Notes and Queries, Number 43, August 24, 1850 | Page 8

stabbing with a spear an alligator; and then with a sword, in the act of killing a bear.
On the side borders, he is receiving the attack of a lion on his arm, covered with a mantle; and then, with a raised sword, cutting at the proboscis of an elephant. I have seen, also, an older specimen, I think, of the same manufacture; the subject being the "Bear and Ragged Staff," on alternate rows, with figures of trumpeters. I know not if this subject is of sufficient interest for your "Notes and Queries," but I trust you will make what use of it you please.
R.G.P.M.
_Flourish._--We are told that a writer flourished at such and such a time. Is any definite notion attached to this word? When it is said of a century there is no difficulty; it means that the writer was born and died in that century. But when we are told that a writer flourished about the year 1328 (such limitation of florescence is not uncommon), what is then meant? What are we to understand he did in or about 1328?
M.
_Drax Abbey and Free School._--Can you, or any of your intelligent contributors, direct me where I can find any records of Drax Abbey, near Selby, Yorkshire, or of the Free School in Drax, endowed by Robert Reed, whom tradition states to heave been a foundling amongst the reeds on the banks of the Ouse, about half a mile distant. Such information will place me under great obligation.
T. Dyson.
Gainsboro.
_Ancient Catalogue of Books._--A few days since I made the acquisition of a curious old catalogue {200} of books, interleaved, and containing about 200 pages, with the following title:
"Catalogus Variorum, in quavis Facultate et materia Librorum incompactum Officin? Joannis Maire, quorum Auctio public�� habebitur in ?dibus Joannis Maire, hora octava matutina et secunda postmeridiana ad diem ----, 1661. Lugduni Batavorum, ex Typographia Nicolai Herculis, 1661."
On the back is the following notice to "buyers:"
"Monitos volumus Emptores, hosce Libros ea vendi conditione, ut cum eorum traditione pretium pr?senti pecunia persolvatur. Et si quis Libros �� se emptos intra sex septimanarum spatium, �� prim�� Auctionis die numerandum, �� Bibliopola non exegerit, eos cum emptoris prioris damno aliis vendere integrum erit ac licitum.
"Monentur etiam et rogantur, ut ant�� meridiem ad hor? octav?, post meridiem vero ad secund? punctum pr?sentes sese sistere dignentur."
Can any of your readers give me particulars about this John Maire?
W.J.
Havre.
* * * * *
REPLIES.
SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE WORD "DELIGHTED."
(Vol. ii., pp. 113. 139.)
Although Mr. Hickson's notion of the meaning of _delight_, in the three passages of Shakspeare he has cited, is somewhat startling, it was not to be summarily rejected without due examination; and yet, from a tolerably extensive acquaintance with old English phraseology, I fear I cannot flatter him with the expectation of having it confirmed by instances from other writers.
I believe that lighted is rather an unusual form to express _lightened_, _disencumbered_, but that it was sometimes used is apparent; for in Hutton's _Dictionary_, 1583, we have "Allevo, to make light, to light."--"Allevatus, lifted up, lighted." And in the _Cambridge Dictionary_, 1594, "Allevatus, lifted up, _lighted_, raised, eased or recovered." The use of the prefix de in the common instance of depart for to _part_, _divide_, is noticed by Mr. Hickson; and demerits was used for merits by many of our old writers as well as Shakspeare. I find decompound for compound in Heylyn's _Microcosmos_, 1627, p. 249., thus:--"The English language is a decompound of Dutch, French, and Latin."
These instances may serve to show that it is not at all improbable Shakspeare may have used delighted for _lighted==lightened==freed from incumbrance_; and it must be confessed that the sense and spirit of the passage in Measure for Measure would be much improved by taking this view of it.
On the 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