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OFFICERS 
 
 THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 (1885.) 
 
 APPLETON MORGAN, 
 R. S. GUERNSEY, 
 C. C. MARBLE, 
 JAMES E. REYNOLDS, 
 ALBERT R. FREY, 
 
 - President. 
 
 ist Vice-Prest. 
 
 - Secretary. 
 Treasurer. 
 Librarian. 
 
The Shakespeare Society of New York, 
 
 INCORPORATED APRIL 20, 1885. 
 
 Co promote tf)e fenotole&se anS sttttip of t\)t SSRotfca 
 
 of SISRnn i^akespeare, anfc tlje H>!)akc$perean 
 
 anto ©iteafietjjan SDrama, 
 
 V 7^3 
 
IN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 
 
 JUNE 15, 1885. 
 
 Resolved, That in order that the papers printed un- 
 der authority of this Society may be of the highest 
 character, and of value from all standpoints, the Socie- 
 ty does not stand pledged as responsible for the opin- 
 ions expressed or conclusions arrived at in the said 
 papers, but considers itself only responsible in so far as 
 it certifies by its Imprimatur that it considers them as 
 original contributions to Shakespearean study, and as 
 showing upon their face care, labor and research. 
 
Papers of tjte JQ. p. Shakespeare Society, Bo. 2. 
 
 13l>tmS atttl %&8VLX$. 
 
 A Study in Warwickshire Dialect. 
 
 By APPLETON MORGAN. 
 
 New York : 
 
 THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 
 
 (Brentano Bros., New York, Washington and Chicago.) 
 
 1885. 
 
# 
 
 «*w 
 
 Copyright, 1885. 
 By the Shakespeare Society of New York. 
 
PREFACTORY. 
 
 So long as the capital question of a Shakespeare 
 Canon remains open, a discussion of the secondary ques- 
 tion of the William Shakespeare authorship, whether 
 considered as a whole (as is the method of the Baconian 
 Society), or as to particular works or parts of works, (as 
 conducted by Mr. Fleay in his admirable Shakespeare 
 Manual and Mr. Rolfe in his invaluable Friendly Edi- 
 tion), would seem to be proper. I, for one, am 
 willing to confess that after many years of famili- 
 arity with it, I regard the question as to what William 
 Shakespeare wrote with his own pen, and what became 
 his (to use Mr. R. G. White's language) "after the 
 theatrical fashion and under the theatrical condi- 
 tions of his day," as legitimate as it is fascinating 
 — as one entitled to the fullest examination and treat- 
 ment on purely historical grounds ; and as one which 
 can not only be pursued to any extent without casting 
 suspicion on the querists' loyalty or orthodoxy, but 
 whose discussion is a contribution the more to the 
 world's noble and ever magnifying Library of Shakes- 
 peareana. 
 
 Of course as to the results of these contributions, and 
 the conclusions they compel, different minds will al- 
 ways be affected differently. For example : While the 
 statements made in the following pages do not prove 
 anything, even prima facie, and, even, if conceded, are 
 very far from demonstrating anything finally ; it is yet, 
 it seems to me, worth while asking if they are, from any 
 point of view, momentous enough to be entirely sup- 
 pressed and carefully forgotten. In his Memoranda on 
 the Tragedy of Hamlet (1879) Mr.Halliwell Phillipps re- 
 marks : " Those who have lived as long as myself in 
 the midst of Shakesperean criticism will be careful 
 not to be too certain of anything." With such a cau- 
 tion from so eminent and venerable an authority, most 
 younger men will wish to keep alertly on their guard 
 against foreclosing themselves. 
 
VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE POET. 
 
 Everybody remembers the expressive dia- 
 lect spoken by Mrs. Poyser (who is quite as 
 real a personage as most of us, and who will 
 live ages longer than any of us — seeing that 
 she is one of the Immortals of George Eliot's 
 immortal gallery). George Eliot lays the 
 story, of which Mrs. Poyser is the undoubted 
 masterpiece, in " Loamshire," — by which, of 
 course, everybody recognizes Leicestershire. 
 But u it must not be inferred, " says Dr. Se- 
 bastian Evans of the English Dialect Society, 
 that Mrs. Poyser and the rest of the charac- 
 ters introduced (in Adam Bede) speak pure 
 Leicestershire. They speak pure Warwick- 
 shire ; and, although the two dialects natu- 
 rally approximate very closely, they are far 
 from being identical in pronunciation, gram- 
 mar or vocabulary. The truth is that 
 George Eliot was herself Warwickshire born, 
 and used the dialect, in the midst of which 
 she had been reared, for her Leicestershire 
 characters; which was not much of a solecism 
 seeing that the two had so many points of 
 contact." 
 
8 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 But if the English George Eliot heard in 
 her village among her neighbors in her youth 
 was Warwickshire English, it could not have 
 been a much purer speech that her young fel- 
 low-shireman, William Shakespeare, heard in 
 his day — almost three centuries earlier. There 
 was not much of an Academy, not much of a 
 cult, in Stratford town, to purify the burgh- 
 er's patois in Shakespearean times. Nay, even 
 up at the capital — in London — it was very 
 little, if any, better than down in Warwick- 
 shire. The members of Elizabeth's parlia- 
 ment could not comprehend each other. This 
 was long before there was any standing army 
 in England. (Falstaff might have been 
 marching through Coventry with his pressed 
 men at about that time.) But when the sol- 
 diers Elizabeth summoned were grouped in 
 camps, they could not understand the word of 
 command unless given by officers from their 
 own particular shire. And — with Stratford 
 grammar school, or any other grammar school 
 in full blast — the urchins were not taught Eng- 
 lish, rigorously as they might be drilled in 
 Lily's Accidence, and in the three or four 
 text books prescribed by the crown. Mr. 
 Halliwell Phillipps and Mr. Furnivall — from 
 opposite standpoints — have each given us a 
 list of these text books. But amongst them 
 all there is not one that suggests instruction 
 in the mother tongue. That the aforesaid 
 urchins were supposed to learn at home, if 
 they learned it at all. And at home, as well as 
 in this grammar school (now held sponsor for 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 9 
 
 so much of the occult and elaborate intro- 
 spection and learning of the Plays) it is ab- 
 solutely impossible that the lad Shakespeare 
 acquired or used any other dialect than the 
 Warwickshire he was born to, or that his 
 father and mother, their coetaneans, neigh- 
 bors and gossips, spoke. For demonstration 
 of this statement the credulous need not rely 
 on the so-called Shakespearean epitaphs and 
 lampoon on Sir Thomas Lucy with their dia- 
 lect puns on the names of John a'Coombe 
 (" John has come") and Lucy (" Lowsie ") 
 [which were doubtless written by that worthy 
 lunatic John Jordan, who so amply fooled — 
 in his time — the ponderous Malone, Boswell, 
 Ireland and their contemporaries], but are re- 
 ferred to any competent chronicle of the 
 times themselves. In fact, there is no con- 
 verse to the proposition at all. It is as one- 
 sided as a proposition in Euclid. 
 
 When William Shakespeare, then at about 
 eighteen, went up to London, he must have 
 been, like Robert Burns — fluent in the dialect 
 of his own vicinage. We know that when, 
 later in his life, Robert Burns tried to aban- 
 don the patois in which he had earned im- 
 mortality, and to warble in urban English, 
 "he was seldom" (says his most recent biog- 
 rapher, Principal Shairp) " more than a third- 
 rate, a common, clever versifier." In consid- 
 ering the question whether William Shake- 
 speare still continued to use the Warwickshire 
 dialect or lost it in London, we must make up 
 our minds to leave his plays out of the ques- 
 
10 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 tion. For, in the first place, a play is a play. 
 It is the representation of many characters in 
 a juxtaposition where the identity ot each 
 must be exaggerated to preserve the perspec- 
 tive, and to tell — within the hour — the story of 
 days or years, as the case may be. And this 
 perspective must be shaped by experiment, 
 altered and amended by actual representation, 
 made to fit the date,the circumstances,the play- 
 er and the audience, and all this is the work of 
 many hands and many brains. Except from the 
 direct testimony of contemporaries or of an au- 
 thor himself, therefore, to conclude that this or 
 that author wrote himself into any one char- 
 acter of any play, is, and always must be, 
 purely and fancifully gratuitous. In the sec- 
 ond place, the Shakespeare plays contain not 
 only Warwickshire, but specimens of about 
 every other known English dialect. And 
 quite as much of any one as of any other. It 
 is a statement not to be by any means left out 
 of the Shakespeare authorship problem — this 
 exact phenomena of the dialect. For the con- 
 dition in life implied by a man's employment 
 of one patois would seem to dispose of the 
 probability of his possessing either the facili- 
 ties or the inclination for acquiring a dozen 
 others. The philologist or archaeologist may 
 employ or amuse himself in collecting speci- 
 mens of dialects and provincialisms. The 
 proletarian, to whom any one of these dialects 
 is native, will probably be found not to have 
 that idea of either bread winning or of pas- 
 time. But, in the plays where the Shakes- 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. \\ 
 
 pearean character happens to be a Warwick- 
 shirean, he will be found to speak that dialect, 
 and not otherwise. 
 
 There are a great many strange things about 
 these plays. They make a classical Duke of 
 Athens mention St. Valentine's day, and send 
 a young girl to a nunnery — they have pages 
 and king's fools figuring in Alcibiades' time. 
 Pandarus speaks of Sunday and of Friday 
 at the siege of Troy ; there are marks, guild- 
 ers, ducats and allusions to Henry IV of 
 France, to Adam, Noah and to Christians, in 
 Ephesus in the time of Pericles ; a child is 
 " baptised " in Titus Andronicus ; There are 
 knaves, and queens and " trumps " and 
 " graves in the Holy Churchyard" in Cleo- 
 patra's capita], and there are always French- 
 men and Spaniards in plenty for the audiences 
 which expected them, whether the play were 
 in Cypress or Epidamnium, or Pome or Ath- 
 ens ; whether the days were ancient or con- 
 temporary. France and Spain were the coun- 
 tries with which England was oftenest at war, 
 and which, therefore, it was most popular to 
 disparage. The Frenchman and Spaniard 
 were relied upon to make the groundlings roar 
 again, pretty much as in New York to-day, we 
 have a plantation negro or a " heathen 
 Chinee," as indispensable for certain audien- 
 ces. But, in these same plays, however a 
 Roman or a Bohemian may use an English 
 idiom, there is no confusion in the dialects 
 when used as dialects, and not as vernacular. 
 The Norfolk man does not talk Welsh, nor 
 
12 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 the Welshman, Leicestershire ; nor does the 
 Warwickshire man use Welsh-English. Who- 
 ever he was, the writer of those portions of 
 the plays photographed his men and women 
 out of the streets of London — at any rate, he 
 photographed them from life. He did not 
 need to take them — at least it is apparent that 
 he did not take them — out of books at second 
 hand, as he did his plots and situations. 
 
 As to the Sonnets, which only appeared in 
 1609, seven years before Shakespeare's death, 
 when he had become rich and — perhaps, en- 
 dowed with that culture which wealth can 
 bring — may have used most unexceptionable 
 urban, courtly and correct English, it is only 
 honest to give them the benefit of the doubt 
 expressed by Hallam and others, as to wheth- 
 er the " Sonnets printed in 1609 were the 
 ' Sugred Sonnets among his private friends, "' 
 of which Meres makes mention. At any rate, 
 they are of no value in the present inquiry. 
 
 Omitting everything else then, let us con- 
 fine ourselves solely to the one poem, "Venus 
 and Adonis," which its dedication declares to 
 have been the very " first heir of " the " in- 
 vention " of William Shakespeare ; that is to 
 say, his very first literary work. 
 
 In Appleton's Encyclopedia,article "Shakes- 
 peare * " credited to the lamented Richard 
 Grant White, Mr. White says : 
 
 " In any case, we may be sure that the 
 poem (Venus and Adonis), was written some 
 
 *Vol. XIV, p. 550. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. lg 
 
 years before it was printed ; and it may have 
 been brought by the young poet from Strat- 
 ford in manuscript, and read by a select cir- 
 cle, according to the custom of the time, be- 
 fore it was published." 
 
 If William Shakespeare wrote the poem at 
 all, it would seem as if Mr. White's proposi- 
 tion is beyond question. It only remains to 
 reconcile that proposition with the situation 
 as we find it. Let us therefore ascertain what 
 sort of a dialect Warwickshire dialect is. 
 
 The annexed Glossary — while, of course, 
 sharing the incompleteness of all dictionaries 
 of current provincialisms — is at least quite 
 complete enough to prove the existence of a 
 Warwickshire Dialect to-day ; and, infcren- 
 tially, what must have been the barbarisms of 
 that Dialect three centuries ago. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE DIALECT. 
 
 (H. added to a statement indicates that Mr. Halliwell Phillipp's 
 lists of Archaic and Provincial words is therein referred to. L. 
 refers to a paper " On Shakespeare's Provincialisms," in Shakes- 
 peareana, for May, 1884. S. refers to Skeats' Etymological 
 Dictionary. Large use has been made of Mrs. Francis's List of 
 South Warwickshire words, published by the English Dialect 
 Society.) 
 
16 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 A 
 
 
 Abundance — See Plenty of 
 
 Old. 
 
 Abuse (Verb), 
 
 Go on at — They do go on 
 at me dreadfuls they 
 abuse me dreadfully. 
 
 Acquiescent — See Willing. 
 
 Agreeable — I'm agreeable, 
 = I acquiesce, I will do as 
 you wish. 
 
 Addition — t. e. the wing of 
 a house, see Shed. 
 
 Lean to. 
 
 Adjacent — See Near. 
 
 
 Ado — See Frequent, Plenty 
 of, Abundance. 
 
 Old. 
 
 Afraid. 
 
 Afeard. 
 
 After. 
 
 Arter. 
 
 After Crop. 
 
 Littlemath — That's little- 
 math = that's the second 
 
 
 crop of grass. 
 
 Aftermath (of wheat). 
 
 Tailwheat. 
 
 Almost. 
 
 A'most, or Welly — Welly 
 nigh every winters al- 
 most every winter. 
 
 Always (habitually). 
 
 Constant — He do it con- 
 stants he does so always. 
 
 Ample — See Roomy, Spa- 
 cious. 
 
 Roomthy. 
 
 Annoy, 
 
 Irk — He irks me = he an- 
 noys or harrasses me. 
 [Also in various other 
 dialects. S.] 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 17 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 And yet it irks me. As you 
 like it, II, i. It irks his 
 heart, he cannot, I He?i?y 
 VI, I, iv. It irks my 
 very soul. 3 Henry VI, 
 II, ii. 
 
18 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Ankle, or Ankle joint. 
 
 Ankley. 
 
 Anticipate, see Foresee. 
 
 Forecast. 
 
 Anxious. 
 
 Longful — I ha' been long- 
 
 
 ful to see you again = I 
 
 
 was anxious to see you 
 
 
 again. 
 
 Apple — see Wild Apple. Russet. 
 
 Approach — to near in point, Going in. 
 of time — see Reach. 
 
 At — (at a certain point of Come — She'll be seven 
 
 time). come Michelmass = she'll 
 
 be seven at Michelmass. 
 
 (Common to all dialects). 
 
 At least. 
 
 Awkward — see Clown. 
 
 B 
 
 Baker's Shovel. 
 
 Least way-. 
 
 Hocklin — He's a hocklin 
 sort walker=He walks 
 awkwardly. 
 
 Peel — (The instrument or 
 "slide'* upon which bread 
 is taken from the oven.) 
 
 Baby — Infant, small child. Little 'un. 
 
 Banns. Asked outs — To be asked 
 
 out = :o have the banns 
 published three times. 
 
 Beat (verb) — See Pound. Warm — I'll warm ye=ITl 
 Whip. beat you. 
 
 Beater — (An instrument to : Batlet — (Also in Sussex, L) 
 beat clothes in washing.) j 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 19 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 A year and a quarter old 
 come Philip. Measure 
 for Measure, III, ii., and 
 in many other places. 
 
 As you like it, II. iv. 
 
20 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Because. 
 
 
 
 Along of — It was all along 
 of that boy = it was all 
 because of that boy. 
 
 Begging. 
 
 
 
 Thomassing — To go a 
 " thomassing," is to go a 
 begging for gifts (accord- 
 ing to an old custom, on 
 St. Thomas's day), and 
 so, generally, to beg is 
 to thorn as. 
 
 Behaved. 
 
 
 
 Conditioned — He's well 
 conditioned = he's well 
 behaved ; he's ill condi- 
 tioned=:he's ill behaved. 
 
 Behavior. 
 
 
 
 Condition. 
 
 Beehive. 
 
 
 
 Beeskep. 
 
 Belabor — To pound (which 
 see.) 
 
 Pun. 
 
 Benighted— 
 
 -See 
 
 Delayed. 
 
 Lated — (Common to sev- 
 eral dialects, L.) 
 
 Between. 
 
 
 
 Atween. 
 
 Bendweed — (The minor 
 Convolvulus). 
 
 Waiweind. 
 
 Blackbird. 
 
 
 
 Blackie. 
 
 Blown — To lay 
 wind or rain. 
 
 corn by 
 
 Lodge — The corn is 
 lodged = the corn is laid. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 21 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Merchant of Venice ', III, ii. 
 Timon of Athens, IV, ii. 
 
 Two Gent, of Verona, III, 
 ii. Much ado, III, ii, 
 and very frequently in 
 ihe plays. 
 
 He would pun thee into 
 shivers with his fist. 
 Troillus and Cressidas, 
 II, i. 
 
 Macbeth, III, iii. 
 
 Richard 'II, III, iii. 
 
VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Boasting — Boastful. 
 
 
 Crostering — He's a croster- 
 ing fellow= He's a boast- 
 ing fellow. 
 
 Booby — See Clown. 
 
 
 
 Borders. 
 
 
 Adlands — Them's his ad- 
 lands^ Those are the 
 borders of his field. 
 
 Bother — to harrass 
 Annoy. 
 
 — see 
 
 Irk — [Also in several other 
 dialects, S.] 
 
 Bow — (A curtesy). 
 
 
 Obedience-Make your obe- 
 dience to the person = 
 Bow (or drop a curtesy) 
 to the parson. 
 
 Bowlful. 
 
 
 Joram. 
 
 Breezy — See Gusty, Windy. 
 
 Hurden. 
 
 Bully — In the sense of to 
 ruff, to chaff, to abuse — 
 see Tease. 
 
 Knag — Go on at ; They 
 knag (or go on at) me 
 so = they chaff (or bully" 
 or ruff me. 
 
 Bundle of Hay. 
 
 
 Bottle of hay — [Also in 
 Yorkshire and several 
 other dialects, H.] 
 
 Burden. 
 
 
 Fardel — [Also in various 
 other dialects, H. S.] 
 
 Bushel. 
 
 
 Scuttle — (More properly a 
 basket that holds a bush- 
 el.) 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT, 23 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Midsummer N. £>., IV. I. 
 
 Who would fardels bear, 
 Hamlet, III, i. I heard 
 them talk of a fard el, 
 Winter's Tale, V, ii. 
 
24 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Cake (Verb)— See Collect. \ Bolter. 
 
 Cannot — See Not. 
 
 Canna. 
 
 Cap — Especially a child's. Biggin, 
 cap. 
 
 Caress (Verb). 
 
 Carrion crow. 
 Carry (Verb). 
 
 Chaff (Verb). 
 
 Celebrated. 
 
 Chafinch. 
 Chemise. 
 Child. 
 Chimney. 
 
 Pitlier — (pid-hur) see she 
 pither him = see her ca- 
 ress him. 
 
 Goarrin' crow. 
 
 Help— I'll help it back to 
 'un=ril carry it back to 
 its owner. 
 
 Go on at — They go on at me 
 about going to church =r 
 They chaff me about go- 
 ing to church. 
 
 Deadly-He's a deadly man 
 for going to church= 
 He's celebrated for go- 
 ing to church (a great 
 church-goer). 
 
 Pink. 
 
 Shimmy. 
 Little 'un. 
 Chimbley. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 25 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Bolted by the northern, 
 Winter's Tale IV,iii. So 
 finely bolted didst thou 
 seem, Henry, V, ii, 137. 
 
 With homely biggin bound, 
 2 Hen. IV, IV, iv. 
 
 Help me away, Merty 
 Wives of Windsor, III, 
 iii, and perhaps very fre- 
 quently in that sense 
 distinguished from the 
 ordinary one. 
 
 Not now, sir, she's a dead- 
 ly theme, Troillus and 
 Cressida, IV, v ; The 
 times' right deadly, Id. 
 V, ii. 
 
VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Chimney-piece. 
 
 Chirp (Verb). 
 Clever. 
 
 Clot (Verb) — see Collect. 
 
 Clown — Ignoramus ; see 
 Dunce ; Fool. 
 
 Clover — See White Clover. 
 
 Cock — (The male of any 
 fowl). 
 
 Commodious. 
 
 Collect — To clock or cake, 
 (verb). 
 
 Complete. 
 
 Completely. 
 Confidence. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Shelf. 
 
 Chelp. 
 
 Fierce — That's a fierce 
 little 'un = That's a clever 
 baby. 
 
 Bolter. 
 
 Patch- Yawrups — Yer great 
 Patch, or you great Yaw- 
 rups = you booby, you 
 clown. 
 
 Tone. 
 
 Roomthy. 
 
 Bolter — The snow bolters 
 i' his hoof = the snow 
 cakes or collects in the 
 horse's hoof. 
 
 Slow. 
 
 Slow — He turned it slow 
 over=He overturned it 
 completely. 
 
 Heart — He ain't no heart 
 init=:He has no confi- 
 dence in it ; also used in 
 the sense of quality as 
 " there ain't no heart in 
 the land " = this land is 
 good for nothing. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 27 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 (Perhaps) in Hamlet, III, 
 iv ; from the shelf the 
 precious diadem stole. 
 
 Thou scurvy patch, Temp- 
 est III, ii ; capon, cox- 
 comb, idiot, patch, Com- 
 edy of Errors ■, III, i. 
 
 Blood boltered, Macbeth, 
 IV, i. 
 
 Backward pull our slow de- 
 signs ; All's Well, I, i ; 
 Wrung from me my slow 
 leave, Ha?nlet, I, ii. 
 
28 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Confusion. 
 
 Caddie — Everything is all 
 of a caddie = everything 
 is in confusion. 
 
 Convince — See Satisfy. 
 
 Swagger. 
 
 Come. 
 
 Coom — With the auxiliary 
 verb have-'a ; Here John 
 a'coom = our John has 
 
 
 come. 
 
 Contrive — See Live from 
 hand to mouth. 
 
 Raggle — Scrabble. 
 
 Cough (Verb). 
 
 Hack. 
 
 Cramped. 
 
 Cubbed up — We be as 
 cubbled up here = We are 
 
 
 so cramped for room 
 here. 
 
 Criticise (Verb) to find 
 
 fault with. 
 
 Fault — Can you fault = 
 Can you criticise it (or 
 find fault with it) ? 
 
 Crop. 
 
 Crap. 
 
 Cross — Vixenish. 
 
 Contrary. 
 
 Crusted. 
 
 Padded — The ground is 
 padded = The ground is 
 hardened, dried, baked 
 or crusted (as with a 
 drought). 
 
 Cucumber. 
 
 Cowcumber. 
 
 Curtsey. 
 
 Obedience — Now make 
 your obedience to the 
 lady = now make your 
 curtsey. 
 
A STUD V IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 29 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 'Tis pity love should be so 
 contrary ! Two Gentle- 
 men of Verona, IV, iv. 
 
30 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 D 
 
 
 Daughter. 
 
 Wench — Her be the par- 
 son's wench=She is the 
 parson's daughter. 
 ("Used all over Eng- 
 land without any depre- 
 ciatory intention," L.) 
 
 Death-sign. 
 
 Token — I am certain som- 
 mat has come to my son, 
 for I saw his token last 
 night ; it was a white dove 
 flew out of the curtain. 
 
 Decorate (Verb). 
 
 Dizzen — Wha* be you diz- 
 zenin yoursel' before the 
 glass = why are you dec- 
 orating (as we say prink- 
 ing) yourself ? 
 
 Dedicate (Verb). 
 
 Wake — The church was 
 waked=The church was 
 dedicated. 
 
 Defile — See Lane, Passage. 
 
 Tewer. 
 
 Destroy (Verb). 
 
 Rid — (Also in several other 
 dialects, H, occurs in a 
 glossary of Swaledale 
 Yorkshire, in this sense, 
 L). 
 
 Delayed — See Drawback. 
 
 Lated — I am lated an 
 hour=rI have been de- 
 layed an hour (also in sev- 
 eral other dialects, L). 
 
 Depart — See Part. 
 
 Shogg off. 
 
A S TUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA LECT. %\ 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Passim. 
 
 The red plague rid ye. 
 Tempest, I, ii. 
 
 Macbeth, III, Hi. 
 
 Sliogg off ! I would have 
 you solus, Hcnry,N , ii, 7. 
 Shall we shogg off, Id. , 
 II, Hi. 
 
32 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS, 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Devil, the 
 
 Old Harry. 
 
 Devour (Verb). 
 
 Ravin, Raven or Ravine — 
 
 
 L,H,S, and Earle's Phil- 
 
 
 ology of the English 
 tongue assign these words 
 to a great many localities. 
 
 Dew. 
 
 Dag — There's been a nice 
 
 
 flop o' dag= there's been 
 a nice fall of dew. 
 
 Different. 
 
 Odds — It'll all be odds in 
 
 
 abit=It will be differ- 
 
 
 ent in a moment. 
 
 Dig (Verb). 
 
 Earth — Earth it up — dig it 
 
 
 up. 
 
 Digestion. 
 
 Digester — His digester is 
 bad= His digestion is out 
 of order. 
 
 Disorder — Disorderly. 
 
 Huggermugger. 
 
 Ditch. 
 
 Grip. 
 
 Does. 
 
 Do— He do like it=He 
 
 
 does like it. 
 
 Dog-tooth — (Also Devon- 
 shire, H.) 
 
 Puggin-tooth. 
 
 Domineering. 
 
 Masterful. 
 
 Doubtful. 
 
 Debersome. — It's deber- 
 
 some he goes^it's doubt- 
 ful if he goes. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 33 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Measure for Al r easure , I, iii; 
 used in King James' ver- 
 sion of Bible, Genesis 
 xlix, 27. 
 
 Love's labours lost, III, i ; 
 nothing but odds with 
 England, Henry, V,II,iv. 
 
 And we have done but 
 greenly ; In huggermug- 
 ger to inter him, Hamlet 
 IV, v. 
 
 Doth set my puggin-tooth 
 on edge, Winter s Tale, 
 IV, ii. 
 
34 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Drain. 
 
 Grip. 
 
 Draw (as, to draw tea). 
 
 Mash — The tea was ready 
 mashed = The tea was 
 drawn. 
 
 Drawback, or Delay (some- 
 times. 
 
 Denial — It's a great denial 
 to him to be shut up in 
 the houses It's a great 
 drawback for him to be 
 kept in-doors. 
 
 Drenched — see Wet. 
 
 Watched. 
 
 Dried — see Crusted. 
 
 Padded. 
 
 Droop — see Sink. 
 
 Sagg. 
 
 Drunk. 
 
 Fresh — He's fresh=He's 
 drunk. 
 
 Dull — see Heavy, Sleepy. 
 
 Urked. 
 
 Dunce — see Clown. 
 E 
 
 Geek, Patch — (Patch, says 
 L. quoting H. and S.; is 
 common to several dia- 
 lects.) 
 
 Emaciated — see Pinched, 
 Thin. 
 
 Picked. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 35 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 He's forfeited against any 
 denial, Twelfth AHght, 
 I, v. Make denials in- 
 crease your services, 
 Cymbeline, II, iii. 
 
 Shall never sagg with 
 doubt, Macbeth, V, iii. 
 
 Withered serving man ; a 
 fresh tapster, Merry 
 Wives of W., I, iii. 
 
 Midsummer Nigh? s Drea7?i 
 III, iii. 
 
 Used in the sense of nice 
 (perhaps thin or sharp), 
 in Hamlet, V. i: "The 
 age is grown so picked." 
 See also Love's Labour' s 
 Lost, V, 1 : " He is too 
 picked, too spruce." 
 
VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Embarass, also in the sense 
 of put out, Extinguish — 
 see Put Out. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Dout — He douts me=He 
 embarrasses me. 
 
 Endure. 
 
 Enough. 
 
 Erase (Verb) — see Scratch 
 out. 
 
 Ewe. 
 
 Exactly. 
 
 Abide, Abear — I [can't 
 abide (or abear) it=I 
 can't endure it. 
 
 Enu (Enew). 
 Scrat. 
 
 Yoe. 
 
 Justly — It fits him justly= 
 It fits him exactly. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 37 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 The dram of Eale. Doth 
 all the noble subs'. ance 
 often doubt. To his own 
 scandal, Hamlet \ I, iv. 
 If this is a use of the 
 Warwickshire word. I 
 think this celebrated crux 
 is simplified, viz : the 
 morsel of evil born in 
 the man embarrasses and 
 extinguishes (or eclipses) 
 all his good points. (Eale 
 being a misprint for evil). 
 See use of the word dout 
 in Henry, V, IV, ii ; and 
 again in Hamlet, IV, 7. 
 I have a speech of fire 
 that fain would blaze. 
 But that this folly douts 
 it. 
 
 Very common ; see Tem- 
 pest, I, ii ; Merry Wives, 
 I, i ; Measure for Meas- 
 ure, III, ii ; Midsummer 
 Nights Dream, III, i ; 
 Merchant of Venice, IV, 
 i ; Julius Ccesar, III, ii, 
 &c, &c. 
 
 Be justly weighed, Twelfth 
 night, V, i ; II. Hemy 
 IV, IV, i. 
 
VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Excessive, Excessively — 
 see Very. 
 
 Exhausted. 
 
 Extension of a house — see 
 Addition, Shed, Wing. 
 
 Extinguish — (Verb) see Em- 
 barrass. 
 
 Extremely. 
 
 F 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Terrible — He's terrible 
 fond of the little 'un = 
 He is excessively fond of 
 the child. 
 
 Forwearied — He's gone 
 forwearied = He's ex- 
 hausted or worn out. 
 
 Lean to. 
 Dout. 
 
 Like — As, as, (with the ad- 
 jective), It's as like as 
 like=It's very like, or 
 it's pleasant like=It's 
 very pleasant. 
 
 Fagot (any piece of fire Bangle, Bavin — (also in 
 wood. several other dialects H.) 
 
 Fall — see Dew. 
 
 Famished. 
 
 Fatigued — utterly worn out, 
 see Exhausted. 
 
 Feeble. 
 
 Feed (Verb). 
 
 Flop. 
 
 Famelled. 
 
 Forwearied — (also in sev- 
 everal other dialects, H.) 
 
 Casualty — He's getting old 
 and casualty now — He's 
 getting old and feeble. 
 
 Fother, Serve — The pigs 
 are served (or f othered) = 
 The pigs are fed. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 39 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Were as terrible as her ter- 
 minations, Much Ado 
 about Nothing, II, i. 
 What is the reason of 
 terrible summons, Othello 
 II, i. 
 
 Forwearied in this, K. 
 John, II, i. 
 
 And rash bavin wits, Hen. 
 IV, IV, i. 
 
 Forwearied in this, King 
 John, II, i. 
 
 For the table sir, it shall 
 be served in ? Merchant 
 of Venice, III, v. 
 
40 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Fell. 
 
 Fall— We must fall that 
 
 
 tree = We must cut down 
 
 
 that tree. 
 
 Fellow (Especially a fellow 
 workman, or partner in a 
 job). 
 
 Butty. 
 
 Fennel (and umbilliferous 
 
 Kex or Keks (also in Sus- 
 
 plants generally). 
 
 sex, Whitby, Mid- York- 
 shire (L), and several 
 
 
 other dialects, H.) 
 
 Fitches. 
 
 Vetches. 
 
 Fever. 
 
 Faver. 
 
 Field (when enclosed). 
 
 Close. 
 
 Fields. 
 
 Ground. 
 
 Fine. 
 
 Perial — That's a perial nag 
 now = That's a fine 
 
 
 mount, or that's a beau- 
 
 
 tiful saddle horse. 
 
 Finery — see Trinkets. 
 
 Bravery (also in various 
 other dialects, H.) 
 
 First milk (of a cow after 
 calving). 
 
 Bisnings. 
 
 Flatter (Verb). 
 
 Claw — He claws *un=He 
 
 
 flatters me. (Also in 
 
 
 several other dialects, 
 
 
 H.) 
 
 Fledgeling. 
 
 Batchling. 
 
 Flower. 
 
 Flur. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 41 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Thistles, keeksies, burs, 
 Henry V, V, ii. 
 
 Which grows here in my 
 close, Timon of Athens, 
 V, ii. 
 
 Taming of Shrew, IV, 3. 
 
42 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Fluent (over ready). 
 
 Limber — How limber your 
 tongue is=How fluent 
 (or talkative) you are. 
 
 Fond. 
 
 Partial to — I be so partial 
 
 
 to onions = I am very 
 fond of onions. 
 
 Fondle — see Caress. 
 
 Pither. 
 
 Fool — see Clown. 
 
 Patch~(Wise says that loon 
 means a mischevious or 
 rascally fool ; one who 
 does intentional harm ; 
 in this latter sense L. 
 
 
 says it is common to a 
 great many English north 
 country and Scotch dia- 
 lects, quoting H.) 
 
 Fore-see — To Anticipate. 
 Also a noun— Foreknowl- 
 edge. 
 
 Forecast — What do ye fore- 
 cast = What do you anti- 
 cipate, or foresee. 
 
 Forthwith — see Instantly. 
 
 Straight (also to several 
 other dialects, H.) 
 
 Frenchman. 
 
 Mounseer (a corruption of 
 
 
 Monsieur.) 
 
 Frequent (in this sense of 
 repetition) — see Plenty 
 of Abundance. 
 
 Old — There old work for 
 him yet= There's plenty 
 of work for him yet. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 43 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Me cff with limber vows, 
 Winter s Tale, I, ii. 
 
 I am not partial to infringe, 
 Comedy of Errors, I, i. 
 
 Perhaps the line "Alas! 
 that Warwick had no 
 more forecast," 3 Hen., 
 VI, V, i, is this use of 
 the word. 
 
 If a man were porter of 
 hell-gate, should have old 
 turning the key {Mac- 
 beth, III, 3.) We shall 
 have old swearing \M. of 
 V., IV., 2). Here will 
 be an old abusing of 
 God's patience and the 
 King's English (Merry 
 Wives, I, i, 2) ; also 2 
 Hen., IV, II, 4. Much 
 Ado, V, 2.) 
 
44 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Frightened. 
 
 Frit — He's frit = He's 
 frightened. 
 
 Frock, (the garment worn Slop, 
 by laborers, one gathered 
 in by the waist. 
 
 From. 
 
 Frozen. 
 
 Full (stuffed). 
 
 Fumaria (the rank class of 
 weeds). 
 
 Off — I bought urn off Jones 
 = 1 bought them from 
 Tones. 
 
 Starred. 
 
 Chock, Ched (more par- 
 ticularly with eating) — 
 His bag was chock full= 
 His bag was very full, as 
 chock as chock. As 
 ched as chedrrl have 
 eaten all I want. My 
 appetite is satisfied. 
 
 Fumatorv. 
 
 Furrow — see Ridge. 
 Fuss — see Scrimmage. 
 
 G 
 Gadfly. 
 
 : Land. 
 Work. 
 
 Brize (also in several other 
 dialects, H.) 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 45 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Disfigure not his slop, Loves" 
 Labours' Lost, IV, iii. 
 Satin for my short cloak 
 and slops, 2 Hen., IV, I, 
 ii. Salutation to your 
 French slop, Romeo and 
 Juliet, II, iv. 
 
 The darnel, hemlock and 
 rank fumatory, Henry V, 
 V, ii, 45. Crowned with 
 rank fumiter and furrow 
 weeds, Lear, IV, iv, 3. 
 
 Annoyance by the brize, 
 Troilus and Cress i da, I, 
 iii. The brize upon her, 
 like a cow, Ant. and Cleo- 
 patra, III, viii. 
 
46 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Gander. 
 
 Gonder. 
 
 Gather (Verb). 
 
 Gether. 
 
 Gentle (timid). 
 
 Soft — When applied to a 
 girl it means gentle, 
 timid, confiding; applied 
 to a man it signifies dolt 
 or idiot. 
 
 Gentlemanly — see Respect- 
 able. 
 
 Still. 
 
 Ghastly — see Horrible. 
 
 Unked. 
 
 Giddy. 
 
 Gidding. 
 
 Girl — see Daughter. 
 
 Gell— Wench. 
 
 Gladly. 
 
 Lief — I'd lief go=I'd 
 gladly go. 
 
 Glide. 
 
 Glir. 
 
 Glean (Verb). 
 
 Leese. 
 
 God-parents. 
 
 Gossips — They two are my 
 gossips = They are my 
 god-fathers or god-moth- 
 
 
 ers. 
 
A STUD V IN 1VA R WICKSHIRE DIA LECT. 47 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 For we are soft as our com- 
 plexions, Measure for 
 Measure, II, iv ; and un- 
 doubtedly often used in 
 this sense throughout the 
 plays. 
 
 Perhaps so used in Troilus 
 and Cress ida, I, hi. The 
 still and mental parts, or 
 "a still and quiet con- 
 science," Henry VIII, 
 II, iii. 
 
 Used with "as" — always 
 in the sense of willing in 
 the plays. Mrs. Clark 
 gives twenty cases in her 
 " Concordance." 
 
 Perhaps used in this sense 
 in Richard, III, I, i, 
 1 ' are mighty gossips in 
 our monarchy." I think, 
 undoubtedly, as used in 
 the Christening scene, 
 Henry VIII, V, V. My 
 noble gossips ye have 
 been too prodigal. 
 
48 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Gosling — see Nestling. Gull. 
 
 Gossip — see Tattler, Tale- Pitckthanks (also in Mid- 
 
 bearer. 
 
 Grand-father. 
 Grate (Verb). 
 
 Great. 
 
 Greensward — see Turf. 
 
 Grub (Verb). 
 
 Grumbling. 
 
 Guess — see Suppose. 
 
 Gusty — see Windy. 
 
 H 
 
 Half-witted — see Witless, 
 Dunce, Fool, Idiot, etc. 
 
 Hames (the iron fitting out- 
 side a horse collar, 
 
 Handkerchief. 
 
 Yorkshire (L), and vari- 
 ous other dialects, L.) 
 
 Gaffer. 
 
 Race — Raced ginger = 
 powdered or grated gin- 
 ger. 
 
 Girta. 
 
 Grinsard. 
 
 Stock. 
 
 Her's on the Crake — Al- 
 ways on the crake = She's 
 always grumbling. 
 
 Reckon (common in the 
 Southern States of Ame- 
 rica). 
 
 Hurden. 
 
 Sorry. 
 
 Eames. 
 Ankercher. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 49 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Pickthanks and base news- 
 mongers, I. Hen. IV, 
 III, H. 
 
 A race or two of ginger, 
 Winter s Tale, IV, ii. 
 
 Perhaps used in an obscene 
 pun in Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona, III, i: "What 
 need a man care for a 
 stock with a wench. 
 
50 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Handle — (when a stick or 
 pole). 
 
 Stale — Broom stale = 
 broom handle ; mop 
 stale = mop handle ; rake 
 stale = rake handle. 
 
 Hardy — See healthy. 
 
 Frem — Your plants do look 
 frem = Your plants look 
 vigorous (or hardy). 
 
 Harness (Verb or Noun). 
 
 Gear the horses Harness 
 the horse. Put on the 
 gear = put on the harness. 
 
 Hatchet. 
 
 Hook bill. 
 
 Have (auxiliary Verb). 
 
 A'. 
 
 Head. 
 
 Yed. 
 
 Headstall (the headgear of 
 a horse). 
 
 Mullen. 
 
 Headstrong — see Obstinate. 
 
 Awkward. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 51 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Perhaps used in this sense 
 as a figure of speech in 
 Much Ado about Noth- 
 ing, II, ii, where Hero, 
 whosevirtue is slandered, 
 is called a "contaminated 
 stale"; and again in IV, 
 i: "to link my dear 
 friend to a common 
 stale." 
 
 Used in the sense of 
 "trappings," "uniform," 
 or "dress"; undoubted- 
 ly in the plays. 
 
 By awkward wind from 
 England, 2 Henry VI, 
 III, ii. Ridiculous and 
 awkward action, Troi- 
 lus and Cressida, I, iii. 
 
52 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 1 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Healthy — see Hardy, 
 Thriving. 
 
 Peart — He's quite peart to- 
 day = He is in good 
 health or spirits to-day. 
 A lively, healthy child is 
 called a "rile"; a weak 
 
 
 or sickly old person is a 
 1 ' wratch " ; a sickly child 
 
 
 is a " scribe". Applied 
 to an animal, the adject- 
 
 
 ive is kind — As, that cow 
 
 
 aint kind = That cow 
 
 
 doesn't thrive. Applied 
 
 
 to plants the adjective 
 used is " frem" 
 
 Heavy (dull or insensible, 
 sleepy). 
 
 Mulled — He be mulled= 
 He is sleepy. 
 
 Heavy (applied to bread). 
 
 Sad — It's a sad loaf = The 
 bread is heavy (a sad iron 
 is a flat iron). 
 
 Hedgehog. 
 
 Urchin (" occurs in almost 
 every glossary I possess," 
 L.) 
 
 Heel Rake. 
 
 Helrake = The big rake 
 that follows the harvest- 
 
 
 ing wagon. 
 
 Hemlocks — see Fennel. 
 
 Kecks. 
 
 Herbs. 
 
 Yarbs. 
 
 Hers. 
 
 Shisn — Its shisn's == Its 
 
 
 hers. 
 
A S TUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA LECT. 53 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 * 'The urchin snouted boar, " 
 S., 185 (line 1105). 
 
 Mulled, deaf, sleepy, in- 
 sensible, Coriolanus y IV, 
 5. 
 
 The meaning of heavy and 
 sad, as we use it, are 
 nearly interchangable 
 almost always in the 
 plays. 
 
54 
 
 VENUS AXD ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 High spirited. 
 
 Hindrance — see Drawback. 
 
 His. 
 
 Hit (perfect of Verb). 
 
 Hoe (Verb). 
 
 Home. 
 
 Horrible. 
 
 Horse (for riding). 
 
 Houses. 
 
 Stomachful. 
 
 Denial. 
 
 His'n. 
 
 Hot — I hot him=I have 
 hit him. 
 
 Hove. 
 
 Who am. 
 
 Unked — His leg is an 
 unked sight=His leg is 
 horrible to behold. (Al- 
 so dull, lonely, solitary, 
 which see). 
 
 Nag (but in every other 
 
 English dialect). 
 
 Housen (this old Saxon 
 plural is used still in 
 many words in Warwick- 
 shire, such as Hosen, 
 plural of hose, etc). 
 
VrUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 55 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Stomach, in this sense, com- 
 mon enough in the plays. 
 " Enterprise that hath a 
 stomach in't, Hamlet, I, 
 i. My little stomach to 
 the war, Troilus and 
 Cressida, III, 3. Many 
 an unbounded stomach, 
 Hen. VIII, IV., ii, etc. 
 
 The sense is interchange- 
 able in such passages as 
 He's fortified against any 
 denial, Twelfth Night, 
 I, v. Be not ceased with 
 slight denial, Timon of 
 Athens, II, i. 
 
 Gait of a shuffling nag, 
 Henry, IV, iii, I. Know 
 we not Galloway nags, 
 2 Henry, IV, II, iv. 
 
56 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 However. 
 
 Howsomdever or Weever 
 (both forms are used). 
 
 Hungry. 
 
 Famelled. 
 
 I 
 
 
 Idiot — see Clown, Igno- 
 
 Geek— Patch. 
 
 ramus. 
 
 
 Idle (Verb) — see Loiter. 
 
 Mess — Doant mess along= 
 Don't idle by the way. 
 
 Idler. 
 
 Feeder — They're a' feed- 
 ers = They are idlers, 
 good for nothing per- 
 sons. (Also in several 
 other dialects, H.) 
 
 Ignoramus — see Clown. 
 
 Patch. 
 
 Immediately — see Present- 
 ly, Instantly. 
 
 Awhile. 
 
 Improperly. 
 
 Out of — To call a man out 
 of his name = To give his 
 
 
 name improperly. 
 
 Incite — see Induce. 
 
 Kindle. 
 
 Inconvenient. 
 
 Illconvenient. 
 
 Induce. 
 
 Kindle — I'll kindle him = 
 I'll induce (or prevail up- 
 on) him to do it. (Also 
 in South Yorkshire (L) 
 and several other dia- 
 lects, H, S.) 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 57 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 The most notorious geek, 
 Twelfth Night, V, i. 
 To become the geek and 
 scornd*. — Cymbeline, V, 
 iv. 
 
 will your very faithful 
 feeder be, As You Like 
 It, II, iv. Feeders digest 
 it with a custom, Win- 
 ter's Tale, IV, iii. The 
 tutor and the feeder of 
 my riots, 2 Henry, IV, v, 
 5- 
 
 But that I kindle the boy 
 thither, As You Like It, 
 III, iii. Used in Wy- 
 clif's translation of Bible, 
 Luke iii, 7. 
 
58 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Instantly. 
 
 Awhile— Straight (the lat- 
 ter is the imperative form 
 I'll do it awhile = ril do 
 
 
 it at once, do it straight, 
 do it instantly). 
 
 Interfere (Verb). 
 
 Meddle an' make — I'm not 
 going to meddle an' make 
 
 
 rrrl'm not going to inter- 
 fere. 
 
 Inwards. 
 
 Innards — I'm that bad in 
 
 
 my innards=:Fm suffer- 
 
 
 ing internally. 
 
 K 
 
 
 Key. 
 
 Kay. 
 
 L 
 
 
 Lack — see Spare. 
 
 
 Laid — see Lay. 
 
 Lodged. 
 
 Lambkin — see Yearling. 
 
 Earling — Teg. 
 
 Lands outlying. 
 
 Grounds. 
 
 Lane — see Passage. 
 
 Tewer. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 59 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Make her grave straight, 
 Hamlet. V, i. 
 
 Priest should meddle an' 
 make (written or), Merry 
 Wives of Windsor, I, iv. 
 The less you meddle or 
 make with them, Much 
 Ado about Nothing, III, 
 
 Though bladed corn be 
 lodged, and trees, Mac- 
 beth, IV, i. Summer's 
 corn by tempest lodged, 
 2 Henry VI, III, ii. 
 
 That all the earlings which 
 were streaked and pied 
 Merchant of Venice, I, 
 
60 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Lay (Verb). 
 
 Lodge — The corn is lodged 
 = The corn is laid. (Also 
 in Kent, Surrey, Sussex 
 (L), and Westmoreland 
 dialect, H.) 
 
 Large — see Commodious, 
 Roomy. 
 
 Roomthy 
 
 Leavings. 
 
 Outs — I don't have to eat 
 their outs = I don't have 
 to eat their leavings. 
 
 Lights (the liver and lights 
 of a sheep). 
 
 Pluck. 
 
 Likely. 
 
 Lilac. 
 
 Live from hand to mouth 
 (Verb) — To contrive, to 
 worry along. 
 
 Lively — see Healthy. 
 
 Litter (in the sense of Con- j 
 fusion) — see Mess. 
 
 Loaf. 
 
 Log. 
 
 Loiter — To Idle, to Waste 
 Time. 
 
 Like — I was like to fall= 
 I was likely to fall. 
 
 Laylock. 
 
 Raggle (or scrabble) — I can 
 raggle along= I can man- 
 age to get along. 
 
 Peart. 
 
 Lagger, or Caddie. 
 
 Batchling (more properly 
 a freshly baked loaf). 
 
 Cleft. 
 
 Mess — Her's only messing 
 about home= She's id- 
 ling or loitering, and ac- 
 complishing nothing, 
 about the house. 
 
A S TUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA LECT 61 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 See Laid. 
 
 Used as an adverb contin- 
 ually in the plays. 
 
62 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Lonely— Lonesome. 
 
 Unked. 
 
 Lounge (Verb). 
 M 
 
 Lunge — What's the odds if 
 I lunge or kneels What's 
 the difference whether I 
 kneel or lean forward on 
 my elbows. 
 
 Manage — see Contrive. 
 
 Raggle — Scrabble. 
 
 Marriage lines or Lines. 
 
 A certificate of marriage. 
 
 Marshy (soft, sloppy). 
 
 Flacky. 
 
 Mason. 
 
 Massenter. 
 
 May. 
 
 Maun — I maun an' I maunt 
 
 
 == I may and I may not. 
 
 Me. 
 
 'Un — Don't claw un= 
 Don't flatter me. 
 
 Medicine — A remedy or 
 potion. 
 
 Doctor's stuff — Phisikin 
 stuff — when for animals 
 it is drink, drench. 
 
 Mess — A muddle, a litter. 
 
 Lagger — Caddie. 
 
 Mid-lent Sunday. 
 
 Mothering Sunday (because 
 girls out at service were 
 usually allowed to spend 
 that Sunday at home.) 
 
 Miry (sloppy, soft — see 
 Muddy). 
 
 Flacky, Slobbery — (Also 
 East Norfolkshire, L.) 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 63 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Slobber not business for 
 my sake, Gratiano, M. 
 of Venice, II, viii, 39. 
 To buy a slobbery and a 
 dirty farm, Henry V, III, 
 
64 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Mischievous — see Trouble- 
 some, and distinction 
 noted thereunder. 
 
 Miser. 
 
 Morsel. 
 
 Move along (Verb) — In the 
 sense of "Clear out," 
 " Be off with you." 
 
 Moving (to move from one 
 house to another). 
 
 Mr. 
 
 Mrs. 
 
 Muddy, Sloppy. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Anointed, unlucky — He's 
 an anointed (or unlucky) 
 rascal= He's a mischiev- 
 ous rascal (innocently 
 mischievous, mischieful). 
 
 Codger. 
 
 Bittock. 
 
 Budge — Come noo, you 
 budge ! = Move along at 
 once. 
 
 Rimming — We be a rim- 
 ming o' Mondays We 
 move to a new house on 
 Monday. 
 
 Master — (Common to vari- 
 ous English dialects, H.) 
 L. says that in Sussex it 
 means a married man, 
 unmarried men being ad- 
 dressed by their given 
 names. 
 
 Missus. 
 
 Slobbery — (Also East Nor- 
 folkshire L.) 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 65 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 When you shall these un- 
 lucky deeds relate (?), 
 Othello, V, ii. Some ill, 
 unlucky thing, Romeo and 
 Juliet, V, iii. 
 
 You shall not budge, Ham- 
 lit, III, iv. Must I 
 budge ? Julius Ccesar, 
 IV, iii. I'll not budge 
 an inch, Taming of 
 Shrew-Induction, (and in 
 several other places). 
 
 I will sell my dukedom, to 
 buy a slobbery and dirty 
 farm, Hen, V, III, v. 
 See Miry. 
 
VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Mug (especially a small 
 mug). 
 
 Musical Instrument. 
 
 Must. 
 
 N 
 
 Near (personal proximity). 
 
 Near (in place or position). 
 
 Nearly (see near). 
 
 Neighborhood. 
 
 Nestling — An unfledged 
 bird, a gosling. 
 
 Nimble. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Tot. 
 
 Music (as applied to all in- 
 struments alike). 
 
 Mun — I mun do it= I must 
 do it. 
 
 Anigh — Don't come anigh 
 me= Don't come near 
 me. 
 
 Agin — He lives just agin 
 us=He lives handy to 
 or handy to us, or, He 
 lives near us. 
 
 Handy to — In quantity (in 
 the sense of nearly equal) 
 That bit of ground is 
 handy to twenty pole = 
 That piece of land is 
 nearly twenty rods long. 
 
 Hereabouts. 
 
 Gull. 
 
 Limber. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 67 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 With musics of all sorts, 
 All's Well, III, wii. And 
 let him ply his music, 
 Hamlet, II, i. 
 
 Lord Timon will be left a 
 naked gull, T. of Athens, 
 II, i. As that ungentle 
 gull, the cuckoo's bird, 
 I Hen. VI, V, i. 
 
 Put me off with limber 
 vows, Winters Tale, I, 
 ii. 
 
68 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Noise. 
 
 Blunder— Blundering— Ha* 
 done that blundering= 
 Stop that noise. 
 
 Not. 
 
 Na — Used as a suffix, as 
 
 
 shanna = Shall not. 
 
 
 Shouldna = Should not. 
 
 
 Doesna = Does not. 
 
 
 Hadna = Had not. 
 
 
 Wouldna (sometimes 
 wotna)= Would not, etc. 
 
 Not (is not). 
 
 Yent — He yent yourn= 
 He is not yours. 
 
 Not (not so much as). 
 
 Never — Noways — Her's 
 never (or noways) a bon- 
 net = She has not so 
 
 
 much as a bonnet. 
 
 Noted — see Celebrated. 
 
 Deadly — He's deadly for 
 church going = He is 
 
 
 noted for church going. 
 
 Notions — see Whim. 
 
 Megrims — It's a pity she 
 do take such megrims 
 into her head = It's a 
 
 
 pity she has such notions. 
 
 Numerous (any large num- 
 ber). 
 
 A sight of — There was a 
 sight of people = There 
 were a great many people. 
 
 
 
 
 Oaf — see Clown. 
 
 Yawrups. 
 
 Oats. 
 
 Wuts. 
 
 Obeisance — see Curtsey. 
 
 Obedience. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 69 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
70 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Obstinate — see Headstrong. 
 Occasion (a pretext). 
 
 Of. 
 
 Once. 
 
 Onion. 
 
 Open (Verb imperative in 
 the sense of unfasten), 
 
 Opposite (in place). 
 
 Ornament (Verb). See dec 
 orate. 
 
 Ours. 
 
 Ourselves. 
 
 Overbearing. 
 
 Overcome — (in the sense of 
 survive, ''get over, the 
 effect of.") 
 
 Pale (see wan). 
 
 Awkward. 
 
 Call— He han't no call to 
 do it= He has no pretext 
 for doing it. 
 
 In — They be just come 
 out in school = They 
 have just come out of 
 school. 
 
 Aince — Aince a whiles = 
 Once in a while. 
 
 Einyun. 
 
 Dup — Dup the door= Un- 
 fasten the door. (Also 
 in Wiltshire dialect, H.) 
 
 Anent — He lives anent 
 here=He lives opposite, 
 or across the road from 
 here. 
 
 Dizzen. 
 
 Ourn. 
 
 Oursens. 
 
 Masterful. 
 
 Overgo oroverget — I shan't 
 overget it = I shall not 
 get over the effects of 
 it. 
 
 Wanny. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 71 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 And dupped the chamber 
 door, Hamlet, IV, ii, 53. 
 
 Overgo thy plaints and 
 drown. Richard III., 
 II, ii. 
 
n 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Pansy (the wild variety). 
 
 Parish. 
 
 Part (verb) — To part com- 
 pany, depart, separate. 
 
 Particular. 
 
 Parsley (and umbilliferous 
 plants generally). 
 
 Part company, 
 rate. 
 
 Passage. 
 
 Passionate. 
 
 Pasture. 
 Pasturage. 
 
 See sepa- 
 
 Love-in-idleness. 
 
 Field—That bit lies in Al- 
 kerton fields That land 
 is in Alkerton parish. 
 (Also in Yorkshire [L] 
 and several other dia- 
 lects, H. and S). 
 
 Shog off— We'll shog off 
 = We'll part company 
 now and journey to- 
 gether no further. 
 
 Choice — He's very choice 
 over his victuals=He's 
 very particular as to what 
 he eats. 
 
 Kex or kecks. 
 
 Shog. 
 
 Tewer — Her lives up the 
 tewer = She lives in a 
 narrow passage. 
 
 Franzy — The Master's 
 such a terrible franzy 
 man = The master is a 
 very passionate man. 
 
 Lay. 
 
 Joisting — What must I pay 
 for this joisting=What 
 must I pay for this pas- 
 turage. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 73 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 And maidens call it love 
 in idleness. — Midsum- 
 mer Night's Dream , II, 
 ii. 
 
 Shog off. I would have 
 you solus. — Henry V., 
 II., i. Shall we shog? — 
 Henry V., II., iii. 
 
 See Fennel. 
 
 Shall we shog ? — Henry V, 
 II, iii. 
 
74 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Pea-Finch. 
 
 Peaked (see pale, pinched, 
 wan). 
 
 Pebble. 
 
 Peculiarities (see notions, 
 whim). 
 
 Peep (verb). 
 
 Perfect (verb) — in the sense 
 of put into good order — 
 good condition. 
 
 Perhaps. 
 
 Perspiration — see sweat. 
 Piecemeal. 
 
 Pinafore. 
 
 Pinched (attenuated or 
 emaciated, sickly, un- 
 healthy looking). See 
 healthy. 
 
 Pity, or shame (in the 
 sense of " too bad.") 
 
 Picod. 
 
 Picked — (Pronounced as a 
 dissyllable). 
 
 Pibble. 
 
 Megrims — She has her 
 own megrims = She has 
 her own notions or pe- 
 culiarities. 
 
 Peek. 
 
 Fettle. 
 
 Happen — Happen it'll be 
 a long time = Perhaps it 
 will be a long time. 
 
 Grit— To do work by the 
 grit = To do work little 
 by little. 
 
 Pinny. 
 
 Picked — Pronounced as a 
 dissyllable. A weak, 
 sickly looking child is a 
 scribe, as opposed to a 
 rile, a healthy looking 
 child. 
 
 Poor tale — It's a poor tale 
 ye couldn't come=It's a 
 pity you couldn't come. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT, 75 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Fettle your fine joints 
 'gainst Thursday next. — 
 Romeo and Juliet \ III, 
 v, 152. 
 
76 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Plenitude (see below). 
 
 Plenty of — plenitude 
 frequent). 
 
 (see 
 
 Pound — i.e. pummel(verb). 
 See belabor. 
 
 Pregnant (with child). 
 
 Presently. 
 
 " Prink" — See decorate. 
 Produce — See induce. 
 Properly. 
 
 Prophecy. 
 
 Prosecute. 
 
 Old — There's been old 
 work to-day = There's 
 been plenty of work to- 
 day. 
 
 Pun — See 'im a punnin' 
 'un = See him pound 
 him. 
 
 [Also Westmoreland (H) 
 and Sussex dialects (L.)] 
 
 Childing — Her's childing 
 = She is with child. 
 
 [Also in several other dia- 
 lects, (H).] 
 
 Awhile — I'll do it awhile 
 = I'll do it presently. 
 
 Kindle. 
 
 A'Form(pronounced faum) 
 — We sing it a'form= 
 We sing it properly. 
 
 Forecast. 
 
 Persecute — He was perse- 
 cuted for larceny = Hewas 
 prosecuted for larceny. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 77 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 By the mass here will be 
 old Utis (a plentiful or 
 extraordinary celebra- 
 tion of any festival. Utis 
 is the octave of any 
 feast).— 2 Hen. IV, II, 
 iv. Yonder's old coil at 
 home. i.e. Plenty of trou- 
 ble or confusion). Muck 
 Ado, V, ii. 
 
 He would pun him into 
 shivers with his fist. — 
 Troilus and Cressida, 
 
 ii, i. 
 
 The childing autumn. — 
 Midsummer Nighfs 
 Dream, II, I, 112. 
 
 Alas that Warwick had no 
 more/<?ra;ast. — 3 Hen., 
 VI, V, 7. 
 
78 
 
 VENUS AND ADOXIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Prosperous. 
 Prosperously. 
 
 Protected (see sheltered). 
 Proud — see stalk. 
 Provide (verb). Also 
 
 sense of foresee, 
 see. 
 
 Provoke (verb). 
 
 in 
 Which 
 
 Provoked. 
 
 Put on airs (verb). 
 
 Smartish (adjective and 
 adverb). 
 
 I'm getting on smartish = 
 I am prospering (or do- 
 ing well). 
 
 Un's smartish a'day=He 
 is prosperous at present. 
 
 Burrowed. 
 
 Stomach full. 
 
 Forecast — He forecast it 
 = He provided for it be- 
 forehand. 
 
 Urge — That 'oman do 
 urge me so = That wo- 
 man always provokes me. 
 
 Mad — I'm mad as mad = 
 I'm very much provoked. 
 
 Common to all other dia- 
 lects, and correct in the 
 vernacular. 
 
 Pummel (verb). See belabor. Pun. 
 
 Jets — A' jets = He is put- 
 ting on airs ; assuming 
 too much. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 79 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 " Urge not my lather's an- 
 ger." — Two Gent, of 
 Verona, IV, iii. 
 
 How canst thou urge God's 
 dreadful. — Richard III, 
 V, iv. 
 
 Certainly used in the two 
 above cases, and proba- 
 bly in four or five other 
 cases. 
 
 To jet upon a prince's right. 
 
 — Cymbeline, II, i. 
 How he jets under his ad- 
 vanced. — Twelfth Night, 
 
 II, v. 
 That giants may jet. — 
 
 Cymbeline, III, iii. 
 
80 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Put out (see embarrass). 
 
 Quickly — in the imperative. 
 See instantly. 
 
 Ram. 
 
 Rascal — (usually a man or 
 woman malicious by in- 
 clination, but stupid by 
 nature). 
 
 Reach (verb active), or 
 approach. 
 
 Reference. 
 
 Refined — see respectable. 
 
 Regret — something to be 
 regretted. See pity. 
 
 Refuse — see rubbish. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Dout — Staffordshire and 
 South Wales. (Also in 
 Sussex and Yorkshire 
 dialects, (L).) 
 
 Straight — Do *t straight 
 Go and do it at once. 
 
 Tap. 
 Loon. 
 
 Going in — I am going in 
 twelve^ I am reaching 
 my twelfth year. 
 
 Character — I took her 
 wi'out a character = I 
 took her without any 
 references as to her 
 character. 
 
 Still. 
 
 Poor tale. 
 
 Refudge. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 81 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Make her grave straight. — 
 Hamlet ', V, I. 
 
 And in over one hundred 
 other places noted by 
 Clarke's Concordance. 
 
 Thou cream-faced loon ! — 
 Macbeth, V, iii. 
 
82 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Remain (verb). Also in 
 the imperative, wait. 
 
 Bide — We'll bide here= 
 We'll wait here. Bide 
 where you be= Remain 
 where you are. 
 
 (But common to almost 
 all English dialects). 
 
 Remember (verb). 
 
 Mind — Common to almost 
 all English dialects. 
 
 Remnants (see leavings). 
 
 Outs. 
 
 Resemble. 
 
 Favour — He favors his 
 father = He resembles 
 his father. 
 
 Common to many English 
 dialects, and a proper 
 word in the vernacular. 
 
 Respectable. 
 
 Still — He's a still, quiet 
 man= He's a respecta- 
 ble, refined (or gentle- 
 
 
 manly mannered) man. 
 
 Reserved (see proud). 
 
 Stomachful. 
 
 Restrain (verb). 
 
 Keep — He cannot keep 
 hisself=He cannot re- 
 strain himself. 
 
 Rheumatism. 
 
 Rheumatics, Rheumatiz — 
 If in a single limb it is 
 rheumatiz — If all over 
 the body it is rheumat- 
 ics. 
 
 Rick frame — The frame- 
 work on which the ricks 
 are placed. 
 
 Staddle. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 83 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 0, 'tis a foul thing when a 
 cur cannot keep him- 
 self.— Two Gent, of V. y 
 IV, 4. 
 
84 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Rid (verb par.), to be 
 of. 
 
 rid 
 
 Shut on — I was glad to be 
 shut on she=I was glad 
 to be rid of her. 
 
 Rinse. 
 
 
 Swill. 
 
 Rise — (an appreciation 
 price). 
 
 in 
 
 Riz — Butter's riz — There 
 is a rise in the price of 
 butter. 
 
 (A very common mispro- 
 nunciation everywhere). 
 
 Road. 
 
 
 Ride — Especially a new 
 road cut through a wood. 
 
 Robin. 
 
 
 Bobby. 
 
 Rook. 
 
 
 Crow 
 
 Roomy. 
 
 
 Roomthy. 
 
 Rough grass. 
 
 
 Couchgrass or fog. 
 
 Row — (a quarrel). 
 
 See 
 
 Work. 
 
 scrimmage. 
 
 
 
 Rubbish. 
 
 
 Refuge or refudge. 
 
 Russet apple. 
 
 
 Leather coat. 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 Saddler. 
 
 
 Whittaw. 
 
 Same. 
 
 
 A' one — It's a' oner=It's all 
 the same thing. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 85 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 A galled rock — swilled 
 with the wild and waste- 
 ful ocean. — Henry V, 
 II, 1-14. 
 
 Here is a dish of leather 
 coats for you. — 2 Hen., 
 IV, V, iii. 
 
VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Satiety — a plentitude 01 
 abundance of anything, 
 See frequent, plenty of. 
 
 Satisfy. 
 
 Saucy (pert). 
 
 Saw — perfect of verb to 
 see. 
 
 Scanty — see short. 
 
 Scarecrow — any unsightly 
 or grotesque object. 
 
 Scold — a female of violent 
 temper. 
 
 Scrape (verb). See grate. 
 
 Scraps (especially what is 
 left in lard boiling). 
 
 Scratch (verb). 
 Scratch out — to erase. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Old. 
 
 Swagger — You was want- 
 ing to see some big dah- 
 lias, come into my gar- 
 den, an' I'll swagger ye. 
 = 1 will satisfy you if 
 you will step into my 
 garden. 
 
 Canting — She's a canting 
 wench = She's a saucy 
 girl. 
 
 See — I never see she = I 
 never saw her. Not pe- 
 culiar to Warwickshire. 
 
 Cop, cob, cobby — A cob- 
 loof=A very small or 
 stumpy loaf. 
 
 Moikin or Malkin. 
 Mankind witch. 
 
 Race. 
 
 Scratchings. 
 
 Skant — He" skanted it= 
 He scratched it. 
 
 Scrat — Don't scrat me: 
 Don't erase my name. 
 
A STUD V IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 87 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 In Troilus and Cressida, 
 II, i, Ajax calls Thersites 
 a cob-loaf, i. e, a small 
 loaf. 
 
 A malkin not worth the time 
 of day, Pericles, IV, iii, 34 
 
 A mankind witch — hence 
 with her. — Winter's 
 Tale, II, 3. 
 
VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Scrimmage. 
 
 Season (a short duration of 
 time). 
 
 Seat (settee). 
 Separate — see Part. 
 
 Sermon. 
 
 Shafts (of a wagon). 
 
 Share. 
 
 Sharper (a cunning, deceit- 
 ful person). 
 
 Work — What work then 
 was up there = What a 
 scrimmage then was up 
 there. 
 
 'Bout — He's had a bout o' 
 drinking = He's been 
 drunk for some time. 
 
 Settle. 
 
 As where two have been 
 journeying together. 
 
 We must be shogging now 
 = We must separate now. 
 
 Shogoffnow^Goyourways 
 and let me go mine. 
 
 (Also in various other dia- 
 lects, H. S. L. assigns 
 it to Yorkshire. Is also 
 used in Wyclif's trans- 
 lation of the Bible. 
 
 Sarmint — not peculiar to 
 Warwickshire. 
 
 Tills— (Also in ' Whitby 
 glossary, L). 
 
 The short wooden sheath 
 stuck in the waistband 
 to rest one of the needles 
 in whilst knitting. 
 
 File. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT, 89 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Troilus and Cressida y III, 
 ii. 
 
90 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 She (nominative case femi- 
 nine). 
 
 Her. 
 
 Shear (verb). 
 
 Daggle — Especially to 
 shear around a sheep's 
 tail. Dag locks are 
 the bits of wool cut off 
 around the tail stump. 
 
 Shed — or the addition, wing 
 of or extension to a 
 house. 
 
 Lean to. 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 Ship — The ship be dag- 
 gled = Sheep are com- 
 pletely sheared. (Even 
 the dag - locks around 
 their tails cut off). 
 
 Sheltered — protected (as 
 from the weather). 
 
 Burrow — It's burrow 
 as burrow here = It's 
 very sheltered here. 
 
 Short. 
 
 Cob, Cop or Cobby — Cop 
 nuts = very small or 
 stumpy nuts, with very 
 minute or innutritious 
 kernels. 
 
 (Also in Oxfordshire, Kent, 
 Surrey, Yorkshire and 
 Staffordshire, L). 
 
 Showery — Drizzling. 
 
 Dampin*. — It's rather 
 dampin' to-day = It's a 
 rather showery day. 
 
 Shirt. 
 
 Shift — Also used as a verb. 
 To change one's linen= 
 To shift one's self. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 91 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Ajax calls Thersites Cob- 
 loaf ! — Troilus and 
 Cressida, II, i, 36. 
 
92 
 
 VENUS AXD A DON IS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Sickly person. See healthy. 
 
 Since. 
 
 Sing, singing — applied to 
 a bird or animal. 
 
 Sink — To droop or be- 
 come tired. 
 
 Slate. 
 
 Slattern — (any untidy per- 
 son). 
 
 Wratch or scribe. 
 
 Sen. 
 
 Sleepy. 
 
 Slice. 
 
 Slide (verb), as on ice. 
 
 Slippery — see miry, mud- 
 dy. 
 
 Sloes. 
 
 Whistle — The whistling 
 thrusher = A singing 
 thrush. 
 
 Sagg — She be sagged out 
 
 = She is drooping with 
 
 weariness. 
 (Also in Yorkshire (L),and 
 
 several other dialects, 
 
 H. S). 
 
 Slat. 
 Slommocks. 
 
 Mulled. 
 
 Shive — A shive 'a uns loaf 
 = A slice of his loaf of 
 bread. 
 
 (Also in Hallamshire and 
 other parts of Yorkshire 
 (L). H. assigns it to 
 several dialects). 
 
 Glir. 
 
 slippy. 
 
 Slans. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 93 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Shall never sagg with 
 doubt. — Macbeth, V, iii. 
 
 Mulled, deaf, sleepy, in- 
 sensible. — Coriolanus, 
 IV, v. 
 
 Of a cut loaf to steal a 
 shive . — Titus A ndroni- 
 cus, II, i. 
 
94 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Sloppy — see muddy. 
 
 Slobbery. 
 
 Smell — see short, stumpy, 
 scanty. 
 
 Cob, cobby, cop. (Also 
 in Oxfordshire, Kent, 
 Surrey, Yorkshire and 
 Staffordshire dialects, 
 L). 
 
 Snuff, Sniff — To snuff or 
 scent as a dog, to hunt. 
 
 Bre'vet — How the dog do 
 brevet about=rHow the 
 dog sniffs around. 
 
 Soft (marshy, sloppy, 
 wet). See miry, muddy. 
 
 Flacky. 
 
 Solitary. 
 
 Unked. 
 
 Spare. 
 
 Miss — I cannot miss him 
 at harvestings I cannot 
 spare him at harvesting. 
 
 Something. 
 
 Summat. 
 
 Sour apple. 
 
 Bitter-sweeting. 
 
 Spacious. 
 
 Roomthy. 
 
 Sparrow — especially the 
 hedge sparrow. 
 
 Betty. 
 
 Squint. 
 
 Squinny. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 
 
 95 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 I will sell my dukedom to 
 buy a slobbery and dirty 
 farm. — Hen. V f III, 5. 
 
 Trot/us and Cressida, II, . 
 
 But as 't is we cannot miss 
 him — He does make our 
 fire — fetch in our wood. 
 — Tempest, I, ii, 311. 
 
 He would miss it, rather 
 than carry it, but by the 
 suit of the gentry to 
 him. — Coriolanus y II, i, 
 253. 
 
 Thy wit is a very bitter 
 sweeting. — Romeo and 
 Juliet \ II, iv. 
 
 Dost thou squinny at me. — 
 Lear, IV vi, 120. 
 
VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Spoke — preterite of to 
 speak, used as a proverb 
 of inanimate things, nev- 
 
 Jerk, quoth the ploughshare 
 = The ploughshare went 
 jerk — or said "jerk." 
 
 er of persons. 
 
 
 Stalk — to walk proudly. 
 
 Jet — (common to various 
 dialects, H). 
 
 Starving. 
 
 Fameled. 
 
 Stately. 
 
 Stomachful. 
 
 Stile. 
 
 Clapgate. 
 
 Sting}-. 
 
 Near. 
 
 Stock — see handle. 
 
 Stale. 
 
 Stop (imperative verb). 
 
 Gie over, or a' done — A' 
 done will 'ee (or, gie 
 over)=Have done (stop) 
 at once ! 
 
 Straightway — that is quick- 
 ly, at once. See instant- 
 ly, quickly. 
 
 Straight — (Also in several 
 other dialects, H). 
 
 Strut (verb) — to walk 
 proudly. See stalk. 
 
 Jet. 
 
 Stubble stack. 
 
 Hallow. 
 
 Stubborn — see obstinate. 
 
 Awkward. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT 97 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 True it is, my incorporate 
 friends, quoth he (the 
 stomach). — Coriolanus, 
 *. i> 23. 
 
 Shake, quoth the dove- 
 house. — Romeo and Ju- 
 liet, I, iii, 33. 
 
 How he jets under his ad- 
 van ces . — TwelfthNigh t, 
 II, v. 
 
 To jet upon a Prince's 
 right. — Cymbeline, II, i. 
 
 Make her grave straight. - 
 Hamlet V, i. 
 
98 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Stumpy — see 
 scanty. 
 
 short, small, 
 
 Stupid (noun). See clown. 
 
 Sty (in the eye). 
 Suckling. 
 
 Superior. 
 Suppose. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Cob, cobby, cop — A cob 
 loaf=A short or very 
 scant loaf of bread. 
 
 Also in Oxfordshire, Kent, 
 Surrey, Yorkshire and 
 Staffordshire dialects, L). 
 
 Yawrups. 
 
 Quot. 
 
 Dilling — The smallest pig 
 in the litter, used as a 
 term of endearment for 
 a small child, as There, 
 be a good dilling now, 
 an' go to sleep quiet. 
 
 Bettermost — A's Better- 
 most nor him=I'm bet- 
 ter than he. 
 
 Reckon — "Suppose" is 
 only used when telling 
 facts. As : So John is 
 going to Lunnon, I sup- 
 pose^John is going to 
 London. 
 
 In some of the Southern 
 States of the United 
 States, reckon is used 
 just as the Warwickshire 
 peasant uses "suppose." 
 I reckon you'll dine 
 with us to-day, = We 
 shall rely on your dining 
 with us. That is, it is a 
 pressing invitation to 
 dinner, and not exactly 
 the statement of an ex- 
 isting arrangement. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 99 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 1 Cobloaf !" — Troilus and 
 Cressida, II, i. 
 
100 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Sure. 
 
 Surmount. 
 
 Suspect (verb). 
 
 Suddenly. 
 Swing (verb). 
 
 Sweat (verb). 
 
 Sweat (Noun). 
 Swollen. 
 
 Safe — He's safe to do it= 
 He's sure to do it. 
 
 Common to almost all 
 known English dialects, 
 as well as good ac- 
 cepted English. 
 
 Overgo or overget. 
 
 Judge — I judge him guil- 
 ty = I suspect that he is 
 guilty. 
 
 Suddent. 
 
 Geg, gaig — Let's gaig no' 
 = Let's take a swing. 
 
 Gibber — (In the passage in 
 Hamlet, ' ' and the sheet- 
 ed dead did squeak and 
 gibber in the Roman 
 streets;" the word "gib- 
 ber" is said almost to 
 mean gabble or chatter, 
 but if the word were 
 used in the Warwick- 
 shire sense, how much 
 more ghastly and horri- 
 ble the picture! The dead 
 — out of place in the 
 Roman streets, worried 
 and sweated. 
 
 Muck — I'm all of a muck 
 
 I'm sweaty. 
 Bluffy — My hands are as 
 
 bluffy as bluffy = My 
 hands are very much 
 swollen. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 101 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 
 Is used very frequently in 
 the plays. My ships 
 are safe to road. — Mer- 
 
 
 chant of Venice, V, i, 
 
 
 etc. 
 
 
 Overgo thy plaints and 
 down. — Richard III y 
 
 
 II, ii. 
 
102 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 T 
 
 
 
 Tadpole. 
 
 
 Jackbonnial. 
 
 Talebearer — A 
 See tattler. 
 
 carry tale. 
 
 Clatterer. 
 
 Tame. 
 
 
 Cade — Cade lamb = Pet 
 lamb. 
 
 Tape. 
 
 
 Inkle, Inkles — (Also in 
 Whitby dialect, H. S). 
 
 Tattle (verb). 
 
 
 Clat. 
 
 Tattler — see gossip. 
 
 Pickthanks, clatterer. Also 
 in mid Yorkshire (L), 
 and several other dia- 
 lects, H. S). 
 
 Tea. 
 
 
 Tay. 
 
 Teach. 
 
 
 Lam. 
 
 Tease (Verb). 
 
 Termagant — see Scold. 
 
 Worrit — A' done worriting 
 me = Stop teasing me. 
 Common to almost every 
 English dialect. 
 
 Mankind Witch. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 103 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 The price of this inkle. — 
 Love' s Labour* s Lost, III, 
 i. Winter's Tale, IV., 
 iii. Inkles, caddies, 
 cambrics. Her inkle, 
 silk, twin with. — Per- 
 icles \ V, (Gower's Pro- 
 logue). 
 
 Pickthanks and base news- 
 mongers. — /. Henry LV, 
 
 III, ii. 
 
 A mankind witch — hence 
 with her ! Winter's Tale, 
 H,3. 
 
104 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Thatch (Verb). 
 
 Thack — He thacked the 
 housen = He thatched 
 the houses. 
 
 Thatch (over a bee hive). 
 
 Hackle. 
 
 Theirs. 
 
 Theirn. 
 
 Thick — see Stumpy. 
 
 Cob, Cop, Cobby — Cob 
 loaf= A short, thick loaf. 
 
 Thief. 
 
 Lifter — (Also in various 
 other dialects, H.) 
 
 Thin — see Emaciated, 
 Pinched. 
 
 Poor — He's as poor as poor 
 = He's very thin. 
 
 Thoughtless. 
 
 Gidding. 
 
 Thrash — see Whip. 
 
 Warm. 
 
 Thriving — see Healthy. 
 
 Kind — That cow aint kind 
 = That cow doesn't 
 thrive. 
 
 Thrush. 
 
 Thrusher — Whistling 
 thrusher =The song 
 thrush. Gore thrusher = 
 The missing thrush. 
 
 Timid — see Gentle. 
 
 Soft. 
 
 Tired — see Exhausted. 
 
 Sated — I be quite sated wi' 
 being in'a house=I am 
 tired of staying in- 
 doors. 
 
 Toil (Noun and Verb). 
 
 Moil — I've been moiling 'a 
 day = I've been toiling 
 all day. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 105 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 And so old a lifter, Troil- 
 us and Cressida, II, i. 
 
 Perhaps used in this sense 
 by chorus to Act II. of 
 Henry V : "O England, 
 what mightest thou do, 
 were all thy children kind 
 and natural." 
 
106 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Tolerably. 
 
 Tolerably bad. 
 
 Toll (Verb)— More exactly 
 to toll a bell properly. 
 
 Trinkets — see Decorate. 
 
 Toss, or Shake (as in hay- 
 making). 
 
 Trouble (Verb). 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Middling or Pretty Midd- 
 ling — We gets on pretty 
 middling— We are doing 
 tolerably well; but see 
 below for opposite mean- 
 ing. 
 
 Very Middling — He is do- 
 ing very middlings He 
 is doing badly. The 
 word middling has oppo- 
 site meanings according 
 as it is prefixed by pret- 
 ty or very, " thus pretty 
 middling" might "mean 
 tolerably good." 
 
 Knoll (Noal)— Have the 
 bell knowled=Have it 
 properly tolled, 
 
 Bravery — She is all bravery 
 = She wears a great 
 many ribbons or trink- 
 ets, i. e. much finery. 
 (Also in several other 
 dialects, H.) 
 
 Ted — He's teddin = He's 
 tossing (or shaking up) 
 the hay out of the swath. 
 
 Fash — He do fash hisself 
 = He troubles himself. 
 
A S TUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA LECT. 107 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Where bells have knolled 
 to church, As You Like It 
 II, vii, 114 ; also ibid, 
 line 131. And so his 
 knell is knolled, Mac- 
 beth, V, vii, 54. Knol- 
 ling a departed friend, 2 
 Hen. IV, I, i, 103. 
 
 Where youth and cost and 
 witless bravery keeps, 
 Measure for Measure, I, 
 iii, 10. With scarfs and 
 fans, and double changed 
 bravery, Taming of 
 Shrew, IV, iii. 
 
108 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Troublesome 
 chievous. 
 
 Mis- 
 
 Tub. 
 
 Tuft (of grass.) 
 Turf (Greensward). 
 
 U 
 Unfasten (as a door). 
 
 Unknown. 
 
 Untidy — But more gener- 
 ally as a noun, an untidy 
 person, a slattern (which 
 see). 
 
 Unusual. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Tageous — The boy's tage- 
 ous=The boy is trouble- 
 some, or (perhaps) in- 
 clined to be vicious. 
 Mere frolicsomeness, or 
 innocent mischief is ex- 
 pressed by the adjectives 
 " annointed" or " un- 
 lucky." 
 
 Kiver — Properly a butter 
 tub, the tub the butter is 
 worked in after being 
 taken from the churn. 
 
 Tussock. 
 
 Grinsard. 
 
 Dup — Dup the door = 
 Open the door. Wise, 
 however, says the word 
 is used as an order to 
 fasten or unfasten a 
 door. (Also in Wiltshire 
 dialect, H.) 
 
 Unbeknownt. 
 
 Slommocks. 
 
 Unaccountable (Unake- 
 ountable) — It's unac- 
 countable weathers It's 
 unusual weather. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 109 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 And dupped the chamber 
 door, Hamlet, IV, ii. 
 
110 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Urge — see Induce. 
 Useless. 
 
 Very — see Excessive, Ex- 
 tremely. 
 
 Vicious — see Mischievous, 
 Troublesome. 
 
 Vigorous (applied to plants) 
 see Hardy, Healthy, 
 Thriving. 
 
 W 
 
 Wan. 
 
 Warm (Verb) — The word 
 44 warm" in Warwick- 
 shire means to beat with 
 a stick or club. 
 
 Wash out (Verb) — see 
 Rinse. 
 
 Wasp. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Kindle. 
 
 Mufflin — I'm as mufflin as 
 the babe unborn=I'm 
 as useless as a baby. 
 
 As, As or That— (with the 
 repetition of the adjective) 
 — It's as hot as hot=It's 
 very hot. Or, I'm that 
 bad in my innards=I'm 
 suffering very much in- 
 ternally. 
 
 Tageous. 
 
 Frem — Your plants do look 
 frem = Your plants look 
 hardy (or vigorous). 
 
 Wanny — How wanny her 
 looks = How pale (or 
 wan or ill) she looks. 
 
 Hot, Chill — I hot it = 
 I warmed it over the 
 fire. I chilled a drop of 
 milk = I warmed (i. e. 
 took the cold off) a drop 
 of milk. 
 
 Swill — I will swill 
 will wash it out. 
 
 Waps. 
 
 it=I 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. \\\ 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
112 
 
 VEX US AXD ADOXIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Waste (to waste time) — see i Mess — She might as lief 
 Idle, Loiter. be at school, she's only 
 
 messing about home = 
 She's only wasting her 
 time at home. 
 
 Watch to, (Verb). 
 
 Weak-lunged (delicate in 
 the lungs). 
 
 Weed (Verb). 
 
 W T eeds — see Fumaria. 
 
 Well. 
 
 Wet through. 
 
 Wheelhorse — The horse 
 that does most of the 
 work. 
 
 Whim — see ^Notions. 
 
 Tend — He's gone bird 
 tending=He has gone 
 to watch the birds (not 
 peculiar to Warwick- 
 shire.) 
 
 Tisiky. 
 
 Paddle — Especially when 
 using a long, narrow 
 spade or " spud " — 
 Paddle the gardens 
 W r eed the garden. 
 
 Kecks — Thaay be kecks= 
 Those are weeds. 
 
 Lusty — He's as lusty as 
 lusty = He's perfectly 
 well. 
 
 Watched — He was watched 
 = He was wet through. 
 
 Tiller. 
 
 Fad, Megrims — Her's al- 
 ways as full o' her fads = 
 She's always full of 
 whims or notions. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. H3 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Perhaps in this sense in 
 Lear I, i, 119 : He that 
 makes his generation 
 messes to gorge his ap- 
 petite. 
 
 Good angels tend thee ! — 
 Richard III, IV, i, 93. 
 
 A good babe, lusty and 
 like to live, Winter's 
 Tale, II, ii, 27. 
 
114 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Whip — see Beat, Thrash. Warm — I'll warm ye=I'll 
 
 beat (or thrash or whip) 
 you. 
 
 White Clover. Honey Stalk — (Also in 
 
 Sussex dialect, L.) 
 
 Who. 
 
 Whore. 
 
 Wicked — see Mischievous, 
 Troublesome. 
 
 Wife. 
 
 Wilful. 
 
 Wild Apple- 
 pie. 
 
 -see Sour Ap- 
 
 Willing — see Acquiescent. 
 
 Willing (in the sense of 
 anxious to assist or co- 
 
 operate.) 
 
 As — There be those as 
 know= There are those 
 who know. 
 
 Doxy. (Also in several 
 other dialects, H.) 
 
 Tageous. 
 
 Old 'ooman. 
 Masterful. 
 
 Pomewater — (Given by H. 
 without localization, an- 
 other species called Ap- 
 ple John is mentioned by 
 H. as belonging to the 
 Eastern countries, L.) 
 
 Agreeable — I'm agreeable 
 to that^I am willing to 
 do that. 
 
 Cunning — Anybody ud be 
 cunning to do anything 
 for you = Any body 
 would be willing to help 
 you. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. H5 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Than baits to fish, or honey 
 stalks to sheep, Titus 
 Andronicus, IV, iv. 
 
 Said by Schmitt and others 
 to be used in this sense 
 in Winter's Tale, IV, 
 iii, 2. 
 
 Ripe as apomewater,Z<?^j 
 Labour's Lost, IV, ii. 
 
116 VENUS AXD ADOXIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 1 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Willingly. 
 
 Willow. 
 
 Wing (of a house — see Ad- 
 dition, Extension, Shed.) 
 
 Lief — I'd lief go = I'd wil- 
 lingly go. (L. denies 
 that this is peculiar to 
 any one English dialect.) 
 
 Withy. 
 
 Lean to. 
 
 With (accompanying). 
 
 Along of — Go along of 
 father = Go with your 
 father. 
 
 Withered. 
 
 Wizen. 
 
 Witless — As by birth, dis- 
 tinguished from dunce or 
 fool (which see). 
 
 Sorry — He's a sorry fellow 
 = He's half witted, or 
 of no account. 
 
 Windy. 
 
 Hurden — It's h u r d e n 
 weather=Its very windy 
 
 Woman. 
 
 Wood. 
 
 W T ood — A piece of wood- 
 land, especially when 
 small in extent. 
 
 Woodlands — A piece larger 
 in extent than the fore- 
 going. 
 
 Woodpecker, especially the 
 green variety. 
 
 Woolen Cap. 
 
 weather. 
 Ooman. 
 Ood (uod). 
 Spinney. 
 
 Holt. 
 
 Hickle (also written Hick- 
 wall). 
 
 Statue Cap — The cap worn 
 by Act of 1 5 71 to en- 
 courage woolen manu- 
 facture, whence any cap 
 made of woolen, or wool- 
 like material. (Also in 
 other dialects, L.) 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. \Yl 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii. 
 
118 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 Worn Out — see Fatigued. 
 
 Worry, as a child its moth- 
 er (Verb) — see Tease. 
 
 Worth, Worthy— Adject- 
 ive, and adverb, worth- 
 illy. 
 
 Would — (Auxiliary Verb). 
 
 Wren — The female of any 
 bird. 
 
 Wrongly, Improperly — ad- 
 jective or adverb. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Yearling — Especially of 
 sheep. 
 
 Forwearied. (Also in sev- 
 eral other dialects, H.) 
 
 Mummock — The child do 
 mummock me so=The 
 child worries me. 
 
 Account — He bean't o' ac- 
 count=He is not worth 
 anything. He don't do 
 o' any account = He 
 doesn't act worthily. 
 
 Ood. 
 
 Jenny. 
 
 Out of — To call a man out 
 of his name — To call 
 him by his wrong name. 
 To name him improperly.. 
 
 Yes. 
 
 Teg — In the plural the 
 word is Eanings, though 
 properly Eaneings are 
 the very young lambs, or 
 lambs just dropped. 
 (Also in Sussex and sev- 
 eral other dialects, H.) 
 
 Ah—Yea. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. H9 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 Forwearied in this action. 
 — King John, II, i, 233. 
 
 I have forgot my part, and 
 I am out, Coriolanus, V, 
 iii, 41. If I cannot re- 
 cover your niece I am a 
 foul ways out, Twelfth 
 Night, II, iii, 201. Your 
 hand is out, Loves Lab- 
 our's Lost, IV, i, 135. 
 
 That all the Earlings which 
 were streaked and pied, 
 Merchant of Venice, I, 
 
120 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 VERNACULAR. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Yoke (for cattle). 
 
 Yonder. 
 You. 
 
 Yours. 
 
 Bow — (Also in several 
 other dialects, H.) 
 
 Yon. 
 
 Thee, or Thou — Thee'st 
 it (or thou'st it) = You 
 have it, or, You are the 
 one. 
 
 Yourn. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 121 
 
 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 As the ox has his bow, As 
 You Like It, III, iii, 70. 
 
PART III. 
 
 THE PUZZLE, 
 
 It thus appears : 
 
 First. — That there is and was a Warwick- 
 shire dialect. 
 
 Second. — That this dialect occurs in every 
 one of the admitted Shakespeare Plays. s 
 
 Third. — That a specimen of this dialect ap- 
 pears to occur in the poem, " Venus and Ad- 
 onis/' in but one single instance ; that is to 
 say, less than in any other work with which 
 William Shakespeare's name is associated (ex- 
 cept, perhaps, the Lucrece — which is inten- 
 tionally left at this time unexamined). 
 
 But — as to proposition Second — we have 
 now to demonstrate: (i) That this Warwick- 
 shire dialect does not occur in the plays to 
 the exclusion of other dialects ; and — as to 
 proposition Third — that (ii) the single instance 
 in which Warwickshire dialect apparently 
 occurs in the poem, is apparent only ; the 
 word apparently local being actually not only 
 not exclusively Warwickshire, but a corruption 
 traceable to a Latin original. 
 
124 VENUS AND A DON IS. 
 
 I. A late writer in the Atlantic Monthly \ 
 says :* 
 
 "A glance through almost any of the plays will 
 convince the reader that the poet had not only an ex- 
 tensive familiarity with, but a partiality for, words in 
 provincial use in these (the northern and border) 
 countries. Such words as the following : — greet (to cry 
 or weep), sag (to hang down), skive (a slice), sliver 
 (a noun, a small branch, and verb, to tear off), neb (the 
 beak), brock (a badger), biggen (a night-cap), pick (to 
 pitch or throw), scale (to spread, as manure), side (ad- 
 jective, wide loose), clean (adverb, entirely), leather- 
 coats (apples), clap (to pat or tap), chare (a job of work), 
 Jlapjack (a pan-cake), — and many others, are terms 
 ' familiar in the mouth as household words ' in the 
 North of England." * * * 
 
 Take again "the common adverb soon. In such 
 passages as the following, — ' Soon at five o'clock I'll 
 meet with you,' (Com. of Err., I. ii. 26); 'Soon at 
 supper shalt thou see Lorenzo,' (Mer. of Ven. II. iii. 
 5); 'Come to me soon at after supper,' (Rich. III., 
 IV. iii. 31); ' You shall bear the burden soon at 
 night,' (Rom. and Jul., II. v. 78); 'We'll have a 
 posset for 't soon at night,' (Merry Wives, I. iv. 8), 
 and a dozen more, it is evident from the context that 
 1 soon ' cannot have its common meaning of * in a 
 short time.' Antipholus bids his servant go to 
 the inn. 
 
 44 The Centaur, where we host, 
 And sta}'- there, Dromio, till I come to thee ; 
 Within this hour it will be dinner time." 
 
 He then invites his friend, the First Merchant, to 
 dinner : — 
 
 41 What, will you walk with me about the town, 
 And then go to my inn, and dine with me ? " 
 
 ♦Boston, December, 1S81. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 125 
 To which the Merchant replies : — 
 
 u I am invited, sir, to certain merchants, 
 Of whom I hope to make much benefit ; 
 I crave your pardon. Soon at five o'clock. 
 Please you, I'll meet with you upon the mart, 
 And afterward consort you till bed-time." 
 
 Now, bearing in mind that noon is the universal din- 
 ner-hour in Shakespeare, six hours must intervene ere 
 they meet again, which could hardly be called M soon." 
 An examination of the other passages will present the 
 same inconsistency. 
 
 The fact is that i ' soon " in these passages is a pure 
 provincialism. Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of 
 Archaic and Provincial Words, tells us that in the 
 West of England the word still signifies " evening ; " 
 and Gil, a contemporary of Shakespeare, a head 
 master of St. Paul's School, declares that the use of 
 4 'soon "as an adverb, in the familiar sense of "be- 
 times," "by and by," or "quickly," had, when he 
 wrote, been eclipsed with most men by an acceptation 
 restricted to "night-fall." 
 
 * -x- * * ^he word "fettle" is another pure 
 Northern provincialism, meaning to get ready, prepa?-e, 
 dress one's self. Many a time have I been told by my 
 father "to fettle myself and go to school," " fettle up 
 for church," etc. It is used both as an active and a 
 neuter verb ; and Shakespeare has given it its exact 
 signification in Romeo and Juliet, III. v. 154: — 
 
 " But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next, 
 To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church. 
 
 The very singular word " pheeze " occurs twice in 
 Shakespeare, and has bothered the commentators ex- 
 ceedingly ; some explaining it = to beat, others = to 
 drive. In the North of England they have an old word 
 pronounced/y£tf£<?, meaning generally to make an impres- 
 sion upon, to arouse, stir up. It is commonly used in such 
 expressions as "I called the man a fool, but it never 
 pkazed Yiirn" " I hit the door with all my might, but 
 couldn't phaze it." In Taming of the Shrew, (Ind.; i. 
 1), Sly says to the hostess, " VWpheeze you, in faith," 
 
126 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 that is, I'll stir you up, I'll startle you ; and in Tro. 
 and Cres., (II. iii. 215), Ajax says, "An a' be proud 
 with me, I'll pheeze his pride," meaning, I'll make an 
 impression on him, I'll bring dow?i his pride. 
 
 Another Northern peculiarity is the use of the term 
 wife for a woman in general, without any reference to 
 the conjugal relation, in the same way that fem??ie in 
 French and frau in German are occasionally used. 
 The Saxon is wif, mulier, femina ; Bede uses wif-cild 
 for a female infant. In Henry V. (Act V., chorus), 
 we have — 
 
 " Behold the English beach 
 Pales in the flood with men, with wives \ with boys." 
 
 Where "wives" is surely not confined to married 
 women, but includes women of all ages and relations. 
 * * * In Diana's speech in All's Well (IV. ii. 74): 
 
 " Since Frenchmen are so braid 
 
 Marry that will — I'll live and die a maid." 
 
 Here "braid" is evidently derived from the Scotch 
 braid, but has a more comprehensive meaning than 
 our broad, applied to both language and actions, 
 oftener to the latter. Impudent comes fairly near to 
 to it, but is not quite forcible enough, while lustful 'is 
 perhaps in the other extreme. A man was said to be 
 "braid" whose behavior among women was auda- 
 ciously gross or insulting, or who had a noted character 
 for making improper advances, or for taking saucy 
 liberties. I recall hearing such expressions as these : 
 "John, you munnot be sae braid, noo," or, "He's 
 far ower braid to keep my company." The word 
 "braided," however, is no relative of "braid. ""Braided" 
 was always a word applied to goods or wares, and 
 meant dirty, tiunbled, crumpled up. Soiled or damp 
 clothing, carelessly put away, was said to come out 
 braided ; that is, in braids, wrinkled, or creased. It 
 was applied also to cheap or second-hand articles, 
 especially of haberdashery. It will be remembered 
 that the shepherd's son, in Winter's Tale (IV. iv. 204), 
 asks if Autolycus has any " unbraided wares ;" gener- 
 
A STUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA L ECT. 127 
 
 ally supposed a press error for " embroidered wares," 
 which is the reading of Collier's Corrected Folio of 
 1632. But I have never been able to divest myself 
 of the impression that he rather means any new, fresh, 
 unsoiled wares, — wares that are i.ice and untumbled, 
 and not second-hand goods. 
 
 In Shakespeareana *Mr. J. N. Langlin 
 (from whom we have obtained much data as 
 ot the concurrence of Warwickshire expres- 
 sions in other English dialects in the follow- 
 ing table), has pointed out the examples of 
 Hallamshire dialect in the plays. 
 
 Breeds with — to resemble (Meas. for Meas.) — 
 
 " She speaks 
 And 'tis such sense that my sense breeds with it." 
 
 Among Yorkshire peasantry, to breed with, or to 
 breed of, is constantly used for "resemble;" 
 thus: "She breeds of her mother, her uncle," 
 etc. Sometimes pronounced braid. 
 
 Bar — to prohibit, exclude, forbid. In King John 
 (III. i.) we have — 
 
 *' When law can do no right 
 Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong. 
 
 Barm— yeast (Mid. N. D., II. i.) : 
 
 " And sometimes make the drink to bear no barm" 
 
 A common word in Essex and Eastern counties. 
 Brag — to boast (Rom. and Jul. I. v.) : 
 
 u Verona brags of him." 
 
 Chuck — a term of endearment (Macbeth III. ii.): 
 
 11 Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck." 
 
 ♦Philadelphia, May, 1884. 
 
128 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Cower — to cower down, to be abashed (2 Hen. VI. 
 III. ii.): 
 
 " No splitting rocks cowered in the sinking sand." 
 
 Grime — make black : 
 
 " My face I'll grime with filth." — Lear II. iii. 
 
 Heps or Hips — pods of the dog-rose {Tim. of Ath. y 
 IV, iii, 398) : 
 
 " The oaks bear mast : the briars scarlet kips." 
 
 Make the door, i. e., fasten it — pronounced mack 
 (Com. of Errors, III. ii.): 
 
 " And doubts not, sir, but she will make excuse 
 
 Why at this time the doors are inade against you." 
 
 Crack — to boast (Love s Lab., IV. i.): 
 
 11 And Ethiops of their sweet complection crack." 
 
 Favour — to lesemble (Jul. Cces., I. iii.): 
 
 " And the complection of the element 
 
 It favours like the work we have in hand." 
 
 Gates - a sort of expletive, meaning manner, way 
 (Twelfth Night, V. i.): 
 
 "***#**# If he had not been in drink he would 
 have tickled you other gates than he did." 
 
 So, too, in King Lear, Edgar says : ' ' Go your 
 gate." "Get your gate" — a kind of friendly 
 dismissal. " Go your way " is a very common ex- 
 pression in Yorkshire. Where is the Yorkshire 
 child who has not been told to " get out of my 
 gate ! " 
 
 Mammocks — small pieces of anything. Shakes- 
 peare has it a verb (Cor. I. iii.): 
 
 41 He did so set his teeth and tear it !— O, I warrant how he 
 mammocked it." 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 129 
 
 Scotch — to strike with a thin stick. 
 
 "■ We have scotched the snake, not killed it." — Macbeth. 
 
 Stalled — suspected {Jul. Cces., IV. i.): 
 
 " Which out of use, and stalledhy other men, 
 Begins his fashion." 
 
 Tickle — tottering, easily overturned {Meas. for 
 Meas., I. iii.): 
 
 it $ # * * Thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, 
 that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may sigh it off." 
 
 II. — The single entry we have been able to 
 make in the " Venus and Adonis" column of 
 part II, is the expression "The Urchin- 
 snouted Boar," (i. e., the boar with a snout 
 like a hedge hog.) But " Urchin," with this 
 meaning, is certainly as old as the French- 
 English glossary of Palsgrave, the tutor of 
 Mary, sister of Henry VIII. (" Disclar- 
 cessement de la Lange Francoise-Angloys.) 
 It occurs (spelled Urchon) in the early Eng- 
 lish Psalter (Psalm CIII, v. 18,) and is traced 
 by Skeat to a source even earlier than either, 
 viz : the latin eircius. Mr. Langlin (in his 
 paper on the " Provincialisms of Shakes- 
 peare" in Shakespeareanafor May, 1884,) says 
 that " urchin" occurs in every English dia- 
 lect of which he can find a trace, in the 
 sense of "hedgehog." Curiously enough, 
 however, the word is only used in the Plays, 
 in the " Merry Wives of Windsor," (like ur- 
 chins, ouphes and fairies, IV., iv. 49), the 
 only actual Warwickshire play in the works, 
 and, again, in Titus Andronicus (II, iii, 101), 
 in the sense of a "goblin" or "sprite," a usage 
 
1 30 VENUS AND A DON IS. 
 
 unknown not only in Warwickshire, but — so far 
 as Skeat and other English etymologists have 
 been able to discover — in any other dialect. 
 Nor can it be said that, in treating the clas- 
 sical theme, no opportunity occured for em- 
 ployment of words and idioms peculiar to 
 local dialects ; the growth of the necessity in 
 the expression of rustic wants and emergen- 
 cies only. The fact is exactly in this instance 
 the reverse. For example : In line 657, 
 Venus calls jealousy a "carrytale," that is, a 
 gossip or telltale. There happen to be (as we 
 see from our table) two Warwickshire words, 
 "chatterer" and "pickthanks," for this de- 
 scriptive. The latter is used in the plays in 
 I, Henry VI., iii., 2, while in Love's Labors 
 Lost (V., ii., 464,) it appears as " mumble 
 news." But for the picturesque compound 
 "carrytale," certainly no recourse to any dia- 
 lect was had. And again — whenever the dia- 
 lect consists in the usage rather than the form 
 of the word — the word is used in the plays, 
 sometimes in the common and sometimes in 
 the local sense ; but in the poem, always in 
 the proper and usual sense. For example : 
 We have seen what " braid" and " braided " 
 mean in the plays. But in Venus and Adonis 
 we have the root as we employ it to-day : 
 " His ears up-pricked — his braided, hanging 
 mane." To proceed : In the plays we have 
 the word "gossip" continually, sometimes in 
 the sense of a "God parent," (which is War- 
 wickshire and other provincial usage,) and 
 sometimes in the ordinary sense, to express 
 
AS TUB Y IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 131 
 
 which a Warwickshire man would have said 
 "pickthanks" or " chatterer." < The word 
 "chill," which, in Warwickshire, means to 
 warm, to take the chill off of, is used in that 
 sense once ("As You Like It, IV., v., 56,) but 
 everywhere else in its ordinary sense of to 
 touch with frost, or to cool. Again, any mus- 
 ical instrument is called in Warwickshire, " a 
 music," and here in the single play of Hamlet, 
 we find it so used (Let him ply his music, II., i., 
 83, )while everywhere else the word has its usu- 
 al meaning. Side by side in Macbeth we find 
 the word " lodged " used in its vernacular 
 meaning of providing with sleeping quarters 
 (there be two lodged together, II., ii., 26,) and 
 in the Warwickshire sense of corn that a 
 heavy storm has ruined. (Though bladed 
 corn be lodged, IV, i, 55.) Not to multiply 
 instances, which the reader can select for 
 himself from Mrs. Clarke's concordance,or (still 
 more accurately) from Dr. Schmitt's "Shake- 
 speare Lexicon" — note that in Henry VIII, 
 " stomach" is used in the sense of a masterful, 
 or overbearing disposition, as in Warwick- 
 shire to-day; as the name of the proper di- 
 gestive organ ; again in the sense of appetite ; 
 and, yet again, to mean valor or spirit, just as 
 in Richard III the word "urge" occurs side 
 by side in its good old English meaning and 
 anon in its present Warwickshire sense of to 
 irritate, annoy or tease ; and never are the 
 above instances of double usage by way of 
 a pun or play upon the words themselves. 
 It further appears that there are in this 
 
132 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 entire poem of eleven hundred and ninety- 
 four verses, scarcely a score of words, to com- 
 prehend which even to most ordinary English 
 scholars of to-day would need a lexicon. But 
 on examining even these words, it will be 
 found, precisely as in the case of the word 
 "urchin," that they have a source entirely 
 outside of Warwickshire or any other one 
 dialect — are, in fact, early English words, 
 mostly classical ; never in any sense local or 
 sectional. The following schedule renders 
 this apparent. 
 
 Banning (326) — Cursing. The word is used in this 
 sense in Lucrece, line 1460, 2d 
 Henry, VI, 4, 25, and is so used by 
 Gower, Confessio Amatis, (1325,) ii, 
 96, Layamon, (1180,) ii, 497, and is 
 good middle English. 
 Bate-Breeding (V55) — In the sense of a stirrer up of 
 strife. Bate in the sense of 
 strife — is middle English — oc- 
 curs in the Coventry Mysteries, 
 p. 12, and is the origin of our 
 word debate. 
 Billing (366) — Is the act of birds putting their bills 
 together. It is impossible to trace it 
 further back than Laymon, who wrote, 
 perhaps, about 11 80. 
 Clepes (995) — She clepes — she calls him — in its various 
 forms of clepe, to call, yclept, called, 
 named, is so old that it was even prac- 
 tically obsolete before Shakespeare's 
 time, or at least pedantic. 
 Coasteth (870) — To coast — to grope one's way — a beau- 
 tiful metaphor — to sale or steer as by 
 sounds or lights on a coast : to move, as a 
 ship does in the dark — gropingly. Venus 
 guides herself by the sound. 
 
A S TUD V IN WA R W1CKSHIRE DIA LECT. 133 
 
 Anon she hears them chant it lustily, 
 
 And all in haste she coasteth to the cry. 
 
 A boy, Stratford born, whose first journey 
 
 was to London, would know nothing of 
 
 the sea coast. 
 
 Combustions (1162) — A good, though not a common 
 
 English word. 
 
 Crooked (134) — Had, long before Shakespeare's day, 
 assumed the meaning, which is now 
 reappearing, i. e., out of the ordinary — 
 ill-favored, dishonest, ugly in person or 
 character, — is of Scandinavian or Celtic 
 origin. 
 Divedapper (86) — A dab, chick, a species of greve, a 
 small bird common all over Eng- 
 land, sometimes printed dapper ; 
 the only dialectic form is the Lin- 
 colnshire "dop-chicken." 
 Flap-mouthed (920) — Long lipped — like a dog — as old 
 as Piers Plowman, (B., vi, 187, 
 1396.) 
 Fry (526) — Meaning the spawn of fishes, is Scandi- 
 navian. " To the end of the fri mi bliss- 
 ing graunt i." To thee, and to thy seed, I 
 grant my blessing. — WycklifTe's bible. 
 Jennet (260) — Comes from the Spanish, and is used 
 
 repeatedly in the plays. 
 Lure (1027) — In the sense of decoy or call. Used in 
 Chaucer, Canterbury, 17,021. Middle 
 English. 
 
 Musits (683) — Musit is a hole in a hedge. It comes 
 from the French musser, to hide, con- 
 ceal, and is nowhere a local word. 
 Nuzzling (11 1 5) — To root, or poke with the nose, as a 
 hog roots. Older than Shakespeare 
 and not yet obsolete. 
 O'er strawed (1143) — Overstrewn. In Anglo-Saxon 
 means to put in order. Used in 
 Palsgreave ; also in the plays 
 frequently. 
 
134 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Rank (71) — A poetical use of the word, applying it 
 
 to a river overflowing its banks. 
 Scud (301) — In the sense of a storm, or a gust of wind. 
 This is an English provincial (though not 
 a Warwickshire) word. In the sense used 
 in the plays, to carry, or run along. It is 
 of Scandinavian origin. 
 Teen (808) — Used by Chaucer in Canterbury Tales, 
 3108. Anglo-Saxon in its oldest form. 
 In Icelandic it appears as tjon, means sor- 
 row or woe. 
 Trim (1079) — "Of colors trim." To apply this word 
 (meaning of course neat) to colors is a 
 poetical, not a local usage. 
 Unkind (204) — A poetical use — she died unkind, that 
 
 is, died a virgin — original here. 
 Wat (697) — Is a familiar term for a hare ; similar to 
 Tom for a cat, Billy for a goat, Ned for 
 an ass, etc. In old English it was spelled 
 wot. It occurs in Fletcher, thus : Once 
 concluded, out the teasers run all in full 
 cry and speed, til Wat's undone. But 
 strange to say, it does not appear to 
 linger, if it ever was used, in Warwick- 
 shire. 
 
 In line 870 occurs a remarkably beautiful 
 analogy, on which alone an essay might be 
 written. The line runs, "And all in haste she 
 coasteth to the cry." 
 
 Here Venus is represented as catching 
 the cry of the hunt in the distance, and en- 
 deavoring to come up with it guided by her 
 ear alone. To express this, the poet selects 
 a word which brings up the image of a ship 
 steering along a coast, blindly, as if fog- 
 bound ; groping its way by means of signs or 
 sounds on shore. Is it possible that a poet, 
 not a sea-faring man, nor himself familiar 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 135 
 
 with a sea coast or the habits of mariners, 
 whose whole life-time had been passed in an 
 interior county, should have employed this 
 figure ? The word coasteth, in this analogy, 
 cannot be found in English literature earlier 
 than the poem, and probably it has never 
 been used elsewhere from that day to this, ex- 
 cept in Henry VIII, supposed to have been 
 written fifteen years later (The king in this 
 perceiveth him, how he coasts and hedges his 
 own way — III, ii, 38). Now Henry VIII is 
 the play which Spedding, Gervinfus, Fleay, 
 Ingram, Furnivall and Dowden think was 
 written in great part by Fletcher. But scene 
 2 of act III, where the above lines occur, is 
 by nearly all of these gentlemen assigned to 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 But as to even what unmistakable traces of 
 Warwickshire the plays present — the com- 
 mentators are unable to agiee. While, for 
 example, Mr. King urges that the use of 
 u old" for frequent, by the drunken porter 
 in Macbeth, proves the Shakespearean au- 
 thorship of the porter's soliloquy, Cole- 
 ridge* dismisses the whole soliloquy as 
 containing "not one syllable" of Shake- 
 speare." " The low soliloquy of the porter," 
 says Coleridge, "and his few speeches after- 
 wards, I believe to have been written for the 
 mob by some other hand, perhaps with Shake- 
 speare's consent, and finding it take, he — 
 with the remaining ink of a pen otherwise 
 employed — just interpolated the words, I'll 
 devil porter it no further ; I had thought to 
 
 * Literary Remains, ii, 246-7. 
 
136 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 let in some of all professions that go the prim- 
 rose way to the everlasting bonfire. Ho\vever,of 
 the rest not one syllable has the ever-present 
 being of Shakespeare." But he fails to notice 
 the almost literal repetition of the sentiment in 
 All's Well that Ends Well (IV, v,5 4 ). " They'll 
 be for the flowery way that leads to the 
 broad gate and the great fire." 
 
 Of course, dialect is used almost wholly 
 by the low comedy characters of the plays, 
 and in the comic situations. And, we 
 must remember, that while the sources of the 
 plot of almost every play is known, and the 
 original of many of the speeches, in HolJings- 
 head and Plutarch and elsewhere, yet, of these 
 comic situations, speeches, dialogues and per- 
 sonages, no originals can be unearthed by the 
 most indefatigable commentator. Whatever 
 else the dramatic writer borrowed ; these — so 
 far as any traces exist — we know to have 
 been his own. Yet in these very plays, side 
 by side with the patois of the clowns and 
 wenches, the English language rose to flights, 
 the sublimity of which it was but once more 
 — in the King James' version of the Scrip- 
 tures — to attain. But to return to the Venus 
 and Adonis, which preceded all these. In stan- 
 zas 56, 86, 87, and 122, the author employs sim- 
 ilies drawn from legal principles and the con- 
 veyancer's craft. Had William Shakespeare 
 been a lawyer or a lawyer's clerk in 
 Stratford, before ever seeing London ? 
 Again, in stanza 60, the author uses 
 similjes drawn from stage usages. Had Wil- 
 liam Shakespeare been connected with mat- 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 137 
 
 ters theatrical in Stratford, and before he 
 ever saw London ? 
 
 Among the scholars and writers of Eliza- 
 beth's day there might have been a lack of 
 confidence in the power and strength or the 
 perpetuity of the English language. Bacon, 
 for one, lived and died disbelieving in his 
 mother tongue. He was constantly express- 
 ing his distrust in it. He went to the utterly 
 superfluous expense of employing experts to 
 put his ponderous works into Latin, in-order 
 that " the next ages " might read them. But 
 the writer of the Shakespearean plays had no 
 lack of confidence in or distrust of the ver- 
 nacular. He was not only a purist himself, 
 but he used the plays as a means of convict- 
 ing, at least of ridiculing — the absurdities, 
 affectations and errors of his countrymen. 
 The bombastic speeches of Pistol were in- 
 serted to burlesque the fustain of his contem- 
 poraries. The dialogues of the hard-handed 
 men of Athens, in the Midsummer Night's 
 Dream interlude,were aimed at the Alliterative 
 Burchards; and every where — in such charac- 
 ters as Holofernes, Malvolio, Armado, and 
 dozens of others, — he raked fore and aft the 
 absurdities and eccentricities of the Euphuists; 
 In Beatrice's speech we see him poking fun 
 at the H. displacement.* 
 
 * The pith of Beatrice's answer to Margaret's, 
 11 For a hawk, a horse or a husband." 
 " For the letter that begins them all, — H." 
 undoubtedly referred to the prnounciation of the word 
 * i ache " as H or aitch. But there would have been 
 no opportunity for it, had not " the H malady" been, 
 then as now, proverbial, 
 
1 38 VENUS A ND A DONIS. 
 
 As to pronunciation : " In the Warwick- 
 shire dialect, " says George Eliot," the vowel 
 always has a double sound, the y sometimes 
 present, sometimes not : either aal or yaal. 
 Hithe?- not heard except in " c " moother 
 addressed to horses. Thou never heard. 
 In general the 2d person singular not used 
 in Warwickshire, except occasionally to 
 young members of a family, and then 
 always in the form of thee — that is " ee" 
 For the emphatic nominative — yo like 
 the Lancashire. For the accusative, yer 
 without any sound of the r. The de- 
 monstrative those never heard among the 
 common people (unless when caught by in- 
 fection from the parson, etc.) self pronounced 
 sen. The/ never heard in of, nor the n in 
 in. Notj^rbut ear. On the other hand, 
 with the usual " compensation " head is pro- 
 nounced yead. 
 
 A gallows little chap as e'er ye see, 
 Here's to you, master. 
 Saam to yo.* 
 
 And she might have added that ITs were 
 misplaced then as now, and Vs and W*s 
 were also transposed, though more frequent- 
 ly in the city of London than elsewhere. 
 But as we do not know how Elizabethans 
 pronounced " Venus and Adonis " we need 
 go no further into that, unless to find a vowel 
 
 *George Eliot's Life. Edited by J. W. Cross, New 
 York, Harper & Bros., iii — 219. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 139 
 
 sound or a quantity exclusively and pecu- 
 liarly of Warwickshire. 
 
 Of course " Venus and Adonis " might 
 have been written in the Warwickshire di- 
 alect by a man not Warwickshire born 
 and bred. But would the converse pro- 
 position be true ? Could " Venus and 
 Adonis" — as we have it — have been writ- 
 ten by one Warwickshire born and bred 
 in the reign of Elizabeth, who had not been 
 first qualified by drill in the courtly English 
 in which we happen to find that poem written? 
 
 A man of education and culture; one prac- 
 tised in English composition may forge the 
 style of a letterless rustic. Thackeray, in his 
 " Yellowplush Papers " and Lowell in his 
 " Bigllow Papers," has done it ; and so have 
 Charles Dickens and hundreds of others. 
 But could a letterless clown forge the style of 
 a gentleman of culture ? Tennyson could 
 write " The Northern Farmer " in Lincoln- 
 shire dialect. But could a Lincolnshire far- 
 mer, who knew nothing of any vernacular 
 except the Lincolnshire, have written the 
 " Princess," or " Maud, or "In Memoriam "? 
 Or could an actual flunkey, in the Yellowplush 
 grade and station, have written " Vanity Fair " 
 or " Pendennis ?" And if they could have 
 done it after training — could they have done 
 it without the opportunity for training? A 
 great many wise and eminent people no doubt, 
 may have left Warwickshire in mid-England 
 for London in Elizabeth's day, earlier than 
 even the period of posts or coach roads. Did 
 
140 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 many learned men journey into Warwickshire 
 to carry the culture of the court there ? 
 
 The lover and worshipper of Shakespeare — 
 and who is not his lover and his worshipper ? — 
 is apt to resent any suggestion or hint as to a 
 possible want in his — William Shakespeare's 
 — equipment. But it was not certainly Wil- 
 liam Shakespeare's fault that he was deprived 
 of resources and opportunities, not only not 
 at hand — but not to arrive until some centu- 
 ries after his funeral. The best school to 
 which he could have been sent — and the only 
 one which his biographers have ever been 
 able to assign him — was a grammar school in 
 Stratford; but the idea of anybody being 
 taught English Grammar — let alone the Eng- 
 lish language — in an English grammar school 
 in those days is utterly inconceivable 
 There was no such branch, and mighty little 
 of anything in its place, except birchen rods, 
 the Church catechism, the Criss Crow Row 
 and a few superfluous Latin declensions out 
 of Lily's Accidence. 
 
 In the only Shakespeare play whose scene 
 is laid in Warwickshire there happens to be 
 a travesty upon the method of instruction 
 pursued in these very Elizabethan " Grammar 
 Schools." Here it is : 
 
 Master. — Come hither, William, hold up your head. 
 Come, William, how many numbers is in nouns? 
 William. — Two. 
 M.— What is fair, William ? 
 W.—Pulcher. 
 
 M. — What is lapis, William ? 
 W.— A Stone. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 141 
 
 M. — And what is a stone ? 
 
 W.— A pebble. 
 
 M. — No, it is lapis. I pray you remember in your 
 prain. 
 
 W. — Lapis. 
 
 M. — That is good, William. What is he, William, 
 that does lend articles ? 
 
 W. — Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, and be 
 thus declined : Singulariter nominitavo, hie, haec, 
 hoc. 
 
 M. — Nominitavo hig, hag, hog ; pray you, mark, 
 genitivo hugus. Well, what is your accusative case ? 
 
 W. — Accusatavo, hinc. 
 
 M. — I pray you have your remembrance, child. Ac- 
 cusatavo: hing, hang, hog. What is the vocative case, 
 William ? 
 
 W. — O; vocative, o. 
 
 M. — Remember, William, focative is caret. What 
 is your genitive case plural, William ? 
 
 W. — Genitive case? 
 
 M.— Ay. 
 
 W. — Genitive : horum, harum, horum. 
 
 M. — Show me now, William, some declensions of 
 your pronouns. 
 
 W. — Forsooth, I have forgot. 
 
 M. — It is qui, quae, quod ; if you forget your quis 
 and your quaes and your quods, you must be preeches.* 
 
 Is this a wanton and utterly unfounded at- 
 tack upon a worthy, honorable and conscien- 
 tious profession and an excellent educational 
 system, or the verbatim report of an eye wit- 
 ness ? Let us see. There is no exactly con- 
 temporary testimony ; but in 1634 the author 
 of the " Compleate Gentleman " says that a 
 country school teacher "by no entreaty would 
 teach any scholar farther than his (the schol- 
 ar's) father had learned before him. His 
 
 *" Merry Wives of Windsor," Act iv., Scene I. 
 
142 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 reason was that they would otherwise prove 
 saucy rogues and control their fathers." In 
 177 1, when Shakespeare had been dead a 
 century and a half, John Britton, who had 
 attended a provincial grammar school in 
 Wilts, says that the pedagogue was wont to 
 teach the "Criss Cross Row," or alphabet, as 
 follows : 
 
 Teacher. — Commether, Billy Chubb, an' breng the 
 horren book. Ge ma the vester in tha wendow, you, 
 Pat Came. Wha ! be a sleepid ! I'll waken ye ! Now, 
 Billy, there's a good bwoy, ston still there, an' min 
 whan I da point na ! Criss cross girta little ABC. 
 That is right, Billy. You'll soon learn criss cross row; 
 you'll soon avergit Bobby Jiffry ! You'll soon be a 
 schollard ! A's a purty chubby bwoy. Lord love en ! 
 
 It could not have been much better in Wil- 
 liam Shakespeare's boyhood days than in 
 1634 and 1771. Says Mr. Goadby : "It is 
 evident that much schooling was impossible, 
 for the necessary books did not exist. The 
 horn-book, for teaching the alphabet, would 
 almost exhaust the resources of any common 
 day school that might exist in the towns and 
 villages. The first English grammar was not 
 published until 1586 *'\ Says Mr. Furnivall : 
 "I think you would be safe in conceding that 
 at such a school as Stratford, about 1570, 
 there would be taught (1) an A B C book, for 
 which a pupil teacher or ABCdarius is some- 
 times mentioned as having a salary ; (2) a 
 catechism in English and Latin, probably 
 
 * "England of Shakespeare," p. 101. 
 
^ 
 
 A S TUB Y IN WAR WICKS HIRE DIA LECT. 143 
 
 Nowell's ; (3) the authorized Latin grammar, 
 /, e^ Lily's, put out wilh a proclamation 
 adapted to each king s reign ; (4) some easy- 
 Latin construing book, such as Erasmus's 
 i Colloquies,' Corderius's ' Colloquies, or Bap- 
 tista Mantuanus,' and the familiar ' Cato,' or 
 'Disticha de Moribus.' "* Says Halliwell 
 Phillipps : u Unless the system of instruction 
 (in Stratford grammar school) differed essen- 
 tially from that pursued in other establish- 
 ments of a similar character, his (Shake- 
 speare's) knowledge of Latin was derived 
 from two well-known books of the time — the 
 1 Accidence ' and the ' Sentential Pueriles,' 
 . . . a little manual ' containing a large 
 collection of brief sentences, collected from 
 a variety of authors, with a distinct selection 
 of moral and religious paragraphs, the latter 
 intended for the use of boys on Saint's days. 
 . . . . Exclusive of bibles, church servi- 
 ces, psalters, etc., there were certainly not 
 more than two or three dozen books, if as 
 many, in the whole town (Stratford-on-Avon.) 
 The copy of the black letter English history, 
 so often depicted as well thumbed by Shake- 
 peare in his father's parlor never existed out 
 of the imagination. "f 
 
 But, even had there been books, it seems 
 there were no schoolmasters in the days when 
 young William went to school, who could 
 have taught him what was necessary. Ascham, 
 
 * " Int. to Leopold Shakespeare," p. 11. 
 f "Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare," 3d ed. t 
 PP. 55-57. 
 
144 * r ENUS A XD A DOXIS. 
 
 who came a little earlier than Shakespeare, 
 said such as were to be had, amounted to 
 nothing, and " for the most so behave them- 
 selves that their very name is hateful to the 
 scholar, who trembleth at their coming, re- 
 joiceth at their absence, and looketh him re- 
 turned as a deadly enemy."* Milton (who 
 came a little later) says their teaching was 
 " mere babblement and notions, "f 
 
 "Whereas they make one scholar they mar 
 ten," says Peacham, who describes one coun- 
 try specimen as whipping his boys on a cold 
 winter morning " for no other purpose than 
 to get himself into a heat. "J 
 
 The conclusion being that a maximum of 
 caning and a minimum of parrot-work on 
 desultory Latin paradigms which, whether 
 wrong or right, were of no consequence what- 
 ever to anybody, was the village idea of a 
 boy's education in England for long centu- 
 ries, easily inclusive of the years within which 
 William Shakespeare lived and died. The 
 great scholars of those centuries either 
 educated themselves, or by learned parents 
 were guided to the sources of human intel- 
 ligence and experience. At any rate they 
 drew nothing out of the country gram- 
 mar schools. In other words, the forc- 
 ing systems of Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt, 
 or of that eminent educator Wackford 
 
 * Works. Bennet's Ed., p. 212. 
 f Works. Symond's Ed , London. Bentley, 1806. 
 Vol. in., p. 348. 
 
 \ " Goadby's England of Shakespeare," p. 100. 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 145 
 
 Squeers, senior, seem to have been, so far as 
 the English branches are concerned — im- 
 provements on the methods of rural peda- 
 gogues in the sixteenth century. We are not 
 advised whether or no the boys were taught 
 to cipher, but if they were it probably ex- 
 hausted their scientific course. At any rate, 
 beyond the horn book, very little reading and 
 writing could have been contemplated in a 
 land where, from a time when the memory of 
 man runneth not to the contrary, to the eighth 
 year of George the Fourth, immunity from the 
 penalty of felonies was granted to anyone 
 who could make profert of those accomplish- 
 ments.* 
 
 But while there is not much of an argument 
 to be drawn from the use of a language, 
 idiom, dialect or patois, in a literary composi- 
 tion, the absolute absence of any trace or sug- 
 gestion of any of these may be worthy of very 
 serious consideration indeed in searching for 
 the nativity and vicinage of a writer. A 
 linguist born and resident in France, for ex- 
 ample, could hardly be demonstrated to be a 
 modern Greek from an occasional or even a 
 constant use of that speech in his books. 
 But, supposing that, in the course of very 
 voluminous writings, no trace or suspicion of 
 a single French phrase, idiom, word, pecu- 
 liarity, turn of expression, or tendency could 
 be unearthed ? Would it be safer to conclude 
 that he was or was not a Frenchman ? Again, 
 
 * Benefit of clergy was only abolished in England 
 by Act 8, Geo. IV,, ch. 28. 
 
146 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 even geniuses like Goethe or Tennyson might 
 perhaps pause in their composition to choose 
 a word that would scan in their prosody ; or 
 between one that would rhyme and one that 
 would not. Poetry has its artificial as well as 
 its natural laws. And it is not, perhaps, too 
 heroic or too bizarre to infer that so perfect a 
 poem as " Venus and Adonis " was, as to its 
 form, as well as its method and matter, con- 
 sidered by its author. A London born poet, 
 searching for a rhyme, might well — with all 
 England's picturesque dialects before him — 
 select a Yorkshire or a Warwickshire word as 
 precisely to his need. Vidilicet Thomas Hood, 
 in his " Miss Kilmansegg" : 
 
 11 A load of treasure ? alas ! alas I 
 
 Had her horse but been fed on English grass 
 And shelter'd in Yorkshire Spinneys 
 Had he scorn'd the sand with the desert Ass 
 Or where the American whinnies " 
 
 That was because — we will say — Mr. 
 Hood happened to want a rhyme for Wk whin- 
 nies." But, while nobodv would dream of 
 trying to prove that Hood was Warwickshire 
 or Yorkshire born because he used the word 
 " spinneys," which we have seen is in both 
 dialects; yet would it have been possible for 
 him, had he been Warwickshire or Yorkshire 
 born — in the course of his search for rhymes 
 — never, in all he wrote, to have taken ad- 
 vantage of a quantity, rhyme or vowel sound 
 to which his ears had been habituated and his 
 tongue attuned, by birth and heredity, or for 
 an entire lifetime — of a single picturesque 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 147 
 
 phrase, or word that was to him mother 
 tongue ? Could he have cut loose, any more 
 than could Burns, from the characteristic, 
 the birthmark, the shibboleth, of his race 
 and kind? If Burns was unable, after a 
 metropolitan drill, to lose his native patois, 
 is it perfectly likely that William Shakes- 
 peare, a couple of centuries earlier in 
 English history, could have done it ? 
 
 If " Venus and Adonis " was written by 
 William Shakespeare at all, certainly Mr. 
 Richard Grant White is right in saying 
 that it was written either in Warwick- 
 shire or very soon after its author left that 
 country for the great city in which he made 
 his name and fortune, the city which to-day 
 honors him as its most immortal citizen ! 
 Did this country lad of eighteen or nine- 
 teen, while getting his bread, at, as some say, 
 the theatre doors by horse-holding (at any 
 rate in some exceedingly humble employ- 
 ment) manage at the same time to forget his 
 Warwickshire dialect ? Whether he found 
 teacher in the city or not, or whether he 
 taught himself, we cannot tell. But the mar- 
 vellous thing is, after all, that he should be 
 conscious of his own linguistic disability. The 
 rule is apt to be quite the other way. The 
 dialect speaker sees keenly the absurdity of 
 another man's patois, but is inclined to think 
 himself speaking his own tong'ue in its class- 
 ical purity, nor can he recognize his own 
 solecisms in print. An exceedingly competent 
 gentleman writing in the New York Evening 
 
148 VENUS AND ADONIS. 
 
 Post* remarks : *' I have been assured by a 
 " well educated Hoosier that the dialect in 
 " Mr. Eggleston's Indiana novels had not the 
 " slightest foundation in fact, and the assur- 
 " ance was given in tones which to me were 
 '* exactly represented by the printed page. 
 " Conversely, to a Scotchman the written 
 " dialect of Burns seems perfect, but to the 
 " eye of an Englishman, who could not cor- 
 " rect the impression by experience, this 
 " written dialect would convey a very false 
 " idea of the fact." But of course the answer 
 to all these considerations is, simply, that 
 the lad with whom we are dealing was Wil- 
 liam Shakespeare, and no other. And to an- 
 alyse a phenomenon and show wherein it was 
 not normal and commonplace, is to deny that 
 it is a phenomenon at all ! 
 
 Whether the Shakespearean plays are the 
 monographs of one man or the composite 
 work of many, the order in which they were 
 produced is equally immaterial ; and gentle- 
 men who invent " chronologies," " periods," 
 " orders " and " groups " for them are simply 
 amusing themselves. If we possess Lord 
 Tennyson's exquisite " Idylls of the King " 
 in their completeness, whom does it concern, 
 whether they were or were not composed con- 
 secutively ? It would be like sitting down to 
 Sancho Panza's banquet to be told we may 
 not read Romeo and Juliet without first ab- 
 sorbing The Two Gentlemen of Verona — or 
 
 * February joth, 1885. 
 
 1 08 
 
A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 149 
 
 must refrain from Hamlet until we have 
 waded through those formidable — although 
 now and then, exquisite — sonnets. But if we 
 are to know anything at all about William 
 Shakespeare, boy and man, the date and 
 authorship of his Venus and Adonis is vastly 
 important. If the foregoing pages contain 
 anything worthy the name of Internal Evid- 
 ence, or infer or suggest the existence of any 
 evidence of any sort: in the absence of a better 
 explanation of such evidence, would not the 
 following conclusions be on the safe side ? 
 viz.: 
 
 I. — That the Shakespeare Works are a 
 storehouse of Elizabethan English in all of its 
 many varieties and variations, its dictions, 
 vernaculars and dialects, from the most re- 
 fined, splendid and courtly to its rudest and 
 crudest; and, therefore, are more likely to be 
 of composite origin than exclusively mono- 
 graphs. 
 
 II. — That the poem Venus and Adonis is 
 apparently the monograph of a poet able, to 
 confine himself to the most refined, most 
 splendid and courtliest of these dictions — and 
 to resist any temptation of vicinage, heredity 
 or contemporary corruptions. 
 
 III. — That, to quote the words of Mr. 
 Halliwell Phillips, it is better " never to be 
 too eertain of anything " in matters Shake- 
 spearean. 
 
 Read May 19th, 1885, and ordered printed. 
 
1 In brief, sir, study what you most affect." 
 
 Taming of The Shrew, I. 
 
 THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 (Incorporated April 20TH, 1885.) 
 
 INITIATION, $3.00. ANNTIAI DJ7JES, $2.00. 
 
 LIFE MJEMBEBSHIP, $25.00. 
 
 The Society is Liberal and Catholic, and welcomes 
 members of all shades of opinion, who, without com- 
 mitting themselves to any school, can heartily join its 
 members in promoting the knowledge and study of the 
 work of William Shakespeare and the Shakesperean 
 and Elizabethan Drama. 
 
 The Society proposes the reading of an original 
 paper, monthly, with discussion thereof ; and to print 
 such papers in pamphlet, to be furnished gratis to 
 members not in arrears. 
 
 The Library of Texts, and Works of Shakespearean 
 History, Speculation, Criticism, etc., will be always 
 open to members, or others upon the card of members. 
 
 Contributions consisting of additions to the Library, 
 of Books, Pamphlets, Extracts, Pictures, Statuary, etc., 
 or funds for Library purposes, thankfully received. If 
 sent from Europe, please mark parcels "for Presenta- 
 tion to the Library of the New York Shakespeare So- 
 ciety," (which entitles the Society to receive them duty 
 free.) 
 
 The Society will keep a bulletin list of the latest 
 works in press or preparation, from which its library 
 is to be augmented. Subjects for papers furnished and 
 suggested subjects considered, on application to the 
 President. 
 
 Address all Letters of Inquiry and Remittances, 
 
 JAMES E. REYNOLDS, Treas., 
 
 68 Broadway. 
 

 
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