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 BIBLE ENGLISH.
 
 BIBLE ENGLISH 
 
 Cfjaptens on Dld and 2Dt0uged 
 
 IN 
 
 THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES 
 AND THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 With Illustrations frotn Contemporaneous Literature. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. T. LEWIS O. DAVIES, M.A. 
 
 VICAK OF ST. MARY EXTRA, SOUTHAMPTON. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GEORGE BELL AND SONS, 
 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 I875-
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN STRAJCGEWAYS, 
 Castle St. Leicester Sq.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A PAPER on the obsolete words in the English Bible 
 and Prayer-book, which was read at a Clerical Meet- 
 ing, was afterwards expanded into twelve short articles 
 for Mr. Erskine Clarke's Parish Magazine; and these 
 again, with corrections and very considerable additions, 
 have been moulded into the present volume. 
 
 The subject has been handled before by various 
 authors, and Mr. Wright's admirable Bible Word Book, 
 to which I have been much indebted, might seem to 
 entirely pre-occupy the ground. The plan, however, of 
 this little work is somewhat different from his. I have 
 not followed the alphabetical arrangement as in a 
 Dictionary, but I have endeavoured to bring together 
 those expressions between which there seemed to be 
 something in common, while the index at the end will, 
 it is hoped, give sufficient facilities for reference. 
 
 This task of grouping the various words noticed 
 has, I am aware, been very imperfectly fulfilled, but 
 
 1077;..
 
 iv Preface. 
 
 few perhaps, who have not made the attempt, can 
 realise the difficulties in the way. I trust, however, 
 that even this approach to performing it may not be 
 without its use and interest. 
 
 I may also add that the quotations (if I may say 
 so without a bull) are original, that is, they are derived 
 from my own reading, not from dictionaries. No 
 doubt, in several instances, I may have hit upon some 
 passage which is given in Johnson, or Richardson, or 
 the Bible Word Book; but I believe that I have never 
 consciously borrowed quotations from these or similar 
 works, without acknowledging the obligation. 
 
 When my papers on this subject were appearing in 
 the Parish Magazine, several readers of them were 
 kind enough to favour me with remarks and sugges- 
 tions, of most of which I have made some use in this 
 book. I shall be still very glad of similar communica- 
 tions, which may serve to improve a second edition, if 
 such should ever be demanded. 
 
 T. LEWIS O. DAVIES. 
 
 Pear Tree Vicarage, 
 
 Southampton.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAI'. PAGE 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY I 
 
 II. PECULIARITIES OF FORM i; 
 
 III. OF WORDS THAT HAVE LOST SOME OF THEIR 
 
 POWERS, WITH A FEW REMARKS ON ' BAD 
 ENGLISH ' 36 
 
 IV. PECULIARITIES OF CONSTRUCTION ... 64 
 
 V. OF MISTAKES THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE 
 CHANGED MEANING OF WORDS STILL IN 
 USE 92 
 
 VI. OF MISTAKES THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE 
 CHANGED MEANING OF WORDS STILL IN 
 
 USE (continued) . . . . . .116 
 
 VII. OF WORDS THAT HAVE CONTRACTED OR EN- 
 LARGED THEIR SIGNIFICATION . . .143 
 
 VIII. OF WORDS THAT HAVE DEGENERATED OR IM- 
 PROVED IN MEANING 175 
 
 IX. OF WORDS RELATING TO ARMOUR AND DRESS 2l6 
 
 X. OF WORDS AND PHRASES ALTOGETHER OBSO- 
 LETE . . 236 
 
 ADDENDA 273 
 
 LIST OF EDITIONS QUOTED . . . .281 
 
 INDEX OF WORDS NOTICED . . . .284
 
 BIBLE ENGLISH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 LUTHER said of S. Paul, ' His words are living creatures ; 
 they have hands and feet.' He was referring, no doubt, 
 to the vigour and intense earnestness which mark the 
 Apostle's style. Is not the observation, however, true 
 of all words, not only as uttered by a S. Paul, but as 
 regarded in themselves ? They are not mere shape- 
 less atoms which by chance or skill may be combined 
 into a coherent body ; they have hands and feet, a 
 power and a history of their own. There are animals 
 which may be cut in pieces, and yet each separated 
 part maintains an independent existence ; so, in like 
 manner, if a sentence be dislocated, though the con- 
 tinuity of meaning which once it had is of course de- 
 stroyed, there abides a life in every individual word. 
 
 This lesson has in recent times been taught by 
 many ; by none, as regards our own tongue, more 
 effectively or more pleasantly than by Archbishop
 
 Bible English. 
 
 Trench in his well-known works on the subject. But 
 to Englishmen perhaps there can be no study of the 
 kind of greater interest than that which has to do with 
 the language of their Bible and Prayer-book ; I say to 
 Englishmen, for I am sure that there is no one, 
 whatever he may think of the Authorised Version, or 
 however he may dissent from the doctrines or practices 
 enjoined in the Book of Common Prayer, who will 
 not acknowledge the powerful influence which these 
 have had, even if we regard them in their purely literary 
 aspect, in moulding the language, and in some sort 
 the history, of the nation. 
 
 It will be my endeavour then, in the following 
 pages, to consider those expressions in the English 
 Bible and Prayer-book, which are either obsolete or 
 obsolescent I do not of necessity mean unintelligible, 
 for though some of the antiquated words that occur 
 may be a bar to understanding the passages in which 
 they are found, and some may even lead to the mis- 
 understanding of them, there is often no real difficulty 
 in much that is old-fashioned. In many cases, in fact, 
 we are so familiar with the terms through meeting 
 with them in books thus well known to us, and so 
 large a number of them are still common in poetry, 
 that it is only on reflection that we perceive them to 
 be different from such as we now employ in prose 
 composition, or in ordinary speech. 
 
 At the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, Dr. 
 Reynolds, President of Corpus Christi, Oxford, one 
 of the chief spokesmen on behalf of the Puritans, com- 
 plained of inaccurate renderings in the existing versions 
 of the Bible, and prayed that a revised translation
 
 The Bible of 161 1. 
 
 might be made. The proposal was coldly received 
 by the bishops, but met with better encouragement 
 from the king, who, indeed, took up the matter so 
 vigorously that before the end of the year the trans- 
 lators were selected, and the plan of the work arranged. 
 Circumstances, however, prevented its immediate pro- 
 gress, and three or four years elapsed before it was 
 regularly in hand. Dr. Miles Smith, Bishop of 
 Gloucester, who wrote the Preface, referring to the 
 legend that the Septuagint was finished in seventy-two 
 days, states that our version ' cost the workemen, as 
 light as it seemeth, the paines of twise seuen times 
 seuenty-two dayes and more/ that is to say, nearly three 
 years. At length the Book was issued in 1611. At 
 that time James I. was on the throne, Spenser had 
 been dead some twelve years, Shakespeare was finishing 
 the Tempest, Ben Jonson had just written the Alche- 
 mist, Massinger, as yet more known to bailiffs than 
 to that fame which Beaumont and Fletcher had 
 already attained, was engaged in a hard struggle for 
 daily bread; Bacon was Solicitor-General, having 
 already published the Advancement of Learning, the 
 Wisdom of the Ancients, and some of his Essays ; Sir 
 Walter Raleigh was in prison composing his History 
 of the World; Bishop Andrewes, then Dean of West- 
 minster, held a distinguished place in the company of 
 the translators ; Sanderson, whose name must ever 
 stand high among those who have adorned the English 
 Episcopate, had just been admitted to Holy Orders ; 
 Bishop Hall, then a parish priest, was about to take 
 his Doctor's, and George Herbert his Bachelor's 
 degree at Cambridge ; Clarendon, Fuller, and Milton
 
 Bible English. 
 
 were children of three years old. Such were some of 
 the men famous in English literature who flourished 
 at or about this time, and with whose writings it 
 would be natural to compare the language and style 
 of the Authorised Version. Mr. Hallam, however, 
 justly remarks, that in the English Bible these are of 
 a more archaic character than in most other works of 
 this period. ' It may in the eyes of many be a better 
 English, but it is not the English of Daniel, or Raleigh, 
 or Bacon. 5 (Hist, of Lit. II. 366.) The reason is not 
 far to seek. Of the rules drawn up for the guidance 
 of the translators, the first was this : ' The ordinary 
 Bible read in the church, commonly called the 
 Bishops' Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as 
 the truth of the original will permit.' Another rule 
 specified certain versions to which recourse might be 
 had, ' when they agree better with the text,' while 
 some not named therein were nevertheless laid under 
 contribution by the translators still the Bishops' 
 Bible formed the basis of their work. This had been 
 published under the care of Archbishop Parker in 
 1568, and was itself founded on previous versions, 
 especially the Great Bible, or Cranmer's Bible, as it is 
 called, from the fact that the second edition, which 
 appeared in 1540, had a preface from his pen ; the 
 first edition had been put forth in the previous year. 
 Naturally, then, our translators would not alter ex- 
 pressions which gave the sense of the original, and 
 were familiar and intelligible to the people, merely 
 because in the course of time some of them had 
 grown rather rusty. Nor, indeed, in such a work are 
 these archaisms undesirable, provided that they do
 
 Prayer-book Translations. 5 
 
 not obscure the meaning. ' It. is good,' writes Arch- 
 bishop Trench, ' that the phraseology of Scripture 
 should not be exactly that of our common life ; that 
 it should be removed from the vulgarities, and even 
 the familiarities of this ; just as there is a sense of 
 fitness which dictates that the architecture of a church 
 should be different from that of a house.' (On Au- 
 thorised Version of New Test. p. 51.) 
 
 The English of the Book of Common Prayer is of 
 various dates, extending over a period of nearly 
 120 years. The Litany was revised by Cranmer 
 in 1544, and, with some omissions and alterations, 
 was introduced nearly in its present form into the 
 Prayer-book of 1549. Other portions again, e.g., the 
 Prayer for all Conditions of Men, the General Thanks- 
 giving, the Office for Adult Baptism, &c., were not 
 added until the final revision in 1662. The most im- 
 portant and sweeping alteration made at that time, so 
 far as the language is concerned, was the substitution 
 of the Authorised Version of 1611 in the Epistles, 
 Gospels, and Introductory Sentences at Morning and 
 Evening Prayer, for that of Cranmer's Bible which had 
 been hitherto used. The older translation, however, 
 still remains in the Psalms and the Commandments, 
 while the Benedicite, Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc 
 Dimittis, together with the Offertory Sentences and 
 Comfortable Words in the Communion Office, are 
 not taken from any version of the whole Bible, but 
 are an independent translation, probably by Cranmer. 
 
 The introduction of the Authorised Version into 
 the Prayer-book was due to the representations of the 
 Puritan party in the Savoy Conference, who com-
 
 Bible English. 
 
 plained both of misrenderings and of obsolete expres- 
 sions in the older translation. Of the latter they cite 
 - two instances as samples. In S. Mark, xiv. 65, and 
 S. Luke, xxii. 64 (the Gospels for Monday and Wed- 
 nesday before Easter), ' arcade ' was employed instead 
 of ' prophesy ;' and in the Gospel for Easter Tuesday 
 (S. Luke, xxiv. 45), 'Then opened He their under- 
 standing,' was rendered, 'Then opened He their wits/ 
 They might, however, have found this word in the 
 New Version, in the still common phrase, ' at their 
 J^ti?' 1 wits end' (Ps. cvii. 27), while in Ecclus. xxxi. 20, 
 ('he riseth early and his wits are with him,') the term 
 ' * is equivalent to ' senses,' and is also in frequent use 
 among us. They likewise objected to two words in 
 the Marriage Service, both of which the Bishops pro- 
 mised to alter, though, probably through inadvertence, 
 only one of them was changed. 
 
 ' Depart ' had been used as an active verb, signi- 
 fying to separate or divide : thus, Latimer (I. 176), 
 preaching in 1549, the year in which the first Prayer- 
 book of Edward VI. was published, recommends that 
 aged and failing preachers should seek helpers, and 
 ' depart part of their living with them ;' and some 
 eighteen years earlier, Tyndale (III. 95), writes, 'Faith, 
 Hope, and Love, be three sisters : they never can 
 v , -^ . depart in this world.' So the man and woman promised 
 to keep their vows ' till death us depart ; ' which sense 
 of the word had passed away in 1662 : but the slight 
 change of ' depart ' into ' do part,' made the meaning 
 intelligible to all. The term, indeed, had clearly 
 become obsolete in this signification as early as 1611, 
 for the Authorised Version, instead of the old render-
 
 ' Worship ' and 'Honour.' 
 
 ing of Rom. viii. 39, ' depart us from the love of God/ 
 gives, ' separate us.' 
 
 The second alteration proposed was in the sentence, 
 ' With my body I thee worship/ for which last word 
 they would have substituted ' honour.' It is to be 
 regretted that this amendment was not made, as it 
 would have removed a scruple from the minds of some, 
 and rendered the clause more generally understood. , . 
 ' Worship/ in this passage, is used in its old sense of - 
 ' honour,' though we now confine it to that honour ; 
 which is due to God alone. Formerly, however, there 
 was nothing incongruous in speaking of God as wor- 
 shipping His creatures. Wiclif translates S. John, xii. 
 26, 'If ony man serue Me, my Fadir schal worschip 
 hym ;' and in Rom. ii. 23, he has ' vnworschipist ' for 
 ' dishonourest.' In our own version also, ' worship ; 
 is used in its wider meaning ; ' The servant, therefore, 
 fell down and worshipped him.' (S. Matt, xviii. 26.) 
 ' Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them 
 that sit at meat with thee.' (S. Luke, xiv. 10.) This 
 sense still survives in the titles ' worship ' and ' wor- 
 shipful/ applied to mayors, magistrates, and others. 
 On the other hand, ' honourable ' is a title of respect 
 usually confined to men, but formerly given to God 
 also. The American Prayer-book, recognising the 
 changed scope of the word, has, in the Te Deitm, 
 ' Thine adorable, true and only Son/ while in the Mar- 
 riage Service it omits entirely the clause, ' With my 
 body I thee worship.' 
 
 In course of time, some of the obsolete forms, both 
 in the Bible and Prayer-book, but especially in the 
 first of these, have been altered, apparently without
 
 Bible English. 
 
 authority. When the Act of Uniformity was passed, 
 the Book of Common prayer was attached to it, and 
 all future editions were ordered to be in exact agree- 
 ment with this. Copies, also, of the Act and Book 
 were to be made, and after having been examined and 
 certified by commissioners appointed by the Crown, 
 and passed under the Great Seal, were to be deposited 
 with the dean and chapter of each cathedral and col- 
 legiate church, and in each of the Courts at Westmin- 
 ster and in the Tower of London. These Sealed 
 Books, as they are called, have the same authority as 
 ^he one annexed to the Act, which last, indeed, was 
 mislaid for many years, but was discovered in 1870, 
 in the library of the House of Lords, and has been 
 published in facsimile by the Ritual Commission. All 
 Prayer-books, therefore, ought in strictness to be 
 accurate reproductions of one or other of the Sealed 
 Books ; and though the reprinting of the Authorised 
 Version, according to the exemplar of 1611, is not 
 thus formally enjoined by law, any changes that are 
 made, even though trifling in themselves, should be 
 effected by proper authority ; not, as seems to have 
 been frequently the case, by unknown and irresponsi- 
 ble correctors : for we may reasonably suppose that 
 it is in order to guard against such unlicensed tam- 
 pering with our Bibles and Prayer-books that a mono- 
 poly in issuing them is granted to the Queen's printers 
 and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 
 
 In spite of this precaution, however, many alteT- 
 ations have crept in. We should, for instance, open 
 few Prayer-books now in which, in the Absolution 
 both at Morning and Evening Service, we do not
 
 Unauthorised A Iterations. 
 
 read, ' Wherefore let us beseech Him,' &c. This is 
 correct in the form for the morning, but in the other 
 the Sealed Books give, ' Wherefore beseech we 
 Him.' Such is a sample of several variations, in- 
 trinsically unimportant, but betraying inaccuracy. It 
 is a far graver fault when we find editions put forth 
 by the Queen's printers, which lack some of the ser- 
 vices ; as, for example, the Forms of Prayer to be 
 used at Sea, or even such an important part of the 
 volume as the Ordinal. The Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge has made strong remonstrances 
 on the subject, but hitherto without effect. 
 
 The following old forms appear, among others, in 
 the edition of 1611, but have long been modernised 
 in our Bibles : fet, moneth, damosell, flix, chaws, charet, ' 
 cise, bile, crudle, moe, aliant, fift, sixt, thorow, mids, 
 fornace, brickie, drawen, sowen, growen, &c. ; instead 
 of fetched, month, damsel, flux, jaws, chariot, size, 
 boil, curdle, more, alien, fifth, sixth, through, midst, 
 furnace, brittle, drawn, sown, grown, &c. 
 
 These corrections have not always been con- 
 sistently carried out. Here and there a word has 
 been allowed to retain its archaic shape and spelling, 
 e.g., ' sope,' ' cloke,' and in some editions of the 
 Prayer-book, 'peny;'* while in many instances the 
 alteration has been made in some texts, and not in 
 others. ' Lift,' as a past tense, has been retained in 
 certain places; e.g., Gen. vii. 17; S. Luke, xvi. 23, 
 
 * The spelling of this word in the Bible of 1611 is by no 
 means uniform, e.g., in S. Matt. xx. 2, it is 'peny,' seven verses 
 later 'penie,' and in S. Mark, xii. 15, 'penny;' ' penniworth ' 
 occurs in S. Mark, vi. 37, and ' penyworth ' in S. John, vi. 7.
 
 io Bible English. 
 
 but elsewhere, as in S. Luke, xi. 27, it has been 
 changed to 'lifted.' In Ezek. x. 5, and xlii. i, the 
 version of 1611 speaks of the 'utter court;' in modern 
 Bibles ' utter ' remains only in the last of these pass- 
 ages ; in the former it has been altered into ' outer.' 
 ' Rent,' the old form of ' rend,' occurred in twelve texts, 
 but it has been turned into ' rend ' in every place save 
 one (Jer. iv. 30). In the Sealed Books of Common 
 Prayer the Introductory Sentence from Joel stands, 
 'Rent your hearts.' 
 
 Dean Alford, in his work on the Queen's English, 
 points out the curious fact that our translators uni- 
 formly wrote ' such a one,' but that in our present 
 Bibles the printers have altered it to ' such an one ' 
 in every case in the New Testament, and have 
 allowed the original reading to remain in every case 
 in the Old. 
 
 No doubt some of these changes are in themselves 
 desirable, but one would like to know on what prin- 
 ciple and by what right they have been made ; for not 
 all the so-called corrections are as innocent as those 
 already named. Fuller, in his Pisgah Sight of Pales- 
 tine, gives an amusing instance of a blunder per- 
 petrated by these ' irresponsible reviewers.' Speaking 
 of Madmen, a city of Moab, mentioned in Jer. xlviii. 2, 
 he says that the place is ' noteworthy, .not for its own 
 merit, but others' mistake. For in the Bibles, and 
 those numerous, printed Anno Dom. 1625, the verse 
 in Jeremy is thus rendered, " O Maiden, the sword 
 shall pursue thee ; " where the corrector of the press, 
 conceiving it incongruous to join thee, a singular pro- 
 noun, with Madmen (which he mistook for an appella-
 
 Unauthorised Alterations. 
 
 tive, no proper name), ran himself upon that dangerous 
 error' (iv. ii. 20). 
 
 In one verse in our own Bibles (i Tim. ii. 9) the 
 printer, or whoever took upon himself to depart from 
 the text, has substituted two words that are quite 
 different from those which they are meant to repre- 
 sent. S. Paul would not have women adorn them- 
 selves with 'broided hair;' the passage is exactly 
 parallel to i Pet. iii. 3, and, in both texts, Tyndale's, 
 Cranmer's, and the Geneva Version have ' broided,' 
 and the Rhemish translation 'plaited/ which latter 
 term our Bible adopts in the text of i Pet. iii. 3, and 
 in the margin of i Tim. ii. 9. The words in the 
 original, though not identical in both verses, are from 
 the same root, and are sufficiently well expressed by 
 either ' plaited ' or ' broided,' the old form of ' braided ; ' 
 but 'broidered,' which until lately was the common 
 reading, has altogether another meaning (Ezek. xvi. 
 10, 13, 1 8), and would signify hair that was em- 
 broidered or laced with pearls or other ornaments. 
 This corruption was of very early introduction. I 
 have met with it in an edition of the New Testament 
 published at Edinburgh in 1633 by R. Young, King's 
 printer in Scotland ; the English King's printer, how- 
 ever, was later in making the change, for in 1638 
 'broided' still retains its place, but gives way to 
 ' broidred ' in an edition printed at the Cambridge 
 University Press in 1648. 
 
 The other error, though later in appearing (I have 
 not found it in any edition earlier than 1661), still sur- 
 vives. ' Shamefacedness ' means shame which betrays 
 itself in the countenance by blushing or the like;
 
 12 Bible English. 
 
 1 shamefastnesse,' the word which our translators 
 employed in this passage, is that modesty which is 
 fast or rooted in the character. Spenser writes (faerie 
 Queene, v. 5, 25) : 
 
 ' Such is the crueltie of women-kynd 
 
 When they have shaken off the shamefast band 
 With which wise nature did them strongly bynd, 
 T obay the heasts of man's well-ruling hand/ 
 
 And Bishop Jewel, forbearing to mention certain gross 
 scandals, observes, ' It beseemeth neither our religion 
 nor our modesty, nor our shamefastness ' * (Apol. part 
 iv. chap. i. div. i). Both 'shamefastness' and 'shame- 
 facedness' were in use at the time that our version 
 was made, but as the former term was adopted by our 
 translators, it ought to have been retained. The 
 change is the more to be regretted, because ' shame- 
 facedness' is seldom employed now in a very good 
 sense ; it has come rather to describe an awkward diffi- 
 dence, such as we sometimes call ' sheepishness,' and so 
 in the passage quoted it scarcely conveys the apostle's 
 meaning to us. The printers have taken the same 
 liberty in Ecclus. xxvi. 15-25, xxxii. 10, xli. 16-24 in 
 all which texts, except xli. 16, the substitution of the 
 one word for the other is not only objectionable in 
 principle, but harmful to the sense. 
 
 In these cases the similarity between two words, 
 which yet are quite distinct, has led to the mistake. 
 In other instances a similar confusion may sometimes 
 
 * The word is so printed in Jelf's edition of the Translation 
 of the Apology ; in that of the Parker Society, though professing 
 to be taken from the same original, it is shamefacedness (iii. 17).
 
 Deceptive Resemblances. \ 3 
 
 exist in the reader's mind, though no alteration has 
 crept into the text. Many, for example, would per- 
 haps regard ' bewray ' as another form of ' betray,' or 
 at all events as identical in meaning ; and indeed the 
 words are sometimes so used, but they come from 
 different roots. ' Bewray ' is to accuse, and so to show 
 or declare, but the idea of treachery is not of neces- 
 sity implied in it. 'The ointment . . . bewrayeth 
 itself (Prov. xxvii. j6). 'Thy speech bewrayeth thee ' 
 (Matt. xxvi. 73). The distinction between the two 
 words is well marked in the following sentence from a 
 sermon by Thomas Adams (ii. 238), a divine who lived 
 at the time that our version was made : ' Well may he 
 be hurt . . . and die, that will not bewray his disease, 
 lest he betray his credit.' Again, ' endue ' is to put 
 on or clothe. Thus, ' until ye be endued with power 
 from on high' (Luke, xxiv. 49); ' Endue thy ministers 
 with righteousness' (Suffrages after the Creed), and 
 Latimer (i. 448), ' There be but very few which be 
 endued with Christ's livery.' ' Endow,' on the other 
 hand, is, properly speaking, to furnish with a dowry : 
 ' With all my worldly goods I thee endow ' (Marriage 
 Service) ; ' He shall surely endow her to be his wife ' 
 (Exod. xxii. 1 6). The distinction, however, is not 
 always observed; e.g., 'God hath endued me with a 
 good dowry' (Gen. xxx. 20), and a similar instance 
 occurs in Spenser (f. Q. i. 4, 51) : 
 
 ' Returne from whence ye came, and rest a while, 
 Till morrow next that I the Elfe subdew, 
 And with Sansfoyes dead dowry you endew.' 
 
 Other words there are which appear in more than one
 
 14 Bible English. 
 
 form in our Bible, but with no difference of sense, 
 although modern usage has given a particular meaning 
 to each, thus expressing various significations of the 
 same term by a variety in spelling. 
 
 ' Travail ' and ' travel ' are but different shapes of 
 one word, signifying 'labour,' and may perhaps be 
 connected with 'trouble' and 'tribulation.' 'Travail,' 
 however, alone retains this sense, and indeed is almost 
 entirely restricted to the labour of women with child, 
 while ' travel ' is more associated in our minds with 
 ideas of pleasure and amusement than of toil. The 
 expression, however, in its origin reminds us of a time 
 when journeys were undertaken much less lightly than 
 now, and were often accompanied with far greater 
 dangers and hardships. In the version of 1611 the 
 two forms are used indifferently ; e.g., ' Behold he 
 travelleth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief 
 (Ps. vii. 14) ; 'I have heard a voice as of a woman in 
 travel ' ( Jer. iv. 31); ' They which were scattered 
 abroad . . . travailed as far as Phoenice and Cyprus;' 
 ' Gaius and Aristarchus . . . Paul's companions in 
 travail' (Acts, xi. 19; xix. 29). In these, and at least 
 twenty other instances, the spelling has been altered 
 in later editions to suit a distinction which in the 
 early part of the seventeenth century did not exist. 
 In Num. xx. 14, the printers have put 'travel' for 
 ' travail,' evidently under the impression that Moses 
 was referring only to the long journey of Israel; 
 whereas he is speaking of the sorrows and labours of 
 the people generally, of which the wandering in the 
 wilderness formed but a part. ' Beside ' now usually 
 means 'by the side of,' while 'besides' signifies 'in
 
 Modern Distinctions. 15 
 
 addition to ; ' so that we should not now say, ' he shall 
 put them besides the altar' (Lev. vi. 10); or, 'whether 
 \ve be besides ourselves, it is to God' (2 Cor. v. 13); 
 in both which cases ' beside ' has been substituted in 
 modern Bibles. The correctors, indeed, seem to have 
 had a particular fancy for this form of the word, 
 having cut off the final s in several other places, even 
 where, as in Gen. xxvi. i, i Kings, x. 13, &c., it would 
 have appeared more natural to retain it. They have 
 never reversed the process, and added the letter to 
 'beside.' In like manner 'sometime' (Col. iii. 7; 
 i Pet. iii. 20) and 'sometimes' (Eph. ii. 13; v. 8) are 
 used indifferently for ' once,' or ' in time past.' It is 
 only the first of these forms which has this signification 
 now, 'sometimes' meaning 'occasionally,' a sense 
 which it never bears in our version. Bramhall writes, 
 ' I hear, moreover, by those who seem to know him, 
 that he was sometimes a novice of our English Church, 
 who deserted his Mother before he knew her' (ii. 358). 
 The printers of later copies give 'sometime' for 'some- 
 times' in Col. i. 21 ; elsewhere they have not varied, 
 in regard to this word, from the edition of 1611. 
 
 ' Ragged ' and ; rugged ' mean literally broken ; the 
 present distinction between the two is marked in the 
 well-known alliterative line, ' Around the rugged rocks 
 the ragged rascals ran,' but such distinction is of com- 
 paratively recent invention. ' Rugged ' does not occur 
 in our translation, but in Isa. ii. 21, we read of 'ragged 
 rocks.' So in Fuller's Pisgah Sight (I. vi. 8) we find, 
 ' Saint Hierom who lived himself long in Palestine . . 
 speaketh very meanly thereof. It is ragged, with 
 craggy mountains.' Shakespeare has the expression,
 
 1 6 Bible English. 
 
 'My voice is ragged;' i.e., rough and broken (As 
 You Like It, ii. 5). 
 
 To ' assay ' denotes with us to test ; to ' essay ' is 
 to endeavour, or to begin in a tentative way. In 
 i Sam. xvii. 39 ' he assayed to go, for he had not proved 
 it,' might now be expressed by us, ' he essayed to go, 
 for he had not assayed it.' When the version was 
 made, however, ' assay ' did duty for both meanings, for 
 ' essay ' as a verb was not in use ; the earliest example 
 given of it in Richardson's Dictionary is from Den- 
 ham's Cooper's Hill, published in 1643. The ap- 
 proximate time of the introduction of the word as a 
 substantive is marked in a well-known passage by 
 Bacon who first published his Essays in 1597, and 
 commenting on the title in a dedication prefixed to a 
 larger edition of them in 1612, says, ' The word is late, 
 but the thing is ancient.' The simple verb, ' say ' is 
 not uncommon in old writers. ' I will go presently, 
 say on my suit, pay as much money as I have, and 
 swear myself into credit with my tailor for the rest.' 
 (Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, iv. 2.)
 
 Peculiarities of Form. \ 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PECULIARITIES OF FORM. 
 
 IN many cases it is not the word itself, but the particular 
 form of it which is out of date. We find several 
 instances of this in the perfects and passive participles. 
 Most of these are familiar even to the uneducated, 
 and some are yet employed in poetry, so that at first 
 sight we hardly realise that they are obsolete, i. e., not 
 in common use now. 
 
 In the following short sentences the strong perfects 
 and participles are still retained by us, though in a 
 slightly different shape. ' The old man of whom ye 
 spake' (Gen. xliii. 27); 'He sware unto him '(Gen. 
 xlvii. 31); ' The spirit tare him' (St. Mark, ix. 20); . ,. 
 ' Which ware no clothes' (St. Luke, viii. 27) ; ' Moses 
 gat him up into the mount' (Exod. xxiv. 18); ' They \ ^ . 1 1 
 forgat His works ' (Ps. cvi. 13); 'They drave them 
 heavily' (Exod. xiv. 25); 'Abraham clave the wood' 
 (Gen. xxii. 3); 'The man that bare the shield;' 
 ' David took a stone and slang it ' ( i Sam. xvii. 
 41,49); 'They strake sail' (Acts, xxvii. 17); 'Well 
 stricken in years ' (St. Luke, i. 7) ; ' Though ye have 
 lien among the pots ' (Ps. Ixviii. 13) . 
 
 Weak perfects and participles have often in 
 
 c
 
 1 8 Bible English. 
 
 modern usage taken the place of strong forms. Thus 
 the following would not be employed now : ' Jacob 
 chode with Laban' (Gen. xxxi. 36) ; we still have ' rode ' 
 and 'abode' as the past tenses of 'ride' and 'abide.' 
 An American humourist whose fun depends in part on 
 the use of false grammar and spelling, writes, ' we 
 glode.' This was meant for a ludicrous error, and of 
 course every one now-a-days would say, 'we glided,' 
 but ' glode ' was once quite correct, and is Tound in 
 Chaucer, and even in Spenser. ' Jacob sod pottage ' 
 (Gen. xxv. 29); this is perhaps the only one of these 
 examples that would offer any difficulty to the ordinary 
 reader, and that not as to its meaning, but as to the 
 verb of which is a part. The word in the present 
 tense is ' seethe.' We still employ the participle, 
 ' sodden,' and the substantive, ' suds ' is also derived 
 from it. Hophni and Phinehas broke through the 
 priests' custom of taking their portion ' while the flesh 
 was in seething,' for they would ' not have sodden flesh, 
 but raw' ( i Sam. ii. 13, 15). But to proceed with 
 our list : ' Thou hast waxen great ' (Ezek. xvi. 7) ; 'I 
 was shapen in iniquity ' (Ps. li. 5); ' They be folden 
 together' (Nah. i. 10); 'Their eyes were holden ' 
 (St. Luke, xxiv. 16); 'He hath holpen His servant 
 Israel ' (St. Luke, i. 54) ; ' His holy arm hath gotten 
 Him the victory' (Ps, xcviii. i) ; ' Your carriages were 
 heavy loaden ' (Isa. xlvi. i) ; ' A meat-offering baken in 
 the oven' (Lev. ii. 4); 'Wreathen chains of gold' 
 (Exod. xxviii. 24); ' Unwashen hands' (St. Mark, vii. 
 2). ' Molten ' and ' drunken 'are obsolete as participles, 
 though we still use them as adjectives. We speak of 
 ' molten lead ' or a ' drunken man,' but we should put
 
 Perfects and Passive Participles. 19 
 
 ' melted' or 'drunk' in the following texts; 'The 
 mountains shall be molten under Him ' (Mic. i. 4) ; 
 < Serve me, till I have eaten and drunken ' (St. 
 Luke, xvii. 8). 
 
 Occasionally, but more rarely, we meet with weak 
 forms which at the time that our version was made 
 had endeavoured to supplant the strong, but have now 
 been driven out again. Thus, ' A light shined in the 
 prison' (Acts, xii. 7); 'He wringed the dew out of 
 the fleece ' (Judges, vi. 38) ; ' They digged another 
 well ' (Gen. xxvi. 21); ' Jacob awaked out of his sleep ' 
 (Gen. xxviii. 16); 'He hanged the chief baker' (Gen. 
 xl. 22); 'They shaked their heads' (Ps. cix. 25); 
 'It hath fully been showed me' (Ruth, ii. n). 
 ' Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets ' 
 (Hos. vi. 5); 'A tongue not understanded of the 
 people ' (Art. xxiv). In most of these instances the 
 strong form is also used in our translation, for we 
 have ' shone,' ' wrung,' ' awoke,' ' shook,' ' hewn,' and 
 ' understood.' 
 
 ' Lift,' the shortened form of ' lifted,' has already 
 been mentioned ; there are two other words curtailed 
 in the same manner. ' It is fret inward' (Lev. xiii. 55); 
 ' who have whet their tongue like a sword ' (Ps. Ixiv. 3. 
 Pr. Book). Both ' builded ' and ' built ' often occur 
 in the Bible, e.g., Heb. iii. 4, but the former is no 
 longer current. 
 
 Many words have passed though a very slight 
 change. There are several which having once been of 
 four syllables and ending in y, are now trisyllables, 
 and end in e; e.g., 'arrogancy,' ' continency,' ' in- 
 nocency,' 'excellency,' which last we retain in the
 
 Bible English. 
 
 title given to governors and ambassadors. We find, 
 ' They hoised up the mainsail ' (Acts, xxvii. 40) for 
 ' hoisted ;' ' Saul haling men and women' (Acts, viii. 3), 
 now written and pronounced 'hauling;' 'marishes' 
 (Ezek. xlvii. 1 1) for ' marshes ;' ' fitches ' (Isa. xxviii. 25) 
 for 'vetches;' 'fats' (Joel, ii. 24) for 'vats;' ' oc- 
 current ' (i Kings, v. 4) for ' occurrence ;' ' magnifical ' 
 (i Chron. xxii. 5) for ' magnificent,' which word indeed 
 in old writers often signified ' munificent ' (see Trench's 
 Glossary); ' grisled ' ( Zech. vi. 3) for ' grizzled ;' the 
 term by the way, would now be applied only to grey 
 hair, not as in the text to grey horses ; ' throughly ' 
 (S. Luke, iii. 17) for 'thoroughly,' Shakespeare has 
 'thorough' where we should now put 'through;' 
 ' Thorough bush, thorough brier, thorough flood, 
 thorough fire' (Mids. N. Dream, ii. i); 'pilled' for 
 'peeled,' and 'strakes'for 'streaks' (Gen. xxx. 37). 
 ' Streak ' is derived from ' strike,' and means a line 
 struck ; so we speak of the stroke of a pen ; the tire 
 of a wheel being a narrow streak of iron round it is 
 called a 'strake' (Ezek. i. 18, margin). 
 
 Many of these more modern forms were in use in 
 1611, and long before, though the older shape of the 
 words was adopted in our version, often perhaps in 
 order to avoid any unnecessary change from former 
 translations with which the people were familiar. In 
 some instances we have two forms of the same word, 
 employed it would seem indiscriminately, though only 
 one survives in common use. Thus, we may find in 
 our Bible ensample and example, glistering and glit- 
 tering, ambushment and ambush, divorcement and 
 divorce, alway and always, afterward and afterwards,
 
 Change in Prefixes. 2 1 
 
 attent and attentive, sith and since, or and ere, afore 
 and before, determinate and determined, clift and cleft, 
 astonied and astonished, whiles and while, ware and 
 aware, minish and diminish, defenced and fenced, 
 stablish and establish, adventure (as a verb), and 
 venture, strowed, strawed, and strewed. In all these 
 cases the last form of the word is that which is 
 used with us in the present day. Another point of 
 difference affecting the shell, but not the substance 
 of the terms in which it is found, consists in the 
 change of the privative un into /;/. Thus we meet 
 with 'unmoveable' (Acts, xxvii. 41) for 'immoveable ;' 
 ' unreprovable ' (Col. i. 22) for ' irreproveable ;' ' un- 
 rebukeable' (i Tim. vi. 14) for ' irrebukeable,' though 
 these two last words are not very common, ' irre- 
 proachable' generally doing duty for both; ' unper- 
 fect' (Ps. cxxxix. 16) for ' imperfect,' which is given in 
 the Prayer-book, although the older version ; ' un- 
 measurable ' (Prayer of Manasses) for ' immeasurable ;' 
 ' unpassable ' (Esth. xvi. 24) for ' impassable ; ' ' un- 
 temperate ' (Ecclus. xxiii. 13) for ' intemperate,' to 
 which it has been altered in modern Bibles ; ' un- 
 satiable' (Ecclus. xxxi. 17) for 'insatiable;' besides 
 the two following, which occur in the headings of 
 chapters; ' unresistible ' (Isa. viii.) for 'irresistible;' 
 and ' unrepentance ' (S. Matt, xi.) for ' impenitence.' 
 
 A slight change in course of time has taken place 
 in one or two onomatopeous words; those,, that is, 
 which have been formed from the sound that they 
 are intended to represent. 
 
 ' Knap ' has yielded to ' snap,' both terms being 
 meant to signify by their crisp, incisive sound, sharp
 
 22 Bible English. 
 
 and sudden breaking. These words coexisted at one 
 time, and are found, e.g., in Shakespeare. 'Snap' 
 does not occur either in the ^Bible or Prayer-book ; 
 ' Knap ' only in the Prayer-book version of Psalm xlvi. 
 9 : ' He breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear 
 in sunder.' Shakespeare uses the word in the sense 
 of biting or cracking with the teeth : ' I would she 
 were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped ginger.' 
 (Mer. of Ven. iii. i.) So 'knapsack,' or as South, 
 quoted by Richardson, writes it, ' snapsack,' is a 
 provision-wallet, or perhaps a sack for broken victuals. 
 Refreshment which is partaken of in a hasty and 
 informal manner is sometimes styled a ' snap.' Thus, 
 Fuller (Ch. Hist. xi. ii. 59): 'Mr. Henry Burton, 
 minister, rather took a snap than made a meal in 
 any university ;' or to cite an author of our own time : 
 ' Mr. Pilgrim had just returned from one of his long 
 day's rounds among the farm-houses, in the course of 
 which he had sat down to two hearty meals, that 
 might have been mistaken for dinners if he had not 
 declared them to be " snaps." ' (G. Eliot, Scenes of 
 Clerical Life.} The fool in Lear (II. 4) uses ' knap ' 
 as meaning ' knock,' ' she knapped 'em o' the 
 coxcombs with a stick;' and 'knapping' is still the 
 term applied to hammering or breaking up the stones 
 employed in road-making. 
 
 ' Neese,' the old form of ' sneeze,' is another of 
 those words which take their shape from the meaning 
 that they are intended to convey, though some would 
 derive it from the Latin nasits, a nose, as being the 
 organ in which the sneeze originates. In 2 Kings, 
 i y - 35> the printers have altered ' neesed ' of the
 
 Onomatopeous Words. 23 
 
 version of 1 6 1 1 into ' sneezed ;' they have left the 
 word however in Job, xli. 18, where it is said of the 
 leviathan or crocodile, ' by his neesings a light doth 
 shine.' In the Homily against Idolatry (Part 3, 
 p. 245), reference is made to the custom of invoking 
 saints on every occasion, ' Such as neese (say) God 
 help and S. John.' 
 
 Young birds are now said to ' cheep ' when they 
 begin to send forth their feeble cry on being hatched ; 
 the old word was 'peep,' and so small birds were 
 called ' peepers.' Johnson quotes from Bramston, a 
 satirist who wrote at the beginning of the last 
 century : 
 
 ' Dishes I chuse, though little yet genteel, 
 Snails the first course, and peepers crown the meal.' 
 
 In Devonshire, according to Mr. Halliwell, the 
 name is given to chicken at a still earlier stage of 
 their development, for there an egg-pie is called a 
 ' peeper.' Thomas Adams, comparing wicked men 
 to different sorts of birds, writes : ' The lapwing, the 
 hypocrite, that cries, Here it is, here it is ; here is 
 holiness, when he builds his nest on the ground, is 
 earthly-minded, and runs away with the shell on his 
 head, as if he were perfect when he is once pipient.' 
 (II. 1 1 8.) As the young of birds make this noise 
 when they crack the shell, the word perhaps came 
 to be applied to flowers peeping forth, or to the 
 earliest sign of dawn, 'the peep of day,' and then 
 generally to glancing hastily or furtively. The old 
 sense has now quite disappeared, so that many lose 
 something of the real meaning of Isaiah, x. 14, as it
 
 24 Bible English. 
 
 stands in our version ; ' My hand hath found as a 
 nest the riches of the people ; and as one that 
 gathereth eggs that are left have I gathered all the 
 earth, and there was none that moved the wing, or 
 opened the mouth, or peeped.' And when the same 
 prophet (viii. 19) speaks of 'the wizards that peep 
 and that mutter,' it might be supposed that the peep- 
 ing was done with the eyes rather than with the 
 mouth. But they who laid claim to magical powers, 
 not only whispered strange charms and incantations, 
 (the magic cup of Comus was ' with many murmurs 
 mixed' (526),) but also aided their impostures by 
 ventriloquism. Indeed in the Septuagint version of 
 Isaiah, xliv. 25, we read of the ' tokens of the ven- 
 triloquists ' (vrtpfHa tyya.aTpip.vQuv}. The 'peeping' 
 of the wizards was probably of this nature ; thus, in 
 Jonson's Stable of News (II. i), one of the characters 
 jeers another as 
 
 ' the only oracle 
 That ever peeped or spake out of a doublet.' 
 
 Of words similarly formed, some seem to have 
 stronger constitutions and longer lives than others. 
 We constantly speak, for instance, of yesterday, but 
 ' yesternight ' (Gen. xxxi. 29, 42) is now, like ' yester- 
 morn ' and ' yestereve,' confined to poetry. Bishop 
 Hall (Satires, iv. 5, 83) has ' but as yesterlate,' or as 
 we should now express it, ' only the other day.' 
 Home Tooke quotes from Dryden's Don Sebastian 
 (ii. i) :- 
 
 ' To love an enemy, the only one 
 Remaining too, whom yester-sun beheld 
 Must'ring her charms, and rolling, as she past
 
 Uncertainly of Life in Words. 25 
 
 By every squadron, her alluring eyes, 
 
 To edge her champions' swords and urge my ruin.' 
 
 In the margin of Prov. xxvii. i, we find ' tomorrow 
 day ;' this is only given as a more literal rendering of 
 the Hebrew, but it occurs in Morte d'Arthtir, bk. i. 
 chap. xxi. ' He commanded a privyman of his 
 chamber, that or it be day his best horse and 
 armour, with all that belongeth unto his person be 
 without the city or tomorrow day. Right so, or to- 
 morrow day he met with his man and his horse.' 
 
 Again, ' laughing-stock ' is still common enough, 
 but ' gazing-stock ' and ' mocking-stock ' are obsolete. 
 'I will set thee as a gazing-stock' (Nah. iii. 6) ; 'Ye 
 were made a gazing-stock' (Heb. x. 33); 'They 
 brought the second to make him a mocking-stock' 
 (2 Mac. vii. 7). ' Gazing-stock' is used by Tyndale 
 in i Cor. iv. 9, as also in the Geneva and Cranmer's 
 Bible ; but our version has gone back to the still 
 earlier rendering of Wiclif, ' spectacle ;' the margin 
 gives ' theatre,' a closer translation of the Greek. In 
 Heb. x. 33, however, our Bible has 'while ye were 
 made a gazing-stock,' though Wiclif again puts ' spec- 
 tacle,' and the other three versions, ' while all men 
 wondered and gazed at you.' Hutchinson, Becon, 
 and other writers of that period, sometimes speak of 
 the Saviour as our ' Mercy-stock.' Latimer (II. 16), 
 says that Ham ' made a " mocking-stock " of his 
 father.' In the Merry Wives of Windsor (III. i), 
 Sir Hugh Evans complains, ' He has made us his 
 vlouting-stog,' /. e., ' flouting-stock ;' and Bishop Hall 
 writes, ' We should be presumptuously mad to hope 
 that God will stand us for a sinning-stocke to provoke
 
 26 Bible English. 
 
 Him how we will.' (Contemp. of the Quailes and 
 Manna. ) 
 
 We retain ' frostbitten ' (Shakespeare, Winters 
 Tale, v. 2, has ' weather-bitten ') ; but the expressive 
 term, 'hunger-bitten,' as in Job, xviii. 12, ' His 
 strength shall be hunger-bitten,' is gone. Milton 
 uses the expression in Paradise Regained (II. 416) : 
 ' Lost in a desart here and hunger-bit.' To supply 
 its place, we now confine ' starving,' which once 
 simply meant ' dying,' to dying of hunger, or some- 
 times of cold. The old word ' hunger-starven,' which 
 is found, for instance, twice in Bishop Hall's Satires (I. 
 i. 13 ; v. ii. 89), was not tautologous, as indeed it would 
 not be now in the north of England, where I believe 
 a man suffering from extreme cold would usually be 
 described as starved, whereas if it were want of food 
 that he had to endure, he would be said to be 'clemmed.' 
 ' Starve,' however, was not formerly restricted to 
 either sense. Chaucer speaks of Him that ' starf 
 for our redemption ' (Man of Lawes Tale, 5053). 
 
 An owner of sheep is no longer styled a ' sheep- 
 master' (2 Kings, iii. 4), though he who attends to 
 bees is a ' bee-master.' ' Landmarks ' is a familiar 
 term, but ' waymarks' (Jer. xxxi. 21) are now called 
 'direction-posts.' Every one knows what is meant by 
 a cartwright, a wheelwright, or a shipwright ; but 
 ' timberwright,' in the margin of Wisd. xiii. n, is 
 an unusual substitute for ' carpenter,' which stands in 
 the text. There are few who have not heard of the 
 feats achieved by Richard Coeur de Lion with his 
 battle-axe, but fewer still would speak of the ' battle- 
 bows ' (Zech. ix. 10 ; x. 4), of the archers who were
 
 Uncertainty of Life in Words. 27 
 
 in his army. ' Timberwright ' and ' battle-bow ' must,, 
 however, be regarded rather as exact renderings of the 
 Hebrew than as ordinary English words. S. Paul 
 addresses some companion of his as ' true yoke- 
 fellow ' (Phil. iv. 3). Becon (II. 334) says that 
 a wife is given to a man ' to be an helper unto him, 
 and a faithful yoke-fellow.' This compound is now 
 obsolete, though bedfellow, playfellow, schoolfellow, 
 remain. Fuller calls the man who was buried in Elisha's 
 grave (2 Kings, xiii. 21) the prophet's ' grave-fellow.' 
 
 When priests are ordained, the bishop warns them 
 that it is their duty ' to teach, and to premonish, 
 to feed and to provide for the Lord's family.' ' Ad- 
 monish ' now serves both in the sense of forewarning 
 of wrong, and rebuking after wrong has been com- 
 mitted ; and ' premonish ' has fallen into disuse, 
 though it was once common. Bishop Hooper says 
 that God ' is so merciful that He premonisheth and 
 forewarneth of His scourge to come.' (I. 449.) In 
 the same office the bishop is directed to ' surcease ' 
 from ordering any against whom any great crime or 
 impediment is alleged. ' Surcease ' is never employed 
 now, except in poetry. The American Ordinal has 
 ' cease,' but it retains ' premonish.' 
 
 The captain of a trading-vessel is often called the 
 ' master,' as is also the officer who navigates one of 
 her Majesty's ships under the captain's orders ; but 
 ' shipmaster' (Jonah, i. 6 ; Rev. xviii. 17) is obsolete. 
 In the first scene of the Tempest, the stage-direction 
 is, ' Enter a ship-master and a boatswain.' (See also 
 the quotation from Hutchinson, p. 167.) 'Shipmen* 
 (T Kings, ix. 27 ; Acts, xxvii. 30) is no longer a
 
 28 Bible English. 
 
 name applied to seamen, though we have ' boatmen.' 
 One of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims was ' a schip- 
 man.' Shakespeare calls a sea-chart ' the shipman's 
 card.' (Macbeth, i. 3.) 
 
 Sometimes the simple word is now lost, though 
 it survives in some compound. ' Bibber,' meaning 
 drinker, has fallen out of use, but ' winebibber ' is still 
 occasionally employed. ' Bibber ' is joined with 
 wine in the three passages in which it occurs in our 
 version (Prov. xxiii. 20; S. Matt. xi. 19; S. Luke, 
 vii. 34), but in both the New Testament texts the two 
 words are printed separately in the edition of 1611 ; 
 in Proverbs they are connected by a hyphen. Howell 
 writes (I. ii. 25), 'As soon as little ant shall bib the 
 ocean dry.' The cloth put round a child to drink 
 up what else would fall on the dress is called a 
 ' bib,' and ' imbibe ' and ' imbiber ' are sufficiently 
 common. 
 
 'Sheard' (Isa. xxx. 14; Ezek. xxiii. 34), or, as 
 it is spelt in modern Bibles, ' sherd,' /. e., that which is 
 sheared off, a fragment, only appears now in the 
 compound ' potsherd.' The priest at Ophelia's funeral 
 speaks of 'shards, flints, and pebbles' (Ham. v. i) 
 as the rubbish thrown into the grave of a suicide. So 
 Bishop Hall says of the broken tables of the Law, 
 ' Every sheard of that stone had been a relique worth 
 laying up ' ( Cont. of the Vayle of Moses). The 
 simple verbs ' mure ' and ' dure ' are obsolete ; but 
 ' immure ' and ' endure' are still current. In the head- 
 ing of Joshua, x. we read, ' The five kings are mured 
 in a cave,' /. e., walled up, great stones being rolled to 
 the entrance of the cavern which formed their prison.
 
 Uncertainty of Life in Words. 29 
 
 Bishop Hall saw at Malines ' an Englishman so madly 
 devout that he had wilfully mur'd up himself as an 
 anachoret, the worst of all prisoners.' (Letters, i. 5.) 
 Shakespeare has ' mure ' and ' mural ' as nouns, 
 signifying a wall ; the latter of these terms exists now 
 as an adjective in two phrases : ' A mural crown,' 
 which was the honour conferred on the Roman 
 soldier who first scaled the wall of a besieged city, 
 and ' a mural tablet or inscription,' being a tablet or 
 monument affixed to a wall in a church. He who is 
 represented by the seed in stony places 'hath not 
 root in himself, but dureth for a while' (S. Matt. 
 xiii. 21). The common preposition 'during' is really i^ 
 the participle of this verb, and so Tyndale writes, 
 ' Paul made a sermon during to midnight ' (III. 
 264). . 
 
 Timon of Athens, imprecating a curse upon his 
 countrymen, exclaims, ' Itches, blains, sow all the 
 Athenian bosoms' (IV. i.) A 'blain' is a boil or 
 pustule, perhaps because it is blown, or puffed up and 
 swollen. Mr. Wright says that it is still used in this 
 general sense in the West Riding, as it is also in our 
 version (Exod. ix. 10). In ordinary modern English, 
 however, it is seldom employed, except in regard to 
 one particular sort of swelling, and then the word is 
 joined in composition with another denoting the 
 cause of the discomfort, and persons are said to suffer 
 from 'chillblains.' 
 
 ' Sheepcotes ' and ' dovecotes ' are still part of our 
 vocabulary-, but not so ' cotes for flocks ' (2 Chron. 
 xxxii. 28), although 'cot' continues to be used, but 
 only of a human habitation of a humble kind, and of
 
 3O Bible English. 
 
 a little bed. Spenser {ShephearcFs Calendar, Sep- 
 tember) writes, 
 
 ' Or they will buy his sheep out of the cote, 
 Or they will carven the shepheard's throte.' 
 
 The numbers of certain nouns offer another point 
 of contrast between the old and the present usage ; in 
 some instances the singular form having become ob- 
 solete, in others the plural. Thus, ' What thank have 
 ye?' (S.Luke, vi. 32, 33, 34.) This word, now always 
 found in the plural, is taken from the older versions, 
 and is only met with in this chapter, and in Ecclus. 
 xx. 16, ' I have no thank for all my good deeds.' 
 Bacon, however, in his Essay of Sttitors, writes, 'They 
 will be content to win a thank;' and Hutchinson 
 (p. 313), says, ' This is the patience and affliction of 
 God's saints and martyrs, which is worthy thank and 
 plenteous reward ;' so also Bishop Hall, ' Even we 
 men think we know something, neither may our good 
 God lose the thank of His bounty this way.' (In- 
 visible World, I. s. 5.) Jonson uses both ' a thank ' 
 and ' a thanks ;' 
 
 ' It is too good 
 
 For these coarse rustic mouths, that cannot open 
 Or spend a thank for 't.' (Sad Shepherd, I. i.) 
 
 And in the Poetaster, iv. 5 : 
 
 ' I hope your service merits more respect, 
 Than thus without a thanks to be sent hence. 5 
 
 We retain ' thank ' in the compounds ' thank-
 
 Singulars and Plurals. 3 1 
 
 worthy' (i S. Pet. ii. 19), and ' pickthank,' /. e., a 
 sycophant who curries favour by unworthy means. 
 Bishop Sanderson (II. 223) writes, ' Doeg to pick a 
 thank with his master, and to endear himself further 
 into his good opinion, told tales of David and 
 Ahimelech.' 
 
 ' Alms,' in the Authorised Version, is both a sin- 
 gular and plural (Acts, iii. 3 ; x. 4) ; the latter use 
 alone remains. This has arisen, no doubt, from the 
 final s forming a part of the word which was in course 
 of time taken as the sign of the plural. In Chaucer's 
 Persone's Tale we read, ' Thise ben generally the 
 almesses and werkes of charitee of hem that have 
 temporel richesses,' and then a line or two lower 
 down, ' This almesse shuldest thou do of thy propre 
 thinges.' 
 
 That word ' richesses ' points to the fact that 
 4 riches,' or ' richesse,' was once a singular. It is 
 thus employed in Rev. xviii. 17, 'In one hour so 
 great riches is come to nought ;' and in Wisd. v. 8, 
 ' What good hath riches with our vaunting brought 
 us ?' One other instance there was in the edition of 
 1611, but the plural verb has long since been sub- 
 stituted in our Bibles ; 'The riches that he hath 
 gotten is perished.' (Jer. xlviii. 36.) Latimer (i. 277) 
 writes, ' This great riches never maketh a man's life 
 quiet, but rather troublous.' In Froude's History of 
 England (III. 114), the following passage is quoted 
 from a letter written in 1538 : 'I showed her St. 
 Thomas's shrine, and all such other things worthy of 
 sight, of the which she was not little marvelled of the 
 great riches thereof, saying it to be innumerable,
 
 32 Bible English. 
 
 and that if she had not seen it, all the men in the 
 world could never have made her believe it.' Bishop 
 Andrewes treats the word as of both numbers in the 
 same passage, almost in the same sentence (v. 10). 
 ' Victual ' and ' victuals ' are both found in the 
 English Bible, even in a single chapter (i Kings, iv. 
 7, 27). The term, though a good and expressive one, 
 has come by a caprice of fashion to be considered 
 somewhat vulgar ; nor in ordinary use does it now 
 occur in any form but the plural. Mr. Tennyson, 
 however, in the Idylls of the King (Enid), uses 
 ' victuals ' four times within a few lines. 
 
 ' Custom,' as applied to a tax or duty, only 
 survives in the plural, which form is used in the 
 Apocrypha (i Mac. x. 29; xi. 35; 2 Mac. iv. 28), 
 but never in the canonical books (e. g. Ezra, iv. 13, 
 20; S. Matt. ix. 9; Rom. xiii. 7.) A tax-gatherer 
 was sometimes called a ' customer.' It may be in- 
 cidentally noted here that by ' the receipt of custom' 
 from which S. Matthew was summoned is not meant 
 the act or occupation of receiving, but the place in 
 which the business was carried on, the custom-house, 
 as we should now say. 
 
 In i Chron. xxix. 3, and i S. John, iii. 17, ' good' 
 is put for 'goods.' So Adams (i. 52), speaking of a 
 man becoming proud through increasing wealth, says, 
 ' His good and his blood riseth together.' 
 
 ' Swine ' is seldom used at present of a single pig, 
 as in Prov. xi. 22, ' As a jewel of gold in a swine's 
 snout.' Milton speaks of ' a grovelling swine ' (Comus, 
 53) ; and towards the end of Mr. Tennyson's Holy 
 Grail we read, ' Save that he were the swine thou
 
 Double Plurals. 33 
 
 spakest of;' but such employment of the word is 
 infrequent. It is possible that the fact of ' kine ' 
 being a plural may have caused ' swine,' by a mistaken 
 analogy, to be restricted to that number. In fact, 
 Richardson, in his Dictionary, suggests that ' swine' 
 is a contraction for ' sowen,' the old plural of sow, as 
 ' kine ' is of ' cowen.' Unfortunately, neither of these 
 statements is correct. Swine is from the old English 
 ' swin,' a neuter noun signifying a pig or pigs (for it 
 underwent no change in the plural) of either gender. 
 Cow is derived from the old English ' cu,' making 
 ' cy ' in the plural. The Scotch still have ' kye ;' ' cy ' 
 having another plural termination affixed, became 
 ' cyen ' or ' kien,' and this was contracted into ' kin ' 
 or kine.' 
 
 ' Brethren ' and ' children ' offer other examples 
 of this double plural, ' brether ' and ' childer ' 
 being themselves in that number, so that the final en 
 was supererogatory. The same may be observed in 
 ' hosen.' (Dan. iii. 21.) 'Hose' being applied to 
 stockings, or other coverings for the legs, was usually 
 a plural, though not always ; ' a velvet hose ! a 
 scarlet cloak.' (Taming of Shrew, v. i.) The re- 
 duplicated plural ' hosen ' occurs as late as Gay : 
 ' Will she thy linen wash or hosen darn ?' (Second 
 Pastoral.} ' Hose' itself is now little used, though 
 ' hosier ' remains. 
 
 One other instance of a double plural may be 
 named, of a more hybrid kind. Cherub becomes 
 'cherubim,' but to this last our translators add a 
 final s, as though ' cherubim ' were an English word 
 in the singular number. It is as if one were to speak 
 
 D
 
 34 Bible English. 
 
 of the characters in a play as the dramatis personoes, 
 or to say that Appius Claudius was one of the 
 deceinviris. 
 
 We employ ' kindred ' as a plural, meaning rela- 
 tions, but ' kindreds,' or as it is always printed in the 
 edition of 1611, ' kinreds,' is obsolete, as well in its 
 form, as in the sense which it then bore of ' families.' 
 (Ps. xcvi. 7 ; Acts, iii. 25, &c.) Spenser, in his View 
 of the State of Ireland, p. 624, describes ' the custome 
 of kin-cogish, which is, that every head of every sept, 
 and every chief of every kinred or familye, should 
 be answerable and bound to bring foorth every one of 
 that kinred or sept under hym at all times to be 
 justifyed, when he should be required or charged with 
 any treason, felonye, or other haynous crime.' 
 
 1 Hire,' like ' kindred,' now serves for both 
 numbers, and indeed does so for the most part in 
 our translation ; but in Micah, i. 7, we read, ' All the 
 hires thereof shall be burned with fire.' 
 
 Some few unwonted plurals occurring in the margin, 
 e.g., 'bitternesses' (Lam. iii. 15), 'uprightnesses' 
 (Isa. xxxiii. 15), ' vengeances' (Ezek. xxv. 17), I pass 
 over, because they are not meant as ordinary English 
 expressions, but only as a more exact rendering of the 
 Hebrew than is given in the text. But in the Litany 
 there are two plurals to be noted as not in use now, 
 ' negligences and ignorances,' i. e., acts arising from 
 negligence or ignorance. ' Ignorances ' occurs five 
 times in the Apocrypha (i Esd. viii. 75 ; Tob. iii. 3 ; 
 Ecclus. xxiii. 2, 3 ; li. 19), but it is uncommon in our 
 literature. Mr. Wright gives one example from King 
 James' work on Damonologie, but in that case the
 
 Unusual Plurals. 35 
 
 word is used in a different sense. He also adduces 
 an instance of ' negligences ' from Holland's Transla- 
 tion of Plutarch's Morals, but this again is infrequent. 
 In the quotations from the Apocrypha, ' ignorances ' 
 is a literal translation from the Greek words which are 
 in the plural (dyvo/;/xara, ayvoiai), while the expres- 
 sions in the Litany appear to be taken from a Latin 
 petition in the Horce B. V. M., A.D. 1530, quoted in 
 Mr. Blunt's Annotated Book of Common prayer, 
 Sa?tgitis tuns, Domine jfesu Christe, pro nobis effusus, 
 sit mihi in remissionem omnium peccatorwn, negli- 
 gentiarum, et ignorantiarum mearum.' Analogous in- 
 stances, however, may be cited ; thus, ' insolences ' 
 is a common expression in Clarendon's History, e.g., 
 ' The tumults continued, and their insolences in- 
 creased ;' and again, ' The insolences of that vile 
 rabble.' (Bk. iv. pp. 465, 469.) Adams also speaks 
 of men's souls, ' lost and ruined by rebellious ob- 
 stinacies and impenitences ' (i. 345).
 
 36 Bible English. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF WORDS THAT HAVE LOST SOME OF THEIR POWERS, 
 WITH A FEW REMARKS ON j BAD ENGLISH.' 
 
 WE often find that words which once existed in more 
 than one of the parts of speech, e.g., as verb and 
 noun, or substantive and adjective, now survive in 
 but one of these capacities. Thus, ' They joy before 
 Thee according to the joy in harvest' (Isa, ix. 3), in 
 which text ' joy' appears both as verb and noun; but 
 the former of these is obsolete, except in poetry. 
 Bacon, in his Essay of Friendship, writes, ' There is 
 no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he 
 joyeth the more.' On the other hand, ' rejoice,' which 
 with us is always a verb, is employed as a substantive 
 by Archbishop Parker, in the letter which he ad- 
 dressed to Anne, Lady Bacon, on her translation of 
 JeweFs Apology. ' But far above these private 
 respects, I am by greater causes enforced, not only 
 to shew my rejoyce of this your doing, but also to 
 testify the same by this my writing prefixed before 
 the work.' 
 
 ' Glad ' also, a common adjective, is no longer a 
 common verb ; it is found in the margin of Ps. xxi. 
 6, ' Thou hast gladded him with joy.' So Jonson's 
 Catiline (v. 4) :
 
 Partial Disuse of Words. 37 
 
 ' Which more glads me, 
 That I now see you have sense of your own safety.' 
 
 Fuller employs ' sad ' in the same way : ' It sadded 
 me lately to see that church wherein this saint was 
 interred ready to fall to the ground.' (Hist, of Camb. 
 viii. 37.) 
 
 ' War ' has been only too frequent a word in our 
 mouths as a noun, but such expressions as ' your 
 lusts that war in your members,' ' ye fight and war/ 
 (S. James, iv. i, 2), are antiquated. We retain the 
 verb, however, in the phrase ' go to war.' 
 
 We speak now of a physician's skill, but we should 
 not say that he could ' skill ' to cure diseases ; but it 
 is recorded of the Sidonians that they could ' skill to 
 hew timber' better than the Jews (i Kings, v. 6); 
 and among those who were gathered to assist in the 
 restoration of the temple and its worship under 
 Josiah, were all the Levites ' that could skill of in- 
 struments of music.' (2 Chron. xxxiv. 12.) So Bishop 
 Andrewes (i. 37) represents the Israelites as saying, 
 ' Make us visible gods who may go before us, and we 
 see them. Mystical, invisible gods we cannot skill of.' 
 ' Skill ' comes from an old English word meaning to 
 ' separate ' or ' distinguish,' and hence was attributed 
 to men of discernment, and so of ability generally. 
 This original signification appears in the single ex- 
 pression in which ' skill ' as a verb remains to us, 
 though even this has something in it of archaism, 
 ' it skills not,' /. e., it matters not, it makes no 
 difference. 
 
 It is common enough to speak of an enterprise,
 
 38 Bible English. 
 
 but the Prayer-book warns us that matrimony is not 
 'to be enterprised nor taken in hand unadvisedly.' 
 Fuller (Ch. Hist. VIII. iii. 2) says that Calvin deemed 
 the English Liturgy not sufficiently reformed, for ' it 
 was lawful to begin of such rudiments or abcedaries, 
 but so that it behooved the learned, grave, and godly 
 ministers of Christ to enterprize further, and to set 
 forth something more filed from rust, and purer.' 
 The participle ' enterprising ' is still in frequent use 
 as an adjective. 
 
 We may talk of others being in our company, but 
 ' these men which have companied with us' (Acts, i. 
 21) is a sentence not in accordance with modern 
 usage. Foxe says that Latimer and Bilney 'used 
 much to confer and company together, insomuch that 
 the place where they most used to walk in the fields 
 was called long after the heretics' hill.' (Latimer, 
 II. xiii.) 
 
 The ' pipe ' and ' tabor ' are still familiar words, 
 and are constantly joined together, ' Now had he 
 rather hear the tabor and the pipe.' (Much Ado about 
 Nothing, ii. 3.) But the verb ' to pipe,' at least in 
 the sense of playing on the pipe (S. Matt. xi. 17; i 
 Cor. xiv. 7) is but little used, and ' to taber,' the 
 participle of which occurs in Nahum, ii. 7, is yet more 
 obsolete. In our translation, the instrument itself is 
 called a ' tabret' or ' timbrel ' (Exod. xv. 20, &c.), and 
 tambourine, or tabourine, is connected with this, all 
 appearing to be derived from the Arabic. Calf hill 
 (p. 257) writes, ' Never fast, never kneel, but drink 
 and be merry, and pipe up John Taberer ' this last 
 being the cry of the revellers to the musician who
 
 Partial Disuse of Words. 39 
 
 played on the tabor. Richardson quotes instances 
 of the verb from Piers Plowman and Chaucer. 
 
 So also, though a man who dwells on a particular 
 topic is said to harp upon it, a harpist is seldom or 
 never spoken of now as harping, as in Rev. xiv. 2, 
 nor would the music be referred to as that which was 
 harped, as in i Cor. xiv. 7. In Milton's Ode on the 
 Nativity, we read of 
 
 ' The helmed cherubim 
 And sworded seraphim . . . 
 Harping in loud and solemn quire.' 
 
 We are told that Joshua's ' fame was noised 
 throughout all the country.' (Josh. vi. 27.) We 
 should now use some such word as ' spread ' or 
 * rumoured.' Wolsey says, 
 
 ' let it be noised 
 
 That through our intercession this revokement 
 And pardon comes.' (Henry VIII. i. 2.) 
 
 Judges go on circuit, but Samuel, according to 
 the margin of i Sam. vii. 16, ' circuited to Bethel, 
 and Gilgal, and Mizpeh.' Again, ' chest' has ceased 
 to be used in the sense of coffin, but the verb as in 
 the contents of Gen. L, ' He (Joseph) dieth, and is L 
 chested,' was always rare. Bishop Hall writes : 
 
 ' I tax the living ; let dead ashes rest, 
 Whose faults are dead, and nailed in their chest.' 
 (Satires, v. i. 20.) 
 
 ' Still ' remains as an adjective and adverb, but is 
 obsolete as a verb, at least in prose. ' Caleb stilled 
 the people.' (Num. xiii. 30.) ' Thou mightest still
 
 40 Bible English. 
 
 the enemy and the avenger.' (Ps. viii. 2.) Tyndale 
 speaks of that ' wherewith the law is stilled, and 
 accuseth us no more.' (i. 501.) 
 
 When the Arabians sued to Judas Maccabeus for 
 peace, they promised ' both to give him cattle and to 
 pleasure him otherwise.' (2 Mac. xii. n.) The em- 
 ployment of ' pleasure ' as a verb is obsolete. Barrow 
 (ii. 161) says that God ' is not capable of being 
 Himself enriched or exalted, of being anywise plea- 
 sured or bettered by us, Who is in Himself infinitely 
 sufficient, glorious, joyful, and happy.' 
 
 Sometimes it seems, by a mere chance or caprice, 
 that one word survives, while another of apparently 
 just the same character falls into desuetude. Thus, to 
 winter at a place is a common expression (Acts, xxvii. 
 12); but though 'to summer' is still, I believe, 
 current in America, and in parts of England as a 
 provincialism, it is not in general use ; in Isaiah, xviii. 
 6, however, we read, ' the fowls shall summer upon 
 them.' 
 
 ' Wit ' as a substantive is familiar to all of us, at least 
 by name, though it now bears a more restricted sense 
 than formerly ; but it was once common as a verb also, 
 meaning to ' know, ' to ' ascertain. ' This verb in the 
 present indicative is ' wot,' ' I wot that through 
 ignorance ye did it' (Acts, iii. 17), and in the perfect, 
 'wist;' 'he wist not what to say' (S. Mark, ix. 6). 
 The infinitive is ' wit,' ' The man held his peace, to 
 wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous ' 
 (Gen. xxiv. 21). 'Moses'' sister stood afar off to wit 
 what would be done to him ' (Exod. ii. 4), and again, 
 'We do you to wit' (2 Cor. viii. i) /. c., We would
 
 Partial Disuse of Words. 41 
 
 have you to know. Three obsolete passive partici- 
 ples may be mentioned, viz. ' affectioned,' ' twinned/ 
 and ' wryed.' ' Be kindly affectioned one to another.' 
 (Rom. xii. 10.) Latimer says, 'As many as .... have 
 an earnest purpose to leave sin ; as many, I say, as 
 be so affectioned, Ego absolve vos; I as an officer of 
 Christ, as His treasurer, absolve you in His name ' 
 (i. 424) ; and Jewel,' The council of Nice, as is alleged 
 by some in Greek, plainly forbiddeth us to be basely 
 affectioned or bent toward the bread and wine, which 
 are set before us.' (iii. 64.) Though the participle is 
 thus used, I am not aware that affection is found as a 
 verb. Sir Hugh Evans indeed asked Slender, ' Can 
 you affection the 'oman ' (Merry Wives, i. i ), even as 
 just before he had said, ' I will description the matter 
 to you;' but we can hardly accept this worthy Welsh 
 parson as an authority on the English language. 
 
 ' Twinned ' is given in the margin of Exod. xxvi. 
 24, xxxvi. 29, for 'coupled' in the text. To twin has 
 the double meaning, ' to couple ' and ' to divide in 
 two,' and so to ' separate.' Thus Chaucer's Pardonere 
 says, 
 
 ' But though myself be gilty in that sinne 
 Yet can I maken other folk to twinne 
 From avarice, and sore hem to repente.' (12364.) 
 
 It is however the former sense that the word bears 
 in our Bible, as quoted above, and this may be illus- 
 trated from Milton ; 
 
 ' Since thy original lapse, true liberty 
 Is lost, which always with right reason dwells 
 Twinn'd, and from her hath no dividual being.' 
 
 (Par. Lost. xii. 85.)
 
 42 Bible English. 
 
 ' Wryed ' also occurs only in the margin, and that in a 
 single passage (Ps. xxxviii. 6), where ' wryed ' is 
 suggested instead of ' troubled.' The word in the 
 original means twisted or writhed, as with pain, and is 
 rendered ' bowed down ' in Isa. xxi. 3. Jonson speaks 
 of fastidious critics at a theatre, ' using their wryed 
 countenances instead of a vice, to turn the good 
 aspects of all that shall sit near them from what 
 they behold' (Case is altered ii. 4). The adjective 
 ' wry ' is still common. 
 
 In all these cases the verb has succumbed, and 
 the noun survived ; in several instances, however, the 
 reverse has happened. 
 
 A fisherman angles for fish, but we no longer call 
 his rod and line an ' angle,' as in Isa. xix. 8. ' All they 
 that cast angle into the brooks shall lament.' Fuller 
 (Holy War, i. 6) remarks, ' In these western parts 
 heresies, like an angle, caught single persons, which 
 in Asia, like a drag-net, took whole provinces.' We 
 have ' drag' in Hab. i. 15, a net with which men drag 
 or dredge ; the margin gives ' flue net.' 
 
 ' Bruit ' is an Anglicised French word meaning 
 rumour or report ; it is sometimes used by us as a verb, 
 but not as a noun. In Nahum, iii. 19, it is written, 
 ' All that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands 
 over thee;' and Bacon, and also Fuller, quoting a 
 French proverb, ' Beaucoup de bruit, pen de fruit] 
 translate it, ' Much bruit, little fruit.' Latimer(i. 153) 
 complaining of some prelates who were backward in 
 the duties of their office, especially in preaching, 
 expresses a fear that their object was to reintroduce 
 Popery, and that this report would reach the Pope's ears,
 
 Partial Disuse of Words. 43 
 
 ' and he shall send forth his thunderbolts upon these 
 bruits;' where it might be thought, if the sentence 
 were only heard and not read, that the preacher was 
 calling these bishops very hard names. 
 
 In the Prayer-book Version of Ps. xcvii. 4, ' shine ' 
 is used as a noun ; so in Milton's Ode on the Nativity, 
 
 ' And mooned Ashtaroth, 
 Heaven's queen and mother both, 
 Now sits not girt with tapers holy shine.' 
 
 And Christopher Harvey, in the Synagogue, writing 
 of the Communion Plate, says, 
 
 ' If I might wish, then, I would have this Bread, 
 
 This Wine, 
 
 VesselFd in what the sun might blush to shed 
 His shine.' 
 
 It is possible for us to maul or be mauled, but 
 though we have mallet, a ' maul ' is obsolete in 
 general usage. In Prov. xxv. 18, however, it is de- 
 clared, that ' a man that heareth false witness against 
 his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp 
 arrow.' A maul is a mace or hammer. In the Faerie 
 Queene (iv. 5, 42), when Sir Scudamour attempts to 
 sleep in the House of Care, who is represented as a 
 blacksmith with several workmen, we are told, 
 
 ' And if by fortune any little nap 
 
 Upon his heavie eyelids chaunst to fall, 
 Eftsoones one of those villeins him did rap 
 Upon his head-peece with his yron mall.' 
 
 Pall Mall, a well-known street in London, is so
 
 44 Bible English. 
 
 named from the game of pall mall which used to be 
 played there, and which derived its title from two 
 Italian words, signifying ball and mallet, those being 
 the instruments employed. 
 
 ' Fools make a mock at sin ' (Prov. xiv. 9) ; ' There- 
 fore I made thee a mocking to all ' (Ezek. xxii. 4) ; 
 ' Others had trials of cruel mockings (Heb. xi. 36). 
 These words ' mock ' and ' mocking ' are no longer 
 employed as nouns, at least in prose, though Mr. 
 Tennyson speakes of ' the loud world's random mock ' 
 (Maud}. Fuller observes that ' though Ishmael had 
 mocks for Isaac, Heaven had mercy for Ishmael ' 
 (Pisgah, II. xi. 16); and again, 'The commonness of 
 these (Papal) curses caused them to be contemned ; 
 so that they were a fright to few, a mock to many, 
 and an hurt to none.' (C/i. Hist. III. iii. 20.) 
 
 ' Often,' now always used adverbially, was formerly 
 an adjective also. S. Paul speaks of Timothy's 'often 
 infirmities.' (i Tim. v. 23.) Hooker says of some, 
 ' They were solicitors to men to fasts, to often medi- 
 tations of heavenly things, &c.' (Ecc. Pol. Preface, 
 viii. 6), and Bishop Hall thus concludes one of his 
 Satires (III. 3), 
 
 ' For whom he means to make an often guest, 
 One dish shall serve, and welcome make the rest.' 
 
 ' Seldom ' was employed in the same way ; Shakes- 
 peare (Sonnet 52) speaks of 'seldom (i.e. rare) 
 pleasure.' The word however does not occur at all in 
 our version, except in the margin of Prov. xxv. 17. 
 We still retain the adjectival use of 'often' in one 
 expression, 'often times,' though 'seldom times 'has
 
 Partial Disuse of Words. 45 
 
 passed away; but Bullenger, or rather the English 
 translator of his Decades, writes, ' Such slothful work- 
 men are seldom times enriched with the good blessings 
 of God.' (I. 392.) 
 
 ' Adversary ' is, as with us, a substantive wherever it 
 occurs in our translation itself, but it appears as an 
 adjective in the heading of 2 Cor. x. Adams exhorts 
 his hearers to commit their heart ' to Him that is the 
 Maker and Preserver of men, who will lap it up with 
 peace, and lay it in a bed of joy, where no adversary 
 power can invade it ;' and again, ' When an adversary 
 tyrant hath taken the chief fort in a country . . . fear, 
 sorrow, and expectation of ruin possesseth the in- 
 habitants.' (I. 261. 290.) 'Neighbour' is twice found 
 as an adjective in our translation, and both times in 
 the same phrase in Jeremiah, ' Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 and the neighbour cities thereof.' (xlix. 18, 1. 40.) 
 Bishop Andrewes says, ' How many in our neighbour 
 countries, during their misery, have tasted this 
 uncertainty ! how many have gone to bed rich, and 
 risen poor men in the morning !' (v. 24.) 
 
 On the other hand, it is sometimes the substantive 
 which is lost. ' While ' indeed is not obsolete as a 
 noun, for we still speak of ' a while,' ' a good while,' 
 ' a long while,' &c. ; the word itself means a turn, and 
 is connected with wheel ; it signifies a period of 
 revolving time. Bishop Hall, in reference to our 
 Saviour's cry of desolation upon the cross, says, 
 ' Nothing appeared to Thee that while, but the dark- 
 ness of displeasure and horror.' (Myst. of Godliness, 
 .sect. 9.) The genitive case, however, of this substan- 
 tive is no longer used adverbially as in our version ;
 
 46 Bible English. 
 
 ' Agree with thine adversary quickly whiles thou art in 
 the way with him.' (S. Matt. v. 25.) 'Whiles it re- 
 mained, was it not in thine own power?' (Acts, v. 4.) 
 Another case of while (whilom the dative plural), is 
 still employed in poetry, ' Whilome thou earnest with 
 the morning mist.' (Tennyson, Ode to Memory.} 
 ' Seldom,' mentioned above, is a similar instance, 
 being the dative plural of seld. ' Some putten hem to 
 the plow, pleyed ful selde.' ( Vision of Piers Plowman, 
 Prologue, 20.) There are also several genitival adverbs 
 like whiles, but not, like whiles, antiquated, e.g., 
 1 needs ;' ' I have bought a piece of ground, and I must 
 needs go and see it.' (S. Luke, xiv. 18.) Elles or else, 
 is the genitive of ' el,' another ; ' Thou hast said in thine 
 heart, I am, and none else beside me.' (Isa. xlvii. 10.) 
 I am told that in some of the midland counties 
 'whiles' remains in the phrase, 'it is worth whiles;' 
 and in the corrupted form ' whilst,' it is still common 
 everywhere. 
 
 'Abjects' (as in Psalm xxxv. 15, 'the abjects 
 gathered themselves together against me,') is no longer 
 employed as a substantive, though frequent as an 
 adjective, especially with such words as poverty, fear, 
 misery, &c. George Herbert writes, 'Servants and 
 abjects flout Me' (Temple, the Sacrifice), and Ovid in 
 Jonson's Poetaster says, that in comparison with 
 Julia's love, ' all other objects will but abjects prove.' 
 (I. i.) Adams employs the word in its literal meaning ; 
 ' If our former courses and customs, like turned away 
 abjects, proffer us their old service, let us not know 
 them.' (I 269.) He has 'frantics' also as a substantive ; 
 ' So madly do these frantics spend their time and
 
 Partial Disuse of Words. 47 
 
 strength ; ' and he says of the hypocrite, ' he is a frantic 
 too, for he incurs the world's displeasure in making a 
 show of godliness, God's double displeasure in making 
 but a show.' (i. 275, 280.) 'Abject' was formerly a 
 verb also ; thus Bishop Andrewes says of Satan, ' He 
 brings us to this conceit, that we are so abjected of 
 God that if we trust in Him, He will in the end fail 
 us.' (v. 514.) 
 
 ' Deserving ' as a noun has been completely sup- 
 planted by ' desert,' which indeed is used thrice in our 
 Bible, and ' deserving ' only once ; ' according to 
 the deserving of his hands.' (Judges, ix. 16.) Thus 
 Milton, 
 
 ' Yet well, if here would end 
 The misery ; I deserv'd it and would bear 
 My own deservings.' (Par. Lost, x. 727.) 
 
 ' Dainties ' are called delicacies, but ' delicates ' is 
 obsolete. It occurs however in three passages in the 
 Authorised Version ; ' He hath filled his belly with my 
 delicates ' (Jer. li. 34) ; ' Delicates poured upon a 
 mouth shut up are as messes of meat set upon a grave ; ' 
 and again, 'The rich hath great labour in gather- 
 ing riches together; and when he resteth, he is 
 filled with his delicates' (Ecclus. xxx. 18, xxxi. 3). 
 Adams says, ' The glutton is fed liberally from God's 
 trencher ; the fowls of the air, fishes of the sea, all the 
 delicates of nature, are of His providing ' (II. 84) ; and 
 Hermogenes concludes a song in which he depicts 
 his mistress as he would have her, with 
 
 ' Thus, nor her delicates would cloy me, 
 Neither her peevishness annoy me.' 
 
 (Jonson's Poetaster, ii. i.)
 
 48 Bible English. 
 
 A ' brief ' is now the instructions given to a bar- 
 rister, in which the main facts of the case are sum- 
 marised, or briefly stated ; otherwise brief is always an 
 adjective ; for the briefs mentioned in the Rubric 
 after the Nicene Creed were abolished by Act of 
 Parliament in 1828, and the word in this signification 
 has perished with the thing. These ' briefs ' were 
 short rescripts or letters-patent issued by the sovereign, 
 ordering collections to be made for some specified 
 purpose. Great abuses arose in connexion with them, 
 sometimes not half the sum contributed being paid 
 over to the object assigned, and hence their discon- 
 tinuance. Formerly, however, ' brief was used for 
 any condensed statement, as by Hooker (Prcf. to Ecc. 
 Pol. vii. 7) : ' Thus have I laid before you the brief 
 of these my travails.' 
 
 ' Familiars,' meaning friends, is found in Jer. xx. 
 10, ' All my familiars watched for my halting.' With 
 us ' familiar' is used as a substantive in only two 
 phrases. We speak of a wizard and his familiar, /. <?., 
 the spirit who serves him, and a familiar of the In- 
 quisition, /. e., one of the instruments of that tribunal. 
 In both these cases the word means servant. The 
 Romans called their household slaves famuli, or more 
 rarely familiares, i. e., belonging to the familia, or 
 household ; in the same way we style servants ' do- 
 mestics ;' but familiares more usually meant ' familiar 
 friends,' and it is in this sense that it occurs in the 
 passage from Jeremiah, and in old English writers. 
 Thus Fuller, ' This cannot be denied, that Saladine 
 sent (term them bribes or presents) both to our king, 
 and the French duke, and they received them ; no
 
 Partial Disuse of Words. 49 
 
 wonder, then, if neither of them herein had a good 
 name, when they traded with such familiars.' (Holy 
 War, iii. n.) James Howell's well-known Familiar 
 Letters are so called, because written to his friends. 
 In some lines with which he prefaced them ad- 
 dressed, ' To the knowing reader touching Familiar 
 Letters] these occur : 
 
 ' Words vanish soon, and vapor into air, 
 While Letters on Record stand fresh and fair ; 
 And tell our Nephews, who to us were dear, 
 Who our choice Friends, who our Familiars were.' 
 
 In the heading of 2 Sam. xxi. we are told of 
 ' four valiants of David.' I am unable to adduce 
 any illustration of a similar use of this word, 
 but Red Indian warriors are often called 'braves.' 
 In Nahum, ii. 5, the margin offers ' gallants ' for 
 ' worthies.' Both words are almost disused as sub- 
 stantives. In the verse cited, those who are thus 
 described are the Assyrian leaders. In a petition to 
 the Commons, quoted by Clarendon (Bk. iv. p. 565), 
 mention is made of 'those noble worthies of the 
 House of Peers who concur with your happy votes.' 
 A History of the Worthies of England is one of 
 Fuller's best known works, and The Nine Worthies, a 
 somewhat heterogeneous collection of notable persons, 
 are frequently referred to by our dramatists. 
 
 ' Gallant ' as a noun, when employed at all by us, 
 denotes one who is fine in dress and manner, or else a 
 lover, usually of no honourable kind. It has lost the 
 better signification of a brave man, which it bears in 
 Nahum, ii. 5, and again in the margin of Zech. xi. 2, 
 where it is proposed as a substitute for 'the mighty.' 
 
 E
 
 50 Bible English. 
 
 ' Ancients ' remains as a noun in only one ex- 
 pression, ' the ancients/ by whom we usually mean 
 the Greeks and Romans ; but in Isa. iii. 14, we read, 
 ' The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients 
 (/. e. elders) of His people ;' and so also in several 
 other passages. I have more than once heard a poor 
 person call one advanced in years ' an ancient ;' but 
 many words and phrases linger among the peasantry 
 after they have ceased to fall from the lips or pens of 
 the educated, and much of what is called bad English 
 is only old English. Thus, some one once said to 
 me, ' I worship the dead,' using ' worship ' as in that 
 clause of the Marriage Service already referred to. 
 In a few instances even what might be considered 
 modern slang can show a longer pedigree than many 
 may suppose. 
 
 I have constructed the following sentence, which 
 is apparently full of solecisms ; each of them, however, 
 is more or less in use among the poor, and may be 
 justified by respectable authority, the Bible and 
 Prayer-book in many instances furnishing the ex- 
 amples : ' My mate and I thought to have axed that 
 party for to learn us, if he anyways could, how to 
 get the nest-es of them birds ; but our clothes were 
 like to go to pot, and be clean ruinated by the trees 
 at leastwise that is what we be afeard on and then 
 we reckoned our fathers would have catechised us, 
 for a poor body finds that cloth is jolly dear, and 
 costs a deal of brass, for his price ris wonderful a 
 month agone, and so we let the nest-es bide in Mr. 
 Smith his trees.' 
 
 Although we employ ' mate ' in composition, as
 
 'Bad English: 5 1 
 
 playmate, schoolmate, messmate, &c., the use of the 
 simple word for friend or companion is confined to 
 the lower orders, but it was not always so. Fuller 
 speaks of Aristobulus as ' though no apostle, yet an 
 apostle's mate' (Ch. Hist. I. i. 8); and King Edward 
 says, ' We'll forward towards Warwick arid his mates.' 
 (3 Hen. VI. iv. 7.) 
 
 ' Thought to/ i.e., intended to : 'I thought to 
 promote thee unto great honour." (Num. xxiv. TI.) 
 There is a similar expression in Wisd. xvii. 3, ' While 
 they supposed to lie hid in their secret sins.' 
 
 ' Axed ' is the old form of asked, and is used as 
 late as in Tyndale's version of the Bible, 1534. ' Ys 
 there eny man amonge you which if his sonne axed 
 hym bread, wolde offer him a stone ; or if he axed 
 fysshe, wolde he proffer hym a serpent ?' (S. Matt. vii. 
 9, 10.) See also the quotation from Bale, p. 218. 
 
 ' Party,' applied to a single person, has, except in 
 legal phraseology, an air of slang or vulgarity. It 
 occurs, however, in Tobit, vi. 7. : ' We must make a 
 smoke thereof before the man or the woman, and 
 the party shall be no more vexed.' Shakespeare 
 uses the expression more than once, so does Ben 
 Jonson, and it is rather a favourite word of Fuller's. 
 It occurs also in the third Rubric in the Communion 
 Office : ' If one of the parties so at variance be 
 content to forgive . . . and the other party will not 
 be persuaded to a godly unity,' &c. ; and in the 
 fifth Rubric, in the Marriage Service, the man and 
 the woman are called ' the parties.' Bishop Andrewes 
 even applies the term to God. Commenting on the 
 words, ' I ascend unto My Father and your Father;
 
 52 Bible English. 
 
 to My God and your God,' he says, ' He doth express 
 here the terminus ad quern by the party to Whom, 
 rather than by the place to which, because the party will 
 soon bring us to the place, and to somewhat besides.' 
 (iii. 50.) 'Party' is, indeed, of frequent occur- 
 rence in this prelate's sermons ; in the three on 
 the Passion, for instance, it is found sixteen times, 
 and in many of these cases refers to our Lord. 
 
 ' For to.' In George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical 
 Life, a man in the position of a gentleman, but not to 
 the manner born, betrays this fact by, among other 
 things, using ' for to ' instead of ' to.' No doubt such 
 a practice would now show defective culture and 
 education, but it was once common enough, and may 
 be found over and over again in our translation, e. g., 
 Exod. ix. 1 6 ; S. Luke, iv. 16; Acts, iv. 28, &c. 
 
 ' Learn/ in the sense of teach, occurs several 
 times in the Prayer-book version of the Psalms : 
 ' Lead me forth in Thy truth and learn me.' (xxv. 4.) 
 ' O learn me true understanding.' (cxix. 66.) It is 
 never, however, found in our Bible; we may con- 
 clude, therefore, that this signification of the word 
 was passing away in 1611. Shakespeare, however, 
 has it occasionally, e. g., in the Tempest (i. 2), which 
 was presented at Whitehall in this year, and was 
 probably written about that time. Caliban says to 
 Prospero, 
 
 ' You taught me language ; and my profit on 't 
 Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you 
 For learning me your language.' 
 
 Later still, Fuller, in the Pisgah Sight of Palestine,
 
 ' Bad English: 53 
 
 first published in 1650, remarks of the children who 
 mocked Elijah, ' No doubt the chickens crowed as 
 the cocks had learned them, and followed the pre- 
 cedents of their idolatrous parents.' (II. xii. 22.) 
 
 ' Anyways,' in any wise. ' Were the gods of the 
 nations of those lands anyways able to deliver their 
 lands out of mine hand?' (2 Chr. xxxii. 13.) ' Those 
 who are anyways afflicted or distressed.' (Prayer for 
 all Conditions of Men.) 
 
 ' Nest-es.' The uneducated often make two syllables 
 of such words as nests, posts, fists ; they are in reality 
 clinging to the old form. Wiclif translates, for 
 example, S. Luke, ix. 58, ' Foxis han dennes, and 
 briddis of the eir han nestis.' 
 
 ' Them ' is used for ' those ' (which in such pass- 
 ages the American Prayer-book always substitutes), 
 in the General Confession, Absolution, and else- 
 where, ' Spare Thou them which confess their faults ; 
 restore Thou them that are penitent.' 
 
 ' Like ' means likely in Jer. xxxviii. 9, ' He is like to 
 die for hunger in the place where he is.' Bishop Hall, 
 in his Contemplations, writes, ' It is like the seven 
 years of plenty were not confined to Egypt.' (Of 
 Joseph.} (See also the quotation from Taming of the 
 Shrew, p. 57.) 
 
 ' Go to pot,' i. e. ' be destroyed, or die,' is now 
 regarded as decided slang, but Latimer uses the ex- ' 
 pression in a sermon, ' This is a common saying, 
 " The more wicked the more lucky ;" but they that 
 pertain to God, that shall inherit everlasting life, they 
 must go to the pot.' (I. 466.) Tyndale too (III. 
 no), says that the papal clergy excommunicated
 
 54 Bible English. 
 
 their opponents, whom he styles ' little flock,' and if 
 that had no effect, complained of them to the king. 
 ' And then goeth a part of little flock to pot, and 
 the rest scatter.' Mr. Skeat, in Notes and Queries 
 (Third Series, xi. 277), quotes two curious passages 
 from Piers Plowman's Crede : 
 ' For thei ben nere dede ; 
 And put al in pur clath 
 With pottes on her hedes.' (1222.) 
 
 And again, speaking of friars, 
 
 ' But (i.e. except) he may beggen his bred 
 His bed is y-greithed (i.e. prepared for him) ; 
 Under a pot he shall be put 
 In a pryvye chambre, 
 That he shall lyven ne laste 
 But lytel whyle after.' (1247.) 
 
 Mr. Skeat adds, 'This clearly means that a useless 
 friar is put under a pot, and that he soon dies in 
 consequence.' Probably a full explanation of these 
 extracts, if it could be had, would give the origin of 
 the phrase 'go to pot.' I had at one time thought 
 that perhaps it contained an allusion to i Kings, iv. 
 40, ' There is death in the pot ;' but the words of 
 Piers Plowman's Crede point to some other solution. 
 
 ' Clean ' for ' quite,' is of frequent occurrence in 
 our Bible, e. g. ' Is His mercy clean gone for ever ?' 
 (Ps. Ixxvii. 8.) ' The earth is clean dissolved.' (Isa. 
 xxiv. 19.) 
 
 ' Ruinated ' is found in the heading of Jer. xxxix. ; 
 so in the Faerie Queene, III. viii. 28, 
 
 ' Towres, cities, kingdomes, ye would ruinate 
 In your avengement and despiteous rage.'
 
 1 Bad English' 55 
 
 ' At leastwise ' or ' at the leastwise,' is very com- 
 mon in writings of the time of our translation, though 
 in that, the forms ' at least ' or ' at the least ' are always 
 employed. The vulgar perhaps more usually say 
 ' leastwise ' or ' leastways ' simply. I have not met with 
 this in any good author. 
 
 ' Be ' sometimes occurs in the Bible where now we 
 should put ' are ;' ' We be twelve brethren.' (Gen. xlii. 
 32.) 'The Philistines be upon thee.' (Judges, xvi. 
 20.) So Shakespeare : 
 
 ' Such men as he be never at heart's ease.' 
 
 (Jul. Cats., i. 2.) 
 
 ' Afeard ' is the participle of the old verb affear, as 
 ' afraid ' (which is always used in our translation) is of 
 'affray.' ' Afeard ' constantly occurs in Spenser and 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 ' On ' is found for 'of in i Sam. xxvii. 1 1, in a phrase 
 that is still current ; ' Lest they should tell on us,' /. e. 
 of us. The usage was frequent, e, g. ' We are such 
 stuff as dreams are made on.' (Tempest, iv. i.) 'The 
 bird is dead that we have made so much on.' 
 ( Cymbeline, iv. 2.) ' Amongst so many battles which in 
 ten years time have rent the bowels of England, some 
 on necessity would fall on that day (Sunday).' (Fuller, 
 Ch. Hist. XI. ii. 43.) We still say, ' on purpose.' 
 
 ' Reckoned,' i.e. thought, is now deemed an Ameri- 
 canism, but in Rom. viii. 18, we find, ' I reckon that 
 the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be 
 compared 'with the glory which shall be revealed in us.' 
 
 ' Catechised ' for chastised. Among the poor I have 
 often heard a parent say, ' I catechised him severely,'
 
 56 Bible English. 
 
 not meaning, ' I examined him strictly,' but, ' I gave 
 him a good thrashing.' The first idea that occurs to 
 one is that it is a mistake for chastised, and it may 
 be that this is the case, yet I think it possible that 
 'catechise' has acquired this meaning in a more 
 legitimate fashion. In Acts, xxii. 24, we read that the 
 chief captain commanded that S. Paul ' should be 
 examined by scourging,' and in the 2Qth verse, it is 
 written, 'Then straightway they departed from him, 
 which should have examined him.' In this last 
 passage the margin gives ' tortured ; ' in the former, 
 the context sufficiently explains what sort of examina- 
 tion it was. The same double meaning of questioning 
 and torturing belongs to the word in the original. So 
 also a person placed on the rack was said to be put to 
 the question. Fuller (Holy War, iii. 20) writes, ' They 
 (the Albigenses) might have been reclaimed, if used 
 with gentle means, not catechised with fire and fagot.' 
 And Marlowe's Jew of Malta (ii. 2) says, 
 
 ' Your father has deserved it at my hands, 
 Who, of mere charity and Christian truth, 
 To bring me to religious purity, 
 And as it were in catechising sort, 
 To make me mindful of my mortal sins, 
 Against my will, and whether I would or no, 
 Seized all I had,' &c. 
 
 ' Catechise,' no doubt, is used in these passages with 
 that sort of grim irony which we may trace in Judges, 
 viii. 1 6. 'And he (Gideon) took the elders of the 
 city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with 
 them he taught the men of Succoth;' or, as the 
 margin has it, ' made them to know.' It seems there-
 
 1 Bad English: 57 
 
 fore not impossible that it is by no error or confusion 
 that ' catechise ' is used by some of the poor in the 
 sense to which I have referred. 
 
 ' Body ; ' ' The foolish body hath said in his heart, 
 there is no God.' (Ps. liii. i. Pr. Bk.) Although every- 
 body would agree that anybody might speak of some- 
 body, and be found fault with by nobody, yet ' body ' by 
 itself as signifying person, is now deemed a vulgarism. 
 Angelo, however, speaks of himself as ' an eminent body ' 
 (Meas. for Meas. iv. 4), and Rosalind says, ' A body 
 would think this was well counterfeited.' (As you like 
 it, iv. 3.) 
 
 ' Jolly ' is regarded as slang, and is a word which 
 schoolboys perhaps work harder than any other, but it 
 was employed in serious composition. Latimer in 
 one of his sermons, exclaims, ' Oh, there is a writer 
 hath a jolly text here, and his name is Dionysius.' (i. 
 209.) Fuller writes, ' In the forty-ninth of his (Henry 
 III.) reign no less than sixty-four Abbots and thirty 
 six Priors (a jolly number) with the Master of the 
 Temple, were .... summoned to Parliament.' (Ch. 
 Hist. vi. Hist, of Abbeys.} In the following passages 
 from Howell's Letters and from Shakespeare, 'jolly' is 
 used, as it so often is now, as equivalent to 'very.' 
 ' The young Prince Palatine, and his brother, Prince 
 Robert, having got a jolly considerable army in 
 Holland, &c.' (Howell, I. vi. 29), and Katharine says 
 to Petruchio, 
 
 ' 'Tis like you'll prove a jolly surly groom, 
 That take it on you at the first So roundly.' 
 
 (Tarn, of Shrew, iii. 2.) 
 
 ' Deal ' is usually employed by us with the adjective
 
 58 Bible English. 
 
 great or good prefixed. ' A deal of brass ' would per- 
 haps be considered an inelegant phrase, but ' a great 
 deal ' would excite no comment. ' Deal ' means a 
 portion, and comes from ' dselan ' to divide. In the 
 Old Testament it is always found in the phrase ' tenth 
 deal,'/. tenth part. (Ex. xxix. 40; Lev. xiv. 10. &c.); 
 in the New it occurs twice in the expression 'great deal.' 
 (S. Mark, vii. 36. x. 48.) Latimer speaks of philosophers 
 who said that ' God walked up and down in Heaven, 
 and thinketh never a deal of our affairs.' (i. 34.) 
 Hutchinson (p. 202) writes, 'If the person, vicar or 
 curate be of a corrupt judgement as the most deal be,' 
 &c., and in Jonson's Fox, v. 6, Corvino says, 
 
 ' I'll not justify 
 The other, but he may be some-deal faulty.' 
 
 Having regard then to the strict meaning of the 
 word, it is incorrect to use deal as denoting of necessity a 
 large quantity, for there might be a little deal as well as 
 a great deal, as indeed may be seen in the following 
 from Bishop Hooper (I. 458); 'They (the mariners) 
 thought it good therefore to search the guilty offender 
 by lots, and missed not of their purpose a deal (/. e. a 
 bit, or at all) but found Jonas, the rebellion of God, 
 to be the occasion of their trouble.' 
 
 ' Brass ' as meaning money is now looked on as 
 slang or a provincialism. In S. Matt. x. 9 and similar 
 passages it stands for copper coin, as it does per- 
 haps in the following quotation from Bishop Hall's 
 Satires : 
 
 ' Shame that the Muses should be bought and sold 
 
 For every peasant's brass on each scaffold.' 
 
 (I. iii. 58.)
 
 ' Bad English.' 59 
 
 The same author, however, also uses it for money 
 generally : 
 
 ' Hirelings enow beside can be so base, 
 Tho' we should scorn each bribing varlet's brass.' 
 
 (IV. v. 12.) 
 
 ' His.' ' Its ' is a comparatively modern word, and 
 though it was coming into use at the time that our 
 version was made, it is never employed therein. In 
 modern Bibles indeed it will be found in Lev. xxv. 5, 
 but this is an innovation of the printers. In the 
 edition of 1611 we read, 'That which growethofit 
 own accord,' for ' it ' was sometimes employed where 
 we should now use 'its.' Thus Archbishop Sandys ; 
 ' The gospel is the word of peace, not of contention ; 
 .... of it own nature it is the word of peace ' (p. 285), 
 while in Jonson's Silent Woman (ii. 3) if the passage 
 be correctly printed, we have both ' it ' and ' its ' in the 
 same sentence ; ' Your knighthood itself shall come o'n 
 its knees .... it shall cheat at the twelve penny ordi- 
 nary, it knighthood for its diet all the term time ... it 
 shall fright all it friends with borrowing letters.' 
 Generally however 'his' or 'thereof supply the place 
 of 'its;' e.g., 'They came unto the iron gate that 
 leadeth unto the city, which opened to them of his 
 own accord.' (Acts, xii. 10.) Occasionally some little 
 misapprehension may arise from this ; in Dan. vii. 9, 
 for instance, ' His throne was like the fiery flame, and 
 his wheels like burning fire,' the first ' his ' refers to 
 the Ancient of Days, and the second to throne. 
 
 ' Ris.' There is classical authority for this perfect, 
 which comes from the participle (like ' writ,' Judges,
 
 60 Bible English. 
 
 viii. 14). In the prologue to Jonson's Poetaster, 
 Envy says, 
 
 ' For I am risse here with a covetous hope 
 To blast your pleasures and destroy your sports.' 
 
 Here however ' risse ' is the participle, as it also is 
 in the same writer's Catiline ', iii. 2, but in the second 
 scene of the fourth Act, we have the perfect, when 
 Cicero, addressing the conspirator, asks, 
 
 ' Risse not the consular men, and left their places 
 So soon as thou sat'st down, and fled thy side?' 
 
 And in Cowley's Davideis, we read. 
 
 ' Only He spoke, and everything that is 
 From out the womb of fertile nothing ris.' 
 
 (Book i. 368.) 
 
 'Rose,' too, is often put by the vulgar for 'risen,' 
 but this participle, and others of a similar kind, 
 occurred formerly in the writings of the educated. 
 Bishop Hall's translation of Ps. iii. begins ; 
 
 ' Ah Lord ! How many be my foes ! 
 How many are against me rose ?' 
 
 ' Wonderful.' Dean Alford, in his book on the 
 Queen's English, observes, that though adjectives are 
 frequently put in the place of adverbs, e.g. ' Breathe soft 
 ye winds,' such adjectives are always monosyllables. 
 In this, however, he was mistaken ; the English Bible 
 affording at least one instance to the contrary : ' The 
 house which I am about to build shall be wonderful 
 great.' (2 Chron. ii. 9.) Hooker speaks of ' marvellous 
 slight conjectures,' ' marvellous great suspicion.' (Ecc.
 
 ' Bad English. ' 6 1 
 
 Pol. Preface, iv. i and iv. 4.) Edward VI. in a letter 
 (quoted in Fuller's Ch. Hist. vii. i. 49) mentions the 
 haven at Portsmouth as 'notable great;' Latimer 
 preaches the duty of obeying whatever is commanded 
 by the Crown and Parliament as far forth as it is 
 not ' manifest wicked ' (i. 148) ; while he Warns others 
 that if they do not earnestly strive to reach Heaven, 
 ' the doors will be shut up that ye cannot join, and 
 so without ye shall have wonderful evil lodgings.' 
 (ii. 437.) There are some adjectives ending in 'ly' 
 which are used as adverbs ; partly owing to a mistake 
 caused by their adverbial termination, and partly 
 perhaps to a desire to avoid the cacophonous redupli- 
 cation of the 'ly.' Thus in the 36th Article; 'We 
 decree all such to be rightly, orderly and lawfully 
 consecrated and ordered.' In i Cor. xiii. 5, we are 
 told that charity 'doth not behave itself unseemly,' 
 and we have the adjective and adverb brought into 
 close juxtaposition in S. Jude, 15, 'all their ungodly 
 deeds which they have ungodly committed.' 
 
 ' Agone ' is the past participle of an old verb, ' agon ' 
 to go; it now only remains in the form 'ago.' It is 
 found in i Sam. xxx. 13 ; ' My master left me, because 
 three days agone I fell sick.' ' Agon ' is of frequent 
 occurrence in Chaucer, being also written 'agoo,' 
 ' ago,' and ' agoon.' Bishop Hall says of the laws : 
 
 ' Themis, the scribe of God, did long agone 
 Engrave them deep in during marble stone.' 
 
 Sat. II. iii. 3. 
 
 (See also the quotation from the Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona, p. 87.)
 
 62 Bible English. 
 
 ' Bide,' in the sense of ' stay ' or ' remain,' is now 
 deemed a vulgarism. We find it, however, in Romans, 
 xi. 23 : 'They also, if they bide not still in unbelief, 
 shall be graffed in.' In modern Bibles ' abide ' has 
 been substituted in this passage. In Paradise Re- 
 gained (II. 304), Satan professes wonder 
 
 ' that the Son of God 
 In this wild solitude so long should bide 
 Of all things destitute.' 
 
 ' His.' The termination of the old genitive case 
 was es, as we see in ' whiles ' and ' needes,' already 
 spoken of. The elision of the last vowel is marked 
 by the apostrophe, but a theory arose that this final s 
 was a contraction of his ; that, for instance, ' John 
 Brown's book ' was an abbreviation of John Brown 
 his book ; and even to this day, among the poor at 
 least, such an inscription is common. But formerly 
 the error was well-nigh universal, and authors holding 
 the highest place in English literature accepted it as 
 unquestioned truth. It occurs in our Prayer-book in 
 the Collect for All Conditions of Men, ' for Jesus Christ 
 His sake ;' and in Judith, xiii. 9, ' Holofernes his 
 head.' It was found in more places than this in the 
 earlier editions of the Bible. Archbishop Trench has 
 pointed out that the printers have changed ' Asa his 
 heart' (i Kings, xv. 14), and ' Mordecai his matters' 
 (Esth. iii. 4) into ' Asa's heart,' and ' Mordecai's 
 matters.' (English Past and Present, 2nd edit. p. 
 115.) It is needless to give from other authors 
 examples of an usage so common ; two, however, will 
 be found quoted from Fuller for a different purpose
 
 'Bad English: 63 
 
 at pp. 96, 108, and another from Calfhill, p. 238. The 
 supposition that ' 's ' stood for ' his ' ought to have been 
 discredited long before by the fact that it was no less 
 employed when ' her ' would have been the word 
 contracted ; for we speak of ' Rachel's sepulchre,' 
 ' Rebekah's nurse,' and ' the Virgin's womb.'
 
 64 Bible English. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PECULIARITIES OF CONSTRUCTION. 
 
 MANY words which are still current among us are 
 used in our Bible with an obsolete construction. 
 There are several verbs, for instance, employed in an 
 active sense which they have now lost. 
 
 We might say that Aaron's rod bloomed, but not, 
 as in Numb. xvii. 8, that it ' bloomed blossoms ;' or 
 as in Paradise Lost (iv. 218) : 
 
 ' And all amid them stood the Tree of Life 
 High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit 
 Of vegetable gold.' 
 
 We speak of starving others, but not of ' famish- 
 ing ' them, though they would, of course, be famished 
 in the process. In Zeph. ii. n, however, we read, 
 ' He will famish (in the margin, ' make lean ') all 
 the gods of the earth.' Fuller writes, ' The covetous 
 Caliph he famished to death, and then filled his 
 mouth with melted gold.' (Holy War, iv. 22.) And 
 Adams (ii. 314) observes, ' To prefer a private good 
 before a public, is to famish and starve the whole 
 body to fat a toe or please a finger.' 
 
 The exhortation in the Prayer-book version of
 
 Active and Neuter Verbs. 65 
 
 Ps. xxxiv. 14, ' Seek peace, and ensue it,' is in these 
 days less generally intelligible than the corresponding- 
 rendering in the Bible, ' Seek peace, and pursue it.' 
 ' Ensue ' means to follow, and once had, as ' follow ' 
 lias now, both a transitive and intransitive use. Henry 
 Smith, the silver-tongued preacher, writes : ' Aristotle 
 that ensued Plato, and began the sect of Peripa- 
 tetics . . . resolveth the matter more clearly.' (ii. 
 385.) The simple verb 'sue' is constantly em- 
 ployed by Wiclif, where we have ' follow.' Thus, in 
 the compass of two or three verses, ' I schal sue Thee 
 whider euer Thou go ' . . . ' And He seide to another, 
 Sue thou Me ' . . . ' Another seide, Lord, I schal 
 sue Thee.' (S. Luke, ix. 57, 59, 61.) At present, to 
 ' sue ' means either to ask humbly, /. e. to follow with 
 entreaty (in Job, xi. 19, we have the expression, 
 ' make suit '), or else to follow another as a claimant 
 or complainant in a court of law. (S. Matt. v. 40.) 
 So also cards of the same colour, i. e. which resemble 
 or follow one another, are called a suit ; the different 
 articles of cloth apparel, which joined together make 
 the dress, are a suit of clothes (the jocular phrase 
 ' pair of continuations,' carries out this idea) ; that 
 which follows the model of something else, and so 
 agrees with it, suits or is suitable ; and servants are 
 sometimes warned that no followers (i.e. no suitors) 
 are allowed. 
 
 We ' forbear ' from, or ' refrain ' from this or that ; 
 but both these were once used as transitive verbs : ' Yet 
 many years didst Thou forbear them' (Neh. ix. 30); 
 ' forbearing one another in love ' (Eph. iv. 2) ; ' He 
 that refraineth his lips is wise' (Prov. x. 19); ' The 
 
 F
 
 66 Bible English. 
 
 fierceness of them shalt Thou refrain ;' ' He shall re- 
 frain the. spirit of princes.' (Ps. Ixxvi. 10, 12, Pr. 
 Bk.) Adams, speaking of the unclean spirit which 
 has gone out of a man for a season, says, ' The 
 dromedary, the ungodly, runs not so madly, whiles 
 that infernal rider forbears their sides with his spur ' 
 (ii. 44), and in the song chanted over the supposed 
 body of Imogen occurs the line, ' Ghost unlaid, for- 
 bear thee !' (Cymb. iv. 2.) 
 
 ' Refrain ' means, according to its derivation, to 
 bridle or rein in, and is therefore used with great 
 propriety in the texts quoted above, as also in the 
 dedication of Herbert's Temple, 
 
 ' Turn their eyes hither who shall make a gain, 
 Theirs, who shall hurt themselves or me, refrain.' 
 
 A physician may recover his health, or his pro- 
 perty, or his composure ; but however successful 
 he may be, he is not now said to recover his 
 patient ; but the king of Israel was charged by the 
 Syrian monarch to do this : ' I have sent Naaman 
 my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of 
 his leprosy.' (2 Kings, v. 6.) So in As You Like It 
 (iv. 3), ' I recovered him, bound up his wound.' 
 
 Every one would wish to be rid of an annoyance, 
 and might ask help for that purpose, but in his peti- 
 tion he would not now use the verb in an active 
 sense, as in the Prayer-book version of Ps. Ixxi. i, 
 * Rid me, and deliver me in Thy righteousness,' where 
 the word means ' rescue,' as it does likewise in Gen. 
 xxxvii. 22, ' That he might rid him out of their 
 hands.' Latimer, complaining of the abuses of the
 
 Active and Neuter Verbs. 67 
 
 Ecclesiastical Courts, asks, ' Do they evermore rid 
 the people's business and matters, or cumber and 
 ruffle them?' (I. 52); and in Samson Agonistes, the 
 Jewish hero says, 
 
 ' But, come what will, my deadliest foe will prove 
 My speediest friend, by death to rid me hence.' (1263.) 
 
 ' Rid ' also means to clear away. In 2 Sam. xxii. 
 33, for 'God is my strength and power; and He 
 maketh my way perfect ;' the margin gives, He 
 ' riddeth or looseth ' my way. Fuller writes, ' The 
 Pope had this cleanly and unsuspected conveyance 
 (the Crusades) to rid away those he hated, by send- 
 ing them against infidels.' (Holy War,\. n.) Thus 
 4 rid,' which means to rescue, signifies also to destroy. 
 ' I will rid (margin, ' cause to cease') evil beasts out 
 of the land ' (Lev. xxvi. 6) ; and see the quotation 
 from the Tempest, p. 52. 
 
 A schoolboy sums, or does summing, but the 
 word is seldom employed now as equivalent to 
 reckon or sum up. ' Go up to Hilkiah that he may 
 sum the silver which is brought into the house of 
 the Lord.' (2 Kings, xxii. 4.) So in 2 Hen. IV. (i. i), 
 Morton reminds the Earl of Northumberland, who 
 was grieving for the death of his son, that when he 
 entered on the rebellion, he must have looked forward 
 to such a misfortune as possible : 
 
 ' You cast the event of war, my noble lord, 
 And summ'd the account of chance before you said, 
 Let us make head.' 
 
 ' Fear,' which as a verb means to reverence, or be
 
 68 Bible English. 
 
 afraid of, is always used in this sense in our version, 
 except in one passage (Wisd. xvii. 9), where, as is 
 frequently the case in old writers, it signifies 'to 
 frighten :' ' No terrible thing did fear them.' Latimer 
 (i. 502) introduces the story of Ananias and Sapphira 
 with the words, ' I will show you an ensample, which 
 shall be enough to fear us from lying ;' and in the 
 following from Bishop Andrewes (v. 8) both meanings 
 occur in the same sentence : ' Knowing that we fear 
 honour and power, though it last but for a small 
 time, He feareth us with One whose honour and 
 power lasteth for ever.' The substantive 'fear' is 
 found where we should now write ' fright.' ' Then 
 God changed the spirit of the king into mildness, 
 who in a fear leaped from his throne.' (Esth. xv. 8.) 
 It also stands, not only for the feeling, but the object 
 of fear, and thus signifies God Himself : ' Except 
 the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and 
 the fear of Isaac, had been with me ;' ' And Jacob 
 sware by the fear of his father Isaac.' (Gen. xxxi. 
 42, 53.) ' Fearful ' is generally used now as equivalent 
 to terrible, but in our version it also frequently 
 signifies ' full of fear.' ' Why are ye fearful ?' (S. Matt, 
 viii. 26.) The same may be observed, though the 
 word does not occur in our Bible, in regard to ' awful/ 
 where, indeed, the subjective sense is still more obso- 
 lete than in 'fearful.' Milton's Ode on the Nativity 
 supplies an instance : 
 
 ' And kings sat still with awful eye, 
 As though they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.' 
 
 We have noticed some verbs which are generally
 
 Active and Neuter Verbs. 69 
 
 neuter now, though formerly active. There are others 
 of which the reverse may be observed. We asswage 
 pain, or anger, or sorrow, or hunger ; but we should 
 not generally say of either of these when it subsided 
 that it asswaged. In Gen. viii. i , however, we are told, 
 * The waters asswaged.' The old simple verb ' swage ' 
 is in common use among the poor, both transitively 
 and intransitively, and they would say indifferently, 
 ' The pain swaged,' or ' The medicine swaged the 
 pain.' Latimer, referring to the practice of dressing a 
 corpse or a dying man in the robe of some religious 
 order, says that purgatory was 'swaged and cooled 
 with a Franciscan's cowl put upon a dead man's back.' 
 
 <i- So-) 
 
 ' Stanch ' occurs in the same unusual construction 
 in S. Luke, viii. 44 : ' Her issue of blood stanched.' 
 I have not met with any other instance of this as a 
 neuter verb, nor is any supplied in Johnson's or 
 Richardson's Dictionary, or in the Eible Word Book. 
 
 David had good reason to avoid Saul ; but the ex- 
 pression in i Sam. xviii. n, is obsolete, 'David 
 avoided out of his presence twice.' In the third part 
 of the Homily against Idolatry (p. 2 70) the word is 
 used in the sense of casting out : ' It is the office of 
 godly magistrates to avoid images and idols out of 
 churches and temples.' Fuller writes, ' Arnulphus, a 
 worthlesse and vitious man, was by popular faction 
 lifted up into the Patriarch's chair, but with much ado 
 was avoided,' /'. e. deposed. (Holy War, ii. 2.) 'Avoid' 
 means to empty, and so to leave a place empty, to 
 depart or escape, just as we speak of troops evacuating 
 a city. At present it signifies to shun, or hold back
 
 70 Bible English. 
 
 from, and the following from Latimer shows how the 
 one meaning merged in the other. ' If we would put 
 on this armour .... the devil should be afraid to 
 come at us ; yea, and when he cometh, he shall soon 
 be cast off and avoided.' (i. 510.) 
 
 It might once have been said with equal propriety, 
 ' S. Augustine converted some of the Saxons,' or ' Some 
 of the Saxons converted on the preaching of S. Augus- 
 tine.' Thus, in Isa. vi. 10, 'Lest they see with their 
 eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with 
 their heart, and convert, and be healed.' When this 
 text is quoted in the New Testament, the more usual 
 expression, ' be converted,' is employed. Adams 
 (ii. 95) writes, ' God hath promised forgiveness to him 
 that converts .... but how shalt thou be converted 
 if God withholds His gracious Spirit?' And Latimer, 
 commenting on Jonah's preaching to the Ninevites, 
 says, ' We be many preachers here in England, and we 
 preach many long sermons, yet the people will not 
 repent nor convert. This was the fruit, the effect, and 
 the good that his sermon did, that all the whole city 
 at his preaching converted, and amended their evil 
 living.' (i. 240.) 
 
 ' Suffice ' is not very often used in the passive voice, 
 as in Ruth, ii. 14, 18 : ' She did eat, and was sufficed.' 
 In As you Like it (ii. 7) Orlando, anxious for his faith- 
 ful servant, exclaims 
 
 ' Till he be first sufficed, 
 
 Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger, 
 I will not touch a bit.' 
 
 We may think that a son ' equals ' his father in
 
 Impersonal Verbs. 71 
 
 ability, or ' resembles' him in face, but in speaking of 
 the comparison we should not equal or resemble the 
 one to the other ; but our Bible illustrates both words. 
 ' What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, 
 
 virgin daughter of Zion?' (Lam. ii. 13.) 'Unto 
 what is the kingdom of God like, and whereunto shall 
 
 1 resemble it?' (S. Luke, xiii. 18.) Fuller says of the 
 voice which was heard to issue from a crucifix, in a 
 council at which Dunstan presided, ' Monks equal 
 this (for the truth thereof) to the still, small voice to 
 Elijah, whilst others suspect a forgery.' (Ch. Hist. 
 ii. v. 34.) And the same author, in his PisgaJi Sight 
 of Palestine (II. ii. 29), mentions Sharon as a place 
 ' where plenty of fragrant roses grew, to which Christ, 
 the Church's Spouse, is pleased to resemble Himself.' 
 Latimer has ' assembled ' in this sense (i. 1 88) ; 
 ' Bribes may be assembled to pitch,' /. e. assimilated. 
 
 Two or three impersonal forms which have gone 
 out of use may be noted. ' Write ye also for the Jews, 
 as it liketh you, in the king's name.' (Esth. viii. 8.) 
 So Raleigh : ' It pleased God to let Solomon know 
 that it liked Him that he had not asked the life of his 
 enemies.' (Hist, of World, II. xviii. i.) 
 
 There is a still more obsolete impersonal verb in 
 the Prayer-book version of Ps. cii. 14 :' Itpitieth them 
 to see her in the dust,' /. e. it arouses their pity. 
 Latimer writes to Sir E. Baynton, ' It pitieth mine 
 heart that my lord (Stokesley, Bishop of London), and 
 such as my lord is, can suffer the people to be so 
 craftily deceived.' (ii. 333.) 
 
 ' It repenteth Me that I have made them ' (Gen. 
 vi. 7) is perhaps scarcely a form that is out of date.
 
 72 Bible English. 
 
 1 Repent ' is also one of several verbs which are used 
 reflectively in our Bible, though not so now. For 
 example, ' All the assembly shall assemble themselves ' 
 (Numb. x. 3) ; ' Return to thy mistress, and submit 
 thyself under her hands ' (Gen. xvi. 9) ; ' Acquaint 
 now thyself with Him, and be at peace ' (Job, xxii. 21); 
 * I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself ' 
 (Jer. xxxi. 18); 'Sporting themselves with their own 
 deceivings.' (2 Pet. ii. 13.) 'Disport' is still used 
 thus, but not the simple verb. ' All the ends of the 
 world shall remember themselves.' (Ps. xxii. 27, Prayer- 
 book.) The Bible version has, 'shall remember.' 
 People seldom remember themselves now -a- days, 
 though they frequently forget themselves. (' Remem- 
 ber' is put for ' remind ' in the heading of 2 Pet. i.) 
 In all these instances the usage is too common to need 
 illustration. One, however, is less familiar, as many 
 may know from the way in which the collect for the 
 second Sunday after Easter is often read the em- 
 phasis placed on ' ourselves,' as though it were in 
 apposition with ' we,' showing that the reader is not 
 acquainted with the old reflective verb, ' to endeavour 
 oneself.' This form occurs on two other occasions in 
 the Prayer-book : ' They will evermore endeavour 
 themselves faithfully to observe,' &c. (Pref. in Con- 
 firmation Service) ; '' I will endeavour myself so to do ' 
 (Ordering of Priests). Latimer uses the expression 
 again and again, and in the Homilies it is frequently 
 found. Shakspeare has it once : ' Endeavour thyself 
 to sleep ' (Twelfth Night, iv. 2) ; and Bishop Andrewes 
 writes (i. 336), 'Thus, if we shall endeavour ourselves, 
 and eschew our own wickedness, our hosts shall go
 
 Reflective Verbs. 73 
 
 forth in the strength of the Lord.' The date of this 
 sermon (1598) is about the same as that ascribed to 
 Twelfth Night. The verb, as a reflective, seems to 
 have fallen into disuse when our translation was made. 
 At least, it is never found therein. 
 
 The French ' Javiser ' had once an English repre- 
 sentative : ' Now, therefore, advise thyself what word 
 I shall bring again to Him that sent me ' (i Chron. 
 \.\i. 12); and in the Faerie Queene (III. iii. 59) we 
 read, ' Of which her selfe avising readily.' Spenser has 
 also the substantive ' advisement ' for deliberation in 
 his Vim< of the State of Ireland, p. 624 : ' Another 
 Statute, I remember, which, having beene an auncient 
 English custome, is now upon advisement made an 
 Irish lavve.' This word occurs in i Chron. xii. 19: 'The 
 lords of the Philistines upon advisement sent him 
 away ;' and in the margin of Prov. i. 4, where the text 
 has 'discretion.' The adverb 'advisedly' is still 
 current. 
 
 Some variations from ordinary usage as regards con- 
 struction are to be accounted for as literal renderings 
 of the original. This is more particularly the case in 
 the margin ; but one instance in the text may be 
 noted, because the ear, though not the eye, might so 
 easily be deceived in the meaning of the passage .j 
 ' Woe to the idol shepherd ' (Zech. xi. 1 7), /. e. woe to 
 the shepherd who is worth nothing. The word signifies 
 worthlessness, or nothingness. In Job, xiii. 4, it is 
 translated, 'of no value;' in Jer. xiv. 14, 'a thing of 
 nought.' It is often used in the plural for ' idols ' (e.g. 
 Lev. xix. 4 ; xxvi. i), for, as the apostle reminds us, 
 ' an idol is nothing in the world.' (i Cor. viii. 4.)
 
 74 Bible English. 
 
 We will now take the case of some conjunctions 
 and prepositions which are used in obsolete construc- 
 tions in the Bible or Prayer-book. 
 
 ' Because,' i. e. by cause, conveys not only the reason 
 which prompts an action, but the object to which it is 
 directed. Thus in Wisd. xi. 23, ' Thou winkest at the 
 sins of men, because they should amend ;' and in 
 S. Matt. xx. 31, 'The multitude rebuked them, be- 
 cause they should hold their peace.' Bacon writes, 
 ' Do you not see .... what works of ostentation are 
 undertaken, because there might seem to be some use 
 of great riches ?' (Essay of Riches.} 
 
 There is some redundancy in the phrase, ' and if/ 
 as in S. Matt. xxiv. 48, ' But and if that evil servant,' 
 &c. ' And,' now only employed as a copulative, 
 once also signified ' if,' as indeed it still does in the 
 abbreviated form, ' an,' which, however, is little used 
 now, except as a provincialism and in poetry. Hooker, 
 in the preface to his Ecclesiastical Polity, tells us that 
 Calvin urged the Helvetian cities to pronounce ' an 
 absolute approbation of the discipline of Geneva as 
 consonant with the word of God, without any cautions, 
 qualifications, ifs, or ands.' (ii. 6.) Latimer, after say- 
 ing that avarice brings forth bribe-taking, and bribe- 
 taking perverting of judgment, proceeds : ' There lacks 
 a fourth thing to make up the mess, which (so God 
 help me !) if I were judge, should be hangum tinun, a 
 Tyburn tippet to take with him, and it were the judge 
 of the King's Bench, my lord chief judge of England ; 
 yea, and it were my lord chancellor himself, to Tyburn 
 with him ! ' And again, ' But and if we have this
 
 Reduplications. 75 
 
 livery (/. e. love) .... we shall be known at the last 
 day.' (i. 1 80, 452.) 
 
 Another instance of the same sort is 'or ever.' 
 ' Or ever your pots be made hot with thorns ' (Ps. 
 Iviii. 8, Prayer-book) ; ' Or ever they came at the 
 bottom of the den ' (Dan. vi. 24). A 'Or' is another 
 form of ' ere/ and is connected with the old English 
 ser, which means beginning. ' Or ' is sometimes 
 written ' er,' or 'yer,' which last is found in the edition 
 of 1611 in Numb. xi. 33 ; xiv. n. ' Or ere' is often 
 used ; e.g., 
 
 ' Only let Gallic give me leave awhile 
 To school him once or ere I change my style.' 
 
 (Bishop Hall's Satires, iv. 4, 17.) 
 
 ' Ere ' in course of time was taken for an abbre- 
 viation of ' ever,' and hence we get 'or ever.' Both 
 forms are found in Shakespeare. In Ecclus. xxiii. 20, 
 we read, ' He knew all things, ere ever they were 
 created.' 
 
 'After' is often used in the sense of 'according 
 to.' 'Deal not with us after our sins;' i.e., as our 
 sins have deserved. In the Prayer-book version of 
 Ps. xc. 15, ' Comfort us again now after the time that 
 thou hast plagued us,' means, ' As our sufferings have 
 been long continued, so let our blessings be;' or, as 
 the Bible has it, ' Make us glad according to the 
 days wherein thou hast afflicted us.' Latimer writes, 
 ' Pharao, the king of Egypt, followed with all his host, 
 at their backs, the Red Sea was afore them ; so that 
 there was nothing, after man's reason, but to perish.' 
 (i. 543.) We perhaps should not now put 'after' in
 
 76 Bible English. 
 
 any one of these passages, yet we retain this use of the 
 word in such expressions as, ' He built it after a plan 
 of his own,' or, ' He kept his promise after a sort.' 
 
 ' But ' be out or except. A Scotch cottage is 
 divided into the ' but ' and the ' ben,' the ' but ' being 
 the outer room. Though we frequently use ' but ' in 
 the sense of except, in such a line for instance as, 
 ' None but himself can be his parallel,' it was formerly 
 employed thus in many cases where it would not be 
 admitted now. In Wiclif's translation, for instance, 
 ' Alle ye schuln perische in liik maner : but ye haue 
 penaunce.' (S. Luke, xiii. 3.) 'No man mai do these 
 signes that thou doist, but God be with hym. . . . 
 But a man be borun agen,' &c. (S. John, iii. 2, 3.) In 
 many sentences this sense of ' but ' is obscured by the 
 omission of the negative, which in older English would 
 have been used. Thus, ' Our light affliction which is 
 but for a moment (2 Cor. iv. 17), would stand, if 
 written in full, ' Our light affliction which is not but 
 for a moment ; ' in fact, we have an example of this in 
 an earlier chapter of the same epistle (ii. 5), ' He hath 
 not grieved me, but in part.' Mr. Wright considers 
 that ' but ' is used for ' except ' in the Prayer-book ver- 
 sion of Ps. xix. 3 ; ' There is neither speech nor lan- 
 guage, but their voices are heard among them;' /.<?., 
 the testimony of the heavens to the Divine glory is 
 universal, and there is no race of (as Homer calls 
 them) articulately speaking men in regard to whom 
 God has left Himself without this witness. In accord- 
 ance with this is the Bible rendering, ' There is no 
 speech nor language where their voices are not heard.' 
 The sense, no doubt, in which most people take the
 
 'But* and 1 About: 77 
 
 translation in the Prayer-book would be, that although 
 the heavenly bodies have no actual voice, they do in 
 their beauty and order proclaim their Maker's praise. 
 And it may, I think, be fairly questioned whether this 
 is not the meaning of the passage as given in the 
 Prayer-book, so that it would not be, as Mr. Wright 
 thinks, ' a mistake,' which ' Addison has immortalised ' 
 in the beautiful and well-known lines : 
 
 ' What though no real voice or sound 
 Amid their radiant orbs be found ? 
 In reason's ear they all rejoice, 
 And utter forth a glorious voice ; 
 For ever singing as they shine, 
 " The Hand that made us is Divine."' 
 
 It is of course beside the present mark to discuss 
 which of the two translations best represents the 
 Hebrew. We are only dealing with the signification 
 of a sentence in the English Prayer-book. And it is 
 certainly possible, perhaps probable, that ' but ' here 
 was intended to mean ' nevertheless.' For this ren- 
 dering of the passage has always had its supporters, 
 and our Bible allows it as an alternative in a marginal 
 note, 'Without these their voice is heard.' 
 
 ' About ' is from the same root as ' but,' with the 
 prefix a, of which we shall speak presently. The only 
 obsolete use of it in our Bible is in the phrase 'go 
 about.' When our Lord asks the Jews, ' Why go ye 
 about to kill me?' and they reply, ' Who goeth about 
 to kill thee ?' (S. John, vii. 19, 20) the idea conveyed to 
 us by the English translation is perhaps that of active 
 personal movement undertaken with this object; some-
 
 7 8 Bible English. 
 
 thing like that which in i Pet. v. 8 is asserted of 
 the devil. But the word rendered ' go about ' simply 
 means ' to seek/ and is so translated five verses later, 
 'Is not this he whom they seek to kill?' The first 
 book of Hooker's great work opens with the words, 
 ' He that goeth about to persuade a multitude that 
 they are not so well governed as they ought to be, 
 shall never want attentive and favourable hearers.' 
 
 ' Beyond,' i.e. by yon or yonder, is also used in a 
 peculiar sense with the verb 'go' in i Thess. iv. 6, 
 ' that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in 
 any matter.' To 'go beyond' is now to be more 
 advanced, to outstrip, or to pass by; it no longer 
 signifies ' to overreach.' Wolsey, acknowledging that 
 in the matter of the divorce Henry VIII. had out- 
 witted him, says of Anne Bullen : 
 
 ' There was the weight that pulled me down ; O Cromwell, 
 The king has gone beyond me.' (Henry VIII., iii. 2.) 
 
 Jonson has ' outgo ' in the same way : 
 
 ' Whom hast thou dealt with, 
 Woman or man, this day, but have outgone thee 
 Some way.' (The Devil is an Ass, v. 4.) 
 
 Dr. Johnson says, ' At before a person is seldom 
 used otherwise than ludicrously ; as, he longed to be 
 at him, that is, to attack him.' This may be the case 
 now in most instances, although there is nothing 
 ludicrous in saying that one person spoke at another ; 
 i.e., spoke against him, meaning to be heard by him, 
 although ostensibly addressing himself to some one 
 else. The Bible, however, supplies at least two other
 
 'At: 79 
 
 phrases in which ' at ' is prefixed to a person. ' Come 
 not at your wives' (Exod. xix. 15); 'Her father shall 
 hold his peace at her.' (Num. xxx. 4.) In neither 
 text should we now use this preposition. Shakespeare 
 writes : 
 
 ' Madam, he hath not slept to-night ; commanded 
 None should come at him.' (Winter's Tale, ii. 3.) 
 
 A third example of the use of ' at ' before a person 
 is rather a literal rendering of the Hebrew than itself 
 an English expression, ' As for all his enemies he 
 puffeth at them,' and again, ' I will set him in safety 
 from him that puifeth at him.' (Ps. x. 5; xii. 5.) In 
 the first of these passages the Prayer-book translation 
 is ' defieth,' in the second ' swelleth against.' We still 
 speak of ' breathing defiance,' and we may also com- 
 pare Horace (Sat. I. i. 20) : 
 
 ' Quid causae est, merito quin illis Jupiter ambas 
 Iratus buccas inflet?' 
 
 ' At peace,' ' at ease,' ' at rest,' are familiar expres- 
 sions, but ' at quiet' (Judg. xviii. 27) has fallen out of 
 use. The porter in Macbeth (ii. 3) exclaims, ' Knock ! 
 knock ! never at quiet !' 
 
 But the most interesting phrase in which 'at' 
 occurs (having regard to the important theological 
 terms which are derived from it) is 'at one,' as in 
 Acts, vii. 26, ' He (Moses) showed himself unto them 
 as they strove, and would have set them at one again;' 
 and in 2 Mace. i. 5, ' God hear your prayers, and be 
 at one with you.' Thus the peacemaker was said to 
 atone disputants. So Jonson, ' If he had been cool
 
 8o Bible English. 
 
 enough to tell us that, there had been some hope to 
 atone you ; but he seems so implacably enraged.' 
 {Silent IVoman, iv. 2.) The verb does not occur in 
 the Bible, but the substantive is found several times, 
 and signifies satisfaction or propitiation, under -the 
 Levitical law: but in Rom. v. n, it means 'recon- 
 ciliation,' ' We also joy in God through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the 
 atonement.' So Bishop Jewel, as translated by Lady 
 Bacon, says towards the end of his Apology, ' They 
 and we might easily be brought to atonement touch- 
 ing all these matters, were it not that ambition, glut- 
 tony, and excess did let it.' (iii. 107.) The word is 
 now applied not only to the reconciliation of man to 
 God effected by our Saviour, but to the sacrifice in 
 virtue of which that reconciliation was perfected. 
 Christopher Harvey writes : 
 
 ' Lord Jesus. Thou the Mediator art 
 
 Of the New Testament, 
 And fully didst perform Thy double part 
 
 Of God and Man, when sent 
 To reconcile the world, and to atone 
 'Twixt it and Heaven, of two making one.' 
 
 ( The Synagogue j the Priest.) 
 
 There are many probably to whom S. Paul's state- 
 ment, ' I know nothing by myself (i Cor. iv. 4) offers 
 some difficulty. If the words stood alone, it would 
 be thought that the apostle was disclaiming all know- 
 ledge concerning the Divine mysteries, save such as 
 had been revealed to him by God ; but then it would 
 be difficult to attach any meaning to the words which
 
 'By? 8 1 
 
 immediately follow, ' Yet am I not hereby justified.' 
 The sense of the passage is, that he knows nothing 
 against himself, but yet this acquittal of his own con- 
 science is not sufficient to justify him. This use of 
 ' by ' is found in some of our old writers, though, 
 according to Archbishop Trench, it is 'not common 
 even in our earlier literature.' The following instances, 
 however, may be adduced in illustration. Latimer 
 writes, ' Sometimes I say more by him than I am able 
 to prove; this is slandering.' (i. 518.) In Spenser's 
 View of the State of Ireland, p. 610, Irenseus says that 
 some of the Irish laws led to evil rather than good 
 results ; on which Eudoxus asks, ' Whether do you 
 meane this by the common law of the realme, or by 
 the Statute Lawes, and Actes of Parlyaments?' The 
 other replies, ' Surely by them both.' In Love's 
 Labour's Lost (iv. 3) : 
 
 ' For all the wealth that ever I did see 
 I would not have him know so much by me.' 
 
 And again (v. 2) : 
 
 ' Though my mocks come home by me, 
 I will now be merry.' 
 
 In Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour (iv. 4) 
 we have, ' He knows some notorious jest by this gull 
 that he hath him so obsequious;' and in the Silent 
 Woman (iv. i), 'An intelligent woman, if she know 
 by herself the least defect, will be most curious to hide 
 it.' Again, in the Poetaster (v. i), Lupus, the obse- 
 quious tribune, having got hold of one of Horace's 
 papers, is trying to show that it is a libel on the 
 
 G
 
 82 Bible English. 
 
 Emperor, ' Is not here an eagle, and is not that eagle 
 meant by Caesar, ha?' A little later in the same scene 
 Cresar asks : 
 
 ' Who was it, Lupus, that informed you first, 
 That this was meant by us ?' 
 
 See also the quotation from Jewel, p. 256. 
 
 Lastly, Bishop Sanderson observes, ' Far be it 
 from us to judge men's hearts, or to condemn men 
 for that we know not by them.' (ii. 37.) 
 
 ' By ' was also used for ' during,' although in our 
 version this signification is always found in the same 
 phrase, ' by the space of,' e.g. Acts, vii. 42 ; xx. 31. 
 In Passus, vi. 102, of the Vision of Piers the Plowman, 
 Piers having made his will, says, 
 
 ' And with the residue and the remenaunte bi the Rode of 
 
 Lukes ! 
 
 I wil worschip ther-with Treuthe bi my lyue'(z>. during 
 my life). 
 
 In the Prayer-book version of Ps. xv. 4, we have, 
 ' He that setteth not by himself, but is lowly in his 
 own eyes ;' we are told also that David's ' name was 
 much set by,' or as the margin has it, ' was precious ' 
 (i Sam. xviii. 30) ; and it is among the charges 
 brought agairist Jerusalem, ' In thee have they set 
 light by father and mother.' (Ezek. xxii. 7.) 'Set 
 by ' is no longer employed for ' value ' or ' honour,' 
 though to set great or little store by a thing is a not 
 uncommon expression. Latimer says that Cardinal 
 Beaufort persuaded Queen Margaret that if Duke 
 Humphrey were in such authority, ' the people would
 
 'O/: 8 3 
 
 honour him more than they did the king, and the 
 king should not be set by' (i. 119) ; and Fuller relates 
 that Queen Mary restored all ecclesiastical revenues 
 which had been annexed to the crown,' protesting ' she 
 set more by her salvation than by ten kingdomes.' 
 (Holy War, v. 8.) Bishop Andrewes, in the following 
 passage, uses ' set ' without the accompanying pre- 
 position in the same sense, ' Sure the shame was 
 great ; how could He make so small account of it ? 
 and the cross heavy ; how could He set it so light ?' 
 
 (ii- I75-) 
 
 ' Of ' is often employed in places where we should 
 now put other prepositions. In the following cases it 
 stands for ' by :' ' When thou art bidden of any man ' 
 (S. Luke, xiv. 8) ; ' I am apprehended of Christ 
 Jesus' (Phil. iii. 12) ; 'Paul is kindly entertained of 
 the barbarians.' (Heading of Acts, xxviii.) And in 
 the Collect for the 25th Sunday after Trinity, we 
 pray that God's faithful people ' may of Thee be plen- 
 teously rewarded.' The American Prayer-book sub- 
 stitutes ' by ' in this place. Bacon, in his Essay of 
 Prophecies, writes : ' As for Cleon's dream, I think it 
 was a j est ; it was that he was devoured of a long 
 dragon.' 
 
 ' Of sometimes takes the place of ' for :' ' He 
 was desirous to see Him of a long season' (S. Luke, 
 xxiii. 8) ; 'Of long time he had bewitched them.' 
 (Acts, viii. n.) Thus, Bishop Hall, in his Contem- 
 tetnplations, ' Abraham takes possession ... of that 
 land . . . wherein his seed should not be settled of 
 almost five hundred yeeres after ;' and again, he re- 
 presents Abraham as saying to Isaac, ' Alas ! I am
 
 84 Bible English. 
 
 full of dayes, and now of long lived not but in thee ' 
 (of Abraham, and of Isaac sacrificed). We find also 
 the expressions, ' The zeal of Thine house ' (S. John, 
 ii. 17), and ' a zeal of God.' (Rom. x. 2.) Tyndale 
 writes, ' They think that to be the very service of 
 God, which is but a blind superstition, for zeal of 
 which they yet persecute the true service of God.' 
 (iii. 6.) 
 
 'Of is likewise used for 'from;' ' of a child,' 
 signifies 'from childhood' in S. Mark, ix. 21. So 
 Jonson, in Every Man in his Humour (II. i.) 
 
 ' I took him of a child up at my door, 
 And christened him.' 
 
 Latimer says, ' The king . . . deposed him ot 
 the thousand pounds of possessions' (i. 6), and ' It 
 is only brotherly love and my conscience which com- 
 pelleth me ... to exhort you to desist of your pro- 
 posed blasphemy.' (ii. 318.) In the Litany, ' O God, 
 the Father of heaven ' means the Father from heaven 
 (Pater de ccelis); and our Lord so speaks of Him 
 in S. Luke, xi. 13 (6 Trarrjp 6 t obpavov) though our 
 translators have rendered it ' your Heavenly Father.' 
 So also in the Nicene Creed, ' God of God, Light 
 of Light, very God of very God,' is not expressive of 
 the superlative degree (as we might call the Bible 
 the ' Book of books/ or God the ' King of kings,' 
 meaning the best book, the highest of kings), but is 
 exactly equal to ' from,' and conveys the doctrine 
 that the Second Person of the Godhead (to use the 
 Apostle's language) is the brightness of the Father's 
 glory, standing in the same relation to Him as the
 
 8 S 
 
 light does to the sun.' (Dean Goulburn on the 
 Communion Office.} 
 
 'Of is sometimes omitted, especially after the 
 word ' manner.' One such instance occurs in our 
 Bible, for in Rev. xviii. 12, we read of ' all manner 
 vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most pre- 
 cious wood.' Thus, Latimer, ' You must consider 
 what manner an enemy he is that fighteth against 
 us' (i. 492); and Andrewes speaks of our Lord hang- 
 ing on the cross ' in the midst of other manner 
 persons than Moses aad Elias.' (i. 38.) And again, 
 ' Here is now a joy set before us, another manner 
 joy than was before Him.' (ii. 184.) The same 
 omission is found after other expressions, e. g. ' The 
 noise was in the beast's belly like unto the questing of 
 thirty couple hounds.' (Morte D' Arthur, i. 17.) ' In 
 which kind axioms or principles more general are 
 such as this.' (Hooker, Ecc. Pol. I. viii. 5.) 'First view 
 these and the rest home rarities.' (Fuller, Holy State, 
 p. 128.) ' Notwithstanding all these preparations on 
 this side the sea.' (Clarendon, Bk. iv. p. 622.) To 
 leave out ' of after side, as in this last example, is 
 not uncommon now, and we frequently find in bu- 
 siness communications such a phrase as, ' I enclose 
 copy letter received this morning.' 
 
 We should now use ' with ' instead of 'of in 
 Haggai, ii. 3, ' Is it not in your eyes in comparison 
 of it as nothing ?' So in Jonson's Catiliii, iv. 5 : 
 
 ' The tribune is provided of a speech 
 To lay the envy of the war on Cicero.' 
 
 In the phrase, ' Avenge me of mine adversary '
 
 86 Bible English. 
 
 (S. Luke, xviii. 3), ' of would be now represented by 
 ' on,' as also in the following from Fuller, who states 
 that William the Conqueror's confirmation of King 
 Edward's laws gave little satisfaction, ' perchance 
 because but a personal act, and but partially done, 
 and no whit obligatory of his posterity.' (Ch. Hist. 
 III. i. 14.) In the Comedy of Errors also (iii. 2) the 
 Syracusan Antipholus says, 
 
 ' Sweet mistress, what your name is else, I know not, 
 Nor by what wonder you do hit of mine.' 
 
 That the reverse of this sometimes occurs, and 
 that ' on ' is found where now ' of would be expected, 
 has been already noticed (p. 55). 'On' was a par- 
 ticle used as a prefix, another form of which is ' a,' 
 or ' an.' With some few words they are still employed 
 almost indifferently, and we say ' on fire,' or ' afire,' 
 ' on foot,' or ' afoot,' ' on board,' or ' aboard.' ' Asleep ' 
 has quite superseded ' on sleep,' which, however, 
 occurs in Acts, xiii. 36. In S. Matt. iv. 2, it is 
 written, ' He was afterward an hungred.' So Shake- 
 speare, ' I am not a-hungry.' (Merry Wives of Wind- 
 sor, I. i.) Fuller says that it 'sounds much to the 
 commendation of Cambridge that, like a pure Crystall- 
 Glass, it would preferre rather to flie a pieces, and be 
 dissolved, than to endure Poison put into it.' (Ch. 
 Hist. I. v. 2.) We should now write ' in pieces.' 
 ' In,' however, is occasionally put for ' on ; ' and the 
 same author, speaking of the reconciliation between 
 Ridley and Hooper before their martyrdom, observes, 
 ' High time then to period their passion before the 
 sun (of their life) went down in their wrath.' (Ch.
 
 Hist. vii. i. 29.) So in the Lord's Prayer, ' Thy will 
 be done in earth,' and in the heading of S. Matt. v. 
 we read of ' the Sermon in the Mount.' 
 
 ' To,' like ' of,' is sometimes used for ' for ; ' 
 ' We have Abraham to our father ' (S. Luke, iii. 8) ; 
 'Which by His precious bloodshedding He hath 
 obtained to us ' (Exhortation in Communion Office), 
 where ' to ' has been changed to ' for ' in the Ameri- 
 can Prayer-book. Bacon, in his Essay of Plantations, 
 advises, ' Let the main part of the ground employed 
 to gardens or corn be to a common stock;' and in 
 the Two Gentlemen of Verona (III. i.), the duke, wish- 
 ing to take lessons in love-making from Valentine, 
 says, 
 
 ' Now, therefore, would I have thee to my tutor, 
 For long agone I have forgot to court.' 
 
 ' To ' is also a prefix, having an intensive force, 
 signifying more particularly division, like the Latin 
 dis. When Arcyte's horse was startled by the fire 
 issuing from the earth, the rider was thrown 
 
 ' On the pomel of his hed, 
 That in the place he lay as he were ded, 
 His brest to-brosten with his sadel bow.' 
 
 (Chaucer, KnightJs Tale, 2693.) 
 
 ' All ' often precedes a word with this prefix, and 
 in later writers the 'to 'was sometimes joined on to 
 this, and sometimes written as a separate word. 
 This last is the case in the only instance in which the 
 form occurs in our version : ' And a certain woman 
 cast a piece of millstone upon Abimelech's head, and
 
 88 Bible English. 
 
 all to brake his scuir (Judges, ix. 53); where brake 
 might be taken by some to be the infinitive ' break/ 
 and has indeed been so printed in more than one 
 edition of the Bible. Latimer writes to one who was 
 offended with him, ' Peradventure ye will set pen to 
 paper, and all to rattle me in a letter' (ii. 419) ; and 
 Milton tells how Wisdom's wings 
 
 ' In the various bustle of resort 
 Were ail-to ruffled, and sometimes impaired.' 
 
 (Comus, 380.) 
 
 ' To ' equals ' with ' in the phrase ' agree to,' e. g., 
 ' To him they agreed ;' ' To this agree the words of 
 the prophets.' (Acts, v. 40 ; xv. 15.) The French 
 expression, agreer d is similar. Hooker says that 
 man will eventually reach to like knowledge with the 
 angels : ' That which agreeth to the one now, the 
 other shall attain unto in the end.' {Ecc. Pol. I. vi. i.) 
 The French also say obeir d; and in Rom. vi. 16, 
 we find the same construction, ' His servants ye are 
 to whom ye obey.' 
 
 ' Go to ' was a common interjection, though now 
 out of use, and employed either to call attention and 
 encourage to exertion, or by way of rebuke. ' Go to, 
 let us make brick' (Gen. xi. 3, 4, 7) ; ' Go to now, ye 
 rich men, weep and howl.' (S. Jam. v. i.) In Jon- 
 son's Fox (iii. 6), a husband says to his wife, who 
 resisted one of his commands, ' Go to, show yourself 
 obedient and a wife.' In the translation of a sermon 
 by Latimer before Convocation, the words are used in 
 the same sense as in Gen. xi. 3, 'Go ye to, good 
 brethren and fathers, for the love of God, go ye to ;
 
 To' in connection with Verbs. 
 
 and seeing we are here assembled, let us do some- 
 thing whereby we may be known to be the children of 
 light.' (i. 51.) The Latin is ' agUe.' 
 
 In the Prayer-book version of Ps. cxix. 126, we 
 read, ' It is time for thee, Lord, to lay to thine hand.' 
 In the Bible it runs, 'It is time for thee, Lord, to 
 work.' Stephano uses 'lay to' for 'apply,' when 
 addressing Caliban, ' Monster, lay to your fingers ; 
 help to bear this away ' (Temp. IV. i.) ; and in the 
 Oxford Reasons against the Covenant, ascribed to 
 Bishop Sanderson, and printed among his works (iv. 
 394), the clergy say, ' We should very ill requite (the 
 Bishops) for laying their hands upon us, if we should 
 now lay to our hands to root them up, and cannot tell 
 for what.' 'Put to' is similarly employed; ' If the 
 iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then 
 must he put to more strength.' (Eccles. x. 10.) The 
 phrase is only used by us of fastening horses to a 
 carriage or of partly closing a door. Bishop Andrewes, 
 however, writes, ' Christ comes now to put to a spark of 
 fire ; that is, of faith '; and again, ' In spiritual matters 
 we think to do well enough, though we never put to our 
 endeavour.' (v. 519, 530.) 'Set to' has much the 
 same signification in the text, ' He that hath received 
 his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.' 
 (S. John, iii. 33.) We speak of an army being worsted, 
 or put to flight, but the expression in 2 Kings, xiv. 12, 
 ' Judah was put to the worse before Israel,' is obsolete. 
 'This Claudius is so mighty of goods, whereof he 
 getteth good knights, that he putteth these two kings 
 the most part to the worse.' (Morte <? Arthur, i. 8.) 
 ' To see to,' ' to seek to,' and ' to shut to,' are, I think,
 
 Bible English. 
 
 the only remaining instances in which this preposition 
 is used with a verb in what is now an unusual way. 
 The two tribes and a half built ' a great altar to 
 see to' (Josh. xxii. 10); i.e., to behold. Bishop 
 Andrewes remarks that in sleep ' we lie to see to little 
 better than dead for a time, yet in the morning we 
 awake and stand up notwithstanding' (ii. 192); and 
 in Comus (620) the Spirit speaks of 
 
 ' A certain shepherd lad 
 Of small regard to see to, yet well skill'd 
 In every virtuous plant and healing herb.' 
 
 ' Seek to ' for ' resort to ' occurs more than once in 
 our Bible, e.g., 'All the earth sought to Solomon' 
 (i Kings, x. 24) ; Adams says, ' He (God) was despised 
 when He sought, and will despise when He is sought 
 to.' (ii. 217.) When the angels 'shut to the door' 
 against the men of Sodom (Gen. xix. 10), it is meant 
 that they closed it entirely. We do not use the expres- 
 sion at all, but sometimes, as has just been remarked, 
 we speak of ' putting the door to,' i.e., closing it nearly, 
 but not altogether. 
 
 'With' now and then occupies the place of 'by.' 
 ' Being led with their appetite, they asked delicate 
 meats' (Wisd. xix. ii), and in the Contents of S. Luke 
 viii. we have, ' Christ . . . attended with his apostles 
 propoundeth the parable of the sower.' Fuller writes, 
 ' Within fifteen dayes, assisted with the Duke of Spole- 
 tum, Frederick recovered all which was wonne from 
 him.' (Holy War, iv. i.) 
 
 ' Away with ' is used in two different senses in the 
 Bible. One of them is not obsolete : ' Away with
 
 With and Without. 91 
 
 him ! away with him ! crucify him !' (S. John, xix. 15); 
 but the other is more rare : ' The new moons and sab- 
 baths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with ; ' 
 i.e., I cannot endure. (Isa. i. 13.) Bishop Fisher wrote 
 from his prison in a letter quoted by Fuller (Ch. Hist. 
 v. iii. 12), 'Now in mine age, my stomake may not 
 away but with a few kinds of meats.' And in Jonson's 
 Bartholomew Fair (i. i) one of the characters, ex- 
 pressing his intention to eat roast pig, says, ' I will be 
 no Jew ; I could never away with that stiff-necked 
 generation.' 
 
 ' Without ' stands where we should put ' beyond ' 
 in 2 Cor. x. 13: ' We will not boast of things without 
 our measure.' Wiclif has 'ouer mesure,' both here 
 and in the fifteenth verse. Tyndale, Cranmer, and 
 Geneva give ' above ' in the former passage, and the two 
 first ' out of in the second, where the Geneva Version 
 has ' without the compas of our measure.' Cicero says 
 to Catiline : 
 
 ' What is there here in Rome that can delight thee, 
 Where not a soul, without thine own foul knot, 
 But fears and hates thee ?' (Catiline, iv. 2.)
 
 92 Bible English. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF MISTAKES THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE CHANGED 
 MEANING OF WORDS STILL IN USE. 
 
 IN many instances the gradual change which has taken 
 place in the meaning of words has rendered our trans- 
 lation open to misconception ; in fact, more, and more 
 serious mistakes arise from this source than from the 
 use of terms which are no longer current at all. For 
 in the latter case the obscurity is at once apparent, 
 but in those examples which I am about to produce, 
 persons who are' only conversant with the modern 
 signification of the words employed are led into error 
 from supposing that no other sense ever belonged to 
 them than that with which they are now familiar. 
 
 Thus, those who disparage all dogma (except their 
 own particular one, that all dogma is valueless), are 
 fond of adducing the text, ' Pure religion and un- 
 defiled before God and the Father is this : to visit the 
 fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep 
 himself unspotted from the world.' (S. Jam. i. 27.) 
 Here, some would argue, we get on apostolic authority 
 the marrow and essence of all true religion ; and we 
 find that it is the works which a man does, not the 
 faith which he professes, that are of real consequence. 
 This is, as Paley, in his sermon on the text, says, as
 
 'Religion! 93 
 
 though one were to mistake the description of the fruit 
 or flower of a plant for that of its root and fibres. 
 The Greek word, indeed (dprtaiceia.), does not favour 
 this misapprehension, nor at the time of the trans- 
 lation did the English equivalent represent the ori- 
 ginal so faultily as it seems to do now, for ' religion ' 
 had not then acquired in all cases so extensive a 
 meaning as it usually bears at present. It was fre- 
 quently employed of the outward expression of the 
 inward belief. Milton speaks of the heathen who 
 changed the glory of God, 
 
 ' Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 
 With gay religions full of pomp and gold.' 
 
 (Par. Lost, i. 372.) 
 
 In the heading of Lev. xxvi. we are told that the second 
 verse treats of 'religiousness.' On referring to it, we 
 shall see that it is altogether busied with external 
 manifestations of devotion : ' Ye shall keep my sab- 
 baths, and reverence my sanctuary; I am the Lord.' 
 In like manner, Mai. i. 6-12 is described as a com- 
 plaint of Israel's ' irreligiousness ; ' and the unsatis- 
 factory nature of their sacrifices and offerings forms 
 the burden of these verses. Adams (ii. 84) uses reli- 
 gion in this way when he says, ' Religion is God's 
 livery, which once getting on their backs, they think 
 themselves safe ; and, as many a lewd fellow doth a 
 nobleman's cloth, make it a countenance and pro- 
 tection to their wicked lives.' In Jonson's Catiline 
 (v. 4), when the detected Lentulus is about to be 
 imprisoned, Caesar says :
 
 94 Bible English. 
 
 1 But first 
 Let Lentulus put off his praetorship.' 
 
 And when this has been effected he adds : 
 
 ' So now there's no offence done to religion.' 
 
 We may compare the word ' religious,' as applied to 
 our sovereigns in the Prayer for Parliament, which of 
 course is used in regard to the reverence due to the 
 9 ? office, unaffected by the good or bad personal char- 
 acter of the monarch ; ' the powers that be are 
 ordained of God.' (Rom. xiii. i.) The expression 
 'sacred Majesty' in the dedication of our Bible to 
 King James is similar. So also, a ' religious house ' 
 or a ' religious life ' may mean a house or life bound 
 by an external rule, as in monasteries. Tyndale 
 speaks of erring monks after a short penance being 
 ' sent to another place of the same religion,' i.e., 
 monastic order, (ii. 128.) S. James, then, is pointing 
 out that the visible fruits of the invisible spiritual life 
 are not to be sought in mere ceremonialism, but in 
 charity and purity ; and so the well-known passage in 
 Isa. Iviii. 6, 7, is aptly quoted among the marginal 
 references. Thus likewise in the preceding verse he 
 says, ' If any man among you seem to be religious ' 
 (dprjffKos), i. e., outwardly devout, and attentive to 
 external observances, ' and bridleth not his tongue, but 
 deceiveth his own heart, that man's religion is vain.' 
 In the late Canon Kingsley's Village Sermons there is 
 one, though not on either of these texts, entitled 
 ' Religion not Godliness,' which is, in fact, a protest 
 against the confusion of thought that is caused by 
 using these two words as synonymous.
 
 'Sincerity.' 95 
 
 Again, those who believe that there is a visible 
 Church of Christ, which is His mystical Body, and 
 that therefore it is wrong to countenance schism, or 
 to imply in any way that separation from the Church 
 is of no consequence, are sometimes told that at all 
 events they are much more bigoted than S. Paul, who 
 wrote, ' Grace be with all them that love our Lord 
 Jesus Christ in sincerity.' (Eph. vi. 24.) Many would 
 no doubt feel sure that the interpretation which they 
 put upon these words, who find in them an argument 
 for attaching no importance to outward communion 
 with the Holy Catholic Church, must be mistaken, 
 since such a meaning would be so inconsistent with 
 other parts of the apostle's teaching, but yet they 
 might not be able to reconcile the seeming discre- 
 pancy. The difficulty, such as it is, arises from the 
 difference between English of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, at which time our translation was made, and 
 that of the present day. Any one who is able to 
 consult the original will see at once that the word 
 rendered 'sincerity' means 'incorruption,' which is 
 given in the margin ; but this meaning two hundred 
 and sixty years ago was also conveyed by the term in 
 the text. ' Sincere ' is said to be derived from sine 
 cera, i.e., without wax, and to refer to honey which 
 has been strained. However this may be, it had both 
 in Latin and English the sense of ' pure ' or ' unadul- 
 terated,' as well as that of 'honest' and 'true,' to 
 which it is now confined. The word translated ' sin- 
 cere' (Phil. i. 10) is 'pure' in 2 Pet. iii. i. In the 
 Homilies ' sincere ' occurs repeatedly as equivalent to 
 'incorrupt;' e./>., 'You may understand what manner
 
 96 Bible English. 
 
 of ornaments were in the temples in the Primitive 
 Church in those times which were most pure and 
 sincere.' (Against Idolatry, pt. i. p. 188.) Fuller writes, 
 'As for Ignatius, he cannot distinctly be known in 
 Ignatius his Epistles, such their insincerity, adulterate 
 mixture, and interpolations.' (Ch. Hist. XI. xi. 5.) 
 At present we employ ' genuine ' in the same way, 
 and may speak with equal propriety of a genuine 
 person, or genuine kindness, or genuine cod-liver oil. 
 Very serious practical results have followed from 
 the rendering of i Cor. xi. 29, ' He that eateth and 
 drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to 
 himself.' It had been well if in this place the trans- 
 lators had swerved from the Bishops' Bible, and in 
 the text, instead of only in the margin, followed the 
 Rheims Version, which is here more accurate, ' eateth 
 and drinketh judgment to himself.' A reference to 
 the succeeding verses will show that the apostle is 
 speaking of temporal chastisements, not of eternal 
 perdition. No doubt, in any case the words convey 
 a solemn warning against a wilful profanation, or even 
 a formal and careless reception of the Holy Sacra- 
 ment ; but the text in its present guise, cited as it is 
 in the Exhortation in our Communion Office, has 
 prevented many faithful but trembling souls from 
 fulfilling their Saviour's command, lest, not being 
 duly prepared, they should unwittingly commit an 
 unpardonable sin. The rendering was never a happy 
 one, but formerly ' damnation ' was not, as at present, 
 almost exclusively confined to the sense of eternal 
 punishment. Thus in Chaucer's Knightds Tale 
 (H77):-
 
 Damnation and Judgment. 97 
 
 ' For wel thou wost thyselven veraily, 
 That thou and I be damned to prison 
 Perpetuel.' 
 
 Wiclif's translation of S. John, viii. 10, n, runs 
 thus : ' No man hath dampned thee ? . . . . nether I 
 schal dampne thee.' Augustine Bernhard, dedicating 
 some of Latimer's posthumous sermons to the Duchess 
 of Suffolk, states that that reformer generally preached 
 twice every Sunday ' to the great shame, confusion, 
 and damnation of unpreaching prelates' (Lat. i. 320); 
 and Bishop Hooper writes, ' I damn not the law, that 
 is good ; but these thieves that abuse the law ; ' and 
 again he speaks of the unjust magistrate who 'for 
 lucre or affection damneth him the law quitteth, and 
 saveth him the law condemneth.' (1.467,472.) 'Judge' 
 is often used for 'condemn;' e.g., 'Out of thine own 
 mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant ' 
 (S. Luke, xix. 22); and again, 'Let not him which 
 eateth not judge him that eateth.' (Rom. xiv. 3.) 
 Bishop Sanderson, in a sermon on this last text, 
 observes, 'To judge, as it is here taken, is as much 
 as to condemn and so the word Kpiveiv is often 
 taken in the worser ense for KaraKpiveiv .... It 
 is a trope for which both in this and in divers other 
 words, we are not so much beholden to good arts as to 
 bad manners. Things that are good or indifferent we 
 commonly turn to ill by using them the worst way ; 
 whence it groweth that words of good or indifferent 
 signification in time degenerate so far as to be com- 
 monly taken in the worse sense.' (ii. 14.) And thus 
 in this case a word signifying ' condemnation ' has 
 taken the place of 'judgment,' and this substitute 
 
 H
 
 98 Bible English. 
 
 has again been commonly misunderstood to mean 
 that ' everlasting damnation ' from which there is no 
 appeal and no escape. 
 
 There is another word, which, as used in one of 
 our services, is misapprehended by many, who fear 
 lest by uttering it they should, not indeed damn them- 
 selves, but imprecate damnation on others. ' Amen/ 
 which is a Hebrew word, signifying ' truly,' or ' yea,' 
 has been adopted from the Jewish into the Christian 
 worship in almost every language in which Chris- 
 tianity is known, as the token of assent or concurrence 
 in creed or prayer. It has a twofold meaning, some- 
 times standing for ' so it is/ sometimes for ' so be it.' 
 The Church has ordered (after the example given in 
 Deut. xxvii. 15) that in the Commination office ' should 
 be read the general sentences of God's cursing against 
 impenitent sinners/ and that the people ' should 
 answer to every sentence, Amen.' There are those, 
 however, who decline to attend church when this ser- 
 vice is used, because they do not like, as they say, to 
 curse their neighbours. Putting aside the complimen- 
 tary estimate which they have formed of their neigh- 
 bours' character, and the happy unconsciousness of the 
 possibility of any such offences on their own part thus 
 naively assumed, it is strange that they should insist 
 on ascribing a precatory force to ' Amen ' in this place,, 
 when the service expressly says that it is affirmatory. 
 If, indeed, any object even to this, it can only be an- 
 swered, that facts are stubborn things, and in the end 
 refuse to be ignored. The ostrich does not escape by 
 hiding its head in the sand ; and it can scarcely be 
 doubted that God's sentence against impenitent sinners
 
 ' Amen! 99 
 
 will be executed, even though every human being 
 should refuse to say ' Amen ' from now until the day 
 of judgment. When we hear clear and definite state- 
 ments out of God's word, our assertion that these 
 things are so does not add one whit to their certainty ; 
 but it may help to warn others, and, most of all, our- 
 selves, of the need for repentance and watchfulness. 
 At the end of the Creeds, again, ' Amen ' has, of 
 course, the meaning of assent. It would be absurd, 
 after speaking of events which happened more than 
 eighteen centuries ago such as the birth, death, and 
 resurrection of our Lord to say, ' So be it.' From 
 the same forgetfulness of this double signification of 
 the word, the idea has sometimes arisen that ' Amen ' 
 is out of place at the end of any hymn which does not 
 conclude with a prayer. It of course follows quite as 
 appropriately on the statement of some truth. The 
 ' verily ' with which our Saviour prefaces and em- 
 phasises so many of His sayings is in the original, 
 ' Amen,' and by the same word is expressed the cer- 
 tainty of the Divine promises as fulfilled in Christ 
 (2 Cor. i. 20) ; nay, it has a still loftier use, being 
 one of the names by which the Lord Himself is 
 designated ; ' These things saith the Amen, the faith- 
 ful and true witness.' (Rev. iii. 14.) 
 
 There have from time to time arisen fanatics who 
 have held it unlawful to exercise ordinary prudence in 
 regard to their temporal wants, or to make provision 
 for the future so far as the things of this world are con - 
 cerned, for is it not written, ' Take no thought for the 
 morrow?' (S. Matt. vi. 34.) And though there are 
 few who would not be withheld bv common sense, not
 
 IOO Bible English. 
 
 to speak of the general tenor of Scripture, from such 
 extremes, the text may have offered difficulty to many. 
 But the Greek word, and, at the time that our trans- 
 lation was made, the English rendering also, signified 
 undue care or anxiety ; and the warning is not against 
 a becoming providence, but against such solicitude as 
 would imply distrust of God, and would unfit those 
 who felt it for the discharge of their immediate duties. 
 The phrase, in this sense of being anxious, occurs in 
 i Sam. ix. 5 : ' Come, and let us return ; lest my father 
 leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us.' 
 Campion, as quoted in Froude's History (ii. 191), says, 
 that the Earl of Kildare, who was imprisoned in the 
 Tower, died in 1535 ' for thought and pain.' In a 
 note to a sermon by the late Rev. W. Harness on 
 S. Matt. iv. 7, the following is given from Bishop 
 Ridley's Account of the Disputation at Oxford, 1544: 
 * No person of any honesty, without thinking, could.' 
 abide to hear the like spoken by a most vile varlet.' 
 This must be taken from some other translation 
 than that reprinted from Coverdale's Letters of the 
 Martyrs, in the Parker Society's edition of Ridley's 
 works ; and certainly ' without thinking,' even in its 
 antiquated sense, is a somewhat free rendering of 
 ' citra ruborem? Shakespeare uses the expression two or 
 three times. In Julius Ctzsar (ii. i), when some of 
 the conspirators would have included Antony in their 
 plan of assassination, Brutus remarks that Antony 
 would be powerless alone, and that at the most he 
 could but die through grief for his friend :
 
 TJiongJit and Care. ior 
 
 ' If he love Caesar, all that he can do 
 Is to himself, take thought, and die for Cresar.' 
 
 And when Cleopatra asks, ' What shall we do, 
 Enobarbus ? ' the answer is, ' Think, and die,' /. e. give 
 way to utter despondency and despair,. {Ant. and Cl. 
 iii. 13.) And again in Hamlet's soliloquy (iii. i) we 
 have the well-known lines : 
 
 ' And thus the native hue of resolution 
 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.' 
 
 Becon (iii. 61 1) writes, ' What is care and thought ? 
 A plain token of diffidence and distrust in God. It is 
 an unfaithful care and pensiveness of the mind for 
 meat, drink, clothing,' &c. In this passage it will be 
 observed that ' pensiveness,' which now only means 
 thoughtfulness, or musing, is used, like ' thought,' for 
 great anxiety ; and such was once its meaning. Fuller, 
 in his Poem on David's Hainous Sinne, &c., says, that 
 on the false rumour that Absalom had slain all the 
 king's sons, 
 
 ' The pensive court in dolefull dumps did rue 
 This dismall case.' 
 
 (Heavie Punishment, stanza 2 1 .) 
 
 In like manner, ' careful ' is now usually employed 
 in a good sense, but in our version this is by no means 
 always the case. Martha is rebuked, because she was 
 'careful and troubled about many things.' (S. Luke, 
 x. 41.) The Jewish confessors, being determined to 
 obey God rather than man, were ' not careful to an- 
 swer' Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. iii. 16), i.e. they held to 
 what they knew to be right, without regard to conse-
 
 102 Bible English. 
 
 quences. The context, however, must help us to deter- 
 mine the meaning of this and similar words. Thus, 
 S. Paul, according to our translation, bids the Philip- 
 pians ' be careful for nothing,' and almost immediately 
 afterwards praises them for being careful. (Phil. iv. 
 6-10.) In the original distinct words are employed, 
 that in the first passage being the same as in S. Matt. 
 vi. 34. Latimer writes, ' Consider the remedy against 
 carefulness, which is to trust in God .... Therefore 
 learn to trust upon the Lord, and leave this wicked 
 carefulness, whereof our Saviour monisheth us.' (i. 413.) 
 On the other hand, when we call a person ' careless,' 
 we convey some reproach; but once it did not of 
 necessity imply more than a freedom from care. 
 Ezekiel (xxx. 9) says, that God's judgments will reach 
 even ' the careless Ethiopians,' /. e. the people who 
 from distance would not be alarmed by the calamities 
 which overtook others. The Danite spies found that 
 the people of Laish dwelt ' careless, after the manner 
 of the Zidonians, quiet and secure.' (Judges, xviii. 7.) 
 Gray has ' careless ' in this sense : 
 
 ' Ah, happy hills ! ah, pleasing shade ! 
 
 Ah, fields beloved in vain ! 
 Where once my careless childhood strayed, 
 A stranger yet to pain.' 
 
 (Ode on Prospect of Eton Co!/.) 
 
 Nay, ' carelessness ' is sometimes used, not only in 
 a harmless, but in a positively good, sense ; and as 
 Latimer speaks of ' a wicked carefulness,' so Bishop 
 Hall writes, ' The only way to finde comfort in any 
 earthly thing is to surrender it (in a faithfull careless- 
 nesse) in the hands of God.' {Contemp. of Isaac sacri-
 
 'Security.' 103 
 
 Jiced.} In the same place the bishop speaks of Isaac, 
 when bearing the wood, as ' securely carrying that 
 burden which must carry him.' ' Secure,' i. e. ' sine 
 cura] without care, was used in the same way as ' care- 
 less,' but now, unless some qualifying adverb is joined 
 with it, it signifies ' safe.' How little of what we now 
 mean by security was contained in the word may be 
 seen in the text last cited, and in another from the 
 same book : ' And Gideon smote the host, for the host 
 was secure.' (Judges, viii. n.) Archbishop Sandys 
 (p. 210) says, ' There is nowhere any place wherein it 
 is safe to be secure.' In S. Matt, xxviii. 14, 'We will 
 secure you,' is literally, We will make you free from 
 care, we will set you at ease. Norden writes of the 
 rich and worldly man : 
 
 ' A doleful bell doth wait to ring 
 When thou secure shalt die,' 
 
 {Prayers of Piety, p. 77) 
 
 though he would, of course, be far from secure in its 
 more modern acceptation ; and Bishop Hall observes, 
 ' Carnall men, that are secure of the vengeance of God 
 ere it doe come, are mastered with it when it doth 
 come.' (Contempl. of Balaam.} 
 
 Nowhere can it be more important to note such 
 changes as have been wrought by time and usage in 
 the signification of words than in the Creeds ; for as 
 these summaries of our faith were, of course, drawn 
 up originally with great precision of language, and 
 were translated with equal care into our own tongue, 
 it is essential to know the exact force which belonged 
 to the terms used at the time that they were employed
 
 IO4 - Bible English. 
 
 in this service. The peculiar meaning of 'of in the 
 clauses ' God of God,' ' Light of light,' &c., in the 
 Nicene Creed has been already noticed, but there are 
 two words in the Athanasian Creed which seem to 
 call for remark. 
 
 'Will' is with us now almost always an auxiliary 
 verb, giving a future sense to the word with which it 
 is connected. The opening verse, however, of this 
 formulary, ' Whosoever will be saved, before all things 
 it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith,' conveys 
 a warning to those who wish, who are anxious to be 
 saved. In this instance, possibly, the term is not often 
 misapprehended ; the context partly explains it, and 
 the heading in our Prayer-book, ' Quicit 'nque vtiltj 
 would also help to prevent any mistake. But in 
 several texts some confusion might naturally arise in 
 the mind of the English reader, e.g. ' If any man will 
 do His will, he shall know of the doctrine ' (S. John, 
 vii. 17), in which case a reference to the original 
 shows us that ' will ' bears what is now its less usual 
 sense. The difference is important, for the condition 
 is thereby both narrowed and enlarged. A mere per- 
 formance of external duties is not enough ; they must 
 be the outcome of a willing mind ; on the other hand, 
 a sincere desire to do what is right for God's sake will 
 be blessed, even though the actual shape in which it 
 finds expression may not be the best in the abstract. 
 Again, in the 44th verse of the next chapter, ' Ye are 
 of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father 
 ye will do,' is an assertion concerning the present, not 
 the future, ' the lusts of your father ye love to do/ 
 And in S. John, ix. 27, ' Will ye also become His.
 
 Phraseology of the Creeds. 1 05 
 
 disciples ? ' is, Are you now wishing to become such ? 
 not, Is this the end towards which you are tending ? 
 ' Incomprehensible' is the other expression to which 
 I referred. Its meaning must depend on that of the 
 word in the original which it represents. If, as has 
 until recently been believed, our translation is from 
 the Latin, then it answers to tmmensus, and signifies 
 that God cannot be comprehended or confined within 
 bounds, but that He is everywhere present, and ' filleth 
 all in all ; ' and such a sense our English word would 
 easily bear. Hooker writes, ' Presence everywhere is 
 the sequel \i.e. the necessary result] of an infinite and 
 incomprehensible substance, for what can be every- 
 where but that which can nowhere be comprehended ?' 
 (Eccl. Pol. v. Iv. 4). And perhaps Milton uses the 
 word in the same way when he speaks of the stars 
 
 ' That seem to roll 
 Spaces incomprehensible (for such 
 Their distance argues, and their swift return 
 Diurnal).' (Par. Lost, viii. 20.) 
 
 Canon Swainson, however, contends that our ver- 
 sion of the Creed is translated from the Greek, and 
 then 'incomprehensible/ being the rendering of 
 &rartiXif*r > oj would signify, as it usually does in 
 modern usage, incapable of being understood ; it 
 would affirm the helplessness of man's mind to grasp 
 the infinite greatness of God. It is scarcely necessary 
 to point out that whichever of these may be the cor- 
 rect intei'pretation in this particular place, either of 
 them has abundant scriptural warrant, and might well 
 be spoken of Him whom ' the Heaven of Heavens
 
 io6 Bible English. 
 
 cannot contain,' and ' whose judgments are unsearch- 
 able, and His ways past finding out.' 
 
 The one English word ; hell,' represents two Greek 
 terms which mean respectively the invisible world 
 generally, and the place of torment. It is in this last 
 sense that the word is always taken now, and hence 
 arises a misunderstanding of the clause, ' He de- 
 scended into hell.' Hell is derived from ' helan,' 
 meaning to ' cover,' and is simply the covered or 
 hidden place, answering exactly to Hades, the un- 
 seen. Chaucer's Wife of Bath, says that women can- 
 can not keep secrets : 
 
 ' Parde we women connen nothing hele.' 
 
 (6532.) 
 
 And in the Romaunt of the Rose (6882) we read. 
 ' They hele fro me no privite.' 
 
 Tyndale has ' unhele ' . for uncover in Lev. xviii. 
 In the Creed, therefore, we say no more than that 
 our Lord in the interval between His death and 
 resurrection ' went into the place of departed spirits,' 
 which (to quote the Rubric in the American Prayer- 
 book), are ' considered as words of the same meaning 
 in the Creed.' That book, therefore, allows the sub- 
 stitution of this sentence, if desired, for the other, and 
 it also most unhappily and unaccountably permits the 
 entire omission of the clause, though that this infers 
 no denial of the doctrine, is shown by the fact that 
 the third article is retained in its integrity. Bishop 
 Horsley has a very valuable sermon on i Pet. iii. 18- 
 20, bearing on the subject of our Lord's descent into
 
 Phraseology of tlic Creeds. 107 
 
 hell ; and ' in Archbisop Trench's Westminster Abbey 
 Sermons, there is one on Rev. i. 18, pointing out the 
 importance of remembering in this text also, that 
 ' hell ' means the whole of the unseen world, and that 
 so Christ claims for Himself ' a far more august do- 
 minion' than the word in its present use would im- 
 ply. There are two other senses in which hell is 
 employed in our Prayer-book. In Ps. xviii. 4, ' the 
 pains of hell ' is, in the Bible, ' the sorrows of death ; ' 
 and where the Bible has, ' Like sheep they are laid 
 in the grave,' the Prayer-book gives, ' They lay in the 
 hell like sheep.' (Ps. xlix. 14.) 
 
 The assertion that our Lord will 'come to judge 
 the quick and the dead,' is probably understood by 
 all ; but in some texts we might be apt to forget that 
 ' quick ' meant ' living,' and think that it signified haste, 
 e.g. 'They go down quick into the pit' (Numb. xvi. 
 30) ; ' They had swallowed us up quick' (Ps. cxxiv. 3); 
 'The word of God is quick and powerful' (Heb. iv. 
 12). This signification is preserved in several com- 
 pounds, as quickset, quicksilver, quicklime, quick- 
 sand, but is obsolete in the simple word, except in 
 one phrase, ' cut or stung to the quick.' 
 
 ' Lively' has passed through much the same ex- 
 perience ; it now usually means ' cheerful,' or ' active,' 
 or ' mobile,' and sometimes ' lifelike,' but it was once 
 synonymous with ' living.' The Prayer-book Version 
 of Ps. xxxviii. 19, has, 'Mine enemies live and are 
 mighty ;' in the Bible it is, ' Mine enemies are lively, 
 and they are strong.' The word which in i Pet. ii. 
 4, is translated ' living,' is the same as that which in 
 the next verse is rendered 'lively.' Henry VIII. in
 
 io8 Bible English. 
 
 his answers to Latimer's arguments against purgatory, 
 observes, ' A lively stick may chance with falling to 
 grow, though not suddenly, and so come to some per- 
 fection of his fruits.' (Lat. ii. 246.) A statue is with 
 us an emblem of immobility, and so the following in 
 Fuller's Church History (XL i. ij, sounds rather oddly 
 to modern ears ; ' King James his funeralls were per- 
 formed very solemnly in the Collegiate Church at 
 Westminster; his lively statue being presented on a 
 magnificent herse.' Even now we speak of a lively 
 picture, but never in reference to an actual painting. 
 We might say that Mr. Carlyle had given us a lively 
 picture of the French Revolution, but if an artist were 
 to represent some scene of that period, we should 
 never call his work a lively picture, however lifelike 
 it might be. We may remark here, that ' vivacious,' 
 which is now synonymous with ' lively' in its modern 
 V<~^ v ^ ^V sense > formerly signified 'long-lived.' 'Hitherto the 
 English Bishops had been vivacious almost to won- 
 der . . . whereas now seven deceased within the 
 compasse of two yeares.' (Fuller, Church History, ix. 
 iii. 27.) 
 
 Another group of words which have undergone a 
 gradual change in signification, may be found in some 
 of those which have to do with the marking of time. 
 ' By-and-by,' has no longer the sense of immediately, 
 as in the four passages in which it occurs in our Bible, 
 ' By-and-by he is offended ' (S. Matt. xiii. 21) ; 'I will 
 that thou give me by-and-by in a charger, the head of 
 John the Baptist' (S. Mark, vi. 25) ; 'The end is not 
 by-and-by' (S. Luke, xxi. 9 ; see also xvii. 7). So one 
 of the Homilies, quoting from an early father, says,
 
 Words relating to Time. 109 
 
 ' Men dare not give the name of emperor to any other, 
 for he punisheth his offender and traitor by-and-by ; 
 but they dare give the name of God to others, because 
 He for repentance suffereth the offenders.' (Against 
 Idolatry, pt. iii. p. 250.) Here the contrast between 
 the immediate vengeance of man and the longsuffering 
 of God is obscured to those who are only acquainted 
 with the present use of ' by-and-by.' 
 
 The same thing may be observed as regards the 
 word ' presently ; ' ' Let them not fail to bum the fat 
 presently' (i Sam. ii. 16); 'He shall presently give 
 me more than twelve legions of angels ' (S. Matt. xxvi. 
 53) ; i. e. at once. Adams writes, 'No war could kill 
 Sixtus, but so soon as ever he heard of peace, he 
 presently died ' (i. 39) ; and Fuller reckons it among 
 the distinguishing marks of a miracle that ' it is not 
 done by leisure, but presently.' (Ck. Hist. vi. v. i.) 
 When we now say that we will do a thing presently, we 
 invariably mean not at present, but a little time hence. 
 These changes of signification are regarded by Arch- 
 bishop Trench as testifying to man's inveterate habit 
 of procrastination, so that the very words which once 
 meant despatch now imply delay. 
 
 ' Anon ' is now confined to poetry, but occurs 
 twice in our Bible (S. Matt. xiii. 20; S. Mark, 
 i. 30) ; it is of uncertain derivation, but means im- 
 mediately. ' Anon, anon, sir,' is the cry with which 
 Shakespeare represents the drawer at a tavern answer- 
 ing the impatient calls of the customers (i Hen. iv. 
 n - 4) ; Jonson makes his inn servant reply on similar 
 occasions, ' By-and-by, by-and-by ' (Every man out oj 
 his Humour, v. 4) ; the words in each case being
 
 I io Bible EngiisJi. 
 
 equivalent to the ' Directly, -sir,' which one often hears 
 from waiters now. ' Directly ' on the two occasions 
 in which it is found in our version (Numb. xix. 4 ; 
 Ezek. xlii. 12) is not used in reference to time; but 
 ' straightway,' a word of exactly the same import, is of 
 frequent occurrence. 
 
 ' Once ' signifies with us an indefinite time in the 
 past; but in Jer. xiii. 27, 'When shall it once be?' it 
 stands for an indefinite time in the future. So the 
 Marquis of Montrose, in the lines which he wrote with 
 a diamond on his prison window the night before his 
 execution, concludes : 
 
 ' I'm hopeful Thou'lt recover once my dust, 
 And confident Thou'lt raise me with the just.' 
 
 ' Hereafter ' is so often used of a somewhat remote 
 future that we may lose something of its force where 
 it means ' henceforth ' or ' from this moment,' as it 
 does for instance in the General Confession and 
 Absolution. We are not, however, so likely to mis- 
 understand it there, as in one or two texts in the Bible. 
 Thus in S. John, i. 51, our Lord is not speaking of 
 what Nathanael should behold at some more or less 
 distant period, but He tells the guileless disciple that 
 from that time forward he should see the near con- 
 nexion between Heaven and earth effected by the Son 
 of Man, of whom the ladder in Jacob's vision was a 
 type. So also when the Saviour says to His disciples, 
 ' Hereafter I will not talk much with you ' (S. John, 
 xiv. 30), He is warning them that at that very moment 
 His personal intercourse with them was drawing for 
 the time to a close. This usage of ' hereafter ' is less
 
 Words relating to Time. in 
 
 common in our literature than that other which is 
 still current, but it is not very infrequent. Duncan 
 says, 
 
 ' We will establish our estate upon 
 Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter 
 The prince of Cumberland.' (Macbeth, i. 4.) 
 
 And Caliban, convinced at length of Prospero's 
 superior power, declares, ' I'll be wise hereafter.' 
 (Tempest, v. i.) 
 
 ' Instantly ' in our translation is applied not to the 
 time, but the manner of doing a thing ; it means 
 'urgently,' or 'pressingly.' When in the Prayer-book 
 version of Ps. Iv. 1 8 the Psalmist expresses his resolve 
 to pray instantly, he does not mean directly, but 
 earnestly, in fact that he will be 'instant in prayer.' 
 (Rom. xii. 12.) In the only two passages in which this 
 adverb occurs in the English Bible (S. Luke, vii. 4 ; 
 Acts, xxvi. 7), the word in its modern sense would be 
 unintelligible. ' Instant ' literally means standing 
 upon, so we speak of the eighth or ninth instant, /'. e. 
 the eighth or ninth of the month which is upon us, as 
 distinguished from those which are past or to come. 
 Hooker refers to 'the heavenly precepts which our 
 Lord and Saviour with so great instancy gave.' (Ecc. 
 Pol. i. x. 14.) Bishop Bale, who in his anxiety to 
 vilify -the judges of Anne Askew, makes out Pontius 
 Pilate to be quite a virtuous character in comparison, 
 and almost seems to symbolise with the Abyssinian 
 Church which has canonised the Roman Governor, 
 Avrites, ' Pilate would shed no innocent blood, but 
 laboured to mitigate the bishops' [/. c. the chief
 
 1 1 2 Bible English. 
 
 priests] fury, and instanted them, as they were 
 religious, to show godly favour.' (p. 242.) 
 
 ' Constantly ' is now equivalent either to ' con- 
 tinually ' or ' frequently,' and we might say that a man 
 was constantly shuffling or prevaricating but such an 
 expression would once have been a contradiction in 
 terms ; for constant was applied to that which stood 
 together, and so was firm and unshaken. ' Con- 
 sistently ' is often used by us, where ' constantly ' 
 might have been formerly employed. In the Collect 
 for S. John Baptist's day we pray that like him ' we 
 may constantly speak the truth,' i. e. without flinching ; 
 Rhoda ' constantly affirmed ' that it was S. Peter at 
 the gate ; she never wavered in her story. Of course 
 in these cases frequent repetition is implied, but it is 
 firmness, not frequency which is primarily noted by 
 the word. Thus in Jonson's Catiline (iv. 2) : 
 
 ' It matters not, so they deny it all, 
 And can but carry the lie constantly.' 
 
 In most of the texts in which it occurs, ' suddenly ' 
 means, as now, 'unexpectedly' or 'instantaneously,' 
 but in i Tim. v. 22, ' Lay hands suddenly on no man,' 
 it stands for rashly or without due preparation. And 
 this sense underlies that petition in the Litany wherein 
 we pray to be delivered from ' sudden death ; ' which 
 prayer, as Hooker remarks, 'importeth a two fold 
 desire ; first, that death when it cometh may give us 
 some convenient respite ; or secondly, if that be de- 
 nied us of God . . . that although it be sudden in 
 itself, nevertheless in regard of our prepared minds, it 
 may not be sudden.' ( Ecc. Pol v. xlvi. 3.) In the
 
 Prevent. 1 1 3 
 
 Alchemist there is a youth who is always blustering 
 and avouching a desire to fight; Subtle (iv. i.) 
 addresses him as ' My sudden boy !' 
 
 There are two words which occur both in the 
 Bible and Prayer-book in such a different sense from 
 that which now attaches to them, that they might be 
 in some cases easily misunderstood. ' Prevent ' in 
 present usage means to ' hinder,' but once signified, 
 ' to anticipate ' or to ' go before.' We pray that God's 
 * grace may always prevent and follow us ' (Collect for 
 1 7th Sunday after Trin.) ; for as Tyndale (i. 498) ob- 
 serves, ' No man can prevent the Spirit in doing good,' 
 /'. e. we cannot do any good thing without Him. When 
 S. Paul says, ' We which are alive and remain shall not 
 prevent them which are asleep' (i Thess. iv. 15), he is 
 not supposing the possibility of the resurrection of the 
 departed being hindered, but he means, as he after- 
 wards expresses it, ' the dead in Christ shall rise first.' 
 George Herbert addresses the Saviour thus (Temple ; 
 lhanksgiving) : 
 
 ' O King of wounds ! how shall I grieve for Thee 
 Who in all grief preventest me ?' 
 
 /. e. hast endured all that I can be called on to endure. 
 We may see how ' prevent ' acquired the meaning of 
 going before in order to hinder in the following 
 sentence of Latimer ; ' I might have dilated this matter 
 at large ; but I am honestly prevented of this common 
 place, and I am very glad of it ; it was very well 
 handled last Sunday' (i. 176); that is, the preacher 
 on the previous Sunday had anticipated the remarks
 
 1 14 Bible English. 
 
 which Latimer would otherwise have made. In the 
 same way Bishop Sanderson having said that a former 
 sermon of his had given offence to some, adds, ' And 
 it is not unlikely I shall be blamed again for this, 
 unless I prevent it ' (ii. 72) ; viz. by answering at once 
 the objections which he foresaw. Steevens asserts that 
 Prior is the latest writer who uses ' prevent ' in its old 
 sense, but a distinguished contemporary of Steevens, 
 Bishop Horsley, who died in 1806, eighty-five years 
 after Prior, says, ' I doubt not but you prevent me in 
 the interpretation of this character.' (Serm. xxxi. 
 
 P- 397-) 
 
 ' Let' is used by us for 'permit,' but in six places 
 in our Bible it means to hinder, as also in the Prayer- 
 book, ' We are sore let and hindered. (Collect for 4th 
 Sunday in Advent.) The text in which the sense is 
 most darkened by its use is perhaps 2 Thess. ii. 7, a 
 passage, as Canon Lightfoot observes, 'difficult enough 
 without any artificial obscurities.' Latimer writes, 
 ' Others do sell too dear which doth let many to buy/ 
 (ii. 381.) 'Let,' to hinder, and 'let,' to permit, are 
 two different words, and derived from distinct roots, 
 and so the case is unlike that of ' prevent,' where the 
 same term has apparently contrary meanings. The 
 word does not appear as a substantive in our Bible, 
 except in the heading of Deut. xv., but it was once in 
 common use. Bishop Andrewes, commenting on our 
 Lord's forbidding Mary Magdalene to touch Him, 
 observes, ' No let in Him but He might be touched ; 
 the let in her, she might not touch him.' (iii. 27.) 
 This noun is still employed in legal phraseology, and
 
 Lighten. 115 
 
 in the fives court, when the ball goes out of bounds, 
 it is called a 'let,' because it interrupts or hinders 
 the game. 
 
 Another instance in the Prayer-book of two words, 
 which, like the two ' lets,' are spelt alike, and yet are 
 distinct in themselves, and of different meanings, is to 
 be found in 'lighten.' When in the TeJDenm we say, 
 ' Lord, let Thy mercy lighten upon us,' many may sup- 
 pose that this signifies, ' Let thy mercy shine upon us/ 
 and that the verb is the same as that with which the 
 third Collect at Evening Prayer begins. This, however, 
 is not the case ; the word in the Canticle being another 
 form of 'light,' or 'alight.' A literal translation of 
 the original would be, ' Let Thy mercy be done upon 
 us' (fiat}; in the American Prayer-book it is, 'Let 
 Thy mercy be upon us.' ' Lighten,' in this sense 
 seems to have been rare; no example of it, save 
 from the Te Deum, is given in Johnson's, Richardson's, 
 or Halliwell's Dictionaries, or in Mr. Wright's Bible 
 Word Book ; I have, however, come across one in- 
 stance of it in Fuller's Preface to his Holy and Profane 
 State, ' I conjure thee by all Christian ingenuity, 
 that if lightning here on some passages, rather harsh 
 sounding than ill intended, to construe the same by 
 the general drift and main scope which is aimed at.'* 
 
 * I quote this passage from the edition of 1663 ; in the 
 reprint of 1840 it is ' lighting.'
 
 1 1 6 Bible English. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF MISTAKES THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE CHANGED 
 MEANING OF WORDS STILL IN USE (continued}. 
 
 IN i T^im. v. 4. there are two words which might misr 
 lead those who are acquainted with only quite modern 
 English : ' If any widow have children or nephews, 
 let them learn first to show piety at home, and to re- 
 quite their parents.' It may be matter for surprise 
 that 'nephews' are thus specially mentioned, but that 
 word formerly meant ' grandsons,' resembling in this 
 the Latin nepos, whence it is derived, and which was 
 not used for a brother's or sister's child until the 
 post- Augustan period. In Judges, xii. 14, the margin 
 gives ' sons' sons,' as the exact rendering of the He- 
 brew. Nephew is also found in Job, xviii. 19, and 
 Isa. xiv. 22. Instances of this usage are very com- 
 mon. Fuller says that the Nonconformists of his day 
 were more irreconcilable than in the reigns of the 
 Tudors : ' Thus after-ages still made new additions, as 
 if it would be accounted idlenesse in them, if the 
 strong and active legs of the sons and nephews should 
 not goe faster and farther than the old and feeble feet 
 of their fathers and grandfathers.' (Ch. Hist. vii. i. 30.) 
 See also the quotations from Howell, p. 49, and 
 Spenser, p. 122.
 
 Piety. 117 
 
 When it is directed that these children or grand- 
 children should learn first to show piety at home, it is 
 intended that they should exhibit dutiful affection 
 towards their parents or grandparents. ' Piety,' when 
 unaccompanied by any such adjective as 'filial,' or 
 the like, commonly signifies now, duty towards God, 
 but it did not always of necessity mean this. Thus in 
 Jonson's Catiline (in which play, by the way, there 
 are three examples of ' nephew' in its old sense), 
 the reckless conspirator inveighing against Rome, his 
 native city, says, 
 
 ' I will hereafter call her stepdame ever. 
 If she can lose her nature, I can lose 
 My piety.' (i. i.) 
 
 And in the Fox (iii. i.), when Bonario refuses to 
 believe that his father was capable of a base action 
 alleged against him, the informer replies, 
 
 ' It is a confidence that well becomes 
 Your piety.' 
 
 Virgil has caused the epithet 'pious' to be con- 
 stantly associated with ^Eneas ; he is, however, so de- 
 signated, not because he was especially devout, but 
 because, when Troy was burning, he carried his aged 
 father out of the city on his shoulders. S. Paul would 
 have children manifest in the first place, piety towards 
 their parents, knowing that without this there could 
 be no true piety towards God. Our Lord rebuked 
 the Scribes and Pharisees because they taught that an 
 appearance of attention to piety in this last sense 
 would atone for a want of it in the former signification. 
 (S. Mark, vii. 10, u.)
 
 1 1 8 Bible English. 
 
 Another word taken from the Latin, and deriving 
 thence a meaning which has now become obsolete, 
 is ' occupy.' When the lord delivered the pounds 
 to his ten servants with the injunction, ' Occupy till 
 I come' (S. Luke, xix. 13), the modern English rea- 
 der might suppose, if it were not for the sequel, that 
 the command would be complied with so long as the 
 trust was kept safe. But ' occupy' meant to ' traffic,' 
 to ' employ,' to do ' business with,' and is so used in 
 our version, e.g. Ezek. xxvii. 9, 16, 19, 21, 22, and in 
 the 27th verse, we read of ' occupiers of merchandise.' 
 The Psalmist speaks of those who ' do business in 
 great waters' (Ps. cvii. 23); in the Prayer-book Ver- 
 sion it is ' occupy their business.' Latimer says, ' It 
 were not meet the treasure should be in the subjects' 
 purses, when the money should be occupied ;' and he 
 points out that it is the duty of the sovereign's trea- 
 surer to see ' that the people be not oppressed with 
 unnecessary burdens, nor that the king's treasures be 
 to seek when they should be occupied.' (i. 97, 299.) 
 In a letter quoted in Mr. Froude's History of England 
 (iii. 45), Thomas Cromwell calls Michael Throgmor- 
 ton ' a defender of iniquity, a merchant and occupier 
 of all deceits.' 
 
 Archbishop Trench speaks of a critic who dis- 
 paraged the veracity of the Acts of the Apostles, be- 
 cause the writer says, 'we took up our carriages' 
 (Acts, xxi. 15), when the road from Caesarea to 
 Jerusalem was a mountain-path impassable for ve- 
 hicles ; while another traveller ridiculed what he con- 
 sidered the error in our translation, whereby ' the 
 Cilician tentmaker' was represented as travelling so
 
 Carriage. 119 
 
 luxuriously. If, however, the first of these gentlemen 
 had known Greek he would have been aware that 
 S. Luke's word (fViir/v-fi/ao-djuej'oi) gave no handle 
 to his objection, and if the second had known English 
 he would have perceived that in this instance our 
 version was equally innocent. ' Carriage' was used 
 formerly for that which was carried. ' David left his 
 carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage' 
 (i Sam. xvii. 22), where the margin has, 'the vessels 
 from upon him.' On the other hand, in Num. iv. 
 24, the marginal rendering is ' carriage,' where the 
 text has ' burdens.' And so in our Translators' Pre- 
 face to the Reader, Solomon's unpopularity with his 
 subjects is thus accounted for ; ' Belike he had charged 
 them with some leuies, and troubled them with some 
 cariages.' One cannot but imagine with a little 
 amusement the perplexity of the critics just referred 
 to if they had chanced on some passage in an old 
 writer where 'carriage' had this signification; how 
 strange it would have seemed to them, for instance, 
 that the preacher should specially single out the 
 lumbering family coach as (to use Fuller's expression), 
 the ' need-not ' which the benevolent wealthy man 
 would get rid of; ' Charity lighteneth the rich man of 
 his superfluous and unwieldy carriage' (Adams, ii. 
 319); or again, what mundane ideas of Paradise 
 would they have attributed to Bishop Andrewes, see- 
 ing that he wrote, ' The place where we wish our- 
 selves is our country, even Paradise, if so be we send 
 our carriage before; if not, I fear we intend some 
 other place, it is not our country.' (v. 45.) 
 
 Had the same objectors turned their attention to
 
 1 20 Bible English. 
 
 the Prayer-book Version of Ps. ix. 14, they would 
 have deemed perhaps that its author could not be a 
 Jew, since in that case he would have known that 
 Jerusalem was not a maritime city, and so would not 
 have spoken of ' the ports of the daughter of Sion.' 
 ' Port ' is of course only an old word for gate ; it is 
 once used in the Bible (Neh. ii. 13), and the gate- 
 keepers at colleges, &c., are still called porters. The 
 chief office of the Turkish government is styled the 
 High Gate or Sublime Porte, a title which by 
 foreigners, though never by his own subjects, is some- 
 times given to the Sultan or his court. ' Port ' is 
 derived from the Latin portare, because (as some 
 suppose) when the limits of a new city were marked 
 by a furrow the plough was carried over the spots 
 where it was intended to place the gates ; more pro- 
 bably, however, the word was applied both to a gate 
 and a haven for the same reason; viz., that through 
 each of them things were carried in or out ; in other 
 words, were imported or exported. Cicero, bidding 
 Catiline relieve Rome of his accursed presence, says : 
 
 ' Go where thou meanest. The ports are open ; forth ! ' 
 
 (iv. 2.) 
 
 And afterwards, laying his plans with the ambassadors 
 of the Allobroges, tells them : 
 
 ' As you give me notice at what port 
 You will go out, I'll have you intercepted.' 
 
 (iv. 4.) 
 
 Bishop Hooper writes, ' The stranger likewise within 
 thy port, though he be of another religion, thou
 
 Demand Require. 1 2 1 
 
 shouldest assay to win him unto the knowledge and 
 rites of thy religion.' (i. 340.) In Edinburgh the city 
 gates, or rather the places where the gates once were, 
 are still called ports. The line in Scott's ballad of 
 ' Bonnie Dundee ' will be familiar to all : 
 
 ' Unheuk the West Port, and let us gae free.' 
 
 It may be noted here that ' importable,' which would 
 now mean capable of being carried in or imported, 
 once signified that which could not be carried or 
 borne at all, and was synonymous with intolerable. 
 It is thus used in the prayer of Manasses : ' Thine 
 angry threatening towards sinners is importable.' 
 Becon says of our Lord, ' He alone shall tread down 
 the wine-press, and take upon His back the great and 
 importable burden of your sins all.' (i. 53.) 
 
 He who ' demands ' or ' requires ' anything now is 
 understood to do so with some authority, or as having 
 a right to be obeyed, but nothing more than mere 
 asking was once conveyed by the words. Hence, 
 some might imagine that there was an undue peremp- 
 toriness in the way in which the soldiers sought the 
 Baptist's counsel, when they 'demanded of him, say- 
 ing, And what shall we do?' (S. Luke, iii. 14.) And 
 still more might this seem the case in the Prayer-book 
 Version of Ps. xxvii. 4, ' One thing have I desired 
 of the Lord which I will require,' where the Bible has 
 ' seek after.' When Cymoent supplicates Neptune to 
 bestow immense wealth on her son Marmell, we 
 read :
 
 1 22 Bible English. 
 
 ' The God did graunt his daughter's deare demaund, 
 To doen his Nephew in all riches flow.' 
 
 (F. Queene, Hi., iv. 22.) 
 
 Wolsey, addressing the King after his disgrace, says : 
 
 ' Most gracious sir, 
 
 In humblest manner I require your highness 
 That it shall please you to declare,' &c. 
 
 (Hen. VIII. ii. 4.) 
 
 Or, to pass from fancy to fact, Henry VIII. in his 
 will writes, 'We do instantly require and desire the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary His Mother, with all the holy 
 company of heaven, continually to pray for us.' 
 
 ' Entreat ' or ' intreat,' though used in our version 
 to express, as it does still, earnest supplication, has 
 another meaning also which it has now lost, being 
 employed in the same sense as the simple word 'treat,' 
 e.g., ' He entreated Abram well for her sake.' (Gen. 
 xii. 1 6.) Latimer says in one of his sermons, 'I 
 intend to entreat of a piece of a story of His passion ; 
 I am not able to entreat of all.' (i. 217.) The two 
 forms of the word are used indifferently in the edition 
 of 1611, but in modern Bibles 'intreat' is employed 
 when it signifies 'beseech,' and ' entreat ' when it is 
 equivalent to 'treat.' Mr. Wright quotes a passage 
 from a letter of Secretary Davison's, A.D. 1586, where 
 the word occurs in both senses, and there the same 
 difference in the spelling is observed as in our present 
 Bibles. Bishop Andrewes (ii. 4) has ' entreaty ' for 
 ' treatment,' ' Whereout ariseth naturally the entreaty 
 of these four points.' 
 
 We ' rehearse ' what we propose to ' repeat ' at a
 
 Rehearse Convince. 123 
 
 future time ; but in our Version the expression means 
 to tell of something which has already been said or 
 done. 'When the words were heard which David 
 spake, they rehearsed them before Saul' (i Sam. 
 xvii. 31); 'Peter rehearsed the matter from the begin- 
 ning ' (Acts, xi. 4) ; ' Rehearse not unto another that 
 which is told unto thee' (Ecclus. xix. 7); 'Rehearse 
 the articles of thy belief.' (Catechism.) The word 
 occurs again and again in the Homilies ; thus, ' Com- 
 mon prayer and thanksgiving are rehearsed and said 
 by the public minister in the name of the people and 
 the whole multitude present.' {Of the Right Use of the 
 Church, pt. ii. p. 181.) 'Rehearse' comes from the 
 French rehercer, to harrow again, to go over the same 
 ground. 
 
 We ' convince ' a man when we win him over to 
 our opinion by the force of argument, but in our 
 translation the word always means either to convict, 
 as in S. John, viii. 46, ' Which of you convinceth me 
 of sin?' or else to refute, as in Job, xxxii. 12, 'There 
 was none of you that convinced Job, or that answered 
 his words.' The former sense is exemplified in the 
 following passage from Adams (ii. 38), ' Whatsoever is 
 written is written either for our instruction or destruc- 
 tion ; to convert us if we embrace it, to convince us 
 if we despise it;' while the latter meaning is found in 
 this from Bishop Hall, who, addressing the Saviour, 
 says, ' But even against these (Arians) art Thou justi- 
 fied in the Spirit, speaking in Thy divine Scriptures, 
 whose evident demonstrations do fully convince their 
 calumnies and false suggestions.' (Mystery of Godliness, 
 sec. 8.) The literal meaning of 'convince' is to 'over-
 
 1 24 Bible English. 
 
 come,' whence both these significations, as well as that 
 which now obtains, are easily deducible. 
 
 Some confusion may arise from the occurrence of 
 ' offend ' in several places where, following the Latin 
 use of the word, it means stumble or cause to stumble. 
 ' If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out,' i.e., if it 
 cause thee to sin ; ' Whoso shall offend one of these 
 little ones' (S. Matt. v. 29 ; xviii. 6), i.e., put stumbling 
 blocks in the way ; and when in the same place our 
 Lord says, ' It must needs be that offences come,' He 
 is not speaking of sins generally, but of those offences 
 which are directly prejudicial to others. The Greek 
 terms, which are most commonly rendered ' offence ' 
 and ' offend,' are those from which we get ' scandal ' 
 and 'scandalise.' In the second rubric in the Com- 
 munion Office 'offended' signifies 'scandalised.' 
 
 ' Conscience ' occurs for ' consciousness ' in i Cor. 
 viii. 7, ' Some with conscience of the idol unto this 
 hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol ; ' and in 
 Heb. x. 2, ' The worshippers once purged should 
 have had no more conscience of sins.' So Hooker 
 writes, ' The reason why the simpler sort are moved 
 with authority is the conscience of their own ignor- 
 ance.' (Ecc. Pol. II., vii. 2.) 
 
 Many may suppose that in S. Luke, iii. 7, ' O 
 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee 
 from the wrath to come?' 'generation' has the same 
 meaning as in the texts, 'This generation shall not 
 pass away,' or, 'An evil and adulterous generation 
 seeketh after a sign,' in which the term is equivalent 
 to 'age.' But though the English word in these three 
 passages is the same, the Greek in the Baptist's ad-
 
 Generation Equal. 1 2 5 
 
 dress to the Pharisees differs from that which is 
 employed in the other two, and is better translated in 
 the Genevan Version, ' Ye ofspringes of vipers,' or in 
 that of Rheims, 'Ye vipers' broodes.' Bishop Hall 
 writes, ' These marriages did not beget men so much 
 as wickednesse ; from hence religious husbands both 
 lost their pietie, and gained a rebellious and godlesse 
 generation.' (Contempl. of the Deluge.} Lear speaks 
 of him 
 
 ' That makes his generation messes 
 To gorge his appetite,' (i. i.) 
 
 /. e. that eats his children. 
 
 ' Equal ' is employed like aquus for just, and ' un- 
 equal ' like iniquus for unjust, meanings which they no 
 longer bear, though we speak of equity and iniquity, 
 the latter word, however, being applied to all wicked- 
 ness, and not merely to injustice. God, expostulating 
 with His people, says, ' Yet ye say, The way of the 
 Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel, Is 
 not my way equal ? are not your ways unequal ?' (Ezek. 
 xviii. 25.) Bishop Sanderson asks, 'How is it not 
 unequal that men who plead, so as none more, for 
 liberty and plainness in reproving sin, should not 
 allow those that come amongst them that liberty and 
 plainness against their own sins?' (ii. 74.) And 
 Fuller writes, ' Now whilest the clergie were tedious 
 in their choice, the laity was too nimble for them, 
 and they (thinking it equal to have an hand in 
 making, who must have their arms in defending a 
 Patriarch) clapped one Rodolphus of noble parentage 
 into the chair.' (Holy War, ii. 20.)
 
 1 26 Bible English. 
 
 ' Cure,' ' curate,' ' curious,' ' curiosity,' all of which 
 come from the Latin cura, care, are used in our Bible 
 and Prayer-book in senses which are now obsolete. 
 'Cure,' which as meaning 'care,' is at present always 
 applied to the pastoral charge, the cure of souls, had 
 a more general signification. Lord Surrey in his poe- 
 tical version of Eccles. ii. says : 
 
 ' To build me houses fair then set I all my cure.' 
 
 And in the older versions the charge of the good 
 Samaritan to the host is, 'Take cure of hym.' (S. Luke, 
 x. 35.) ' Cure' is used in this way in the third ques- 
 tion addressed to candidates for the priesthood : ' Wilt 
 thou then give your faithful diligence .... so that 
 you may teach the people committed to your cure 
 and charge ? ' &c. In the next question it appears to 
 be employed, as now, to denote a benefice : ' Will you 
 be ready .... to use both public and private moni- 
 tions and exhortations, as well to the sick as to the 
 whole within your cures, as need shall require ? ' 
 Fuller speaks of vicarages which were ' of great cure 
 but small value.' (Ch. ffisf.'XI., ix. 34.) 
 
 A ' curate ' is now the deputy or the assistant of 
 the parish priest, but in the Prayer-book it is the 
 name given to him who has the cure of souls, irre- 
 spective of what, in other regards, his ecclesiastical 
 status may be. Larimer says of false teachers and 
 their hearers, 'They shall fall both; the leader and 
 he that is led, the blind curate and his blind pari- 
 shioners.' (i. 523.) In French the incumbent is styled 
 the cure, and his assistant the vicaire, which etymo- 
 logically is more correct than our present usage ; an
 
 Citrate Curiosity. 1 27 
 
 usage, however, which is not entirely modern. The 
 sixth injunction of Edward VI. is, 'that such who in 
 cases exprest in the Statute are absent from their 
 benefices leave learned and expert curates.' Fuller 
 says that 'the miserable and scandalous stipends 
 afforded to their curats' was a crying sin of the 
 English clergy, and deemed by some ' a great incen- 
 tive of Divine anger against them.' He continues, 
 ' Hence it is that God since hath changed His hand, 
 making many who were poor curats rich rectors, and 
 many wealthy incumbents to become poor curats.' 
 (C/i. Hist. XI. iv. 3.) Most of these curates, how- 
 ever, were no doubt really such ; that is to say, the 
 whole cure of the parish which they served was vested 
 in them, for it was far less common at that time than it 
 is at present for resident incumbents to have the help 
 of other clergy, while the system of pluralities entailed 
 as a necessary consequence a great number of what 
 are now called ' sole charges. ' The American Prayer- 
 book has substituted 'minister' for 'curate' in the 
 rubrics, ' other ministers ' in the Prayer for the Church 
 Militant, while in that for the Clergy and People in 
 the daily service, intercession is made for ' the bishops 
 and other clergy;' and indeed those who were not 
 aware of the older meaning of ' curate ' might imagine 
 that in our Collect beneficed priests were rather 
 pointedly excluded from any share in the blessings 
 then invoked. 
 
 'Curiosity' was once applied to over -solicitude or 
 scrupulousness generally, but now means inquisitive- 
 ness or excessive care about matters which do not 
 greatly concern us. The word does not occur in the
 
 128 Bible English. 
 
 Bible or Prayer-book, but is twice found in the Trans- 
 lators' Preface : ' The Scriptures then being acknow- 
 ledged to bee so full and so perfect, how can wee 
 excuse our selves of negligence, if we doe not studie 
 them, of curiositie, if we be not content with them ?' 
 and again, justifying themselves for not standing 
 'curiously upon an identitie of phrasing,' they say, 
 'Thus to minse the matter wee thought to sauour 
 more of curiositie than wisedome.' Bishop Sanderson 
 (ii. 327) observes that the phrase, ' weighing the 
 spirits ' (Prov. xvi. 2), ' is taken from the curiosity 
 that men use in weighing gold, or precious quint- 
 essences for medicine.' So in Massinger's City 
 Madam (i. i) : 
 
 ' Methinks the mother, 
 
 As if she could renew her youth, in care, 
 
 Nay, curiosity, to appear lovely, 
 
 Comes not behind her daughters.' 
 
 Though ' curiosity ' was often employed in this way, it 
 also had what is now exclusively its meaning. Thus 
 Bishop Hooper in 1549 describes it as 'overmuch 
 searching the privities and secrets of God.' (i. 419.) 
 * Curious ' not only signifies with us inquisitive, but 
 strange or rare ; a sense which only attaches to curio- 
 sity in the plural, or sometimes in the singular when 
 preceded by the indefinite article. ' Curious,' how- 
 ever, in closer connexion with its etymology, once 
 meant 'careful.' Chaucer speaks of what a man 
 might do, 
 
 ' Although he be religious, 
 And God to servin curious.' 
 
 (Rom. of Rose, 6581.)
 
 Precious Dear. 1 29 
 
 And Bishop Hall says that the stone at the Holy 
 Sepulchre was 'curiously sealed.' (Myst. of Godliness, 
 sec. 10.) 'Curious' was likewise applied to that with 
 which great pains had been taken, as, for instance, 
 'the curious girdle of the ephod' (Exod. xxviii. 8) r 
 where the margin gives 'embroidered,' Thus also 
 Bezaleel had power given him 'to devise curious 
 works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass.' 
 (Exod. xxxv. 32.) In Acts, xix. 19, 'curious arts' 
 means magic, the term being taken from the marginal 
 rendering of the Vulgate (curiosas artes], which in the 
 text has atriosa. The word in the original Trepiepya 
 has, like 'curious,' the double sense of over-careful and 
 inquisitive, and is, in fact, the same as that translated 
 ' busybodies ' in i Tim. v. 1 3. The corresponding 
 verb occurs in Ecclus. iii. 23, 'Be not curious in 
 unnecessary matters.' 
 
 ' Precious ' means literally ' of great price,' ' valu- 
 able,' and is always so used in our Bible, except in 
 one instance, where it signifies ' rare.' ' The word of 
 the Lord was precious in those days' (i Sam. iii. i) 
 does not assert the estimation in which it was held,, 
 but the infrequency with which it was revealed. So 
 in Winter's Tale (i. 2) : 
 
 ' This jealousy 
 
 Is for a precious creature : as she's rare, 
 Must it be great.' 
 
 ' Dear,' like ' precious,' signifies ' costly,' but, un- 
 like ' precious,' it does not also of necessity imply that 
 the thing of which it is predicated is worth much ; in 
 fact, 'dear' is often used in a disparaging sense. It
 
 1 30 Bible English. 
 
 is, however, synonymous with ' precious ' in the 
 Prayer-book Version of Ps. Ixxii. 14, and cxvi. 13: 
 ' Dear shall their blood be in his sight ; ' ' Right dear 
 in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.' 
 And again in Acts, xx. 24, ' Neither count I my life 
 dear unto myself.' So Cassius says : 
 
 ' There is my dagger, 
 
 And here my naked breast ; within, a heart 
 Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold.' 
 
 (Jal. Cas. iv. 3.) 
 
 ' Dear,' as a term of affection, still conveys the notion 
 of value, while the substantive ' dearth ' reminds us 
 that the idea of scarcity, which sometimes belonged to 
 ' precious,' is also resident in ' dear.' 
 
 ' Cheap ' was originally a substantive, and meant 
 * market,' and for some time after it had itself acquired 
 an adjectival use, it was preceded by an adjective as 
 ' good ; ' the phrase resembling the French bon marche, 
 good marketing. ' Behold, victuals shall be so good 
 cheap upon earth, that they shall think themselves 
 to be in good case.' (2 Esdr. xvi. 21.) Latimer 
 says of extortioners, 'Such fellows are now in our 
 time very good cheap' (i. 405), i.e. very plentiful, and 
 Bishop Andrewes, complaining of want of liberality in 
 almsgiving, observes, ' Men would have doing good 
 too good cheap.' (v. 43.) ' Better cheap' occurs in 
 Jonson's Poetaster, (i. i.) 'To chop,' i.e. to change, is 
 connected with this term ; we speak of the wind 
 chopping and changing. In Richard II (v. 3), the 
 Duchess of York, referring to the double meaning of 
 a French word, says, 
 
 ' The chopping French we do not understand.'
 
 Clicap Cliarge. 131 
 
 Many places derive their name from 'cheap,' or 'chea- 
 ping,' in the sense of market, as Chippenham, Chep- 
 stow, Chipping Ongar, Chipstead, &c. ' The ward 
 of Cheap in London,' says Stow, ' taketh name of the 
 market there kept, called Westcheaping.' They who 
 attended these markets for the purpose of bartering 
 or chaffering, were styled ' chapmen.' ' The weight 
 of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six 
 hundred and threescore and six talents of gold, be- 
 side that which chapmen and merchants brought.' 
 (2 Chron. ix. 13, 14.) Fuller writes, 'We must have 
 all wares in our pack, not knowing what kind of 
 chapmen we shall light on.' (Pisgah Sight, IV. i. 41.) 
 A 'chap book' is one of those popular books such as 
 travelling chapmen or hawkers sold. 
 
 To ' charge,' comes from a word signifying to put 
 on a car, and so to load. Hence a ship's load is 
 called a 'cargo;' when she reaches her destination 
 she 'discharges' it; troops 'charge' the enemy by 
 throwing their whole weight upon them; a gun is 
 'charged' when it is loaded; a prisoner is 'charged' 
 when the burden of alleged guilt is laid upon him ; 
 a jury is 'charged' when the judge sets the entire 
 weight of the evidence before them. ' These things 
 give in charge, that they may be blameless ' ( r Tim. 
 v. 7); so we speak of laying this or that on a person's 
 conscience. S. Paul was 'at charges' with the men 
 who were under the vow (Acts, xxi. 24) when he took 
 their obligations on himself, and was at the cost of 
 their sacrifices, but he declined to be ' chargeable ' or 
 burdensome to others, (i Thess. ii. 9.) He also miti- 
 gates the censure which the Corinthians had drawn
 
 132 Bible English. 
 
 upon themselves, for he was unwilling to ' overcharge 
 them all' (2 Cor. ii. 5); in other words, to overload 
 them, or to press on them too heavily. The same 
 meaning may be traced in a word that is now quite 
 obsolete, except as signifying a military horse used in 
 charging. ' Give me here John Baptist's head in a 
 charger ' (S. Matt. xiv. 8), i.e. a large dish or platter, 
 such as that on which a weight of meat, the piece de 
 resistance, would be placed. One day when Oswald, 
 King of Northumberland, was at dinner, he was told 
 that a number of poor people were at his gate, upon 
 which he commanded, says Fuller, 'not onely that 
 the meat set before him should be given them, but 
 also that the large Silver-Charger holding the same 
 should be broke in pieces, and (in want, perchance, 
 of present coin) parted betwixt them.' (Ch. Hist. II. 
 ii. 76.) And the same author in another work, writes, 
 'As for Georgius Dissipatus, Andronicus intended to 
 roast him, being a corpulent man, upon a spit, affirm- 
 ing that such venison wanted no larding, but would 
 baste itself, and meant to serve him up as a dainty 
 dish in a charger or tray, to his widow, had not some 
 intervening accident diverted it.' (Holy and Profane 
 Slate, p. 370.) 
 
 ' Beef is familiar to us as the flesh of an ox, but 
 we should not call the animal itself a beef or beeve. 
 The singular in this sense, indeed, does not seem 
 to have been common, nor does it occur in our 
 Bible, but ' beeves ' are mentioned in conjunction 
 with sheep and goats. (Lev. xxii. 19-21.) Latimer 
 (II. 412) says that he has 'provision for household 
 in wheat, malt, beeves, and muttons,' and Shakes-
 
 Halt L iking. 1 3 3 
 
 peare speaks of ' muttons, beefs, and goats.' (Mer. 
 of Ven. i. 3.) 
 
 ' Halt' is seldom now applied, as in S. John, v. 3, 
 to those who are literally crippled, or as in Gen. xxxii. 
 31, 'he halted upon his thigh.' We may still speak 
 of ' halting verse,' meaning that it is lame or un- 
 rhythmical, but if we stated that a man halted, it 
 would denote that he stopped, not that he limped. 
 Fuller says of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, ' Their 
 cripple chariots turned into carts (when their fore- 
 wheels were taken away) halt on very heavily ' 
 {Pisgah, IV. iii. 12) ; and elsewhere he observes that 
 when James I. at the Savoy Conference showed him- 
 self plainly opposed to the Puritans, the royal example 
 decided those who had been wavering, and 'many 
 cripples in conformitie were cured of their former 
 halting therein.' (Ch. Hist. X. i. 23.) It may be re- 
 marked that in i Kings, xviii. 21, ' How long halt ye 
 between two opinions?' does not signify, how long 
 are you at a stand-still between them, but how long 
 are you so unsteady, limping, as it were, from one to 
 the other ? 
 
 ' Liking ' is no longer used in relation to the ap- 
 pearance or condition of a person. ' Why should he 
 see your faces worse liking (in the margin 'sadder') 
 than the children of your sort?' (Dan. i. 10.) 'Their 
 young ones are in good liking ' (Job, xxxix. 4) ; ' They 
 shall be fat and. well-liking' (Ps. xcii. 13, Prayer- 
 book); or, in the Bible version, 'flourishing.' So 
 Mrs. Ford, indignant with Falstaff, says, ' I shall think 
 the worse of fat men, as long as I have an eye to 
 make difference of men's liking' (Merry Wives of
 
 134 Bible English. 
 
 Windsor, ii. i); and Falstaff himself professes, 'I'll 
 repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking ; 
 I shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have 
 no strength to repent.' (i Hen. I] r . iii. 3.) 
 
 ' Tell,' in the sense of ' count,' is almost obsolete. 
 In Gen. xv. 5, we read, ' Tell the stars if thou be able 
 to number them,' and in Ps. xxii. 17, ' I may tell all 
 my bones.' The members who in a Parliamentary 
 division count the votes, are called ' tellers;' we also 
 sometimes say that there was such and such a number 
 'all told,' i.e. reckoning every one. The sum of what 
 is thus counted is called the 'tale;' a word now 
 generally meaning a narrative. Hooker, in the Pre- 
 face to his Polity, says (iv. 6) that the ignorant are 
 ' apt to measure by tale and not by weight,' i.e. to 
 judge of a matter according to the opinion of num- 
 bers, without stopping to inquire whether those whom 
 they follow are competent to lead them. In some 
 cases the twofold meaning of these words ' tell ' and 
 ' tale ' makes the signification doubtful. Thus in 
 Notes and Queries (5th Series, vols. i. and ii.) a contro- 
 versy is carried on as to what Milton really meant 
 when he wrote in L Allegro, 
 
 ' And every shepherd tells his tale 
 Under the hawthorn in the dale ;' 
 
 some contending that the shepherd is represented as 
 uttering the story of his love, while. others take it that 
 he is counting the number of his sheep. 
 
 To ' bestow,' is to place or put away, but is now 
 always employed of putting in the hands of another, i.e. 
 giving. But in the older use of the term a man might
 
 Stow Stead. 135 
 
 very well keep to himself what he bestowed ; thus, 
 'When he came to the tower he took them from 
 their hand, and bestowed them in the house.' (2 Kings, 
 v. 24.) Fuller observes, ' Those souldiers who mean 
 to be false will never be made faithfull in what place 
 soever they be bestowed.' (Holy War,\\. 10.) The 
 simple word ' stow ' is still used in this way, and is 
 often found in the names of places, as Stow Market, 
 Stow-on-the-Wolds, Chepstow, &c. 
 
 ' Stead ' is another word signifying place, but 
 which is unused now, except in composition, as 
 ' homestead,' ' bedstead,' ' instead.' The component 
 parts of the latter, indeed, are sometimes separated by 
 a word, usually a pronoun, as ' in his stead,' ' in their 
 stead,' &c. In such phrases, however, it always means 
 'in the place or room of,' but in i Chron. v. 22, 
 ' steads ' signifies abodes ; ' they dwelt in their steads 
 until the captivity.' Guyon says of Artegal, 
 
 ' He ne wonneth in one certeine stead, 
 But restlesse walketh all the world arownd.' 
 
 (F. Queene, iii., ii. 14.) 
 
 Bishop Hall speaks of the waist as the ' girdle-stead ' 
 (Sat. IV. v. 14), and Fuller says that the void place 
 at the entering of the gate of Samaria might serve for 
 a 'market-stead.' (Pisgah,ll. ix. 25.) So 'bestead' 
 signifies placed or situated. ' Hardly bestead ' (Isa. 
 viii. 21), means 'placed in difficulty.' Thus also in 
 2 Hen. VI. (ii. 3) : 
 
 ' I never saw a fellow worse bested, 
 Or more afraid to fight than is the appellant.'
 
 36 Bible English. 
 
 One who performs something in the stead of another 
 does him a service, and we say of whatever profits a 
 man, that it stands him 'in good stead.' Thus 'be- 
 stead,' as a verb, came to mean to help or benefit, 
 though it does not bear this sense in our version, the 
 word indeed only occurring in the passage from Isaiah, 
 just quoted. // Penseroso begins, 
 
 ' Hence, vain, deluding joys, 
 The brood of Folly without father bred ! 
 
 How little you bested, 
 Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys ! ' 
 
 'Steady' and 'stedfast' mean firmly placed or 
 fixed ; Moses' 'hands were steady until the going 
 down of the sun.' (Exod. xvii. 12.) ' Stedfastly pur- 
 posing to lead a new life.' (Catechism.} 
 
 By a ' chapter ' we now denote the heads of a book, 
 or of a cathedral or of an order of knighthood, but in the 
 Bible the word appears as a trisyllable (chapiter) and 
 signifies the top of a column, or as we now call it, the 
 capital. In 2 Chron. iv. 1 2 we read of ' the pommels 
 and the chapiters.' We now only speak of the pommel 
 of a saddle or a sword, but the term was once applied 
 to any round boss like zpomtim, or apple. Chaucer 
 tells us that Arcite's horse pitched him ' on the pomel 
 of his hed.' (Knightfs Tale, 2691.) 
 
 Some few words may be noted as used in their 
 literal meaning, though now only surviving with a 
 figurative signification. 
 
 In the heading of i Sam. xiv. we find mention of 
 ' the captivated Hebrews,' and similar expressions 
 occur in the summaries of 2 Kings, xvii., 2 Chr. xxviii.,
 
 Disuse of Literal Sense. 137 
 
 and Jer. xxxix. He who admires and is fascinated by 
 another is now said to be 'captivated,' but in the 
 instances cited it is no metaphorical captivity that is 
 meant, but a real and literal bondage. Herbert 
 exclaims, 
 
 ' O tame my heart ; 
 
 It is Thy highest art 
 To captivate strongholds to Thee.' 
 
 (The Temple; Nature.} 
 
 To ' conclude ' is with us either to ' end ' or to 
 1 infer,' but in Rom. xi. 32, ' God hath concluded them 
 all in unbelief,' the word is employed in its literal 
 sense, which indeed is given in the margin, ' shut them 
 all up together;' and again, in Gal. iii. 22, we have, 
 ' But the scripture hath concluded all under sin,' where 
 the word in the original is the same as that which is 
 translated in the next verse, 'shut up.' t Fuller re- 
 marks that some accounted it ' inj urious for any 
 Prince in Parliament to tye his successors, who 
 neither can, nor will be, concluded thereby, farther 
 than it stands with their owne convenience.' (Ch. Hist. 
 x. ii. u.) On the other hand, in the following sentence 
 from Bishop Hall's Contemplations, ' shut up ' is em- 
 ployed where we should now write 'conclude;' 'Actions 
 begunne in glorie (/. e. boasting) shut vp in shame ' 
 
 By ' monarchy ' we now denote the kingly form of 
 government, or a nation that is so governed, but though 
 etymologically the word would be confined to cases 
 where there was a single ruler it is not thus restricted 
 with us. There may be a single ruler and yet no
 
 138 Bible English. 
 
 monarchy, and there may be a monarchy with more 
 than one sovereign. Thus the President of the 
 United States is not a monarch, nor was England a 
 monarchy under Cromwell ; on the other hand, it did 
 not cease to be a monarchy when William and Mary 
 shared the throne. The word is employed in an 
 unusual but quite literal sense in the margin of 
 2 Kings, xv. i ; ' This is the twenty-seventh year of 
 Jeroboam's partnership in the kingdom with his father, 
 who made him consort at his going to the Syrian wars. 
 It is the sixteenth year of Jeroboam's monarchy.' This 
 note which is not in the edition of 1611, 'appears,' 
 says Mr. Wright, ' to have been added about the end 
 of the seventeenth century ; and it is not impossible 
 that the meaning here given to " monarchy " may have 
 been derived from the employment of the word in the 
 controversies of the period on the subject of the Trinity, 
 in which it was applied to the sole rule and supremacy 
 of God.' 
 
 ' Canker ' is generally applied to some moral evil, 
 while the other form of the word, ' cancer,' signifies the 
 physical disease; but 'canker' is used for this in 2 Tim. 
 ii. 17, where the marginal rendering is 'gangrene.' 
 We speak also of a cankered heart, or mind, or soul, 
 but in S. James, v. 3, the term refers to the rust 
 contracted by metals ; ' Your gold and silver is can- 
 kered.' Shakespeare writes of, 
 
 ' The canker'd heaps of strange-achieved gold.' 
 
 (2 Hen. IV. iv. 5.) 
 
 The first signification of ' comfort ' is strength, and 
 in old writers it often means this rather than conso-
 
 Disuse of Literal Sense. 139 
 
 lation. 'Let me alone that I may take comfort a 
 little, before I go whence I shall not return ' (Job, x. 
 20, 21), is identical in meaning with Ps. xxxix. 13, -'O 
 spare me that I may recover my strength ;' the same 
 word being used in both places in the original. The 
 indictment against an accomplice in treason after the 
 fact would charge him with ' comforting ' the traitor, 
 /. c. supporting him. Mr. Wright quotes a very curious 
 instance from Wiclif s rendering of Isa. xli. 7, where 
 for the words as they stand in our version, ' he fastened 
 it with nails/ we read, 'he coumfortide hym with 
 nailes.' Bishop Andrewes (ii. 145) observes, 'Com- 
 fort is it by which, in the midst of all our sorrows, we 
 are confortati, that is, strengthened, and made the 
 better able to bear them all out.' 
 
 1 Declare ' is now merely to assert, but its primary 
 sense is ' to make clear.' Pharaoh complains that 
 when he told his dream to the magicians, ' there was 
 none that could declare it to me.' (Gen. xli. 24.) 
 Again, in the Baptismal Office the congregation are re- 
 minded how our Lord ' by His outward gesture and 
 deed declared His good will toward ' children ; and the 
 Collect for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity begins, 
 ' O God, who declarest Thy almighty power most 
 chiefly in showing mercy and pity.' Ridley (p. 67) 
 writes, 'A hundred things more may be reckoned 
 .... but these are enough to declare, and to 
 set before thine eyes the thing that I intend.' 
 
 In the Post-communion Collect ' fulfil ' signifies 
 ' fill full ; ' ' humbly beseeching Thee, that all we who 
 are partakers of this Holy Communion may be fulfilled
 
 140 Bible English. 
 
 with Thy grace and heavenly benediction.' Chaucer's 
 Doctourts Tale begins, 
 
 ' Ther was, as telleth Titus Livius, 
 A knight, that cleped was Virginius, 
 Fulfilled of honour and worthinesse.' 
 
 Isaiah, Iviii. 10, is quoted or rather paraphrased in 
 the Articles agreed upon by Convocation in 1536 thus : 
 * God shall give unto thee continuall rest, and shall 
 fulfill thy soul with brightnesse.' (Fuller, Ch. Hist. 
 V. iv. 35-) 
 
 ' Hardly ' is generally employed as synonymous 
 with ' scarcely,' but its literal meaning is ' with difficulty ; ' 
 and this is its sense in S. Matt. xix. 23, where our 
 Lord says that ' a rich man shall hardly enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven.' (So also in S. Luke, ix. 39 ; 
 Acts, xxvii. 8.) Raleigh mentions that Seleucus was 
 vanquished in a great battle, 'whence he escaped 
 hardly.' (Hist, of World, v. 5. i.) Fuller observes that 
 one day he could not remember whether he had said 
 his prayers that morning; 'yet at last I hardly 
 recovered one token, whence I was assured that I 
 had said my prayers.' (Good Thoughts in bad Times, 
 
 P- IS-) 
 
 Bishop Andrewes says, ' Properly, we are said to 
 rise from a fall, and from death rather to revive ' (ii. 
 191), and of course having regard to the literal mean- 
 ing of ' revive,' i. e. ' live again,' this is correct ; but 
 modern usage does not agree with this. One who 
 recovers from faintness is said to revive, but we should 
 not speak of Lazarus or the widow of Nain's son as
 
 Disuse of Literal Sense. 141 
 
 ' revived,' nor do we ever refer to the future life as a 
 'revival.' When, however, Elijah raised from death 
 the child at Zarephath, we are told, ' the soul of the 
 child came into him again, and he revived.' (i Kings, 
 xvii. 22.) 
 
 To ' reduce ' is to ' bring back,' though to ' bring 
 lower ' is its more usual signification now. It is em- 
 ployed in its earlier sense in the heading to S. James, 
 v. ' to reduce a straying brother to the truth,' and 
 again in the Preface of Ceremonies in the Prayer- 
 book, 'We think it convenient that every country 
 should use such ceremonies as they shall think 
 best to the setting forth of God's honour and glory, 
 and to the reducing of the people to a most perfect 
 and godly living without error or superstition.' 
 Bishop Hall writing to a Romish pervert, exclaims, 
 ' O Thou which art the great Shepheard, great in power, 
 great in mercy, which leavest the ninety and nine to 
 reduce one, fetch home (if Thy will be) this Thy for- 
 lorne charge.' (Letters, Dec. i. Ep. i.) Fuller also, in his 
 History of Waltham Abbey, says, ' His son, Edward, 
 endeavoured to reduce the coyn to its true standard, 
 decrying bad money by his proclamation to the 
 intrinsick value thereof.' (Anno 1551.) 
 
 ' Knit,' on the other hand, is but seldom employed 
 except in a literal sense. Very expressive, however, is 
 the prayer, ' O knit my heart unto Thee that I may 
 fear Thy name' (Ps. Ixxxvi. n), where the Bible 
 Version has, 'Unite my heart to fear Thy name;' the 
 former rendering regarding the petition as one for 
 close and inseparable union with God, the other mak-
 
 142 Bible English. 
 
 ing it a prayer for the concentration of all' the heart's 
 longings and energies on one object. Hooper writes, 
 ' The scripture proveth these two natures to be unite 
 and knit in one Person '(p. 113) and Bishop Hall 
 says of Pharaoh, ' His heart begins to thaw a little, 
 but how soon it knits againe.' (Cent, of the Plagues of 
 Egypt.}
 
 Admiration. 143 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OF WORDS THAT HAVE CONTRACTED OR ENLARGED 
 THEIR SIGNIFICATION. 
 
 THERE are many words which have come gradually 
 to express only a part of that meaning which once 
 was in them, and are used in a restricted sense as 
 compared with their original signification. Several ex- 
 amples of this will be found in the two books which 
 we are examining. 
 
 ' Admiration ' formerly meant nothing more than 
 wonder, and did not of necessity imply praise or 
 approval. S. John, speaking of ' the woman drunken 
 with the blood of the saints,' says, ' When I saw her, 
 I wondered with great admiration.' (Rev. xvii. 6.) 
 Latimer begins one of his letters : ' I understand that 
 you be in great admirations at me, and take very 
 grievously my manner of writing to you.' (ii. 419.) 
 Raleigh, in the preface to his History of the World, 
 observes, ' There is nothing more to be admired and 
 more to be lamented than the private contention, 
 the passionate dispute, the personal hatred, and the 
 perpetual war, massacres, and murthers for Religion 
 among Christians.' Fuller, in his Holy War (i. 6), 
 remarks, in reference to the rapid progress of Ma-
 
 144 Bible English. 
 
 hometanism, ' It may justly seem admirable how that 
 senselesse religion should gain so much ground on 
 Christianitie ;' and in another work he speaks of 
 Cardinal Pole making ' a drie sermon . . . many 
 much admiring the jejunenesse of his discourse.' 
 (Ch. Hist. VIII. i. 41.) The idea of wonder is now 
 in fact scarcely retained in the word, and we admire 
 many things which cause us no surprise. 
 
 On the other hand, ' amazement,' which with us 
 always denotes wonder, was used of any strong emo- 
 tion that deeply agitated the mind. It (or the cor- 
 responding verb) is employed of fear, as in i S. Pet. 
 iii. 6, ' Are not afraid with any amazement ;' of grief, 
 ' He began to be sore amazed and very heavy' (S. 
 Mark, xiv. 33) ; of bewilderment or perplexity, ' They 
 were amazed, they answered no more, they left off 
 speaking' (Job, xxxii. 15); and of surprise, 'They 
 were all amazed at the mighty power of God.' (S. 
 Luke, ix. 43.) Howell writes, that when Felton had 
 assassinated the Duke of Buckingham, ' he was so 
 amazed that he missed his way ' (i. v. 7) ; he was not, of 
 course, astonished at the deed which he had de- 
 liberately planned, but he was agitated and in a maze, 
 so that he knew not where he was going. Adams 
 says of Satan, ' Blood, massacre, destruction are his 
 softest embraces ; horror and amazement are the 
 pleasures of his court.' (ii. 21.) 
 
 ' Envy' now denotes that bad feeling which leads 
 us to grudge at, or to covet the good fortune of 
 another, but it often meant hatred or ill-will generally, 
 e.g., 'He knew that for envy they had delivered him' 
 (S. Matt, xxvii. 18), ' Some, indeed, preach Christ
 
 Envy Maliciousness. 145 
 
 even of envy and strife' (Phil. i. 15); and in Acts, v. 
 17, the marginal rendering is 'envy' where the text 
 has 'indignation.' In Marlowe's Dido (I. i.) Venus 
 complains, 
 
 ' Poor Troy must now be sacked upon the sea, 
 And Neptune's waves be envious men of war.' 
 
 And in the next scene Ilioneus describes himself 
 and his companions as ' wretches of Troy, envied of 
 the winds.' 
 
 ' Envy' is often used, though not in our Bible, as 
 meaning 'odium' or 'reproach.' ' Christ compelled 
 them to make answer unto their own question, and 
 if envy should arise, to take it themselves.' (Latt* 
 mer, i. 298.) (See also the quotation from J^onson^ 
 P- 85.) 
 
 In the same way ' maliciousness' is applied to 
 wickedness, not merely to what we now call ' malice ;' 
 ' not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness. ' 
 (i Pet. ii. 1 6.) Thus Hooker, translating from 
 Gregory of Nazianzum, writes : ' My mind leads me 
 (sith there is no other remedy) to fly and to convey 
 myself into some corner out of sight, where I may 
 scape from this cloudy tempest of maliciousness, 
 whereby all parts are entered into a deadly war 
 among themselves, and that little remnant of love 
 which was is now consumed to nothing.' (Ecc. Pol. 
 Pref. ix. 3.) And Raleigh asks, 'What shall we call 
 a disesteeming, an opposing, or (indeed) a mocking of 
 God, if those men do not oppose Him, disesteem 
 Him, and mock Him, that think it enough for God 
 to ask Him forgiveness at leisure with the remainder 
 
 L
 
 146 Bible English. 
 
 and last drawing of a malicious breath?' (Preface to 
 'Hist, of World '.) 
 
 We only express now noise and turbulence by the 
 word ' riot/ but all dissoluteness, even though quiet 
 or secret, was once designated by it : ' Be not among 
 winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh.' (Prov. 
 xxiii. 20.) ' Let us walk honestly as in the day, not 
 in rioting and drunkenness.' (Rom. xiii. 13.) In 
 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, a comparison is 
 drawn between the case of commonwealths and 
 families, and mention is made of ' riot a common 
 ruine of both ; riot in building, riot in profuse spend- 
 ing, riot in apparel,' &c. (Democritus to the Reader, 
 p". 68.) Adams writes, ' If the belly have ears let it 
 hear, and not suffer the head of the body, much less 
 the head of the soul reason to be drowned in a 
 puddle of riot.' (ii. 28.) 
 
 ' Conversation' did mean the whole manner of 
 life ', it is now simply the verbal communication which 
 we hold with others. If we do not bear this in 
 mind, we shall very inadequately understand such 
 texts as, ' To him that ordereth his conversation 
 (marg. disposeth his way) aright will I show the salva- 
 tion of God' (Ps. L. 23); or, 'Lot vexed with the 
 filthy conversation of the wicked' (2 Pet. ii. 7), as 
 though it were only their bad language that distressed 
 him. Nor when S. Peter (i iii. 2) says that ungodly 
 ' husbands may be won by the conversation of their 
 wives,' does he mean that mere talking will do any 
 good, if there be not a right example shown. Fuller 
 accounts for the fact that fish were not offered in 
 sacrifice, by remarking that they live ' in an element
 
 Con vcrsatioii Crcatu re. 1 47 
 
 wherein men had no conversation.' (Pisgah, III. iii. 
 14.) So 'to be conversant' was synonymous with 'to 
 live,' as in Josh. viii. 35, ' The strangers that were 
 conversant among them ;' or as in Hooker's famous 
 and unanswered challenge to those who rejected epi- 
 scopacy, ' We require you to find out but one Church 
 upon the face of the whole earth that hath been 
 ordered by your discipline, or hath not been ordered 
 by ours, that is to say, by episcopal regiment sithence 
 the time that the blessed Apostles were here con- 
 versant.' (Ecc. Pol. Pref. iv. i.) 'Converse' also 
 meant to associate, to hold intercourse with in any 
 way, and not only, as now, orally. In the heading of 
 Acts, ii. we are told that those who were baptized by 
 S. Peter on the day of Pentecost, ' afterwards devoutly 
 and charitably converse together.' And Clarendon 
 speaks of the Scotch as a people ' which conversed 
 wholly amongst themselves.' (Bk. iii. p. 274.) 
 
 'Creature' signifies with us some living being, 
 whether man or beast, but formerly whatever was 
 created. The word translated ' creature,' in Rom. viii. 
 19-21, is in the 22nd verse rendered ' creation,' and 
 refers to inanimate nature, as well as animate, and 
 the same term, both in Greek and English, occurs in 
 Wisd. ii. 6, 'Let us enjoy the good things that are 
 present, and let us speedily use the creatures like as 
 in youth.' The creatures referred to are, as the con- 
 text shows, wine, ointments, &c., such things as are 
 still called creature-comforts. Bishop Andrewes ap- 
 plies the word to distinguish other works of God from 
 men : ' All the creatures in heaven and earth seemed 
 to hear this His mournful complaint . . . the sun . . .
 
 148 Bible English. 
 
 the earth . . . the very stars . . . and sinful men only 
 not moved with it. And yet it was not for the 
 creatures this was done to Him, to them it pertaineth 
 not, but for us it was, and to us it doth. And shall 
 we not yet regard it, shall the creature and not we ?' 
 (ii. 155.) Adams calls atheists 'such as have vo- 
 luntarily, violently, extinguished to themselves the 
 sunlight of the scripture, moonlight of the creature,' 
 &c. (i. 309), /. e., they have rejected the evidence 
 which God has given of Himself in His Word and in 
 His works. In the Prayer of Consecration we have, 
 ' These Thy creatures of bread and wine.' Fuller 
 says of our Lord, ' We never read Him begging any- 
 thing, save when from the woman of Samaria He 
 asked water a creature so common and needful that 
 it was against the law of nature to deny it Him.' (Ch. 
 Hist. IV. iii. 36.) 
 
 ' Utter,' like converse, is now almost entirely used 
 of speech ; but it was once employed of putting out 
 or forth many things besides words. He is denounced 
 (Lev. v. i), who being aware of a sin committed does 
 not ' utter it,' or make it known. Adams complains 
 that barley which ought to be made into bread is 
 turned into ale. ' If the poor cannot reach the price, 
 the malt-master will ; he can utter it to the tap-house, 
 and the tap-house is sure of her old friend, drunkenness. ' 
 (ii. 246.) Latimer speaks of fish being uttered (i. 372), 
 /. e., put out for sale ; and again, ' God prosper you to 
 the uttering (/. e., detection or exposure) of all hollow 
 hearts.' (ii. 411.) This larger sense of the word has 
 disappeared, except in one phrase. He who presents 
 a forged cheque, or passes base coin, is said to utter
 
 Reprobate Coast. 149 
 
 them , in other words, to put them out for circu- 
 lation. 
 
 Such coin might once have been styled ' re- 
 probate,' a term now used only of moral worthlessness. 
 ' Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the 
 Lord hath rejected them' (Jer. vi. 30) ; that is, silver 
 in which the proportion of alloy was too large to allow 
 of its standing the proof. The word seems to have 
 come into our version from the Vulgate, which has 
 reprobnm, which term it also employs of the thorny 
 ground in Heb. vi. 8, where the English Bible puts 
 * rejected.' 
 
 'Coast' always suggests to our minds some as- 
 sociation with the sea, but once signified the border 
 of a place or country, whether inland or maritime. 
 Coast is from the Latin costa, a side ; so when we go 
 up to a person for the purpose of addressing him, we 
 are said to ' accost him.' Bethlehem was not near 
 the sea; but we are told (S. Matt. ii. 16) that Herod 
 ' slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in 
 all the coasts thereof.' ' It would be unreasonable,' 
 observes Canon Lightfoot, ' to expect the English 
 reader to understand that when S. Paul passes through 
 the upper coasts (rd avwepiKa niprj) on his way to 
 Ephesus (Acts, xix. i), he does in fact traverse the 
 high land which lies in the interior of Asia Minor.' 
 (On a fresh Revision of Eng. New Test., p. 174.) In 
 Alexander's Feast, Pope uses the word in reference 
 to the infernal regions, 
 
 * What sounds were heard, 
 What scenes appeared, 
 
 O'er all the dreary coasts !'
 
 1 50 Bible English. 
 
 In like manner a ' voyage ' is now understood to 
 be made by water, but was formerly applied to any 
 journey. ' Holofernes went forth with his chariots 
 and horsemen to go before King Nabuchodonosor in 
 the voyage.' (Judith, ii. 19.) Bishop Hall calls the 
 journey of the Israelites in the wilderness ' their 
 voyage to the land of promise.' (Contemp. of the Waters 
 of Marah.} Fuller reckons it among the services due 
 from abbeys to their founders or benefactors ' to send 
 men on their own charges in voyages to warre.' (Ch* 
 Hist., bk. vi., Hist, of Abbeys.) 
 
 When we say that a man has gone ' abroad,' we 
 mean out of the country, not simply out of the house, as 
 in Ps. xli. 6, ' If he come to see me he speaketh vanity ; 
 his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth 
 abroad (in the Prayer-book Version, " when he cometh 
 forth") he telleth it.' And in Exod. xii. 46, it is 
 directed concerning the paschal lamb, ' In one house 
 shall it be eaten ; thou shalt not carry forth ought of 
 the flesh abroad out of the house.' So in Jonson's 
 Fox (i. i) : 
 
 ' She's kept as warily as is your gold : 
 Never does come abroad, never takes air 
 But at a window.' 
 
 Many children too, no doubt, have learned from Dr. 
 Watts to say : 
 
 ' Whene'er I take my walks abroad, 
 How many poor I see !' 
 
 ' Mansion ' denotes with us a house of some size 
 and pretension, and so perhaps a mistaken idea is
 
 Mansion Tabernacle. 151 
 
 suggested to some by our translation of S. John, xiv. 2, 
 ' In my Father's house are many mansions.' The 
 word, however, means an 'abiding place.' Fuller 
 speaks of the spots where the Israelites halted in the 
 wilderness as 'mansions.' (Pisgah, v. 22.) Hutchin- 
 son writes of the angels, ' They be pure minds, and 
 were never neither blinded through sin, ne hin- 
 dered through any earthly mansion and corruptible 
 body ' (p. 1 60) ; and Latimer, warning his hearers 
 against the devil, says, ' Suffer him not too long ; give 
 him no mansion in thy heart, but strike him with the 
 word of God, and he is gone; he will not abide.' 
 (i. 439.) In the text referred to, the heavenly man- 
 sion, i.e., the permanent rest which remaineth for the 
 people of God, is tacitly contrasted with the earthly 
 house of this tabernacle, which is liable to be 're- 
 moved like a cottage' or a 'shepherd's tent.' (Isa. 
 xxiv. 20; xxxviii. 12.) 
 
 This very word ' tabernacle ' is itself a source of 
 some confusion to the English reader, who is apt 
 always to associate it with the idea of that special 
 habitation which God appointed for Himself as the 
 place where His honour should dwell. This was in- 
 deed the tabernacle, but the term taken alone means 
 nothing more than a tent or shed. Thus Balaam, 
 with that parallelism between the two clauses of a 
 sentence which is so marked a feature in the poetical 
 parts of the Bible, exclaims, ' How goodly are thy 
 tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel !' (Num. 
 xxiv. 5.) And when on the Mount of Transfiguration 
 S. Peter said, ' Let us make here three tabernacles ' 
 (S. Matt. xvii. 4), he meant of course dwellings, not
 
 152 Bible English. 
 
 places of worship. Adams writes, ' The poet tells us 
 that when Codrus's house burns (a little cottage in the 
 forest), he stands by, and warms himself at the flame : 
 he knows that a few sticks, straw, and clay, with a 
 little labour, can rebuild him as good a tabernacle.' 
 And again, 'We have them that rush into others' 
 tabernacles, swallowing a man and his heritages.' 
 (ii. 143, 315.) 
 
 There are doubtless those who, when they read in 
 S. Luke, xiv. 7-11, of the highest and lowest room, 
 picture to themselves different apartments, instead of 
 different places at the same board. The word is con- 
 stantly thus used. Bishop Hall in his Letters (Dec. II. 
 Ep. 3), quoting Pope Pius II., calls him 'as learned as 
 hath sit in that roome this thousand yeeres ;' and again, 
 in his Characteristics, he says of the vain-glorious, ' All 
 his humour rises up into the froth of ostentation, 
 which, if it once settle, falls down into a narrow 
 roome.' With this last we may compare the expres- 
 sion of the Psalmist (xxxi. 8), ' Thou hast set my feet 
 in a large room,' which is equivalent to that found 
 in another Psalm, ' He brought me forth also into a 
 place of liberty.' We still speak of one being ap- 
 pointed in the room of another; and the word is 
 used by Bishop Wilberforce in his article on ' Elijah,' 
 in Heroes of Hebrew History, in its old sense, ' Live in 
 this present life with God, and He, when it is His 
 will, in His own time, will lead thee in other paths 
 which thou knowest not, and set before thee, when 
 thou hast been fitted to dwell within them, larger 
 rooms of more perfect service.' 
 
 The word 'saints' is so restricted by modern usage
 
 Health and Wealth. 1 5 3 
 
 to those of pre-eminent holiness, that some of the 
 texts in which it is only another word for 'God's 
 servants,' or (in the New Testament) for ' Christians,' 
 might sound somewhat strangely in our ears. In the 
 Epistles the term is employed of all those who have 
 been brought into covenant with God in Holy Bap- 
 tism, even as the baptized child is taught to say, ' I 
 believe in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, 
 and all the elect people of God.' He has received the 
 gift of the Divine Spirit, who, if He be not resisted, 
 will make him holy or a saint. Doubtless some of 
 those whom S. Paul addressed by this title were 
 deficient in true holiness, but they were 'called to 
 be saints.' The word occurs in its wider meaning in 
 Cowper's well-known lines : 
 
 ' And Satan trembles when he sees 
 The weakest saint upon his knees.' 
 
 We pray that the Queen may long live in ' health 
 and wealth.' Both these -words meant more than 
 they do now. ' Health ' was not confined to the 
 welfare of the body. Where the Prayer-book has, 
 ' Mine eyes are wasted away with looking for thy 
 health,' the Bible gives, ' Mine eyes fail for thy salva- 
 tion.' (Ps. cxix. 123.) Thus the term denotes perfect 
 soundness, moral and spiritual, as well as physical. 
 Laertes tells his sister that on Hamlet's choice of a fit 
 consort ' depends the safety and health of this whole 
 State.' (i. 3.) Bishop Hooper writes, ' There is no suit 
 but unto one God by the mediation of Christ, beside 
 whom there is no health.' (i. 455.) And the same 
 prelate, referring to God's care for the Ninevites in
 
 154 Bible English. 
 
 sending Jonah to them, observes, 'The Lord, in 
 seeking the wealth of these Assyrians, declareth that 
 He is not only the God of the Jews, but also of the 
 Gentiles.' (i. 448.) 'Wealth' is, of course, the same 
 word as ' weal,' and signifies well-being or prosperity ; 
 in the Litany it is opposed to tribulation. The 
 American author who considered the prominent place 
 given to wealth in the prayer for our Sovereign an 
 evidence of Englishmen's love of money, might as 
 reasonably have suspected S. Paul of encouraging 
 theft, when he exhorted his disciples to seek ' every 
 man another's wealth.' (i Cor. x. 24.) It would, how- 
 ever, be equally a mistake to suppose that the same 
 apostle is specially enforcing the eighth command- 
 ment when he says, ' Provide things honest in the 
 sight of all men' (Rom. xii. 17), or speaks of renounc- 
 ing 'the hidden things of dishonesty.' (2 Cor. iv. 2.) 
 ' Honest,' like the Latin honestus, meant ' honourable,' 
 ' seemly,' or ' of good report.' Adams calls _a hypocrite 
 'a kind of honest atheist' (ii. 237); i.e., he is practi- 
 cally an unbeliever, though making a fairer show out- 
 wardly. In the Homily of the Right Use of the Church 
 (pt. ii. p. 1 80) complaint is made that people talk in 
 the house of the Lord ' of matters scarce honest or fit 
 for the alehouse or tavern.' 
 
 Nor again, even if we take ' a good degree,' men- 
 tioned in i Tim. iii. 13 to be a higher step in the 
 ministry, is there any countenance given to simony, 
 although they who use the office of a deacon well are 
 said to ' purchase ' it. For ' purchase ' was formerly 
 synonymous with ' obtain,' the idea of payment not 
 being necessarily present as now. Latimer says, ' 1
 
 Presumptuous Grudge. 155 
 
 knew once a great rich man and a covetous fellow ; 
 he had purchased about an hundred pound.' (i. 541.) 
 Hooker remarks, ' Of what account the Master of 
 Sentences was in the Church of Rome, the same and 
 more amongst the preachers of reformed churches 
 Calvin had purchased ; ' and again, ' By reproving 
 faults they purchased unto themselves with the multi- 
 tude a name to be virtuous.' (Ecc. Pol. pref. ii. 8 ; 
 iii. 7.) The word was often used in the sense of 
 'dishonest gain.' Gadshill, when about to commit 
 highway robbery, says to the conniving chamberlain, 
 'Thou shalt have a share in our purchase.' (/. Hen. 
 IV. ii. i.) 
 
 ' Presumptuous ' was sometimes employed as equi- 
 valent to ' wilful,' and might be applied to any trans- 
 gression, as in Ps. xix. 1 3, ' Keep back thy servant 
 also from presumptuous sins,' not sins of pride and 
 over-confidence, but deliberate wrong-doing as opposed 
 to those secret faults unconsciously committed, of 
 which mention had been made just before. So in 
 Exod. xxi. 14, the punishment of death is decreed 
 ' if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour 
 to slay him.' Bishop Hall speaks of 'abominable 
 idolatries, and all manner of detestable wickednesses 
 presumptuously committed everywhere.' (Invisible 
 World, i. 9.) 
 
 To 'grudge' is to withhold something from another, 
 or to give it unwillingly; to bear a grudge is to cherish 
 ill-will. But the word in its earlier meaning was of 
 wider application, and included all murmuring or 
 grumbling. Chaucer's Parson says, ' Murmur also is 
 oft among servants, that grutchen whan hir soveraines
 
 156 Bible English. 
 
 bidden hem do leful thinges; and for as moche as 
 they dare not openly withsay the commandement of 
 hir soveraines, yet wol they say harme and grutche 
 and murmure prively for veray despit.' Hutchinson 
 writes, ' If we grudge and be impatient, yet adversity 
 shall molest and vex us;' and again, 'We men grudge 
 and repine at God's rod and punishments.' (pp. 311, 
 318.) We must remember this meaning in order to 
 understand such passages as, ' They will grudge if 
 they be not satisfied' (Ps. lix. 15); or, 'Grudge not 
 one against another, brethren.' (S. Jam. v. 9.) 
 
 In the same way ' quarrel ' signified not only an 
 open rupture, but even complaint, which word is 
 given in the margin of Col. iii. 13, 'forgiving one 
 another if any man have a quarrel against any.' So 
 in Richard II. (i. 3) : 
 
 'Against whom comest thou, and what's thy quarrel ?' 
 
 The term occurs in a letter of Archbishop Grindal's 
 in a shape which reminds us of its derivation from the 
 Latin querela, a complaint : ' I pray you also be a 
 mean to the Queen's majesty, at some convenient 
 time, that all ministers now to be deprived in this 
 querele of rites may be pardoned of all the payments 
 of first fruits due after deprivation.' (p. 289.) We still 
 retain the adjective 'querulous,' nor is a querulous 
 person necessarily quarrelsome. 
 
 To 'discover' signifies with us 'to find out,' but 
 frequently in old English meant simply to uncover, 
 and thus was applied in a wider sense. ' The voice 
 of the Lord discovereth the forests' (Ps. xxix. 9), i.e., 
 strippeth them ; ' I will pour down the stones into the
 
 Parcel A dvertisc. 1 5 7 
 
 valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.' 
 (Mic. i. 6.) Adams says, ' The white devil, the hypo- 
 crite, hath been formerly discovered, and the sky- 
 coloured veil of his dissimulation pulled off.' (ii. 38.) 
 In Spenser's State of Ireland (p. 659), Irenseus, speak- 
 ing to his friend of one of the rebels, observes, ' I will 
 not only discover the first beginning of his privat 
 howse, but also the originall of all his sept.' When at 
 the opening of a play certain characters are said to be 
 discovered on the stage, it is not the audience, but the 
 people who draw up the curtain that discover them. 
 
 A ' parcel ' of land or ground (Ruth, iv. 3 ; S. John, 
 iv. 5) is a phrase which now only occurs in legal docu- 
 ments, and by the word itself we understand a small 
 package. But it was once employed as equivalent to 
 ' part.' Some of the sentences in which it is found in 
 this acceptation would seem rather odd to those who 
 are -only accustomed to the present use of the word, as 
 when Latimer says that Saul preserved ' King Agag, 
 and a parcel of the fattest of the cattle ' (i. 109), or as 
 when Fuller, in the chronological table appended to 
 the Holy War, notes, under the year 1230, ' Severall 
 authours assigne severall dates wherein the Dutch 
 knights came into Prussia : perchance they came in 
 severall parcels.' 
 
 To ' advertise ' is to give notice in some public 
 way, and to advertise a man is to make some announce- 
 ment concerning him ; but the word in the Bible and 
 other writings of the time simply means to ' inform,' in 
 whatever manner. Balaam says to the King of Moab, 
 ' I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy 
 people in the latter days.' (Numb. xxiv. 14.) In Ruth,
 
 158 Bible English. 
 
 iv. 4, ' I thought to advertise thee,' is, in the margin, 
 ' I said, I will reveal in thine ear.' Fuller mentions a 
 story, that ' in the yeare of our Lord 1453 the Great 
 Turk sent a Letter to the Pope, advertising him how 
 he and his Turkish nation were not descended from 
 the Jews, but from the Trojans, from whom also the 
 Italians derive their pedegree, and so would prove him- 
 self a-kinne to his Holinesse.' (Holy War, v. 9.) 
 
 ' Desire ' looks forward to the future, but it was 
 once retrospective also, and might be applied to regret 
 for the past, as is likewise the case with the Latin 
 ' desiderare? Jehoram ' reigned in Jerusalem eight 
 years, and departed without being desired.' (2 Chron. 
 xxi. 20.) One of Crashaw's poems is ' On the Death 
 of the most desired Mr. fferrys.' 
 
 ' Amiable ' is now applied only to persons, but 
 once to things as well. ' How amiable are Thy taber- 
 nacles!' (Ps. Ixxxiv. i.) Howell says of the Roman 
 Catholics (iv. 36), ' It must needs be a commendable 
 thing, that they keep their churches so cleanly and 
 amiable;' and Bishop Hall observes, that in God's 
 eyes the poor, despised Church on earth is ' beautiful 
 and amiable .... which yet in the eyes of flesh 
 seems but homely and hard-favoured.' (Inv. World, 
 ii. 5.) Fuller also remarks that ' a lean, bald map is 
 not so amiable as one filled full.' (Pisgah, v. 2.) 
 ' Amiable,' indeed, with us no longer signifies ' lov- 
 able,' but ' loving,' and cannot, therefore, be predicated 
 of things. 
 
 ' Proper ' is used by us of right conduct or behavi- 
 our, but not of a well-formed body or handsome appear- 
 ance. His parents saw that Moses was 'a proper
 
 Chap Breach. 159 
 
 child.' (Heb. xi. 23.) The following from Fuller dis- 
 tinguishes what is ' proper ' from what is merely good- 
 looking : ' He may be pretty, but not a proper person, 
 who hath not bulk proportionable to his beauty.' 
 (Pisgah, iii. pt. 2, iii. 4.) 
 
 'Chap' is the same word as 'gape,' or 'gap,' but 
 is not often applied now, except to the opening or 
 breaking of the skin. It is, however, used of the soil 
 in Jer. xiv. 4 : ' The ground is chapt, for there was no 
 rain in the earth.' Fuller says: 'God forbid the 
 heavens should never rain till the earth first opens her 
 mouth, seeing some grounds will sooner burn than 
 chap.' And again, ' Heat of passion makes our souls 
 to chap, and the devil creeps in at the cranies.' (Holy 
 State, pp. 124, 137.) The 'chaps' are that part of the 
 face which opens. Shakspeare calls the mouth ' this 
 gap of breath.' (K. John, iii. 4.) The ' chops ' of the 
 Channel are its mouth or opening. 
 
 We talk of a ' breach ' made in a fortification, or 
 of a ' breach ' of confidence, or friendship, or privilege, 
 but in Judges, v. 17, the word denotes those bays or 
 indentations by which the continuity of the line of 
 coast is broken. ' Asher continued on the sea-shore, 
 and abode in his breaches,' or ' creeks,' as the margin 
 puts it. Thus Spenser, in the faerie Queene (II. 
 xii. 21) : 
 
 ' But th' heedful boteman strongly forth did stretch 
 His brawnie armes, and all his bodie straine, 
 That th' utmost sandy breach they shortly fetch, 
 Whiles the dredd daunger does behind remaine.' 
 
 ' Meat ' is a term restricted by us to flesh, but once
 
 160 Bible English. 
 
 included all kinds of food. The herb and the fruit 
 were given for man's sustenance : ' To you it shall be 
 for meat.' (Gen. i. 29.) 'The trees which thou 
 knowest that they be not trees for meat thou shalt 
 destroy.' (Deut. xx. 20.) The meat-offering consisted 
 of flour and oil. (Lev. vi. 15.) Our translators say of 
 the Scripture, ' It is not a pot of manna, or a cruse of 
 oyle, which were for memorie only, or for a meale's 
 meat or two.' Bishop Hall writes : ' There was never 
 any meate, except the forbidden fruit, so deare bought 
 as this broth of Jacob.' (Cont&np. of Jacob and Esau.} 
 ' Horse meat and man's meat ' was a common expres- 
 sion to signify the entertainment needed at an inn by 
 a traveller. In Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour 
 (ii. 2) Macilente recommends husbands not to be 
 lavish in kindness to their wives : 
 
 ' But use them like their horses ; whom they feed, 
 Not with a mangerful of meat together, 
 But half a peck at once.' 
 
 ' Gates,' on the other hand, would only mean now 
 ' cakes,' or ' confectionery ' of some kind, but was used 
 for flesh meat also. Adams warns his hearers that 
 this world's enjoyments must come to an end in what- 
 ever abundance they may be provided, ' were the 
 spoil of Noah's ark the cates of thy table.' (i. 139.) 
 And, even now, he who 'caters 'would often be thought 
 to perform his office ill if he did not adopt the larger 
 signification of ' cates.' 
 
 Domestic poultry alone are called ' fowl ' at pre- 
 sent, unless some qualifying word be prefixed, as ' wild- 
 fowl,' 'water-fowl,' &c. ; but it was employed as a
 
 Corpse Lover. 161 
 
 generic name for all birds. (Gen. i. 20-22.) Bishop 
 Hall (ContempL of the Deluge) speaks of the dove as 
 ' a fowle both swift and simple.' This sense is obso- 
 lete in prose, but not in poetry. Mr. Tennyson writes : 
 
 ' I have seen the cuckoo chased by lesser fowl.' 
 
 {Coming t>f Arthur.) 
 
 And E. A. Poe, in his remarkable poem, TJie Raven, 
 speaks of that bird as an ' ungainly fowl.' 
 
 ' Corpse ' was once a body living or dead ; now 
 only the latter. ' Dead corpses ' (2 Kings, xix. 35) 
 was not tautology. Adams speaks of those to whom 
 ' orchards, fishponds, parks, warrens, and whatsoever 
 may yield pleasurable stuffing to the corpse, is a very 
 heaven upon earth.' (i. 276.) Fuller relates that the 
 ship in which the body of Louis IX. of France was 
 brought home ' was most miserably tossed ; it being 
 observed that the sea cannot digest the crudity of a 
 dead corpse.' (Holy War, iv. 27.) 'Corpse 'was often 
 used as a plural formerly. 
 
 ' Lover ' is now confined to one of the opposite 
 sex, but once meant an affectionate friend. ' My 
 lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore.' (Ps. 
 xxxviii. u.) Portia says : 
 
 ' This Antonio, 
 
 Being the bosom lover of my lord, 
 Must needs be like my lord.' 
 
 (Mer. of Ven. iii. 4.) 
 
 When we pray that God will preserve to our use 
 the ' kindly ' fruits of the earth, the epithet does not 
 mean ' benignant,' but ' natural ;' the fruits which the
 
 1 62 Bible English. 
 
 earth brings forth after its kind or nature. (Gen. i. n.) 
 Spenser writes of ' the sonne of Venus, who is myld by 
 kynd.' (F. Queene, vi., vii. 37.) Bishop Andrewes, 
 speaking of our Lord's crucifixion, says : ' Look 
 and lament, or mourn, which is indeed the most 
 kindly and natural effect of such a spectacle;' and 
 again, ' What is more kindly to behold the Author of 
 faith than faith ? or more kindly for faith to behold 
 than her Author here at first, and her Finisher there 
 at last?' (ii. 130, 177.) Those who are connected by 
 ' kind,' or ' kin,' usually have for one another what we 
 therefore call natural affection : hence the sense which 
 ' kind ' and ' kindly ' convey now. Bishop Hall had 
 probably this twofold meaning of the word in his mind 
 when he wrote, ' While wee are in this Egypt of the 
 world, all vnkinde strifes would easily be composed, if 
 wee did not forget that wee are brethren.' (Contempt. 
 of the Birth of Moses.") We may compare ' genial,' 
 which signifies pertaining to a man's genius or nature, 
 but now means kindly and agreeable. Sir T. Brown, 
 remarks, that 'there are not a few very much to be 
 pitied, whose industry being not attended with natural 
 parts, they have sweat to little purpose, and rolled the 
 stone in vain. Which chiefly proceedeth from natural 
 incapacity and genial indisposition, at least to those 
 particulars whereunto they apply their endeavours.' 
 ( Vulgar Errors, book i. chap, v.) 
 
 ' Noisome ' now denotes that which is offensive or 
 disgusting to the senses, as a noisome smell ; but it 
 had once the more comprehensive signification of 
 hurtful, or dangerous. We read of ' noisome weeds ' 
 (Job, xxxi. 40, margin) ; ' noisome pestilence ' (Ps.
 
 Estate. 163 
 
 xci. 3); 'noisome beast' (Ezek. xiv. 21); 'noisome 
 sore' (Rev. xvi. 2). Harvey writes : 
 
 ' Cleanse Thou our sin-soiled souls from the dirt and dust 
 Of every noisome lust.' 
 (Synagogue; The Sexton!) 
 
 1 Estate ' is usually applied by us to landed pro- 
 ptrty, but has a much wider meaning in the Bible and 
 Prayer-book, being used where we should now put 
 ' state/ which word, indeed, has been in some places 
 substituted by the printers in modern editions, as in 
 Gen. xliii. 7, 'The man asked us straitly of our estate 
 and of our kindred.' We pray for ' the good estate of 
 the Catholic Church,' and for ' all estates of men ' 
 therein, i. e. all sorts and conditions of men. Rosaline 
 tells Biron that she has heard of him as 
 
 ' A man replete with mocks, 
 Full of comparisons and wounding flouts, 
 Which you on all estates will execute 
 That lie within the mercy of your wit.' 
 
 (Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2.) 
 
 'Estate of the elders' (Acts, xxii. 5) is retained 
 from Cranmer's Bible. It is the rendering of one 
 word (presbytery) in the original. We still speak of 
 the three ' estates of the realm,' /. e. the lords spiritual 
 and temporal and the commons. The term some- 
 times was used to denote men of high rank, as in 
 S. Mark, vi. 2 1 : ' High captains and chief estates of 
 Galilee.' In the catalogue of erroneous opinions com- 
 plained of by the Lower House of Convocation in 
 1536, the following occurs: 'Item, that God never
 
 1 64 Bible English. 
 
 gave grace nor knowledge of Holy Scripture to any 
 great estate or rich man.' (Fuller, Ch. Hist. V. iii. 28.) 
 ' State ' is employed in the same way. Adams says, 
 ' Sin deals with her guests as that bloody prince that, 
 having invited many great states to a solemn feast, 
 flattered and singled them one by one, and cut off all 
 their heads.' (i. 222.) 
 
 Some confusion arises from the fact that the words 
 'prophet' or 'prophesy,' are now always connected 
 in our minds with the prediction of future events. 
 They are, no doubt, often used in this sense in our 
 translation, but by no means invariably. Thus : 
 ' Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet ' (Exod. vii. 
 i); i.e. spokesman. When the Spirit of God came 
 upon Saul, and he prophesied (i Sam. x. 10; xix. 23), 
 we are not to understand that he foretold future events, 
 but that he was in a religious rapture, and ' spake not 
 of himself.' King Lemuel's ' prophecy that his mother 
 taught him' (Prov. xxxi. i), contains no prediction, 
 and when the woman of Samaria said to our Lord, 
 ' Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet,' (S. John, iv. 
 19), it was the acquaintance with her/#.tf history that 
 He had shown which forced the acknowledgment from 
 her. S. Paul calls a heathen poet a prophet (Titus, 
 i. 12); Epimenides, however, was held in religious 
 estimation among his countrymen. In the Apostolic- 
 Church, prophesying meant something like preaching 
 or expounding, but the agent was under immediate 
 inspiration. Since, therefore, the foretelling of the 
 future was not of necessity implied in the word ' pro- 
 phesy,' it is not altogether a redundant expression, 
 when we are told in the heading of 2 Kings, xxiii. that
 
 Min istcr Doctor. 1 6 5 
 
 an event was ' fore -prophesied.' Bernhard, in the de- 
 dication of some of Latimer's sermons, speaks of that 
 bishop as appointed by God to be a ' prophet ' to 
 Edward VI. (Lat. i. 82.) 'Evangelists' are men- 
 tioned immediately after prophets as among the 
 officers of the Apostolic Church (Eph. iv. n); the 
 persons indicated not being the writers of the Gospels, 
 but those who preached the good tidings. Philip the 
 deacon is called an ' evangelist ' (Acts, xxi. 8), and 
 Timothy is exhorted to do the work of one (2 Tim. 
 iv. 5). So Hooker mentions Ananias and Apollos as 
 among those ' whom we find to have been named in 
 scripture Evangelists ' (Ecc. Pol. V. Ixxviii. 7), although 
 the actual title is not given to them in Holy Writ, but 
 they proclaimed the truths of the gospel. (Acts, ix. 17; 
 xviii. 28.) 
 
 'Minister' means no more than servant or at- 
 tendant, and the same Greek word is used to signify 
 the 'servants' (S. Mark, xiv. 54) and the 'officers' 
 (S. John, xviii. 3) of the high-priest, and the 'minis- 
 ters of the word' (S. Luke, i. 2) and the 'minister' of 
 the synagogue to whom our Lord returned the book 
 when He had read from it (S. Luke, iv. 20.) In this 
 last passage a mistaken idea may be formed by some 
 of the kind of person who is thus designated. The 
 official referred to is not he who conducted the service, 
 but he who had charge of the sacred books. 
 
 Though there are doctors of divinity, law, music, 
 &c. as well as of medicine, yet the name by itself is 
 most commonly given to members of the last profession, 
 even though they may not actually be of that degree, 
 but the word formerly denoted teacher, and is so used
 
 1 66 Bible English. 
 
 in scripture (S. Luke, ii. 46 ; v. 1 7. Acts, v. 34) of 
 those the subject-matter of whose teaching was the 
 Jewish law. Latimer calls the devil ' that old doctor ' 
 (I. 430), and in the Homily against Peril of Idolatry 
 (Part III. p. 233), it is said, 'A man may justly cry 
 with the prophet Habakkuk, Shall such images in- 
 struct or teach anything right of God (Hab. ii.), or 
 shall they become doctors?' And again, images (in 
 allusion to the plea that they were laymen's books) 
 are called 'carved doctors.' (p. 206.) Bishop Hall, 
 also writing of the alleged miracles by which Roman- 
 ists justified Mariolatry, styles these wonders ' doctors 
 of lies.' (Letters, Dec. I. Ep. vi.) 
 
 In the same way ' doctrine ' sometimes denotes the 
 ' act of teaching,' not what is taught. ' He said unto 
 them in His doctrine.' (S. Mark, iv. 2.) In Jonson's 
 Silent Woman (II. i.), Morose, training his servants to 
 answer him by signs instead of by words, says, ' I see 
 by much doctrine and impulsion it may be effected.' 
 
 'Tutor' now means one who gives instruction, 
 but had a wider sense formerly, and was synonymous 
 with ' guardian.' Hooker writes, ' Madmen, which 
 for the present cannot possibly have the use of right 
 reason to guide themselves, have for their guide the 
 reason that guideth other men, which are tutors over 
 them to seek and to procure their good for them.' 
 (Ecc. Pol. I. vii. 4.) Fuller tells us that Saladin left 
 nine sons, ' making Saphradine, his brother, overseer 
 of his will; who of a tutour turned a traitour, and 
 murdered them all excepting one.' (Holy War, III. 
 15.) Elsewhere he mentions that King Edgar left 
 ' his son (because under age) to the tuition of Dun-
 
 Governor Deputy. 1 67 
 
 stan' (Ch. Hist. II. v. 34); and Adams asks, 'What 
 shall become of the lambs under the tuition of wolves?' 
 (II. 117.) So in Gal. iv. 2, the statement that 'the 
 heir is under tutors and governors until the time ap- 
 pointed of the father,' refers to his condition as a 
 ward, not as a scholar. The originals of both these 
 words (tutors and governors) are in other passages of 
 the New Testament always translated 'stewards,' 
 except in Rom. xvi. 23, where the latter is rendered 
 'chamberlain.' This word 'governor' is now, ex- 
 cept in slang, confined to the ruler of a town, or 
 colony, or public institution, but was once nearly 
 equivalent to ' tutor ' in its older and wider sense. In 
 the last century a young gentleman was often sent to 
 make the grand tour under the care of his ' governor,' 
 some one, that is, who was to take charge of him. 
 ' Governors ' and teachers are associated together in 
 the Church Catechism. The term is employed, like 
 the Latin gttbernator, in the sense of 'pilot' in S. 
 James, iii. 4. Hutchinson (p. 311) says, 'Many ship- 
 masters have suffered shipwreck, we must not there- 
 fore reject, disallow, or condemn the art of governance, 
 but the negligence and vices of men.' 
 
 Another word which is employed to designate a 
 governor or ruler may be mentioned here. We hardly 
 realise, perhaps, the dignity of the office which was 
 filled by Gallic or Sergius Paulus (Acts, xiii. 7 ; xviii. 
 12), when we read of them as 'deputies,' but at the 
 time that our translation was made, the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant of Ireland was usually styled the ' Deputy ' or 
 ' Lord-deputy.' The word, therefore, was suitable to 
 designate those who were the immediate vicegerents
 
 1 68 Bible English. 
 
 of the imperial power. ' We find (writes Fuller) the 
 Holy Spirit in the same breath (i Kings, xxii. 47) 
 speak a vice-roy to be a king, and no king : There 
 was no king in Edom; a deputy was king.' (Holy 
 War, II. 22.) 
 
 ' Prince ' is a title which, in England at least, is 
 in common speech given only to royalty ; but it often 
 signifies in our version no more than a great man 
 (Dan. vi. i). The chief priests are called 'princes' 
 (Isa. xliii. 28), and the high-priest's office the 'prin 
 cipality.' (2 Mace. iv. 27.) Fuller styles the lord who 
 disbelieved Elisha's prophecy of great plenty (2 Kings, 
 vii. 19) an ' infidel prince.' (Hist, of Camb. III. 24.) 
 Even in our own day, when a herald proclaims at the 
 grave the titles of any nobleman, not under the degree 
 of an earl, he calls him a ' most noble and puissant 
 prince.' 
 
 Some might hastily conclude that in Gen. xxxvi. 
 15, &c. there was an absurdity in styling the sons of 
 Esau ' dukes,' but though the word is now confined to 
 the highest rank in our peerage, it once, like the 
 Latin Z)ux, from which it conies, merely meant a chief. 
 Latimer speaks of Gideon as ' a duke which God 
 raised up to deliver the children of Israel from the 
 Midianites.' (I. 31.) Shakespeare is not very careful 
 to avoid anachronisms, but he does not lay himself 
 open to a charge on this score when he designates 
 Theseus (as Chaucer in the Knighte's Tale, had done 
 before) duke of Athens. Our translators may have 
 been less alive to the incongruous idea now suggested 
 by the mention of ' dukes ' as existing in patriarchal 
 times, from the fact that when they put forth their
 
 CJinrch Easter. 
 
 work, and for several years both before and after, 
 this order in our peerage had no representatives. The 
 Duke of Norfolk, who was attainted and executed in 
 1572, was the last who bore the ducal title, until 
 George Villiers was created Duke of Buckingham in 
 1623. It seems, in fact, to have been a common 
 saying that dukes could not exist in our country. In 
 Jonson's The Devil is an Ass (II. i), the crafty pro- 
 jector flatters his dupe that he shall attain enormous 
 wealth and the highest rank 
 
 ' Against the received heresy 
 That England bears no dukes.' 
 
 The word ' church,' when applied to a building, 
 is restricted by us to one used for Christian worship, 
 but the Ephesian town-clerk points out that S. Paul 
 and his companions are not ' robbers of churches ' 
 (Acts, xix. 37), meaning thereby, of course, the hea- 
 then temples. The Homily on the Right Use of the 
 Church (Pt. I. p. 173), says that at Antioch the 
 Apostles entered ' the synagogue or church,' and the 
 church of Jove, &c. is frequent in old writers. Thus 
 in Marlowe's Hero and Leandcr, 
 
 ' So fair a church as this had Venus none.' 
 
 (Sestiad i.) 
 
 A similar instance of the employment of a distinct- 
 ively Christian term for that which was not Christian, is 
 to be found in Acts, xii. 4, where the Passover is ren- 
 dered ' Easter.' In the older versions this occurred 
 several times, but our translators altered it in every place 
 save this, where it was left, probably, through inad-
 
 1 70 Bible English. 
 
 vertence. There is certainly something odd in sug- 
 gesting, as the English text now does, that the Idumean 
 Herod, a persecutor of the cross, refrained for a time 
 from bringing a prisoner to trial, out of respect for a 
 Christian festival; which, moreover, is called by a 
 name that was given to it by a people whose conver- 
 sion to Christianity did not even begin to be accom- 
 plished for more than 500 years after. 
 
 It is also somewhat startling to find that about 1 60 
 years before Christ, Judas Maccabeus had heard of the 
 wars between the Romans and the Frenchmen. The 
 latter word is in the margin of i Mace. viii. 2, where 
 the text has 'Galatians,' which is itself likely to be 
 misunderstood, and taken to refer to the Celtic colony 
 in Asia Minor, instead of to the Gauls on the west of 
 the Rhine. Latimer is very fond of assigning these 
 familiar modern names to ancient persons and things, 
 with the view, no doubt, of enabling his hearers to 
 realise what was meant. It may be questioned, 
 however, whether he gave them very correct ideas 
 of those referred to when he spoke of the Pontifex 
 Maximus as an ' archbishop,' or of the scribes and 
 Pharisees as ' clergymen,' or of Jairus as a ' church- 
 warden.' (i. 104, 514, 533.) In like manner Adams 
 (i. 306) mentions 'the "chaplains" of Mars at 
 Rome ; ' and Fuller (Pisgak, IV. ii. 5) styles Balaam 
 ' chaplain ' to the kings of the Midianites. Andrewes 
 (v. 515) remarks on the fact that Ananias, the high- 
 priest, ' bought his " bishopric " for money ' (Acts, i. 
 20) ; and Hooper also calls this official the high 
 bishop (i. 447). (See too the quotation from Bale, 
 p. in.) In the passage cited above from Acts, xix.
 
 Affin ity Describe. 171 
 
 we may observe that town-clerk, though of course a 
 modern term, does fairly represent the officer meant. 
 The word in the original is that which is usually 
 translated ' scribe,' but this designation applied to a 
 heathen would have been misleading. Burton says 
 that the Abderites sent for Democritus 'to be their 
 law-maker, recorder, or town-clerke.' (Democ. to the 
 Reader, p. 2.) 
 
 Instances in which the modern sense is more 
 general than formerly are comparatively rare, but a 
 few examples may be adduced. We use ' affinity ' in 
 common talk of relationship of any sort, and even of 
 resemblance or congeniality ; but in the Authorised 
 Version (i Kings, iii. i) the term is employed in its 
 strict sense of relationship by marriage. 'Jehosaphat 
 joined affinity with Ahab' (2 Chr. xviii. i) by marrying 
 his daughter. Fuller says of Hooker and Travers at 
 the Temple Church, ' These two preachers, though 
 joyned in affinity (their nearest kindred being married 
 together), acted with different principles, and clashed 
 one against another.' (Ch. Hist. ix. vii. 55.) At the 
 end of the Prayer-book is a table of kindred and 
 affinity, /. e. of relationship by blood and by marriage. 
 
 Geometricians ' describe ' a triangle or a circle ; 
 but, except by them, the word is not often applied to 
 that defined marking out which is spoken of in Josh, 
 xviii. 6, ' Ye shall therefore describe the land into 
 seven parts, and bring the description hither to me.' 
 A ' description ' now-a-days is often very vague and in- 
 definite. In Wiclifs version of S. Luke, ii. i, the 
 word that in our Bible is rendered ' taxed,' and which 
 really means ' enrolled,' is translated ' discryued,' the
 
 172 Bible English. 
 
 old form of ' described ;' i. e. they were marked out or 
 reckoned individually, as in our census. 
 
 To ' descry ' now signifies to see, though perhaps 
 it is seldom used except of seeing what is minute, or 
 at a distance, or half hidden ; but it once expressed 
 the observation of an enemy's force and defences. It 
 is this narrower sense that the word bears on the only 
 occasion of its occurrence in our Bible : ' The house 
 of Joseph sent to descry Bethel.' (Judges, i. 23.) 
 Adams writes : ' We took it (the world) for a kind and 
 familiar friend, but now it is descried and described 
 for a very adversary.' (ii. 154.) Bishop Hall, speaking 
 of Moses sending twelve rulers of Israel to spy out the 
 land, observes, ' Those that ruled Israel at home could 
 best descry for them abroad.' (Contempt, of the Searchers 
 of Canaan?) So also Milton : 
 
 ' Scouts each coast light-armed scour 
 Each quarter to descry the distant foe, 
 Where lodg'd or whither fled, or if for fight, 
 In motion or in halt.' (Par. Lost, vi. 530.) 
 
 We have had to borrow ' reconnoitre ' from the 
 French to occupy the place once held by 'descry.' In 
 1711 Addison ridicules ' reconnoitre ' as an outlandish 
 term, though he mentions a different substitute for it. 
 ' I do not find in any of our chronicles that Edward 
 the Third ever reconnoitred the enemy, tho' he often 
 discovered the posture of the French, and as often 
 vanquished them in battel.' (Spectator, No. 165.) 
 Johnson seems to have regarded it as still a French 
 word, for he gives it no place in his Dictionary. 
 
 People sometimes say now that they must ' indite '
 
 A liege Banquet. 1 7 3 
 
 a letter, meaning that they must write it; but to 
 indite is properly to dictate. Our translators, in their 
 Preface, after extolling the Scriptures, add, ' And what 
 marvaile ? The originall thereof being from heaven, 
 not from earth ; the authour being God, not man ; 
 the enditer the Holy Spirit, not the wit of the apostles 
 or prophets; the pen-men such as were sanctified 
 from the wombe.' The distinction is well observed in 
 Ps. xlv. i : ' My heart is inditing a good matter . . . 
 my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.' Fuller relates 
 that when Bede was in articulo mortis, the amanuensis 
 who had been engaged in taking down his translation 
 of S. John's gospel told him that there wanted only 
 one sentence to complete the work. ' Write it then 
 quickly, replied Bede; and summoning all his spirits 
 together (like the last blaze of a candle going out), he 
 indited it, and expired.' {Ch. Hist. II. iii. 18.) 
 
 To ' allege ' is with us merely to assert, but it once 
 denoted to adduce evidence, and hence to quote. 
 S. Paul reasoned with the Jews ' out of the Scriptures, 
 opening and alleging that Christ must needs have 
 suffered.' (Acts, xvii. 3.) In the Homily against Peril 
 of Idolatry (part ii. ) we read : ' Lest you should think 
 that I do say this of mine own head only, without 
 authority, I allege for me Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea.' 
 And again, ' Such as do worship images do unjustly 
 allege Gregory for them.' (Pp. 211, 216.) 
 
 We call a sumptuous feast a ' banquet,' but origin- 
 ally it meant only that part of it which we now term 
 ' dessert.' Esther (vii. 2) entertained Haman and 
 Ahasuerus at a 'banquet of wine.' Thus in Massinger's 
 Unnatural Combat (iii. i) :
 
 1 74 Bible English. 
 
 1 We'll dine in the great room, but let the music 
 And banquet be prepared here.' 
 
 And in Jonson's Silent Woman (i. i) Clerimont 
 says of La-Foole, ' He is never without a spare ban- 
 quet or sweatmeats in his chamber.' Howell, writing 
 to an Oxford student in 1627, says, ' Philosophy should 
 be your substantial food, poetry your banqueting stuff' 
 (I. v. 9) ; and Fuller mentions that at Dr. Whitaker's 
 funeral ' a banquet of sweetmeats, sowred with so sad 
 an occasion .... was rather seen than tasted by the 
 guests.' (Hist, of Camb. vii. 19.)
 
 Lewd. 175 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OF WORDS THAT HAVE DEGENERATED OR IMPROVED 
 IN MEANING. 
 
 IN the case of many words we may observe a gradual 
 degeneracy in meaning, that is to say, terms which 
 once were employed in a good or harmless sense, 
 have acquired an evil signification, or where something 
 of this resided in them originally, the evil now denoted 
 is of a darker character. 
 
 The Bible and Prayer-book offer several examples 
 of this. Thus, in Acts, xvii. 5, we read of ' certain 
 lewd fellows of the baser sort;' and in the next 
 chapter Gallic says that he would have felt bound to 
 deal with the case brought before him, if it had been 
 ' a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness.' In olden 
 times learning was almost entirely confined to the 
 clergy, and laymen even of high rank were unable 
 sometimes to write so much as their own names. 
 Hence just as ' clerkly,' which primarily meant ' be- 
 longing to the clergy,' came to be predicated of 
 scholars, whether they were in holy orders or not ; so 
 ' lewd,' which once signified the lay people, was 
 applied to the ignorant, and might be used of any 
 uneducated man, even though he were an ecclesiastic. 
 The original meaning is seen in the following, from 
 the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (504):
 
 1 76 Bible English. 
 
 ' For if a preest be foule, on whom we trust, 
 No wonder is a lewed man to rust.' 
 
 In a letter given in Strype's Memorials of Cranmer, 
 the epithet is applied to a prelate, the Bishop (Shaxton) 
 of Salisbury being styled by some zealous Romanist 
 ' a lewd fool' (i. 416). In course of time, partly 
 because ignorance often leads to vice, and partly 
 perhaps, as Archbishop Trench suggests, in the spirit 
 of the saying of the Pharisees, ' This people who 
 knoweth not the law are cursed' (which text by the 
 way Latimer (i. 136), after quoting from the Vulgate, 
 translates, ' This lay people is accursed,') 'lewd' came 
 to signify wicked, and is so used in the passages from 
 the Acts just referred to, though in several places in 
 the Old Testament it is applied to that particular vice 
 to which it is now entirely confined. The word 
 ' idiot' has passed through a somewhat similar ex- 
 perience. Its first meaning is simply a private in- 
 dividual (Greek, ^IWT-TJC) as distinguished from one 
 who takes part in public affairs. At the Hampton 
 Court Conference, King James said, ' We require not 
 subscriptions of laicks and idiots, but of preachers 
 and ministers;' but following the same course as 
 ' lewd,' the term also signified an uneducated or 
 ignorant person. Becon (ii. 568) advocates the use 
 of the mother tongue in ministering the word of God, 
 ' that the idiot and unlearned may understand it and 
 be edified.' The word had to degenerate still further, 
 and now designates intellectual, as lewd does moral 
 deficiency. There is a play upon these two latter 
 meanings in the third part of the Homily against 
 Peril of Idolatry : ' But away for shame with these
 
 Profane Base Mean. 177 
 
 covered cloaks of idolatry, of the books and scriptures 
 of images and pictures to teach idiots, nay, to make 
 idiots, and stark fools, and beasts, of Christians.' 
 .(P. 287.) 
 
 ' Profane ' means etymologically, before the fane 
 or temple, and so outside it. Ezekiel speaks of ' a sepa- 
 ration between the sanctuary and the profane place.' 
 (xlii. 20.) Thus it was opposed to ' sacred,' in which 
 way we still employ it in such phrases as ' sacred and 
 profane history,' ' sacred and profane writers.' The 
 son of Sirach says of God, ' He is the King of all, by 
 His power dividing holy things among them from 
 profane.' (Ecclus. xviii. 3.) In the translation of a 
 sermon preached before Convocation by Latimer (i. 
 46), it is synonymous with lay : ' Is it unknown, 
 think you, how both ye and your curates were, in a 
 manner, by violence enforced to let books to be made 
 not by you, but by profane and lay persons ?' It has 
 now, except in such expressions as those named 
 above, the sense of ' impious,' or ' blasphemous,' and 
 is for the most part thus used in our version. 
 
 ' Base' and ' mean' convey moral opprobrium 
 now, but formerly meant ' lowly.' ' I, Paul, who in 
 presence am base among you.' (2 Cor. x. i.) ' The 
 mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth 
 himself.' (Isa. ii. 9.) So Spenser writes, 
 
 ' But vertuous women wisely understand 
 That they were borne to base humilitie, 
 Unlesse the heavens them lift to lawfull soveraintee.' 
 (F. Queene, V., v. 25.) 
 
 Adams also speaks of ' the baseness of the Gospel,' 
 
 N
 
 1 78 Bible English. 
 
 and ' the baseness of Christ.' (ii. 6, 7.) In like 
 manner, Bishop Hall calls the Apostles ' mean fisher- 
 men' (My st. of Godliness, sect. 3) ; and Fuller re- 
 marks, ' Commonly when men are (as in a moment) 
 mounted from meannesse to much wealth and honour, 
 first they forget themselves, and then all their old 
 friends and acquaintances.' (Ch. Hist. V. v. 30.) 
 
 ' Vile,' which is with us a strong term of reproach, 
 often signified nothing worse than ' cheap,' or ' humble.' 
 S. James (ii. 2) speaks of ' the poor man in vile 
 raiment;' and in the same section of Bishop Hall's 
 work, just quoted, the Lord is apostrophised, ' Thus 
 vile wast Thou, O Saviour, in the flesh ; but in this 
 vileness of flesh manifested to be God.' ' Our vile 
 body' (Phil. iii. 21) should be rendered ' the body of our 
 humiliation.' When Archbishop Whately was dying, 
 one of his chaplains was reading this chapter to him 
 in the English version. When he came to this passage 
 the Archbishop stopped him, saying, ' Give me his 
 ewn words.' The chaplain then substituted the above 
 more literal translation, and the dying prelate ob- 
 served, ' That is right ; nothing that He made is 
 vile.' No doubt 'vile' is not in this place a good 
 representation of the original, yet, as we have shown, 
 it did not once imply of necessity such utter worth- 
 lessness as it does now. In the following quotation, 
 for example, it simply denotes humble birth or 
 station : 
 
 ' He to-day that sheds his blood with me 
 Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile, 
 This day shall gentle his condition.' 
 
 (Hen. V. iv. 3.)
 
 Cun n ing Craft. 179 
 
 ' Cunning' did mean ' knowing' or ' skilful.' ' Esau 
 was a cunning hunter' (Gen. xxv. 27) : 'A cunning 
 player on an harp' was sought out for Saul (i Sam. 
 xvi. 1 6); and the substantive also occurs as in Ps. 
 cxxxvii. 5, 'Let my right hand forget her cunning.' 
 Latimer uses the word in the plural ; he affirms that 
 the devil ' hath learned all arts and cunnings.' (i. 
 429.) Baptista, inquiring after tutors for his daughters, 
 says, 
 
 ' To cunning men 
 I will be very kind.' (Taming of Shrew, i. I.) 
 
 Even at the time that the authorised version was 
 issued, the term was beginning to lose its good cha- 
 racter. Bacon's Essay of Cunning opens with the 
 words, ' We take cunning for a sinister or crooked 
 wisdom,' though in other essays he employs it in its 
 more favourable sense. In this last it always occurs 
 in our translation, except in two places, ' cunningly 
 devised fables' (2 S. Pet. i. 16), and ' cunning crafti- 
 ness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.' (Eph. 
 iv. 14.) 
 
 This text recalls another word which at present is 
 nearly synonymous with ' cunning,' but, like it, has 
 degenerated from its original signification. 
 
 ' Craft' once meant ' strength ;' then that in which 
 a man's strength is put forth, his trade or occupation ; 
 and they who pursued it were called ' craftsmen' 
 (Acts, xix. 24, 25) ; hence also small vessels employed 
 in trade were styled ' craft.' Subsequently the term 
 which had been used honourably of skill in a man's 
 calling was transferred to ' crooked wisdom,' as Bacon
 
 i So Bible English. 
 
 says, which, by the way, is the very definition of 
 ' craft ' given by Hobbes. King Richard plays upon 
 that double sense of the word which still obtains, 
 when he speaks of ' wooing poor craftsmen with the 
 craft of smiles.' (Richard II. i. 4.) 
 
 ' Simple' and 'simplicity' had originally an entirely 
 good meaning. They are derived from the Latin 
 sine plica, ' without fold,' and were applied to signify 
 a plain and transparent character, ' in whom is no 
 guile.' It may be noted that a device or dodge is 
 sometimes called a wrinkle, i. e., it is not simple or 
 without fold. Thus, Latimer writes, ' And now what 
 manner of man do you make me, master N., when 
 you note me to be so much abused by so ignorant a 
 man, so simple, so plain, and so far without all 
 wrinkles?' (ii. 422.) The words which once denoted 
 the guilelessness of honesty or innocence are now 
 often applied to folly, so that a stupid fellow is styled 
 a ' simpleton.' Both the honourable and opprobrious 
 meanings that belong to these terms are found in our 
 Bible. The Apostle writes to the Romans (xvi. 19). 
 * I would have you wise unto that which is good, and 
 simple (aKtpalovQ, literally unmixed, or pure) con- 
 cerning evil ;' and in the same Epistle (xii. 8) he says. 
 ' He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity ' 
 (cnrXorrjTi, a word exactly corresponding to the Latin 
 simplicitas). In several passages, on the other hand, 
 the worse signification occurs, as in Prov. i. 22 : 
 ' How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?' 
 
 ' Silly,' again, had much the same meaning as 
 ' simple,' and was equivalent to innocent ; it has, 
 however, still more decidedly degenerated, being never
 
 Innocent Sottish. 1 8 1 
 
 used now in other than a disparaging sense. This, 
 indeed, it had acquired when our version was put 
 forth, and this it bears in the three texts in which the 
 word appears (Job, v. 2. Hos. vii. n. 2 Tim. iii. 6.) 
 
 ' Innocent,' though still preserving a good signifi 
 cation as an adjective, is as a substantive always 
 employed contemptuously, at least when applied to 
 any but young children. An ' innocent' is an 
 euphemism for an imbecile, but it has no such un- 
 worthy meaning in Jer. ii. 34 ; xix. 4. The difference 
 between the original and acquired sense of the word 
 gives the point to Bacon's witty suggestion of the 
 reason which influenced the Pope in his refusal to 
 canonise the pious, but weak-minded Henry VI., viz. 
 that his Holiness was minded to make a difference 
 between a saint and an innocent. 
 
 We have named three or four words which, once 
 of good repute, have come to be associated with ideas 
 of folly or stupidity ; and now one may be mentioned 
 which in the first instance denoting folly, has sunk 
 still lower, and implies vice. God complains through 
 His prophet (Jer. iv. 22), ' My people is foolish, they 
 have not known Me ; they are sottish children, and 
 they have none understanding.' For ' sottish,' which 
 with us signifies ' given to drink,' did but mean 
 ' foolish' at one time, though perhaps it was generally 
 understood that a sottish man was to blame, and that 
 his stupidity was a fault rather than a misfortune. 
 Thus Fuller, pointing out that the southern part of 
 our island was but little protected against the ravages 
 of the Northern tribes by the Picts' wall, says, ' Use- 
 less is the strongest wall of stone when it hath stocks
 
 1 82 Bible English. 
 
 only upon it ; such was the sottish laziness of the 
 Britons to man it.' (Ch. Hist. I. v. 14.) Sot' is 
 often used by Shakespeare and others for ' fool,' 
 which, indeed, is the sense of the word in French. 
 The change of meaning which it has undergone in 
 our language is an illustration of Prov. xx. i . 
 
 A ' barbarian' is a man who is either altogether 
 uncivilised, or extremely cruel. In the New Testa- 
 ment, as in ancient profane literature, it signifies one 
 who is not a Greek. In this way it is used by S. 
 Paul, ' I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the 
 Barbarians.' (Rom. i. 14.) So little reproach did 
 the term convey, that Josephus speaks of the Jews as 
 barbarians, and the earlier Romans did not disdain 
 the name. The word, according to its most probable 
 etymology, refers to the unintelligible language of 
 foreigners, typified by the repetition of the unmeaning 
 sounds, ' bar bar ' (we may compare murmur) ; and 
 so again S. Paul employs it, ' If I know not the 
 meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that 
 speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a 
 barbarian unto me.' (i Cor. xiv. n.) Ovid, the 
 courtly Roman poet, when banished to the shores of 
 the Euxine, complains that he is a barbarian there, 
 since no one understands his language (Trtst. V. x. 
 37), and our translators in their Preface write : ' The 
 Scythian counted the Athenian, whom he did not 
 vnderstand, barbarous ; so the Romane did the 
 Syrian, and the Jew, (even S. Hierome himself calleth 
 the Hebrew tongue barbarous, belike because it was 
 strange to so many) ; so the Emperour of Con- 
 stantinople calleth the Latine tongue barbarous,
 
 Uncouth Monster. 1 8 3 
 
 though Pope Nicolas do storme at it ; so the Jewes 
 long before Christ called all other nations Lognazim, 
 which is little better than barbarous.' Some perhaps 
 picture to themselves the barbarous people who 
 showed no little kindness to the shipwrecked voyagers 
 (Acts, xxviii. 2) as half-naked savages, whereas Malta 
 was quite civilised, but the inhabitants spoke a Punic 
 dialect. In like manner, ' uncouth' once meant ' un- 
 known.' Bishop Hall speaks of an apparition of a 
 good angel as being in modern days ' wonderful and 
 uncouth' (Invis. World, i. 8) ; but the prejudice which 
 is often felt against that which is strange to us led to 
 its present sense of 'rough' or 'awkward.' 'Out- 
 landish' also is now applied to many things which are 
 unusual or eccentric ; but its first meaning, as is 
 apparent on the face of the word, was foreign.' 
 Fuller having inserted a quotation in his Church 
 History (I. v. 6), adds in the margin, ' Not presuming 
 to alter any of Stapleton's words, take it with all the 
 printer's faults, done probably by an outlandish 
 presse.' 
 
 A ' monster' conveys to us now the notion either 
 of hugeness or wickedness ; so in the Prayer-book 
 version of Ps. Ixxi. 6, we might suppose that the 
 Psalmist meant that he was an object of horror and 
 detestation, when he says, ' I am become, as it were, 
 a monster unto many ;' but, in truth, he is affirming 
 that his preservation through so great trials and 
 dangers appeared miraculous to many. The Bible 
 rendering is ' a wonder,' for ' monster' simply denotes 
 something remarkable, something that is shown as out 
 of the common way. In fact, there is nothing except
 
 1 84 Bible English. 
 
 usage which would make it unfitting to describe Mr. 
 Peabody, for instance, as a monster of benevolence, 
 and we do speak of persons as being monstrously 
 kind. A Roman poet says that it is pleasant digito 
 monstrari, to be pointed out with the finger, /'. e., as 
 an eminent man. 
 
 ' Churl' (the old English ' ceorl') signified a 
 labourer or serf; then as the manners of that class 
 were rough and unpolished, the word was applied to 
 those who were rude or disobliging, even as the 
 superior politeness of the inhabitants of cities (urbes) 
 is recognised, when we call the courteous ' urbane.' 
 In our translation, at least of the canonical Scriptures, 
 the word, with its derivatives, seems to have been 
 used especially in regard to one who was miserly. 
 ' The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor 
 the churl said to be bountiful' (Isa. xxxii. 5), and of 
 Nabal, who in so niggardly a manner refused David's 
 request, it is written, ' The man was churlish.' (i 
 Sam. xxv. 3.) In the Apocrypha (Ecclus. xlii. 14. 
 2 Mace. xiv. 30), churlish and churlishness bear 
 their more general meaning of uncivil and incivility ; 
 in Ecclus. xviii. 18, 'churlishly' seems, according to 
 the context, to denote ' in a miserly manner,' though 
 either interpretation might belong to the Greek 
 original (axap<<n-we), as well as to the English word. 
 Bishop Sanderson asks, ' Shall he that hath a thousand 
 a year count him that hath but a hundred a churl, if 
 he do not spend as much in his house weekly, keep 
 as plentiful a table, and bear as much in every common 
 charge as himself?' (ii. 97.) Fuller speaks of the 
 wealthy and avaricious Crassus as ' that rich churl.'
 
 L list Passion. 185 
 
 (Pisgah, III. pt. 3 ; xii. 2.) See also Shakespeare's first 
 sonnet, but indeed instances of this usage might be 
 almost infinitely multiplied. ' Carle' is another form 
 of the same word, and is similarly employed as by 
 Bishop Hall (Sat. ii. 4. 34), 
 
 ' Were I a leech, as who knows what may be ? 
 The liberal man should live, the carle should die.' 
 
 ' Carle' is now only a north country word. 
 
 ' Lust' has always a bad meaning with us, and is 
 applied to sinful desire. This is also its usual signi- 
 fication in our Bible and Prayer-book, but not in- 
 variably so. In the latter version of Psalms, xxxiv. 
 12, and xcii. 10, we read, 'What man is he that 
 lusteth to live, and would fain see good days ?' and, 
 ' Mine eye also shall see his lust of mine enemies.' 
 In Deut. xii. 15, 20, 21, and xiv. 26, the word has 
 an equally innocent sense. ' Lust' is simply that 
 which one 'lists' or desires. Latimer speaks of some 
 who had ' no lust to the truth' (i. 312); and Bishop 
 Hall, in one of his letters (Dec. ii. Ep. i) complains 
 that sometimes ' my lust to devotion is little, my joy 
 none at all.' So the expression in the Catechism, 
 ' sinful lusts of the flesh,' is not redundant, because 
 there are desires, or according to the then use of the 
 word, ' lusts' of the body, which are natural and in- 
 nocent, and cannot be renounced. 
 
 ' Passion,' in the sense of suffering, is now only 
 used in regard to that undergone by our Lord, as in 
 the Litany, and Acts, i. 3 ; but it was applied at one 
 time to the suffering of others as well. Thus Tyndale 
 says that adversity is meant to make God's children
 
 1 86 Bible English. 
 
 4 feel the goodness of their Father, and the passions 
 of their brethren, and of their Master Christ also.' 
 {ii. no.) Bishop Andrewes writes, that 'compassion 
 is but passion at rebound' (ii. 123); and in a well- 
 known hymn we have the verse, 
 
 ' And now we fight the battle, 
 
 But then shall wear the crown 
 Of full and everlasting 
 
 And passionless renown,' 
 
 i. e., free from suffering. How the word came to 
 signify, as it so often does now, ungovernable anger, 
 and the moral thence to be deduced, will be found 
 drawn out in Archbishop Trench's book on Words. 
 An ' injurious' person now denotes one who does 
 actual mischief, and so far the term has a worse 
 signification than when it only meant 'insolent.' 
 4 Rise not up in anger at the presence of an injurious 
 person.' (Ecclus. viii. n.) S. Paul describes himself 
 as having been a ' blasphemer, and a persecutor, and 
 injurious.' (i Tim. i. 13.) The English expression does 
 not occur elsewhere in the canonical Scriptures, but 
 the Greek word is found in Rom. i. 30, and is there 
 translated ' despiteful.' Cloten says to Guiderius. 
 who has been flouting him, 
 
 ' Thou injurious thief, 
 Hear but my name, and tremble.' 
 
 (Cymb. iv. 2.) 
 
 And Bishop Hall observes, ' Human reason is apt to 
 be injuriously saucy in ascribing those things to an 
 ordinary course of natural causes, which the God of
 
 Indifferent Fell L.-^. 187 
 
 nature doth by supernatural agents.' ' (Inv. World, 
 i. 6.) 
 
 ' Indifferent' is now a modified expression for 
 bad; a weakly person is in indifferent health, a 
 clumsy artisan is an indifferent workman ; but in the 
 Prayer for the Church Militant we ask that our ma- 
 gistrates may indifferently minister justice, /. e. } with- 
 out making any difference between the parties, or 
 showing favour to one side more than the other. The 
 American Prayer-book has altered the word to ' im- 
 partially.' The term does not occur in our version, 
 except in Ecclus. xlii. 5, where, among other com- 
 mendable things, is reckoned ' merchants' indifferent 
 (/. e., fair) selling.' Latimer remarks, ' I know what 
 men say of me well enough . . . they say I am not 
 indifferent' (i. 183), and Christopher Harvey writes, 
 
 ' Four sorts of poor there are with whom Thou deal'st, 
 Though always differently, 
 With such indifferency, 
 That none hath reason to complain.' 
 
 (Synagogue; Overseer of the Poor.} 
 
 That which is ordinary and common-place, and 
 which does not differ from the average by greater 
 excellence is little regarded, hence the sense which 
 the word conveys now. In the same way ' fellow ' is 
 used contemptuously, perhaps as signifying one who 
 is on a par with the vulgar herd, which, of course, 
 the speaker does not suppose himself to be. ' Fellow ' 
 bears this opprobrious meaning in nearly twenty 
 passages in our Bible, though in most of these cases 
 it is an insertion by our translators, and has no word
 
 1 88 Bible English. 
 
 corresponding to it in the original. ' Companion ' 
 was formerly employed in the same slighting manner. 
 ' Scurvy companion,' ' saucy companion,' &c. frequently 
 occur in the plays of Shakespeare, Jonson, and others. 
 Clarendon says that at one time the Common Council 
 was composed of ' upstart, factious, indigent com- 
 panions.' (Bk. iv. p. 513. See also the quotation 
 from Fuller, p. 185.) The word has now recovered 
 its good character, and does not in itself imply scorn 
 or reproach. 
 
 The recurrence of the phrase ' vulgar tongue' in 
 the Prayer-book has prevented ' vulgar' from losing 
 altogether the sense of ' common,' which once it 
 generally bore ; its modern signification of ' unrefined ' 
 having accrued since, and so taken possession of the 
 word, that perhaps ' vulgar iongue,' and ' vulgar 
 error,' are the only two expressions in common use in 
 which the original meaning is retained. Howell writes 
 to one of his correspondents, ' Yours of the seventh I 
 received yesterday, and read o'er with no vulgar 
 delight.' (ii. 69.) 
 
 In Queen Elizabeth's reign, on one occasion, English 
 and Spanish commissioners met in a French town 
 to treat of peace. One of the Spaniards, in ridicule 
 of the titular sovereignty of France at that time 
 claimed by our sovereigns, proposed that the nego- 
 tiations should be conducted in French, ' for these 
 gentlemen of England, I suppose (said he), cannot be 
 ignorant of the language of their fellow-subjects ; their 
 Queen is Queen of France as well as England.' ' Nay 
 in faith, masters (replyed Doctor Dale, the Master of 
 Requests), the French tongue is too vulgar for a
 
 Pitiful Painful. 189 
 
 business of this secrecie and importance, especially in 
 a French town : we will rather treat in Hebrew, the 
 language of Jerusalem, whereof your master is king. 
 I suppose you are herein as well skilled as we in 
 French.' (Fuller, Holy War, v. 29.) 
 
 ' The vulgar' is used by our translators in their 
 Preface, where we should now put the ' vernacular :' 
 ' They prouided translations into the vulgar for their 
 countrymen.' 
 
 ' Pitiful' has always the good sense of ' merciful ' 
 or ' compassionate' in our Bible and Prayer-book, and 
 is frequently applied to God. Now, however, it is 
 not so often employed of those who feel pity as of 
 those whose circumstances call for pity, that is to say, 
 ' pitiful ' has been confounded with ' pitiable.' A 
 ' pitiful story' is one that excites compassion ; but the 
 term is also synonymous in many cases with ' mean/ 
 or ' despicable ;' and we speak of a ' pitiful scoundrel.' 
 All these senses are found in Shakespeare. So much, 
 however, has the more honourable meaning of the 
 word passed away, that the compilers of the American 
 Prayer-book (who seem to have had a nervous dread 
 of any expressions bearing the slightest tinge of 
 archaism) have altered ' Pitifully behold the sorrows 
 of our hearts ' into ' With pity behold,' &c. In the 
 following, from Adams, we find it applied to that 
 self-satisfied pity which is so largely mixed with scorn ; 
 ( The covetous, that is ever carking and vexing for the 
 world, pitifully derides the voluptuous.' (ii. 91.) 
 
 ' Painful ' was once a common term of eulogy. 
 A divine was often commended as being ' a painful 
 preacher,' meaning that he took pains with his ser-
 
 190 Bible English. 
 
 mons ; it is he who neglects this that is most likely to 
 earn the title now. Fuller more than once plays on 
 the double meaning of the word ' pain.' Thus, speak- 
 ing of the conversion of Kent by S. Augustine, he 
 observes ' that it cost some pain, no torture ; some 
 sweat, no blood : not one martyr being made in the 
 whole managing thereof.' And again he writes, ' An 
 historian hath no heart to take much pains (which 
 herein are pains indeed) to exemplify dead canons.' 
 (Ch. Hist. II. i. 13; v. 29.) 
 
 When the Apostle says that he had been ' in pain- 
 fulness' (2 Cor. xi. 27), he is referring not to the pain 
 that he had endured, but to the pains he had taken ; 
 in the older translations the word is 'travail.' 
 
 The Psalmist (Ixxiii. 1 6) says, 'When I thought 
 to know this it was too painful for me,' i. e. too hard, 
 which is the Prayer-book rendering. Hooker observes, 
 ' The search of knowledge is a thing painful, and the 
 painfulness of knowledge is that which maketh the 
 will so hardly inclinable thereto.' (Ecc. Pol. I. vii. 7.) 
 In 2 Mace. ii. 27, ' pains ' is used as a singular : ' We 
 will undertake gladly this great pains ;' so Adams, 
 speaking of certain corrections made in the Calendar, 
 remarks, ' It was a pains not amiss undertaken of 
 late.' (ii. 156.) ' Uneasy' has also lost the sense of 
 ' difficult,' and means restless or anxious. The ob- 
 jective signification is found in 2 Mace. xii. 21 :' The 
 town was hard to besiege, and uneasy to come unto ;' 
 and in the Tempest (i. 2), Prospero says, 
 
 ' This swift business 
 
 I must uneasy make, lest too light winning 
 Make the prize light.'
 
 Usury Provoke. 191 
 
 ' Usury ' is not applied by us to the taking of fair 
 and moderate interest, but only to excessive exaction 
 on the part of the lender. In the Bible, however, 
 this last does not of necessity reside in the word, 
 although it is commonly mentioned with reproach, 
 because usury of any kind was forbidden to the Jews, 
 at least among themselves. In S. Matt. xxv. 27, and 
 S. Luke, xix. 23, the term has no ill meaning underly- 
 ing it, but signifies that reasonable profit which might 
 fairly be expected. Bishop Hall, in his Satires (v. 3, 
 68), tells the yeoman that he would be worthy of 
 praise, 
 
 ' So be thou let not lie in fallow'd plain 
 That which was wont yield usury of grain.' 
 
 A man is now generally ' provoked ' to some evil 
 passion anger, or the like but the word itself simply 
 means to call forth. The zeal of the Corinthians ' pro- 
 voked very many' in Macedonia (2 Cor. ix. 2), not 
 exciting their wrath, but their emulation, even as the 
 Hebrews are exhorted ' to consider one another, to 
 provoke unto love and to good works' (x. 25). Fuller 
 mentions Mr. Willet, who founded the Postmastership 
 at Merton College, ' whose good example hath provoked 
 many to follow his liberality' (Ch. Hist. III. iii. 8) ; 
 and Milton calls the forbidden tree ' a provoking 
 object, ever almost in his [Adam's] eyes.' (Areop. 25.) 
 
 S. James (i. 2, 13) says, ' Count it all joy when ye 
 fall into divers temptations,' and ' God cannot be 
 tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man.' 
 Yet we are taught to pray, ' Lead us not into tempta- 
 tion;' and we are told that 'God tempted Abraham/ 
 In our version ' tempt,' like the word in the original,
 
 192 Bible English. 
 
 for which it stands, signifies not only to ' solicit to 
 evil, but also to ' try,' or to ' put to the proof.' God 
 tried Abraham, that he ' might come forth as gold.' 
 The Apostle counts temptations, i. <?., trials, joyful, 
 because the trying of our faith worketh patience. 
 Satan inquires where may be found the spirit, 
 
 ' Who shall tempt 
 The dark, unbottomed, infinite abyss ? ' 
 
 (Par. Lost, ii. 405.) 
 
 Fuller states that William of Wykeham built New 
 College of such a strength that it might be able, if 
 necessary, to stand a siege, ' though may it never 
 have a temptation in that kinde to trie the strength 
 of the walls thereof.' (Ch. Hist. IV. i. 29.) 
 
 In the Litany we pray for ' a heart to love and 
 dread God.' ' Dread' is now applied to that sort of 
 fear which ' perfect love casteth out ;' but it did not 
 necessarily mean more than awe and reverence. The 
 American Prayer-book has substituted ' fear.' It 
 might seem inappropriate that Jacob, who had been 
 favoured with a glorious vision and comforting pro- 
 mises, should exclaim, ' How dreadful is this place !' 
 (Gen. xxviii. 17) for now a dreadful place means one 
 which shocks or horrifies us ; but here the word 
 denotes the religious awe with which he regarded the 
 sacred spot. 
 
 There are some words which have acquired not 
 exactly a bad sense, but a lower or weaker meaning 
 than they once had. 
 
 Any attempt, for instance, however faint and half- 
 hearted, may now be called an ' endeavour,' but 
 formerly the word conveyed the notion of striving
 
 Endeavour.' 193 
 
 with all one's might. The change may give rise to a 
 little misconception. When S. Paul speaks of ' en- 
 deavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond 
 of peace ' (Eph. iv. 3), he might seem to modern ears 
 to be laying much less stress on this duty than he 
 really does ; or when S. Peter (2 Ep. i. 15) writes, ' More- 
 over, I will endeavour that ye may be able after my 
 decease to have these things always in remembrance,' 
 we fail, if we judge by our present use of the word, to 
 realise the earnest efforts of the Apostle for the per- 
 petuation of the truth. In both cases also the Greek 
 term, which is the same in each, and which does 
 convey this sense of earnest and diligent striving, 
 might appear to be inadequately translated ; but this 
 was not really the case at the time that our version 
 was made. Archbishop Laud (quoted in Bishop 
 Wordsworth's Commentary), commenting on the first 
 of these texts, says, ' If you will keep it (the unity of 
 the spirit), you must endeavour to keep it. For it is 
 not so easy a thing to keep unity in great bodies as it 
 is thought ; there goes much labour and endeavour to 
 it. The word is ajrov^a'Covr^, study and endeavour to 
 keep it. And the word implies such an endeavour 
 as makes haste to keep, and indeed no time is to be 
 lost at this work.' (Laud's Sermons, \. 155.) In the 
 third Homily for Rogation Week (p. 539), we read, ' If 
 we do our endeavour, we shall not need to fear,' where 
 the meaning evidently is, If we do all we can. Du 
 Bartas, also, describing the happiness of him who 
 leads a simple country life, writes, 
 ' Milk, cheese, and fruits (fruits of his own endeavour), 
 Drest without dressing, hath he ready ever.' 
 
 O
 
 194 Bible English. 
 
 With this we may compare the use of the word 
 ' intend,' which implied at one time energetic action, 
 though now it means no more than to form a design, 
 which so often finds no expression in deeds, that it 
 has long passed into a proverb that ' Hell is paved 
 with good intentions.' When the children of Israel 
 obtained a satisfactory explanation from the two tribes 
 and a half on the west of Jordan of what had appeared 
 suspicious conduct on their part, they ' blessed God, 
 and did not intend to go up against them in battle' 
 (Josh. xxii. 33), i. e. they had intended it in our sense 
 of the word, but no longer prosecuted the design. 
 Thus also in the invitation to the Communicants, 
 ' intend to lead a new life,' signifies more than the 
 mere forming a good resolution. Latimer says, ' The 
 devil sleepeth not ; he ever intendeth to withdraw 
 us from prayer' (i. 342) ; and Clarendon writes, ' While 
 these things were thus publicly acted, private agitations 
 were not less vigorously intended.' (Bk. ii. p. 218.) 
 
 To ' consent' is now only to acquiesce in some- 
 thing ; it may even be reluctantly, or on compulsion ; 
 but when we are told that Saul was consenting unto 
 Stephen's death (Acts, viii. i), we understand that he 
 took an active part in bringing it about ; and the same 
 sense is found in the other places, e. g., ' When thou 
 sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and 
 hast been partaker with adulterers.' (Ps. L. 18.) So 
 in Othello (v. 2), ' Did you and he consent in Cassio's 
 death ?' 
 
 We read (Num. xii. 8) that God promised to 
 speak with Moses ' mouth to mouth, even apparently,' 
 and, of course, the last word is to be taken in the sense of
 
 Allow. 195 
 
 ' evidently.' It does not now usually mean this, but 
 very often implies the reverse. ' Apparently' does 
 but signify at the most ' to all appearance ;' but as we 
 know that appearances are deceitful, there is no 
 great certainty implied in the word. We should not, 
 for instance, be expressing undoubted confidence in 
 a man's good faith if we said that he was ' apparently 
 sincere.' Clarendon has ' apparent' for evident or 
 unmistakable. He says that the Long Parliament 
 exercised the power of imprisonment in a way which 
 had never been customary before, ' except in some 
 such apparent breach as the arresting of a privileged 
 person, or the like.' (Bk. III. p. 383.) 
 
 We may have been sometimes struck with the 
 statement in the Baptismal Office that ' God favour- 
 ably allowed this charitable work of ours in bringing 
 this infant to His holy baptism,' when the whole 
 tenor of the service goes to show that He who rebuked 
 those who would have kept children from Him doe& 
 much more than barely permit this charitable work. 
 But ' allow' is derived from the Latin, allaitdarc y 
 through the French allouer, and is often used in old 
 writers as meaning to praise or approve. Our Lord 
 says to the lawyers, ' Ye allow the deeds of your 
 fathers' (S. Luke, xi. 48) ; they could not, of course, 
 either permit or prohibit actions done in former ages, 
 but they could approve them. Bishop Sanderson 
 observes', that some Conformers scandalise the Non- 
 conformers more than ' any discreet, honest man will 
 allow.' (II. 21.) And in the Dedication to King 
 James, our translators hope for his Majesty's ' allow-
 
 196 Bible English. 
 
 ance' of their labours, though they had undertaken 
 them at his instigation. It is often ' convenient,' or 
 at least seems so, to neglect a duty, or to do what is 
 wrong, but the word was formerly used not for that 
 which suited our idleness, or caprice, or ease, but for 
 what was in itself right and fitting. If we were igno- 
 rant of this sense, S. Paul might seem to us to be 
 dealing very lightly with ' filthiness and foolish talking.' 
 when he says (Eph. v. 4) that they are ' not con- 
 venient.' The Prayer-book also, in laying down that 
 it'jsj ' convenient,' that a newly-married couple, or a 
 woman who has been churched, should receive the 
 Holy Communion at the first opportunity, intimates 
 that it is proper for them to do so. In the Homily on 
 the fright use of the Church (Part II.), we are told. 
 in reference to Acts, xxi. 28, that the Jews ' judged 
 it convenient that none but godly persons, and the 
 true worshippers of God, should enter into the temple 
 of God' (p. 178); and Hooper writes, ' None in any 
 affairs concerning the body shall be admitted into any 
 office, but apt and convenient persons, the best that 
 maybe got.' (I. 174.) 
 
 Much more was formerly implied in the term 
 * witty' than that comparatively superficial cleverness 
 -which is now designated by it. ' I, Wisdom, dwell 
 with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty in- 
 ventions.' (Prov. viii. 12.) 'I was a witty child, and 
 had a good spirit.' (Wisd. viii. 19.) Hooker men- 
 tions his agreement on a certain point ' with the 
 wittiest of the school-divines.' (Ecc. Pol. I. xi. 5.) 
 Fuller talks of ' our age witty in wickednes,' because
 
 Pate Darling. 197 
 
 it had invented weapons of greater destructiveness 
 than were formerly known. (David's Hainovs Sinne, 
 stanza 39.) 
 
 ' Pate,' as a synonym for head, does not now 
 occur in serious writing, as in Ps. vii. 16, ' His 
 violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.' 
 Bishop Hall, in his ' Metaphrase ' of the Psalm, uses 
 not this expression indeed, but one equally removed 
 in modern practice from employment in grave com- 
 positions : 
 
 ' Backe to his owne head shall rebound 
 
 His plotted mischiefe, and his wrongs 
 
 His crowne shall craze.' 
 
 Similarly, Bacon, in his Essay of Delays, writes : 
 ' Occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a 
 bald noddle after she hath presented her locks in 
 front, and no hold taken.' In Norden's Progress of 
 Piety, p. 123, the Pope is spoken of as 
 
 ' The man of sin that sits on high, 
 With triple crown on pate.' 
 
 And Leontes, in no jesting mood, asks Camillo, 
 
 ' Was this taken 
 By any understanding pate but thine ?' 
 
 (Winter's Tale,i. 2.) 
 
 " Darling, i.e., dearling, the diminutive of dear, 
 would probably be now thought too familiar for use 
 in such passages as Ps. xxii. 20; xxxv. 17, and cer- 
 tainly would not be employed as by Latimer, who 
 speaks of 'Christ Jesus the dear, darling, and only- 
 begotten and beloved Son of God.' (II. 438.) In
 
 198 Bible English. 
 
 Wiclif s translation of S. Matt. xii. 18, ' My derlyng' 
 is used where our version has, ' My beloved.' 
 
 A ' story' is usually applied by us to a tale of 
 fiction, and so much is this the case that a falsehood 
 is often mildly called ' a story.' It, however, fre- 
 quently meant ' history,' of which word it is of course 
 an abbreviation. In 2 Chron. reference is made 
 to 'the story of the prophet Iddo' (xiii. 22), and 
 
 * the story of the book of Kings ' (xxiv. 27) ; in each 
 case the margin gives ' commentary.' The Apocrypha 
 supplies other instances, for example, in the last two 
 verses of 2 Mace., while in i Esd. ii. 17, ' Rathumus 
 the story-teller,' who is the same as ' Rehum the 
 Chancellor,' in the canonical book of Ezra (iv. 8, &c.), 
 is an annalist, or recorder of events, not an anec- 
 dotist or a liar. In their Preface our translators write 
 that a certain assertion of theirs 'will easily be granted 
 by as many as know story, or haue any experience ;' 
 and Fuller, ' If in bowling they must needs throw 
 wide which know not the green or alley whereon 
 they play, much more must they misse the truth in 
 storie who are unacquainted with that countrey 
 whereon the discourse proceedeth.' (Holy War, 
 i. 17.) 
 
 In the Contents of S. Matt. xxii. it is written, 
 
 * Christ poseth the Pharisees about the Messias.' 
 ' Pose' is now for the most part employed in a jocular 
 way for ' puzzle or perplex ;' but it frequently oc- 
 curred in grave authors in the same sense. Thus, 
 Bishop Andrewes writes in one of his sermons (I. 39), 
 ' Humility intrinsical is not so much ; it is the ma- 
 nifesting our humility that poseth us.' Sometimes
 
 Flit Play. 199 
 
 it only signified to examine, and the examiners for 
 scholarships at Winchester are still called ' posers.' 
 Hutchinson (p. 105) says,-' Colligeners in their elec- 
 tions pose their scholars, assay their wits, try their 
 learnings, ask of their conditions before they choose 
 them.' ' Appose' was used in the same way. Latimer 
 remarks, ' When the poor people come and ask at 
 me, I appose them myself, or cause my servant to 
 appose them of the Lord's Prayer.' (i. 307.) The 
 examination at S. Paul's School is called the 'Ap- 
 position.' 
 
 ' Flit,' again, as signifying to remove or pass 
 quickly from one place to another, though by no 
 means obsolete, is not used of persons in composition 
 of a serious character. The margin, however, offers 
 ' flit you greatly ' as an alternative for ' get you far 
 off,' in Jer. xlix. 30. Tyndale boasts that he had 
 ' compelled More with shame to -flit from the Scrip- 
 ture' (III. 263) ; and Hooker, speaking of the 
 doctrine of metempsychosis, observes, ' It became a 
 received opinion that the souls of men departing 
 this life do flit out of one body into some other.' 
 (Ecc. Pol. V. i. 3.) 
 
 Men may play cricket, or cards, or the fool, 
 but ' play,' in the sense of active sport, is, when 
 standing by itself, only used now of the games of 
 children ; but it was otherwise formerly : ' The 
 people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to 
 play.' (Exod. xxxii. 6.) ' Let the young men now 
 arise and play before us' (2 Sam. ii. 14) ; and David, 
 in allusion to his dancing before the ark, says, ' There- 
 fore will I play before the Lord.' (2 Sam. vi. 21.)
 
 200 Bible English. 
 
 Melibceus, in Chaucer's tale that bears that name, 
 though ' a yonge man,' was yet old enough to have a 
 wife and daughter, and of him it is said, ' Upon a 
 day befell that he for his disport is went into the 
 feldes him to playe.' Gambling, indeed, is still called 
 ' play ;' one might almost think on the lucus a non 
 lucendo principle, seeing the terrible earnest it is, both 
 in the act and in its consequences to those who 
 engage in it deeply. 
 
 ' Luck' is a word which, according to modern 
 usage, would be below the dignity of such passages 
 as Ps. xlv. 5 ; cxviii. 26 ; cxxix. 8 (Prayer-book 
 version). ' Good luck have Thou with Thine honour ;' 
 ' We have wished you good luck.' Henry VIII. says 
 to Cranmer : 
 
 ' Ween you of better luck, 
 1 mean, in perjured witness, than your Master, 
 Whose minister you are, whiles here He lived 
 Upon this naughty earth?' (v. I.) 
 
 And in Lycidas Milton writes : 
 
 ' So may some gentle muse 
 With lucky words favour my destined urn.' 
 
 Luck' does not occur in our Bible. 
 
 It is much more common for words to degene- 
 rate in meaning than to attain a better or stronger 
 sense, yet some instances of this may be adduced. 
 
 ' Debate ' does not now imply more than dis- 
 cussion, and may be temperate and amicable ; but in 
 older English it meant ' variance,' ' discord,' and 
 even ' battle.' Isaiah (Iviii. 4) classes it with strife,,
 
 Debate Makebate. 201 
 
 and S. Paul with murder, malignity, wrath, &c. 
 (Rom. i. 29 ; 2 Cor. xii. 20.) Henry IV., speaking 
 of Northumberland's insurrection, says, 
 
 ' Now, lords, if God doth give successful end 
 To this debate that bleedeth at our doors.' 
 
 (2 Hen. IV. iv. 4.) 
 
 Adams makes it synonymous with contention : 
 ' Contention is like fire . . . only herein it transcends 
 fire : for fire begets not matter, but consumes it ; 
 debate begets matter, but not consumes it. ... It is 
 woeful dwelling among debatefull men.' (II. 149.) 
 ' Debate' comes to us from the French debattre, to 
 beat down ; yet there was an old English word, ' bat,' 
 or ' bate,' signifying quarrel. In the Apology for 
 Lollards, attributed to Wiclif, it is written, ' Bats were 
 made in religioun bi stinging of the fend' (p. 29); 
 /". c., religious dissensions were caused by the instiga- 
 tion of the Fiend. A compound of this word, ' make- 
 bates,' is given in the margin of 2 Tim. iii. 3, and 
 Titus, ii. 3, as an alternative for ' false accusers.' 
 The word in the original (<$m/3o\ot) is only ap- 
 plied to human beings in one other passage in the 
 New Testament (i Tim. iii. n), and is there ren- 
 dered slanderous. A ' make-bate ' is, no doubt, very 
 often a liar and slanderer, but the term itself means 
 a ' fomenter of strife.' One of Archbishop Cranmer's 
 Articles of Visitation of his Cathedral, A.D. 1550, 
 runs : ' Whether there be any incorrigible, trouble- 
 some make-bates, or otherwise disobedient to the 
 dean of this Church, or other their superiors?' 
 Adams (i. 240) says that sin ' plays the make-bate
 
 2O2 Bible English. 
 
 betwixt God and thee, betwixt thee and thyself.' 
 ' Breed-bate' was a similar compound. Mrs. Quickly 
 describes her fellow-servant Rugby as ' no tell-tale, 
 nor no breed-bate.' (Merry Wives, i. 4.) 
 
 ' Emulation' is now commonly used of honourable 
 and generous rivalry in a good cause, but it was 
 once equivalent to envy or jealousy. ' Emulations' 
 are enumerated in company with hatred, variance, 
 &c., among the works of the flesh in Gal. v. 20 ; and 
 again, ' There was neither envy nor emulation among 
 them.' (i Mace. viii. 16.) Our translators, in the 
 beginning of their Preface, write, ' Zeale to promote 
 the common good ... is welcommed with suspicion 
 in stead of love, and with emulation in stead of 
 thankes.' Bishop Sanderson classes it with schism 
 and faction (ii. 76) ; and Bishop Hall calls Korah and 
 his company ' the emulous opposites' of Moses and 
 Aaron. (Contemp. of Aaroris Censer and Rod?) Fuller 
 (Holy War, iii. 12) speaks of ' discord and emula- 
 tion,' though in the previous chapter he recognises a 
 good side to it ; ' Emulation, formerly poyson, was 
 here a cordiall, each Christian nation striving, not 
 onely to conquer their enemies, but to overcome their 
 friends in the honour of the conquest.' In his Church 
 History, and History of Cambridge, published sixteen 
 years later than the Holy War, he gives emulation its 
 good sense, and clearly distinguishes it from envy. 
 ' My Prayers shall be that each University may turn 
 all Envy into generous, yea gracious, yea glorious 
 Emulation.' (Ch. Hist. II. ii. 59.) And again, 'Great 
 the antipathy betwixt Crook, and Leland the Anti- 
 quary, whose differences began with generous emu la-
 
 Naughty Shrewd. 203 
 
 tion betwixt two eminent competitors of learned 
 Honour, but festred into Envy, not to say malicious 
 detraction.' (Cambridge, vi. 36.) 
 
 ' Naughty,' or ' naughtiness,' are now only em- 
 ployed in reference to children ; at least when applied 
 to grown-up persons, it is understood that the censure 
 conveyed is not very serious ; but this was not the 
 case when our version was made. ' I know thy 
 pride and the naughtiness of thine heart.' (i Sam. 
 xvii. 28.) ' Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of 
 naughtiness.' (S. James, i. 21.) We have also the 
 form ' naught.' ' The water is naught.' (2 Kings, ii. 
 19.) ' It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer.' 
 (Prov. xx. 14.) The strict meaning of the word is 
 ' worthless,' that which is ' no whit,' nothing at all. 
 Jeremiah (xxiv. 2) speaks of ' very naughty figs.' 
 So Latimer, ' The naughtiness of the silver was the 
 occasion of dearth.' (i. 137.) The Homilies use the 
 word frequently, e.g., ' We have sinned, we have been 
 naughty, we have offended.' (Of the Misery of Man, 
 Part II. p. 18.) Clarendon says that projectors who 
 suggest various ways to the Treasury for the increase 
 of the royal revenue are ' a confident, senseless, and 
 for the most part a naughty people.' (Bk. I. p. 160. 
 See also the quotation from Hen. VIII. p. 200.) 
 
 ' Shrewd ' has very much lost an ill meaning 
 which once it had. ' Open not thine heart to every 
 man, lest he requite thee with a shrewd turn.' (Ecclus. 
 viii. 19.) A common saying about Cranmer, as 
 quoted by Henry VIII. (v. 3), was, ' Do my lord of 
 Canterbury a shrewd turn, and he is your friend for 
 ever.' Adams (I. 82) writes, 'They that do God
 
 204 Bible English. 
 
 service against their wills shall have but shrewd- 
 wages.' Bacon also says that ' an ant is a wise crea- 
 ture for itself, but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard 
 or garden.' (Essay of Wisdom for a Man's self.} 
 And in the Taming of the Shreiv, Katherine is de- 
 scribed as ' intolerable, curst and shrewd, and froward.' 
 (i. 2.) This very word ' shrew' reminds us of the ori- 
 ginal signification of ' shrewd.' We may compare the 
 double meaning which belongs to ' sharp,' viz. quick 
 or intelligent, and also hasty and bitter. An in- 
 teresting article on ' shrewd ' will be found in Mr. 
 Craik's English of Shakspearc, p. 161. 
 
 When Uriah Heep is in gaol for conspiracy and 
 forgery, he candidly confesses that he has ' committed 
 follies.' It is, of course, of a piece with his sanctimo- 
 nious hypocrisy to be thus lenient in referring to his 
 crimes, while pretending to acknowledge them. But 
 in our Bible ' folly ' is used again and again for grave 
 sin. ' Achan wrought folly in Israel.' (Josh. vii. 15.)^ 
 ' They have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.' 
 (Judges, xx. 6.) Cressida, yielding to the seductions 
 of Diomedes, exclaims, ' Sweet honey Greek, tempt me 
 no more to folly' (Troilus and Cressida, v. 2), which 
 may call to mind Goldsmith's well-known lines, be- 
 ginning 
 
 ' When lovely woman stoops to folly.' 
 
 Folly has so far attained to a better signification 
 that it may exist without guilt, though where there is 
 guilt there is also folly. 
 
 ' Deliciously ' is employed in Rev. xviii. 7, 9, for 
 voluptuously or luxuriously, a sense which no longer
 
 Whispering Fame. 205 
 
 attaches to it. Latimer, giving an account of his house- 
 keeping as Bishop of Worcester, says, ' I am more 
 inclined to feed many grossly and necessarily, than a 
 few deliciously and voluptuously.' (II. 412.) And 
 Bishop Hall, in his Satires (III. i. 13), writes 
 
 ' And if some nice and licorous appetite 
 Desir'd more dainty dish of rare delight, 
 They scal'd the stored crab with clasped knee, 
 Till they had sated their delicious eye.' 
 
 The epithet here is ironical, as the poet is referring 
 to the simple tastes of the golden age. In like manner 
 ' luxury ' once signified ' licentiousness.' 
 
 ' Whispering,' or ' whisperer,' convey in themselves 
 no ethical meaning now. No doubt the slanderer 
 does insinuate his venom secretly, and, for the most 
 part, shrinks from speaking out ; and so ' whisperer ' 
 once denoted a backbiter or a makebate. In Prov. 
 xvi. 28 we read, ' A whisperer separateth chief 
 friends ; ' recalling the lines in the Ancient Mariner 
 
 ' Alas ! they had been friends in youth, 
 But whispering tongues can poison truth.' 
 
 In the margin of Prov. xxvi. 20 ' whisperer is sug- 
 gested for ' tale-bearer ' in the text. S. Paul classes 
 ' whisperers ' with ' backbiters, haters of God,' &c. 
 (Rom. i. 29); and 'whisperings' with ' envyings, 
 wraths, strifes, backbitings.' (2 Cor. xii. 20.) Jonson 
 (Magnetic Lady, II. i.) speaks of 'cutting of throats 
 with a whispering.' (See also Juvenal, Sat. iv. no.) 
 
 ' Fame,' when not accompanied by some dispar- 
 aging adjective, generally means 'celebrity' of an
 
 206 Bible English. 
 
 honourable kind, but it often signified ' rumour ' or 
 ' report ' of whatever character. ' Thy wisdom and 
 prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.' (i 
 Kings, x. 7.) Fuller tells us that the 'Earl of Artois 
 opprobriously objected to the Templars the common 
 fame, that the Holy Land long since had been wonne 
 but for the collusion of the false Templars and Hos- 
 pitallers with the Infidels.' (Holy War, iv. 15.) See 
 too the Section of Fame in the Holy State, and 
 Bacon's Essay on the same subject. Adams speaks 
 of a man ' that famed himself to have been long 
 blind.' (II. 1 60.) 
 
 ' Gifts ' are, in some texts, synonymous with 
 ' bribes/ ' A wicked man taketh a gift out of the 
 bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.' (Prov. xvii. 
 23.) The Bible Version of Ps. xxvi. 10 has, 'Their 
 right hand is full of bribes ; ' in the Prayer-book it is 
 ' full of gifts.' No such dishonourable meaning would 
 now attach to the word. Fuller says wittily of a man 
 who obtained a post to which he was not entitled by 
 merit, ' his gifts were better than his endowments.' 
 (Holy War, ii. 43.) 
 
 ' Glorious ' is never employed by us as though it 
 meant vain-glorious ; ' but instances of this usage are 
 common enough, though our Bible supplies only two, 
 both of which occur in the same Apocryphal Book. 
 ' The lowly were exalted, and devoured the glorious ; ' 
 'lifted up with the glorious words of lewd persons.' 
 (Esth. xi. ii ; xvi. 4.) The Homily of the Misery of 
 Man says of our Lord, ' He preferreth the penitent 
 publican before the proud, holy, and glorious Pharisee.' 
 (Pt. I. p. 1 6.) So in Jonson's Every Man out of Jiis
 
 High-minded Heady. 207 
 
 Humour (II. i), 'I speak it not gloriously or out of 
 affectation.' 
 
 A 'high-minded' person is, according to our present 
 usage, one of lofty principle, above any petty feeling 
 or mean action ; but in our translation the word has 
 the bad sense of haughty, or supercilious, or over-con- 
 fident 'Be not high-minded, but fear.' (Rom. xi. 20.) 
 ' Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be 
 not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches.' (i Tim. 
 vi. 17.) Adams probably had this text in his mind 
 when he wrote, ' Wealth is the quill to blow up the 
 bladder of high-mindedness.' (II. 141.) Bishop 
 Andrewes points out that ' high-minded' was capable 
 of a good meaning. He bids his hearers in effect to 
 set their affections on things above, and then adds, 
 ' O that you would mind once these high things, that 
 you would be in this sense high-minded.' (v. 50.) 
 This passage, however, itself implies that the favour- 
 able signification was not the usual one, and elsewhere 
 (v. 515) the bishop employs the word as in our Bible. 
 
 Another term associated with this in 2 Tim. iii. 4 
 has altered its meaning. We are told that in the last 
 days some will be ' heady.' The word in the original 
 means what we now sometimes call ' headlong ; ' in 
 Acts, xix. 36, the only other place in the New Testa- 
 ment in which it occurs, it is rendered ' rashly.' 
 Bishop Hall in his Characteristics says of ' The Un- 
 constant,' ' His proceedings are ever headdy and 
 peremptorie ; ' and Fuller, commenting on Saul's pro- 
 hibition of food to his army ( i Sam. xiv. 24), observes, 
 ' I see neither piety nor policy, but humour and 
 headiness in Saul's resolution.' (Pisgah, II. xii. 36.)
 
 208 Bible English. 
 
 1 Heady ' is now little used, except of strong liquor 
 likely to affect the head. 
 
 ' Stout ' means at present either ' strong ' or ' fat,' 
 but formerly it often stood for ' obstinate ' or 'proud.' 
 ' I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of 
 Assyria.' (Isa. x. 12.) 'Your words have been stout 
 against me, saith the Lord.' (Mai. iii. 13.) In Samson 
 Agonistes (1346), when the Jewish captive refuses to 
 obey the order of the Philistine lord, the officer 
 replies 
 
 ' I am sorry what this stoutness will produce.' 
 
 Latimer (i. 113) says that Adonijah was ' a stout- 
 stomached child. 
 
 This word ' stomach ' is now only applied to a 
 particular part of the body, and is no longer equiva- 
 lent to pride as in the Prayer-book version of Ps. ci. 
 7. ' Whoso hath also a proud look and high stomach 
 I will not suffer him.' In Walton's Life of Hooker a 
 letter of Archbishop Whitgift's is quoted (p. 23), in 
 which he says of Mr. Travers, ' I did elect him fellow 
 of Trinity College, being before rejected by Dr. 
 Beaumont for his intolerable stomach.' When the 
 Archbishop of York claimed some precedence or 
 privilege to which he was not entitled, Archbishop 
 Peckham of Canterbury forbade any one to sell food 
 to the ambitious prelate, hoping, as Fuller remarks, 
 ' to allay his stomach by raising his hunger, and starve 
 him into a speedy submission.' (C/i. Hist. III. iii. 5.) 
 Fuller also uses the adjective ' stomachfull,' and among 
 the poor I have heard a proud person called 'very 
 stomachy.' The stomach being now regarded as the
 
 in 
 
 Stomach Fond. 2 09 
 
 place of digestion, 'to stomach an affront' means to put 
 up with it ; but when this organ was considered as the 
 seat of anger or pride, the phrase had an exactly oppo- 
 site sense, and to stomach an affront was to rejsejit it. 
 In Jonson's Catiline (III. i.) Catulus, deceived by the 
 conspirator's affected moderation on his failure in the 
 consular election, tells him that he rejoices that there 
 is no truth in the public report 
 
 ' That gives you out to stomach your repulse, 
 And brook it deadly.' 
 
 And Bishop Hall in his Contemplations (of Nadab 
 and Abihu) writes, ' Yea, this made God the more to 
 stomacke, and the rather to revenge this impietie, 
 because the sonnes of Aaron did it.' It should be 
 added that ' stomach ' had sometimes the good signi- 
 fication of courage as well as the less favourable senses 
 that have been mentioned. The mother who exhorted 
 her seven sons to endure martyrdom with constancy 
 is described as ' stirring up her womanish thoughts 
 with a manly stomach.' (2 Mace. vii. 21.) 
 
 ' Fond ' means ' affectionate,' but formerly it was 
 frequently equivalent to ' foolish.' ' A fond thing 
 vainly invented.' (Article xxii.) Burton refers to 'some 
 laughing at an old man that by reason of his age was 
 a little fond.' (Democritns to Reader, p. 22.) Fuller 
 writes, 'A fond fame is best confuted by neglecting 
 it. By fond, understand such a report as is rather 
 ridiculous than dangerous.' (Holy State, p. 176.) 
 Something of the old meaning of ' fond ' may be seen 
 in such expressions as ' I fondly hoped or thought/ 
 used when the expectation has been disappointed. 
 
 p
 
 2 1 o Bible English. 
 
 We know also that a so-called ' fond ' parent is often a 
 very foolish one, and the same connexion between 
 injudicious affection and folly may be observed in the 
 word 'doting.' 
 
 ' Reward ' and ' recompense ' now imply something 
 agreeable, but it was not always of necessity so. 'He 
 shall reward evil unto mine enemies.' (Ps. liv. 5.) 
 ' Recompense to no man evil for evil.' (Rom. xii. 17.) 
 In like manner, the use of ' worthy ' in S. Luke, vii. 4, 
 ' He was worthy for whom He should do this,' is more 
 in accordance with our present usage than in the 
 phrase, 'worthy of stripes.' (S. Luke, xii. 48.) Raleigh 
 tells us that Ptolemy took Laodice, the mother of 
 Seleucus, ' and rewarded her with death, as she well 
 deserved.' (Hist, of World, V. v. i.) In Paradise 
 Regained (III. 132) the Saviour is represented as 
 speaking of those who in the place of offering due 
 thanks to God would render 
 
 ' Contempt instead, dishonour, obloquy. 
 Hard recompense, unsuitable return 
 For so much good, so much beneficence !' 
 
 And Bishop Hooper remarks on Jonah, i. 12, ' In 
 this answer we learn and know what is the nature and 
 condition of every penitent man, to judge himself 
 worthy pain and punishment.' (I. 471.) 
 
 On the other hand, although the word does not 
 occur in the Bible or Prayer-book, it may be observed 
 that 'retribution,' which always now means repaying 
 evil, though usually with a just punishment, was 
 sometimes used in places where we should now put
 
 Success Cumber. 211 
 
 ' recompense.' Bishop Hall in his Autobiography 
 mentions that when he withdrew from the Synod of 
 Dort, the States dismissed him ' with an honourable 
 retribution.' (See also Hooker, Ecc. Pol. I. xi. 5.) 
 
 We sometimes say that ' nothing succeeds like 
 success,' but ' success ' once merely signified the issue 
 of an event, whether for good or for evil. We see this 
 still in the phrases ' bad success/ ' ill success,' and the 
 like ; but the word when standing by itself denotes a 
 happy result. This was not the case when our trans- 
 lation was made. The expression occurs therein 
 fourteen times, but in every passage except one (2 
 Mace. x. 28) it has the adjective 'good' or 'prosperous' 
 before it, an addition which might now seem super- 
 fluous. That ' success ' did not of necessity mean a 
 favourable event we may see in the following from 
 Raleigh, who states that Hermias, the favourite of 
 Antiochus, maligned that king's most virtuous and 
 faithful servants, and then continues, ' This vile quality 
 in a Councillor of such great place, how harmful it was 
 unto his Lord, and finally unto himself, the success of 
 things will shortly discover.' (Hist, of the World, V. 
 v. 2.) Clarendon also writes, ' These errors (for errors 
 they were in view, and errors they are proved by the 
 success) are not to be imputed to the Court.' (Bk. I. 
 p. 127.) 
 
 'Cumber' is well-nigh obsolete, though 'encumber' 
 is in common use, but its meaning has improved, 
 to this extent at least, that the word now refers 
 to that which passively clogs or burdens us, rather 
 than to anything that is actively hurtful or 
 troublesome, as is the case in our Bible. ' Martha
 
 2 1 2 Bible English. 
 
 was -cumbered about much serving' (S. Luke, x. 40) ; 
 literally was distracted, so that she was drawn 
 away by various cares from listening to the Lord. The 
 owner of the vineyard said of the barren tree, ' Cut it 
 down, why cumbereth it the ground ? ' (S. Luke, xiii. 
 7.) ' The tree is charged not merely with being nega- 
 tively, but positively evil ; it marred and mischiefed the 
 soil beneath and around it.' (Trench on the Parables.} 
 Spenser speaks of ' cumbrous gnattes ' (f. Queen, I. i. 
 23), a singularly inappropriate epithet, as it might seem 
 to us, if we only knew the modern signification of the 
 word. The substantive is found in Deut. i. 1 2, ' How 
 can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your 
 burden, and your strife ? ' 
 
 ' Ungracious ' is another expression which conveys 
 less reproach than once it did. It is met with in three 
 passages in our version (2 Mace. iv. 19; viii. 34; xv. 3), 
 and in the tw r o last of these the word in the original, 
 which signifies 'thrice wicked,' might appear to us 
 very inadequately translated by 'most ungracious.' We 
 do not indeed usually apply the term to persons them- 
 selves, but to their deeds and words; a man repels 
 others by an ungracious manner, or gives offence by 
 an ungracious speech or act, but though of course 
 these involve greater or less faultiness on his part, 
 there is no longer that deep moral reprobation be- 
 longing to the expression which formerly attached to 
 it, as for instance, in what Bishop Hall says of the 
 sacrifice of Isaac, ' If he were an vngracious or re- 
 bellious child, his deserts might give some colour to 
 this violence; but to lay hands on so deare, so dutifull, 
 so hopefull a sonne, is vncapable of all pretences.'
 
 Sleight Practise Persuade. 213 
 
 ' Sleight,' in the only phrase in which it now 
 survives (sleight of hand), has the good meaning of 
 ' dexterity,' but it was frequently employed of artifice 
 directed to an ill end. ' The sleight of men and 
 cunning craftiness.' (Eph. iv. 14.) So Spenser, 
 
 ' Therefore a Jurie was impaneld streight, 
 T' enquire of them whether by force or sleight, 
 Or their owne guilt they were away convayed.' 
 
 (F. Queene, vi. vii. 34.) 
 
 Fuller uses it of skill when he says that the length of 
 a bowshot depends on ' the might or sleight of the 
 archer.' (Pisgah, I. xiii. i ; ) 
 
 'Practise' by itself has not a bad signification now, 
 but it once was used in the sense of ' plot,' as a sub- 
 stitute for which word it stands in the margin of Ps. 
 xxxvii. 12. Fuller writes, ' Abiathar (though high- 
 priest) was convented before and deposed by Solomon 
 for his practising of treason.' (C/i. Hist. III. ii. 59.) 
 
 Some words have been noticed in this chapter, such 
 as ' allow,' ' endeavour,' ' intend,' &c., which have now 
 a weaker meaning than was originally theirs. By way 
 of contrast to these, two may be mentioned as having 
 increased in force. When we say that we have per- 
 suaded a man to do this or that, we imply that \ve 
 have prevailed upon him to act in a certain manner ; 
 but once it need have signified no more than that we 
 had advised him, it might be ineffectually. In Acts, 
 xix. 8, for example, we read of S. Paul ' disputing and 
 persuading the things concerning the Kingdom of 
 God,' but in the next verse we find that of those who 
 were thus persuaded there were many who were not
 
 214 Bible English. 
 
 convinced. Fuller, after giving reference to several 
 texts, which have been alleged as evidence that there 
 will finally be a general conversion of the Jews, says, 
 ' Should these quotations be severally examined, many 
 would be found rather to perswade than prove, rather 
 to intimate than perswade the matter in hand.' (Pisgah, 
 V. iv. 2.) 
 
 In the Te Deum, ' Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's 
 womb,' might, to some, sound strangely, because by 
 ' abhor' we now mean 'vehemently hate;' but its first 
 sense is ' to shrink from.' He who was in the form of 
 God, did not draw back from taking man's nature 
 upon Him for our sakes. There are several texts in 
 which the word has the same signification, e. g., ' Do 
 not abhor us for Thy name's sake ' (Jer. xiv. 21); 
 ' Abhor that which is evil ' (Rom. xii. 9), is the cor- 
 relative of the next injunction, ' Cleave to that which 
 is good ;' ' Men abhorred the offering of the Lord ' 
 (i Sam. ii. 17) ; 'All my inward friends abhorred me.' 
 (Job, xix. 19.) In the Homily on the Right use of the 
 Church (Pt. II., p. 184), it is written, ' If we abhor to 
 be scourged not out of the material temple only, but 
 also to be beaten and driven out of the eternal temple 
 and House of the Lord .... if we fear, dread, and 
 abhor this, I say, as we have most just cause to do, 
 then let us amend this our negligence.' And in As 
 you Like if (II. 3) Adam says 
 
 * This house is but a butchery : 
 Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it.' 
 
 The American Prayer-book, in the verse of the Te
 
 Abhor. 215 
 
 Deum quoted, has, ' Thou didst humble Thyself to be 
 born of a Virgin,' and thus, at the same time, gets rid 
 of the slight archaism involved in the use of ' abhor ' 
 in this passage, and defers, as in other places (e.g., 
 the Litany and the Marriage Service), to a feeling 
 of what, to most Englishmen, looks like indelicate 
 delicacy.
 
 2 1 6 Bible Eng lish. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OF WORDS RELATING TO ARMOUR AND DRESS. 
 
 IN this chapter we will consider those words which 
 have to do with dress whether peaceful or warlike, 
 many of which have gone out of fashion with the 
 articles to which they are applied. The disuse of de- 
 fensive armour for instance, and the change in some 
 of our offensive weapons, have caused several terms 
 connected with them to be out of date. But first may 
 be noted three or four names once often applied to 
 the wearers of these, but now having quite a different 
 signification. 'A man of war' is no longer a soldier, as 
 in i Sam. xvii. 33, but a ship, which however, despite 
 this masculine appellation, is always spoken of in the 
 feminine gender. When Falstaff visits Justice Shallow, 
 Davy says to his master, ' Doth the man of war stay 
 all night, sir?' and in Love's Labour Lost, v. 2, Armado 
 speaks affectedly of Hector as ' the sweet war-man.' 
 (See also the quotation from Marlowe, p. 145.) 
 
 Again, we may call infantry 'foot-soldiers,' or 
 simply 'foot,' but it is only men-servants who are 
 styled ' footmen.' The host of Israel in the wilder- 
 ness consisted of '600,000 footmen.' (Numb. xi. 21.)
 
 Footmen. 2 1 7 
 
 The ' footmen ' who ' stood about ' Saul, and whom he 
 ordered to slay the priests were, as the margin has it, 
 'his guard.' (i Sam. xxii. 17.) Fuller says that King 
 Baldwin marched out privately, not having past ' foure 
 hundred horse with some few footmen.', (Holy War, 
 ii. 40.) In another work he remarks that in some 
 battles the soldiers have been well called ' footmen ' 
 ' as making more use of their feet than their hands.' 
 (Good Thoughts in Worse Times, p. 106.) The same 
 writer more than once uses the term where we should 
 put ' pedestrians.' Thus in accounting for the rapidity 
 with which Jacob travelled from Beersheba to Bethel, 
 he reminds us that ' he fled from his brother Esau, and 
 fear makes good footmen' (Pisgah, I. xiii. 2) ; and in 
 another work he draws an illustration from the fact that 
 the same patriarch lingered behind Esau on account of 
 the tender children and flocks with young (Gen. xxxiii. 
 13), 'though no doubt he was footman enough to 
 go along with his brother.' (Church History, vii. i. 3.) 
 The word has something of this sense in Jer. xii. 5 : 
 ' If thou hast run with the footmen and they have 
 wearied thee, how canst thou contend with horses ? ' 
 
 'Bowmen' (Jer. iv. 29) and 'spearmen' (Acts, 
 xxiii. 23) are so far obsolete that none of our soldiers 
 could be so designated now; both bow and spear 
 having gone out of use as weapons of war, though the 
 former is still employed in the amusement of archery, 
 and the latter in some kinds of fishing. ' Swordmen,' 
 a word similarly formed, (Cosin, i. 114, calls David 
 a 'great swordman,' and Clarendon (Bk. v. ii. p. 181) 
 says that ' the Earl of Essex was the darling of the
 
 218 Bible English. 
 
 swordmen'), does not occur in our Bible, though 
 soldiers are often spoken of as ' men who drew 
 sword.' (f-g-i Judges, xx. 2, 15, 17, &c.) 'Slaughter 
 weapon,' is found in Ezek. ix. 2., and Potiphar is 
 called in the margin of Gen. xxxvii. 36, 'chief of the 
 slaughtermen or executioners,' in the text it is, 'captain 
 of the guard.' Bishop Bale (as quoted in Dr. Mait- 
 land's Essays on the Reformation, p. 51) says, 'If ye 
 axe me ho we or by what meanes they [wicked men] 
 become Sathan's members, hys apte instrumentes and 
 slaughter menne, I answer you by Christes owne 
 wordes in the sayde viii chapter of Jhon.' 
 
 We now use ' harness ' only of a horse's trappings, 
 but it was employed of a man's armour as well. Ahab 
 was smitten 'between the joints of the harness.' 
 (i Kings, xxii. 34.) 'The children of Israel went up 
 harnessed out of the land of Egypt.' (Exod. xiii. 18.) 
 Latimer, in an often-quoted passage in one of his 
 sermons (i. 101), says, ' I can remember that I buckled 
 my father's harness when he went unto Blackheath 
 field.' Tyndale writes that Thomas a Becket ' was a 
 man of war, and captain over five or six thousand men 
 in full harness,' but that afterwards he ' did put off his 
 helmet, and put on his mitre ; put off his harness, and 
 on with his robes.' (ii. 292.) Howell relates how the 
 carrier of Tewkesbury, passing over Cots-hill, 'saw 
 most sensibly and very perspicuously in the air, 
 musketeers, harnessed men and horsemen moving in 
 battle array ' (I. vi. 43) ; and Milton, in his Ode on the 
 Nativity, speaks of 'bright harnessed angels.' The 
 French still have the double use of the word ; only
 
 A rtillery Brigandine, 219 
 
 they call the armour harnois, and the ephippia harnais. 
 In i Mace. iv. 7 a camp is described as ' strong and 
 well harnessed/ /. <?., fortified. 
 
 ' Artillery ' was not confined to heavy ordnance ; 
 Jonathan when he had shot his arrows, 'gave his 
 artillery unto his lad.' (i Sam. xx. 40.) Fuller says 
 that the castles of the Norman lords ' were of proof 
 against Bowes and Arrows, the Artillery of that age.' 
 {Church History, iii. ii. 56.) Mr. Wright observes, 
 that even after the introduction of cannon, there 
 appears to have been a distinction between ordnance 
 and artillery, the former being specially applied to the 
 new weapons, and he quotes from Latimer (i. 27), ' He 
 (the devil) is a great warrior, and also of great power 
 in this world ; he hath great ordnance and artillery.' 
 To this may be added the following from the will of 
 Henry VIII. ; 'We give unto him (Edward VI.) all 
 our plate, stuff of household, artillery, ordnance, ammu- 
 nition, &c.' 
 
 In Jeremiah we read, ' Furbish the spears, put on 
 the brigandines ' (xlvi. 4), and again, ' Let the archer 
 bend his bow against him that lifteth himself up in his 
 brigandine.' (li. 3.) Light-armed soldiers were called \ 
 'brigands,' according to some, because they were 
 broken off or detached from the main body ; so a 
 division of an army is styled a 'brigade.' But more 
 probably the name > comes from the old English word I JT 
 ' brige ' or strife. Thus in Chaucer we read, ' Ye 
 knowen wel that min adversaries han begonne this 
 debat and brige by hir outrage.' (Tale of Melibeus.) 
 The corslets of these brigands were called 'brigan- 
 dines.' Soldiers of this kind often marauded on
 
 22O Bible English. 
 
 their own account ; hence the sense which ' brigand ' 
 bears with us. ' Brigandine ' or ' brigantine ' also 
 designated a light ship built for piratical purposes ; 
 but this evil meaning no longer of necessity attaches 
 to the word, and a ' brig ' may be a very honest 
 vessel. 
 
 In Samson Agonistes the Jewish captive challeng- 
 ing Harapha, bids him put on 
 
 ' Thy brigandine of brass, thy broad habergeon, 
 Vant-brace and graves.' (1120.) 
 
 'Habergeon' is used five times in our Bible. The hole 
 of the ephod was to be ' as it were the hole of an ha- 
 bergeon.' (Exod. xxviii. 32; xxxix. 23.) Uzziah's sol- 
 diers and Nehemiah's workmen were armed with 
 ' habergeons 'among other things (2 Chr. xxvi. 14; Neh. 
 iv. 1 6); and in the book of Job (xli. 26) we are told that 
 the spear, the dart, and the ' habergeon ' are powerless 
 against the leviathan. In the last text the margin 
 gives ' breastplate.' The ' habergeon ' was the diminu- 
 tive of the hauberk, and was a small coat of mail 
 covering the shoulders. Chaucer, describing the attire 
 of his knight, writes, 
 
 ' Of fustian he wered a gipon 
 Alle besmotred with his habergeon.' 
 
 (Prol. 76.) 
 
 /. e., his under dress or cassock was stained and 
 spotted by the armour worn over it; and when Sir 
 Guyon and Cymochles fought, 
 
 ' Their mightie strokes their haberjeons dismayled.' 
 (Faerie Qiteene, II. vi. 29.)
 
 Greaves Fauchion Stonebow. 221 
 
 ' Greves ' or ' greaves ' formed part of the equipment 
 of Goliath. The term comes from the French greve, 
 the shin of the leg, being that part of the body which 
 ' greaves ' were meant to protect. The Apocrypha 
 has both ' fauchin ' (or as it is given in later editions, 
 ' fauchion ') and ' stonebow.' The first of these is a 
 curved sword or scimitar, deriving its name from the 
 Latin falx, a sickle. The weapon of Holofernes was 
 a ' fauchin.' (Judith, xiii. 6 ; xvi. 9.) When Tarquin 
 would obtain a light, 
 
 ' His falchion on a flint he softly smiteth.' 
 
 (Lucrece, 176.) 
 
 ' Stonebow,' is an engine for casting stones, a sort of 
 sling or catapult ; ' hailstones shall be cast as out of a 
 stonebow.' (Wisd. v. 22.) In the Earl of Surrey's 
 Poems there is a 'Satire against the Citizens of 
 London.' This was prompted by the fact that on the 
 complaint of the city, Surrey had been confined in the 
 Tower for a month, for ' breaking with stone-bowes of 
 certain windows ; ' and Sir Toby Belch, watching Mal- 
 volio as he complacently soliloquises, exclaims, ' O for 
 a stonebow to hit him in the eye ! ' ( Twelfth Night, 
 
 ii- 5-) 
 
 In the margin of i Sam. xxv. 29, we find the ex- 
 pression ' in the midst of the bought of a sling,' 
 where the text has 'out of the middle of a sling.' 
 ' Bought ' is that which is bowed or bent, and the 
 ' bought of a sling ' is the bent piece of leather on 
 which the stone is laid. ' Boughts ' is more than once 
 applied by Spenser to the bendings or folds of a ser- 
 pent. Thus in the Faerie Queene (I. i. 15)
 
 222 Bible English. 
 
 ' And as she lay upon the durtie ground, 
 Her huge long taile her den all overspred, 
 Yet was in knots and many boughtes upwound, 
 Pointed with mortall sting.' 
 
 Eliphaz speaks of 'the thick bosses of the bucklers.' 
 (Job, xv. 26.) The ' buckler ' was a small shield 
 with a knob or boss, called in French boucle, project- 
 ing from the middle of it. Fuller says that the Holy 
 War ' like unto a sharp pike in the bosse of a buck- 
 ler, though it had a mixture of offending, yet it was 
 chiefly of a defensive nature.' (Holy War, I. ix.) 
 The word was used in several phrases. Sanderson 
 refers to those who 'snatch up the bucklers as if 
 they would make it good against all comers' (i. 289) ; 
 and again, ' A rank coward may take up the bucklers, 
 and brave it like a stout champion ' (ii. 339) ; and 
 elsewhere he says that if the adversaries of the 
 English Church can prove certain things, 'we will 
 yield the bucklers and confess her guilty.' (ii. 159.) 
 Fuller also, after mentioning some advantages which 
 Romish controversialists enjoyed, continues : ' So that 
 were it not for God's marvellous blessing on our 
 studies, and the infinite odds of truth on our side, it 
 were plainly impossible, in humane probability, that 
 we should hold up the bucklers against them.' ( Church 
 History, x. Hi. 20.) 
 
 The ' gorget ' was a piece of armour designed to 
 protect the gorge or throat. It occurs in the margin 
 of i Sam. xvii. 6. In Jonson's Catiline (iv. 2), Caesar 
 pointing to the armour which Cicero wore under his 
 robe, says,
 
 Gorget Target. 223 
 
 ' See how his gorget peers above his gown !' 
 
 Gorget sometimes simply means a collar. The 
 bear in Hitdibras wore ' about his neck a three-fold 
 gorget.' (Part I., canto 2.) Sir W. Scott describes 
 certain citizens' wives in the time of the Common- 
 wealth as arrayed 'in ruff and gorget.' (Woodstock, 
 chap, i.) 
 
 The word for which ' gorget ' is offered in the 
 margin as an alternative is ' target,' now a mark to be 
 shot at, but once signifying, as here and in 2 Chron. 
 ix. 15, &c., a ' shield.' Adams writes of God, ' His forces 
 lie invisible, invincible ; not repelled with sword and 
 target.' (I. 55.) It frequently occurs in the form 
 ' targe ; ' thus Milton, 
 
 ' Those leaves 
 They gather'd, broad as Amazonian targe.' 
 
 (Par. Lost, ix. mi.) 
 
 The word comes from the Latin tergus, a hide, of 
 which material the target was often made, as the well- 
 known lines in the Lady of the Lake may remind us : 
 
 ' 111 fared it then with Roderick Dhu, 
 That on the field his targe he threw, 
 Whose brazen studs and tough bull-hide 
 Had death so often dashed aside.' (Canto v.) 
 
 The use of ' target ' for shield would now be re- 
 garded as a Scotticism ; other instances of a similar 
 kind might be adduced from our version. ' Bonnet ' 
 is used for a man's head-dress, as the mitre of the 
 priests in Exod. xxviii. 40, and elsewhere, though in 
 Isa. iii. 20 it forms part of the woman's adornments.
 
 224 Bible English. 
 
 Hamlet says to Osric, ' Put your bonnet to his right 
 use; 'tis for the head.' (v. 2.) 
 
 ' Coat ' on the other hand is more frequently applied 
 to a woman's garment in Scotland than in England. 
 The Spouse in the Canticles says, ' I have put off 
 my coat; how shall I put it on?' (v. 3.) In Piers 
 Plowman, Envy relates how even in church she could 
 not help coveting her neighbour's dress if it were 
 better than her own : 
 
 ' Awey fro the auter thanne turne I myn eyghen, 
 And biholde how Eleyne hath a newe cote ; 
 I wisshe thanne it were myne, and al the webbe after.' 
 (Passus, v. no.) 
 
 In Jonson's Sad Shepherd (ii. i), Earine complains 
 that the badger, hedgehogs, and ferret with which her 
 rustic lover has presented her ' prick my coats.' In 
 As You Like It (i. 3) the word signifies petticoats. 
 Celia says, ' They are but burs, Cousin, . . . our very 
 petticoats will catch them ; ' to whom Rosalind replies, 
 ' I could shake them off my coat ; these burs are in 
 my heart.' The same use obtains in the following 
 from Fuller, who after giving a catalogue of those who 
 had been supposed to be possessed with evil spirits in 
 the reign of James I., remarks that it ' consists most 
 of the weaker sex, either because Satan would plant 
 his Battery where easiest to make a Breach, or because 
 he found such most advantaged for dissembling, and 
 his Cloven- foot best concealed under long coats.' 
 (Ch. Hist. x. iv. 56.) 
 
 In Scotland the 'goodman' still means the husband, 
 as in Prov. vii. 19, or the master of the house, as in
 
 Scotticisms. 22$ 
 
 S. Mark, xiv. 14. Bullinger writes, according to the 
 English version of his Decades, ' The good man of the 
 house by planting godliness in his family doth not a 
 little advance and set forward his private property.' 
 (i. 258.) The word in the original is paterfamilias. 
 In the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew, Sly says, 
 
 ' Are you my wife, and will not call me husband ? 
 My men should call me " lord :" I am your good-man.' 
 
 'Causey' occurs in i Chron. xxvi. 16, 18, and is 
 also found in the margin of Prov. xv. 19, where for 
 ' the way of the righteous is made plain,' we read, ' is 
 raised up as a causey.' The word appears again, but 
 in the form ' causeway ' in the margin of Isa. vii. 3, 
 where it is offered as an alternative for ' highway ' in 
 the text. In Paradise Lost (x. 415) we are told, 
 
 ' Satan went down 
 The causey to hell-gate.' 
 
 The word has nothing to do with ' way,' though the 
 shape that it wears in the following from Fuller's 
 History of Cambridge (iii. 19) shows that such con- 
 nexion was supposed to exist. He says that Henry 
 Harvey, Master of Trinity Hall, made ' a cawsed-way 
 on the south and other sides of Cambridge.' It was, 
 perhaps, so written under the idea that the term meant 
 a caused or made way, an artificial pathway. ' Causey ' 
 does, however, come from the French chauss'ee, the 
 word, at all events in this form, is obsolete in England, 
 but ' to keep the crown of the causey ' still means in 
 Scotland to keep the best part of the road, or, as we 
 should say, ' to take the wall.' 
 
 Q
 
 226 Bible English. 
 
 To make a ' road ' or ' raid,' /. e., to make an incur- 
 sion, is another expression, which now seems rather to 
 belong to the northern part of our island, but ' Achish 
 said, Whither have ye made a road to-day?' (i Sam. 
 xxvii. 10.) In Henry V. (i. 2) the King, in view of 
 his intended absence in France, observes that he must 
 take precautions 
 
 ' Against the Scot, who will make road upon us 
 With all advantages.' 
 
 In i Mace. . xv. 41, we read of troops who were 
 collected in a city ' that issuing out they might make 
 outroads upon the ways of Judsea.' This word is of 
 unusual occurrence, though ' inroad ' is common 
 enough as a substantive, and was formerly used as a 
 verb. 
 
 Job exclaims in a well-known passage, ' Behold 
 my desire is that the Almighty would answer me, and 
 that mine adversary had written a book' (xxxi. 35), 
 i. e., had brought a formal accusation against me, in 
 which case the patriarch would not shrink from it. 
 Libellus is the Latin both for a little book and an in- 
 dictment. The latter in Scotch law is still called a 
 ' libel,' which term with us means a defamatory speech 
 or writing, but was not formerly restricted to that. 
 Thus in Jonson's Catiline: 
 
 Here is a libel, too, accusing Caesar, 
 
 From Lucius Vectius, and confirmed by Curius.' 
 
 (v. 4.) 
 
 ' Book ' indeed was applied to any formal document. 
 Sir Edward Montagu defending himself for having
 
 Raiment Bravery. 227 
 
 drawn up Edward the Sixth's will, devising the crown 
 to Lady Jane Grey, repeatedly refers to that instrument 
 as a 'book.' (Fuller's Church History, viii. i. 2.) 
 
 To return, however, from this digression on Scot- 
 ticisms to the words used in connexion with dress, we 
 will now notice some of those which have to do with 
 peaceful attire, besides ' bonnet ' and ' coat ' already 
 mentioned. 
 
 ' Raiment,' i. e. the clothing in which one is arrayed, 
 is not in ordinary use, though it still occurs in poetry. 
 Bishop Hall in his Contemplation of Joseph has it in 
 the plural : ' He sends variety of costly rayments to 
 his Father.' 
 
 'Bravery' signified finery or magnificence gener- 
 ally, as well as valour ; indeed, in old writers it oftener 
 means bravado than real courage. In Isa. iii. 18, it is 
 used of finery in dress. ' In that day the Lord will 
 take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments 
 about their feet.' The wife of Charles of Anjou sold 
 her jewels to enable her husband to buy the sove- 
 reignties of Sicily and Jerusalem ; ' that sex (observes 
 Fuller) loving bravery well, but greatnesse better.' 
 (Holy War, iv. 25.) In Jonson's Silent Woman (iv. 2), 
 when the cowardice of two well-dressed coxcombs is 
 exposed, one of the characters says, ' I commended 
 but their wits, madam, and their braveries; I never 
 looked toward their valours.' The word was not con- 
 fined to splendour in apparel. Fuller calls the golden 
 vine and golden eagle over the entrance of the Temple 
 'two eminent braveries.' (Pisgah, iii. pt. iii. viii. 4.) 
 Howell describes Venice as ' flowing with all kind of 
 bravery and delight' (I. i. 35), and of Dublin he
 
 228 Bible English. 
 
 writes, ' Traffick encreaseth here wonderfully with all 
 kind of Bravery and Building.' (I. vi. 36.) 
 
 In the passage of Isaiah just referred to the fol- 
 lowing articles of dress are also noted : ' the cauls, the 
 tires, the mufflers, the tablets, the changeable suits of 
 apparel, and the wimples.' 
 
 The ' caul ' was a small cap or net for the hair ; the 
 margin gives ' networks.' In Hos. xiii. 8, it is applied 
 to the membrane which encloses the heart, the peri- 
 cardium. Chaucer's Wife of Bath uses ' wearer of a 
 caul ' as a periphrasis for ' woman ' : 
 
 ' Let see which is the proudest of hem alle, 
 That wereth on a kerchef or a calle, 
 That dare sayn nay of that I shal you teche.' 
 
 (6600.) 
 
 Spenser, relating how Duessa was stripped of her 
 false finery, writes, 
 
 ' Then when they had despoyled her tire and call.' 
 (Faerie Queene, I. viii. 46.) 
 
 ' Tire ' was a name in frequent use for head-dress. 
 We have only tiara now, which, however, is not an 
 .English word at all. Cleopatra relates how in a frolic 
 she dressed Antony in her clothes, and ' put my tires 
 and mantles on him.' (Ant. and Cl. ii. 5.) ' Head- 
 tire ' occurs in i Esd. hi. 6. The verb also was 
 common; Jezebel 'tired her head.' (2 Kings, ix. 30.) 
 So in Jonson's Every Man out of His Humour (ii. i) : 
 ' She speaks as she goes tired, in cobweb lawn, light, 
 thin.' ' Attire ' now signifies dress generally, but was 
 once used like ' tire ' for that which was put upon the
 
 Muffler Tablets. 229 
 
 head. 'With the linen mitre shall he be attired' 
 (Lev. xvi. 4) ; ' exceeding in dyed attire upon their 
 heads.' (Ezek. xxiii. 15.) So Fuller: 
 
 ' What if those careless tresses were attired ?' 
 
 (David's Hainovs Sznne, stanza 16.) 
 
 The ' muffler ' was a covering over the lower part 
 of the face, worn sometimes for warmth, sometimes 
 for disguise. When Falstaff is dressed up as an old 
 woman, Sir Hugh Evans exclaims, ' I spy a great peard 
 under his muffler.' (Merry Wives, iv. 2.) 
 
 What our translators intended by the ' tablets ' in 
 this passage may be doubtful. The margin gives as 
 the rendering of the Hebrew, ' houses of the soul,' and 
 the articles meant appear to have been ' scent boxes.' 
 But if ' tablet ' here causes some obscurity, it might 
 have removed some, had it been employed in another 
 text. (S. Luke, i. 63.) The ' writing-table ' for which 
 Zacharias asked was not what we should now under- 
 stand by that term, but a ' tablet ' covered with wax, 
 on which it was customary to write with a sharp 
 pointed instrument called a style. (See also 2 Cor. 
 iii. 3.) In Every Man out of His Humour (ii. 2), 
 Jonson addressing the critics says, ' Let them know 
 the author defies them and their writing-tables.' ' A 
 pair of tables,' meaning a pocket-book, is a frequent 
 expression. 
 
 ' The changeable suits of apparel ' may be noted 
 here on account of the peculiar sense of ' changeable,' 
 which commonly denotes fickle, but in this place ' to 
 be changed,' and therefore fine or sumptuous ; the 
 gala dresses being taken off when the occasion for
 
 230 Bible English. 
 
 them was over, and plainer garments assumed. Bishop 
 Hall writes, ' Each one striues who shall lay the first 
 hand vpon that changeable cote, which was died with 
 their father's loue, and their enuy' (Contempl. oj 
 JosepK) ; though perhaps in this place the coat is 
 called changeable as being variegated, and of many 
 colours. 
 
 The ' wimple ' was a covering for the neck, and so 
 differed from the veil, which concealed the face. 
 Chaucer describes Shame as 
 
 ' Wearing a vaile in stede of wimple, 
 As normes done in hir abbey. 5 
 
 (Romaunt of the Rose, 3864.) 
 
 ' Wimple ' is also found as a verb, and means to 
 fold or be in folds. Una hid her face 
 
 ' Under a vele that wimpled was full low.' 
 
 (F. Queene, I. i. 4.) 
 
 And none could easily tell Nature's sex, 
 
 ' For with a veile that wimpled every where 
 Her head and face was hid that mote to none appeare.' 
 
 (Ib. VII. vii. 5.) 
 
 ' Kerchief/ the Scotch ' curch,' is obsolete as a term 
 for a head-dress. This, however, was its original sig- 
 nification, for it comes from the French couvre-chef, or 
 cover-head, and in this sense it is used in the only 
 passage in which it occurs in our Bible, ' Woe to the 
 women . . . that make kerchiefs upon the head of 
 every stature.' (Ezek. xiii. 18, 21.) Chaucer has 
 'keverchef' or ' coverchief,' as well as 'kerchef.' An 
 example of this last has been given above (p. 228) ;
 
 Napkin Latchet. 23 1 
 
 the former is mentioned as part of the attire of the 
 Wife of Bath. (Prologue, 455.) Another form of the 
 word is found in Sir T. More's Dialogue, as quoted in 
 a note to the Parker Society's edition of Tyndale. (iii. 
 124.) Among other relics of which he speaks 'were 
 certain small kercheors, which were named there our 
 lady's, and of her own working. Coarse were they not, 
 nor they were not large ; but served, as it seemed, to 
 cast in a plain and simple manner upon her head.' 
 Etymologically, then, the word in which 'kerchief 
 survives, viz. handkerchief, is not strictly correct, while 
 ' neckhandkerchief ' is a most amorphous compound. 
 
 What we now call a ' handkerchief is in the Bible 
 styled a 'napkin.' It is mentioned as the part of the 
 grave-clothes which bound the head. (S. John, xi. 44 ; 
 xx. 7.) 
 
 Bishop Hall satirises effeminate fops who 
 
 ' Tread on corked stilts a prisoner's pace, 
 And make their napkin for their spitting place.' 
 
 (Sat. IV. vi. 12.) 
 
 The ' latchet ' of the shoe (S. Mark, i. 7) is derived 
 from the Latin taqueus, a noose, and means anything 
 that catches. ' Latch ' is a verb as well as a noun. 
 Bishop Andrewes says that our Lord ' stepped between 
 the blow and us, and latched it in His own body and 
 soul, even the dint of the fierceness of the wrath of 
 God.' (ii. 150.) At present we only apply 'latch' 
 to the catch of a door or gate, but we speak of a 
 'shoe-lace/ and 'lace' is radically the same word. 
 ' Shoe-latchet ' is used in Gen. xiv. 23 to express that 
 which is smallest and most trifling ; ' I will not take
 
 232 Bible English. 
 
 from a thread even to a shoe-latchet.' Fuller says 
 that Sir W. Compton, though a great favourite with 
 Henry VIII., ' had not a shoe-latchet of Abbey land.' 
 (Ch. Hist. Dedic. to Bk. vi.) 'Lace' in the Bible 
 denotes a band. The engraved plate was to be put 
 'on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre.' 
 (Exod. xxviii. 37.) Surrey employs the term in ac- 
 cordance with its derivation, for ' snare : ' 
 
 ' And in my mind I measure pace by pace, 
 To seek the place where I myself had lost, 
 That day that I was tangled in the lace.' 
 
 (Restless State of a Lover.} 
 
 A ' scrip ' was a small wallet, so called, perhaps, 
 because it was designed to hold scraps, trifling articles 
 scraped off as it were from something larger. David 
 put the stones for his sling ' in a shepherd's bag which 
 he had, even in a scrip.' (i Sam. xvii. 40.) The 'scrip' 
 was part of the pilgrim's or traveller's equipage ; and 
 the disciples would naturally have provided themselves 
 with this, if our Lord had not expressly debarred them 
 from it (S. Matt. x. 10), though afterwards the prohibi- 
 tion was removed. (S. Luke, xxii. 36.) 'At Tours he 
 (Richard I.) took his pilgrime's scrip and staff from 
 the Archbishop.' (Fuller's Holy War, iii. 6.) 
 
 ' Ouches ' is often used as equivalent to jewels, e. g., 
 ' Your brooches, pearls, and ouches.' (2 Henry 7K, 
 ii. 4.) Nereus gave his grandson Marinell 'gold, 
 amber, yvorie, perles, owches, rings.' (Faerie Queene, 
 III. iv. 23.) Properly speaking, an 'ouch'* is the 
 setting or socket in which the jewel is placed, and in 
 this stricter sense it is used in our version : ' And
 
 Ouches Clouts. 
 
 233 
 
 thou shalt take two onyx stones, and . . . make them 
 to be set in ouches of gold.' (Exod. xxviii. 9, u.) 
 Bacon appears to class them with spangles in his 
 Essay of Masques and Triumphs : ' Ouches or spangs, 
 as they are of no great cost, so are they of most 
 glory.' ' Nowch ' was another form of the same word, 
 and is used in Chaucer ; it is connected with ' notch ' 
 and 'niche.' 
 
 To pass from jewels to rags ; a ' clout,' according 
 to the old derivation, was something that was cleft ; 
 Mr. Wedgwood, however, deduces it from the Dutch 
 klotsen, to strike ; thus it would be a swelling from a 
 blow, and so a patch. We still speak of a clout on 
 the head, and Howell writes, ' The late Queen of 
 Spain took off one of her chapines, and clowted 
 Olivares about the noddle with it.' (ii. 43.) In our 
 Bible, however, the word is only used in the sense of 
 patch or rag. In Jer. xxxviii. n, 12, we read of 'old 
 cast clouts and old rotten rags,' and the Gibeonites had 
 ' old shoes and clouted upon their feet.' Fuller says, 
 ' Babes of clouts (i. e. rag dolls) are good enough to 
 keep children from crying' (Holy War, iv. 17); and 
 Christopher Harvey writes, 
 
 ' Is not thy daughter glorious within, 
 
 When clothed in needlework without ? 
 Or is't not rather both their shame and sin 
 That change her robe into a clout, 
 Too narrow and 
 Too thin to stand 
 
 Her need in any stead, much less to be 
 An ornament fit for her high degree ?' 
 
 (Synagogue j The Churchwarden^
 
 234 Bible English. 
 
 The linen bands in which the limbs of new-born 
 infants were swathed were often called swaddling- 
 clouts or swathing- clouts. The word does not occur 
 in this shape in our Bible, but thick darkness is spoken 
 of as ' the swaddling band of the sea' (Job, xxxviii. 9) ; 
 and in Wisd. vii. 4, 5, we read, ' I was nursed in 
 swaddling clothes, and that with cares, for there is no 
 king that had any other beginning of birth.' In 'the 
 old Lectionary, by a curious coincidence, these words 
 occurred in the first lesson for Oct. 16, on which day 
 the second lesson was S. Luke, ii., telling us how when 
 the King of Heaven was born on earth as a little child, 
 His mother wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and 
 laid Him in a manger. The verb ' swaddle ' is found 
 in Lam. ii. 22:' Those that I have swaddled and 
 brought up hath mine enemy consumed ; ' see also 
 Ezek. xvi. 4. Herbert writes : 
 
 ' How soon doth man decay ! 
 When clothes are taken from a chest of sweets 
 To swaddle infants, whose young breath 
 
 Scarce knows the way ; 
 Those clouts are little winding-sheets, 
 Which do consign and send them unto death.' 
 
 (The Temple ; Mortification^ 
 
 In Ireland, Protestants, but especially Methodists, 
 are sometimes contemptuously called ' swaddlers ' by 
 the Romanists. Southey, in his Life of Wesley, vol. 
 ii., chap. 23, states that this arose on the occasion of 
 Cennick, a Wesleyan preacher, taking his text from 
 S. Luke, ii. 12. A Papist who was present thought 
 the word swaddling-clothes so ludicrous that he called
 
 Swaddle. 235 
 
 Cennick a ' swaddler ' in derision. This person, ii 
 indeed the story be true, must have been as little 
 familiar with the translation of his own Church as 
 with the Authorised Version. The Rheims Testament 
 has, ' You shall find the infant swadled in clothes.'
 
 236 Bible English. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF WORDS AND PHRASES ALTOGETHER OBSOLETE. 
 
 SOME few words there are not yet noticed, which are, 
 for the most part, altogether obsolete, although in 
 certain cases these offer no difficulty, inasmuch as 
 some different form of them still survives in ordinary 
 speech. 
 
 ' Delightsome' and 'submissly,' for instance, are 
 both antiquated, but no one would be in doubt as to 
 the meaning of such passages as ' Ye shall be a de- 
 lightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts' (Mai. iii. 12), 
 or, ' Till he hath received he will kiss a man's hand 
 and for his neighbour's money he will speak submissly.' 
 (Ecclus. xxix. 5.) Adams (I. 273) writes, ' If this 
 gentle physic make thee madder, He hath a dark 
 chamber to put thee in a dungeon is more lightsome 
 and delightsome the grave.' Milton makes Adam 
 say, 
 
 ' Rejoicing, but with awe, 
 
 In adoration at His feet I fell 
 
 Submiss.' (Par. Lost, viii. 316.) 
 
 The word is of frequent occurrence in Clarendon's
 
 Knop Tache. 237 
 
 History, e.g., ' Their (the Spaniards) submiss reverence 
 to their princes being a vital part of their religion.' 
 (Bk. i. p. 81.) 
 
 ' Knop' signifies a bud, and is so used in i Kings, 
 vi. 1 8, 'The cedar of the house within was carved 
 with knops and open flowers.' In this sense the term 
 occurs again and again in the Romaunt of the Rose; thus, 
 
 ' For brode roses and open also, 
 Ben passed in a day or two, 
 But knoppes will fresh bee 
 Two dayes at least or els three.' (1684.) 
 
 Like the French bouton, which signifies both bud 
 and button, ' knop ' also denotes any excrescence, as, 
 for instance, a boss (i Kings, vii. 24), or, in the form 
 ' knap,' a hill. ' You shall see many fine seats set 
 upon a knap of ground, environed with higher hills 
 round about it.' (Bacon, Essay of Building^) ' Knob ' 
 is still in common use. In two places (Amos, ix. i, 
 and Zeph. ii. 14), ' knop ' or ' chapiter' is given in the 
 margin for ' lintel and ' upper lintel,' which are in the 
 respective texts; the thing meant being a boss, or orna- 
 ment, on the top. 
 
 We ' tack' things together with a needle and thread, 
 or nail them with tintacks, but the form ' tache ' is ob- 
 solete, and never seems to have been common. 'Thou 
 shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches 
 into the loops, and couple the tent together that it 
 may be one.' (Exod. xxvi. n.) Mr. Halliwell quotes 
 from Palsgrave's Acolastus. of the date 1540, ' Wylt 
 thou have a buckle of golde, or a golden pynne, suche 
 as in olde tyme women used to fasten their upper
 
 Bible English. 
 
 garment with on the left shoulder ? Stephanus calleth 
 it a tache, or a claspe.' 
 
 Those who are not aware that ' ear ' is an old 
 English word meaning to 'plough,' would find it 
 difficult to understand such texts as, 'There shall 
 neither be earing nor harvest ' (Gen. xlv. 6) ; ' a rough 
 valley which is neither eared nor sown ' (Deut. xxi. 4) ; 
 ' the young asses that ear the ground.' (Isa. xxx. 24.) 
 That which is ' eared ' is still called earth, and land 
 fitted for plough-husbandry is styled arable, or earable. 
 Calf hill, in his answer to Martiall (p. 177), writes, 
 ' He maketh many mysteries of the Cross : as the 
 hoised sail, the earing plough, the blowing winds from 
 each quarter of the earth, the lifted up hands of the 
 faithful people : and every one of these, according to 
 Ambrose his allegation, is a very Cross.' Shakespeare 
 also, dedicating his sonnets to the Earl of Southampton, 
 says, that if they fail, he will 'never after ear so barren 
 a land, for fear it yield me still so bad an harvest.' 
 
 ' Garner,' though perhaps it can scarcely be called 
 obsolete, is rarely employed in ordinary speech, in 
 which ' barn ' has quite taken its place. Though the 
 two words may be used interchangeably, they yet 
 attain to a common meaning from different points. A 
 barn denotes the security of the place in which the 
 crops are 'barred' (if, at least, we accept Home 
 Tooke's etymology), while 'garner,' or 'graner,' 
 relates to that which is thus protected, viz., the grain. 
 We still have 'granary.' Adams, inveighing against 
 those who created an artificial scarcity by hoarding 
 corn in order to enhance its price, says, ' The Lord 
 sends grain, and the devil sends garners.' (I. 87.)
 
 Cockle Dredge. 239 
 
 We may remark in passing, that ' corn ' is no longer 
 applied to a single grain, as in S. John, xii. 24, 
 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the. ground.' So 
 Hutchinson, ' The loaf of which we eat was made of 
 many corns of wheat' (p. 37) ; and Jewel, ' S. Cyprian 
 and S. Augustine say the Sacrament is wrought of 
 many corns.' (I. 520.) The word was not confined 
 to wheat or grain. Bishop Hall observes, ' The least 
 corne of sand is not so small to the whole earth as 
 man is to the Heaven.' (Cent, of Man.} 
 
 1 Cockle,' the name of the weed which grows in 
 corn, and chokes it, is perhaps unfamiliar in some parts 
 of the country ; it is also called the corn-campion, or, 
 botanically, agrostemma githago. ' Let thistles grow 
 instead of wheat, and cockle' (in the margin 'noisome 
 weeds ') 'instead of barley.' (Job, xxxi. 40.) Fuller, 
 speaking of celibacy, remarks, ' Some have made 
 Virginity the corn, and Marriage the cockle.' (Ch. 
 Hist. III. ii. 13.) 
 
 In the margin of Job, xxiv. 6, we have ' mingled 
 corn or dredge ; ' the word in the original is the same 
 as that which is rendered 'fodder' in Job, vi. 5, and 
 'provender' in Isa. xxx. 24. 'Dredge' was a mixture 
 of oats, vetches, and barley, which was sometimes sown 
 to provide food for cattle; it was also called 'bullimong.' 
 Adams says of certain inconsistent people, ' They are 
 full of farraginous and bullimong mixtures.' (I. 127.) 
 
 We read that in the plague of hail the flax was 
 smitten because it 'was boiled.' (Exod. ix. 31.) To 
 ' boll ' means to round, or to swell out, and the flax 
 was injured because it was so far ripened that its seed- 
 vessels had become filled out, whereas the wheat and
 
 240 Bible English. 
 
 the rye were not grown up. The word is found in 
 Shakespeare's Lucrece (1417), 
 
 ' Here one being throng'd bears back, all boll'n and red.' 
 
 And in Jonson's Sad Shepherd (I. i.) it appears in a 
 slightly different shape, 
 
 ' And hang the bulled nosegays 'bove their heads,' 
 
 /. e., as Whalley explains it, nosegays of flowers in full 
 bloom. The word itself is obsolete, but there are 
 many traces of it. The round vessel in which sugar, 
 &c., are placed is called a bowl; the 'ball,' or ' bowl,' 
 used in games is round ; the round trunk of a tree is 
 the ' bole ; ' the swollen wave is a ' billow ; ' and a 
 ' bullet,' or ' bollet,' as Spenser writes it, is from ' boll.' 
 So ' poll,' which is substantially the same word, 
 came to signify the head as being round. A poll at 
 an election is so called because the voters are numbered 
 by head, i. e., individually. (Compare Num. i. 2, 18, 
 22.) The poll-tax, which caused Wat Tyler's insurrec- 
 tion, was a charge on every person by head that was 
 above fifteen years of age. (Compare Num. iii. 47.) 
 To poll the head was to make it rounder by clipping the 
 hair; Absalom 'polled his head.' (2 Sam. xiv. 26.) 
 Latimer, condemning the way in which women laid 
 out their hair ' with tussocks and tufts,' says, ' If thou 
 wilt needs show thy hair, and have it seen, go and poll 
 thy head, or round it as men do.' (I. 254.) The 
 party term, 'roundhead,' was probably derived (though 
 another derivation has been given) from the Puritans 
 polling or rounding their heads, and dispensing with 
 the long locks affected by the Cavaliers. In legal
 
 Poll and Pill. 241 
 
 phraseology a ' deed poll ' is one the edges of which are 
 polled or shaven evenly, as distinguished from an in- 
 denture. A ' pollard ' is a tree whose top branches 
 have been polled. 
 
 From the fact that polling had this sense of cutting 
 and shaving, or perhaps from its being connected with 
 taxation, it was used also to denote exaction or extor- 
 tion ; but this signification of the term is not found in 
 our version. A very similar word is employed, but 
 one with a different etymology. To ' pill,' or ' peel,' is 
 to 'skin,' to take off the pellis ; at least, this is one 
 derivation ; another is from pilus, a hair, in which 
 case it would be stripping off the hair; a third, less 
 probable than either, is given in Richardson's 
 Dictionary. In Lev. xiii. 40, for ' The man whose 
 hair is fallen off his head,' the margin gives ' whose 
 head is pilled ; ' so Becon, in allusion to the tonsure, 
 calls Romish bishops 'pill-pates, I would say, pre- 
 lates.' (II. 315.) In our Bible the word is used for 
 the most part literally; 'Jacob pilled white strakes' 
 (Gen. xxx. 37); 'the whiteness pilled away from the 
 corners of his eyes' (Tobit, xi. 13); 'every shoulder 
 peeled' (Ezek. xxix. 18), /. e,, the skin was rubbed off 
 by the burdens which were carried thereon. In Isa. 
 xviii. 2, however, ' a people scattered and peeled ' is in- 
 tended (if that rendering be adopted, for another is 
 proposed in the margin), to signify a people dispersed 
 and despoiled, or stripped. ' Pilling and polling ' are 
 often joined together in old writers. Thus, Latimer, 
 ' Thou pillest, pollest, and miserably oppressest thy 
 brother.' (I. 107.) In the following sentence the same 
 writer plays upon the word ' pill,' using it first in the 
 
 R
 
 242 Bible English. 
 
 sense of 'strip,' and afterwards of 'rob.' 'Who can 
 pill pilgrimages from idolatry, and purge purgatory 
 from robbery, but he shall be in peril to come in sus- 
 picion of heresy with them, so that they may pill with 
 pilgrimage, and spoil with purgatory?' (II. 363.) 
 Elsewhere he uses the substantive ' pill ' for ' skin ; ' 
 ' I have ript the matter now to the pill.' (I. 117.) To 
 pill is no longer employed by us, but ' pilfer ' and 
 ' pillage ' remain. 
 
 ' To ramp ' is to ' leap,' as upon the prey. The 
 word does not occur in the Bible, but is found in the 
 Prayer-book translation of Ps. xxii. 13, 'a ramping 
 and a roaring lion,' where the Authorised Version has 
 N^yi^' ravening.' Both terms are obsolete now, though we 
 V keep 'rampant' and 'ravenous.' Bishop Hall asks, 
 ' Who that should see a strong lion ramping vpon an 
 vnarmed man would hope for his life and victory ? ' 
 (Contemp. Sampson 's Marriage.} Ravin is used both 
 as an active and neuter verb ; ' A roaring lion ravening 
 the prey' (Ezek. xxii. 25); 'Benjamin shall ravin as 
 a wolf.' (Gen. xlix. 27.) In Nahum, ii. 12 we have 
 ' ravin ' as a substantive, meaning ' prey.' Adams 
 complains of those who 'raven up vicarages' (II. 115), 
 and Spenser (F. Queen, I. xi. 12) describes the dragon 
 whose 
 
 ' Deepe devouring jawes 
 Wyde gaped, like the griesly mouth of hell, 
 Through which into his darke abysse all ravin fell.' 
 
 In his paraphase of Ps. Iv. the Earl of Surrey uses 
 the word to signify fierceness or destructiveness, 
 speaking
 
 Leasing Jangling. 243 
 
 ' Of those false wolves with coats which do their ravin 
 hide.' 
 
 'Leasing' and 'jangling' are two faults mentioned 
 in the Bible. The first of these words occurs twice in 
 our translation, the last only once. ' How long will 
 ye love vanity, and seek after leasing ?' ' Thou shalt 
 destroy them that speak leasing.' (Ps. iv. 2; v. 6.) 
 ' Some have turned aside unto vain jangling.' (i Tim. 
 i. 6.) ' Leasing ' means a lie ; thus Spenser (F. Queene, 
 I. vi. 48) 
 
 ' But that false pilgrim which that leasing told.' 
 
 And Adams, ' It seems the prophet had denounced 
 against Edom war; they deride his message as a leasing.' 
 (I. 305.) The word was clearly obsolescent, if not obso- 
 lete, in Fuller's time, as the following passage shows : 
 'Amongst the manysimoniacal Prelates that swarmed in 
 the land, Herbert, Bishop of Thetford, must not be for- 
 gotten; nicknamed (or fitnamed shall I say?) Losing, that 
 is, the Flatterer ; our old English word leasing for lying 
 retains some affinity thereunto, and at this day we call 
 an insinuating fellow a Glozing Companion.' (Ch. 
 Hist. III. i. 33.) Thanks to our Bible, or rather 
 perhaps to the Prayer-book version of the Psalms, 
 where ' leasing ' also occurs in the two places cited 
 above, that word is more familiar to us now than 
 ' glozing,' which Fuller names as in common use in 
 his day. 
 
 ' Jangling,' perhaps, conveys to us the idea of 
 quarrelling, and, indeed, was often so used, as by Puck 
 when, amused at the recriminations between Helena
 
 244 Bible English. 
 
 and Hermia and their lovers, he says, ' This their 
 jangling I esteem a sport.' (Mids. Night's Dream, iii. 
 2.) But originally 'jangling ' was only idle talk, such 
 as jongleurs, i.e., travelling minstrels or jesters, retailed; 
 and this is its meaning in the Epistle to Timothy. 
 Hutchinson, upholding the value of logic, says, ' I 
 think rather such as jangle against it to be void of all 
 reason, forasmuch as they speak against the art of 
 
 reason Many clatter and prate that Peter and 
 
 Paul never learnt logic.' (p. 28.) 'Jangling' is often 
 applied to the sound which bells make when irregularly 
 rung; e.g., 
 
 ' Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.' 
 (Hamlet, iii. I.) 
 
 ' Loud ringing changes all our bells hath marred, 
 
 Jangled they have, and jarred 
 So long, they're out of tune.' 
 
 (Harvey's Synagogue j The Sexton.} 
 
 { Runagate ' and ' vagabond ' have much the same 
 opprobrious meaning, both denoting a wanderer or a 
 fugitive, the latter being often associated with rogues, 
 while the former (a corruption of renegade, in the 
 French renegaf) is equally a term of reproach. It 
 only occurs in the Prayer-book version of Ps. Ixviii. 
 6, ' Letteth the runagates continue in scarceness,' 
 where the Bible (in which the word is not found) has 
 ' rebellious.' The Homily against Idleness (p. 570) says, 
 ' No idle vagabonds and loitering runagates should 
 be suffered to go from town to town.' Fuller, after 
 remarking that the Ephraimites ' gave the Gileadites 
 reproachfull language, calling them Runnagates ' (in
 
 Runagate Bray. 245 
 
 our translation, ' fugitives,' Judges, xii. 4), adds, in 
 reference to Jephthah's victory over them, ' How 
 willingly would those who called others Runnagates 
 have been now Runnaways themselves.' (Pisgah, II. ii. 
 20.) 'A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the 
 earth' (Gen. iv. 12), is rendered by Tyndale 'A vaga- 
 bond and a runagate shalt thou be upon the erth.' The 
 term, indeed, is constantly used in regard to Cain; 
 thus Raleigh, ' As Cain after that he had slain Abel 
 unjustly, had thenceforth no certain abiding in the 
 world, so the Jews after they had crucified the Son of 
 God, became Runagates.' (Hist, of the World, I. v. 2.) 
 Latimer also styles the Jews 'runagates.' (i. 130.) 
 Adams says of some, ' They may boast themselves of 
 the brood of Cain, for they be perpetual runagates ' 
 (i. 1 8) ; and again, ' The devil is no idle spirit, but a 
 walker ; a vagrant runagate walker like Cain, that 
 cannot rest in a place' (II. 45), and elsewhere he 
 speaks of 'runagates, renegades, that will not be ranged 
 (like wandering planets) within the sphere of obedience.' 
 
 (II- 233.) 
 
 In Prov. xxvii. 22, we are warned that the strongest 
 measures will not make a fool wise. ' Though thou 
 shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a 
 pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.' 
 To 'bray' is to break or bruise. Sir Epicure Mammon 
 says of Subtle, 
 
 ' Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument, 
 He'll bray you in a mortar.' 
 
 To which Surly replies,
 
 246 Bible English. 
 
 ' Rather than I'll be brayed, sir, I'll believe 
 That alchemy is a pretty kind of game.' 
 
 (Alchemist, ii. i.) 
 
 Bishop Hall's metaphrase of Ps. ii. 8, 9, runs, 
 
 ' All nations to thy rightfull sway 
 
 I will subject from furthest end 
 Of all the world, and thou shalt bray 
 
 Those stubborne foes that will not bend.' 
 
 The ' braying ' of a donkey is perhaps so called 
 from the animal's ' breaking ' out into a loud, harsh 
 sound. 
 
 In Jonson's fox, I. i., Volpone, determining to 
 take his ease, and eat, drink, and be merry, says, 
 
 ' What shall I do 
 
 But cocker up my genius, and live free 
 To all delights my fortune calls me to ?' 
 
 To 'cocker' is to pamper or spoil, and is frequently 
 used of injudicious indulgence shown to children, as 
 in Ecclus. xxx. 9, 'Cocker thy child and he shall make 
 thee afraid.' Fuller mentions that the bishopric of 
 ^Ely was founded by Henry L, 'and his successors 
 cockering this See for their Darling, conferred some 
 of their own Royalties thereon.' (Ch. Hist. III. ii. 24.) 
 And in the dedication of the seventh book of that 
 work to the Lord Hereford, he writes, ' Your discreet 
 Parents, though kinde, were not cockering unto you ; ' 
 and once more, ' Grindal, living and dying sole and 
 single, could not be cockering to his own children; 
 but as a Father of the Church, he is accused for too 
 much conniving at the factious disturbers thereof.' (IX.
 
 Trow Ween. 247 
 
 v. 10.) The word may perhaps have some connexion 
 with ' cook,' and refer primarily to pampering the 
 appetite. 
 
 ' Trow ' and 'ween' are words of very similar mean- 
 ing, each signifying to ' think ' or ' suppose,' but usually 
 conveying also the idea of greater or less certainty. 
 Neither of them occurs more than once in our Version. 
 ' Doth he thank that servant because he did the things 
 that were commanded him ? I trow not.' (S. Luke, 
 xvii. 9.) 'Weening in his pride to make the land 
 navigable.' (2 Mace. v. 21.) Both terms, however, are 
 extremely common. ' Trow ' was often used with the 
 pronoun understood ; e. g., ' Was it a tragedy or a 
 passion, trow ? A passion it was, yet by their be- 
 haviour it might seem a May-game.' (Andrewes, II. 
 173.) ' Troth ' is another form of 'truth,' and is found 
 in the Marriage Service : ' Thereto I give thee my 
 troth.' The two following lines from the Faerie Queene 
 (II. i. u) illustrate both 'ween' and 'troth,' 
 
 ' None but that saw (quoth he) would weene for troth 
 How shamefully that Mayd he did torment.' 
 
 iVn 
 
 'Champaign,' as designating a flat or plain country, 
 is obsolete, but it is met with in Deut. xi. 30, ' which 
 dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal,' and in the 
 margin of Ezek. xxxvii. 2, where it is given as an alter- 
 native for 'valley.' The precise form, ' champaign,' 
 indeed, is not in the edition of 1611, for in the former 
 of these passages it is ' champion,' and in the latter 
 ' champian.' In Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy we 
 find, ' If thou vouchsafe to regard this treatise, it shall 
 seem no otherwise to thee than the way to an ordinarie
 
 248 Bible English. 
 
 Traveller, sometimes fair, sometimes foule, here cham- 
 pion, there inclosed' (Democritus to the Reader,^. 13), 
 and Bishop Hall writes, 
 
 ' When as the neighbour-lands so couched lain 
 That all bore show of one fair champian. 5 
 
 (Sat. v., iii. 41.) 
 
 Fuller, in the Holy State (p. 189), speaks of all 
 offices being made ' champion for their profits ' with 
 each other ; i. e., of equal emolument. 
 
 Job (ix. 33) exclaims, 'He is not a man as I am 
 that I should answer Him, and we should come to- 
 gether in judgement; neither is there any daysman 
 (in the margin, umpire), that might lay his hand upon 
 us both.' ' Daysman ' is one that fixes the day as for 
 arbitration or hearing a cause. In i Cor. iv. 3, ' man's 
 judgment' is in the original 'man's day/ and is so 
 rendered in the translations of Wiclif, Tyndale, and 
 Rheims. Jewel, in the Preface to the Defence of his 
 Apology, quotes Harding as saying, ' Our doctrine 
 hath been too long approved to be put in daying in 
 these days' (III. 121), i. e., to be put on its trial. 
 ' Daysman ' is not of very frequent occurrence. 
 Spenser writes, 
 
 ' For what art thou, 
 
 That mak'st thyselfe his dayes-man to prolong 
 The vengeaunce prest?' 
 
 (F. Queene, II. viii. 28.) 
 
 And Burton says, ' In Switzerland (we are informed 
 by Simlerus) they had some common arbitrators or 
 dayesmen in every towne, that made a friendly com- 
 position betwixt man and man.' (Democritus to the
 
 Daysman Day-spring. 249 
 
 Reader, p. 50.) Dr. Hammond also in the preface to 
 his Defence of Lord Falkland's Discourse on the Infalli- 
 bility of the Church of Rome, observes, ' If there were 
 but one wish offered to each man among us, it would 
 certainly, with a full consent, be laid out on this one 
 treasure, the setting up some Catholicke Vmpire or 
 daies-man, some visible infallible definer of controver- 
 sies.' Two other words of which ' day ' forms a part 
 may be mentioned here as not in common use, though 
 they offer no difficulty, viz., 'day-star' and 'day- 
 spring.' ' Until the day dawn, and the day-star arise 
 in your hearts.' (2 S. Peter, i. 19.) We usually call 
 it the ' morning-star.' Milton has the expression in 
 the well-known lines, 
 
 ' So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, 
 And yet anon repairs his drooping head. 
 
 (Lycidas, 168.) 
 
 ' Day-spring ' is of course the ' dawn.' ' Hast thou 
 commanded the morning since thy days ; and caused 
 the day-spring to know his place? ' (Job, xxxviii. 12.) 
 ' The day-spring from on high hath visited us.' 
 (S. Luke, i. 78.) Virtually the same expression in a 
 somewhat different shape occurs in Judg. xix. 25, 
 ' When the day began to spring, they let her go ;' and 
 in i Sam. ix. 26, 'It came to pass about the spring of 
 the day.' The captive Samson rejoices in 
 
 ' The breath of heaven fresh blowing, pure and sweet, 
 With dayspring born.' (Sams. Ag. n.) 
 
 In Gen. xxxii. 24, the margin gives ' ascending of 
 the morning ' for ' breaking of the day/ and in Ps. Ixv.
 
 250 Bible English. 
 
 8, the East and the West are called ' the out- goings of 
 the morning and evening.' 
 
 We are not now concerned with the names of coins 
 which are not English words, but Hebrew or Greek, 
 as the shekel, the talent, &c., but two terms connected 
 with money may be noticed. ' Silverling ' is a piece 
 of silver. ' Where there were a thousand vines at a 
 thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and 
 thorns.' (Isa. vii. 23.) Barabas, in Marlowe's Jew 
 of Malta (i. i), says, 'Here have I purst their paltry 
 silverlings;' and Adams writes, 'Judas had rather lose 
 his soul than his purse ; and for thirty silverlings he 
 sells his Master to the Pharisees, and himself to the 
 devil.' (i. 20 1.) 
 
 ' Mite,' like silverling, does not seem to be the name 
 of a particular coin, but is used to denote a very small 
 piece of money. It is a contraction of ' minute.' 
 Wiclif translates S. Mark, xii. 42, ' Sche cast two 
 mynutis that is a ferthing,' though in the corresponding 
 passage, S. Luke, xxi. 2, he puts ' twei ferthingis.' 
 Becon too says, ' If we be not able with the rich men 
 to cast great abundance of goods into the treasure- 
 house, yet let us with the poor widow of the gospel at 
 the least give two minutes, and God will surely ap- 
 prove and accept our good will.' (i. 194.) So brief 
 portions of time, and short memoranda of what passes 
 at a meeting are called ' minutes.' The word ' mite ' 
 is chiefly remarkable for the curious way in which it is 
 often employed now by some who seem to think that 
 the widow was commended because her offering was 
 absolutely so small, not because it was relatively so 
 large. If we have regard to the origin of the expres-
 
 Names of A nimals, 251 
 
 sion, it argues more of presumption than humility to 
 call any gift, however liberal (unless it were our all), 
 a ' mite,' while the frequent use of the term to excuse 
 some shabby offering which costs the donor nothing, 
 is a remarkable example of the serene unconsciousness 
 with which persons will sometimes pass the most bitter 
 sarcasms upon themselves. 
 
 Three or four names, no longer in common use, 
 and denoting animals of different kinds, may be men- 
 tioned. Among the unclean birds in Lev. xi. and 
 Deut. xiv. are the ' ossifrage ' and the ' gier-eagle,' and 
 in the latter chapter the ' glede ' also. The ' ossifrage ' 
 is a bird of prey belonging to the falconidce. Its 
 name, derived from the Latin, signifies the ' bone- 
 breaker,' in allusion to its powerful beak. ' Ospray ' 
 is another form of the same word, though distinguished 
 from it in the passages cited above. It would, how- 
 ever, be foreign to our subject to enter into a minute 
 inquiry as to the precise birds indicated. The ' gier- 
 eagle ' is a sort of vulture (vulture in German is geier). 
 The same prefix was applied to a species of falcon. 
 Sir T. Browne speaks of ' the gier-falcon, which is the 
 noble hawk.' (Tract v. on Hawks and Falconry.} 
 The word is now usually written ger-falcon. ' Glede ' 
 is an old term for 'kite,' which was so called on 
 account of its gliding motion, and remarkably easy 
 flight. In Scott's Abbot (chap. 4), the falconer, after 
 laying down some points in the nature of hawks, adds, 
 ' And so knows every one who knows a gled from a 
 falcon.' 
 
 In Job, xli. i, our translators have adopted the 
 Hebrew word 'leviathan' into the text, but they
 
 252 Bible English. 
 
 explain it in the margin, ' That is, a whale or a whirl- 
 pool.' A ' whirlpool ' is now used by us of an eddying 
 water, but it formerly signified the great fish (some 
 species of whale) whicli whirled the pool, no less than 
 the pool that whirled the fish. Spenser, in the list of 
 sea-monsters, reckons, 
 
 ' Great whirlpooles which all fishes make to flee.' 
 (F. Queene, II. xii. 23.) 
 
 ' Cockatrice ' is given in the margin for ' adder ' in 
 the text of Prov. xxiii. 3 2 ; on the other hand, it appears 
 in the text, and ' adder ' in the margin of Isa. xi. 8 ; 
 xiv. 29; lix. 5 ; it is only in Jer. viii. 17 that it is 
 found alone. Our translators, therefore, clearly re- 
 garded the words as interchangeable. ' Cockatrice ' is 
 a corruption of ' crocodile ;' an old form of which word 
 is ' cockodrill ' or ' cockedrill.' Sir J. Maundeville 
 (chap. 1 8) writes, ' Cockodrills are serpents, yellow and 
 rayed above, having four feet, and short thighs, and 
 great nails like claws.' Cockatrices were the subject 
 of much fable, and were said to be produced from eggs 
 laid by an adder and hatched by a cock; a story 
 evidently invented to account for the name ; even as 
 in the same way a legend arose about the crocodile 
 itself that it was afraid of saffron. The ' cockatrice ' 
 is often employed as synonymous with the basilisk, 
 which was said to convey death in its baleful glance. 
 Thus Shakespeare, 
 
 ' Here with a cockatrice' dead-killing eye, 
 He rouseth up himself and makes a pause.' 
 
 (Lv.crece, 540.)
 
 Chanel Bone. 253 
 
 It is constantly used by writers to designate a danger- 
 ous person, especially a woman of bad character ; the 
 apparently feminine termination, perhaps, causing the 
 word to be chiefly applied to that sex, but not in- 
 variably. Richard III.'s mother, horrified at her son's 
 wickedness, protests that she has hatched a cockatrice. 
 (Richard III. iv. i.) 
 
 ' Chanel bone ' occurs in the margin of Job, xxxi. 
 22, where the text has the simple word 'bone.' The 
 term denotes what we usually call the ' collar-bone.' 
 In the second part of Marlowe's Tamburlaine (i. 3) 
 one of the characters says : 
 
 ' If any man will hold him, I will strike, 
 And cleave him to the channel with my sword.' 
 
 'Jaw-teeth' (Prov. xxx. 14), 'grinders' (Ecclus. 
 xii. 3), and 'cheek-teeth' (Joel, i. 6), all mean the 
 molar teeth. The first two words also o.ccur in the 
 margin of Job, xxix. 17. Bishop Hall writes : 
 
 ' Her grinders like two chalk-stones in a mill.' 
 
 (Sat. vi., i. 287.) 
 
 and Fuller, ' We read that all those who were born in 
 England the year after the beginning of the great mor- 
 tality, 1349, wanted their four cheek-teeth.' (Holy 
 State, p. 125.) 
 
 In Ezek. xl. 43, for ' hooks ' the margin gives a 
 choice of two other renderings, viz., ' endirons, or the 
 two hearthstones.' The common form of the first of 
 these words is ' andirons.' They were iron bars across 
 the fireplace whereon the logs were burnt ; they had 
 also rests at either end to sustain the wood, and these
 
 254 Bible English. 
 
 were often elaborately ornamented ; a dog's head 
 seems to have been a favourite device, and ' andirons ' 
 are frequently called ' dogs.' The word has become ob- 
 splete, together with the thing that it signified, though 
 XMr. Wedgewood/ says that in modern English the 
 moveable fire-irons are called andirons. I have never 
 heard them so styled. ''The term is found two or 
 three times in Jonson's Alchemist, the dupes sending 
 their ' jacks and andirons ' to be transmuted into gold, 
 lachimo describing the furniture of Imogen's chamber 
 says, 
 
 ' Her andirons 
 
 I had forgot them were two winking Cupids 
 Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely 
 Depending on their brands. (Cymb. ii. 4.) 
 
 And Sir W. Scott, in Woodstock (chap. 3), writes, ' On 
 these occasions it was the tradition of the house, that 
 two cart-loads of wood was the regular allowance for 
 the fire between noon and curfew, and the andirons, 
 or dogs as they were termed, constructed for retaining 
 the blazing firewood on the hearth, were wrought in 
 the shape of lions of such gigantic size as might well 
 warrant the legend.' 
 
 We 'mete' out justice, but we do not 'mete' 
 cloth or corn ; the word, that is, is no longer employed 
 in its literal sense as in Exod. xvi. 18, where we are 
 told how the Israelites meted the manna with an 
 omer. Fuller, noticing a command to measure a 
 thousand cubits (Num. xxxv. 4), observes, 'Say not 
 this was a long and tedious work to mete by so small 
 a measure.' (Pisgah, I. xiii. 3.) ' Meteyard,' how-
 
 Servitor Undersetter. 255 
 
 ever, the instrument used in ' meting,' is still more 
 antiquated. ' Ye shall do no unrighteousness in 
 judgement, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.' 
 (Lev. xix. 35.) So Tyndale : 'Nay, say they, the 
 scripture is so hard that thou couldst never understand 
 it but by the doctors. That is, I must measure the 
 meteyard by the cloth. Here be twenty cloths of 
 divers lengths and of divers breadths : how shall I be 
 sure of the length of the meteyard by them ? I suppose 
 rather I must be first sure of the length of the mete- 
 yard, and thereby measure and judge of the cloths.' 
 
 (i- I53-) 
 
 We read of Elisha's 'servitor.' (2 Kings, iv. 43.) 
 This has given way to ' servant,' which indeed is the 
 translation of the Hebrew word in several places, e. g. 
 Num. xi. 28. There were a class of students at 
 Oxford called by this name, who paid much less than 
 others, but had to perform certain humble offices. 
 These last had long lost much of the menial nature 
 that once belonged to them, and in recent years the 
 name ' servitor ' has been abolished. Hooker calls 
 Nature God's 'servitor.' (Ecc. Pol. I. iii. 4.) 
 
 ' Undersetters,' /. e. props, is found in i Kings, vii. 
 30, 34. Bishop Andre wes says that David ' to make 
 the land strong falleth to underset the pillars' (ii. 13); 
 and Tyndale (ii. 208) speaks of the blessings which 
 result ' if our souls be truly underset with sure hope 
 and trust.' We are never said to ' underset ' things 
 now ; the age both in language and practice is more 
 accustomed to ' oversetting ' them. 
 
 Two feminine forms, not in present use, are found 
 in the marginal renderings ; ' exactress of gold ' (Isa.
 
 256 Bible English. 
 
 xiv. 4) for 'golden city,' and ' inhabitress' (Jer. x. 17) 
 for ' inhabitant.' Such forms were once more common 
 than they are now. Fuller calls Sherah (i Chron. vii. 
 24) ' the greatest buildress in the whole Bible,' and 
 Huldah (2 Kings, xxii. 14) ' presidentress ' of her 
 college, and Athaliah, ' an idolatrous intrudress.' 
 (Pisgah, II. ix. 8, III., pt. i, x. i, and III., pt. 2. x. 
 12.) S. Hilda is also styled by him ' moderatresse ' of 
 the Council of Streanch-Hall, or Whitby (Ch. Hist. 
 II. ii. 90), and in the Holy War (I. 4) he says of the 
 Empress Helena, ' Because she visited the stable and 
 manger of our Saviour's nativitie, Jews and Pagans 
 slander her to have been stabularia, an ostleresse, or a 
 she-stable-groom.' ' Ostleress ' is found in Mr. Tenny- 
 son's Princess. In the first part of Marlowe's Tam- 
 burlaine (iii. 3) Zenocrate calls the Turkish empress 
 ' disdainful Turkess.' 
 
 ' Wretchlessness ' in the i yth Article is perhaps 
 regarded by many as having something to do with 
 ' wretchedness,' but it would be more correctly written 
 ' rechlessness,' i.e. recklessness. In Piers Plowman 
 (Passus vi. 122) we read, 'the deuel haue that 
 reccheth,' /. e. the devil take him that cares. Arch- 
 bishop Sandys says, ' It farethwith the word preached 
 as with the seed sown. Some are so dissolute and 
 retchless that they let it in at the one ear and out at 
 the other.' (P. 300.) The same epithets are joined 
 together in the translation of Jewel's Apology (iii. 
 55) :' For men to be careless what is spoken by them 
 and their own matter, be it never so falsely and slan- 
 derously spoken, ... is the part doubtless of dissolute 
 and wretchless persons.' And Bishop Sanderson asks,
 
 Greek and Latin Words. 257 
 
 'What hope is there, then, as to human endeavours 
 and the use of ordinary means, to reclaim such men 
 from the pursuit of their vicious lusts, as are once 
 grown retchless in their good names ? ' And again, 
 ' He that is retchless of his own honour, there is no 
 great fear that he will be over careful of doing his 
 neighbour right in giving him his.' (i. 23, 62.) 
 
 ' Publican,' in the sense of ' tax-gatherer,' one who 
 paid into the treasury or publicum (S. Luke, iii. 12, 
 &c.), and ' quaternion' (Acts, xii. 4), 'a party of four,' 
 are Latin rather than English words, while ' tetrarch/ 
 the ruler of the fourth part of a kingdom, and after- 
 wards designating any petty prince (S. Luke, iii. i, 19, 
 &c.), is a Greek term, though employed by the Romans 
 also. None of them have been really naturalised in 
 our language, though instances of their use may be 
 found. Thus Shylock sneers at Antonio as a ' fawning 
 publican.' (Mer. of Venice, i. 3.) Adam and Eve 
 apostrophise the elements as 
 
 * The eldest birth 
 
 Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run 
 Perpetual circle multiform.' (Par. Lost, v. 181.) 
 
 and Jonson makes Catiline, inveighing against the 
 authorities at Rome, say 
 
 ' All the earth, 
 Her kings and tetrarchs, are their tributaries.' 
 
 (Catiline, i. i.) 
 
 But it will be seen that two of these instances are 
 scarcely examples of English usage, ' publican ' being 
 placed by the dramatist in the mouth of a Jew, and 
 * tetrarch ' in that of a Roman. The latter passage, 
 
 s
 
 258 Bible English. 
 
 indeed, is taken almost literally from Sallust (cap. xx.), 
 'semper illis reges, tetrarchcz vectigales esse.' Fuller, 
 however, has all three expressions. He states that 
 Polydore Virgil was brought over into England ' to be 
 the pope's publicane or collectour ' of Peter's pence ; 
 and again he relates that in the reign of Henry I., 
 ' the late king's extorting publicanes (whereof Ranulf 
 Flambard, Bishop of Durham, the principal) were 
 closely imprisoned.' (Ch. Hist. II. iii. 13 ; III. i. 41.) 
 ' Quaternion ' is a somewhat favourite word with him ; 
 it is found six times (at least) in the Church History. 
 In the Holy War (iv. 15) he styles the Earl of Artois 
 one of a ' princely quaternion of brothers,' and in the 
 Pisgak Sight (III. pt. 2, vii. 4) he refers to ' the 
 quaternion of evangelists.' (Bishop Hall speaks of 
 angels being disposed ' into ternions of three hierar- 
 chies.' (Inv. World, i. 7.) Again in the Holy War, 
 Fuller writes of an army, ' the tetrarchs, whereof were 
 Baldwine, Earl of Flanders, Dandalo, the Venetian 
 Duke, Theobald, Earl of Champaigne, Boniface, 
 Marquesse of Montserrat, with many other Nobles.' 
 (iii. 17.) And in another place he styles fire 'one of 
 the tetrarch elements.' (Holy State, p. 169.) 
 
 Our subject does not involve any detailed consider- 
 ation of difficulties connected with proper names. No 
 doubt, in the minds of the unlearned misconceptions 
 arise, from the fact that these which in the Old Tes- 
 tament are given in their Hebrew form are found in 
 the New Testament in their Greek dress. Marry 
 would be quicker to understand that Elias, who 
 appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, was he 
 who witnessed for God against Ahab and Jezebel, and
 
 Proper Names. 259 
 
 the Baal-worship fostered by them, if he had been 
 called Elijah in the Evangelists as well as in the book 
 of Kings. Nor would a child perhaps in our schools 
 be so ready in finding the text which is quoted from 
 ' Osee ' (Rom. ix. 25) as he would if it had been cited 
 as from Hosea. It may even be (since the Anglo- 
 Greek form corresponds in letters, though not in pro- 
 nunciation, with the abbreviation of an English female 
 name) that here and there one may have imagined 
 that we were told who Saul's mother was when that 
 King is described as 'the son of Cis' (Acts, xiii. 21); 
 while when any one reads of the ' gainsaying of Core' 
 (Jude, n), and pronounces the schismatic's name as 
 though it were the inmost part of an apple, it is 
 tolerably certain that he is quite unconscious of any 
 reference to what is recorded in Num. xvi. The worst 
 examples of confusion arising from this source are to 
 be found in Acts, vii. 45, Heb. iv. 14, where 'Jesus ' 
 stands for ' Joshua.' In these last instances the error 
 likely to ensue is so evident that probably most cler- 
 gymen in reading the chapters in church take the 
 liberty of substituting the marginal 'Joshua' for that 
 name which is surrounded for us with such specially 
 sacred associations. Where this has not been done it 
 frequently happens that the bowing of the head on the 
 part of some of the congregation shows how little they 
 have apprehended the meaning of the passage. 
 
 There are two appellatives, however, one of a 
 country, the other of a people, which differ somewhat 
 from those already mentioned. ' Palestine ' is often 
 used by us as another name for the Holy Land, or 
 even for Judaea alone ; but in old writers it means, as
 
 260 Bible English. 
 
 the word implies, the country of the Philistines. So 
 in our version the same Hebrew term is rendered 
 'Palestina' and 'Philistia' indifferently, (e. g. Isa. 
 xiv. 29, 31, Ps. Ix. 8.) Some interesting remarks on 
 this subject, and on Shakespeare's and Milton's usage 
 in regard to the word, will be found in Mr. Grove's 
 article on Palestine, in Smith's Bible Dictionary. 
 Mr. Grove, however, is mistaken, as the following 
 passage will show, in saying that Fuller, in his Pisgah 
 Sight of Palestine, says nothing whatever of the signifi- 
 cation of the name : ' Such their [the Philistines] 
 puissance that from them the Greeks and Latines 
 called all this land Palastina, because the Philistines 
 lived on the sea-coast, most obvious to the notice of 
 foreigners.' (II. x. 23.) 
 
 The ' Morians ' are mentioned twice in the Prayer- 
 book translation of the Psalms (Ixviii. 31 ; Ixxxvii. 4). 
 Their land is designated ^Ethiopia in the authorised 
 version of these passages. Adams asks, ' Can we be 
 born Morians without their black skins ?' (i. 257.) And 
 Bishop Hall, satirizing an effeminate youth, says that 
 his manners are 
 
 ' All soft as is the falling thistle-down, 
 Soft as the fumy ball or Morrian's crown ;' 
 
 (Sat. iv., iv. 75.) 
 
 i. e. as the negro's woolly head. Bishop Pilkington in 
 one place (p. 638) styles the Romish author whom he 
 is answering 'a wicked Morian,' but whether he means, 
 as the expression has been interpreted, that his adver- 
 sary was a follower of Sir T. More, who had then been 
 dead more than thirty years, or whether he is merely
 
 Phrases. 261 
 
 calling names, as too many controversialists on both 
 sides did at that period, and wishes to stigmatise his 
 opponent as a ' nigger,' is, I think, doubtful. Possibly 
 he meant a play upon the word, intending his readers 
 to take it in either signification or in both. 
 
 It only remains to notice a few phrases in the 
 Bible which are either obsolete, or in any other way 
 differ from our present use ; for in fact some of these 
 which have an unfamiliar sound to the ordinary reader 
 are not archaisms, but foreign idioms derived from the 
 Hebrew and Greek originals, or occasionally from the 
 Latin Vulgate. 
 
 In 2 Kings, iii. 1 1 , for instance, Elisha is designated 
 as he 'which poured water on the hands of Elijah,' i.e., 
 was his servant or minister, who performed this office 
 for his master after every meal. Our customs do not 
 in this respect coincide with that to which the text 
 refers, and which would still be perfectly familiar to 
 an Oriental. We may, however, compare the following 
 from the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew : 
 
 ' Let one attend him with a silver basin 
 Full of rose-water, and bestrewed with flowers, 
 Another bear the ewer, a third a diaper, 
 And say, Will't please your lordship wash your hands ?' 
 
 Again, to ' strike hands ' means to ' become surety.' 
 ' Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee ; who is 
 he that will strike hands with me?' (Job, xvii. 3.) 
 See also Prov. vi. i; xvii. 18; xxii. 26 the last of 
 which passages runs thus, ' Be not thou one of them 
 that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for 
 debts.' The form observed among the Jews was for
 
 262 Bible English. 
 
 the man who became security for another to strike the 
 hand of the creditor to whom he pledged himself. To 
 ' strike a bargain ' is a common English phrase, but 
 this comes from the Latin fadus ferire, and refers to the 
 Roman custom of striking a victim as a sacrifice in 
 token of the ratification of a solemn agreement. To 
 offer the hand, however, as a sign of good faith, is a 
 practice almost universal, and in the Marriage Service 
 the joining of hands is an essential part of the public 
 betrpthal. To ' strike the hand ' is used rather 
 peculiarly in 2 Kings, v. n, 'Behold, I thought, he 
 will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the 
 name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over 
 the place, and recover the leper.' The margin has 
 ' move up and down,' instead of ' strike ; ' nor are we 
 to understand that it was a blow that Naaman had 
 expected, but rather the healing touch. ' Stroke ' 
 would come nearer to the sense than ' strike.' 
 
 Another example of a Hebraism may be found in 
 the challenge which Amaziah sent to Jehoash (2 
 Kings, xiv. 8) : ' Come let us look one another in the 
 face,' or in other words,' ' Let us set our armies in 
 array against each other.' So we are told that Pharaoh- 
 nechoh slew Josiah at Megiddo, ' when he had seen 
 him,' /. e. had fought with him. (2 Kings, xxiii. 29.) 
 We ourselves speak of meeting an adversary face to 
 face, or of withstanding him to the face (Gal. ii. n); 
 and having regard to the etymology of the word, we 
 use a similar expression when we write of armies 
 confronting each other. 
 
 Some might suppose that when our Lord answered, 
 ' Thou hast said,' or ' Thou sayest ' (S. Matt. xxvi. 64 ;
 
 Phrases. 263 
 
 xxvii. u), no direct reply was given to the high-priest's 
 or Pilate's question ; the words, however, convey a 
 distinct affirmation. Bengel, in his comment on the 
 former of these texts, adduces illustrative examples of 
 this usage from Euripides and Xenophon. 
 
 There is a striking expression in the Prayer of 
 Manasses, ' Now then I bow the knee of my heart.' 
 This is rendered literally from the original Greek, but 
 Mr. Booker says that it is in common use in several 
 counties in Ireland. 
 
 In Acts, xxvii. 21, we meet with another translation 
 from the Greek which sounds somewhat strangely, ' Sirs, 
 ye should have hearkened to me, and not have loosed 
 from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss.' 
 The expression strikes one as paradoxical, like another 
 phrase which most of us have heard applied to an 
 invalid, 'he enjoys very bad health;' or like the fol- 
 lowing from Clarendon's History, where, speaking of 
 the animosity of many lawyers against the Church in 
 the time of the Long Parliament, he says that they were 
 'taking all opportunities, uncharitably, to improve 
 mistakes into crimes.' (Bk. iv. p. 425.) So also, but 
 in this case with a more designed and artificial play 
 upon the words, Valentine observes of love, 
 
 ' If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain ; 
 If lost, why then a grievous labour won.' 
 
 (Two Gent, of Verona, i. I.) 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth in his Commentary takes this 
 as the meaning of the text, and regards the apostle as 
 rebuking the crew with a gentle irony, as though he 
 would say, ' The gain or profit which you have ac-
 
 264 Bible English. 
 
 quired by taking your own course turns out to be a 
 gain of harm and loss.' There is, however, another 
 interpretation, which can be supported by classical 
 examples, viz., ' Ye should have hearkened unto me, 
 and so have gained over to your side, as it were, this 
 harm and loss,' /'. e. should have escaped it. Mr. 
 Wright quotes a note from the Geneva version which 
 shows that its authors took this last view ; ' That ye 
 should have saued the losse by auoyding the danger.' 
 
 In our own language a man would not be pronounced 
 'guilty of death.' (S. Matt. xxvi. 66.) The phrase is 
 a Latinism taken from the rendering in the Vulgate, 
 ' reus mortis? It signifies of course that he of whom 
 it is spoken has incurred the penalty of death. 
 
 ' He that curseth father or mother, let him die the 
 death' (S. Matt. xv. 4), i. e. be put to death. Shakes- 
 peare uses the expression more than once. Cloten, 
 for instance, says to Guiderius, 
 
 ' Die the death : 
 
 When I have slain thee with my proper hand, 
 I'll follow those that even now fled hence.' 
 
 (Cymbeline, iv. 2.) 
 
 Another phrase, signifying to die, and of frequent 
 occurrence in our Bible, is ' to give up the ghost,' or 
 ' to yield up the ghost' (Acts, v. 5, 10), the parting 
 between soul and body being thus expressed. At 
 present 'ghost' (except when joined with the adjective 
 ' holy,' and applied to the Third Person of the Blessed 
 Trinity) is usually employed of a disembodied spirit, 
 and no longer denotes the spiritual part of a living 
 man's nature. That the body desires many things
 
 Phrases. 265 
 
 hurtful to the soul is thus stated in the Vision of Piers 
 Plowman (Passus i. 36) : 
 
 ' It is naught al gode to the goste that the gutte axeth.' 
 
 So in the Catechism, ' ghostly dangers ' are spoken 
 of in contradistinction to those that are bodily, and 
 Satan is designated ' our ghostly enemy.' In like 
 manner, we often find the priest to whom the penitent 
 unburthens his soul called the ghostly father or coun- 
 sellor. Bishop Cosin, in a sermon at the consecration 
 of a bishop, says, ' We are about Christ's own work ; 
 which work is the solemn deriving of a sacred and 
 ghostly power upon the persons of the holy apostles, 
 for the use and benefit of Christ's Church ever after.' 
 (i. 87.) The same word in the Hebrew which is 
 translated 'soul' in Gen. xxxv. 18, is rendered 
 'breath' in Job, xli. 21, and 'dead body' in Num. 
 ix. 6, 7, 10 ; and 'ghost' also had all these meanings 
 in English. Bishop Andrewes uses it of breath : ' Ye 
 see then that it is worth the while to confess this [that 
 Jesus is the Lord], as it should be confessed. In this 
 wise none can do it but by the Holy Ghost. Other- 
 wise, for an ore tenus only, our own ghost will serve 
 well enough.' (ii. 340.) On the use of 'ghost' for 
 dead body see the note in Mr. Dyce's Glossary to 
 Shakespeare on the expression 'timely-parted ghost.' 
 (2 Hen. VI. iii. 2.) 
 
 We sometimes take offence, but we are not said, 
 like Sanballat, to 'take indignation' (Neh. iv. i), nor 
 is the expression ' have indignation ' now current. 
 (Zech. i. 12, Mai. i. 4, St. Matt. xxvi. 8.) In the 
 Morte (T Arthur we are told, ' There were some of the
 
 266 Bible English. 
 
 great lords had indignation Arthur should be their 
 king.' (Bk. i. chap. 4.) 
 
 Again, ' to have ' or ' to take knowledge ' are also 
 obsolete. We may, indeed, have great or little or 
 some knowledge of a subject, but we don't employ 
 the simple phrase ' to have knowledge,' for to know 
 or be informed, as in S. Matt. xiv. 35, ' When the men 
 of that place had knowledge of Him;' and in Acts, xvii. 
 13, 'When the Jews in Thessalonicahad knowledge that 
 the word of God was preached.' In Hen. VIII. (v. 3) 
 Gardiner, talking of the charge brought against Cranmer, 
 asks, ' Has he had knowledge of it ? ' 'To take knowledge ' 
 is of frequent occurrence, and signifies to know or to 
 take notice. The condescension of Boaz to Ruth is 
 described as taking knowledge of her ; ' Why have I 
 found grace in thine eyes that thou shouldest take 
 knowledge of me?' (Ruth, ii. 10, 19.) Hooker 
 asks, ' Shall we hereupon then conclude that we may 
 not take knowledge of or give credit unto anything 
 which sense and experience or report or art doth pro- 
 pose, unless we find the same in Scripture ? ' (Ecc. 
 Pol. ii. v. 4.) In Jonson's Every Man out of His 
 Humour (v. 5) one of the characters exclaims, 'Nay, 
 an I be not worthy to know whither you go, stay till I 
 take knowledge of your coming back ; ' and in the 
 Poetaster (v. i) Horace says, 'I take no knowledge 
 that they do malign me ; ' Tibullus replies., ' Ay, but 
 the world takes knowledge.' In the heading of Gen. 
 xxix. we read, ' He (Jacob) taketh acquaintance of 
 Rachel,' i. e. recognises her. So Fuller : ' Though I 
 dare not go out of the bounds of Canaan to give these 
 nations a visit at their own homes, yet finding them
 
 Phrases. 267 
 
 here within my precincts, it were incivility in me not 
 to take some acquaintance of them.' (Pisgah, II. v. 
 15.) In Jonson's Sejanus (ii. 2) a change of opinion 
 is thus expressed : 
 
 ' They then will lose their thoughts, and be ashamed 
 To take acquaintance of them.' 
 
 ' And from thence we fetched a compass, and came 
 to Rhegium.' This sentence, occurring as it does in 
 the description of a sea voyage, might possibly be mis- 
 understood by the very young or ignorant, and be taken 
 to refer to the nautical instrument which was not in- 
 vented for some 1200 years afterwards. Of course the 
 phrase, which is common enough in authors of the 
 time, means making a circuit. Thus Fuller, ' Wicked 
 men may for a time retard, not finally obstruct our 
 access to happiness. It is but fetching a compass, 
 making two steps for one ; a little more pains and 
 patience will do the deed.' (Pisgah, IV. ii. 43.) In 
 another work he employs a similar expression, re- 
 marking of the Jordan, ' This ariseth from the springs 
 of Jor and Dan ; whence running south he enlargeth 
 himself, first into the waters of Merom, then into the 
 lake of Genesareth or Tiberias, and hence recovering 
 his stream, as if sensible of his sad fate, and desirous 
 to deferre what he cannot avoid, he fetcheth many 
 turnings and windings, but all will not excuse him 
 from falling into the Dead Sea.' (Holy War, i. 18.) 
 
 In Ecclus. xxiii. 18 an adulterer is called 'a man 
 that breaketh wedlock.' An old English word for 
 adultery was ' spousebreach.' Wiclif writes, ' If ani
 
 268 Bible English. 
 
 do mansleing, spowsbrekyng, or ani thing of wrong to 
 man, in this thing the ymage of God is sylid.' (Apology 
 for Lollards, p. 89.) 
 
 'Be of good cheer' (S. Matt. ix. 2, &c.), occurs 
 several times in the New Testament as an encouraging 
 form of address. 'Cheer' means 'face' or 'aspect.' 
 Wiclif translates the latter part of i S. Pet. iii. 12, 
 ' The cheer of the Lord is on men that don yuelis.' 
 Portia says to Bassanio, 
 
 ' Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer.' 
 (Mer. of Ven. iii. 2.) 
 
 Hence, ' Be of good cheer' is an exhortation to be 
 comforted and happy, as Hannah was, when ' her 
 countenance was no more sad.' ' Good cheer ' is 
 also applied in the margin of Prov. xvii. i, and in 
 Ecclus. xviii. 32 (as it still is by us), to such abundance 
 and good living as ' make a cheerful countenance.' 
 
 Another word which is used sometimes for ' face ' 
 is 'favour.' In Ps. xlv. 12; cxix. 58, the margin 
 gives ' face ' where the text has ' favour.' So ' favour ' 
 is used for appearance. ' Joseph was a goodly person 
 and well-favoured ' (Gen. xxxix. 6) ; ' The lean kine 
 were ill-favoured ' (Gen. xli. 4 ) ; and a blemish or de- 
 formity is styled 'evil-favouredness.' (Deut. xvii. i.) 
 
 In Marlowe's Hero and Leander, or rather in Chap- 
 man's continuation of that poem, for the passage is in 
 the sixth Sestiad, we read, 
 
 ' Oh, sweet Leander, thy large worth I hide 
 In a short grave ! Ill-favoured storms must chide 
 Thy sacred favour.'
 
 Phrases. 269 
 
 Cymbeline (v. 5), looking on Imogen disguised as 
 a boy, exclaims 
 
 ' I have surely seen him ; 
 His favour is familiar to me.' 
 
 A child is sometimes said to favour his father; i.e., 
 to be like him in the face. I believe that the expres- 
 sion is very common in Lancashire, the word being 
 pronounced favour. We also still countenance, or 
 show countenance, to those whom we favour. 
 
 In the Prayer-book Version of Ps. cxxviii. 2 the 
 elliptical phrase occurs, ' Well is thee' ; /. e., it is well 
 with thee ; and in Ecclus. xxv. 8, 9, ' Well is him that 
 
 dwelleth with a wife of understanding Well is 
 
 him that hath found prudence.' Chaucer writes, 
 
 ' Wei was the wenche with him might mete ;' 
 
 (The Coke's Tale, 4.372.) 
 
 and Bishop Hall (Satires, III. ii. 19) 
 
 ' Deserv'dst thou ill ! Well were thy name and thee, 
 Wert thou inditched in great secresy.' 
 
 'Howl ye, woe worth the day.' (Ezek. xxx. 2.) 
 ' Worth ' is an old English word signifying to be or to 
 happen. In the Vision of Piers Plowman, when the 
 rats are considering how to bell the cat, a wise mouse 
 counsels them ' to lat the catte worthe ' ; i. e., to let 
 her alone, or, as we sometimes say, to let her be. 
 (Prologue, 187.) Latimer says, 'I have heard much 
 wickedness of this man, and I thought oft, Jesu, what 
 will worth, what will be the end of this man ?' (I. 164.) 
 Becon (II. 415) writes, 'Wo worth thee, thou and-
 
 2/0 Bible English. 
 
 christ .... wo worth thee, wo worth thee, for this thy 
 tyranny and cruelty ? ' The word would now be used 
 only in poetry, as in Fitzjames's lamentation over his 
 horse, 
 
 ' Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, 
 That costs thy life, my gallant gray !' 
 
 (Lady of the Lake, canto i.) 
 
 ' World without end,' i. e., for ever and ever, occurs 
 only once in the Bible (Eph. iii. 21), but is found at 
 the end of the Doxology and elsewhere. In this 
 sentence ' world ' signifies ' age ' or ' time,' and the 
 phrase answers to the Latin in sacula sacidorum, and 
 to the Greek t<e rove alfavag TWV aluvw. Shakespeare 
 uses it as an adjective, in the sense of interminable, 
 
 ' Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour, 
 W T hilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you.' 
 
 (Sonnet 57.) 
 
 And again, in Love's Labour Lost, a marriage engage- 
 ment is referred to as 'a world-without-end bargain.' 
 (v. 2.) 
 
 I have now reached the end of my task. I would 
 remark, however, that there are many words which 
 occupy debateable ground, so that what one person 
 may consider to be tinged with archaism, another, 
 living, perhaps, in a different part of England, will 
 regard as perfectly plain and common. No doubt, 
 therefore, the mention of some terms in this book and 
 the omission of others may alike invite criticism ; but 
 at all events, I hope that few expressions which, so far
 
 Conclusion. 27 1 
 
 as regards their English dress, would be likely to 
 cause perplexity to an ordinary reader, have been left 
 unnoticed. I think, indeed, that in reviewing the 
 ground that has been traversed, we cannot fail to be 
 struck with the rarity of those instances in which any 
 appreciable difficulty or misapprehension would arise 
 from the language of our version. Unquestionably, 
 many words have retained their freshness and currency, 
 because they have been preserved in that Book which 
 happily is in such familiar use among us, and which 
 has done so much to form and fix a standard for our 
 mother-tongue. It would be, of course, absurd to 
 pretend that our English Bible is absolutely perfect, 
 or that it contains no expressions which, bright and 
 clear, it may be, 260 years ago, have gathered rust in 
 the course of time, and might be well replaced by 
 others of a newer fashion. Yet it is earnestly to be 
 hoped that whatever is attempted in this direction 
 will be effected with a very delicate and sparing hand, 
 that thus neither the heart may be disturbed by un- 
 necessary changes, even in the outward dress of that 
 which it has learned to hold so sacred and so dear, 
 nor the ear be disappointed of the ring and rhythm of 
 the well-known words. 
 
 The Committees of Revision which are now sitting 
 have very important duties to perform. They have 
 to provide, with all the aids which modern research 
 and scholarship can bring to bear, that we shall have 
 the most correct text and the most accurate rendering 
 of that text. But it will be theirs also to see that in 
 our Bible we still possess a 'well of English undefiled ;'
 
 272 Bible English. 
 
 that its diction shall still be as pure, and simple, and 
 vigorous as now ; that so, apart from higher and more 
 important considerations, the Holy Book may continue 
 to form, even in virtue of the very language in which 
 it is couched, one and that not the least of the 
 many blessings which we as Englishmen enjoy.
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 PAGE 10. In another work Fuller writes, 'Consider- 
 ing with myself the causes of the growth and increase 
 of impiety and profaneness in our land, amongst 
 others this seemeth to me not the least, viz., the late 
 many false and erroneous impressions of the Bible. 
 Now know, what is but carelessness in other books, 
 is impiety in setting forth of the Bible.' (Mixt. Con- 
 templations on these Times, p. 222.) 
 
 Page 22. 'Knap ' was also used of sharp speech. 
 In Stanihurst's Description of Ireland, as quoted both 
 by Halliwell and Richardson, reference is made to 
 'answering a snappish quid with a knappish quo? 
 This use of the word would seem current in Scot- 
 land, if we may judge from the two following examples 
 from the Waverley Novels : ' Weel, weel, brother, ye 
 are so wise, said Baby, .because ye knapped Latin at 
 Saint Andrews.' (Pirate, chap. 5.) And Lady Margaret 
 Bellenden tells Mause Headrigg, ' The evil spirit of 
 the year sixteen hundred and forty-twa is at wark 
 
 T
 
 274 Addenda. 
 
 again as merrily as ever, and ilka auld wife in the 
 
 chimley-neuck will be for knapping doctrine wi' 
 
 doctors o' divinity and the godly fathers o' the 
 church.' (Old Mortality, chap. 7.) 
 
 Page 26. Bishop Hall has ' hungerstarve ' again 
 in his letters (Dec. i, Ep. 5), ' There sate he pent up, 
 for his further merit, halfe hunger-starued for the charitie 
 of the citizens.' In his Characteristics he employs the 
 simple word ' starve ' of cold ; ' How well is he that 
 may be his owne man, his owne master, that may live 
 safely in a meane distance at pleasure, free from staru- 
 ing, free from burning.' (Of the Ambitious.} 
 
 Page 35. The Prior and Convent of S. Andrew's, 
 Northamptonshire, in the deed surrendering their 
 house to the Crown, quoted by Fuller (Ch. Hist. bk. 
 vi., Hist, of Abbeys}, say that they ' most lamentably 
 doo crave of your Highnes of your abundant mercy 
 to grant unto us, most greevous against God and your 
 Highnes, your most gracious pardon for our saide 
 sondry offences, omyssyons, and negligences comytted 
 as before by us is confessed against your Highnes and 
 your most noble Progenitors.' 
 
 Page 48. Adams (III. 12) uses 'family' of the 
 servants to the exclusion of those who would now be 
 primarily denoted by the word ; ' The tongue is every 
 man's best or worse moveable. Hereupon that philo- 
 sophical servant, when he was commanded to provide 
 the best meat for his master's table, the worst for the 
 family, bought and brought to either neats' tongues-
 
 Addenda. 275 
 
 His moral was that this was both the best and worse 
 service, according to the goodness or badness of the 
 tongue.' Howell employs the term of a royal estab- 
 lishment, and writes of the Infanta, ' Her family is a 
 settling apace, and most of her ladies and officers are 
 known already. (I. iii. 26.) 
 
 Page 76. ' But ' means ' except' in the following 
 from Fuller (Ch. Hist. X. i. n), though the sentence 
 has a peculiar sound ; he says of the city of Geneva, 
 ' Long since it had been undone, but because it had 
 so many enemies to undoe it.' 
 
 Page 82. Bishop Sanderson furnishes another 
 example of the use of ' by ' for ' against.' ' Who is he 
 that will harm you, saith St. Peter, if ye be followers of 
 that which is good ? As if he had said, men that have 
 any shame left in them will not lightly offer to do you 
 any harm, or to say any harm by you, unless by some 
 miscarriage or other of your own you give them the 
 advantage.' (I. 27.) And in the English Chronicle, 
 or rather in another manuscript quoted in the Appendix 
 (p. 1 1 8), we have an instance of the use of 'by' for 
 ' during ; ' it occurs in an account of the funeral of 
 Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester; 'On the Fryday 
 they come to Seynt Albones, and there was done his 
 Dyryge, and on the morewe his Masse, and thanne 
 put into a feyre vout wheche was made for hym by 
 hys lyffe, and so closed and mured vp.' 
 
 Page 155. 'Presume,' as well as the adjective 
 derived from it, has lost a sense which once it had,
 
 276 Addenda. 
 
 that namely of undertaking or attempting anything. 
 2 Mace. viii. 9, ('So Nicanor undertook to make so 
 much money of the captive Jews as should defray,' 
 &c.) is thus summarised in the heading of the chapter, 
 ' Nicanor is sent against him; who presumeth to make 
 much money of his prisoners.' In the treaty between 
 Henry VI. and the Duke of York it is stated that for 
 the more confirmation thereof, the lords spiritual and 
 temporal agree to 'resyste to theyre power alle thaym 
 that wold presume the contrary, accordyng to thayre 
 astates and degrees.' (Eng. Chron. p. 104.) 
 
 Page 1 60. We read sometimes of horse bread as 
 well as horse meat. Thus in the English Chronicle, 
 p. 8, 'A bakeris man of Londoun baar a basket ful of 
 horsbred in to ffleetstrete toward an ostrie hous, and 
 there cam a yoman of the bishoppis of Salesbury, 
 callid Romayn, and took an horsloof out of the 
 basket.' 
 
 Page 200. ' There are certain lands in the marches 
 of England and Scotland (whilest distinct kingdomes) 
 termed battable-grounds, which may give for their 
 motto, not, Dentur justiori, but, Dentur fortiori, for 
 alway the strongest sword for the present possessed 
 them.' (Fuller, Ch. Hist. III. v. 31.) 
 
 Page 202. ' He breeds no bate with telling ot 
 discreet stories ' (2 Hen. IV. ii. 4) ; and again, 
 
 ' This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy.' 
 
 (Venus and Adonis, 655.)
 
 Addenda. 277 
 
 Page 205. 'There be three manner of persons 
 which can make no credible information : first, adver- 
 saries, enemies ; secondly, ignorant and without judg- 
 ment; thirdly, susurrones, that is to say, whisperers 
 and blowers in men's ears, which will spew out in 
 hudder-mudder more than they dare avow openly.' 
 (Latimer, ii. 327.) 
 
 Page 216. As in some way connected with the 
 subject of dress, we may note that in three or four 
 places in our version ' naked ' does not mean what we 
 now understand by the word, but only signifies that 
 the upper garment had been taken off. S. Peter, for 
 instance, is said to be naked when he had divested 
 himself of his 'fisher's coat.' (S. John, xxi. 7.) And 
 Michal taunts David with being uncovered, though he 
 'was girded with a linen ephod.' (2 Sam. vi. 14, 20.) 
 See also i Sam. xix. 24; 2 Mace. xi. 12. Virgil 
 (Georgic i. 299) directs the husbandman, as Hesiod 
 had done before him, to plough and sow naked, or as 
 we might say, to work in his shirt-sleeves. When the 
 Earl of Warwick sent some bishops to treat with 
 Henry VI., complaint was made of the number of 
 men-at-arms who accompanied them : ' Thanne the 
 erle of Warrewyk sent an herowde of armes to the 
 Kyng, besechyng that he myghte haue ostages of saaf 
 goyng and commyng, and he wolde come naked to 
 his presence, but he myghte nat be herde.' (E-ug. 
 Chron. p. 96.) In this case the word means ' un- 
 armed.' 
 
 Page 219. Brigandines seem to have sometimes
 
 278 Addenda. 
 
 signified greaves, as in the following : ' The said cap- 
 teyn (Jack Cade) rood aboute the cite beryng a nakid 
 swerd in his hand, armed in a peire of brigaundynes, 
 weryng a peire of gilt sporis,' &c. (English Chronicle, 
 p. 66.) 
 
 Page 225. Goodman, which is used in our Bible 
 for the master of the house generally, was commonly 
 applied to such as were below the rank of gentry. 
 Fuller says ' of the good yeoman,' ' He insults not on 
 the ruins of a decayed gentleman, but pities and re- 
 lieves him ; and as he is called goodman, he desires to 
 answer to the name, and to be so indeed.' (Holy Stale, 
 P- 93-) 
 
 Page 225. 'The crown of the causey' is thus 
 explained in Gait's Provost, chap. 15 : 'In those days 
 the streets were not paved at the sides, but only in the 
 middle, or, as it was called, the crown of the causey ; 
 which was raised and backed upward, to let the rain- 
 water run off into the gutters.' 
 
 Page 229. The same word, which in Isa. iii. 22 
 is translated, ' changeable suits of apparel,' is in Zech. 
 iii. 4, rendered, ' change of raiment,' and is applied to 
 that festal dress which was to be put on Joshua, the 
 high-priest, instead of the filthy garments in which he 
 had been clothed. 
 
 Page 247. Fuller writes, ' One needlessly precise 
 took causeless exception at a gentleman for using the 
 word u in troth " in his .discourse, as if it had been a
 
 Addenda. 279 
 
 kind of an oath. The gentleman pleaded for himself 
 that " in truth " was a word inoffensive, even in his 
 judgment who accused him. Secondly, that he was 
 born far north, where their broad and Doric dialect 
 pronounced truth, troth, and he did humbly conceive 
 the tone of the tongue was no fault of the heart. 
 Lastly, he alleged the twenty-fifth Psalm, as it is trans- 
 lated in metre : 
 
 " To them that keep His testament, 
 The witness of His troth." 
 
 And thus at last, with much ado, his seeming fault 
 was remitted.' (Mixt Contemp, in Better Times, p. 240.) 
 
 Page 253. In Colonel Cunningham's edition of 
 Marlowe, ' channel ' in the passage that I have cited 
 is explained by channel bone, but may it not rather 
 here mean the windpipe ? It is difficult to see why 
 the collar bone should be called the channel bone, 
 though that it was sometimes so called is certain. 
 
 , Page 256. Fuller has also one or two feminines 
 in a Latinised form. He styles Elizabeth Barton, the 
 Maid of Kent, '.an impostrix' (Ch. Hist. V. ii. 47), 
 though afterwards he calls some girls who pretended 
 to be suffering from demoniacal possession ' impos- 
 tresses' (Ib. IX. iii. n), which form is not altogether 
 out of use, although ' impostor ' is frequently applied 
 to cheats of both sexes. He also states that the 
 Duchess of Suffolk, as executrix of her husband, Duke 
 Charles, was ' credetrix ' of the German Emperor. 
 ' Executrix ' is perhaps the only one of these Latin
 
 280 Addenda. 
 
 feminines that is still of common occurrence, although 
 ' inheretrix,' which is often employed by Fuller, is not 
 entirely obsolete ; it may be found, for instance, in the 
 last sentence of Mr. Thackeray's Lectures on the Four 
 Georges. One has heard of the pedantic (but pro- 
 bably mythical) clergyman who prayed for 'Victoria 
 our Queen and Governess;' and Fuller tells us that 
 Queen Elizabeth ' could not well digest the affected 
 over-elegancy of such as prayed for her by the title ot 
 Defendress of the Faith, and not the Defender, it being 
 no false construction to apply a masculine word to so 
 heroic a spirit.' (Holy State, p. 254.) 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 1 88, line 8, for 185 read 243. 
 Page 194, line 25, omit the.
 
 LIST OF EDITIONS QUOTED. 
 
 THE references are usually to volume and page, or, in the case of 
 plays, to act and scene. Exceptions to this rule are noted 
 within brackets in the subjoined list. 
 
 Adams, T., Sermons (Nichol's Puritan Divines), 1861-2. 
 
 Andrewes, Bp., Sermons (Ang.-Cath. Library), 1841-3. 
 
 Bacon, Essays, ed. Whately, 1860. 
 
 Bale, Bp., Select Works (Parker Society), 1849. 
 
 Barrow, Theological Works, Oxford, 1818. 
 
 Becon, Works (Parker Society), 1843-4. 
 
 Bramhall, Abp. (Ang.-Cath. Library), 1842-5. 
 
 Brown, Sir T., Works, Lond. 1686. 
 
 Bullinger, Decades (Parker Society), 1849-52. 
 
 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford, 1638. 
 
 Calfhill, Answer to Martiall (Parker Society), 1846. 
 
 Chaucer, Works, ed. Tyrwhitt (Routledge, '1874). 
 
 Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, Oxford, 1819. [Book, 
 page.] 
 
 Cosin, Bp., Sermons (Ang.-Cath. Library), 1843-5. 
 
 Cowley, Poems, ed. Johnson, 1779. 
 
 English Chronicle from 1377 to 1461, edited by Rev. J. Silvester 
 Davies (Camden Soc.), 1856. 
 
 Froude, History of England, Cabinet Edition, 1870. 
 
 Fuller, Church History, with History of Cambridge University 
 and Waltham Abbey, 1656. [Book, section, para- 
 graph.]
 
 282 Index to Editions quoted. 
 
 Fuller, David's Hainovs Sinne, Heartie Repentance, Heavie 
 
 Punishment, Pickering, 1869. 
 
 Fuller, Good Thoughts for Bad Times, &c., Pickering, 1841. 
 Fuller, Holy and Profane State, Pickering, 1840. 
 Fuller, Holy Warre, 1639. [Book, chapter.] 
 Fuller, Pisgah Sight of Palestine, 1662. [Book, chapter, para- 
 graph.] 
 
 Grindal, Abp., Remains (Parker Society), 1843. 
 Hall, Bp., Mystery of Godliness, and Invisible World, Pickering, 
 
 1847. [Book, section]. 
 Hall, Bp., Recollection of Treatises, 1620. (The Psalms, 
 
 Characteristics, Letters, and Contemplations are quoted 
 
 from this volume.) 
 Hall, Bp., Satires, with Autobiography, ed. Singer, 1824. 
 
 [Book, satire, line.] 
 
 Hammond, Practical Catechisme, &c., 1646. 
 Harvey, Chr , The Synagogue (Nichol's British Poets), 1853. 
 Herbert, Geo., The Temple (Nichol's Brit. Poets), 1853. 
 Homilies appointed to be read in Churches, S.P.C.K., 1833. 
 Hooker, Works, with Walton's Life, Oxford, 1850. [Book, 
 
 chapter, section.] 
 
 Hooper, Bp., Early Works (Parker Society), 1843. 
 Horsley, Bp., Sermons, Lond. 1827. 
 Howell, Familiar Letters, gth edit, 1726. [Book, section, 
 
 letter.] 
 
 Hutchinson, Works (Parker Society), 1842. 
 Jewel, Bp., Apology, translated by Lady Bacon, ed. Jelf, 1852. 
 Jewel, Bp., Works (Parker Society), 1845-50. 
 Jonson, Ben, Works, ed. Gifford and Cunningham. 
 Latimer, Bp., Sermons and Remains (Parker Society), 1844-5. 
 Maitland, Essays on the Reformation, 1849. 
 Malory, Sir T., Morte d'Arthur, Globe Edit., 1871. [Book, 
 
 chapter.] 
 
 Marlowe, Works, ed. Cunningham, 1870. 
 Massinger, Works, ed. Cunningham, 1870. 
 Maundeville, Sir J., Travels, in Early Travels in Palestine 
 
 (Bonn's Antiq. Lib.), 1848.
 
 Index to Editions quoted. 283 
 
 Milton, Areopagitica, Clarendon Press Ed., 1874. 
 
 Milton, Poetical Works (Nichols Brit. Poets), 1853. 
 
 Norden, Progress of Piety (Parker Society), 1847. 
 
 Piers Plowman, Vision of, Clarendon Press Ed., 1869. 
 
 Pilkingtou, Bp., Works (Parker Society), 1842. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir W., History of the World, 1676. [Book, chapter, 
 
 section.] 
 
 Ridley, Bp., Works (Parker Society), 1841. 
 Sanderson, Bp., Works, ed. Jacobson, 1854. 
 Sandys, Abp., Sermons (Parker Society), 1841. 
 Shakespeare, Works, Globe Edit., 1864. 
 Smith, H., Sermons (Nichol's Puritan Divines), 1866-7. 
 Spenser, Works, Globe Edit., 1869. [Book, canto, stanza, in 
 
 F. Q.] 
 
 Strype, Memorials of Cranmer (Ecc. Hist. Soc.), 1848-54. 
 Surrey, Earl of, Poems (Nichol's Brit. Poets), 1856. 
 Tyndale, Works (Parker Society), 1848-50. 
 Wiclif, Apology for Lollard Doctrines, edited by Dr. Todd 
 
 (Camden Soc.), 1842.
 
 INDEX OF WORDS NOTICED. 
 
 Abhor, 214 
 
 Ancients, 50 
 
 Abjects, 46 
 
 And, 74 
 
 About, 77 
 
 Andirons, 253 
 
 Abroad, 150 
 Acquaint thyself, 72 
 
 Angle, 42 
 An -hungered, 86 
 
 Acquaintance, take, 266 
 
 Anon, 109 
 
 Admiration, 143 
 
 Anyways, 53 
 
 Adventure, 21 
 
 Apparently, 194 
 
 Adversary, 45 
 
 Appose, 199 
 
 Advertise, 157 
 
 Areade, 6 
 
 Advise, 73 
 
 Arrogancy, 19 
 
 Advisement, 73 
 
 Artillery, 219 
 
 Afeard, 55 
 Affectioned, 41 
 
 Ascending of the morning, 249 
 Assay, 16 
 
 Affinity, 171 
 
 Assemble, 72 
 
 Afore, 21 
 
 Asswage, 69 
 
 After, 75 
 
 Astonied, 21 
 
 Afterward, 20 
 
 At, 78 
 
 Agone, 6 1 
 
 Atonement, 79 
 
 Agree to, 88 
 
 At quiet, 79 
 
 Aliant, 9 
 
 Attent, 21 
 
 All to, 87 
 
 Attire, 228 
 
 Allege, 173 
 
 Avoid, 69 
 
 Allow, 195 
 
 Awaked, 19 
 
 Alms, 31 
 
 Away with, 90 
 
 Alway, 20 
 
 Awful, 68 
 
 Amazement, 144 
 
 Axe, 51 
 
 Ambushment, 20 
 
 
 Amen, 98 
 
 Baken, 18 
 
 Amiable, 158 
 An, 74 
 
 Banquet, 173 
 Barbarian, 182
 
 Index of Words noticed. 
 
 285 
 
 Bare, 17 
 
 Bullimong, 239 
 
 Barn, 238 
 
 But, 76, 275 
 
 Base, 177 
 
 By, 80, 275 
 
 Bat, 201 
 
 By and by, 108 
 
 Battable, 276 
 
 
 Battlebow, 26 
 
 Canker, 138 
 
 Be, 55 
 
 Captivate, 136 
 
 Because, 74 
 
 Careful, 101 
 
 Beeves, 132 
 
 Careless, 102 
 
 Bemoan, 72 
 
 Carle, 185 
 
 Beside, 14 
 
 Carriage, 118 
 
 Besides, 14 
 
 Catechise, 55 
 
 Bestead, 135 
 
 Gates, 160 
 
 Bestow, 134 
 
 Caul, 228 
 
 Bewray, 13 
 
 Causey, 225, 278 
 
 Beyond, 78 
 
 Champaign, 247 
 
 Bibber, 28 
 
 Chanelbone, 253, 279 
 
 Bide, 62 
 
 Changeable, 229, 278 
 
 Bile, 9 
 
 Chap, 159 
 
 Bitternesses, 34 
 
 Chap-book, 131 
 
 Blain, 29 
 Bloom, 64 
 
 Chapiter, 136 
 Chapman, 131 
 
 Body, 57 
 
 Charet, 9 
 
 Boiled, 239 
 Bonnet, 223 
 
 Charge, 131 
 Chargeable, 131 
 
 Book, 226 
 
 Charger, 132 
 
 Boss, 222 
 
 Chaws, 9 
 
 Bought of sling, 221 
 
 Cheap, 130 
 
 Bowmen, 217 
 
 Cheek-teeth, 253 
 
 Brass, 58 
 
 Cheer, 268 
 
 Bravery, 227 
 
 Cherubims, 33 
 
 Braves, 49 
 
 Chest, 39 
 
 Bray, 245 
 
 Children, 33 
 
 Breach, 159 
 
 Chode, 1 8 
 
 Breedbate, 202, 276 
 
 Chop, 130 
 
 Brethren, 33 
 
 Church, 169 
 
 Brickie, 9 
 
 Churl, 184 
 
 Brief, 48 
 
 Circuit, 39 
 
 Brigand, 219 
 
 Cis, 259 
 
 Brigandine, 219, 277 
 
 Cise, 9 
 
 Brige, 219 
 
 Clave, 17 
 
 Broided, u 
 
 Clean, 54 
 
 Bruit, 42 
 
 Clem, 26 
 
 Buckler, 222 
 
 Clerkly, 175 
 
 Builded, 19 
 
 Clift, 21 '
 
 Index of Words noticed. 
 
 Cloke, 9 
 
 Dear, 129 
 
 Clout, 233 
 
 Dearth, 130 
 
 Coast, 149 
 
 Debate, 200 
 
 Coat, 224 
 
 Declare, 139 
 
 Cockatrice, 252 
 
 Defenced, 21 
 
 Cocker, 246 
 
 Defendress, 280 
 
 Cockle, 239 
 
 Delicates, 47 
 
 Comfort, 138 
 
 Delicious, 204 
 
 Companion, 188 
 
 Delightsome, 236 
 
 Company, 38 
 
 Demand, 121 
 
 Conclude, 137 
 
 Depart, 6 
 
 Conscience, 124 
 
 Deputy, 167 
 
 Consent, 194 
 
 Describe, 171 
 
 Constantly, 112 
 
 Descry, 172 
 
 Continency, 19 
 
 Deserving, 47 
 
 Convenient, 196 
 
 Desire, 158 
 
 Conversation, 146 
 
 Determinate, 21 
 
 Convert, 70 
 
 Die death, 264 
 
 Convince, 123 
 
 Digged, 19 
 
 Core, 259 
 
 Discover, 156 
 
 Corn, 239 
 
 Divorcement, 20 
 
 Corpse, 161 
 
 Doctor, 165 
 
 Cote, 29 
 
 Doctrine, 166 
 
 Craft, 179 
 
 Doting, 210 
 
 Creature, 147 
 
 Drag, 42 
 
 Credetrix, 279 
 
 Drave, 17 
 
 Crocodile, 252 
 
 Drawen, 9 
 
 Crown, 197 
 
 Dread, 192 
 
 Crudle, 9 
 
 Dredge, 239 
 
 Cumber, 211 
 
 Drunken, 18 
 
 Cunning, 179 
 
 Duke, 1 68 
 
 Curate, 126 
 
 Dure, 28 
 
 Cure, 126 
 
 
 Curiosity, 127 
 
 Ear, 238 
 
 Curious, 128 
 
 Easter, 169 
 
 Custom, 32 
 
 Elias, 258 
 
 
 Else, 46 
 
 Damnation, 96 
 
 Emulation, 202 
 
 Damosell, 9 
 
 Endeavour, 192 
 
 Darling, 197 
 
 Endeavour self, 7 2 
 
 Day, 248 
 
 Endirons, 253 
 
 Daysman, 248 
 
 Endow, 13 
 
 Dayspring, 249 
 Daystar, 249 
 Deal, 57 
 
 Endue, 13 
 Ensample, 20 
 Ensue, 65
 
 Index of Words noticed. 
 
 287 
 
 Enterprise, 37 
 
 Gain loss, 263 
 
 Entreat, 122 
 
 Galatians, 170 
 
 Envy, 144 
 
 Gallants, 49 
 
 Equal, adj., 125 
 
 Garner, 238 
 
 Equal, verb, 70 
 
 Gat, 17 
 
 Essay, 16 
 
 Gazing-stock, 25 
 
 Estate, 163 
 
 Generation, 124 
 
 Evangelist, 165 
 
 Genial, 162 
 
 Evilfavouredness, 268 
 
 Genuine, 96 
 
 Exactress, 255 
 
 Ghost, 264 
 
 Examine, 56 
 
 Ghostly, 265 
 
 Excellency, 19 
 
 Gier-eagle, 251 
 
 
 Gifts, 206 
 
 Fame, 205 
 
 Girdle-stead, 135 
 
 Familiars, 48 
 
 Glad, 36 
 
 Family, 274 
 
 Glede, 251 
 
 Famish, 64 
 
 Glistering, 20 
 
 Fats, 20 
 
 Glode, 1 8 
 
 Fauchion, 221 
 
 Glorious, 206 
 
 Favour, 268 
 
 Go about, 77 
 
 Fear, 67 
 
 Go beyond, 78 
 
 Fearful, 68 
 
 Go to, 88 
 
 Fellow, 187 
 
 Good, 32 
 
 Fet, 9 
 
 Goodman, 224, 278 
 
 Fetch compass, 267 
 
 Gorget, 222 
 
 Fift, 9 
 
 Gotten, 1 8 
 
 Fitches, 20 
 
 Governor, 167 
 
 Flit, 199 
 
 Gravefellow, 27 
 
 Flix, 9 
 
 Greaves, 221 
 
 Flouting-stock, 25 
 
 Grinders, 253 
 
 Flue-net, 42 
 
 Grisled, 20 
 
 Folden, 18 
 
 Growen, 9 
 
 Folly, 204 
 Fond, 209 
 
 Grudge, 155 
 Guilty of death, 264 
 
 Footmen, 216 
 
 
 For to, 52 
 
 Habergeon, 220 
 
 Forbear, 65 
 
 Hale, 20 
 
 Foreprophesy, 164 
 
 Halt, 133 
 
 Forgat, 17 
 
 Hanged, 19 
 
 Fornace, 9 
 
 Hardly, 140 
 
 Fowl, 1 60 
 
 Harness, 218 
 
 Frantics, 46 
 
 Harp, 39 
 
 Frenchmen, 170 
 
 Headtire, 228 
 
 Fret, 19 
 
 Heady, 207 
 
 Fulfil, 139 
 
 Health, 153
 
 288 
 
 Index of Words noticed. 
 
 Hele, 106 
 
 Kerchief, 230 
 
 Hell, 106 
 
 Kindly, 161 
 
 Hereafter, no 
 
 Kindred, 34 
 
 Hewed, 19 
 
 Kine, 33 
 
 Highminded, 207 
 
 Knap, subst., 237 
 
 Hire, 34 
 
 Knap, verb, 21, 273 
 
 His, 59, 62 
 
 Knapsack, 22 
 
 Hoise, 20 
 
 Knee of heart, 263 
 
 Holden, 18 
 
 Knit, 141 
 
 Holpen, 1 8 
 
 Knop, 237 
 
 Honest, 154 
 Honourable, 7 
 
 Knowledge, have or take, 266 
 
 Horsebread, 276 
 
 Lace, 231 
 
 Hosen, 33 
 
 Latch, 231 
 
 Hungerbitten, 26 
 
 Latchet, 231 
 
 Hungerstarven, 26, 274 
 
 Lay to, 89 
 
 
 Learn, 52 
 
 Idiot, 176 
 
 Leasing, 243 
 
 Idol, 73 
 
 Leastwise, 55 
 
 Ignorances, 34 
 
 Let, 114 
 
 Importable, 121 
 Impostrix, 279 
 
 Lewd, 175 
 Libel, 226 
 
 In, 86 
 
 Lien, 17 
 
 Incomprehensible, 105 
 
 Lift, 9 
 
 Indifferent, 187 
 
 Lighten, 115 
 
 Indignation, have or take, 265 
 
 Like, 53 
 
 Indite, 172 
 
 Liketh, 71 
 
 Inhabitress, 256 
 
 Liking, 133 
 
 Inheretrix, 280 
 
 Lively, 107 
 
 Injurious, 1 86 
 
 Loaden, 1 8 
 
 Innocent, i8r 
 
 Look in face, 262 
 
 Innocency, 19 
 
 Lover, 161 
 
 Instant, in 
 
 Luck, 200 
 
 Instantly, in 
 
 Lust, 185 
 
 Intend, 194 
 
 Luxury, 205 
 
 Intreat, 122 
 
 
 Irreligiousness, 93 
 
 Madmen, 10 
 
 It, 59 
 
 Magnifical, 20 
 
 
 Makebate, 201 
 
 angling, 243 
 
 Maliciousness, 145 
 
 aw-teeth, 253 
 
 Man of war, 216 
 
 esus, 259 
 
 Manner, 85 
 
 oily, 57 " 
 
 Mansion, 150 
 
 oy, 36 
 
 Marish, 20 
 
 udge, 97 
 
 Market-stead, 135
 
 Index of Words noticed. 
 
 289 
 
 Mate, 50 
 
 Orderly, 61 
 
 Maul, 43 
 
 Osee, 259 
 
 Mean, 177 
 
 Ospray, 251 
 
 Meat, 159 
 
 Ossifrage, 251 
 
 Mercy-stock, 25 
 
 Ouch, 232 
 
 Mete, 254 
 
 Outgo, 78 
 
 Meteyard, 254 
 Mids, 9 
 
 Outgoings, 250 
 Outlandish, 183 
 
 Minish, 21 
 
 Outroad, 226 
 
 Minister, 165 
 
 Overcharge, 132 
 
 Mite, 250 
 
 
 Mock, 44 
 
 Painful, 189 
 
 Mocking, 44 
 
 Pains, 190 
 
 Mocking-stock, 25 
 
 Palestine, 259 
 
 Moe, 9 
 
 Pall Mall, 43 
 
 Molten, r 8 
 
 Parcel, 157 
 
 Monarchy, 137 
 
 Party, 5 1 
 
 Moneth, 9 
 
 Passion, 185 
 
 Monster, 183 
 
 Pate, 197 
 
 Morian, 260 
 
 Peel, 241 
 
 Muffler, 229 
 
 Peep, 23 
 
 Mure, 28 
 
 Pensive, 101 
 
 
 Peny, 9 
 
 Naked, 277 
 
 Persuade, 213 
 
 Napkin, 231 
 
 Pick thank, 31 
 
 Naughty, 203 
 
 Piety, 117 
 
 Needs, 46 
 
 Pill, 20, 241 
 
 Neese, 22 
 
 Pipe, 38 
 
 Negligences, 34, 274 
 
 Pitieth, 71 
 
 Neighbour, 45 
 Nephew, 116 
 
 Pitiful, 189 
 Play, 199 
 
 Nestes, 53 
 
 Pleasure, 40 
 
 Noddle, 197 
 
 Poll, 240 
 
 Noise, 39 
 
 Pommel, 136 
 
 Noisome, 162 
 
 Port, 1 20 
 
 
 Pose, 198 
 
 Obey to, 88 
 
 Pot, go to, 53 
 
 Occupy, 118 
 
 Pour water on hands, 261 
 
 Occurrent, 20 
 
 Practise, 213 
 
 Of, 83 
 Offend, 124 
 
 Precious. 129 
 Premonish, 27 
 
 Often, 44 
 
 Presently, 109 
 
 On, 55, 86 
 
 Presume, 275 * 
 
 Once, no 
 
 Presumptuous, 155 
 
 Or, 21, 75 
 
 Prevent, 113
 
 290 
 
 Index of Words noticed. 
 
 Prince, 1 68 
 
 Road, 226 
 
 Principality, 168 
 
 Room, 152 
 
 Profane, 177 
 
 Rose, 60 
 
 Proper, 158 
 Prophesy, 164 
 
 Rugged, 15 
 Ruinate, 54 
 
 Prophet, 164 
 
 Runagate, 244 
 
 Provoke, 191 
 
 
 Publican, 257 
 
 Sad, 37 
 
 Puff at, 79 
 
 Saint, 152 
 
 Purchase, 154 
 
 Say, 1 6 
 
 Put to, 89 
 
 Scrip, 232 
 
 Put to the worse, 89 
 
 Secure, 103 
 
 
 See to, 90 
 
 Quarrel, 156 
 
 Seek to, 90 
 
 Quaternion, 257 
 
 Seldom, 44, 46 
 
 Querele, 156 
 
 Servitor, 255 
 
 Quick, 107 
 
 Set by, 82 
 
 
 Set to, 89 
 
 Ragged, 15 
 
 Shaked, 19 
 
 Raiment, 227 
 
 Shamefastness, 12 
 
 Ramp, 242 
 
 Shapen, 1 8 
 
 Ravin, 242 
 
 Sheard, 28 
 
 Reckon, 55 
 
 Sheepmaster, 26 
 
 Recompense, 210 
 
 Shine, 43 
 
 Reconnoitre, 172 
 
 Shined, 19 
 
 Recover, 66 
 
 Shipmaster, 27 
 
 Reduce, 141 
 
 Shipmen, 27 
 
 Refrain, 65 
 
 Showed, 19 
 
 Rehearse, 122 
 
 Shrewd, 203 
 
 Rejoice, 36 
 
 Shut to, 90 
 
 Religion, 92 
 
 Silly, 1 80 
 
 Religiousness, 93 
 Remember, 72 
 
 Silverling, 250 
 Simple, 1 80 
 
 Rent, 10 
 
 Simplicity, 180 
 
 Repent, 71 
 
 Sincerity, 95 
 
 Reprobate, 149 
 
 Sinning-stock 25 
 
 Require, 121 
 
 Sith, 21 
 
 Resemble, 71 
 
 Sixt, 9 
 
 Retribution, 210 
 
 Skill, 37 
 
 Revive, 140 
 
 Slang, 17 
 
 Reward, 210 
 
 Slaughtermen, 218 
 
 Riches, 31 
 
 Slaughter- weapon, 21 8 
 
 Rid, 66 
 
 Sleight, 213 
 
 Riot, 146 
 
 Snap, 22 
 
 Ris, $9 
 
 Sod, 1 8
 
 Index of Words noticed. 
 
 291 
 
 Sometime, 15 
 
 Taber, 38 
 
 Sope, 9 
 
 Tabernacle, 151 
 
 Sottish, 181 
 
 Tablet, 229 
 
 Sowen, 9 
 
 Tabret, 38 
 
 Spake, 17 
 
 Tache, 237 
 
 Spearmen, 217 
 
 Tale, 134 
 
 Sport, 72 
 
 Tare, 17 
 
 Spousebreach, 267 
 
 Target, 223 
 
 Stablish, 21 
 
 Tell, 134 
 
 Stanch, 69 
 
 Temptation, 191 
 
 Starve, 26, 274 
 
 Ternion, 258 
 
 State, 164 
 
 Tetrarch, 257 
 
 Stead, 135 
 
 Thank, 30 
 
 Steadfast, 136 
 
 Them, 53 
 
 Steady, 136 
 
 Thorow, 9 
 
 Still, 39 
 
 Thou sayest, 262 
 
 Stomach, 208 
 
 Thought, take, 99 
 
 Stonebow, 221 
 
 Thought to, 51 
 
 Story, 198 
 
 Throughly, 20 
 
 Stout, 208 
 
 Timberwright, 26 
 
 Stow, 135 
 
 Timbrel, 38 
 
 Strake, subst., 20 
 
 Tire, 228 
 
 Strake, verb, 17 
 
 To, 87 
 
 Strawed, 21 
 
 To-morrow day, 25 
 
 Stricken, 17 
 
 Town clerk, 170 
 
 Strike hands, 261 
 
 Travail, 14 
 
 Strowed, 21 
 
 Travel, 14 
 
 Submissly, 236 
 
 Troth, 247, 278 
 
 Submit, 72 
 
 Trow, 247 
 
 Success, 2ii 
 
 Tutor, 1 66 
 
 Such a one, 10 
 
 Twinned, 41 
 
 Sudden, 112 
 
 
 Suds, 1 8 
 
 Uncouth, 183 
 
 Sue, 65 
 
 Undersetters, 255 
 
 Suffice, 70 
 
 Understanded, 19 
 
 Sum, 67 
 
 Uneasy, 190 
 
 Summer, 40 
 
 Unequal, 125 
 
 Supposed to, 51 
 Surcease, 27 
 Swaddling-clothes, 234 
 Swage, 69 
 
 Ungodly, 61 
 Ungracious, 212 
 Unhele, 106 
 Unmeasurable, 21 
 
 Sware, 17 
 
 Unmoveable, 21 
 
 Swine, 32 
 
 Unpassible, 21 
 
 Swordmen, 217 
 
 Unperfect, 21 
 
 
 Unrebukeable, 21
 
 292 
 
 Index of Words noticed. 
 
 Unrepentance, 21 
 
 Whiles, 21,45 
 
 Unreproveable, 21 
 
 Whilom, 46 
 
 Unresistible, 21 
 
 Whirlpool, 252 
 
 Unsatiable, 21 
 
 Whispering, 205, 277 
 
 Unseemly, 6 1 
 
 Will, 104 
 
 Untemperate, 21 
 
 Wimple, 230 
 
 Unwashen, 18 
 
 Wist, 40 
 
 Unworship, 7 
 
 Wit, 40 
 
 Uprightnesses, 34 
 Usury, 191 
 
 With, 90 
 Without, 91 
 
 Utter, adj., 10 
 
 Wits, 6 
 
 Utter, verb, 148 
 
 Witty, 196 
 
 
 Wo worth, 269 
 
 Vagabond, 244 
 
 Wonderful, 60 
 
 Valiants, 49 
 
 World without end, 270 
 
 Vengeances, 34 
 
 Worship, 7, 50 
 
 Verily, 99 
 
 Worthies, 49 
 
 Victual, 32 
 Vile, 178 
 
 Worthy, 210 
 Wot, 40 
 
 Vivacious, 108 
 
 Wreathen, 18 
 
 Voyage, 150 
 
 Wretchlessness, 256 
 
 Vulgar, 1 88 
 
 Wringed, 19 
 Wrinkle, 1 80 
 
 War, 37 
 
 Writ, 59 
 
 Ware, adj., 21 
 
 Writing-table, 229 
 
 Ware, verb, 17, 
 
 Wryed, 42 
 
 Waxen, 18 
 
 
 Waymark, 26 
 
 Yer, 75 
 
 Wealth, 153 
 
 Yesterlate, 24 
 
 Weatherbitten, 26 
 
 Yesternight, 24 
 
 Wedlock, break, 267 
 
 Yoke-fellow, 27 
 
 Ween, 247 
 
 
 Well is thee, 269 
 
 Zeal of, 84 
 
 Whet, 19 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 Printed by JOHK STRANGEWAYS, Castle St. Leicester Sq. 
 
 L
 
 
 
 
 j ,- ^Ij. O'l^trv V ,> 
 
 A IV.IT (<T.A.) 4-
 
 A 000036732 6 
 
 THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER 
 <-x _ AURICULAR CONFESSION, 
 
 JL) < 
 
 AA r> if **** * v*Y ' ' I . ' ' ' ^ ' 
 
 At a vestry meeting at Pear Tre6 Green, near 
 Southampton yesterday, there was a warm discussion in 
 reference to tte adoption of the practice of auricular 
 confession in the Church of England, as ur*ed by tho 
 
 ] two clerical missionaries who recently conducted a ten 
 days mission in tho parish, and as since recommended 
 irpm the pulpit by the Rov. T. L. O. Pavies, the vicar 
 
 . Many parishioners gave up their seats and left the church 
 in consequence, upon which Mr. Richard Bell, the ,rish 
 warden, wrote to the Bishop of Winchester for advice and 
 the following reply was now read from his lordship : 
 
 17, Itevoiishirc-phu'e, London, \V., April loth, 1878. 
 
 ought to produce, and in many cases him; produced should have 
 been hindered at Southampton by the pressing ou cou -i4 uion 
 and individual, the duty of habitual private confesiou" We can 
 nud no authority for Bu ch u m-actiee in Holy Scripture in tho 
 records 01 the primitive Church, or ia the tommlaries of f 
 Church of liny-land, and thoWh I fully behove in the 
 benefit to a sin-laden conscience of beiu- allowed to 
 unburden itself to a spiritual adviser, I believe ft is no7whol P 
 ome for any one to rnato a practice of wmsfaint contesskni I r tn 
 be subK-oted to the gruidanoe of a director. T" the be't ^f mv 
 behet however, I have no authority in a case of this kiud and 
 can only express my own sentiments. The state of ow towns 
 and village is such tlmt earnest ctforte to awaken .souls fro Vn- 
 difterence and carnal security must be made, even if con, eoted 
 with them there be some danger of indiscretion andextoanf~- 
 nd I should be unwillinp to withdrawn^- counteuan f om ' uch 
 efforts unless I could learn that more harm than ood results 
 from them. I certainly do believe that there is abuu Lit room 
 for missionary work in our close streets and our seated countiv 
 panshes, without the necessity of brhvin- in doubf f ! 
 Ugencies, which certainly do not ma f for pe, 
 
 I am satisfied that if the Church's full marhinery were by uni ed 
 I exertions brought to bear upon our people without any auvcn- 
 tit.ous aid, more lastm;, j-ood would be effected than anv doul - 
 fully lawful agencies can produce. When you ask me 
 can do as churehwarde,!. I can oidv answer that if 1 have uoxnr 
 as bishop you can have none, except it be the power of mediation 
 and that wholesome influence whieh a Christian and d ' 
 
 - 8lue to glve '~ I am ' dcar Sir> J ' OUi ' laithi ' ul s