Chapter 15

Besides many other fishes in divers places, which are very obeisant andobsequious, when they be called by their names.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 970.I ever set this down, that the only course to be held with the Queen was byobsequiousnessand observance.—LordBacon,Defence of Himself.His corrections are so far from compelling men to come to heaven, as that they put many men farther out of their way, and work an obduration rather than anobsequiousness.—Donne,Sermon 45.In her relation to the king she was the best pattern of conjugal love andobsequiousness.—Bates,Sermon upon the Death of the Queen.

Besides many other fishes in divers places, which are very obeisant andobsequious, when they be called by their names.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 970.

I ever set this down, that the only course to be held with the Queen was byobsequiousnessand observance.—LordBacon,Defence of Himself.

His corrections are so far from compelling men to come to heaven, as that they put many men farther out of their way, and work an obduration rather than anobsequiousness.—Donne,Sermon 45.

In her relation to the king she was the best pattern of conjugal love andobsequiousness.—Bates,Sermon upon the Death of the Queen.

He now ‘occupies’ who has in present possession; but the word involved once the further signification of using, employing, laying out that which was thus possessed; and by an ‘occupier’ was meant a trader or retail dealer.

He [Eumenes] made as though he had occasion tooccupymoney, and so borrowed a great sum of them.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 505.If they bind me fast with new ropes that never wereoccupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.—Judgesxvi. 11. (A.V.)Mercury, the master of merchants andoccupiers[ἀγοραίων].—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 692.

He [Eumenes] made as though he had occasion tooccupymoney, and so borrowed a great sum of them.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 505.

If they bind me fast with new ropes that never wereoccupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.—Judgesxvi. 11. (A.V.)

Mercury, the master of merchants andoccupiers[ἀγοραίων].—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 692.

Offal.This, bearing its derivation on its front, namely that it is that which, as refuse and of little or no worth, is suffered or caused tofall off, we restrict at the present to the refuse of the butcher’s stall; but it was once employed in a much wider acceptation, an acceptation which here and there still survives. Thus, as one who writes to me, ‘in all her Majesty’s dockyards there is a monthly sale by auction of “offal wood,” being literally that whichfalls offfrom the log under the saw, axe, or adze.’

Glean not in barren soil theseoffalears,Sith reap thou may’st whole harvests of delight.Southwell,Lewd Love is Loss.Of gold the very smallest filings are precious, and our Blessed Saviour, when there was no want of provision, yet gave it in charge to his disciples, theoff-fallshould not be lost.—Sanderson,Preface to the Clavi Trabales.Poor Lazarus lies howling at his gates for a few crumbs; he only seeks chippings,offals; let him roar and howl, famish and eat his own flesh; he respects him not.—Burton,Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sect. 1.

Glean not in barren soil theseoffalears,Sith reap thou may’st whole harvests of delight.

Glean not in barren soil theseoffalears,

Sith reap thou may’st whole harvests of delight.

Southwell,Lewd Love is Loss.

Of gold the very smallest filings are precious, and our Blessed Saviour, when there was no want of provision, yet gave it in charge to his disciples, theoff-fallshould not be lost.—Sanderson,Preface to the Clavi Trabales.

Poor Lazarus lies howling at his gates for a few crumbs; he only seeks chippings,offals; let him roar and howl, famish and eat his own flesh; he respects him not.—Burton,Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sect. 1.

Again and again we light on words used once in a good, but now in an unfavourable, sense. An ‘officious’ person is now a busy uninvited meddler in matters whichdo not belong to him; so late as Burke’s time he might be one prompt and forward in dueofficesof kindness. The more honourable use of ‘officious’ now only survives in the distinction familiar to diplomacy between an ‘official’ and ‘officious’ communication.

With granted leaveofficiousI return.Milton,Paradise Regained, ii. 302.Officious, ready to do good offices, serviceable, friendly, very courteous and obliging.—Phillips,New World of Words.They [the nobility of France] were tolerably well bred, veryofficious, humane, and hospitable.—Burke,Reflections on the Revolution in France, p. 251.Well try’d through many a varying year,See Levett to the grave descend,Officious, innocent, sincere,Of every friendless name the friend.S. Johnson(A.D.1782).Which familiar and affectionateofficiousnessand sumptuous cost, together with that sinister fame that woman was noted with [Lukevii. 37], could not but give much scandal to the Pharisees there present.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. viii. c. 13.

With granted leaveofficiousI return.

Milton,Paradise Regained, ii. 302.

Officious, ready to do good offices, serviceable, friendly, very courteous and obliging.—Phillips,New World of Words.

They [the nobility of France] were tolerably well bred, veryofficious, humane, and hospitable.—Burke,Reflections on the Revolution in France, p. 251.

Well try’d through many a varying year,See Levett to the grave descend,Officious, innocent, sincere,Of every friendless name the friend.

Well try’d through many a varying year,

See Levett to the grave descend,

Officious, innocent, sincere,

Of every friendless name the friend.

S. Johnson(A.D.1782).

Which familiar and affectionateofficiousnessand sumptuous cost, together with that sinister fame that woman was noted with [Lukevii. 37], could not but give much scandal to the Pharisees there present.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. viii. c. 13.

Orient.This had once a beautiful use, as clear, bright, shining, which has now wholly departed from it. Thus, the ‘orient’ pearl of our earlier poets is not ‘oriental,’ but pellucid, white, shining. Doubtless it acquired this meaning originally from the greater clearness and lightness of the east, as the quarter whence the day breaks.

Those shells that keep in the main sea, and lie deeper than that the sunbeams can pierce unto them, keep the finest and most delicate pearls. And yet they asorientasthey be, wax yellow with age.—Holland,Pliny, vol. i. p. 255.He, who out of that dark chaos made the glorious heavens, and garnished them with so manyorientstars, can move upon thy dark soul and enlighten it, though now it be as void of knowledge as the evening of the first day was of light.—Gurnall,Christian in Complete Armour, ii. 22, 1.Her wings and train of feathers, mixed fineOforientazure and incarnadine.Sylvester,Du Bartas, Fifth Day.Κόκκος βαφική, a shrub, whose red berries or grains gave anorienttincture to cloth.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, b. iv. c. 6.

He, who out of that dark chaos made the glorious heavens, and garnished them with so manyorientstars, can move upon thy dark soul and enlighten it, though now it be as void of knowledge as the evening of the first day was of light.—Gurnall,Christian in Complete Armour, ii. 22, 1.

Her wings and train of feathers, mixed fineOforientazure and incarnadine.

Her wings and train of feathers, mixed fine

Oforientazure and incarnadine.

Sylvester,Du Bartas, Fifth Day.

Κόκκος βαφική, a shrub, whose red berries or grains gave anorienttincture to cloth.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, b. iv. c. 6.

Ortolan.This, the name now of a delicate bird hauntinggardens, was once the name of the gardener (‘hortolanus,’ ‘ortolano’) himself.

Though to an old tree it must needs be somewhat dangerous to be oft removed, yet for my part I yield myself entirely to the will and pleasure of the most notableortolan.—State Papers, 1536, vol. vi. p. 534.

Ostler.Not formerly the servant of the inn having care of the horses, but the innkeeper or host, the ‘hosteller’ himself.

And another dai he brougte forth twey pans, and gaf to theostiler[stabulario, Vulg].—Lukex. 35.Wiclif.Theinnkeeperwas old, fourscore almost;Indeed an emblem, rather than an host;In whom we read how God and Time decreeTo honour thriftyostlers, such as he.Corbet.Iter. Boreale.

And another dai he brougte forth twey pans, and gaf to theostiler[stabulario, Vulg].—Lukex. 35.Wiclif.

Theinnkeeperwas old, fourscore almost;Indeed an emblem, rather than an host;In whom we read how God and Time decreeTo honour thriftyostlers, such as he.

Theinnkeeperwas old, fourscore almost;

Indeed an emblem, rather than an host;

In whom we read how God and Time decree

To honour thriftyostlers, such as he.

Corbet.Iter. Boreale.

Ought.Of the two perfects of the verb ‘to owe’ (see Morris,English Accidence, p. 189; and Earle,Philology of the English Tongue, § 289), namely‘ought’ and ‘owed,’ the former has come now to be used of a moral owing or obligation only, never of a material; but it was not always so. In the passage from Spenser ‘ought’ is used in the sense of ‘possessed.’ Among the many tacit alterations which our Authorized Version has at various times undergone, the substitution in many places of ‘owed’ for ‘ought’ is one.

But th’ Elfin knight whichoughtthat warlike wage,Disdaind to loose the meed he wonne in fray.Spenser,Fairy Queen, i. 4, 39.There was a certain creditor, who had two debtors. The oneoughtfive hundred pence, and the other fifty.—Lukevii. 41. (A. V.)Also we forgive the oversights and faults committed against us, and the crown-tax that yeoughtus.—1 Macc.xiii. 39. Geneva Version.

But th’ Elfin knight whichoughtthat warlike wage,Disdaind to loose the meed he wonne in fray.

But th’ Elfin knight whichoughtthat warlike wage,

Disdaind to loose the meed he wonne in fray.

Spenser,Fairy Queen, i. 4, 39.

There was a certain creditor, who had two debtors. The oneoughtfive hundred pence, and the other fifty.—Lukevii. 41. (A. V.)

Also we forgive the oversights and faults committed against us, and the crown-tax that yeoughtus.—1 Macc.xiii. 39. Geneva Version.

Overture.Not now an aperture or opening, in the literal and primary sense of the word, as formerly it was; but always in some secondary and derived.

The squirrels also foresee a tempest coming; and look in what corner the wind is like to stand, on that side they stop up the mouth of their holes, and make anovertureon the other side against it.—Holland,Pliny, b. viii. c. 38.

‘Painful’ is now feeling pain, or inflicting it; it was once taking pains. Many things would not be so ‘painful’ in the present sense of the word, if they had been more ‘painful’ in the earlier,—as perhaps some sermons.

Within fourteen generations, the royal blood of the kings of Judah ran in the veins of plain Joseph, apainfulcarpenter.—Fuller,Holy War, b. v. c. 29.I think we have some aspainfulmagistrates as ever was in England.—Latimer,Sermons, p. 142.Painfulnessby feeble means shall be able to gain that which in the plenty of more forcible instruments is through sloth and negligence lost.—Hooker,Ecclesiastical Polity, b. v. § 22.O the holiness of their living, andpainfulnessof their preaching!—Fuller,Holy State, b. ii. c. 6.Whoever would be truly thankful, let him live in some honest vocation, and therein bestow himself faithfully andpainfully.—Sanderson,Sermons, vol. i. p. 251.

Within fourteen generations, the royal blood of the kings of Judah ran in the veins of plain Joseph, apainfulcarpenter.—Fuller,Holy War, b. v. c. 29.

I think we have some aspainfulmagistrates as ever was in England.—Latimer,Sermons, p. 142.

Painfulnessby feeble means shall be able to gain that which in the plenty of more forcible instruments is through sloth and negligence lost.—Hooker,Ecclesiastical Polity, b. v. § 22.

O the holiness of their living, andpainfulnessof their preaching!—Fuller,Holy State, b. ii. c. 6.

Whoever would be truly thankful, let him live in some honest vocation, and therein bestow himself faithfully andpainfully.—Sanderson,Sermons, vol. i. p. 251.

Palestine.This is now a name for the entire Holy Land; but in the Authorized Version ‘Palestine,’ or ‘Palestina,’ as it is written three times out of the four on which it occurs, is used in a far more restricted sense, namely, as equivalent to Philistia, that narrow strip of coast occupied by the Philistines. This a close examination of the several passages (see Wright’sDictionary of the Bible) will make abundantly clear. And it is also invariably so employed by Milton; thus see, besides the passage quoted below,Samson Agonistes, 144, andOn the Nativity, 199.

Rejoice not thou, wholePalestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken.—Isai.xiv. 29. (A.V.)Such their [the Philistines’] puissance, that from them the Greeks and Latins called all this landPalestina, because the Philistines lived on the sea coast, most obvious to the notice of foreigners.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, ii. 10, 23.Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward manAnd downward fish: yet had his temple highReared in Azotus, dreaded through the coastOfPalestine, in Gath and Ascalon,And Accaron, and Gaza’s frontier bounds.Milton,Paradise Lost, i. 462.

Rejoice not thou, wholePalestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken.—Isai.xiv. 29. (A.V.)

Such their [the Philistines’] puissance, that from them the Greeks and Latins called all this landPalestina, because the Philistines lived on the sea coast, most obvious to the notice of foreigners.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, ii. 10, 23.

Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward manAnd downward fish: yet had his temple highReared in Azotus, dreaded through the coastOfPalestine, in Gath and Ascalon,And Accaron, and Gaza’s frontier bounds.

Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man

And downward fish: yet had his temple high

Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast

OfPalestine, in Gath and Ascalon,

And Accaron, and Gaza’s frontier bounds.

Milton,Paradise Lost, i. 462.

‘To palliate’ is at this day to extenuate a fault through the setting out of whatever will best serve to diminish the estimate of its gravity; and does not imply any endeavour wholly to deny it; nay, implies rather a certain recognition and admission of the fault itself. Truer to its etymology once, it expressed theclokingof it, the attempt, successful or otherwise, entirely to conceal and cover it. Eve ‘palliates’ her fault in the modern sense of the word (Gen.iii. 13), Gehazi in the earlier (2 Kin.v. 25).

You cannotpalliatemischief, but it willThrough all the fairest coverings of deceitBe always seen.Daniel,The Tragedy of Philotas, act iv. sc. 2.You see the Devil could fetch up nothing of Samuel at the request of Saul, but a shadow and a resemblance, his countenance and his mantle, which yet was not enough to cover the cheat, or topalliatethe illusion.—South,Sermon on Easter Day.The generality of Christians make the external frame of religion but apalliationfor sin.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, p. ix.

You cannotpalliatemischief, but it willThrough all the fairest coverings of deceitBe always seen.

You cannotpalliatemischief, but it will

Through all the fairest coverings of deceit

Be always seen.

Daniel,The Tragedy of Philotas, act iv. sc. 2.

You see the Devil could fetch up nothing of Samuel at the request of Saul, but a shadow and a resemblance, his countenance and his mantle, which yet was not enough to cover the cheat, or topalliatethe illusion.—South,Sermon on Easter Day.

The generality of Christians make the external frame of religion but apalliationfor sin.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, p. ix.

Pantomime.—Now the mimic show itself, but at the first introduction of the word (Bacon’s constant use of ‘pantomimus’ and ‘pantomimi,’ and Ben Jonson’s as well, testify that it was new in their time), the player who presented the show.

I would ourpantomimesalso and stage-players would examine themselves and their callings by this rule.—Sanderson,Sermon on 1 Cor.vii. 24.The hypocrite cometh forth in a disguise, and acteth his part, and because men applaud him, thinketh God is of their mind, as thepantomimein Seneca, who observing the people well pleased with his dancing, did every day go up into the Capitol and dance before Jupiter, and was persuaded that he was also delighted in him.—Faringdon,Sermon 10.Not that I think thosepantomimes,Who vary actions with the times,Are less ingenious in their artThan those who dully act one part.Butler,Hudibras, p. 3, can. 2.

I would ourpantomimesalso and stage-players would examine themselves and their callings by this rule.—Sanderson,Sermon on 1 Cor.vii. 24.

The hypocrite cometh forth in a disguise, and acteth his part, and because men applaud him, thinketh God is of their mind, as thepantomimein Seneca, who observing the people well pleased with his dancing, did every day go up into the Capitol and dance before Jupiter, and was persuaded that he was also delighted in him.—Faringdon,Sermon 10.

Not that I think thosepantomimes,Who vary actions with the times,Are less ingenious in their artThan those who dully act one part.

Not that I think thosepantomimes,

Who vary actions with the times,

Are less ingenious in their art

Than those who dully act one part.

Butler,Hudibras, p. 3, can. 2.

The ‘pathetic’ is now onlyonekind of the passionate, that which, feelingpity, is itself capable of stirring it; but ‘pathetic’ or ‘pathetical’ and ‘passionate’ were once of an equal reach. When in a language like ours two words, derived from two different languages, as in this case from the Greek and from the Latin, exist side by side, being at the same time identical in signification, the desynonymizing process which we may note here, continually comes into play.

He [Hiel, cf.Josh.vi. 26 and1 Kingsxvi. 34] mistood Joshua’s curse rather for apatheticalexpression than prophetical prediction.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, b. ii. c. 12.Whatever word enhanceth Joseph’s praise,Her echo doubles it, and doth supplySome morepatheticand transcendant phraseTo raise his merit.Beaumont,Psyche, c. i. st. 148.For Truth, I know not how, hath this unhappiness fatal to her, ere she can come to the trial and inspection of theunderstanding; being to pass through many little wards and limits of the several affections and desires, she cannot shift it, but must put on such colours and attire as thosepatheticalhandmaids of the soul please to lead her in to their queen.—Milton,Reason of Church Government, b. ii. c. 3.But the principal point whereon our apostle pitcheth for evincing the priesthood of Christ to be far more excellent than the Levitical priesthood was, was reserved to the last, andpatheticallythough briefly avouched, ver. 20 [Heb.vii. 20].—Jackson,Of the Divine Essence and Attributes, b. ix. § 2.

He [Hiel, cf.Josh.vi. 26 and1 Kingsxvi. 34] mistood Joshua’s curse rather for apatheticalexpression than prophetical prediction.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, b. ii. c. 12.

Whatever word enhanceth Joseph’s praise,Her echo doubles it, and doth supplySome morepatheticand transcendant phraseTo raise his merit.

Whatever word enhanceth Joseph’s praise,

Her echo doubles it, and doth supply

Some morepatheticand transcendant phrase

To raise his merit.

Beaumont,Psyche, c. i. st. 148.

For Truth, I know not how, hath this unhappiness fatal to her, ere she can come to the trial and inspection of theunderstanding; being to pass through many little wards and limits of the several affections and desires, she cannot shift it, but must put on such colours and attire as thosepatheticalhandmaids of the soul please to lead her in to their queen.—Milton,Reason of Church Government, b. ii. c. 3.

But the principal point whereon our apostle pitcheth for evincing the priesthood of Christ to be far more excellent than the Levitical priesthood was, was reserved to the last, andpatheticallythough briefly avouched, ver. 20 [Heb.vii. 20].—Jackson,Of the Divine Essence and Attributes, b. ix. § 2.

Pattern.One is at first tempted to accuse our Translators of an inaccuracy atHeb.ix. 23, since, whatever ὑπόδειγμα may mean elsewhere, it is impossible that it can there mean ‘pattern,’ in our sense of exemplar or original from which a copy or sketch is derived, ‘patron’ upon whom the client forms and fashions himself. This is inconsistent with, and would indeed entirely defeat, the whole argument of the Apostle. The ὑποδείγματα there can be only the earthly copies and imitations of the heavenly and archetypal originals, ἀντίτυπα τῶν ἀληθινῶν. A passage, however, in theHomiliesentirely relieves them from any charge of error. All that can be said is that they have employed ‘pattern’ in a somewhat unusual sense, but one which an analogous use of ‘copy’ in our own day sufficiently explains.

Which priests serve unto thepatron[ὑποδείγματι] and shadow of heavenly things.—Heb.viii. 5. Geneva.It was therefore necessary that thepatternsof things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.—Heb.ix. 23. (A.V.)Where most rebellions and rebels be, there is the express similitude of hell, and the rebels themselves are the veryfigures of fiends and devils; and their captain, the ungraciouspatternof Lucifer and Satan, the prince of darkness.—Homilies, Against Wilful Rebellion.

Which priests serve unto thepatron[ὑποδείγματι] and shadow of heavenly things.—Heb.viii. 5. Geneva.

It was therefore necessary that thepatternsof things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.—Heb.ix. 23. (A.V.)

Where most rebellions and rebels be, there is the express similitude of hell, and the rebels themselves are the veryfigures of fiends and devils; and their captain, the ungraciouspatternof Lucifer and Satan, the prince of darkness.—Homilies, Against Wilful Rebellion.

By ‘peevishness’ we now understand a small but constantly fretting ill-temper; yet no one can read our old authors, with whom ‘peevish’ and ‘peevishness’ are of constant recurrence, without feeling that their use of them is different from ours; although precisely to determine what their use was is anything but easy. Gifford (Massinger, vol. i. p. 71) says confidently, ‘peevish is foolish;’ but upon induction from an insufficient number of passages. ‘Peevish’ is rather self-willed, obstinate. That in a world like ours those who refuse to give up their own wills should be continually crossed, and thus should become fretful, and ‘peevish’ in our modern sense of the word, is inevitable; and here is the history of the change of meaning which it has undergone.

Valentine.Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?Duke.No, trust me; she ispeevish, sullen, froward,Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty.Shakespeare,Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iii. sc. 1.We provoke, rail, scoff, calumniate, challenge, hate, abuse (hard-hearted, implacable, malicious,peevish, inexorable as we are), to satisfy our lust or private spleen.—Burton,Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. § 1.Pertinaxhominum genus, apeevishgeneration of men.—Id.,ib., part iii. § 4.That grand document of keeping to the light within us they [the Quakers] borrow out of St. John’s Gospel; and yet they are so frantic andpeevish, that they would fling away the staff without which they are not able to make one step in religion.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. viii. c. 12.In case the Romans, upon an inbredpeevishnessand engraffed pertinacity of theirs, should not hear reason, but refuse an indifferent end, then both God and man shall be witness as well of the moderation of Perseus, as of their pride and insolent frowardness.—Holland,Livy, p. 1152.We must carefully distinguish continuance in opinion from obstinacy, confidence of understanding frompeevishnessof affection, a not being convinced from a resolution never to be convinced.—BishopTaylor,Liberty of Prophesying, § ii. 10.

Valentine.Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?Duke.No, trust me; she ispeevish, sullen, froward,Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty.

Valentine.Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?

Duke.No, trust me; she ispeevish, sullen, froward,Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty.

Duke.No, trust me; she ispeevish, sullen, froward,

Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty.

Shakespeare,Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iii. sc. 1.

We provoke, rail, scoff, calumniate, challenge, hate, abuse (hard-hearted, implacable, malicious,peevish, inexorable as we are), to satisfy our lust or private spleen.—Burton,Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. § 1.

Pertinaxhominum genus, apeevishgeneration of men.—Id.,ib., part iii. § 4.

That grand document of keeping to the light within us they [the Quakers] borrow out of St. John’s Gospel; and yet they are so frantic andpeevish, that they would fling away the staff without which they are not able to make one step in religion.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. viii. c. 12.

In case the Romans, upon an inbredpeevishnessand engraffed pertinacity of theirs, should not hear reason, but refuse an indifferent end, then both God and man shall be witness as well of the moderation of Perseus, as of their pride and insolent frowardness.—Holland,Livy, p. 1152.

We must carefully distinguish continuance in opinion from obstinacy, confidence of understanding frompeevishnessof affection, a not being convinced from a resolution never to be convinced.—BishopTaylor,Liberty of Prophesying, § ii. 10.

Pencil.The distinction between ‘pencil’ and paint-brush is quite modern. The older use of ‘pencil’ (‘penecillus,’ or little tail) was etymologically more correct than the modern; the brush being so called because it hung and drooped as does that.

Heaven knows, they were besmeared and overstainedWith slaughter’spencil, where revenge did paintThe fearful difference of incensed kings.Shakespeare,King John, act iii. sc. 1.Learning is necessary to him [the heretic], if he trades in a critical error; but if he only broaches dregs, and deals in some dull sottish opinion, a trowel will serve as well as apencilto daub on such thick coarse colours.—Fuller,Profane State, b. v. c. 10.The first thing she did after rising was to have recourse to thered-pot, out of which she laid it on very thick with apencil, not only on her cheeks, chin, under the nose, above the eyebrows and edges of the ears, but also on the inside of her hands, her fingers, and shoulders.—The Lady’s Travels into Spain, Letter 8.

Heaven knows, they were besmeared and overstainedWith slaughter’spencil, where revenge did paintThe fearful difference of incensed kings.

Heaven knows, they were besmeared and overstained

With slaughter’spencil, where revenge did paint

The fearful difference of incensed kings.

Shakespeare,King John, act iii. sc. 1.

Learning is necessary to him [the heretic], if he trades in a critical error; but if he only broaches dregs, and deals in some dull sottish opinion, a trowel will serve as well as apencilto daub on such thick coarse colours.—Fuller,Profane State, b. v. c. 10.

The first thing she did after rising was to have recourse to thered-pot, out of which she laid it on very thick with apencil, not only on her cheeks, chin, under the nose, above the eyebrows and edges of the ears, but also on the inside of her hands, her fingers, and shoulders.—The Lady’s Travels into Spain, Letter 8.

Penitentiary.It is curious that this word has possessed three entirely independent meanings, namely penitent, ordainer of penances in the Church, and place for penitents; only the last is current now.

So Manasseh in the beginning and middle of his reign filled the city with innocent blood, and died apenitentiary.—Jackson,Christ’s Session at God’s Right Hand, b. ii. c. 42.’Twas a French friar’s conceit that courtiers were of all men the likeliest to forsake the world and turnpenitentiaries.—Hammond,The Seventh Sermon,Works, vol. iv. p. 517.Penitentiary, a priest that imposes upon an offender what penance he thinks fit.—Phillips,New World of Words.

So Manasseh in the beginning and middle of his reign filled the city with innocent blood, and died apenitentiary.—Jackson,Christ’s Session at God’s Right Hand, b. ii. c. 42.

’Twas a French friar’s conceit that courtiers were of all men the likeliest to forsake the world and turnpenitentiaries.—Hammond,The Seventh Sermon,Works, vol. iv. p. 517.

Penitentiary, a priest that imposes upon an offender what penance he thinks fit.—Phillips,New World of Words.

He is ‘pensive,’ according to our present estimate of the word, in whom a certain mild and meditative sadness finds place; and in thus attaching to the word this meaning of a thoughtful sadness we are truer to its etymology than were our ancestors, when they used it, as they often did, to express the sharpest anguish of grief. Thus, in my first quotation, by ‘the pensive court’ is meant the Court of David, which has just received tidings of the slaughter by Absalom of all the king’s sons.

Thepensivecourt in doleful dumps did rueThis dismal case.Fuller,Poem on David’s hainous Sin.Great is the wit ofpensiveness, and when the head is rackedWith hard misfortune sharp forecast of practice entereth in.Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. vi.What is care and thought? a plain token of diffidence and distrust of God. It is an unfaithful care andpensivenessof the mind for meat, drink, clothing.—Becon,Works, vol. iii. p. 611.

Thepensivecourt in doleful dumps did rueThis dismal case.

Thepensivecourt in doleful dumps did rue

This dismal case.

Fuller,Poem on David’s hainous Sin.

Great is the wit ofpensiveness, and when the head is rackedWith hard misfortune sharp forecast of practice entereth in.

Great is the wit ofpensiveness, and when the head is racked

With hard misfortune sharp forecast of practice entereth in.

Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. vi.

What is care and thought? a plain token of diffidence and distrust of God. It is an unfaithful care andpensivenessof the mind for meat, drink, clothing.—Becon,Works, vol. iii. p. 611.

Penury.This expresses now no more than theobjectivefact of extreme poverty; an ethicalsubjectivemeaning not lying in it, as would sometimes of old. This is now retained only in ‘penurious,’ ‘penuriousness.’

God sometimes punishes one sin with another; pride with adultery, drunkenness with murder, carelessness with irreligion, idleness with vanity,penurywith oppression.—BishopTaylor,The Faith and Patience of the Saints.

[Perseverance.This word frequently occurs in literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth century in the sense of perception, discernment. ‘Perseverance’=discernment should be carefully distinguished from ‘perseverance’ (Frenchperseverance, Latinperseverantia)=persistency, constancy. The former in many texts is spelt with acinstead of ans, as ‘perceverance,’ ‘perceyverance,’ ‘perceiverance.’ This spelling gives the key to the etymology; the word is a derivative from Old Frenchpercevoir,percever=Latinpercipere, to perceive. For a good collection of illustrative passages seeNotes and Queries(1st S. vii. 400.)]

If the dead have anieperceverance.Golding(seeN. and Q.)She had moreperceveranceof the Hebrues law.—Langley’sPolidore Vergile(seeN. and Q.)For his dyet he [Ariosto] was verie temperate, and a great enemie of excesse and surfetting, and so carelesse of delicates as though he had noperseverancein the tast of meates.—SirJ. Harington,Life of Ariosto, p. 418.He [Æmilius Paulus] suddenly fell into a raving (without anyperseveranceof sickness spied in him before, or any change or alteration in him [πρὶν αἰσθέσθαι καὶ νοῆσαι τὴν μεταβολήν]), and his wits went from him in such sort that he died three days after.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 221.

If the dead have anieperceverance.

Golding(seeN. and Q.)

She had moreperceveranceof the Hebrues law.—Langley’sPolidore Vergile(seeN. and Q.)

For his dyet he [Ariosto] was verie temperate, and a great enemie of excesse and surfetting, and so carelesse of delicates as though he had noperseverancein the tast of meates.—SirJ. Harington,Life of Ariosto, p. 418.

He [Æmilius Paulus] suddenly fell into a raving (without anyperseveranceof sickness spied in him before, or any change or alteration in him [πρὶν αἰσθέσθαι καὶ νοῆσαι τὴν μεταβολήν]), and his wits went from him in such sort that he died three days after.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 221.

Person.We have forfeited the full force of the statement, ‘God is no respecter ofpersons;’ from the fact that ‘person’ does not mean for us now all that it once meant. ‘Person,’ from ‘persona,’ the mask constantly worn by the actor of antiquity, is by natural transfer the part orrôlein the play which each sustains, as πρόσωπον is in Greek. In the great tragi-comedy of life each sustains a ‘person;’ one that of a king, another that of a peasant; one must play Dives, another Lazarus. This ‘person’ God, for whom the question is notwhat‘person’ each sustains, buthowhe sustains it, does not respect.

King.What, rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prisonThe immediate heir of England! was this easy?May this be washed in Lethe, and forgotten?Chief Justice.I then did use thepersonof your father;The image of his power lay then in me.Shakespeare,2 Henry IV., act v. sc. 2.Cæsar also is brought in by Julian attributing to himself the honour (if it were at all an honour to thatpersonwhich he sustained), of being the first that left his ship and took land.—Milton,History of England, b. ii.Her giftsWere such as under government well seemed;Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy partAndperson, hadst thou known thyself aright.Id.,Paradise Lost, x. 153.Certain it is, that no man can long put on apersonand act a part but his evil manners will peep through the corners of his white robe, and God will bring a hypocrite to shame even in the eyes of men.—BishopTaylor,Apples of Sodom.

King.What, rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prisonThe immediate heir of England! was this easy?May this be washed in Lethe, and forgotten?

King.What, rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison

The immediate heir of England! was this easy?

May this be washed in Lethe, and forgotten?

Chief Justice.I then did use thepersonof your father;The image of his power lay then in me.

Chief Justice.I then did use thepersonof your father;

The image of his power lay then in me.

Shakespeare,2 Henry IV., act v. sc. 2.

Cæsar also is brought in by Julian attributing to himself the honour (if it were at all an honour to thatpersonwhich he sustained), of being the first that left his ship and took land.—Milton,History of England, b. ii.

Her giftsWere such as under government well seemed;Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy partAndperson, hadst thou known thyself aright.

Her gifts

Were such as under government well seemed;

Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part

Andperson, hadst thou known thyself aright.

Id.,Paradise Lost, x. 153.

Certain it is, that no man can long put on apersonand act a part but his evil manners will peep through the corners of his white robe, and God will bring a hypocrite to shame even in the eyes of men.—BishopTaylor,Apples of Sodom.

Perspective.‘Telescope’ and ‘microscope’ are both as old as Milton; but for a long while ‘perspective’ (glass being sometimes understood, and sometimesexpressed) did the work of these. It is sometimes written ‘prospective.’ Our present use of ‘perspective’ hardly dates farther back than Dryden.

A guilty conscienceIs a black register, wherein is writAll our good deeds and bad, aperspectiveThat shows us hell.Webster,Duchess of Malfi, act iv. sc. 2.While we look for incorruption in the heavens, we find they are but like the earth, durable in their main bodies, alterable in their parts; whereof, beside comets and new stars,perspectivesbegin to tell tales; and the spots that wander about the sun, with Phaeton’s favour, would make clear conviction.—SirT. Browne,Hydriotaphia.Look through faith’sperspectivewith the magnifying end on invisibles (for such is its frame, it lesseneth visibles), and thou wilt see sights not more strange than satisfying.—Whitlock,Zootomia, p. 535.A tiny mite, which we can scarcely seeWithout aperspective.Oldham,Eighth Satire of M. Boileau.

A guilty conscienceIs a black register, wherein is writAll our good deeds and bad, aperspectiveThat shows us hell.

A guilty conscience

Is a black register, wherein is writ

All our good deeds and bad, aperspective

That shows us hell.

Webster,Duchess of Malfi, act iv. sc. 2.

While we look for incorruption in the heavens, we find they are but like the earth, durable in their main bodies, alterable in their parts; whereof, beside comets and new stars,perspectivesbegin to tell tales; and the spots that wander about the sun, with Phaeton’s favour, would make clear conviction.—SirT. Browne,Hydriotaphia.

Look through faith’sperspectivewith the magnifying end on invisibles (for such is its frame, it lesseneth visibles), and thou wilt see sights not more strange than satisfying.—Whitlock,Zootomia, p. 535.

A tiny mite, which we can scarcely seeWithout aperspective.

A tiny mite, which we can scarcely see

Without aperspective.

Oldham,Eighth Satire of M. Boileau.

Pert.This word had once the meaning of brisk, lively, nimble; now it is this with a very distinct subaudition of sauciness and impertinence as well.

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;Awake thepertand nimble spirit of youth.Shakespeare,Midsummer Night’s Dream, act i. sc. 1.And on the tawny sands and shelvesTrip thepertfaeries and the dapper elves.Milton,Comus, 117.

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;Awake thepertand nimble spirit of youth.

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;

Awake thepertand nimble spirit of youth.

Shakespeare,Midsummer Night’s Dream, act i. sc. 1.

And on the tawny sands and shelvesTrip thepertfaeries and the dapper elves.

And on the tawny sands and shelves

Trip thepertfaeries and the dapper elves.

Milton,Comus, 117.

Pester.There is no greater discomfort or annoyance than extreme straitness or narrowness of room; out of which in Greek the word στενοχωρία,signifying this, has come to have a secondary signification of trouble or anguish. [In English, ‘to pester’ bears witness to the same fact, having first the meaning of to encumber or clog, then the second meaning of painfully cooping-up in a narrow and confined space, and lastly the meaning of to vex or annoy, which sense it still retains.]

Now because the most part of the people might not possibly have a sight of him, they gat up all at once into the theatre, andpesteredit quite full.—Holland,Livy, p. 1055.They within, thoughpesteredwith their own numbers, stood to it like men resolved, and in a narrow compass did remarkable deeds.—Milton,History of England, b. ii.The calendar is filled, not to saypesteredwith them [that is, with Saints’ Days], jostling one another for room, many holding the same day in copartnership of festivity.—Fuller,Worthies of England, c. 3.

Now because the most part of the people might not possibly have a sight of him, they gat up all at once into the theatre, andpesteredit quite full.—Holland,Livy, p. 1055.

They within, thoughpesteredwith their own numbers, stood to it like men resolved, and in a narrow compass did remarkable deeds.—Milton,History of England, b. ii.

The calendar is filled, not to saypesteredwith them [that is, with Saints’ Days], jostling one another for room, many holding the same day in copartnership of festivity.—Fuller,Worthies of England, c. 3.

Though ‘physical’ has not dissociated itself from ‘physics,’ it has from ‘physic’ and ‘physician,’ being used now as simply the equivalent for ‘natural’ which the Greek language has supplied us; but it was not always so.

Is Brutus sick? and is itphysicalTo walk unbracéd and suck up the humoursOf the dank morning?Shakespeare,Julius Cæsar, act ii. sc. 1.Attalus, surnamed Philometer (to say, lover of his mother), would plant and setphysicalherbs, as helleborum.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 739.And for physic, he [Lord Bacon] did indeed livephysically,21but not miserably.—Rawley,Life of Lord Bacon.

Is Brutus sick? and is itphysicalTo walk unbracéd and suck up the humoursOf the dank morning?

Is Brutus sick? and is itphysical

To walk unbracéd and suck up the humours

Of the dank morning?

Shakespeare,Julius Cæsar, act ii. sc. 1.

Attalus, surnamed Philometer (to say, lover of his mother), would plant and setphysicalherbs, as helleborum.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 739.

And for physic, he [Lord Bacon] did indeed livephysically,21but not miserably.—Rawley,Life of Lord Bacon.

Placard.Formerly used often in the sense of a license or permission, the ‘placard’ being properly the broad tablet or board on which this, as well as other edicts and ordinances, was exposed.

Then for my voice I must (no choice)Away of force, like posting horse,For sundry men hadplacardsthenSuch child to take.Tusser,Author’s Life.Others are of the contrary opinion, and that Christianity gives us aplacardto use these sports; and that man’s charter of dominion over the creatures enables him to employ them as well for pleasure as necessity.—Fuller,Holy State, b. iii. c. 13.

Then for my voice I must (no choice)Away of force, like posting horse,For sundry men hadplacardsthenSuch child to take.

Then for my voice I must (no choice)

Away of force, like posting horse,

For sundry men hadplacardsthen

Such child to take.

Tusser,Author’s Life.

Others are of the contrary opinion, and that Christianity gives us aplacardto use these sports; and that man’s charter of dominion over the creatures enables him to employ them as well for pleasure as necessity.—Fuller,Holy State, b. iii. c. 13.

Plantation.We still ‘plant’ a colony, but a ‘plantation’ is now of trees only; and not of men. There was a time when ‘The Plantations’ was the standing name by which our transatlantic colonies were known. One of Bacon’s state-papers has this title, ‘Certain Considerations touching thePlantationin Ireland.’

It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked condemned men to be the people with whom you plant: and not only so, but it spoileth theplantation.—LordBacon,Essays, 33.Plantationsmake mankind broader, as generation makes it thicker.—Fuller,Holy State, b. iii. c. 16.

It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked condemned men to be the people with whom you plant: and not only so, but it spoileth theplantation.—LordBacon,Essays, 33.

Plantationsmake mankind broader, as generation makes it thicker.—Fuller,Holy State, b. iii. c. 16.

Platform.This word has lost much of its meaning, that is in England; for it is very far from having so done in America. The only ‘platforms’ which we know of here are structures of boards erected to serve a temporary need. But a ‘platform’ was once a scheme or pattern on which, as on a ground-plan,other things, moral or material, might be disposed. Statesmen had their ‘platform’ of policy; Churches their ‘platform’ of doctrine and discipline; and so is it still in America, where the word is in constant use.

They, [the courtiers of Dionysius] were every one occupied about drawing theplatformof Sicilia, telling the nature of the Sicilian Sea, and reckoning up the havens and places looking towards Africk.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 456.Theplatformof this Tabernacle was by God delivered to Moses on the Mount, with a strict charge to make all things conformable thereunto.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, b. iv. c. 4.

Theplatformof this Tabernacle was by God delivered to Moses on the Mount, with a strict charge to make all things conformable thereunto.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, b. iv. c. 4.

That is ‘plausible’ now which presents itself as worthy of applause; yet always with a subaudition, or at least a suggestion, that it is not so really; it was once that which obtained applause, with at least theprimâ facielikelihood that the applause which it obtained was deserved.

This John Bishop of Constantinople, that assumed to himself the title of Universal Bishop or Patriarch, was a good man, given greatly to alms and fasting, but too much addicted to advance the title of his see; which made aplausiblebishop seem to be Antichrist to Gregory the Great.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 66.The Romansplausiblydid give consentFor Tarquin’s everlasting banishment.Shakespeare,Lucrece, 1854.He was no sooner in sight than every one received himplausibly, and with great submission and reverence.—Stubbes,Anatomy of Abuses, p. 17.Being placed in the upper part of the world, [he] carried on his dignity with that justice, modesty, integrity, fidelity, and other graciousplausibilities, that in a place of trust hecontented those whom he could not satisfy, and in a place of envy procured the love of those who emulated his greatness.—Vaughan,Life and Death of Dr. Jackson.

The Romansplausiblydid give consentFor Tarquin’s everlasting banishment.

The Romansplausiblydid give consent

For Tarquin’s everlasting banishment.

Shakespeare,Lucrece, 1854.

He was no sooner in sight than every one received himplausibly, and with great submission and reverence.—Stubbes,Anatomy of Abuses, p. 17.

Being placed in the upper part of the world, [he] carried on his dignity with that justice, modesty, integrity, fidelity, and other graciousplausibilities, that in a place of trust hecontented those whom he could not satisfy, and in a place of envy procured the love of those who emulated his greatness.—Vaughan,Life and Death of Dr. Jackson.

A ‘poacher’ is strictly speaking an intruder; one who intrudes or ‘poaches’ into land where he has no business; the fact that he does so with intention of spoiling the game is superadded, not lying in the word.

Pocher le labeur d’autruy. Topochinto, or incroach upon another man’s imployment, practise or trade.—Cotgrave.So that, to speak truly, they [the Spaniards] have ratherpoachedand offered at a number of enterprises, than maintained any constantly.—LordBacon,Notes of a Speech concerning a War with Spain.It is ill conversing with an ensnarer, delving into the bottom of your mind, to know what is hid in it. I would ask a casuist if it were not lawful for me not only to hide my mind, but to cast something that is not true before such apoacher.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 113.

Pocher le labeur d’autruy. Topochinto, or incroach upon another man’s imployment, practise or trade.—Cotgrave.

So that, to speak truly, they [the Spaniards] have ratherpoachedand offered at a number of enterprises, than maintained any constantly.—LordBacon,Notes of a Speech concerning a War with Spain.

It is ill conversing with an ensnarer, delving into the bottom of your mind, to know what is hid in it. I would ask a casuist if it were not lawful for me not only to hide my mind, but to cast something that is not true before such apoacher.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 113.

Between ‘polite’ and ‘polished’ this much of difference has now grown up and established itself, that ‘polite’ is always employed in a secondary and tropical sense, having reference to the polish of the mind, while it is free to use ‘polished’ in the literal and figurative sense alike.

Politebodies, as looking-glasses.—Cudworth,Intellectual System, p. 731.Polite; well-polished, neat.—Phillips,New World of Words.In things artificial seldom any elegance is wrought without a superfluous waste and refuse in the transaction. Nomarble statue can bepolitelycarved, no fair edifice built, without almost as much rubbish and sweeping.—Milton,Reason of Church Government, b. i. c. 7.

Politebodies, as looking-glasses.—Cudworth,Intellectual System, p. 731.

Polite; well-polished, neat.—Phillips,New World of Words.

In things artificial seldom any elegance is wrought without a superfluous waste and refuse in the transaction. Nomarble statue can bepolitelycarved, no fair edifice built, without almost as much rubbish and sweeping.—Milton,Reason of Church Government, b. i. c. 7.

At the present ‘politics’ are alwaysthings, but were sometimespersonsas well in times past. ‘Politician’ too had an evil subaudition. One so named was a trickster or underhand self-seeker and schemer in politics, or it might be, as it is throughout in the sermon of South, quoted below, in the ordinary affairs of life. Fuller calls his Life of the wicked usurper Andronicus, ‘The Unfortunate Politician.’

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