[The words in the present Tract that really required to be glossed are
but few; I have, however, inserted in the following list most of the
variations from ordinary modern usage, in order that it may serve as an
Index.]
Af = of, p. 9.
Af = off, p. 12.
Ald = old, pp. 3, 21, 28.
Amangs = amongst, p. 18.
Ane = a, one.
Angle = angel, p. 33.
Auctoritie = authority, pp. 22, 29.
Aun = own, pp. 2, 3, 7, 8, 11, 15.
Awn = own, pp. 11, 18, 20, 30, 31.
Awn = proper, pp. 9, 11, 13, 15.
Awne = proper, p. 14.
Awne = own, p. 10.
Baeth = both, pp. 8, 34.
Bathe = both, p. 17.
Be = by.
Britan = British.
Cald = cold, pp. 30, 33;
caldest, p. 30.
Cales = calls, pp. 10, 22.
Chirt = a squirt, or a squeeze through the teeth, pp. 13, 14.
See Ruddiman’s Glossary to G. Douglas (_chirtand_).
Cold = could, p. 20.
Coples = couples, p. 33.
Corage = courage, p. 20.
Crouse = brisk, p. 28.
Cum = come, pp. 11, 31;
cumes = comes, p. 29.
Devore = devour, p. 20.
Devote = devout, p. 20.
Distinctiones = punctuation, p. 34.
Doon = done, p. 21.
Doting = giving, p. 3.
Earand = errand, p. 8.
Evin = even, p. 29.
Faer = fair, p. 28.
Falt = fault, pp. 15, 20.
Fand = found, p. 1.
Fele = feel, p. 32.
Felles = lowers, p. 22.
Finnes = fineness, p. 2.
Fontan = fountain, p. 11.
Foran = foreign, p. 20.
Frelie = freely, p. 34.
Geve = give, pp. 7, 8, 9, 12, 28, 29.
Gif = if, p. 21.
Glim = glimpse, p. 2.
Gud = good, pp. 2, 18, 21, 28, 29.
Hael = hail, p. 10.
Hald = hold, p. 14;
haldes, p. 29.
Hame = home, p. 2.
Hard = heard, pp. 2, 3, 13, 14, 22, 32.
Hart = heart, p. 33.
Heal = whole, p. 10.
Heer = hear, p. 33.
Here = hear, pp. 31, 32.
Hes = has, pp. 3, 14, 15, 19, 22, 32.
Hes = hast, p. 32.
Hes = have, pp. 20, 22.
Hoat = hot, pp. 18, 30, 33;
hoater, p. 30.
Hoores = hours, p. 31.
Ida, Scotland or Edinburgh, p. 2.
Incurre, _v._ = to run into. Lat. _incurro_, pp. 20, 33.
Ken = know, p. 21.
Kep, _v._ = to intercept, p. 14.
Kepping = receiving in the act of falling, p. 12. _Jamieson._
Knau = know, p. 2.
Knaulege = knowledge, pp. 3, 10;
knawlege, pp. 11, 21.
Knaw = know, pp. 7, 30;
knawe, p. 21;
knawen = known, p. 29.
Laggared = loitered or rested, p. 2.
Lang = long, pp. 9, 14.
Leave = live, p. 32.
Leve = live, pp. 32, 34.
Leving = living, p. 11.
Louse = loose, p. 9.
Lykwayes = likewise, p. 19.
Maer = more, pp. 2, 10.
Maest = most, pp. 1, 2, 16.
Man = must, p. 8.
Mare = more, p. 30.
Mast = most, pp. 30, 32.
Meer = mare, p. 28.
Middes = middle, p. 16.
Mikle = much, pp. 13, 18, 19, 20.
Mint = aim, pressure, p. 18.
Minted = attempted, p. 15.
Moat, probably _moot_, discussion, chat, etc., p. 2. A.S. _mót_.
Moe = more, pp. 16, 19, 21, 27.
Moien = means for attaining an end, p. 2. _Jamieson._ Fr. _moyen_.
Mont = mount, p. 24.
Montan = mountain, pp. 3, 11, 28.
Mynt = aim, pp. 12, 17.
Nae = no, pp. 1, 8.
Nane = none, p. 13.
Noat, _v._ = note, pp. 19, 22, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33.
Noat = note, pp. 7, 13, 28, 29;
noate, p. 28;
noates = notes, p. 29.
Nor = than, p. 3.
Nor, God nor, p. 31.
This most probably means God comfort or nourish us, connected with
_norice_, a nurse, and _norie_, a foster-child. There is also a
substantive _nore_ in Chaucer, meaning comfort. _Norne_ is to
entreat, ask (see _Alliterative Poems_ Glossary), and may have
something to do with this expression, but it is hardly so probable
as the above.
Noute = black cattle, p. 27;
connected with _neat_, as in neat-cattle, neat-herd.
Nulleth = negatives, p. 33.
Nurice = nurse, p. 19.
Of = off, p. 23.
Ones, at ones = at once, p. 18.
Paen = trouble, p. 2.
Paert = part, p. 10.
Peple = people, pp. 20, 29.
Phason = pheasant (?), p. 13.
Pover = poor, p. 3.
Punct = stop, p. 34.
Qu.
At p. 18 the author gives his reasons for making use of the guttural
_qu_ in the place of the labial _w_. The following are the words in
which it is thus used:--
Quha = who, pp. 2, 3, 34.
Quhae = who, pp. 1, 10;
quhae’s = whose, p. 2.
Quhaer = where, p. 2.
Quhar = where, p. 29.
Quharein = wherein, p. 14.
Quharof = whereof, p. 16.
Quhat = what, pp. 2, 8, 15, 17, 18, 28.
Quhatever = whatever, p. 19.
Quhen = when, pp. 2, 9, 11, 23, 31.
Quhence = whence, pp. 29, 32.
Quher = where, pp. 2, 14, 20, 32.
Quheras = whereas, p. 14.
Quherat = whereat, p. 18.
Quherbe = whereby, pp. 11, 34.
Quherfoer, quherforr = wherefore, pp. 7, 8, 10, 15.
Quherin = wherein, pp. 20, 22.
Quherof = whereof, pp. 29, 34.
Quheron = whereon, p. 22.
Quherupon = whereupon, pp. 8, 27.
Quherwith = wherewith, p. 2.
Quhil, quhiles = while, p. 2.
Quhilk = which.
Quhither = whether, pp. 11, 17, 18, 20, 32.
Quho = who, pp. 12, 14, 15, 18, 22.
Quhom = whom.
Quhy = why, pp. 20, 21, 29.
Quhyte = white, p. 30;
quhiter, p. 30;
quhytest, p. 30.
Quod = quoth, p. 18.
Rease = rose, p. 18.
Red = read, p. 34.
Regne = reign, p. 20.
Retine = retain, p. 20.
Ryseth = ariseth, p. 9.
Sa = so, p. 21;
sae = so, p. 17.
Sal = shall, pp. 9, 11, 23, 34.
Sall = shall, pp. 8, 22.
Shaued = showed, p. 7.
Shour = shower, p. 10.
Sib = related, p. 21.
Sik = such, pp. 1, 2, 8, 9, 11, 17, 29.
Sillie = wretched, poor, p. 2.
Skuiographie,
probably an invented word, the intention of the author being to
oppose skew or askew to ορθος, straight. It has been suggested
that it may be intended for sciagraphy, σκιαγραφία, also spelt
sciography; but this is improbable, as the meaning of that word,
viz., the art of shadows, including dialling, is so inappropriate
in this passage, p. 2.
Sould = should, pp. 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22, 28, 29.
Spering = inquiring, p. 18.
Spil = destroy, spoil(?), p. 13;
spill, p. 22.
Spilt = corrupted, spoilt(?), p. 2.
Stack = stuck, p. 2.
Stean = stone, p. 8.
Stiddie = anvil, pp. 12, 17.
“And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan’s stithy.”
_Hamlet_, Act iii., sc. 2.
Strang = strong, p. 14.
Sum = some, pp. 8, 9, 10, 21, 34.
Supposit = subject, pp. 30, 31.
Syllab = syllable, pp. 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 22;
syllabes, p. 8.
Ben Jonson spells this word _syllabe_ in his English Grammar.
Syne = since, p. 1.
Tal = tale, p. 9.
Tal = tail, p. 9.
Tale = tall, p. 28.
Trow = believe, pp. 13, 18.
Tuae = two, pp. 1, 8, 9, 10, 22, 23.
Tuelfe = twelve, p. 3.
Tuich = touch, pp. 7, 13, 15, 17;
tuiches, p. 11.
Tuiched = touched, pp. 3, 17.
Tuich stone = touchstone, p. 19.
Tyme passing befoer = imperfect tense, pp. 31, 32.
Tyme past befoer = pluperfect tense, pp. 31, 32.
Tyme past els = perfect tense, pp. 31, 32.
Vadimonie = recognisance, p. 22. Lat. _Vadimonium._
Voce = voice, p. 20.
Waet = know, p. 14.
Wait = know, p. 11.
Wald = would, pp. 1, 2, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21, 30, 31.
Warkes = works, p. 29.
Weer = war, p. 3.
Were = war, p. 20.
Whither = whether, p. 2.
The author in this place uses the letter _w_ instead of _qu_,
although at p. 18 he is so strenuous against its use.
Wrang = wrong, pp. 2, 9, 11.
Ye = yea, p. 14.
Yeld = yield, p. 21.
Early English Text Society.
_Report of the Committee, January, 1865._
The close of the first year of the Society’s operations affords the
Committee the welcome opportunity of congratulating the members on the
Society’s success. Instead of two Texts, which the first Circular to the
Society suggested might perhaps be issued, the Committee have been
enabled to publish four, and these four such as will bear comparison, as
to rareness and intrinsic value, with the publications of any of the
longest established societies of the kingdom. The _Arthur_ was edited
for the first time from a unique MS., wholly unknown to even the latest
writers on the subject, and exhibits our national hero’s life in a
simpler form than even Geoffrey of Monmouth, or Layamon. The _Early
English Alliterative Poems_, though noticed long ago by Dr. Guest and
Sir F. Madden, for their great philological and poetical value, had been
inaccessible to all but students of the difficult and faded MS. in the
British Museum: they have been now made public by the Society’s edition,
with their large additions to our vocabulary, and their interesting
dialectal formations. The _Sir Gawayne_, from the same MS., could only
have been had before in Sir Frederick Madden’s rare and costly edition,
printed by the Bannatyne Club. And the _Lauder_ has restored, as it
were, to Scotland, a Poet whose name had found no place in the standard
History of Scottish Poetry, and the Biographical Dictionaries.
Though the Society started late in the past year, these four Texts were
published within a fortnight of its close; and before that time the
first Text for the second year was in the printer’s hands. The Committee
pledge themselves to continue their exertions to render the Texts issued
worthy of the Society, and to complete the issue of each set within the
year assigned to it. They rely with confidence on the Subscribers to use
their best endeavours to increase the list of Members, in order that
funds may not be wanting to print the material that editors place at
their service. The aim of the Committee is, on the one hand, to print
all that is most valuable of the yet unprinted MSS. in English, and, on
the other, to re-edit and reprint all that is most valuable in printed
English books, which from their scarcity or price are not within the
reach of the student of moderate means.[6] Those relating to KING ARTHUR
will be the Committee’s first care; those relating to our Language and
its Dialects the second; while in due proportion with these, will be
mixed others of general interest, though with no one special common
design. The Committee hope that no year will pass without the issue of
one Text in the Northern dialect, as well in acknowledgment of the
support that the Society has received in Scotland, as to obviate the
hitherto limited circulation of the works of the early Scotch writers
among students south of the Humber.
[Footnote 6: “A vast mass of our early literature is still
unprinted, and much that has been printed has, as the late Herbert
Coleridge remarked, ‘been brought out by Printing Clubs of
exclusive constitution, or for private circulation only, and
might, for all that the public in general is the better for them,
just as well have remained in manuscript, being, of course,
utterly unprocurable, except in great libraries, and not always
there.’ It is well known that the Hon. G. P. Marsh, the author of
‘The Origin and History of the English Language,’ could not
procure for use in his work a copy of ‘Havelok’ for love or money;
and the usual catalogue-price of ‘William and the Werwolf,’ or
‘The Early English Gesta Romanorum,’ etc., etc., is six guineas,
when the book should be obtainable for less than a pound.
Notwithstanding the efforts of the Percy, Camden, and other
Societies and Printing Clubs, more than half our early printed
literature--including the Romances relating to our national hero,
Arthur--is still inaccessible to the student of moderate means;
and it is a scandal that this state of things should be allowed to
continue.... Those who would raise any objection to these
re-editions--as a few have raised them--are asked to consider the
absurdity and injustice of debarring a large number of readers
from the enjoyment of an old author, because a living editor has
once printed his works, when the feeling of the editor himself is
well expressed in the words of one of the class, ‘You are heartily
welcome to all I have ever done. I should rejoice to see my books
in the hands of a hundred, where they are now on the shelves of
one.’”--_Extract from the first Prospectus._]