Notes and Queries, Number 187, May 28, 1853 | Page 5

&c., members of
that committee."
JAS. CROSSLEY.
* * * * *
NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS.
(Continued from p. 402.)
No did, no will, no had, &c.--
"K. John. . . . I had a mighty cause To wish him dead, but thou hadst
none to kill him.
Hubert. No had (my Lord), why, did you not provoke me?" King John,
Act IV. Sc. 2.
So the first folio edition of Shakspeare. A palpable error, as the
commentators of the present would pleasantly observe, and all the
world would echo the opinion; but here, as in most other {521}
instances, commentators and all the world may be wrong, and the folios
right. The passage has accordingly been corrupted by the editors of
Shakspeare into what was more familiar to their modern ears: "Had

none, my Lord!" Though the mode of speech be very common, yet, to
deprive future editors of all excuse for ever again depraving the
genuine text of our national Bible, I shall make no apology for
accumulating a string of examples:
"Fort. Oh, had I such a hat, then were I brave! Where's he that made it?
Sol. Dead: and the whole world Yields not a workman that can frame
the like.
Fort. No does?" "Old Fortunatus," Old English Plays, vol. iii. p. 140.,
by Dilke:
who alters "No does?" into None does? thinking, I presume, that he had
thereby simplified the sentence:
"John. I am an elde fellowe of fifty wynter and more, And yet in all my
lyfe I knewe not this before.
Parson. No dyd, why sayest thou so, upon thyselfe thou lyest, Thou
haste euer knowen the sacramente to be the body of Christ." John Bon
and Mast Person.
"Chedsey. Christ said 'Take, eat, this is my body;' and not 'Take ye, eat
ye.'
Philpot. No did, master doctor? Be not these the words of Christ,
'Accipite, manducate?' And do not these words, in the plural number,
signify 'Take ye, eat ye;' and not 'Take thou, eat thou,' as you would
suppose?"--Foxe's Acts and Monuments, vol. vii. p. 637., Cattley's
edition.
"Philpot. Master Cosins, I have told my lord already, that I will answer
to none of these articles he hath objected against me: but if you will
with learning answer to that which is in question between my lord and
me, I will gladly hear and commune with you.
Cosins. No will you? Why what is that then, that is in question between

my lord and you?"--Id., p. 651.
"Philpot. And as I remember, it is even the saying of St. Bernard [viz.
The Holy Ghost is Christ's vicar on earth (vic-arius), and a saying that I
need not to be ashamed of, neither you to be offended at; as my Lord of
Durham and my Lord of Chichester by their learning can discern, and
will not reckon it evil said.
London. No will? Why, take away the first syllable, and it soundeth
Arius."--Id. p. 658.
"Philpot. These words of Cyprian do nothing prove your pretensed
assertion; which is, that to the Church of Rome there could come no
misbelief.
Christopherson. Good lord, no doth? What can be said more
plainly?"--Id., p. 661.
Again, at p. 663. there occur no less than three more instances and at p.
665. another.
"Careless. No, forsooth: I do not know any such, nor have I heard of
him that I wot of.
Martin. No have, forsooth: and it is even he that hath written against
thy faith."
Then Martin said:
"Dost thou not know one Master Chamberlain?
Careless. No forsooth; I know him not.
Martin. No dost! and he hath written a book against thy faith also."--Id.,
vol. iii. p. 164.
"Lichfield and Coventry. We heard of no such order.
Lord Keeper. No did? Yes, and on the first question ye began willingly.

How cometh it to pass that ye will not now do so?"--Id., p. 690.
"Then said Sir Thomas Moyle: 'Ah! Bland, thou art a stiff-hearted
fellow. Thou wilt not obey the law, nor answer when thou art called.'
'Nor will,' quoth Sir John Baker. 'Master Sheriff, take him to your
ward.'"--Id., vol. vii. p. 295.
Is it needful to state, that the original editions have, as they ought to
have, a note of interrogation at "Baker?" I will not tax the reader's
patience with more than two other examples, and they shall be fetched
from the writings of that admirable papist--the gentle, the
merry-hearted More:
"Well, quod Caius, thou wylt graunte me thys fyrste, that euery thynge
that hath two erys is an asse.--Nay, mary mayster, wyll I not, quod the
boy.--No wylt thou? quod Caius. Ah, wyly boy, there thou wentest
beyond me."--The Thyrde Boke, the first chapter, fol. 84. of Sir
Thomas More's Dialogues.
"Why, quod he, what coulde I answere ellys,