Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Mark vii. 9.

Prospero, master of a full poor cell. Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2.

GOOD-MAN-Master of the House, Paterfamilias. If the good-man of the house had known, &c. Matth. xxiii. 43. See also Prov. vii. 19.

Naboth had a vineyard hard by the palace of Ahab.

1 Kings xxi. 1.

See also Acts xviii. 7. It occurs in several other places in the Old Testament; but in Ps. xxii. 11, and cvii. 8, where the Prayer Book version has 'hard at hand' and 'hard at death's door,' the Bible has near' in both places.

Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

HARNESS

armour.

Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2.

Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off. 1 Kings xx. 2.

See also xxii. 34, and Prayer Book version of Ps. lxxviii. 10, where the Bible has being armed.' Before the Sun rose he was harnessed light.

KNOW

Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 2.

to acknowledge, approve, bless.

The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.

Ps. i. 6.

See also Exod. ii. 25, margin; Hosea xiii. 5; Nahum i. 7; John x. 14, 27; 2 Tim. ii. 19. In the following passage Shakspeare seems to use the word in the same sense.

I know you are my eldest brother, and, in the gentle condition of blood, you should so know me. As you like it, Act i. Sc. 1.

Ps. xxv. 2.

Prayer Book version; but in Bible teach me.' See also verse 8.

You must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure. As you like it, Act i. Sc. 2.

LEASING =

lying.

Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing.

In his praise

Ps. v. 6. See also iv. 2.

Have almost stamped the leasing. Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 2. i. e. made the lie current.

Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

2 Thess. ii. 7.

See also Exod. v. 4; Isaiah xliii. 13.

If nothing lets to make us happy. Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1.

Shakspeare also uses the substantive let hindrance,

which does not occur in the Bible.

Therefore my kinsmen are no let to me.

Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 2.

That I may know the let, why gentle peace
Should not expel these inconveniences.

King Henry V. Act. v. Sc. 2.

good state of body, plumpness. young ones are in good liking.

Their

Job xxxi. 4. I have an eye to make difference of men's liking.

Merry Wives, Act ii. Sc. 1.

We find the same word used also as an adjective. Why should he see your faces worse liking? Dan. i. 10. See also the Prayer Book version of Ps. xcii. 13, 'fat and well-liking;' in Bible, ‘fat and flourishing.' Well-liking wits they have; gross, gross; fat, fat.

Love's Labour's lost, Act v,

Sc. 2.

MAN-CHILD, MAID-CHILD, for male child, and female child; in the plural we have ' male children,' Josh. xvii. 2.

If a woman have born a man-child.

But if she bear a maid-child.

Levit. xii. 2.
Ibid. 5.

I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child, than now in first hearing he had proved himself a man.

See also Judges xii. 14; Job xviii. 19; Isaiah

xiv. 22.

You'll have your nephews neigh to you. Othello, Act i. Sc. 1. Shakspeare also uses NIECE for grand-daughter, in King Richard III., Act iv. Sc. 1.

OR EVER = before.

I.

The lions brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.

Daniel vi. 24.

See also Prov. viii. 23; Eccles. xii. 6; Acts xxiii. 15. Compare 'ere ever,' in Ecclus. xxiii. 20.

I drink the air before me, and return

Or e'er your pulse beat twice. Tempest, Act v. Sc. 1. See also Hamlet, quoted below, Pt. II. ch. iii. PATE = head, once in Bible, frequent in Shak

speare.

His mischief shall return upon his own head; and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. Ps. vii. 16. Enter, skirmishing, the Retainers of Gloster and Winchester, with bloody pates. King Henry VI. 1st Part, Act iii. Sc. 1.

See also Taming of the Shrew, quoted above, p. 16. PLAY to fence, fight.

=

Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. 2 Sam. ii. 14.

Compare Bp. Andrewes' second sermon on Ash Wednesday.

He sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes. Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2.

within the ports of the

Ps. ix. 14. Prayer Book version.

The word does not

In the Bible gates.' occur, I believe, at all in the Bible, either in this sense (though 'porter'. does several times) or in its more modern use for harbour; Latin, portus. Shakspeare uses it in both senses, even in the same play:

Hark, the Duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes ;—

All ports I'll bar.

King Lear, Act ii. Sc. 1. No port is free, no place

Does not attend my taking.

Ibid. 3.

Then is all safe! the anchor's in the port.

Titus Andron. Act iv. Sc. 4.

PREVENT to (1) come before, (2) go before, in order to guide and help-not to hinder, as now used, (3) anticipate; Latin, prævenio.

1. In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

Ps. lxxxviii. 13.

2. Let Thy tender mercies speedily prevent us.

Ps. lxxix. 8. See also Ps. xxi. 3. 3. We which are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep. 1 Thess. iv. 15. See also Ps. cxix. 148; Matth. xvii. 25. I would have staid till I had made you merry,

If worthier friends had not prevented me.

Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 1. This seems to fall under the third meaning; and I am not sure that Shakspeare affords an example of any other; except the modern one, viz. to hinder, which is also found in the Bible. The instance, however, which Johnson quotes from Shakspeare, and interprets in the sense of to hinder, ought, I think, to be interpreted, in the sense of to anticipate.

I do find it cowardly and vile,

For fear of what might fall, so to prevent

The time of life.

Julius Cæsar, Act v. Sc. 1.

In the same play, iii. 1, the substantive PREVEN

TION is used with the same meaning :

Casca, be sudden; for we fear prevention.