o'er-dy'd blacks "Sir Thomas Hanmer understands blacks dyed too much, and therefore rotten" (JOHNSON).

bladed corn, vii. 47: see note 84, vii. 90.

blank, the white in the centre of the butts (see clout), also the mark or aim in gunnery: the blank And level (the mark and range or line of aim) of my brain, iii. 442; As level as the cannon to his blank, vii. 174; The true blank of thine eye, vii. 253; within the blank ("shot," JOHNSON) of his displeasure, vii. 433.

blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what-As, iv. 129: “Blanks. A mode of extortion, by which blank papers were given to the agents of the crown, which they were to fill up as they pleased, to authorize the demands they chose to make." Nares's Gloss.: "Stow records, that Richard II. 'compelled all the Religious, Gentlemen, and Commons, to set their scales to blankes, to the end he might, if it pleased him, oppresse them severally, or all at once: some of the Commons paid 1000 markes, some 1000 pounds,' &c. Chronicle, p. 319, fol. 1639" (HOLT WHITE). blanks-Commit to these waste, viii. 387: "Probably this Sonnet was designed to accompany a present of a book consisting of blank paper. Lord Orrery sent a birth-day gift of the same kind to Swift, together with a copy of verses of the same tendency" (STEEVENS).

blast in proof, burst in the trial (a metaphor, as Steevens observes, from the proving of fire-arms or cannon), vii. 191.

bleared thine eyne, imposed upon you, deceived you, iii. 173 (The expression is a very old one).

blench, to start off, to fly off, to shrink, to flinch, i. 505; iii. 430 (where Steevens explains Could man so blench? by "Could any man so start or fly off from propriety of behaviour ?"); vi. 7, 32 ; vii. 147.

blenches, "starts, or aberrations from rectitude" (MALONE), viii. 404.

blend, blended, blent: blend with objects manifold, viii. 445: see note 9, viii. 450.

blent, blended: being blent together, ii. 385; beauty truly blent, iii. 341.

blind-worm, a slow-worm, vii. 46; blind-worms, ii. 282.

blister'd breeches, "breeches puffed, swelled out like blisters" (STEEVENS), breeches "gathered into close rolls or blisters" (FAIRHOLT), v. 499.

bloat, bloated, swollen with intemperance, vii. 172.

block, the shape or fashion of a hat,―properly the mould on which felt hats were formed: changes with the next block, ii. 76 (Dekker

42

BLOCK-BLOOD-BOLTERED.

uses the word metaphorically: "But, sirra Ningle, of what fashion is this knights wit, of what blocke?" Satiro-mastix, 1602, sig. c 2). block, the hat itself: This' a good block, vii. 327: see note 106, vii. 364.

blood, disposition, inclination, temperament, impulse: Blood, thou still art blood, i. 471 ; faith melteth into blood (“as wax, when opposed to the fire kindled by a witch, no longer preserves the figure of the person whom it was designed to represent, but flows into a shapeless lump; so fidelity, when confronted with beauty, dissolves into our ruling passion, and is lost there like a drop of water in the sea," STEEVENS), ii. 89; wisdom and blood combating, ii. 100; his important blood, iii. 255; Let thy blood be thy direction till thy death! vi. 37; Strange, unusual blood, vi. 550; To let these hands obey my blood, vii. 316; our bloods No more obey the heavens, &c. vii. 635 (see note 1, vii. 737).

blood-To be in, (a term of the chase), to be in good condition, to be vigorous: The deer was, as you know, in sanguis,—blood, ii. 192; If we be English deer, be, then, in blood (“of true mettle," JOHNSON), v. 57; Thou rascal, thou art worst in blood to run, vi. 139 (a rather difficult passage; see note 13, vi. 241); his crest up again, and the man in blood, vi. 211.

blood will I draw on thee,-thou art a witch, v. 20: "The superstition of those times taught that he that could draw the witch's blood was free from her power" (JOHNSON).

blood-boltered, vii. 49: "It [blood-boltered] is a provincial term, well known in Warwickshire, and probably in some other counties. When a horse, sheep, or other animal, perspires much, and any of the hair or wool, in consequence of such perspiration, or any redundant humour, becomes matted in tufts with grime and sweat, he is said to be boltered; and whenever the blood issues out, and coagulates, forming the locks into hard clotted bunches, the beast is said to be blood-boltered" (MALONE): "To bolter, in Warwickshire, signifies to daub, dirty, or begrime. 'I ordered (says my informant) a harness-collar to be made with a linen lining, but blacked, to give it the appearance of leather. The sadler made the lining as he was directed, but did not black it, saying, it would bolter the horse. Being asked what he meant by bolter, he replied, dirty, besmear; and that it was a common word in his country. This conversation passed within eight miles of Stratford-on-Avon.' In the same neighbourhood, when a boy has a broken head, so that his hair is matted together with blood, his head is said to be boltered (pronounced baltered). So, in Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, 1601, Book xii. ch. xvii. p. 370; 'they doe drop and distill the said moisture, which the shrewd and unhappie beast catcheth among the shag long haires of his beard. Now by reason of dust getting among it, it baltereth and cluttereth

into knots,' &c." (STEEVENS): "Boltered. Having the hair clotted or matted together." Supplement to Richardson's Dict.: "According to Sharp's Ms. Warwickshire Glossary, snow is said to balter together; and Batchelor says, 'hasty pudding is said to be boltered when much of the flour remains in lumps.' Orthoepical Analysis, 1809, p. 126" (HALLIWELL): “I believe the Warwickshire word [balter] to have originated in ball, and to have meant balled, clogged, or matted." Latham's Johnson's Dict. sub "Bolter." bloody, in or of the blood: Lust is but a bloody fire, i. 413. blow, to blow upon : Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow, ii. 200 ; And the very ports they blow, vii. 8.

blow, to swell: blown Jack, iv. 268; the blown tide (wrongly explained "the tide driven by the wind"), vi. 232; blown ambition, vii. 320; a vent of blood, and something blown, vii. 597; our blcwn sails, viii. 70; how imagination blows him, iii. 356; This blows my heart, vii. 569.

blow my mouth-The flesh-fly, i. 209: Here, according to Malone, blow means "swell and inflame:" but, says Steevens, " to blow, as it stands in the text, means 'the act of a fly by which she lodges eggs in flesh'."

blubber'd queens, vii. 126; Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering, vi. 439: it must be remembered that the verb to blubber did not formerly convey the somewhat ludicrous idea which it does at present.

blue-bottle rogue, an allusion to the dress of the beadle, which in Shakespeare's days was blue, iv. 398.

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blue-caps, a name of ridicule given to the Scots, from their blue bonnets" (JOHNSON), iv. 241.

blue coats, the common dress of serving-men in Shakespeare's time and long before, iii. 151; v. 14, 15.

blue eye-A, "A blueness about the eyes" (STEEVENS): a blue eye and sunken, iii. 45.

blunt, dull, stupid, insensible: That Clarence is so harsh, so blunt, unnatural, v. 308.

blurted at, pished at, held in contempt, viii. 53.

blush.... like a black dog, as the saying is, vi. 341: Ray gives, "To blush like a black dog." Proverbs, p. 218, ed. 1768: and Walker cites, from Withals's Adagia, p. 557, “ Faciem perfricuit. Hee blusheth like a blacke dogge, he hath a brazen face."

boar of Thessaly-The, "The boar killed by Meleager" (STEEVENS), vii. 575.

board, to accost, to address: board her, iii. 123, 331; board him, vii.

136; boarded me, i. 361; ii. 89; boarded her, iii. 282; boarding, i. 361 (with a quibble).

bob, a taunt, a scoff ("A bob, sanna." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.): senseless of the bob, iii. 31.

bob, to cheat: You shall not bob us out of our melody, vi. 45; gold and jewels that I bobb'd from him ("fooled him out of," MALONE), vii. 455.

bodg'd, v. 247: see note 36, v. 325.

bodkin, a small dagger: his quietus make With a bare bodkin, vii.

149.

boggler, vii. 560: Means here "a vicious woman, one who starts

from the right path. Johnson in his Dict. explains it a doubter, a timorous man; but it is evidently addressed, not to Thyreus, but Cleopatra." Nares's Gloss.

Bohemian-Tartar, “A wild appellation, to insinuate that Simple makes a strange appearance" (JOHNSON), i. 404.

bold, confident: Bold of your worthiness, ii. 176.

bolds, emboldens, vii. 334.

Bolingbroke about his marriage-The prevention of poor, iv. 127: "When the Duke of Hereford, after his banishment, went into France, he was honourably entertained at that court, and would have obtained in marriage the only daughter of the Duke of Berry, uncle to the French king, had not Richard prevented the match" (STEEVENS).

bolins, viii. 37: "Bowlines are ropes by which the sails of a ship are governed when the wind is unfavourable. They are slackened when it is high. This term occurs again in The Two Noble Kinsmen, 'the wind is fair:

Top the bowling.'

They who wish for more particular information concerning bolings, may find it in Smith's Sea Grammar, 4to, 1627, p. 23" (STEEVENS). bollen, swollen, ii. 396 (see note 69, ii. 425); viii. 327. bolt, is described by R. Holme as being properly "an arrow with a round or half-round bobb at the end of it, with a sharp-pointed arrow-head proceeding therefrom" (Nares's Gloss.,-where see more concerning it); but it is used to signify an arrow in general: where the bolt of Cupid fell, ii. 279; fool's bolt, iii. 73; iv. 467; a bolt of nothing, vii. 704.

bolt is soon shot-A fool's: see fool's bolt is soon shot—A.

bolt on't-Make a shaft or a: see make a shaft, &c.

bolted, sifted, iii. 476; iv. 441; vi. 189.

bolters, sieves, iv. 260.

BOLTING-HUTCH-BOOK.

45

bolting-hutch, "the wooden receptacle into which the meal is bolted" (STEEVENS), iv. 243.

bombard, a large leathern vessel for distributing liquor, i. 203; iv. 243; baiting of bombards ("tippling," JOHNSON), v. 569.

bombast, material for stuffing out dresses (originally cotton): As bombast, and as lining to the time, ii. 232; my sweet creature of bombast, iv. 240.

bona-roba, a courtesan ("Buonarobba, as we say good stuffe, that is,

a good wholesome plum-cheeked [plump-cheeked] wench." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.), iv. 360; bona-robas, iv. 355.

bond-I know it for my, I know it "to be my bounden duty" (MASON), vii. 510.

bonneted, vi. 167: see note 82, vi. 250: This is generally explained "took off their bonnets" (and Cotgrave has "Bonneter. To put of his cap vnto." Fr. and Engl. Dict.); but the passage is very awkward and obscure.

book, one's studies, learning: The tenour of my book, ii. 122; my book preferr'd me to the king, v. 179; A beggar's book, v. 481 (Compare unbookish).

book, a writing, a paper: By that time will our book (articles, paper of conditions), I think, be drawn, iv. 252; By this, our book's drawn, iv. 253; A book? O rare one! vii. 719.

book,-We quarrel in print, by the, iii. 74: "The particular book here alluded to is a very ridiculous treatise of one Vincentio Saviolo, entitled Of Honor and Honorable Quarrels, in quarto, printed by Wolf, 1594, forming the Second Book of Vincentio Saviolo his Practise. This Second Book he describes as 'A Discourse most necessarie for all Gentlemen that haue in regarde their honors, touching the giuing and receiuing of the Lie, wherevpon the Duello and the Combats in diuers sortes doth insue, and many other inconueniences for lack only of the true knowledge of honor, and the contrarie, and the right vnderstanding of wordes, which heere is plainly set downe.' The contents of the several chapters are as follow. 1. 'A Rvle and Order concerning the Challenger and Defender.' 2. 'What the reason is, that the partie vnto whom the Lie is giuen ought to become Challenger, and of the nature of Lies." 3. Of the manner and diuersitie of Lies.' 4. 'Of Lies certaine.' 5. 'Of conditionall Lyes.' 6. 'Of the Lye in generall.' 7. 'Of the Lye in particular.' 8. 'Of foolish Lyes.' 9. 'A conclusion touching the Challenger and the Defender, and of the wresting and returning back of the Lye or Dementie.' In the chapter 'Of Conditional Lies,' speaking of the particle if, he says, 'Conditionall Lyes be such as are giuen conditionally; as if a man should saie or write these woordes,—If thou hast saide that I haue offered my Lord abuse, thou lyest; or if thou saiest so heerafter, thou shalt lye; and as