Volume 1

A glossary, or, Collection of words, phrases, names, and allusions to customs, proverbs, etc., which have been thought to require illustration, in the works of English authors, particularly Shakespeare, and his contemporaries / [Robert Nares].

  • Robert Nares
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A glossary, or, Collection of words, phrases, names, and allusions to customs, proverbs, etc., which have been thought to require illustration, in the works of English authors, particularly Shakespeare, and his contemporaries / [Robert Nares]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    One seeing ajugge without a hander, and willing to breake a jeast on it, said that the jugge had beene in the pillary. Gratia Ludentes, 1638, p. 156. HANDFAST. Hold, custody, confine- ment. If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly. Wint. T., iv, 3. Connection, or union with : Should leave the handfast that he had of grace, To fall into a woman’s easy arms. B. f FI. Worn. Hater, cited by Todd. To HANDFAST. To betroth, to bind by vows of duty. For examples to this verb, and the kindred words, and full illustration of them, see Todd’s edition of Johnson’s Dictionary. Bale, Coverdale, Ben Jonson, archbishop Sancroft, and others, are there quoted^ Etymology, handfcestan, Saxon. HANDFUL. The measure of a hand, or four inches. Here stalks me by a proud and spangled sir, That looks three handfuls higher than his foretop. B. Jons. Cynthia's Rev., iii, 4. I’ll send me fellows of a handful high Into the cloisters where the nuns frequent. Merry Dev., 0. PL, v, 271. That is, spritesi They did gird themselves so high that the distance betwixt their shoulders and their girdle seemed to be bat a little handfull. Coryat, vol. i, p. 89. Used also for a span, which some estimate at nine inches, as in the height of Goliath: G-oliah, nam’d of Gath, The only champion that Philistia hath. This huge Colossus, than six cubits height More by a handful. Brayt. Bav. Goliah, vol. iv, p. 1630. Viz., ‘‘Six cubits and a span.” 1 Sam., xvii, 4. fHAND-GUN. A musket. A remedy for burning, or scalding, or any hurt with an hand-gunne. Pathway of Health, bl. 1. fHANDKERCHER. A handkerchief. Ha, his handkercher ! Thou’rt lib’ral to thy father even in death, Leav’st him a legacie to drie his tears, Which are too slow; they should create a deluge. Chapman’s Revenge for Honour, 1654. fHANDSOMENESS. Good favour. He will not look with any handsomeness Upon a woman. B. FI. Wit without Money, act i; A goodly woman. And to her handsomeness she bears her state Reserved and great. Hid. fHANDSTROKES. Blows given hand to band in fighting. Batailler, combattre, venir&la main, livrerla bataille. To encounter: to joyne battell: to be in skirmish •. to be at handstrokes. Nomenclator. A band of ten soldiours under one captaine and tent, and are called manipulus, because their handstrokes in fighting goe all together. Ibid. f HAND-TIMBER. Small wood. Shear sheep at the moon’s increase: fell hand-timber from the full to the change. Pell frith, copice, and fuel at the first quarter. Husbandman’s Practice, 1664. fHANDWHILE. A short interval. Thou semste, quoth the spider, a costerde-monger; Conscience every handwhile thou doste cry. Hey wood’s Spider and Flie, 1556. fHAND-WORM. All the world is in comparison for greatnesse to the heavens, as a hand-worme or a nit may be compared to the world. Taylor’s Workes. fHANDY-BLOWS. Engagement hand to hand. The great number of our enemies froze me with fear, and made me, not without reason, to tremble in think- ing what might be the successe of so unequal a com- bat, yet I was ashamed to go and hide my self, and though those enemies which could not come to handy- blows, shot arrows at us with which I might have been hurt. Hymen’s Prcdudia, 1658. HANES. I presume, inns or cara- vansaries. At their death, they usually give legacies for the release of prisoners, the freeing of bond-slaves, re- pairing of bridges, building of hanes for the relief of travellers. Sandys’ Trav., p. 57. Perhaps a Turkish word. fHANG LAG, i. e., let the one who remains behind be hanged. Colig. Ply, gentlemen, fly! 0, if you had seen That tall fellow how he thwacks fidlers, you would Ply with expedition; have ye a mind to have your fidlea Broke about your pates ? Fidler. Not we ! we thank ye. Colig. Hang lag, hang lag. The Villain, 1663. HANGBY, A hanger-on, a dependent. They do slander him. Hang them, a pair of railing hang-bies. B. and FI. Honest Man’s Fort., iv, 2. Enter none but the ladies and their hangbyes; welcom beauties and your kind shadows. B. Jons. Cynth. Rev., v, 3. What are they [polite exercises] else but the varnish of that picture of gentry, whose substance consists in the lines and colours of true vertue; but the hang- byes of that royall court, which the soule keepes in a generous heart. Hall, Quo vadis, p. 42. HANGERS. The part of a sword-belt in which the weapon was suspended. Sir, Prench rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so; three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy. Haml., v, 2i Osrick, affecting fine speech, calls these hangers carriages ; which Hamlet ridicules, and begs that, till cannon are worn by the side, they may not be called carriages, but hangers. Thou shalt give my boy that girdle and hangers, wdiefi thou hast worn them a little more. B. Jons. Poetaster, iii, 4. You know my state; I sell no perspectives, Scarfs, gloves, nor hangers, nor put my trust in shoe- ties. B. and FI. Scornf. L., ii. Bobadil uses it in the singular; and it appears there, and elsewhere, that they were fringed and ornamented with various colours: I happened to enter into some discourse of a hanger, which, I assure you, both for fashion and workman- ship, was the most peremptory beautiful and gentle- man-like ; yet he condemned and cried it down, for the most pied and ridiculous he ever saw. Every M. in his H, i, 4