"For his dyet he was verie temperate, and a great enemie of excesse
and surfetting; and so carelesse of delicates, as though he had had
no _perseuerance_ in the tast of meates," &c.--"The Life of
Ariosto," Sir John Harington's Translation of _Orlando Furioso_, p.
418.
"In regarde whereof they are tyed vnto these duties: First by a
prudent, diligent, and faithfull care to obserue by what things the
state may be most benefited; and to haue _perseuerance_ where such
marchandize that the state most vseth and desireth may be had with
greatest ease," &c.--_The Trauailer_, by Thomas Palmer: London,
1606.
"There are certain kinds of frogs in Egypt, about the floud of
Nilus, that have this _percewerance_, that when by chance they
happen to come where a fish called Varus is, which is great a
murtherer and spoiler of frogs, they use to bear in their mouths
overthwart a long reed, which groweth about the banks of Nile; and
as this fish doth gape, thinking to feed upon the frog, the reed is
so long that by no means he can swallow the frog; and so they save
their lives."--"The Pilgrimage of Kings and Princes," chap. xliii.
p. 294. of Lloyd's _Marrow of History_, corrected and revised by R.
C., Master of Arts: London, 1653.
"This fashion of countinge the monthe endured to the ccccl yere of
the citie, and was kepte secrete among the byshops of theyr
religion tyl the time that C. Flauius, P. Sulpitius Auarrio, and P.
Sempronius Sophuilongus, then beinge Consuls, against the mynde of
the Senatours disclosed all their solemne feates, published th[=e]
in a table that euery man might haue perseuera[=u]ce of them."--_An
Abridgemente of the Notable Worke of Polidore Vergile, &c._, by
Thomas Langley, fol. xlii.
"And some there be that thinke men toke occasion of God to make
ymages, whiche wylling to shewe to the grosse wyttes of men some
_perceiueraunce_ of hymselfe, toke on him the shape of man, as
Abraham sawe him and Jacob also."--_Id._, fol. lxi.
In this passage, as in others presently to be alleged, "notification"
seems to be the drift of the word.
"Of this vnreuerent religi[=o], Mahomete, a noble ma[=n]e, borne in
Arabie, or, as some report, in Persie, was authour: and his father
was an heathen idolater, and his mother an Ismaelite; wherfore she
had more _perceuerance_ of the Hebrues law."--_Id._, fol. cxlii.
"Where all feelyng and _perseuer[=a]ce_ of euill is awaie, nothyng
there is euill or found a misse. As if a manne {401} be fallen into
a sound slepe, he feleth not the hardenesse or other incommoditie of
his cabon or couche."--"The Saiynges of Publius, No. 58.," _The
Precepts of Cato, &c., with Erasmus Annotations_: London, 1550.
"Wherfore both Philip and Alexander (if ye dead haue anie
_perceuerance_) woulde not that the rootes (rooters) out of them
and theyre issue, but rather that the punnishers of those traitors,
should enioye the kingdom of Macedone."--"The XVI Booke of
Justine," fol. 86., Golding's Translation of the _Abridgement of
the Historyes of Trojus Pompeius_: London, 1578.
"And morouer bycause his setting of vs here in this world is to
aduaunce vs aloft, that is, to witte to the heauenly life, whereof
he giueth vs some _perceyuerance_ and feeling afore hande."--Io.
Calvin. "Sermon XLI., on the Tenth Chap. of Job," p. 209.,
Golding's Translation: London, 1574.
"And so farre are wee off from being able to atteine to such
knowledge through our owne power, that we flee it as much as is
possible, and blindfold our own eyes, to the intent we might put
away all _perceyuerance_ and feeling of God's judgement from
vs."--_Id._, "Sermon XLII.," p. 218.
"For (as I haue touched already) God of his goodnesse doth not
vtterly barre vs from hauing any _perceyuerance_ at all of his
wisdome: but it behoueth vs to keepe measure."--_Id._, "Sermon
XLIII.," p. 219.
I shall not cite any more from Golding, but simply observe that the word
occurs again and again in his translations. The remaining three examples
exhibit the noun in a somewhat different sense, viz. "notification," or
"means of discerning:"
"The time most apt in all the yeare, and affoording greatest
_perseuerance_ for the finding out of the heads of wells and
fountaines, are the moneths of August or September."--_The First
Booke of the Countrie Farme_, p. 8., by Stevens and Liebault,
translated by Svrflet, and edited by G. Markham: London, 1616.
"He may also gather some _perceiuerance_ by the other markes before
specified; that is to say, by the prints of his foote vpon the
grasse, by the carriages of his head, his dung, gate," &c.--_Id._,
booke vii. p. 685.
"And this lyfe to men is an high _perseveraunce_,
Or a lyght of faythe wherby they shall be saved."
"God's Promises," by John Bale; Dodsley's _Old Plays_ (Collier's
edition), vol. i. Part II. Act I.
By-the-bye, as a specimen of the value of this edition, take the
following passage of this very play:
"O perfyght keye of David, and hygh scepture of the kyndred of
Jacob; whych openest and no man _speareth_, that speakest and no
man openeth."--Act VII. p. 40.
On the word _speareth_ the commentator treats his reader to a note; in
which he informs him that _speareth_ means "asketh," and in proof of
this cites one passage from Chaucer, and two from Douglas's _Virgil_. It
might almost appear to be upbraiding the reader with stupidity to
mention that _speareth_ signifieth "bolteth, shutteth;" and that
"speaketh" is a misprint for _speareth_. This verb was a favourite with
Bale. One word more closes my budget for the present.
_More_, a root. Still in use in Gloucestershire, once of frequent
occurrence. To the examples alleged by Richardson, in his _Dictionary_,
add the following:
"I se it by ensaunple
In somer tyme on trowes;
Ther some bowes ben leved,
And some bereth none,
There is a meschief in the _more_
Of swiche manere bowes."
_The Vision of Piers Ploughman_, edited by Thomas
Wright, vol. ii. p. 300.
At p. 302. you find the sentiment in Latin:
"Sicut cum videris arborem pallidam et marcidam, intelligis
quod _vitium habet in radice_"--"a meschief in the _more_."
The Glossary of the editor is silent.
"It is a ful trie tree, quod he,
Trewely to telle;
Mercy is the _more_ therof,
The myddul stok is ruthe;
The leves ben lele wordes,
The lawe of holy chirche;
The blosmes beth buxom speche,
And benigne lokynge;
Pacience hatte the pure tree," &c.
_Id._, vol. ii. p. 330.
"It groweth in a gardyn, quod he,
That God made hymselve,
Amyddes mannes body,
The _more_ is of that stokke,
Herte highte the herber,
That it inne groweth."
_Id._, vol. ii. p. 331.
There should not be any comma, or other stop, at body, because the sense
is--"The root of that stock is amid man's body."
Mr. Wright's Glossary refers to these last two instances as follows:
"_More_ (A.-S.) 330, 331., the main or larger part, body (?)"
At p. 334. we meet with the word again:
"On o _more_ thei growed."
And again, at p. 416.:
"And bite a-two the _mores_."
May I, in passing, venture to inquire of the editor on what authority he
explains _waselede_ (p. 476.) to be "the pret. of _waselen_ (A.-S.) to
become dirty, dirty oneself?"
"This Troilus withouten rede or lore,
As man that hath his joies eke forlore,
Was waiting on his lady evermore,
As she that was sothfast croppe and _more_,
Of all his lust or joyes here tofore."
Chaucer's _Troilus and Creseide_, b.v.
{402}
Afterwards, in the same book, a few stanzas further on, he joins "crop"
and "root" together.
"Last of all, if these thinges auayle not the cure, I do commend
and allow above all the rest, that you take the iuyce of Celendine
rootes, making them cleane from the earth that doth vse to hang to
the _moores_."--_The Booke of Falconrie_, by George Turbervile,
1611, p. 236.
"Chiefely, if the _moare_ of vertue be not cropped, but dayly
rooted deepelyer."--_The Fyrste Booke of the Nobles or of
Nobilitye_, translated from Laurence Humfrey.
The next and last example from the "Second Booke" of this interesting
little volume I will quote more at large:
"Aristotle mencioneth in his Politikes an horrible othe vsed in
certaine states, consistinge of the regimente of fewe nobles, in
maner thus: I will hate the people, and to my power persecute them.
Which is the _croppe_ and _more_ of al sedition. Yet too much
practised in oure liues. But what cause is there why a noble man
should eyther despise the people? or hate them? or wrong them?
What? know they not, no tiranny maye bee trusty? Nor how yll
gard[=e] of c[=o]tinuance, feare is? Further, no more may nobilitie
misse the people, then in man's body, the heade, the hande. For of
trueth, the common people are the handes of the nobles, sith them
selues bee handlesse. They labour and sweate for them, with
tillinge, saylinge, running, toylinge: by sea, by l[=a]d, with
h[=a]ds, w't feete, serue them. So as w'oute theyr seruice, they
nor eate, nor drink, nor are clothed, no nor liue. We reade in ye
taleteller Esope, a doue was saued by the helpe of an ant. A lyon
escaped by the benefit of a mowse. We rede agayne, that euen ants
haue theyr choler. And not altogether quite, the egle angered the
bytle bee."
The reader will notice in this citation another instance of the verb
_miss_, to dispense with. I have now done for the present; but should
the collation of sundry passages, to illustrate the meaning of a word,
appear as agreeable to the laws of a sound philology, as conducive to
the integrity of our ancient writers, and as instructive to the public
as brainspun emendations, whether of a remote or modern date, which
now-a-days are pouring in like a flood--to corrupt long recognised
readings in our idolised poet Shakspeare, in order to make his
phraseology square with the language of the times and his readers'
capacities--I will not decline to continue endeavours such as the
present essay exhibits with a view to stem and roll back the tide.