in her fond garrulity uses 'lady-bird' as a term of endearment; but recollecting its application to a female of loose manners, checks herself; God forbid!' her darling should prove such a one :" In the preceding explanation I believe that Mr. Staunton is altogether mistaken. The Nurse says that she has already "bid Juliet come" she then calls out, "What, lamb! what, lady-bird!" and Juliet not yet making her appearance, she exclaims, "God forbid ! -where's this girl?"—the words "God forbid" being properly an ellipsis of "God forbid that any accident should keep her away," but used here merely as an expression of impatience. lady of my earth, vi. 395: see note 14, vi. 477.

lady-smocks, "originally called our Lady smocks (Cardamine

pratensis). A common meadow-plant, with blushing white flowers, appearing early in spring" (Beisly's Shakspere's Garden, &c. p. 42), ii. 235.

lag, the last or lowest part or class: the common lag of people, vi. 546 : see note 123, vi. 593.

lag, late, tardy, coming short of: That came too lag to see him buried, v. 383; some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother, vii. 258. lag-end, the latter end, iv. 274; v. 499.

laid: see the second lay.

lakin: see by'r lakin.

laming The shrine of Venus, outgoing, surpassing the shrine, &c., vii. 726.

lampass-The, iii. 144: "The bars [of the palate] occasionally swell, and rise to a level with, and even beyond the edge of, the teeth. They are very sore, and the horse feels badly on account of the pain he suffers from the pressure of the food on them. This is called the Lampas." The Horse, by Youatt, p. 192, ed. 1848. Lancaster-The Duke of, iv. 328; 'twere better than your dukedom,

iv. 375: "This is an anachronism. Prince John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the second year of the reign of his brother, King Henry V." (MALONE): Douce observes that "Malone ought to have added, and then not Duke of Lancaster but of Bedford.' Mr. Ritson seems to have traced the source of Shakspeare's error in calling Prince John of Lancaster Duke of Lancaster, in Stowe's Annales; but he has omitted to remark that even then Shakspeare had forgotten that Prince John was not the second son of Henry the Fourth. The blunder of the industrious historian is unaccountable. See the seal of Henry the Fifth as Prince of Wales and Duke of Lancaster in Sandford's Genealogical History."

lances, lance-men: Mars, of lances the almighty, ii. 229; our impress'd lances, vii. 337.

LAND-DAMN-LATCH.

239

land-damn, iii. 438: see note 41, iii. 512.

land-rakers-No foot, "No padders, no wanderers on foot" (JOHNSON), iv. 225.

languish, languishment, the state of pining, suffering: cures with another's languish, vi. 396; rids our dogs of languish, vii. 588. lantern, slaughter'd youth—O, no, a, vi. 467 : A lantern may not, in this instance, signify an enclosure for a lighted candle, but a louvre, or what in ancient records is styled lanternium, i.e. a spacious round or octagonal turret full of windows, by means of which cathedrals, and sometimes halls, are illuminated. See the beautiful lantern at Ely Minster" (STEEVENS).

lapp'd, wrapped up, vii. 732.

lapsed in this place—If I be, iii. 367: Here lapsèd seems to mean caught or found off my guard.

laps'd in time and passion, “having suffered time to slip and passion to cool" (JOHNSON), vii. 170.

lapwing-To seem the, &c. i. 455; Far from her nest the lapwing cries away, ii. 34; This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head, vii. 205: Allusions to the lapwing (or peewit) endeavouring to mislead those who would plunder her nest are very common in our early writers; and Ray gives "The lapwing cries most farthest from her nest." Proverbs, p. 199, ed. 1768: it was also generally said that the young lapwings ran out of the shell with a portion of it sticking on their heads. (Yarrell, in his account of the lapwing, quotes Selby for what follows: "the female birds invariably, upon being disturbed, run from the eggs, and then fly near to the ground for a short distance, without uttering any alarm cry. The males, on the contrary, are very clamorous, and fly round the intruder, endeavouring, by various instinctive arts, to divert his attention." Hist. of Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 482, sec. ed.)

larded with sweet flowers, garnished, strewed with, sweet flowers, vii. 180.

large, free, coarse, licentious: large jests, ii. 101; word too large,

ii. 119.

lark and loathed toad chang'd eyes, &c.-Some say the, vi. 443: "The toad having very fine eyes, and the lark very ugly ones, was the occasion of a common saying amongst the people, that the toad and lark had changed eyes" (WARBURTON).

lash'd with woe, i. 12: In this passage does lash'd mean "punished," or is it to be understood as leash'd or lac'd?

lass-lorn, forsaken by his mistress, i. 220.

latch, to lay hold of, to catch: Where hearing should not latch them, vii. 59; which it doth latch, viii. 405.

latch, to lick over, to anoint: latch'd the Athenian's eyes, ii. 292 (Fr. lecher): so, at least, Hanmer explains latch'd in this passage; and his explanation is adopted as the true one in Richardson's Dict.

late, recent, new: As great to me as late, i. 230; the late (lately appointed) commissioners, iv. 439.

late, lately, recently: The mercy that was quick in us but late, iv. 440; late-despised Richard, v. 34; bereft thee of thy life too late, v. 267; late entering at his heedful ears, v. 282; Too late he died that might have kept that title, v. 395; It pleas'd the king his master very late, vii. 281; that life Which she too early and too late hath spill'd, viii. 338.

lated, belated, benighted, vii. 37, 553.

lath, a contemptuous term for a sword: have your lath glu'd within your sheath, vi. 298.

lath-Dagger of: see Dagger, &c.

latten, a sort of mixed metal, resembling brass in its nature and colour; but sometimes white ("Buttons of steel, copper, tin, or latton, for Jerkins." The Rates of the Custome house, &c., 1582, sig. a vii. verso): this latten bilbo (=this sword without edge and temper), i. 349: see bilbo: “The sarcasm intended is, that Slender had neither courage nor strength" (HEATH).

laugh-and-lie-down (more properly Laugh-and-lay-down) was a game at cards, to which there is an allusion in what follows;

viii. 143.

"I could laugh now.

Wait.-w. I could lie down, I'm sure:"

laughing, as, Ha, ha, he !-Some be of, ii. 118: "A quotation from the Accidence" (JOHNSON).

laund, a lawn, v. 272; viii. 266.

laundering, washing, viii. 439.

laundry-His, i. 352: "Sir Hugh means to say his launder" (STEEVENS).

lavolt, vi. 69; lavoltas, iv. 458: The lavolt or lavolta was a dance
for two persons, consisting much in high bounds and whirls (Sir
John Davies thus prettily describes it;

"Yet is there one the most delightfull kind,
A loftie iumping, or a leaping round,

Where arme in arme two dauncers are entwind,

And whirle themselues, with strict embracements bound;
And still their feet an anapest do sound;

An anapest is all their musicks song,

Whose first two feet are short, and third is long."

Orchestra, &c. st. 70).

law of writ and the liberty-For the, vii. 142: see note 64, vii. 224. lay, a wager: A dreadful lay, v. 194; my fortunes against any lay worth naming, vii. 412; I will have it no lay, vii. 647.

lay, to waylay: all the country is laid for me, v. 185.

"lay by," and spent with crying "bring in"-Got with swearing, iv. 211: "Lay by" (properly, a nautical phrase, meaning "become stationary by slackening sail") is supposed to be used here for the "Stand!" of highwaymen ; "bring in" is, of course, “bring in more wine."

lay for, to lay out for, to strive to win: lay for hearts, vi. 544. lead his [the bear-ward's] apes into hell, ii. 86; lead apes in hell, iii. 129: "To lead apes' was in our author's time, as at present, one of the employments of a bear-ward, who often carries about one of those animals along with his bear: but I know not how this phrase came to be applied to old maids" (MALONE): "That women who refused to bear children should, after death, be condemned to the care of apes in leading-strings, might have been considered as an act of posthumous retribution" (STEEVENS).

leaguer, iii. 252: "Is the Dutch, or rather Flemish, word for a camp; and was one of the new-fangled terms introduced from the Low-Countries." Gifford's note on Massinger's Works, vol. iii. p. 121, ed. 1813: It is generally used to signify the camp of the assailants in a siege.

Leander cross'd the Hellespont-How young, i. 263; to scale another Hero's tower, &c., i. 294: Perhaps allusions to Marlowe's poem Hero and Leander, which, though not printed till 1598, might have been read by Shakespeare before it reached the press, for there is no doubt that in those days poems were much handed about in manuscript: Shakespeare has quoted a line from it in As you like it; see vol. iii. p. 53, and foot-note.

lease-That they are out by, i. 318: "By Thurio's possessions, he

himself understands his lands and estate. But Proteus chooses to take the word likewise in a figurative sense, as signifying his mental endowments; and when he says they are out by lease, he means they are no longer enjoyed by their master (who is a fool), but are leased out to another" (LORD HAILES).

leash of drawers—A, A tierce of drawers (viz. Tom, Dick, and Francis, who are immediately mentioned), iv. 232: Leash is properly a string or thong by which a dog is led; and it came to signify "a tierce" or three," because usually three dogs were coupled together: "A Leace of Greyhounds is three." R. Holme's Academy of Armory and Blazon, B. iii. ch. iii. p. 76: "A Leash of

VOL. IX.

R

242

LEASING-LENTEN.

hounds, canum ternio." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict. (In Sylvester's Du Bartas I find

"As Citizens

by leashes [the original "trois à trois"] and by payrs, Crowned with Garlands, go to take the ayrs," &c.

Fifth Day of the First Week, p. 40, ed. 1641.) • leasing, lying, iii. 337; vi. 222: The former passage has been explained "May Mercury teach thee to lie, since thou liest in favour of fools" (JOHNSON).

leather-coats, the apples generally known as golden russetings,

iv. 394.

leave, licentiousness: love, whose leave exceeds commission, viii. 258. leave, to part with: to leave her token, i. 313; he would not leave it, ii. 412; I may not leave it so ("I may not so resign my office,' which you offer to take on you at your peril," Johnson), v. 417; As will not leave their tinct, vii. 169.

leave, to leave off, to desist: I cannot leave to love, i. 288; You bade me ban, and will you bid me leave? v. 161.

leave-Good: see good leave, &c.

leech, a physician, vi. 576.

leer, complexion, colour: a Rosalind of a better leer, iii. 56 ; fram'd of another leer, vi. 330.

leese, to lose, viii. 351.

leet, iii. 112; leets, vii. 420: "Leet. A manor court, or private jurisdiction for petty offences; also a day on which such court is held." Nares's Gloss.

leg, a bow, an obeisance: Make a leg, iii. 228; iv. 152; here is my leg, iv. 242; I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums, vi. 522.

legerity, lightness, nimbleness, iv. 470.

'leges, alleges, iii. 121: see note 40, iii. 186.

leiger: see lieger.

leisure and the fearful time-The, v. 445; The leisure and enforcement of the time, v. 449; spiritual leisure, v. 535: On the first of these passages Johnson observes, "We have still a phrase equivalent to this, however harsh it may seem, 'I would do this, if leisure would permit,' where leisure, as in this passage, stands for want of leisure. So again [in the second passage] :" According to Nares, "It stands simply for time or space allowed." Gloss. in v.

leman, a paramour, a lover: his wife's leman, i. 399.

leman, a mistress, a sweetheart: sixpence for thy leman, iii. 346; drink unto the leman mine, iv. 394.

length, delay, stay: All length is torture, vii. 577.

lenten, spare (like the fare in Lent): A good lenten (short, laconic)