_Long Friday, meaning of._--C. Knight, in his _Pictorial Shakspeare_,
explains Mrs. Quickly's phrase in _Henry the Fourth_--"'Tis a _long_ loan
for a poor lone woman to bear,"--by the synonym _great_: asserting that
_long_ is still used in the sense of great, in the north of England; and
quoting the Scotch proverb, "Between you and the long day be it," where
_we_ talk of the _great_ day of judgment. May not this be the meaning of
the name _Long Friday_, which was almost invariably used by our Saxon
forefathers for what we now call Good Friday? The commentators on the
Prayer Book, who all confess themselves ignorant of the real meaning of the
term, absurdly suggest that it was so called from the great _length of the
services_ on that day; or else, from the length of the fast which preceded.
Surely, The Great Friday, the Friday on which the great work of our
redemption was completed, makes better sense?