For A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists — Reading Notes, the stored edition analysis reports 213,625 words, 15 hr 29 min estimated reading time, and 36 detected text sections.
The text analysis averages about 8.2 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.
Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “English language -- Obsolete words,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.
Explore this collection
These alternatives are selected using recorded categories and estimated reading time.
About 886 minutes
Language Study
203,728 recorded words. 43 minutes difference from this book's estimate.
View Gutenberg source #51090About 853 minutes
Language Study
196,151 recorded words. 76 minutes difference from this book's estimate.
View Gutenberg source #53038About 833 minutes
Language Study
191,408 recorded words. 96 minutes difference from this book's estimate.
View Gutenberg source #28900Search stored excerpts and compare books → Choose by your preferences →
Choices use stored catalog measurements. Estimates vary with reading speed. A shared category is a catalog label, not a claim that two books have the same argument or literary quality.
Search reads excerpt text stored with this catalog and links to its associated Gutenberg record. The connection is stored in the site database; this tool does not recheck that every excerpt is word-for-word identical to that external record. Excerpt search does not cover every chapter and does not verify historical publication dates.
Catalog snapshot checked: 2026-09-26. Coverage: 93 public books, 93 available source excerpts.
Calculated from edition completeness, EPUB availability, text structure and catalogue metadata. Not a user rating.
Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.
Public-domain source text
The source text is kept in the dedicated reader, separate from this catalogue record and its commentary.
The glossary opens with an anecdote: Skeat, when asked about recreation, replied that he amused himself by reading old plays, pencil in hand, noting any word that might trouble a general reader. This origin story shapes the work’s character—it is a scholar’s casual harvest, not a systematic lexicon. The entries are terse, often a single line: a word, a source, a short definition, and sometimes a brief etymology. For instance, leer (empty) is illustrated with Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair and traced to Old English lǣre. The glossary does not aim for completeness; it reflects what one attentive reader found striking.
The preface reveals that Skeat’s method was personal and unsystematic. He read for pleasure, yet his pencil was always active. The resulting slips—nearly 7,000—were arranged alphabetically but not intended as a comprehensive dictionary. The editor, Mayhew, notes that Skeat planned a small book with few quotations, mostly explanations and references. This explains the glossary’s brevity: entries like legem pone (ready money) get a longer note on its origin from the Psalms, while others are stark. The work is a record of one scholar’s encounters, not a definitive reference.
Many entries include brief etymologies, often tracing words to Old English or Old French. For example, leme (a flame) is linked to OE lēoma, and lefull (permissible) to ME leveful. These etymologies are not exhaustive but offer a quick sense of a word’s lineage. The glossary also notes provincial usage, as with leer (empty), which is marked as common in dialect. This dual focus—on literary and spoken forms—gives the work a texture beyond a simple word list.
The subtitle promises words “especially from the dramatists,” and the entries bear this out. Shakespeare appears frequently: leese (to lose) from Sonnet 5, leg in the phrase “to make a leg” from The Tempest. Ben Jonson is another key source, with leer (empty) from Bartholomew Fair and lembic (alembic) from The Alchemist. The glossary also draws on less canonical works like Skelton’s Colyn Cloute and Magnyfycence. This selection gives a sense of the range of language in early modern drama, from everyday terms to technical or obscure ones.
This glossary is best used as a companion while reading Tudor and Stuart plays, not as a standalone reference. Its entries are quick to consult, and the etymologies, though brief, often illuminate connections. Readers should note that the work is selective—it reflects Skeat’s interests and reading, not a complete record of the period’s vocabulary. For deeper study, Nares’ Glossary or the Oxford English Dictionary remain more comprehensive.
Flicking through Skeat’s glossary, I paused at scanted—a word meaning “grudged”—and felt the old itch to know how such sparseness was measured elsewhere. That led me, without quite knowing why, to How to Use the Popular Science Library; History of Science; General Index — Reading Notes. Both books feel like quiet keys to forgotten rooms, each index a whispered trail.
Answer a few questions and save a private reflection on this device.
