BREATHE-BRIBED. 51 breathe, to take exercise: thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon thee, iii. 236; as swift As breathed (well exercised, kept in breath) stags, iii. 111; breath'd ("inured by constant practice," JOHNSON). To an untirable and continuate goodness, vi. 507. breathe in your watering, stop and take breath while you are drinking, iv. 233 (Compare a passage in the old play Timon, edited by me for the Shakespeare Society, from a Ms. in my possession; "wee also doe enacte That all holde vp their heades, and laughe aloude, Drinke much at one draughte, breathe not in their drinke," &c. p. 37; which lines, before the play was printed, were cited by Steevens, to support an erroneous interpretation of the passage of Shakespeare). breathing, exercise, action: who are sick For breathing and exploit, iii. 213; Here is a lady that wants breathing too, viii. 29. breathing time, time for exercise: 'tis the breathing time of day with me, vii. 205. breathing-while, time sufficient for drawing breath, v. 364; viii. 277. Brecknock, while my fearful head is on-To, v. 422: Meaning "to the Castle of Brecknock in Wales, where the Duke of Buckingham's estate lay" (MALONE). breech'd with gore- Their daggers Unmannerly, vii. 28: Here breech'd has drawn forth a variety of explanations from the commentators; and Dr. Latham in his recent edition of Johnson's Dict. queries if it means "sheath'd:" after all, probably Douce is right when he suggests "that the expression, though in itself something unmannerly, simply means covered as with breeches." breeching scholar, a scholar liable to be breeched, flogged, iii. 140. breed-bate, a causer of strife or contention, i. 356: see bate. breese, the gad-fly, vi. 18; vii. 552. Brentford-The fat woman of, i. 397; the witch of Brentford, ibid.: In the corresponding scene of the quarto she is called "Gillian of Brainford;" who appears to have been a real personage, and whose name was well known in our author's time. A black-letter tract, entitled Tyl of breyntfords testament. Newly compiled, n. d. 4to, was written by Robert, and printed by William, Copland: the "Iyl" who figures in that coarse tract "kept an inne of ryght good lodgyng;" but no mention is made of her having dealt in witchcraft. Yet one of the characters in Dekker and Webster's Westward Ho says, "I doubt that old hag, Gillian of Brainford, has bewitched me." Webster's Works, p. 238, ed. Dyce, 1857. bribed buck, i. 411: see note 125, i. 437. brief, a short writing, an abstract: There is a brief how many sports are ripe, ii. 313; Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume, iv. 15. brief, a contract of espousals, a license of marriage: Shall seem expedient on the new-born brief, iii. 235. brief, a letter: this sealed brief, iv. 272. brief, in brief: Brief, I am To those that prate, and have done, no companion, viii. 195. brief, rife, common, prevalent (a provincialism): A thousand businesses are brief in hand, iv. 61. briefly, quickly: Go put on thy defences. Eros. Briefly, sir, vii. 566. bring me out-You, "You put me out, draw or divert me from my point" (CALDECOTT), iii. 42. bring-To be with a person to, a cant expression, which was formerly common enough, though it occurs only once in our author's plays,— Cres. To bring, uncle? Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus, vi. 16; and see note 12, vi. 103: of the various explanations which this phrase has called forth none appears to me satisfactory. (Compare the following passages; "And I'll close with Bryan till I have gotten the thing That he hath promis'd me, and then I'll be with him to bring: Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes,-Peele's Works, "And heere Ile haue a fling at him, that's flat; And, Balthazar, Ile be with thee to bring, And thee, Lorenzo," &c. Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, sig. & 3 verso, ed. 1618. "Orlando shakes himselfe, and with a spring Ten paces off the English duke he cast; But Brandimart from him he could not fling, That was behind him, and did hold him fast: But yet with Oliver he was to bring; For with his fist he smote him as he past, That downe he fell, and hardly scaped killing, From mouth, nose, eyes, the bloud apace distilling." Harington's Orlando Furioso, B. xxxix. 48, p. 329, ed. 1634. "Clem. And Ile go furnish myself with some better accoutriments, and Ile be with you to bring presently." Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, Sec. Part, sig. L 2 verso, ed. 1631. "Lip. Now, Mistress Maria, ward yourself: if my strong hope fail not, I shall be with you to bring. Shr. To bring what, sir? some more o' your kind?” The Family of Love,-Middleton's Works, vol. ii. p. 147, ed. Dyce. "If he prove not yet The cunning'st, rankest rogue that ever canted, BROACH-BROKES. I'll never see man again; I know him to bring, And can interpret every new face he makes." 333 53 Cupid's Revenge,-Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, vol. ii. p. 419, ed. Dyce. "E. Love. I would have watch'd you, sir, by your good patience, For ferreting in my ground. Lady. You have been with my sister? Wel. Yes; to bring. The Scornful Lady,-Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, "Why did not I strike her? but I will do something, The Ball,—Shirley's Works, vol. iii. p. 36, The passage of The Ball just quoted has been misunderstood and corrupted by Gifford it belongs to one of the plays which were printed before the edition was put into my hands.) broach, to spit, to transfix, vi. 329; broach'd, ii. 316; iv. 496. brock, a badger, iii. 357. brogues-Clouted, nailed coarse shoes, vii. 701. broke cross: see break cross. broken mouth, a mouth which has lost some of its teeth: My mouth no more were broken than these boys', iii. 231. broken music, iii. 12; iv. 505; vi. 44: "Broken music' means what we now term 'a string band.' Shakespeare plays with the term twice [thrice]: firstly in Troilus and Cressida, act iii. sc. 1, proving that the musicians then on the stage were performing on stringed instruments; and secondly in Henry V., act v. sc. 2, where he says to the French Princess Katherine, 'Come, your answer in broken music; for thy voice is music and thy English broken.' [Again in As you like it, act i. sc. 2: 'But is there any else longs to feel this broken music in his sides?'] The term originated probably from harps, lutes, and such other stringed instruments as were played without a bow, not having the capability to sustain a long note to its full duration of time." Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c. vol. i. p. 246, sec. ed. broken with: see first break with. broker, a pander, a procuress, a go-between: a goodly broker, i. 268; This bawd, this broker, iv. 28; To play the broker (match-maker) in mine own behalf, v. 290; Hence, broker-lackey, vi. 100; all brokersbetween, vi. 52; they are brokers, vii. 119; brokers to defiling, viii. 444.. broker-A crafty knave does need no, v. 118: A proverbial sentence: Ray has "Two cunning knaves need no broker; or, a cunning knave, &c." Proverbs, p. 127, ed. 1768. brokes, deals as a pander, iii. 251. 54 BROOCH-BROOM-GROVES. brooch in this all-hating world—A strange, iv. 179, "i.e. is as strange and uncommon as a brooch which is now no longer worn" (MALONE): I doubt if there is any allusion here to brooches being out of fashion. The word "sign" in the preceding line probably suggested the expression a strange brooch:" "It is a sign of love; and love to Richard is, amid so much hatred, a strange feeling for any one to display-as he would a brooch or ornament." ("Brooch" -about the precise meaning of which Malone squabbled with Mason-was not unfrequently used metaphorically for ornament: he is the brooch, indeed, And gem of all the nation, vii. 189. "These sonnes of Mars, who in their times were the glorious Brooches of our nation, and admirable terrour to our enemies." The World runnes on Wheeles, p. 237,-Taylor's Workes, 1630; "Next dy'd old Charles, true honor'd Nottingham, Upon the Death of King James, p. 324,—id.) brooch'd, adorned, vii. 581. brooded, iv. 40: see note 77, iv. 88. brook-Flying at the, Hawking at water-fowl, v. 127. broom-groves, i. 220: "The reading of the elder editions is 'broom groves,' which for what reason it is altered [to brown groves'] I cannot conceive. Ceres was certainly not the goddess of the woods; and those very broom groves seem to be expressly hinted at, in the very words of Ceres which follow a little below, 'my bosky acres ;' which very properly express a broom-brake, as it is called, at least in the western part of the island" (HEATH): "Broom in this place signifies the Spartium scoparium, of which brooms are frequently made. Near Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire it grows high enough to conceal the tallest cattle as they pass through it; and in places where it is cultivated, still higher: a circumstance that had escaped my notice, till I was told of it by Professor Martyn" (STEEVENS): "In the old Scotch song of 'My daddy is a canker'd carle,' the songstress places her lover in a broom-grove; 'But let them say, or let them do, 'Tis a' ane to me; For he's low down, he's in the broom, Is waiting for me'" (MASON): "Nares observes that as the broom, or genista, is a low shrub, which gives no shade, it has been doubted what is the exact meaning of broom-groves; but there are two kinds of broom, as mentioned in Lyte's edition of Dodoens, 1578, p. 663, 'the one high and tawle, the other lowe and small,' the first of which is stated to grow 'commonly to the length of a long or tawle man,' and Parkinson enumerates several other varieties. The Spartium scoparium, which grows to a great height, is probably the species alluded to by Shakespeare. There is a notice in the ancient romance of Guy of BROOM-GROVES. 46 55 Warwick, preserved in the Auchinleck Ms. at Edinburgh, of three hundred Sarazens being concealed 'in a brom field.' See the Abbotsford Club edition, p. 292" (HALLIWELL): “ Hanmer changes this ['broom groves'] to 'brown groves,' as does Mr. Collier's annotator; and a more unhappy alteration can hardly be conceived, since it at once destroys the point of the allusion: yellow, the colour of the broom, being supposed especially congenial to the lass-lorn and dismissed bachelor. Thus Burton, in his 'Anatomy of Melancholy,' Part iii. Sec. 2,-'So long as we are wooers, and may kiss and coll at our pleasure, nothing is so sweet; we are in heaven, as we think: but when we are once tied, and have lost our liberty, marriage is an hell: give me my yellow hose again'" (STAUNTON): "Is the word grove ever applied to shrubs by the Elizabethan writers? Hanmer's 'brown groves' has been before the public for more than a century, and has been vigorously assailed by men of eminent learning and ability, but no instance of this [i. e. of grove applied to shrubs] has been produced, and therefore I conclude that none exists. The notion of disconsolate lovers betaking themselves to groves is common enough in poetry: Shakespeare himself has placed Romeo in a sycamore grove when Rosaline was cruel, and we may judge from this the sort of grove he would select for young gentlemen in the like case. Till it can be shown that a growth of brocm may be called a grove, it seems idle to dispute about the height of the shrub. In Babington's Botany it is said to be 2 or 3 feet high, and this is certainly the usual height to which it grows on Hampstead Heath, though occasionally a plant may be found taller: I am told that in Italy it grows to the height of 6 or 7 feet; but that surely is no great matter.-The defences set up for the old reading ['broom-groves'] appear to me singularly weak. 'Ceres,' says Heath, 'was certainly not the goddess of the woods.' Very true; and just as certainly she was not the goddess of 'broom-brakes,' or of ' vineyards,' or of 'bosky acres,' or 'turfy mountains,' or 'unshrubb'd downs,' or of 'flowers,' or of the 'sea-marge sterile and rocky-hard;' all which Heath has overlooked. It seems that in the present masque Ceres appears as the Goddess of the Earth, Anunp. That this was the original character of the Greek goddess is probable from the etymology of her name; but how Shakespeare came so to describe her, is a question for those who have studied the subject of his learning. He may have picked up a good deal of out-of-the-way classical knowledge from Jonson [?]. I think, however, we are warranted rather in asking why woods are left out in this passage than why they are brought in.-Mason's quotation from the old Scotch song proves nothing as to broom-groves, for the song merely mentions broom. Mason accordingly is not warranted in saying that the songstress places her lover in a broomgrove; yet Halliwell prints Mason's assertion, but omits the quotation with which he supports it; so that everybody who trusts to his sixty-guinea edition must necessarily believe that the phrase |