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altering as well the punctuation as the word itself: and in this very ridiculous depravation he has been followed by Mr. Walters, a Glamorganshire clergyman, in an 8vo. edition, 1788, and in an edition of all his English Works, 8vo. 1815, White, Fleet-street.

From this Norman usage, Mr. Ritson says the word "is erroneously supposed by some to be a corruption of Ha Rou,* i. e. Rollo, Duke of Normandy: Pharroh, however, was the old war cry of the Irish. Camd. Britann. 1695, p. 1047, and Spenser's View of Ireland. The word too, or crie de guerre, of Joan of Arc, was Hara ha. Howell's Letters, 8vo. 1726, p. 113." Anc. Metrical Romances, III. 349, 8vo. 1802.

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But, whatever its real origin, the tradition of the country, and the form of the invocation of their revered chieftain (à l'aide, mon prince), demonstrates what must have been the opinion of the inhabitants of Normandy and its adjacent isles upon this subject: and in those islands this form of invocation is continued to the present day. The 53d chapter of the Grand Coustumier de Normandie treats De Haro, rendered in the Latin text or translation, "De clamore, qui dicitur Harou." It states, "that in his court of Haro the Duke of Normandy makes inquest, whether this cry is raised with just cause or otherwise, heavy penalties attending a false clamour: and directs, that it shall not be raised, unless in criminal cases or offences against the state." Rouen, Fo. 1539, fo. 10 & 74. But the practise is, and as far as appears, ever has been, directly opposite and we are well informed, that in Jersey and Guernsey it is the constant usage, interjetter le clameur de haro, in civil cases, to prevent trespass or entry under colour of right; and if any such inroad is repeated after this cry has been raised, heavy penalties ensue. That it ever could have been confined to criminal cases will hardly, be allowed, if any credit is due to the story recorded of the stoppage of the Conqueror's funeral. He had violently dispossessed the owner of the ground, in which it was proposed to deposit his remains. The owner, conceiving this to be a new invasion of his property, and possibly that the death of the invader operated as a renewal of those rights, a suspension of the exercise of which he had hitherto been compelled to acquiesce under, threw in the clameur de haro. Falle, from Paulus Eniglius, states his challenge to have been made in these words: 66 Qui regna oppressit armis, me quoque metu mortis hactenus oppressit. Ego, injuriæ superstes, pacem mortuo non dabo. In quem infertis hunc hominem locum meus est. In alienum solum inferendi mortui jus nemini esse defendo. Si, extincto tandem indignitatis authore, vicit adhuc vis, Rollonem, conditorem parentemque gentis, appello; qui legibus a se datis quam

Raoul is the real and proper name, Rou or Ro the abbreviation, Rollo the latinised name, and now universally adopted; in the same way as we say Thuanus for De Thou. From whatever other sources derived, this word may have been engrafted into our language, it seems clear, that it has been transmitted to us by our Norman ancestors.

cujusquam injuria plus unus potest polletque." Hist. of Jersey, 1734. P. 16, 17.

It appears too, that this exclamation is, down to the present times, used still more extensively; and that it is resorted to by those who meditate or make attack, as well as those who are assailed. In his private memoir of Louis XVI. Mr. Bertrand de Moleville says, speaking of himself, "There was a general shout of Haro sur l'Intendant, accompanied with the most furious imprecations:" and it is added in a note, that "this cry is used by the populace of Brittany and Normandy, when they intend to insult or attack any body." 8vo. 1797, Vol. I. p. 84. It occurred at Rennes.

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He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice] When in an angry conference on the ice, he dealt out his blows upon the Poles, who are accustomed to travel in sleds, i. e. sledges, on the ice.

The Poles were formerly called Polacks, in all the old editions written Pollax the spelling, doubtless, in conformity with the pronunciation.

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"The Polonian, whom the Russe calleth Laches, noting the first author or founder of the nation, who was called Laches or Leches, whereunto is added Po, which signifieth people, and so is made Polaches; that is, the people or posteritie of Laches: which the Latines, after their manner of writing, call Polanos." Giles Fletcher's Russe Commonwealth, 12mo. 1591, fo. 65. Mr. Steevens cites Vittoria Corumbona, 1612.

"I scorn him like a shav'd Polack."

(9) just at this dead] For dead, one of the quartos and the folio of 1632, read same. Upon the reading of the quartos, which, instead of just, is jump, Mr. Malone observes, that in the folio we sometimes find a familiar word substituted for one more ancient.

B.

The two words, says Mr. Steevens, were synonymous. Jonson speaks of verses made on jump names, i. e. names that suit exactly. Nash says-" and jumpe imitating a verse in As in præsenti." So, in Chapman's May Day, 1611:

"Your appointment was jumpe at three, with me." And in Kyffin's Terence's Andria, 1588:

"Comes he this day so jump in the very time of this marriage?" See V. 1. Horat.

(10) impress of shipwrights] It is not any where shewn by the commentators that the prest-money for the retainer of

But it has been questioned, whether the Intendant was not here considered as a wrongful intruder and malfeasor, against whose tortious entry the cry was raised.

soldiers, has any thing to do with shipwrights. The word seems to be here used in its ordinary signification, as in Tr. & Cre. II. 1. "No man is beaten voluntary. Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress." Achil.

(11) ratified by law, and heraldry] By St. 13 R. II. c. 2, the court of Chivalry has "cognizance of contracts, touching deeds of arms or of war, out of the realm." Mr. Upton says, that Shakespeare sometimes expresses one thing by two substantives, and that law and heraldry means, by the herald law. Ant. & Cl. IV. 2.

"Where rather I expect victorious life,

"Than death and honour.

i. e. honourable death. STEEVENS. See Sc. II. " leave and favour." Laertes.

Puttenham, in his Art of Poesie, p. 148, speaks of The Figure of Twynnes: "horses and barbs, for barbed horses, venim and dartes, for venimous dartes," &c. FARMER.

cov'nant

(12) And carriage of the article design'd] Tenor, force, or import of the article drawn up. Design, says Mr. Malone, is to mark out or appoint for any purpose. Cowdrey Alph. Tab. 1604. To shew by a token. Minshieu, 1617. Designed is yet used in this sense in Scotland, as is designated with us.

Instead of covenant, the quarto, 1604, gives co-mart, i. e. compact, joint treaty; and formed, as another word of our author's, that does not often occur, co-mates. As you, &c. II. 1. Duke S.

(13) unimproved mettle] Unimpeached, unquestioned.

The modern editors adopt the modern sense of this word “untrained or undisciplined." The verb, improve, does not occur in many of our early dictionary writers, as Baret and Minshieu ; and on its introduction it was used in the sense of " reprove, impute, or disprove." Mr. Tooke says, "it was taken from the French, who used it, and still continue to use it, in the same meaning and that it was perpetually so used by the authors about Shakespeare's time, and especially in theological controversy." "For ye fondely improve a conclusion which myghte stande and be true."-Declar. agt. Joye by Gardiner, Bish. of Winchester. "Ther did they worshyp it in their scarlet gownes with cappes in hand, and here they improved it with scornes and with mockes, grennynge upon her lyke termagauntes in a playe."-Bale's Actes of Eng. Votaries. Divers. of Purley, 4to. 1798, I. 165. And he says the word here means "unimpeached," from the verb to blame, censure, &c. But the use of the word was certainly not appropriated to any one science. "Whiche thynge as I do not improve, so I denye it to be necessarye."-Paynel's Hutten "Of the wood, guiacum, that heleth the French Pockes." 12mo. 1533, c. 7: Anesse, corya

cides, &c. none of the phisitions, that have any judgement, improvethe, but they affirme these to be good."-Ib. c. 11. "Some forbidde washinges and all maner bathes, I thynke bycause they mollifie the sinowes and lose them, and yet they do not improve sweatynges."-Ib. c. 26, p. 78, b. In all these instances the original, rendered improve, is improbo. Ulrick. Huttenus de Guiaci Medicina, Mogunt. 4to. 1520. Sir Tho. More, in his letter to H. VIII. Mar. 1534, says, "Not presuming to looke, that his Highnes should any thyng take that point for the more proved or improved, for my poore minde in so great a mater." Johnson, in his dictionary, instancing from Whitgift, points out this as the French use of the word. We now use the word reprove, from the Lat. reprobo, (whence we also take the verb and noun, reprobate) instead of improve. Of the compound in the text, unimprove, no instance has occurred in the above sense and Dr. Johnson (as the word has been in use for the last century at least, and with a satisfactory sense) has interpreted it and it may be rightly, "not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience."

In Jonson's Every Man in, &c. III. 2. where Bobadil says, "Sir, believe me on my relation; for what I tell you the world shall not reprove,"—it is said, in a late edition of his works, that the quarto edition of 1603 in this place reads improve. Hence, as well as from this use of it by Sir Tho. More, it may reasonably be inferred, that it was known in this sense to our author.

(14) Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes

For food and diet, to some enterprise

That hath a stomach in't] Snapped up with the eager voracity of a shark, caught up from any or all quarters for a bellyful, sturdy beggars, sharpset, and of courage equal to any enterprise. The redundancy of "food and diet" may have been employed for the purpose of fixing in the mind the continuation of the metaphor in the use of the word stomach, here put in an equivocal sense, importing both courage and appetite. We have a similar play upon the word in Two G. of V. where, on Julia's asking her waiting woman, with whom she had been peevish, whether it was near dinner time, she replies:

"I would it were,

"That you might kill your stomach on your meat,
"And not upon your maid." I. 2.

(15) romage] Romelynge, prevy mustrynge. Ruminatio. Militatio. Musitatio. Promptuar. parvulor. clericor. 4to. 1514. This rendering of the word applies closely to the military use or bearing of it in the text: but to rummage trunks or papers is in every day's use, for making a thorough ransack or search. Philips says, "It is originally a sea term, and properly signifies to remove goods out of a ship's hold, when there must be searching and tumbling about." Todd's Dict.

(16) question of these wars] Ground or point that draws on debate," word of war," as in Ant. & Cl. II. 2, Cæs. where this term is used in much the same sense; but perhaps more directly so lb. III. 2. Enob.

"At such a point,

"When half to half the world oppos'd, he being
"The merest question."

(17) moth] Moth is throughout our author, M. N. Dr. V. 1. Dem. K. John IV. 1. Arth. & H. V. K. Hen. IV. 1, the reading for mote or atom. Mr. Malone instances the preface to Lodge's Incarnate Devils: "They are in the aire like atoms in Sole, mothes in the sonne." 4to. 1656, and Florio's Ital. Dict. 1598," Festuceo, a moth, a little beam." "Mowghe, tinea” in Prompt. parvulor. is in Ortus Vocabulor, spelt mought.

(18) As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

Disasters in the sun] Shakespeare having told us, that, as precursors of a great event, certain prodigies were seen, proceeds, without any thing to connect his sentence, to instance other prodigies. In usual course we should say, "Ghosts appeared-and there were also other fearful and preternatural appearances:" and yet, as it stands, there is no difficulty in conceiving the meaning. This being so, may we not, with Shakespeare's license and title to exemption from grammatical shackles, read or understand it thus: "The graves opened, the dead were seen abroad [spectacles such] as, &c." This we must do, or with more unwarrantable license and much less probability, though with sense and consistency, read with Mr. Rowe : "Stars shone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell, "Disasters veil'd the sun."

Upon the passage in Par. Lost, I. 597, where 'tis said,

"the moon

"In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds,"

Warburton observes, that disaster is here used in its original signification of evil conjunction of stars; and Sylvester, speaking of the planet Saturn in his Du Bartas, says,

"His froward beams disastrous frowns." p. 80.

" Quo

(19) and the moist star] The moon or watery star. ululatíbus meis via patefieret ad cœlum usque, et inde possem deducere pallidam illam humidorum reginam ad miscendas mecum lachrymas." Jac. Howel, Anglia flens. 18mo. 1646, p. 2. Mr. Malone cites Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 1590: "Not that night-wand'ring, pale and watry star."

(20) like precurse of fierce events] Fierce is here bloody and terrible, as elsewhere we find it "extreme, excessive."

"O the fierce wretchedness, that glory brings."

Tim. IV. 2. Flav.

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