_Rathe_ (Vol. vii., p. 392.).--MR. CROSSLEY is, I believe, mistaken in his
derivation of the word _rathe_ from the Celtic _raithe_, signifying
inclination, although _rather_ seems indisputably to belong to it. _Rathe_
is, I believe, identical with the Saxon adjective _rætha_, signifying
early. Chaucer's--
"What aileth you so _rathe_ for to arise,"
has been already quoted as bearing this meaning. Milton, in Lycidas, has--
"Bring the _rathe_ primrose that forsaken dies."
In a pastoral, called a "Palinode," by E. B., probably Edmond Bolton, in
England's _Helicon_, edit. 1614, occurs:
"And make the _rathe_ and timely primrose grow."
And we have "_rathe_ and late," in a pastoral in Davidson's _Poems_, 4th
edit., London, 1621.
_Rathe_ is a word still in use in the Weald of Sussex, where Saxon still
lingers in the dialect of the common people; and a _rathe_, instead of an
early spring, is spoken of; and a species of early apple is known as the
_Rathe_-ripe.