A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists — Reading Notes

uty to do in preparing his friend’s work for publication. In the first place he did not think that it fell within his province to make any considerable addition to the Word-list. The Vocabulary remains much as Professor Skeat left it. But it was found necessary, in going over the work, to make additions in many articles, in order to explain the history of the word, or to illustrate its meaning; connecting links had to be supplied, where the meanings of a word apparently had no connexion with one another. In this part of the work the Editor found great help in the New English Dictionary; and it will be seen that there is hardly a page of this book on which there does not occur the significant abbreviation (NED.). With the same help the definitions have been revised, and in many cases made more definite and explicit in order to explain the passage referred to. Professor Skeat’s plan was to give, as a rule, only references; it has been thought advisable to add many quotations, especially in cases where a quotation appeared necessary to illustrate a rare meaning of a word. In order to secure uniformity in arrangement many of the articles had to be re-written. For the illustrative matter, outside the literary English of the Tudor and Stuart period; the comparison of Tudor and Stuart words with provincial words found in the English Dialect Dictionary (EDD.); the exact references to earlier English—Middle English (ME.) and Old English (OE.); as well as the citation of cognate foreign forms, the Editor is responsible. In giving this additional matter he believes that he would have had the cordial approval of Professor Skeat, and hopes that he has added to the usefulness of the book.

If I may be allowed I would end on a personal note. I have thought it a great privilege to have been invited to complete the work of one held in such honour and esteem as Professor Skeat. And it has been a great pleasure to do something which might show, however inadequately, my gratitude for a friendship of nearly forty years. I wish the work that has been done on his book had been better done; I wish that it could have been undertaken by some one better equipped for the task, by one who had a more intimate acquaintance with the literature of the period dealt with. I hope that the imperfections of the book as it leaves my hands will be treated leniently. No one can be more conscious of them than he who is now bidding farewell to the task.

I have been fortunate in obtaining the help of two scholars who are masters of their subjects. My friend of many years, Dr. Henry Bradley, one of the Editors of _The New English Dictionary_, has taken an interest in the work from the first, which has been most encouraging. His views of what had to be done with the material I found, after I had made some progress in my task, coincided with those I had independently formed. He has most kindly read the proof-sheets throughout, and has made many valuable suggestions which I have gladly adopted. Mr. Percy Simpson, who has made a special study of the dramatists of the period treated, and particularly of Ben Jonson, has also kindly read the proof-sheets, and from his familiarity with the textual criticism of these authors has been able to correct some errors in the texts cited. I cannot conclude without expressing my thanks to the ‘reader’ for the accuracy with which the proof-sheets represented the MS., as well as for his judicious and conscientious use of the blue pencil.

A. L. MAYHEW. OXFORD, _Dec. 9, 1913_.

BOOKS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK

Aasen, Ivar; Norsk Ordbog, 1873.

Alphita, a Medico-Botanical Glossary, ed. J. L. G. Mowat (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1887).

Aneren Riwle, c. 1230; ed. J. Morton (Camden Soc., 1873).

Anglo-Saxon Gospels, ed. W. W. Skeat. The Gospels in West-Saxon, Northumbrian and Mercian Versions, 1871-87.

Ascham, Roger; Toxophilus, 1545, ed. Arber, 1868.

Awdeley, John; Fraternitye of Vacabondes, 1565, ed. E. Viles and F. J. Furnivall (EETS., extra series, 1869).

Aydelotte, F.; Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds (Oxford Historical and Literary Studies, vol. 1, 1913).

Babee’s Book, 15th cent.; ed. F. J. Furnivall (EETS., 1868).

Bacon, Francis; Essays, 1597, ed. W. Aldis Wright, 1871. Life of Henry VII, 1621, ed. J. R. Lumby, 1876.

Baldwyne, William; chief editor of the Mirrour for Magistrates, first issued in 1559.

Ballads. English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. from the Collection of F. J. Child by H. C. Sargent and G. L. Kittredge, 1904.

Barbour’s Bruce, 1375; ed. W. W. Skeat (EETS., 1870-7).

Barclay, Alexander; Ship of Fools, 1508, a translation of Sebastian Brandt’s _Narrenschiff_, c. 1494 (_Navis Stultifera_, 1488); ed. Jamieson, 1874.

Bardsley, Charles W.; English Surnames, 1875.

Baret, John; Alvearie or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580.