in which the composer or performer, rejecting the rigorous rules of time, imitates the inflexions, accent, and emphasis, of natural speech.

RECITATIVE, SO called because its true province lies in narration and recital, was first introduced at Rome, in the year 1660, by Signor Emilia del Cavaliere, and was so powerfully recommended by its effect as to be speedily adopted in other parts of Italy, and, by degrees, through the rest of Europe. The beauty of this species of composition depends greatly on the character of the language in which it is used; as that is more or less accented and melodious, so the more or less natural and striking will be the effect of the recitative.

RECK, v. n. & v. a. RECKLESS, adj.

Sax. pecan; Swed. ·reka; Goth. rækia. To

RECK LESSNESS, n. s. Svalue; care; heed; mind; care for: reckless is, careless; heedless: the noun substantive corresponding.

This son of mine, not recking danger, and neglecting the present good way he was in of doing himself good, came hither to do this kind office to my unspeakable grief. Sidney.

It made the king as reckless as them diligent. Id. Over many good fortunes began to breed a proud

recklessness in them.

Thou's but a lazy loarde,

And recks much of thy swinke,

That with fond terms and witless words,

Id.

I reckoned above two hundred and fifty on the outside of the church, though I only told three sides of it. Addison.

A multitude of cities are reckoned up by the geographers, particularly by Ptolemy. Arbuthnot.

RECKONING, or a SHIP'S RECKONING, in uavigation, is that account whereby at any time it may be known where the ship is, and on what course or courses she is to steer in order to gain her port; and that account taken from the logboard is called the dead reckoning. See NAVI

GATION.

RECLAIM', v. a. Į Lat. reclamo. To reRECLAIMER, n. s. form; correct; adjust; bring to a desired standard; tame: reclaimer is a contradicter.

He spared not the heads of any mischievous practices, but shewed sharp judgment on them for ensample sake, that all the meaner sort, which were infected with that evil, might, by terror thereof, be reclaimed and saved. Spenser.

This errour whosoever is able to reclaim, he shall save more in one summer, than Themison destroyed in any autumn. Browne.

Reclaim your wife from strolling up and down Dryden's Juvenal. To all assizes. The head-strong horses hurried Octavius, the trembling charioteer, along, and were deaf to his reclaiming them. Dryden. Upon his fist he bore An eagle well reclaimed. Id. Knight's Tale. Are not hawks brought to the hand, and lions, tygers, and bears reclaimed by good usage?

L'Estrange.

men from their errors.

The penal laws in being against papists have been found ineffectual, and rather confirm than reclaim Swift. RECLAIMING, in ancient English customs, was a lord's pursuing, prosecuting, and recalling his vassal, who had gone to live in another place without his permission.

RECLAIMING is also used for the demanding of a person or thing, to be delivered up to the prince or state to which it properly belongs; when, by any irregular means, it is come into another's possession.

RECLAIMING, in falconry, is taming a hawk, &c., and making her gentle and familiar. A partridge is said to reclaim, when she calls her young ones together, upon their scattering too

much from her.

A RECLUSE, among the Roman Catholics, is a person shut up in a small cell of a hermitage or monastery, and cut off, not only from all conversation with the world, but even with the house. This is a kind of voluntary imprisonment, from a motive either of devotion or penance. The word is also applied to incontinent wives, whom their husbands procure to be thus kept in perpetual imprisonment in some religious house. Recluses were anciently very numerous. They took an oath never to stir out of their retreat; and, having entered it, the bishop set his seal upon the door; and the recluse had every thing necessary for the support of life conveyed through a window. If he was a priest, he was allowed a small oratory with a window, which looked into the church, through

which he might make his offerings at the mass, hear the singing, and answer those who spoke to him; but this window had curtains before it, so that he could not be seen. He was allowed a little garden, adjoining to his cell, in which he might plant a few herbs, and breathe a little fresh air. If he had disciples, their cells were contiguous to his, with only a window of communication, through which they conveyed necessaries to him, and received his instructions. If a recluse fell sick, his door might be opened for persons to come in and assist him, but he himself was not to stir out. Re and coagu

RECOAGULATION, n.s. lation. Second coagulation.

This salt, dissolved in a convenient quantity of water, does upon its recoagulation dispose of the aqueous particles among its own saline ones, and shoot into crystals.

RECOGNIZE, v. a. RECOGNISANCE, n. s. RECOGNISEE',

RECOGNISOR',

RECOGNITION,

Boyle.

Lat. recognosco. To acknowledge; recover or avow knowledge; review recognisance is, acknowledgment;

badge; a legal bond described below: the recognisee is he in whose favor it is drawn; the recognisor, he who gives it: recognition is, acknowledgment; review.

Apparent it is, that all men are either christians or not; if by external profession they be christians, then are they of the visible church of Christ, and christians by external profession they are all whose mark of recognizance hath in it those things mentioned, yet although they be impious idolaters and wicked hereticks.

She did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love,
Which I first gave her; an handkerchief.

Hooker.

Shakspeare. The English should not marry with any Irish, unless bound by recognisance with sureties, to continue loyal. Davies.

The Israelites in Moses' days were redeemed out of Egypt; in memory and recognition whereof they were commanded to observe the weekly sabbath.

White.

RECOGNITION is a term used in the English law books for the first chapter of the statute 1 Jac. I., by which the parliament acknowledged that, after the death of queen Elizabeth, the crown had rightfully descended to king James.

RECOGNIZANCE, in law, is an obligation of record, which a man enters into before some court of record or magistrate duly authorised, with condition to do some particular act; as to appear at the assizes, to keep the peace, to pay a debt, or the like. It is in most respects like another bond; the difference being chiefly this, that the bond is the creation of a fresh debt or obligation de novo, the recognizance is an acknowledgment of a former debt upon record;

the form whereof is, that A B doth acknowledge to owe to our lord the king, to the plaintiff, or to CD, or the like, the sum of £10,' with condition to be void on performance of the thing stipulated; in which case, the king, the plaintiff, CD, &c., is called the cognizee, is cui cognoscitur; as he that enters into the recognizance is called the cognizor, is cui cognoscit. This being certified to, or taken by, the officer of some court, is witnessed only by the record of that court, and not by the party's seal; so that it is not in strict propriety a deed, though the effects of it are greater than a common obligation; being allowed a priority in point of payment, and binding the lands of the cognizor from the time of enrolment on record.

RECOIL', v. n. & n. s. Fr. reculer. To rush or fall back; fail; shrink: a falling back. Ye both forewearied be; therefore a while I read you rest, and to your bowers recoil. Spenser. The very thought of my revenges that way Recoil upon me; in himself too mighty.

Shakspeare.

Who in deep mines for hidden knowledge toils, Like guns o'ercharged, breaks, misses, or recoils. Denham.

Revenge, at first though sweet, Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils. Milton. My hand's so soft, his heart so hard, The blow recoils, and hurts me while I strike.

Dryden. RECOIL, in gunnery, is the retrograde motion made by any piece of fire arms on being discharged. Cannon are always subject to a recoil, according to the sizes and the charge they contain, &c. Guns, whose vents are a little forward in the chase, recoil most. To lessen the recoil of a gun, the platforms are generally made sloping towards the embrasures of the battery. See PROJECTILES. The following is

A TABLE of the recoil of field guns on travelling carriages, on elm planks.

RECOLLECT, v. a. Į Lat. recollectus. To RECOLLECTION, n. s. remember; recover to memory or reason; gather again; the noun substantive corresponding.

It did relieve my passion much; More than light airs and recollected terms Of these most brisk and giddy paced times. Shakspeare.

Let us take care that we sleep not without such a recollection of the actions of the day as may represent any thing that is remarkable, as matter of sorrow or thanksgiving. Taylor. Finding the recollection of his thoughts disturb his sleep, he remitted the particular care of the composition.

The Tyrian queen

Fell.

Admired his fortunes, more admired the man; Then recollected stood. Dryden's Eneis. Recollection is when an idea is sought after by the mind, and with pain and endeavour found, and brought again in view.

Locke.

Recollect every day the things seen, heard, or read, which made any addition to your understanding. Watts's Logick.

RECOM'FORT, v. a. comfort or console again.

Re and comfort. To

What place is there left, we may hope our woes to recomfort? Sidney. Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tides, As the recomforted through the gates. Shakspeare. As one from sad dismay

Recomforted, and after thoughts disturbed,
Submitting to what seemed remediless.
RECOMMEND', v. a.

RECOMMENDABLE, adj.

Milton.

Fr. recommender.

Re and commend.

RECOMMENDATION, n. s. To praise earnestly; RECOMMENDATORY, adj. makemendable is, acceptable:

RECOMMEND'ER, n.s.

that which secures preference; qualification: worthy of praise; the act or mode of praising; recommendatory, that which commends: recommender, he who commends.

They had been recommended to the grace of God. Acts xiv.

Mæcenas recommended Virgil and Horace to Augustus, whose praises helped to make him popular while alive, and after his death have made him precions to posterity. Dryden.

Poplicola's doors were opened on the outside, to save the people even the common civility of asking entrance; where misfortune was a powerful recommendation; and where want itself was a powerful mediator.

Id.

A decent boldness ever meets with friends, Succeeds, and even a stranger recommends. Pope.

RECON'SECRATE, v. a. Re and consecrate. To consecrate anew.

If a church should be consumed by fire, it shall, in such a case, be reconsecrated. Ayliffe's Parergon. RECONVEY', v. n. Re and convey. To convey again.

As rivers lost in seas, some secret vein Thence reconveys, there to be lost again. Denham. RECORD', v. a. & n. s. Į Fr. recorder; Lat. RECORD'ER, n. s. recordor. To register; celebrate; recite: a register; authentic memorial; remembrance: a recorder is he whose business it is to keep records; the rolls of a city, &c.; also a kind of flute.

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death. Deut. xxx. 20.

Those things that are recorded of him, and his impiety, are written in the chronicles. 1 Esdras i.

The shepherds went among them, and sung an eclogue, while the other shepherds, pulling out recorders, which possest the place of pipes, accorded Sidney.

their music to the others voice.

He shall record a gift

Here in the court of all he dies possessed,

Unto his son Lorenzo.

Is it upon record? or else reported

Successively, from age to age?

Shakspeare.

Id.

I never shall have length of life enough, To rain upon remembrance with mine eyes, That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven For recordation to my noble husband.

I asked, what meant this wilful silence? His answer was, the people were not used To be spoke to except by the recorder.

Id.

Id.

Prior.

Thy elder look, great Janus! cast Into the long records of ages past; Review the years in fairest action drest. The office of recorder to this city being vacant, five or six persons are soliciting to succeed him. Swift. RECORD, TRIAL BY, is where a matter of record is pleaded in any action, as a fine, a judgment, or the like; and the opposite party pleads, nul tiel record, that there is no such matter of record existing. Upon this, issue is tendered and joined in the following form, and this he prays may be enquired of by the record; and the other does the like; and hereupon the

bring it in, and proclamation is made in court for him to bring forth the record by him in pleading alleged, or else he shall be condemned;' and, on his failure, his antagonist shall have judgment to recover. The trial, therefore, of this issue is merely by the record; for, as Sir Edward Coke observes, a record or enrolment is a monument of so high a nature, and importeth in itself such absolute verity, that if it be pleaded that there is no such record, it shall not receive any trial by witness, jury, or otherwise, but only by itself. Thus titles of nobility, as whether earl or not earl, baron or not baron, shall be tried by the king's writ or patent only, which is matter of record. Also, in case of an alien, whether alien, friend, or enemy, he shall be tried by the league or treaty between his sovereign and ours; for every league or treaty is of record. And also, whether a manor be held in ancient demesne or not, shall be tried by the record of doomsday in the king's exchequer.

The RECORDER is a person whom the mayor and other magistrates of a city or corporation associate with themselves, for their direction in matters of justice and proceedings in law; on which account this person is generally a counsellor well skilled in the law. No recorder of

London is mentioned before 1304. He is the first officer in order of precedence that is paid a salary, which originally was no more than £10 sterling per annum, with some perquisites; but it has from time to time been augmented to upwards of £1000 per annum. This office has sometimes been executed by a deputy.

RECORDE (Robert), M. D., an English physician and antiquarian of the sixteenth century. He was educated at Cambridge, where he took his degrees, and was the first Englishman who wrote on Algebra. He was also well versed in the Saxon language, and collected many historical and other ancient MSS. His learning, however, unfortunately did not prevent his being imprisoned in the King's Bench prison for debt, where he died in 1558.

RECOUCH', v. a. Re and couch. To lie down again.

Thou mak'est the night to overvail the day; Then lions' whelps lie roaring for their prey, And at thy powerful hand demand their food; Who when at morn they all recouch again, Then toiling man till eve pursues his pain. Wotton. RECOV'ER, v. a. & v. n. RECOVERABLE, adj. RECOVERY, n. s.

Fr. recouvrir; Lat. recupero. To restore; repair;

renew; regain; release: grow healthy or free from disease or evil: recoverable is, possible to be regained recovery, restoration; act or power of regaining: in law, act of cutting off an entail. Would my lord were with the prophet; for he 2 Kings v. 3. would recover him of his leprosy. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach the blind. gospel to the poor, and recovering of sight to the Luke iv. 18. That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him.

2 Timothy ii. 26. These Italians, in despight of what could be done, recovered Tiliaventum. Knolles.