P. S.--In answer to a Bloomsbury Querist (Vol. viii., p. 44.), I crave
leave to say that I never have met with the verb _perceyuer_ except in
Hawes, _loc. cit._; and I gave the latest use that I could call to mind of
the noun in my paper on that word. Unhappily I never make notes, but rely
entirely on a somewhat retentive memory; therefore the instances that occur
on the spur of the moment are not always the most apposite that might be
selected for the purpose of illustration. If, however, he will take the
trouble to refer to a little book, consisting of no more than 448 pages,
published in 1576, and entitled _A Panoplie of Epistles, or a
Looking-glasse for the Unlearned_, by Abraham Flemming, he will find no
fewer than nine examples, namely, at pp. 25. 144. 178. 253. 277. 285.
(twice in the same page) 333. 382. It excites surprise that the word never,
as far as I am aware, occurs in any of the voluminous works of Sir Thomas
More, nor in any of the theological productions of the Reformers.
With respect to _speare_, the orthography varies, as _spere_, _sperr_,
_sparr_, _unspar_; but in the Prologue to _Troilus and Cressida_, _sperre_
is Theobald's correction of _stirre_, in Folios '23 and '32. Let me add,
what I had forgotten at the time, that another instance of _budde_
intransitive, to bend, occurs at p. 105. of _The Life of Faith in Death_,
by Samuel Ward, preacher of Ipswich, London, 1622. Also another, and a very
significant one, of the phrase to _have on the hip_, in Fuller's _Historie
of the Holy Warre_, Cambridge, 1647:
"Arnulphus was as quiet as a lambe, and durst never challenge his
interest in Jerusalem from Godfrey's donation; as fearing to _wrestle_
with the king, who _had him on the hip_, and could out him at pleasure
for his bad manners."--Book ii. chap. viii. p. 55.
In my note on the word _trash_, I said (somewhat too peremptorily) that
_overtop_ was not even a hunting term (Vol. vii., p. 567.). At the moment I
had forgotten the following passage:
"Therefore I would perswade all lovers of hunting to get two or three
couple of tryed hounds, and once or twice a week to follow after them a
train-scent; and when he is able to _top_ them on all sorts of earth,
and to endure heats and colds stoutly, then he may the better relie on
his speed and toughness."--_The Hunting-horse_, chap. vii. p. 71.,
Oxford, 1685.
* * * * *