(_Continued from_ p. 376.)
_Imperseverant_, undiscerning. This word I have never met with but
twice,--in Shakspeare's _Cymbeline_, with the sense above given; and in
Bishop Andrewes' Sermon preached before Queen Elizabeth at Hampton
Court, A.D. 1594, in the sense of unenduring:
"For the Sodomites are an example of impenitent wilful sinners; and
Lot's wife of _imperseverant_ and relapsing righteous
persons."--_Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology_, vol. ii. p. 62.
_Perseverant_, discerning, and _persevers_, discerns, occur respectively
at pp. 43. and 92. of Hawes's _Pastime of Pleasure_ (Percy Society's
edition). The noun substantive _perseverance_=discernment is as common a
word as any of the like length in the English language. To omit the
examples that might be cited out of Hawes's _Pastime of Pleasure_, I
will adduce a dozen other instances; and if those should not _be enough_
to justify my assertion, I will undertake to heap together two dozen
more. Mr. Dyce, in his _Critique of Knight and Collier's Shakspeare_,
rightly explains the meaning of the word in _Cymbeline_; and quotes an
example of _perseverance_ from _The Widow_, to which the reader is
referred. Mr. Dyce had, however, previously corrupted a passage in his
edition of Rob. Greene's _Dramatic Works_, by substituting,
"perceivance" for _perseverance_, the word in the original quarto of the
_Pinner of Wakefield_, vol. ii. p. 184.:
"Why this is wondrous being blind of sight,
His deep _perseuerance_ should be such to know us."