_Delighted, Meaning of_ (Vol. ii., pp. 113. 329.).--A discussion was,
some time ago, carried on in the pages of "N. & Q." relative to the
signification of the word _delighted_ as used by Shakspeare. The same
word occurs in a sense very different from that which it now bears in
the "Epistle Dedicatory" (dated 1667) to _The City and Country Purchaser
and Builder_, by Stephen Primatt. The book is dedicated to Sir Orlando
Bridgman and "the rest of the Justices and Barons appointed----for
Determination of Differences touching Houses burnt down or demolished by
reason of the late Fire in London," and the following is the passage
alluded to:
"The truely merited reputation by your Honours equal ballancing
the Scales of Justice, hath, and is the daily cause of so many
Petitioners to you for the same, especially in the late
wisely-erected Court of Judicature; wherein your Honours, by your
quick and _delighted_ equitable dispatch of such differences as
have come before you, hath sufficiently testified your undoubted
loyalty to our Sovereign Lord the King, and amity to his people,"
&c.