France.

Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,
Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France.

France.

Lear Act 1 Scene 1.

the sooner to effect,

And surer bind, this knot of amity,

-

The earl of Armagnac near knit to Charles,
A man of great authority in France,

Proffers his only daughter to your grace

In marriage, with a large and sumptuous dowry.
1. Henry VI. Act 5 Scene 1.

York.

France should have torn and rent my very heart,
Before I would have yielded to this league.

I never read but England's Kings have had

Large sums of gold, and dowries, with their wives:
And our king Henry gives away his own,

To match with her that brings no vantages.

Boyet

2. Henry VI. Act 1 Scene 1.

Now, madam, summon up your dearest spirits:
Consider who the king your father sends;
To whom he sends; and what's his embassy:
Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem;
To parley with the sole inheritor

Of all perfections that a man may owe,
Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight
Than Aquitain; a dowry for a queen.

Love's Labour Lost Act 2 Scene 1.
Petrucio.

Signior Baptista, my business asketh haste.
And every day I cannot come to woo.
You knew my father well; and in him, me,
Left solely heir to all his lands and goods,
Which I have better'd rather than decreased:
Then tell me, if I get your daughter's love,
What dowry shall I have with her to wife?

Baptista.

After my death, the one half of my lands:
And, in possession, twenty thousand crowns.

Petrucio.

And, for that dowry, I'll assure her of

Her widowhood, be it that she survive me,
In all my lands and leases whatsoever:

Let specialties be therefore drawn between us,
That covenants may be kept on either hand.

Taming of the Shrew Act 2 Scene 1.

Petrucio says, in effect, in consideration of that dowry or portion, which you Baptista promise I shall have with your daughter Katherine in marriage, I, Petrucio, will assure her of her widowhood, in case she sur

vives me in all my lands and leases. Widowhood, a term used now as descriptive of the state of being a widow, signified the estate settled on a widow. Dowry was, in ancient times, applied to the property which the wife brought with her in marriage, commonly called maritagium, or marriage portion,

Duke.

But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, ber combinate husband, this wellseeming Angelo.

Measure For Measure Act 1 Scene 1.

the dos according to the Roman acceptation of the term. And in this sense it will be seen that it is frequently used by Shakespeare. In alia neim acceptatione accipitur dos secundum leges Romanas, secundum quas proprie apellatur dos id quod cum muliere datur viro; quod vulgariter dicitur maritagium (Glan. lib. VII c. I). But at this day dos or dower is not taken by the professors of the common law, either for the land which the wife bringeth with her in marriage to her husband, for then it is either called in frank marriage or in marriage, as hath been said, nor for the portion of money or other goods or Chattels which she bringeth with her in marriage, for that is called her marriage portion.

Shepherd.

Take hands, a bargain;

And, friends unknown you shall bear witness to't:
I give my daughter to him, and will make
Her portion equal his.

Chorus.

Winter's Tale Act 4 Scene 3.

Suppose, the ambassador from the French comes back;
Tells Harry that the king doth offer him
daughter; and with her, to dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.

Katharine his

Henry V.

And yet of ancient time dos mulieris, the dower or dowrie of the woman was also applied to them. But it is now taken for her third part, which she hath of her husband's lands or tenements (Co. Litt. S. 36. 31. a). As the term dower or dowry are used in this passage from Coke upon Littleton as synonymous terms, signifying the property which the wife brought with her in marriage, so Shakespeare sometimes uses the term dower in the sense of dowry:

Lear.

Mean-time we shall express our darker purpose.

Give me the map there. Know, that we have divided,
In three, our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent

To shake all cares and business from our age;

Conferring them on younger strengths, while we

Unburden'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,
And you, our no less loving son of Albany,

We have this hour a constant will to publish

Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife
May be prevented now.

Duke.

Lear Act 1 Scene 1.

Then let her beauty be her wedding-dower:
For me and my possessions she esteems not.

Two Gentlemen of Verona Act 1 Scene 1.

Miranda.

I do not know

One of my sex; no woman's face remember,
Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen
More that I may call men, than you, good friend,
And my dear father: how features are abroad,
I am skill-less of; but, by my modesty,
(The jewel in my dower,) I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you;
Nor can imagination form a shape,

Besides yourself, to like of: but I prattle
Something too wildly, and my father's precepts
Therein forget.

Lear.

Tempest Act 3 Scene 1.

My lord of Burgundy,

We first address towards you, who with this king
Hath rivall'd for our daughter; What in the least,
Will you require in present do wer with her,
Or cease your quest of love?

Exeter.

Act 1 Scene 1.

Beside, his wealth doth warrant liberal dower;
While Reignier sooner will receive, than give.

Suffolk.

A dower, my lords! disgrace not so your king,
That he should be so abject, base, and poor,
To choose for wealth, and not for perfect love.
Henry is able to enrich his queen,

And not to seek a queen to make him rich:
So worthless peasants bargain for their wives,
As market-men for oxen, sheep, or horse.
Marriage is a matter of more worth,

Than to be dealt in by attorneyship.

1. Part Henry VI. Act 5 Scene 5. Lear.

Thy truth then be thy dower.

Lear.

Cornwall, and Albany,

With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

Claudius.

Act 1 Scene 1.

Thus stands it with me: Upon a true contract,

I got possession of Julietta's bed;

You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
Save that we do the denunciation lack
Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower
Remaining in the coffer of her friends;

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Till time had made them for us.

Measure For Measure Act 1 Scene 4.

King.

Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy dower.
All's Well That Ends Well Act 5 Scene 3.

Gloster.

And for the proffer of my lord your master,

-

I have inform'd his highness so at large
As liking of the lady's virtuous gifts,
Her beauty, and the value of her dower,
He doth intend she shall be England's queen

1. Henry VI. Act 5 Scene 1.

King Lewis.

-

Then, Warwick, thus, Our sister shall be Edward's;
And now forthwith shall articles be drawn

Touching the jointure that your king must make
Which with her dowry shall be counter-poised:
Draw near, queen Margaret, and be a witness,
That Bona shall be wife to the English king.

Henry VI. Part 3 Act 3 Scene 3.

Shallow.

He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure.
Merry Wives Act 3 Scene 4.

Rosalind.

Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more in my sight. I had as lief be woo'd of a snail.

Of a snail?

Orlando.

Rosalind.

Ay, of a snail, for though he comes slowly, he carries his house on his head; a better jointure, I think, than you can make a woman. As You Like It Act 4 Scene 1.

Capulet.

O, brother Montague, give me thy hand;

This is my daughter's jointure, for no more

Can I demand.

Romeo and Juliet Act 5 Scene 3.

A jointure, says Coke, is a competent livelihood of freehold for the wife of lands or tenements etc. to take effect presently in possession or profit after the decease of her husband for the life of the wife at the least, if she herself be not the cause of the determination of forfeiture of it. The reader will perceive that the Capulet plays on the word jointure, asking Montague to join hands.

Beurtheilungen und kurze Anzeigen.

Altdeutsches Handwörterbuch, von Wilh. Wackernagel. Basel, 1861.

Seit dem Jahre 1836 wurde bekanntlich von Wackernagel ein Wörterbuch zu den Nibelungen erwartet der Titel zu den Anmerkungen Lachmann's zu den Nibelungen und zur Klage verhiess nicht bloss diese, sondern auch ein Wörterbuch von Wackernagel. Derselbe kam aber nicht sogleich dem gegebenen Versprechen nach, es erschien Lübben's freilich nicht ganz mustergultige, aber für den Augenblick ausreichende Arbeit (S. Archiv XVI. Bd. p. 170-172), andere Studien führten ihn in andere Gebiete, so dass der Plan als aufgegeben, das Versprechen als nicht gegeben betrachtet werden durfte.

Indessen wuchs das zu dem altdeutschen Lesebuche gegebene kleine Wörterbuch aus kleinen Anfängen im Laufe der Zeit immer mehr, verwandte Studien über Wortbildung und Wortbedeutung führten dem Verfasser immer neue lexikologische Stoffe zu (vergl. die Aufsätze in Pfeiffer's Germania IV. Jahrgang 1859, S. 129 fgg., V. Jahrgang S. 290 fgg. und die grössere Abhandlung „die Umdeutschung fremder Wörter 1861"), und so erscheint denn gegenwärtig die neueste, viel umfangreichere Bearbeitung des Wörterbuchs, von dem man auf den ersten Blick sagen muss, der Verfasser habe nicht bloss sein im Jahre 1836 gegebenes Versprechen gelöst, sondern weit mehr gegeben, als er damals versprochen.

Dadurch dass das Wörterbuch gesondert auch ohne das Lesebuch verkauft wird, ist somit Allen, die an der Entwicklung der deutschen Sprache ein philologisches Interesse haben, im Grunde also allen gelehrt gebildeten Deutschen ein unentbehrlicher Schatz geboten, der nicht bloss dem Bedürfniss für Schule, Universität und Privatstudium abhilft, sondern auch als eine wesentliche Erweiterung unserer lexikographischen Nationalliteratur und Bereicherung unserer Spracherkenntniss betrachtet werden muss.

Allerdings ist das Wörterbuch zunächst nur für die neueste Ausgabe des Altdeutschen Lesebuchs bestimmt, aber der Verfasser bemerkt in dem Vorworte sehr richtig, dass dasselbe bei seiner ganzen Einrichtung und dem Reichthum und der Mannigfaltigkeit, die es von alt- und mittelhochdeutschen Wörtern in sich schliesst, auch noch anderweitig brauchbar sein dürfte; dass, wenn es auch nicht den ganzen Wortvorrath von Otfried's Evangelienharmonie oder der Werke Wolfram's von Eschenbach enthält, es doch bei verständiger Handhabung den Suchenden nur selten im Stiche lassen werde; dass dadurch zumeist die strebsame Jugend Anlass finden möchte, nach Durchschiessung mit weissem Papier sich selbst das Wörterbuch durch Ansammeln von Ausgelassenem zu erweitern und so in jeder Beziehung nutz