Notes and Queries, Number 43, August 24, 1850 | Page 9

other hand, it certainly does appear that the poet uses the
termination _-ed_ for _-ing_, in the passages cited by Mr. Halliwell,
where we have professed for profess_ing_, becomed for becom_ing_,
guiled for guil_ing_, brooded for brood_ing_, and deformed for
deform_ing_: it was not unreasonable, therefore, to conclude that he
had done so in these other instances, and that delighted stood for
delight_ing_, and not for delight_ful_, as Mr. Halliwell implies. How
far the grammatical usages of the poet's time may have authorised this
has not yet been shown; but it appears also that the converse is the case,
and that he has used the termination _-ing_ for _-ed_; e.g. longing for
long_ed_, all-obeying for all-obey_ed_, discontenting for
discontent_ed_, multiplying for multipli_ed_, unrecall_ing_, for
unrecalled. Dr. Crombie (_Etymology and Syntax of the English
language_, p. 150.) says:
"The participle in ed I consider to be perfectly analogous to the
participle in _ing_, and used like it in either an active or passive sense,

belonging, therefore, neither to the one voice nor the other
exclusively."
Supposing for a moment that Shakspeare used delighted for
delight_ing_, the sense of the passages would, I presume, be in
_Measure for Measure_, "the spirit affording delight;" in _Othello_, "if
virtue want no beauty affording delight;" in _Cymbeline_, "the gifts
delighting more from being delayed." Here we have a simple, and, in
the last two instances, I think, a more satisfactory meaning than Mr.
Hickson's sense of _lightened_, _disencumbered_, affords, even could
it be more unquestionably established.
I have, however, met with a passage in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia (ed.
1598, p. 294.) which might lead to a different interpretation of
delighted in these passages, and which would not, perhaps, be less
startling than that of Mr. Hickson.
"All this night (in despite of darknesse) he held his eyes open; and in
the morning, when the delight began to restore to each body his colour,
then with curtains bar'd he himselfe from the enjoying of it; neither
willing to feele the comfort of the day, nor the ease of the night."
Here, delight is apparently used for _the return of light_, and the prefix
de is probably only intensive. Now, presuming that Shakspeare also
used delighted for _lighted_, illuminated the passage in Measure for
Measure would bear this interpretation: "the delighted spirit, i.e., the
spirit _restored to light_," freed from "that dark house in which it long
was pent." In _Othello_, "if virtue lack no delighted beauty," i.e.
"_want not the light of beauty_, your son-in-law shows far more fair
than black." Here the opposition between light and black is much in its
favour. In _Cymbeline_, I must confess it is not quite so clear: "to
make my gifts, by the dark uncertainty attendant upon delay, more
lustrous (delighted), more radiant when given," is not more satisfactory
than Mr. {201} HICKSON'S interpretation of this passage. But is it
necessary that delighted should have the same signification in all the
three passages? I think not.
These are only suggestions, of course, but the passage from Sidney is

certainly curious, and, from the correct and careful manner in which the
book is printed, does not appear to be a corruption. I have not seen the
earlier editions. I have only further to remark, that none of our old
authorities favour DR. KENNEDY'S suggestion, "that the word
represents the Latin participle delectus."
Since the above was written, Mr. HICKSON'S reply to MR.
HALLIWELL has reached me, upon which I have only to observe that
he will find to guile was used as a verb. Thus in Gower, _Confessio
Amantis_, fo. 135. ed. 1532:
"For often he that will begyle, Is gyled with the same gyle, And thus the
gyler is begyled."
We most probably had the word from the old French
_Guiller_=tromper, and the proverb is to the purpose:--
"Qui croit de Guiller Guillot, Guillot le Guile."
Horne Tooke's fanciful etymology cannot be sustained. MR.
HICKSON'S explanation of "guiled shore," is, however, countenanced
by the following passage in _Tarquin and Lucrece_:--
"To me came Tarquin armed, so _beguil'd_ With outward honesty, but
yet defil'd With inward vice."
MR. HICKSON has, I think, conferred a singular favour in calling
attention to these perplexing passages in our great poet and these
remarks, like his own, are merely intended as hints which may serve to
elicit the true interpretation.
S.W. SINGER.
Mickleham, August 20. 1850.
* * * * *
FAMILY OF LOVE.

I do not know whether the following Notes on "The Family of Love"
will be deserving a place in the pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES;" as
I may possibly have been anticipated in much of what I send.
The Family of Love attracted notice as early as 1575, but not in such a
manner as to call for direct coercion. An apology