[The reading is _steaming_ in the 1st edition of _Paradise
Lost_, 1667.--ED.]
_The Word "Party"_ (Vol. vii., pp. 177. 247.).--The use of this word for
a particular person is earlier than Shakspeare's time. It no doubt
occurs in most of our earliest writers; for it is to be found in
Herbert's _Life of Henry VIII._, in his translation of the "Centum
Gravamina" presented to Pope Adrian in 1521, the 55th running thus:
"That, if one of the marryed couple take a journey either to the
warres, or to perform a vow, to a farre countrey, they permit
the _party_ remaining at home, if the other stay long away, upon
a summe of money payd, to cohabite with another, not examining
sufficiently whether the absent party were dead."
It may also be found in Exodus xxii. 9., where, though it occurs in the
plural, it refers to two individuals:
"For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for
sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which
another challengeth to be his, the cause of both _parties_ shall
come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, _he_
shall pay double unto his neighbour."