inspiration. His meter had restricted him. Butin 
 revising this pretty speech, he substitutes a phrase 
 that not only retains the sense but suits his meter. 
 For "grounds" he expresses his compliment by 
 
PLEASANT 
 
 Conceiced Comedie 
 
 CALLED, 
 
 Loues labors loft. 
 
 Asit was prefented before her Highnes 
 this M Chrif^ma^. 
 
 Newly corrcfted and augmented 
 ByW.ShakeJ^ere. 
 
 Jmprinted at London By WIT* 
 ioiCutbertBm-^f, 
 
466 
 
 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 the words "the arts." And, following closely the 
 idea that the bright eyes of women inspire effort in 
 their lovers, he supplies his own ellipsis. " Pro- 
 methean fire " does not " spring from " ladies' eyes, 
 except by a labored analogy. But the analogy is 
 simplified, and at once explained, by the revision 
 which prettily puts it that, by sparkling attractively, 
 they become "the books, the arts, the academes 
 that show, contain, and nourish all the world." 
 Again, we have (Act V. scene ii. 805 and seq.): 
 
 FIRST DRAFT. 
 
 Line 
 
 805. Biron. And what to 
 me, my love, and 
 what to me? 
 
 AUGMENTATION. 
 Line 
 
 825. Biron. Studies, my 
 lady? Mistress, 
 look on me; 
 
 826. Behold the window 
 of my heart, my 
 eye, 
 
 827. What humble suit 
 attends thy answer 
 there. 
 
 828. Impose some serv- 
 ice on me for thy 
 love! 
 
 This is, indeed, that richness of an overwrought 
 fancy which Jonson held to be a fault. Shakes- 
 peare was evidently in love with Rosaline himself. 
 Rosaline proceeds to answer her admirer as 
 follows : 
 
THE WARWICKSHIKE DIALECT. 
 
 467 
 
 FIRST DRAFT. 
 
 Line 
 806. 
 
 807. 
 
 808. 
 
 809. 
 
 810. 
 
 Ros. You must be 
 purged too. Your 
 sins are racked. 
 You are attaint 
 witti faults and per- 
 jury. 
 
 Therefore, if you 
 my favor mean to 
 get, 
 
 A twelvemonthshall 
 you spend and 
 never rest, 
 But seek the weary 
 beds of people sick. 
 
 AUGMENTATION. 
 Line 
 
 829. Oft have I heard 
 of you, my Lord 
 Biron, 
 
 830. Before I saw you: 
 and the world's 
 large tongue 
 
 831. Proclaims you for 
 a man replete with 
 mocks, 
 
 832. Full of compari- 
 sons and wounding 
 flouts, 
 
 833. Which you on all 
 estates will execute 
 
 834. That lie within the 
 mercy of your wit, 
 
 835. To weed this worm- 
 wood from your 
 fruitful brain, 
 
 836. And therewithal to 
 win me if you 
 please — etc., etc. 
 
 And yet, however, exuberantly the Shakespearean 
 fancy runs into speech, it rarely seems to tempt to 
 disorder or indifference to the proper sequence of 
 things. 
 
 And this Order, and sequence, of things ap- 
 pears to be a kind of touchstone for Shakespearan 
 work almost everywhere! For example, even 
 Falstaff, erratic as he is, and exultant in his 
 
468 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 Utter disregard of any sense of propriety, will 
 be found to move in the narrative along reasonable 
 lines. He does not, for example, set out to impress 
 soldiers for the Iting's armies before war is declared. 
 And, impudent as the demand on the Civil Justice 
 was for the loan of ;^iooo, Falstaff would have had 
 some colorable apology for the demand had His 
 Lordship committed him for contempt of court! 
 So again : the meeting of Falstaff and Shallow in 
 Gloucestershire is not, as it appears to be, a 
 mere playwright's device to bring two old pals 
 together, but a compliance with an old statute 
 of the realm which provided that the impressing 
 officer should report to the Justice of the Peace of 
 the vicinage, and make requisition on him for funds 
 to carry on the king's .business. (Indeed, this 
 whole portion of the play is a precise exemplifica- 
 tion of the method by which an English army was 
 raised, in that interval of time before the days of 
 standing armies, but after the collapse of the feudal 
 epoch, during which the great Crown vassals had 
 been requisitioned for their quotas of troops for 
 the Crown's legions.) It follows, therefore, that if 
 Falstaff had chosen to claim that the Chief Justice, 
 by calling him to account, was sitting as a com- 
 mitting magistrate (that is, a Justice of the Peace), 
 he might have claimed his prerogative as a pressing 
 officer to require for funds, under the statute of 
 Heriry VIII. And it is pleasant to think, too, 
 that, in this view of it, poor old Shallow did not 
 ultimately lose the ;^iooo he loaned Sir John, but 
 could have recouped himself for it of the crown 
 after the peace! 
 
THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 469 
 
 This is only another instance of the Shakespearean 
 tendency to photograph, as it were with X-rays, 
 every phase of life about him — from courtier to 
 courtesan; from Lord Chief Justice to the humblest 
 and foulest "cheater" of the royal revenues. 
 
 And yet again, while drawing from every source 
 in books as well as in life — from Holinshed, from 
 North's Plutarch, from Florio's translation of 
 Montaigne, from Plowden's black-letter reports, and 
 even from this old statute at large, which at Eliza- 
 beth's date must have beeti about as inaccessible to 
 a layman as it would be to-day — from the book 
 nearest to him even in the Stratford schoolhouse, 
 and chained to posts at the crossways — Shakes- 
 peare took no theme, drew no lesson, and molded 
 no preachment. From no one of the three great 
 versions of the Scriptures extant in his working life 
 did he borrow, save now and then barely in allusion 
 — as he makes Hamlet allude to Jephtha's daughter 
 — to color some speech or quip of the instant! 
 
 I note, however, one possible exception, and this 
 one which might have come (if it came at all — which 
 is dubious) from the Psalter in the Book of Common 
 Prayer, viz., in Theobald's exquisite emendation of 
 the crux in poor Dame Quickly-Pistol's story of 
 Falstaff's death scene. Theobald read the folio: 
 " His Nofe was as fharpe as a Pen, and a Table of 
 greene fields" — into "His nose was as sharp as a 
 pen and a' babbled of green fields." This, some con- 
 jectural commentator upon a conjectural reading 
 explains, shows that the precious old reprobate, in 
 his dying moments, tried to repeat from the Twenty- 
 
470 THE WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 third Psalm : " He shall feed me in a green pasture, 
 and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort." 
 This is far too lovely to disturb! Better a snatch 
 of the Psalter than a stave of the ribald chorus of 
 " My Lady Green-sleeves," which he aforetime had 
 trolled at the Garter Inn in Windsor and at the 
 Boar's Head in East Cheap, which — if for anything 
 "green," Falstaff's character context might have 
 called for. Perhaps, and let us hope so, the sub- 
 commentators are right! And perhaps Shakespeare 
 did mean to let the dying old man's mind recur 
 to the beautiful Psalm — of his own perhaps — but 
 certainly of Shakespeare's own, childhood memory. 
 
AN INDEX 
 
 OF 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE WORDS AND 
 PRONUNCIATIONS. 
 
 A', 188 
 Abear, 146 
 Abide, 146 
 Abroad, 74 
 Accardin, 112 
 Account, 390 
 Accud, 396 
 Accun, 396 
 Acuz, 396 
 Acrass, 396 
 Addle, 76 
 Addling, 76 
 Adlands, 90 
 A'done, 328 
 Afeared, 396 
 Aforelong, 318 
 A'form, 268 
 Afrawl, 322 
 Aften, 400 
 Agate, 178 
 Age-on, 146 
 Agin, 66 
 Aggis, 150 
 Agoo, 396 
 Agreeable, 66, 386 
 Agyun, 396 
 Ah, 394 
 Aim, 74 
 Aince, 244 
 Aitredans, 334 
 Akere, 216 
 
 All, 348 
 
 All of a jilt, 278 
 
 AUhalluns, 186 
 
 Allow, 114 
 
 AUwuz, 396 
 
 Along of, 80, 388 
 
 A'one, 292 
 
 Amwust, 396 
 
 An-all, 68 
 
 Anant, 244 
 
 Anew, 398 
 
 Anigh, 234 
 
 Ankitcher, 399 
 
 Ankler, 396 
 
 Ankley, 70, 376 
 
 Annenst, 244 
 
 Anointed, 226 
 
 Anty-tump, 70 
 
 Archud, 400 
 
 Arg, 72 
 
 Argal, 72 
 
 Arn, 399 
 
 Arnary, 246 
 
 Arnery, 400 
 
 Arsy-versy, 368 
 
 Article, 112 
 
 A sight of, 240 
 
 As-as, 384 
 
 As good as, 150 
 
 Asked, 76 
 
 Assund backwards, 84, 194 
 
 Attacted, 396 
 
 Atternoon, 396 
 
 471 
 
474 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Athatuns, 356 
 Athissens, 356 
 Atween, 84 
 Attwood, 310 
 Aunty, 194 
 Awhile, 68, 202, 260 
 Awkward, 190, 242, 332 
 Ayfer, 399 
 Ayl, 400 
 
 B 
 
 Backer, 266 
 Back-friend, 186, 336 
 Back-up, 68, 336 
 Baigle, 330 
 Bait, 220 
 Bag, 396 
 Bally, 396 
 Bangle, 154 
 Bank eye, 326 
 Barm, 394 
 Barnacles, 322 
 Bat, 320 
 Batlet, 78 
 Batchlurg, 162, 2i5 
 
 Battel, 396 
 
 Baulch, 192 
 
 Bavin, 154 
 
 Bellock, 308 
 
 Belly timber, 374 
 
 Bemoil, 124, 316 
 
 Begging, 82 
 
 Belluck, 290 
 
 Belly vengeance, 342 
 
 Bent of grass, 88 
 
 Beskep, 84 
 
 Bessy, 397 
 
 Bettermost, 334 
 
 Betty, 322 
 
 Bibleback, 330 
 
 Biddy, 104 
 
 Bide, 282 
 
 Biggin, 98 
 
 Bisnings, 160 
 
 Bitter sweeting, 322 
 
 Bittock, 228 
 
 Bits and bobs, 242 
 
 Bizzum, 396 
 
 Black bat, 80 
 
 Blackie, 88 
 
 Black stare, 88 
 
 Blart, 308 
 
 Blat, 396 
 
 Blearing, 238 
 
 Blether, 176, 178 
 
 Blind man's holiday, 366 
 
 Blizzy, 88 
 
 Blobchops, 96 
 
 Blowse, 368 
 
 Blowsy, 368 
 
 Bluffy, 342 
 
 Blunder, 238 
 
 Blundering, 238 
 
 Bobby, 290 
 
 Bodge, 92, 268 
 
 Bodger, 344 
 
 BoSae, 354 
 
 Boiling, 384 
 
 Bolter, 96, 108, HO 
 
 Boltom, 312 
 
 Boss eye, 326 
 
 Bottle of hay, 94, 
 
 Bout, 300 
 
 Bow, 394 
 
 Braid, 120, 306 
 
 Braided, 306 
 
 Bran-face, 168 
 
 Brass, 228 
 
 Bravery, 160, 360 
 
 Breath, 397 
 
 Bree, 328 
 
 Breeches, 162 
 
 Breese, 328 
 
 Breff, 308 
 
 Brevet, 162, 272, 320 
 
 Brevetting, 116 
 
 Brise, 328 
 
 Brief, 260 
 
 Brim, 88 
 
 Brize, 174 
 
 Broken tears, 318 
 
 Bruck, 397 
 
 Bruddy, 397 
 
 Buck, 376 
 
 Buck basket, 376 
 
 Bucking, 376 
 
INDEX. 
 
 473 
 
 Buckle to, 82 
 
 Budge, 230, 232 
 
 Bugs, 296 
 
 Bull squilter, 172 
 
 Bum, 118 
 
 Bum Bailey, 118 
 
 Bundle, 330 
 
 Burrow, 304 
 
 Burrowed, 270 
 
 Burn daylight, 268, 378 
 
 Bussock, 330 
 
 Butty, 104, no, 158 
 
 Bwun, 396 
 
 Bwurd, 396 
 
 Bwut, 396 
 
 Bwuth, 397 
 
 Bwuttle, 397 
 
 Byuns, 390 
 
 Byut, 396 
 
 Caddie, 116, 216, 224 
 Cade, 226, 344 
 Cade, lamb, 344 
 Cadjer, 80 
 Cag-cank, 102 
 Cag-mag, 164, 182, 276 
 Cakey, 378 
 Candy, 340 
 Cank, 100, 102 
 Canker blossom, 356 
 Canna, 98 
 Canting, 294 
 Caowd, 397 
 Caowt, 397 
 Cap, 150, 340 
 Carvey, 380 
 Carpts, 397 
 Casualty, 156 
 Causey, 397 
 Cavaltry, 397 
 Celery, 397 
 Chackle, 96, 397 
 Chalk, 397 
 Chan, 120 
 Chance child, 76 
 Chancet, 244 
 
 Chaney, 397 
 Character, 282 
 Charks, 102 
 Chats, 104 
 Chatterpie, 102 
 Chaun, 108 
 Chaunter, 234 
 Chawl, 104 
 Ched, 170, 292 
 Cheer, 397 
 Chelp, 102, 106 
 Chewer, 68, 126, 210, 250 
 Childing, 260 
 Chill, 376 
 Chimbly, 104 
 Chime, 326 
 Chin cough, 384 
 Chip, 94 
 Chip out, 132 
 Chirp, 102 
 Chits, 324 
 Chittlins, 148 
 Chabble, 104 
 Chock, 170 
 Choice, 124, 250 
 Chop, 152 
 Chop goss, 90-370 
 Christian, 198 
 Chuldrum, 397 
 Chup, 397 
 Churm, 397 
 Chut, 397 
 Chuff, 164 
 Clam, 326 
 Clapgate, 328,364 
 Clat, 22,346,397 
 Clatterer, 344,346 
 Clauss, 397 
 Claw, 162,356 
 Clean, 148,384 
 Clem, 326 
 elementing, 318 
 Clem-gutted, 184 
 Clinking, 144 
 Clommed, 156 
 Clommer, 192 
 Clouter headed, 332 
 Close, 180 
 Clozen, 180 
 
474 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cob, 296,306,350 
 
 Cobby, 296,306,350 
 
 Cobwail, 320 
 
 Cocksey, 116 
 
 Cod, 78 
 
 Codding, 68,112 
 
 Codge, 224 
 
 Codger, 226 
 
 Coil, 362 
 
 Coilled, 122 
 
 Cokers, 188 
 
 Cold crowdings, 186 
 
 Colley, 322 
 
 Collied, 86 
 
 Come, 72 
 
 Comes to see, 118 
 
 Commit, 66 
 
 Condition, 82 
 
 Conditioned, 82 
 
 Conge, 254 
 
 Conger, 122 
 
 Conk, 238 
 
 Constant, 68 
 
 Contrary, 122 
 
 Coom, 397 
 
 Cop, 21,100,296,306 
 
 Corky, 310 
 
 Cornish, 397 
 
 Corple, 118 
 
 Courser's hair, 196 
 
 Cox, 96 
 
 Coxey, 112 
 
 Crack, 88,182 
 
 Cracker, 90 
 
 Cracks, 122 
 
 Craisies, 96 
 
 Craw, 90 
 
 Creechy, 158 
 
 Creep up your sleeve, 380 
 
 Crem, 397 
 
 Crink, 70 
 
 Crippers, 372 
 
 Croak, 130 
 
 Croffing, 158 
 
 Croodle, 330 
 
 Cross-an-hands, 182 
 
 Crostering, 90 
 
 Crouchy, 158 
 
 Crow, 258 
 
 Crowkeeper, 296 
 Cruddle, 120 
 Crudy, 164 
 Crusses, 120 
 Cub up, 116 
 Cubbed up, 120 
 Cumber, 362 
 Cunning, 386 
 Cunger, 120 
 Cusses, 116,152 
 Customer, 384 
 Cut-up, 128 
 Cuther, 382 
 
 D 
 
 Dabhand, 152 
 Dabster, 152 
 Daddy rough, 328 
 Dag, 130, 398 
 Daggle, 302 
 Dampin', 138, 308 
 Darnse, 397 
 Datchet, 312 
 Deadly, 100, 240 
 Denial, 128, 136, 194 
 Dern, 397 
 Despert, 398 
 Digester, 132 
 Dilling, 310, 314, 332 
 Dinge, 128 
 Dink, 124 
 Dirty Dan'l, 360 
 Digest, 398 
 Ditched, 82 
 Dither, 304, 360 
 Ditter, 304 
 Dizzen, 126, 246 
 Do, 134 
 
 Do her face, 208 
 Do out, 106 
 Doctor's stuff, 224 
 Dodement, 14 
 Domber, 316 
 Donney, 186 
 Dab, 314 
 Dont share, 256 
 Dotcher, 312 
 Dout, 142, 154, 274 
 
INDEX. 
 
 473 
 
 Dowsley, 398 
 Doxy, 330, 384 
 Drap, 398 
 Dratcher, 312 
 Drench, 138 
 Dribblins, 136 
 Drop out, 132 
 Drummill, 168 
 Dryskin, 140, 374 
 Dub, go 
 Dubbed, 86 
 Dubble, 130 
 Dubersome, 136 
 Dudley, 398 
 Dudocky, 292 
 DufiE, 136, 272 
 Dumble, 182 
 Dummill, 368 
 Dummock, 368 
 Dummy, 98, 138 
 Dumpty, 350 
 Dunch, 140, 240 
 Dunch-dumpHng, 136 
 Dunching, 78 
 Dungill, 140 
 Dunnekin, 246 
 Dup, 244, 310, 336 
 Dui-gey, 142 
 DyuU, 398 
 
 E 
 
 Eames, 184 
 
 Earling, 210 
 
 Earrings, 392 
 
 Earth, 132 
 
 Eckth, 399 
 
 Ecky, 174 
 
 Eleven, 142 
 
 Entany, 210 
 
 Enu, 148 
 
 Ert, 398 
 
 Esses, 396 
 
 Ether, 66 
 
 Etherings, 384 
 
 Even- Christian, 148 
 
 Even up, 286 
 
 Ever so, 100 
 
 Every hands while, 242 
 
 Ex, 396 
 Exter, 398 
 Eyeable, no 
 Eyepiece, 300 
 
 Faater, 398 
 
 Faddy, 172 
 
 Fads, 360 
 
 Faggott, 178, 330, 392 
 
 Faillies, 398 
 
 Fainty, 156 
 
 Fald, 398 
 
 Fall, 158 
 
 Falling weather, 308 
 
 Fammeled, 156, 198, 326 
 
 Fantey, 254 
 
 Faou, 398 
 
 Fardel, 94, 328 
 
 Farry, 214 
 
 Fash, 362 
 
 Fast, 168 
 
 Fatch, 398 
 
 Fatches, 403 
 
 Fat-headed, 332 
 
 Fault it, 120 
 
 Faver, 160 
 
 Favor, 286 
 
 Fawt, 398 
 
 Fearn, 398 
 
 Feeder, 202, 334 
 
 Felth, 158 
 
 Fet, 160 
 
 Fettle, 254 
 
 Fidther, 292 
 
 Field, 248 
 
 Fierce, 108, 260 
 
 File, 302 
 
 Fill beard, 398 
 
 Fillets, 403 
 
 Findless, 360 
 
 Find of, 158 
 
 Firelights, 403 
 
 Fire new, 94 
 
 Fish like, 324 
 
 Fisses, 162 
 
 Fissle, 160 
 
 Fit, 280, 398 
 
476 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Fits and girds, 208 
 
 Fither, 160 
 
 Fittles, 403 
 
 Fizgig, 330 
 
 Flacky, 222, 226, 320 
 
 Flacs, 398 
 
 Flannin, 398 
 
 Flash, 270 
 
 Fleshy, 162 
 
 Fletcher, 122 
 
 Flew, 302 
 
 Flicket, 162 
 
 Flinch, 176, 220 
 
 Flommacky, 312 
 
 Flop, 156 
 
 Flothery, 238 
 
 Flur, 162, 398 
 
 Fob, 102 
 
 Foddering, 158 
 
 Footstich, 166 
 
 Forecast, 70, 268, 270 
 
 Foredraft, 260, 310 
 
 Forewearied, 152, 320, 380 
 
 Fornicating, 126, 390 
 
 Forty-guts, 178 
 
 Fother, 158, 398 
 
 Forum, 214 
 
 Fowt, 399 
 
 Frail, 76 
 
 Franzy, 250 
 
 Frecket, 252 
 
 Frem, 188, 374 
 
 Fresh, 140 
 
 Frit, 170 
 
 Fritch, 114 
 
 Frogging. 176 
 
 Frousty, 168, 234 
 
 Frum, IT2 
 
 Frush, 78, 94 
 
 Fry, 168 
 
 Fub, 102 
 
 FuUock, 78 
 
 Fumatory, 172 
 
 Fender, 399 
 
 Furry, 398 
 
 Fussock, 330 
 
 Fust, 399 
 
 Fut, 399 
 
 Futch, 398 
 
 Gaffer, 180 
 
 Gaig, 342 
 
 Gain, 186, 
 
 Gainly, 152 
 
 Gaish, 399 
 
 Gallow, 168 
 
 Galloway, 110 
 
 Gallus, 204, 384 
 
 Gammy, 126 
 
 Gawm, 204 
 
 Gay, 342 
 
 Gear, 188 
 
 Geek, 106, 140, 200 
 
 Geg, 342 
 
 Gell, 176 
 
 Gether, 174 
 
 Gets, 174 
 
 Gibber, 340 
 
 Gidding, 176, 352, 354 
 
 Giddy-pated, 354 
 
 Gie over, 328 
 
 Gifts, 322 
 
 Giggling, 366 
 
 Gird, 274 
 
 Girta, 66, 182 
 
 Gleed, 146 
 
 Gleeds, 144 
 
 Glinch, 399 
 
 Glir, 178, 314 
 
 Glorry, 182 
 
 Glostering, 92 
 
 Glout, 258 
 
 Glump, 258 
 
 Go back, 130 
 
 Go-by-the-grounds, 143 
 
 Go on at, 100 
 
 Gob, 138, 152, 232, 324 
 
 Gobby, 366 
 
 Going in, 70 
 
 Gogging, 202 
 
 Gold digger, 298 
 
 Gold dust, 152 
 
 Goold, 399 
 
 Gore-thrasher, 354 
 
 Gossips, 178 
 
 Goster, 88 
 
 Gostering, 88 
 
INDEX. 
 
 411 
 
 Grace, 399 
 Graft, 328 
 Gnaish, 178 
 Graunchan, 330 
 Graveled, 144 
 Great, 162 
 Grecian, 394 
 Grimp, 134, 136 
 Grinsard, 182, 364 
 Grise, 166 
 Griskin syke, 74 
 Grit, 328 
 Groaning, 104 
 Ground, 160 
 Grounds, 210 
 Grout, 228 
 Giggling, 212 
 Grouse, 118 
 Grubby, 132 
 Gubbon hole, 310 
 Gull, 180, 238 
 Gallund, 399 
 Gullup, 399 
 Gunner, 244, 326 
 Guss, 86 
 Gutter, 138 
 Gwun, 399 
 Gyum, 399 
 Guzzle, 388 
 
 H 
 
 Hackle, 350 
 Haggle, 120 
 Haggler, 120 
 Hand, 116 
 Honey stalk, 382 
 Handy to, 236 
 Haowt, 196 
 Happen, 254 
 Harry, 186 
 Heal, 86 
 Hereabouts, 236 
 Heart, 112 
 Hearten, 146 
 Heavens-hard, 192 
 Hedge-Betty, 192, 322 
 Hellrake, 192 
 Help, 98 
 
 Her, 302 
 Herds, 360 
 Hickle, 390 
 Higher, 278 
 Hickwall, 390 
 Hike, 78 
 Higgler, 252 
 Hillings, 78 
 Him, 399 
 Hit, 276 
 
 Hiver hover, 378 
 Hockle, 308 
 Hoblionkers, 104 
 Hocklin, 74 
 Hodbowland, 230 
 Holped, 192 
 Holt, 388 
 Hook-bill, 188 
 Horning, 114 
 Hoove, 196 
 Hot, 196, 376, 399 
 Hotchle, 308 
 Housen, 196 
 Howsomdever, 198 
 Huch and haow, 332 
 Hud, 399 
 Hudge, 190 
 Hugger-mugger, 132 
 Humbugs, 340 
 Hummoks, 158 
 Hurdin, 94, 184, 388 
 
 Iffin an' offin, 204 
 
 inconvenient, 204 - 
 
 In, 242 
 
 In print, 152, 236 
 
 Inchmeal, 180 
 
 Inkle, 344 
 
 Innards, 208 
 
 Irk, 68, 92 
 
 Iss, 404 
 
 Istady, 404 
 
 It, 404 
 
 J 
 
 Jack in his lantern, 384 
 
47S 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Tackbonial, 342 
 Jenny, 392 
 Jerry'ouse, 348 
 Jerusalem Pony, 136 
 Jessup, 342 
 Jet, 326 
 Jets, 274 
 Jice, 399 
 Jilt, 278 
 Jimrags, 346 
 Tine, 400 
 Job, 268 
 Joisting, 250 
 Jolter-headed, 332 
 Jock, 398 
 Jordan, 92, 208 
 Judge, 338 
 
 K 
 
 Karn, 397 
 
 Kay, 208 
 
 Kecks, 158, 192, 250, 380 
 
 Keech, 346 
 
 Keep, 286 
 
 Keen, 302 
 
 Kex, 158 
 
 Keffle, 300 
 
 Kek, 250 
 
 Kicky-wicky, 116 
 
 Kid, 154 
 
 Kind, 268, 354 
 
 Kindle, 204, 262, 368 
 
 Kiver, 364 
 
 Knag, 94 
 
 Knaaps, 394 
 
 Knoll, 358 
 
 Knot, 162 
 
 Kwartin, 397 
 
 Kwerd, 397 
 
 Knoll, 358 
 
 Kyart, 397 
 
 Kyoy, 400 
 
 Lace, 78 
 Ladther, 400 
 
 Lafft, 400 
 
 Lagger, 216, 224 
 
 Laidge, 400 
 
 Laird, 400 
 
 Laish, 400 
 
 Land, 172 
 
 Larn, 348 
 
 Lated, 128, 346 
 
 Lattermath, 68 
 
 Lay, 250 
 
 Laylock, 214 
 
 Layter, 400 
 
 Lazers, 178 
 
 Lazin, 399 
 
 Leam, 200 
 
 Lean to, 66, 152, 304, 388 
 
 Least ways, 74 
 
 Leather, 258 
 
 Leather-coat, 292 
 
 Lections, 266 
 
 Leese, 178 
 
 Lennet, 400 
 
 Lewwarm, 400 
 
 Leyum, 400 
 
 Lezzow, 224 
 
 Lick me, 72 
 
 Lief, 176, 386 
 
 Lifter, 352 
 
 Like, 154, 214 
 
 Limber, 164, 238, 258 
 
 Line, 400 
 
 Lines, 180, 222 
 
 Liver-pin, 190 
 
 Lobbatt, 216 
 
 Lodge, 210 
 
 Lodged, 210 
 
 Loff, 400 
 
 Loggats, 310 
 
 Longfuli, 70 
 
 Look-out, 246, 270 
 
 Loon, 280 
 
 Love-in-idleness, 248 
 
 Lown, 280 
 
 Lozel, 322 
 
 Lug-tit. 204 
 
 Lugged, 240 
 
 Lunge, 220 
 
 Lungerous, 90, 129 
 
 Lusty, 380 
 
INDEX. 
 
 479 
 
 M 
 
 Mad as mad, 272 
 
 Maggit, 222 
 
 Maiding tub, 376 
 
 Maislin, 254 
 
 Make, 210 
 
 Malkin, 296 
 
 Mankind witch, 298 
 
 Many a time and oft, 242 
 
 Mash, 136 
 
 Massenter, 224 
 
 Master, 232 
 
 Masterful, 134, 246, 384, 386 
 
 Maun, 224 
 
 Mawkin, 296 
 
 Meal, 226 
 
 Measeled, 230 
 
 Measley, 292 
 
 Meddle and make, 206 
 
 Meg, 184 
 
 Megrims, 252, 290, 382 
 
 MeS5, 200, 378 
 
 Middling, 356 
 
 Midge, 134 
 
 Millud, 226 
 
 Mind me, 284 
 
 Miss, 320 
 
 Mississing, 134 
 
 Missus, 232 
 
 Miss-word, 282 
 
 MishtifE, 400 
 
 Mither, 254 
 
 Mizzle, 316 
 
 Moil, 356 
 
 Moikin, 296 
 
 Moither, 362 
 
 Moithered, 126 
 
 MoUicrush, 222 
 
 Mongle, 94 
 
 Mop, 222 
 
 Mop and mow, 228 
 
 Moral, 230 
 
 Morris, 82 
 
 Mortal, 202, 394 
 
 Morum, 208 
 
 Mose, 220 
 
 Mossil, 400 
 
 Mossy, 400 
 
 Mozey, 292 
 Most in general, 370 
 Mothering-Sunday, 224 
 Mounseer, 168 
 Muck, 340 
 Muckerer, 120 
 Muck kender, 184 
 Mudgin, 106 
 Mufflin, 370 
 Mull, 90, 156 
 Mulled, 156, 312 
 Mullen, 188 
 Mult, 400 
 
 Mummock, 360, 348 
 Mummocked, 348 
 Mun, 234 
 Murk, 124 
 Music, 234 
 Muzzy, 140 
 Mwire, 400 
 Mwist-an-ind, 174 
 Mynabs, 216 
 Myunin, 400 
 
 N 
 Na, 238 
 
 Nabs-Naabs, 216, 394 
 Nag, 196 
 Nailpiercer, 176 
 Naint, 74 
 Nase, 400 
 Nat, 400 
 Near, 224, 328 
 Neb, 78 
 Neeld, 236 
 Next, 132 
 Next away, 132 
 Nicker, 182 
 Nigglin, 248 
 Nile, 162 
 Nineted, 240 
 Nintey-bird, 248 
 Nip, 200 
 Nipper, 394 
 Nisses, 400 
 Nist, 400 
 Nob, 2i6 
 Nobody, 238 
 
48o 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Noggen, io6 
 Nothingnest, 222 
 Noseholes, 238 
 Nousle, 332 
 Noways, 238 
 Nozman, 134 
 
 O 
 
 Obedience, 92, 122, 242 
 
 Odds, 130 
 
 Off, 170 
 
 Off his yed, 222 
 
 Old, 64, 256, 294 
 
 Old woman, 386 
 
 Onker, 394 
 
 Ongry, 399 
 
 Ontle, 186 
 
 Ooden, 403 
 
 Ool, 403 
 
 Ood, 388, 392 
 
 Old Harry, 130 
 
 Ooman, 388 
 
 Ond-shaken Time, 142 
 
 Oont, 228 
 
 Oos Bird, 76 
 
 Ooth, 403 
 
 Open arse, 224 
 
 Opiniated, 401 
 
 Opple, 396 
 
 Orts, 212, 284 
 
 Oss, 399 
 
 Ourn, 246 
 
 Oursens, 246 
 
 Out of, 202, 336, 392 
 
 Outride, 76 
 
 Overget, 246, 338 
 
 Overgo, 246, 338 
 
 Padded, 122, 138 
 Paddle, 380 
 Pantle, 248 
 Pantler, 274 
 Panzy-bed, 104 
 Paowl, 401 
 Partial to, 164 
 
 Pase, 401 
 
 Pash, 182 
 
 Patch, 104, 108, 200 
 
 Pathery, 236 
 
 Peart, 216 
 
 Peck, 252 
 
 Pedigree, 220 
 
 Peel, 74 
 
 Peggins, 226 
 
 Pelting, 198 
 
 Pelf, 242 
 
 Pendle, 252 
 
 Pereal, 144, 160 
 
 Perished, 170 
 
 Persecute, 268 
 
 Pert, 190 
 
 Peth, 401 
 
 Pharisees, 156, 398 
 
 Pibble, 252, 401 
 
 Picked, 142, 252, 256 
 
 Picod, 252 
 
 Picksniff, 248 
 
 Pickthanks, 156, 180, 346 
 
 Pickthanking work, 344 
 
 Pick up, 354 
 
 Piff, 272 
 
 Piggin, 248 
 
 Pill, 401 
 
 Pimping, 120 
 
 Pink, 102 
 
 Pinner, 72 
 
 Pinney, 256 
 
 Finsens, 256 
 
 Piss-abed, 12a 
 
 Pither, 98, 164 
 
 Pity, 256 
 
 Plim, 342 
 
 Pline, 258 
 
 Pluck, 214 
 
 Plumbob, 258 
 
 Poke, 178 
 
 Polt, 86 
 
 Pome water, 386 
 
 Poor, 352 
 
 Poor tale, 256, 282 
 
 Posses, 258 
 
 Potch, 274 
 
 Power, 276, 401 
 
 Preachment, 244 
 
INDEX. 
 
 481 
 
 Promp, 401 
 Puck, 332 
 Pucker, 134 
 Puckfyst, 352 
 Pudding-bag, 86 
 PufiE, 214 
 Pug, 84, 272 
 Puggin-tooth, 134 
 Pun, 84, 258, 272 
 Purgy, 252 
 Putcheon, 142 
 Puthery, 152 
 Pyutj 401 
 Pwyut, 401 
 
 Q 
 
 Quat, 254, 318 
 Quate, 401 
 Quilt, 258 
 Quop, 354 
 Quot, 332 
 Quoth, 324 
 
 Racket, 401 
 Race, 180, 298 
 Raggle, 116, 214, 222 
 Raise the place, 134 
 Raisin, 401 
 Raisty, 278 
 Rake, 118 
 Rammel, 282 
 Random, 268, 386 
 Randy, 112 
 Rap, 76, 342 
 Ravelment, 148 
 Ravin, 130 
 Reaching, 280 
 Ready, 276 
 Reap at, 284 
 Rear, 282 
 Reeming, 152 
 Recklin, 74 104 
 Reckon, 182, 334 
 Remember, 284 
 Reasty, 318, 324, 401 
 
 Repeat, 204 
 Retch, 324 
 Rheumatics, 288 
 Rheumatiz, 288 
 Ricken, 401 
 Rid, 128, 292 
 Ride, 290 
 Riddliss, 288 
 Rifle, 208 
 Rimming, 232 
 Rivvel, 392 
 Robbie, 148, 344 
 Roil, 160 
 
 Roomthy, 68, no 
 Rop, 401 
 Rovings, 280 
 Roxed, 220 
 Ruff, 234, 401 
 Ruinate, 292 
 Ruination, 292 
 Rot, 401 
 Rowsty, 401 
 Roxy, 246 
 Ruck, 120 
 Ruff, 401 
 Rubbidge, 401 
 Rum, 232 
 Russet, 70 
 
 Sadded, 356 
 Saddled, 152 
 Safe, 336 
 Saft, 401 
 Sagg, 140, 312 
 Saish, 401 
 Sallit, 401 
 Sally, 280 
 Salt, 384 
 Salvation, 142 
 Sappy, 320 
 Sarmint, 302 
 Saturday nights, 374 
 Scag, 324, 348 
 Scam, 156, 212 
 Scat, 344 
 Scog, 298 
 
482 INDEX, 
 
 Scogging, 298 
 
 Scouse, 381 
 
 Scowl o' brow, 298 
 
 Scrabble, 116, 120, 214, 222 
 
 Scraily, 74, 352 
 
 Scrat, 150, 401 
 
 Scratching, 298 
 
 Scrattle, 298 
 
 Scrawl, 206 
 
 Scrawt, 88 
 
 Scribe, 302, 310 
 
 Scrouge, 326 
 
 Scrowl, 344 
 
 Scrum, 180 
 
 Scrump, 86 
 
 Scrumps, 70 
 
 ScuUud, 401 
 
 Scud, 278 
 
 Scut, 344 
 
 Scuttle, 76, 96 
 
 See, 294 
 
 Sen, 310 
 
 Senness, 401 
 
 Serve, 158 
 
 Set, 212 
 
 Settlas, 296 
 
 Settle, 300 
 
 Shackle, 136, 312 
 
 Shade, no 
 
 Shaives, 401 
 
 Share, 302 
 
 Shacklety, 288 
 
 Shap, 401 
 
 Sharm, 140 
 
 Shart, 402 
 
 Shelf, 106 
 
 Shift, 306 
 
 Shilf , 402 
 
 Shimmy, 104 
 
 Ship, 304, 402 
 
 Shippud, 402 
 
 Shit, 146 
 
 Shive, 312 
 
 Shog, 128, 248, 300 
 
 Shookery, 348 
 
 Shod, 308 
 
 Shoon, 304 
 
 Shoot, 402 
 
 Shoud, 403 
 
 Shuflf, 402, 409 
 
 Shug, 254 
 
 Shum, 402 
 
 Shuppeck, 256 
 
 Shut on, 27S, 288 
 
 Sick, 336 
 
 Sid, 402 
 
 Sidder, 168, 358 
 
 Sigh, 154 
 
 Sinks, 302 
 
 Sitch, 402 
 
 Sithe, 310, 401 
 
 Skant, 298 
 
 Scrat, 298 
 
 Scawt, 298 
 
 Skew, 396 
 
 Skewebald, 256 
 
 Skip, 76 
 
 Skurruck, 228 
 
 Slacken-twist, 124 
 
 Slang 
 
 Slanged, 98 
 
 Slat, 312, 402 
 
 Sleepers, 142 
 
 Slep, 402 
 
 Slether, 314 
 
 Slippy, 314 
 
 Slip string, 304 
 
 Sliver, 314 
 
 Slivvy kate, 397 
 
 Slob, 402 
 
 Slobiser, 226 
 
 Slobbery, 226, 232 
 
 Slom, 148 
 
 Slommocks, 312, 368 
 
 Slop, 108, 170 
 
 Slow, 112 
 
 Smack, 346 
 
 Small Beer, 360 
 
 Smartish, 270 
 
 Smatch, 346 
 
 Smock-faced, 228 
 
 Smoke and smother, 316 
 
 Smokehouse, 348 
 
 Smudge, 208 
 
 Sneap, 318 
 
 Sneedge, 402 
 
 Sneke, 286 
 
 Snift, 402 
 
Sobbed, 318 
 Sock, 242 
 Soft, 328, 356 
 Soft Sammy, 310 
 Soldery, 397 
 Soldier, 226 
 Sorry, 184 
 Sousy, 322 
 Sparrowgrass, 396 
 Spaul, 322, 324 
 Spault, 402 
 Spet, 402 
 Spif, 174 
 Spiffy, 174 
 Spinney, 388 
 Spiry, 378, 402 
 Spot, 228 
 Sprag, 66, 104 
 Sprakt, 104 
 Sprill, 98 
 Spuds, 258 
 Spug, 403 
 Squale, 402 
 Square, 276 
 Squash, 250 
 Squinch, 401 
 Squinny, 326 
 Squot, 96 
 Squoze, 403 
 Staddle, 288 
 Stagger-bob, 98 
 Stale, 370 
 Stank, 122 
 Starky, 140 
 Starve, 168 
 Starved, 170 
 Starven, 126 
 Statute cap, 390 
 Stelch, 212 
 Stem, 402 
 Still, 176, 282, 286 
 Stitchwhile, 230 
 Stirrup, 403 
 Stiving, 2IO 
 Stive up, 116 
 Stock, 182, 186 
 Stock-hole, 100 
 Stodge, 1 80 
 Stom, 402 
 
 INDEX. 483 
 
 Stomachful, 194, 270, 286, 
 
 326 
 Stomachfulness, 260 
 Stond, 402 
 Stopliss, 214 
 Stowl, 332 
 
 Straight, 166, 276, 277 
 Striddle, 403 
 Strides, 362 
 Strem, 403 
 Strik, 403 
 Stun, 403 
 Substance, 364 
 Suddent, 338 
 Sukey, 348 
 Summat, 322 
 Summer, 318 
 Sut, 403 
 
 Swagger, 118, 294 
 Swanky, 342 
 Swappel, 136 
 Swart, 403 
 Swarm, 108 
 Swatchell, 136 
 Sweetener, 96 
 Swill, 288, 376 
 Swinge, 402, 403 
 Swound, 402 
 Swounded, 402 
 
 Tailor, 290 
 
 Tageous, 364, 374, 384 
 
 Take away, 70 
 
 Talent, 108, 342 
 
 Tang, 64 
 
 Tank, 74 
 
 Tar, 358 
 
 Tarre, 206 
 
 Tater-trap, 230 
 
 Tay, 348 
 
 Teart, 248 
 
 Ted, 362 
 
 Teel, 212 
 
 Teg, 392 
 
 Tempest, 20, 278 
 
 Terrible, 152 
 
484 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Terrify, 68, 128, 358 
 Terry, 328 
 Thack, 350 
 That, 372 
 Theirn, 350 
 Thee'st, 394 
 Thill-horse, 380 
 Thou'st, 364 
 Thrasher, 354 
 Thwin, 403 
 Tickle, 358, 366 
 Tiddivate, 246 
 Tiddy, 76 
 Tiller, 380 
 Tills, 302 
 Tiliky, 378 
 Titty bottle, 380 
 Token, 126 
 Tone, no 
 Toot, 272 
 Tooty, 118 
 Tosey, 356 
 Tot, 234 
 Tottery, 204 
 Traipse, 234 
 Trewell, 403 
 Truck, Z06 
 Trusten, 403 
 Thrid, 403 
 Tun-dish, 172 
 Tup, 278 
 Tumits, 403 
 Tussock, 364 
 Tutly, 98 
 Twang, 64 
 Twit, 86 
 Twizzle, 148 
 Two folks, 372 
 
 U 
 
 Udder-mucklin, 368 
 Un, 224 
 
 Unaccountable, 368 
 Unbeknownt, 366 
 Undeniable, 150 
 Unked, 176, 220, 320, 366 
 Urge, 272, 350 
 Urked, 14 
 
 Valley, 403 
 Varges, 403 
 Varmint, 403 
 Very middling, 358 
 Vetches, 160 
 
 W 
 
 Waiweind, 86 
 
 Wake, 126 
 
 Wall-eyed, 84 
 
 Waps, 376 
 
 Wangle, 358, 382 
 
 Wascut, 403 
 
 Wanny, 248, 376 
 
 Warm, 78, 354 
 
 Watched, 138, 294, 380 
 
 Weever, 198 
 
 Weigh-jolt, 300 
 
 Werry, 404 
 
 Wench, 124, 176, Z02 
 
 Wesh, 403 
 
 Whiff, 74 
 
 Whiffle, 92 
 
 Whiffler, 166, 192, 370 
 
 Whipster, 368 
 
 Whipstich, 304, 382 
 
 Whistle, 312 
 
 Whistling Thrusher, 354 
 
 Whittaw, 292 
 
 Whoam, 196 
 
 Wick, 403 
 
 Wift, 382 
 
 Will-Till, 194 
 
 Wimbling, 292 
 
 Wimpled, 126, 310 
 
 Wimpling, 292 
 
 Withy, 386 
 
 Wizzund, 388 
 
 Work, 172 
 
 Wop, 78 
 
 Wratch, 310 
 
 Wungle, 258 
 
 Work, 298 
 
 Work-brittle, 204 
 
 Wuts, 242 
 
INDEX. 
 
 485 
 
 Yammer, 382 
 Yar, 399 
 Yarbs, 194 
 Yard, 392 
 Yarnest, 398 
 Yaow, 399 
 Yarley, 398 
 Yat, 174 
 Yaux, 152 
 Yawrups, 240, 332 
 
 Yea, 394 
 Yed, 188 
 Yent, 238 
 Yerk, 124, 292, 354 
 Yoe, 150 
 Yon, 394 
 Yourn, 404 
 Ytint it, 399 
 Yup, 192, 379 
 Yuss, 404 
 Yut, 398 
 Yuzzy, 398 
 
 THE END. 
 
PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS 
 
 OF 
 
 tTbe Sbaftespearc Society of IRew l^orft 
 
 ■iiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiniiiiiiii 
 
 I. Ecclesiastical Law in Hamlet : The Burial of Ophelia 
 
 R. S. Guernsey, Esq. i6mo. 
 
 in. Shakespeare and Allegfed Spanish Prototypes 
 
 Albert R. Frey, Esq. i6ino. 
 
 v.- VI. Time in the Play of Hamlet 
 
 Edward P. Vining, A. M. i6rao. 
 
 Once Used Words in Shakespeare 
 
 James D. Butler, LL. D. i6mo. 
 
 The First Shakespeare Society 
 
 J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, LL. D., F. R. S. 
 
 VII. Dig;esta. Shakespeareana 
 
 Being a list of books, reviews, and magazine articles on 
 Shakespearean subjects (exclusive of editions), from 1623 
 to January i, 1898. Dates, authors, and publishers. 
 
 VIII. A Plea for a Reference Canon of the Plays 
 
 Alvey a. Adee, a. M. i6mo. 
 
 IX. Caliban. A Drama. By Ernest Renan 
 
 Translated by E. Vickery. Introduction by Willis 
 Vickery, a. M. i2mo, Bankside style. 
 
 The Bankside Shakespeare 
 
 The Tragedies, Histories, and Comedies first printed in 
 quarto. Quarto and folio texts paralleled in facsimile and 
 lines numbered and collated line by line. Twenty vol- 
 uffies, de luxe, i2mo. Edited by Appleton Morgan, LL. D. 
 
 The Bankside Supplement 
 
 The Comedy of Errors. Edited by Appleton Morgan, LL. D. 
 
 X. A Study in the Warwickshire Dialect 
 
 With Glossary. Appleton Morgan, LL. D. 
 
 XI. A New Study of Shakespeare's Othello 
 
 Welkkr Given, Esq. 
 
 XII. In re Shakespeare's Legal Acquirements 
 
 Notes by an unbeliever therein. 
 
 By William C. Devecmon, Esq., A. M. 
 
 THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS of New York Gty 
 
 Printers to the New York Shakespeare Society 
 P. O. Box 555 Westfield, Union County, New Jersey