_Perseverant, Perseverance_ (Vol. vii., p. 400.).--Can MR. ARROWSMITH
supply any instances of the verb _persever_ (or _perceyuer_, as it is spelt
in the 1555 edition of Hawes, M. i. col. 2.), from any other author? and
will he inform us when this "abortive hog" and his litter became extinct.
In explaining _speare_ (so strangely misunderstood by the editor of
Dodsley), he should, I think, have added, that it was an old way of writing
_spar_. In Shakspeare's Prologue to _Troilus and Cressida_, it is written
_sperr_. _Sparred_, quoted by Richardson from the _Romance of the Rose_,
and _Troilus and Creseide_, is in the edition of Chaucer referred to by
Tyrwhitt, written in the _Romance_ "spered," and in _Troilus_ "sperred."