Or with a brotherhed to be withold:1 THE THRACIAN TEMPLE OF MARS. REPRESENTED IN PAINTING, ON THE WALLS OF THE ORATORY" BUILT TO MARS BY THESEUS, IN THE "KNIGHT'S TALE." FIRST on the wall was painted a forest, In which there wonneth12 neither man ne beast; Of stubbés1 sharp and hidöus15 to behold; 1 Withheld from his duties by other attachments. 3 Despiteful, angry to excess. 2 John x. 12. This word has the sense of disdainful, proud, as well as worthy. (Lat. dignus.) & Were it. Though, or granting. 7 Check, reprove, scold; snub, snap, sneap, are other forms; "an envious sneaking frost."-Shaks. Love's Labour Lost. This word is written nonce, nones, nanes; corruptly, according to a well-known tendency in English to attach the n of the indefinite article to words beginning with a vowel, for once, ones, anes; for a (n) once, 1. c., for a purpose or occasion; sometimes the initial n has been detached from the word and attached to the article, as a nadder, a numpire, a nauger; written an adder, an umpire, an auger. 9 Nor or not. 10 Spices, disguise, corruption in food. 11 This beautiful picture of a good clergyman has been modernised and amplified by Dryden; but the simple colouring of Chaucer is more appropriate to the patriarchal character than the gorgeous hues of Dryden's versification. Compare also the clergyman in Goldsmith's "Deserted Village." 1 Dwelleth (won, to dwell, is familiar in Scotch); wont, habit, custom. (Ang. Sax. wunian. German, wonen.) 13 Rough; knarr or gnarr is a hard knot in a tree. Chaucer has this word in the sense of snarling, or chiding. 14 Short thick stocks; stub is any thing stopped (sc. in growth); a remnant; to stub, to eradicate, to remove a stub; stubble, the diminutive, applied to corn shortened by cutting. The word and its cognates appear in many languages;-(Lat. stipula, stipes. Gr. σTUTOS, a stump.) "So the next parson stubbed and burnt it."-Swift. 15 Hidous, pitous, for hideous, piteous, etc. THE THRACIAN TEMPLE OF MARS. In which there ran a rumble and a sough,1 Was tonné-great, of iron bright and sheen.o His hertè1 blood hath bathéd all his hair; 1 A sound, a noise; from Ang. -Sax. swig-an, to be amazed, according to Tooke, who connects swoon with it. The word, as signifying a low deep sound, is still com mon in Scotland. 2 Brest, burst; bren, burn; thurg, through; this analogy is very frequent. 3 Declivity. 4 Æneid, ii. 425; an epithet also of Minerva :-and of warriors. Burnished; (Fr. brunir, to polish); having the brightness of burning flame. Apparently war and impetuosity; vise is supposed to be a corruption. 7 "Eternal adamant composed his throne."-Pope. The diamond; applied to any hard rock, to steel (from Greek a, a, privative, and daμáw, damao, I subdue). Pliny assigns its indestructibility as originating this derivation.-Plin. xxxvi. 4. The properties of the magnet were attributed to the diamond,-Chaucer, Assembly of Fowls, stanza 22. "Adamantine rock."-Milton, Par. Lost, ii, 646. "Mail, adamantean proof."-Id. Sams. Agon. 134. 8 Of the circumference of a tun. Adj. and noun. Byron uses it as a verb; "sheening far."-(Childe Harold.) The adj. is also sheeny; same with shine, shiny. 10 Treacherous circumvention or contrivance. The medieval Latin word compas sum, a pair of compasses, is said by Menage to be compounded of the prep. con, and passus, a step. From this word the verb in the modern languages signifies sometimes to distribute, or proportion; to measure, to enclose; sometimes to reach, to accomplish, to circumvent. "In Chaucer and others, it seems equivalent to contrive."-(Tyrwhitt From association with some of these ideas, the term may have been applied to the card and the magnetic needle. 11 A coal; gleid (Scotch), a small fire on the hearth; that which has glowed, from Ang. Sax. gleowan, to glow. 12 Sheep burning. 13 Be is often an intensive prefix. 14 Contention. 15 Chirk, to chirp as a sparrow. It also signifies to crash, to creak, corresponding to the Latin stridere (Ang.-Sax. cearcian). 16 Sorry, woeful; compare, "This is a sorry sight."-Shakesp., Macbeth. Sorry and wretched are both used as implying contemptible qualities. 17 Heart. The nail ydriven in the shode1 on height," LYCURGUS OF THRACE. THERE may'st thou see, coming with Palamon, They gloweden betwixten yellow and red; His limmés great, his brawnes" hard and strong, 1 Bush of hair; the head. "Skinner thinks it may be from Ang. Sax. scade, a grove, ie., nemus capillorum." "Schede, line of division of the hair;" Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. 2 Above. 4 Outcries. Madness, from Ang.-Sax. wedan, to be mad (wud, mad; Scotch). 5 Carved, cut. 6 Dead of sickness; qualm; Ang.-Sax. cwellan, to quell, to quail; ystorven, dead, starved; Ang.-Sax. steorfan; Germ. sterben, to die. 7 Reft. This passage is an instance of the allegorical style of the age of Chaucer, so fully developed by the Italian poets. "This group is the effort of a strong imagination unacquainted with the selection and arrangement of images."-Warton. Griffin or gryphon, from Greek Tpv, gryps, a fabulous animal, having the form of a lion and an eagle: Esch. Prom. Vinct. 804; Milton, Par. Lost, ii. 943. The animal plays a conspicuous part in romances and heraldry; but the idea is not one derived from northern mythology. Gripe, in old English, an eagle-("as it were a gripe's eye," Gower)—is derived from Ang.-Sax. gripan, to gripe, to clutch; gryps is from YрUTOs, grypos, crooked. 10 Combed. "Chaucer uses it generally as equivalent to decked;" of uncertain etymology. Comb or coomb is also a hollow enclosed valley; hence applied to beehives. Both words have been by some connected with the Greek каμяw, kampo, I bend. 11 Muscles. Baren or bawren was the ancient adjective; bar or bawr, a bear or boar. By the common transposition of the r (vid. note, 2, p. 9) it became brawen, brawn, so that the term means boar's (flesh), alluding to the large muscles of that animal. Tooke. Bran, in Scotch, is the calf of the leg. 12 Manner. Ang.-Sax. wise. We retain this form in wise, etc. likewise, otherwise, coast 13 Traces of the car. (Lat. Traho, I draw.) 14 "A coat worn over the armour, on which the armorial ensigns of the wearer were embroidered." Harness; military equipment. EMETRIUS, KING OF INDIA. His longé hair was kempt behind his back, About his car there wenten whité alauns,3 EMETRIUS, KING OF INDIA. WITH Arcita, in stories as men find,? 1 Of the circumference of an arm. 2 French forms of the words. A species of hound much esteemed in the middle ages. II 4 More; from Ang. -Sax. mae; retained in Scotch, with the superl. maist. For an account of these words, see Tooke's Diversions of Purley; Richardson's English Dictionary; Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. • Polished rings (for fastening the collars). Torrets "are often mentioned in the 'Inventory' of furniture in the palaces of Henry VIII."-Warton. Probably from French, tort, twisted; Latin, torqueo, I twist; torques, a collar, a wreath. A company. The word has various forms and applications in the modern languages. For its origin, etymologists are divided between the Latin ruptus (burst), and rota (a wheel). Except in its application to the line of a journey, we now throw away the final e. Rout, a fashionable assembly-a disorderly defeat-a riotous rabble. "Riot is undoubtedly the same word with rout."-Richardson. Row, a low word for an uproar. 7 For the origin of the fable of the "Knight's Tale," see Warton's History of English Poetry, section 12. Clad, from French drap, cloth (?)-having_generally the idea of ornament. "Trappors (trappings) of their steeds."-Chauc. Flower and Leaf, stanza 35. Diversified with lines and flourishes. The Flemish towns were the great seats of manufactures; hence this word has been derived from Ypres in Flanders, the original form being d'ipre. Other examples are, arras and cambric, from Arras and Cambray in France; worsted, from Worstead in Norfolk; calico, from Calicut. Instances of the same kind are very numerous. 10 Abbreviation for Tartarium. "A broad banner Of fine tartarium."-Chauc. Flower and Leaf, stanza 31. "It is often mentioned in the wardrobe accounts for furnishing tournaments; a fine cloth manufactured in Tartary. Du Cange. Gloss. Tartarium."-Warton. 11 Laid or trimmed (Tyrwhitt). French, coucher; Ital. colcare, pro; Lat. collocare, to lay, to place; to couch a lance, to lay it in the rest. 12 Burnished, see notes 2 p. 9, and 11, p. 10. Brent also signifies high, straight, upright (Jamieson); brent rocks, steep rocks. "It is perhaps be-rent, i.e., riven, torn," Richardson. Scar, a cliff (as in Scarborough), rock, cliff, have the same idea. 13 Beaten, stamped, or imprinted. A mantelet1 upon his shoulders' hanging, 8 Betwixen yellow and black, some dele9 ymeint, of five and twenty years his age I cast.12 An hundred lordés had he with him there, 1 Diminutive of mantle. Etymologists go back for this word to Mandyas, a Persian cloak. It exists in all the European languages. Mantelet is also a covering for the protection of miners and besiegers. Mantel (of a chimney), that which protects from smoke and dust; to mantle (applied to a hawk), to spread out the wings. The word is applied to trees-"the mantling vine;" and to fermented liquors, from the covering of froth-" the mantling cup." 2 The second syllable should be here sunk as much as possible in pronunciation, as in French words ending in re. 3 Quite full. The sense is much clearer than the etymology. 4 From Lat. crispus, curled. 6 Citron, lemon-coloured. Run, close, twisted. 7 Freckles. Conjectured etymologies are, Latin, fricare, to rub; German, fleck, a spot; Ang.-Sax. fractan, to eat freaks or freckles, therefore, spots eaten into the skin. 8 Forms of the participles of the Saxon verbs corresponding to sprinkle and mingle. 9 Somedeal; somewhat. 10 Mingled. 11 Darted his glance. 12 I reckoned his age to be of, etc., from the phrase "to cast accounts;" alluding to the manner of reckoning with the abacus and calculi (counters). Shakspeare makes Iago call Cassio in derision a counter-caster."-Othello, Act i. Sc. 1. The word cast has an immense number of applications of great beauty and interest. See the Dictionaries. 13 The medieval poets and painters are by no means scrupulous about chronology or locality in their grouping of the parts of a picture. An Indian king wears a Greek laurel; and the chivalry, nay the religion and philosophy of the 14th century A. D. luxuriate in Thebes and Athens in the age of Theseus, almost as many centuries B.C. 14 Garland; written girlond always in Spencer. Some connect it with Lat. corolla; Greek yupos, a circle; Ang.-Sax. girdan, to gird. 15 Luxuriant. "How lush and lusty the grass looks; how green !"-Shakesp. Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 1. "The sun hath Twice clad the earth in lively lustiness."—Surrey. The original idea of this word, will, has branched out in various languages into power, pleasure, luxuriance, love, etc (Greek, λaw.) 16 See. 17 Pleasure; (French, déduire; Lat. deducere, to lead from.) Deduit has the idea enjoyment, on the same principle that diversion and amusement have it. 18 For usages of chivalry illustrative of this, see Scott's "Ivanhoe." 19 Of the pictures of Lycurgus and Emetrius, Hazlitt says, "What a deal of terrible beauty there is contained in this description! The imagination of the poet |