Book Description

Excerpt from A Glossary and Etymological Dictionary of Obsolete and Uncommon Words, Antiquated Phrases, Proverbial Expressions, Obscure Allusions, and of Words Which Have Changed Their Significations: Illustrative of the Works of Our Early Dramatic and Lyric Poets; With Historical Notices of Ancient Customs, Manners, &C., &C The prevailing ardour for rescuing the Works of our old Poets and Dramatic Authors from the oblivion to which they were fast approaching, is creditable to the taste and Iiberalityof the age; new editions of the old Drama, collectively, and of the separate Works of peele, greene, webster, marlowe, ford, massinger, and others have recently been published: the Works of chaucer and spenser have been repeatedly reprinted, but the Glossaries appended to them have been both meagre and unsatisfactory. Notwithstanding the numerous Commentaries on the Works of shake speare, it is an undeniable fact that many of the peculiar phrases and local allusions abounding in his \vorks, have neither been properly defined or satis factorily elucidated; this defect has arisen from the want of a competent knowledge of the dialect of the Midland Counties. Numerous words used by shake speare being local, are not to be found in any cotemporary Author, and hence the Commentators, unacquainted with the Archaisms of the County of Stafford and other adjoining Counties, were puzzledto find among their philological researches the de rivation and definition of those words, and therefore adopted many very fanciful and some very absurd ones. The words blood bolter'd may be adduced, among others, to prove the fact. The definition of warburton, adopted by malone, has no analogy with the true meaning of the word boiler, which is purely local and in use at the present day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.