New Light On Some Obscure Words And Phrases In The Works Of Shakespeare And His Contemporaries PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ... in Troilus and Cressida, is, as Nares remarks, "by no means clear, though evidently meant as a term of reproach." Patroclus. You indistinguishable cur! Thersites. Why art thou, then, exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleyd silk, thou green sarsnet flap for a sore eye! thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah, how the poor world is pestered with such waterflies! Patroclus. Out! gall! Thersites. Finch Egg. Steevens says that "A finch's egg is remarkably gaudy, and that the word may thus be equivalent to a coxcomb." "But," remarks Nares, " the chaffinch, bulfinch, and goldfinch have all eggs of a bluish-white, with purplish spots or stripes." And he thence implies that these eggs are not gaudy, and that the simile is inappropriate. It may perhaps throw some light on the subject, if we consider that the Keltic fineag or fionag signifies a mite, an animalcule, a maggot, a contemptible insect, and that Finch is probably a corruption of that word. Thus, Thersites after having exhausted all the abusive epithets at his immediate command, wound up by calling Patroclus a maggot's egg, than which nothing could be smaller or more contemptible. GONERIL, REGAN, AND CORDELIA. The story of King Lear and his three daughters belongs to the Keltic period of British history or tradition. King Leir, as the name is written in the old chronicles, is supposed to have been the son of Bladud, and to have reigned over part of Britain in the middle of the ninth century before the Christian era. Shakspeare did not invent the legend on which he founded his matchless tragedy, nor the names of the three daughters of the unhappy king, all of which he found recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth, and other ancient chroniclers....