"Monentur etiam et rogantur, ut ante meridiem ad horae octavae,
post meridiem vero ad secundae punctum praesentes sese sistere
dignentur."
Can any of your readers give me particulars about this John Maire?
W.J.
Havre.
* * * * *
REPLIES.
SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE WORD "DELIGHTED."
(Vol. ii., pp. 113. 139.)
Although Mr. Hickson's notion of the meaning of _delight_, in the three
passages of Shakspeare he has cited, is somewhat startling, it was not
to be summarily rejected without due examination; and yet, from a
tolerably extensive acquaintance with old English phraseology, I fear I
cannot flatter him with the expectation of having it confirmed by
instances from other writers.
I believe that _lighted_ is rather an unusual form to express
_lightened_, _disencumbered_, but that it was sometimes used is
apparent; for in Hutton's _Dictionary_, 1583, we have "Allevo, to make
light, to light."--"Allevatus, lifted up, _lighted_." And in the
_Cambridge Dictionary_, 1594, "Allevatus, lifted up, _lighted_, raised,
eased or recovered." The use of the prefix _de_ in the common instance
of _depart_ for to _part_, _divide_, is noticed by Mr. Hickson; and
_demerits_ was used for _merits_ by many of our old writers as well as
Shakspeare. I find _decompound_ for _compound_ in Heylyn's
_Microcosmos_, 1627, p. 249., thus:--"The English language is a
_decompound_ of Dutch, French, and Latin.
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