3 Clown. Our wives and daughters are, for they are sure
To get by the bargain;

Although our barns be emptied, they'll be sure
To be with bairn for 't. (pron. barne.)

rather than live like beasts.

3 Clown. Ay, and like horn-beasts, neighbour.

It is not a fart matter.")

See for another instance the quotation from Marlowe, S.V., p. 180.

XI.

Certain words used with reference to the agent.

King Henry VIII. i. 1,–

66

I wonder,

That such a keech can, with his very bulk,
Take up the rays o' th' beneficial sun,

And keep it from the earth."

Beneficial, i.e., beneficent. It is to be observed that the words benefit and beneficial, in our old writers, almost uniformly involve the idea of a benefactor, which has since been dropped, except in cases where the context implies that idea, e.g., conferring or receiving a benefit. (Compare the similar change in the meaning of injury; e.g., “the corn has received great injury from the bad weather; late hours are very injurious to health," &c.) So understand Comedy of Errors, i. 1,

Therefore, merchant, I limit thee this day
To seek thy [help] by beneficial help :

Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus," &c.

دو

T. N. Kinsman,iii. 6 (Fletcher's part), near the beginning,—

"Would you were so in all, sir! I could wish you

As kind a kinsman, as you force me find [you]
A beneficial foe; that my embraces

Might thank you, not my blows."

Hamlet, i. 3, init.,—

as the winds give benefit,

And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
But let me hear from you."

(As Cymbeline, iv. 2,

Captain. With the next benefit o' th' wind.")

King Lear, i. 4,

"Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt."

Hamlet of 1603,

"And shall I kill him now,

When he is purging of his soule ?

Making his way for heauen, this is a benefit,

And not reuenge."

Webster, Dutchess of Malfy, iii. 5, Dyce, vol. i. p. 253,

The birds that live i' th' field

On the wild benefit of nature, live

Happier than we;

as we now say, "on the bounty of nature;

dleton, quoted in Dyce's note. Massinger, Emperor of the East, iv. 1, Moxon, p. 254, col. 2,

The sweetness of your temper does abuse you;
And you call that a benefit to yourself,

Which she, for her own ends, conferr'd upon you."

Perhaps, however, the modern use had already begun to creep in. 2 King Henry VI. i. 3,

"As for the duke of York, this late complaint

Will make but little for his benefit."

So also artificial is used with a reference to the agent.
Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2,-

“We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,

Have with our neelds created both one flower," &c. ;

deabus artificibus similes. Pericles, v. 1,—

"If that thy prosperous-artificial feat

Can draw him but to answer thee in aught,

Thy sacred physic shall receive such pay," &c. ;

the successful exertion of thy art.37 (By the way, artful in our old writers is sometimes used as we now use artificial. Beaumont and Fletcher, Queen of Corinth, iii. 1, Moxon, vol. ii. p. 34. col. 1, alluding, of course, to the story of Icarus,

"This giant will I fell beneath the earth;

I will shine out, and melt his artful wings."

In like manner, effect, in the old writers, always involves the idea of an effector. Effectus and -um, hoc est, quod ab aliquo efficitur. Sidney, Defence of Poesy, p. 506, 1. 15,

"since his [the poet's] effects be so good as to teach goodness, and delight the learners of it." Arcadia, B. ii. p. 133, 1. 38,-" [Pyrocles and Musidorus would] go privately to seek exercises of their virtue, thinking it not so worthy to be brought to heroical effects by fortune, or necessity (like Ulysses or Æneas), as by one's own choice and working." Ib. 1. 44, they [P. and M.] met

37 Walker here adopts, and confirms by his explanation, Steevens's elegant correction. Others read "prosperous and artificial.”—Ed.

an adventure, which, though not so notable for any great effect they performed, yet worthy to be remembered," &c. B. iii. p. 306, 1. 25,—“to confirm some of her threatened effects; see context. Chapman, Il. iv. Taylor, vol. i. p. 116, 1. 10, the verb,

then the Greeks gave worthy clamours vent, Effecting then their first dumb [i.e., first-dumb] powers;"

putting into practice their powers of vociferation, which had previously been dumb. See also vi. p, 153. l. 5, sqq.,—

he shunn'd his death direct,

Holding a way so near not safe, and plotted the effect
By sending him with letters seal'd," &c.

(In like manner-though the case is not exactly the same -it may be observed that affair still retained somewhat of its old etymological connection with faire, and was occasionally used in the sense of doing, effort.

Chapman, Il. xv. vol. ii. p. 58, 1. 11,—

"The Trojans took Jove's sign for them, and pour'd out their affairs

In much more violence on the Greeks, and thought on nought but fight."

Efforts. xx. p. 202, 1. 26,—

"And this bred fresh desire of moan, and in that sad affair The sun had set amongst them all, had Thetis' son not spoke," &c.

1. 153,

τοῖσι δὲ πᾶσιν ὑφ ̓ ἵμερον ὦρσε γόοιο.

καί νύ κ' ὀδυρομένοισιν ἔδυ φάος ἠελίοιο,

εἰ μὴ ̓Αχιλλεὺς, &c.

And so in Chapman, passim. This use of affair, however,

VOL. I.

7

appears to have been rare; at least there seem to be few passages in the Elizabethan writers, so far as I am acquainted with them, in which it may not be taken in its present sense.)

So serviceable is willing to serve; obedient. Massinger,
Virgin Martyr, ii. 1, towards the end,--

"Therefore, my most lov'd mistress, do not bid
Your boy, so serviceable, to get hence;

For then you break his heart."

for to it was the con

Arcadia, B. iii. p. 241, 1. 41, course, one thrusting upon another, who might show himself most diligent and serviceable towards me." P. 252, 1. 13, "awfully serviceable," i.e., reverentially obedient, or willing to serve. Page 296, 1. 5: “ and she, who would never like him for serviceableness, ever after loved him for violence." Here it is submissiveness ; see context. Continuation of the same work, page 361, 1. 17,-" so were these now thrown into so serviceable an affection, that the turning of Zelmane's eye was a strong stern enough to all their motions, wending no way, but as the enchanting force of it guided them." P. 372, 1. 19,

So that she, but then the physician, was now become the patient; and he, to whom her weakness had been serviceable, was now enforced to do service to her weakness." (But then, i.e., just before; as we still say but now.) Defence of Poesy, p. 491, 1. 29,—"the only serviceable courtier without flattery." (As Chaucer; Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Character of the Squier, ad fin. v. 99,— "Curteis he was, lowly, and servisable.")

Thus, also, comfortable-and in like manner uncomfort