WAXEN-WEB. 499 i.e. by the short-lived compliment of a paper fastened on it." Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. ix. p. 58. waxen image 'gainst a fire-Like a: see wax Resolveth, &c. way, way of thinking, religious opinion: you're a gentleman Of mine own way, v. 555. way of life, vii. 283 : see note 110, vii. 283. way-There was but one, A kind of proverbial expression for "death,” iv. 442 (So, in The Famous Historye of Captaine Thomas Stukeley, 1605, "O maister Stukley, since there now remaines No way but one, and life must heere haue end," &c. Sig. L 3 verso). We Three: see Three-The picture of We. weak masters though ye be, &c., i. 264: "That is, ye are powerful auxiliaries, but weak if left to yourselves;-your employment is then to make green ringlets and midnight mushrooms, and to play the idle pranks mentioned by Ariel in his next song ;-yet by your aid I have been enabled to invert the course of nature. We say proverbially, 'Fire is a good servant, but a bad master' (BLACKSTONE). weaken motion, viii. 141: see note 12, viii. 141. weals-men, commonwealth men, legislators, vi. 167. wealth, weal, benefit, advantage: I once did lend my body for his wealth, ii. 420. wear, fashion: it is not the wear, i. 511; Motley's the only wear, iii. 38; I like the wear well, iii. 205. wear, used as an intransitive verb: the brooch and the toothpick, which wear not now, iii. 203: but see note 18, iii. 203. wear his cap with suspicion, "subject his head to the disquiet of jealousy" (JOHNSON), ii. 78. wearing thy hearer in thy mistress' praise, iii. 32: see note 55, iii. 32. weather-To keep the, "A nautical phrase, which means, to keep to windward, and thus have the advantage" (STAUNTON): Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate, vi. 114. I weather-fends, defends from the weather, shelters, i. 263. weaver A catch that will draw three souls out of one, iii. 337 ; would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or any thing, iv. 235: "The weavers were most of them Calvinists in this author's time, and refugees from the Netherlands; addicted mainly to Psalmody, which their libertine neighbours said was all their religion (CAPELL). web and the pin-The: see pin-and-web-The. wee, very small, diminutive, shrunk up, i. 375. weed, a garment, a dress, ii. 279; vi. 188; ix. 64, 277, 333; And keep invention in a noted weed (“"in a dress by which it is always known, as those persons are who always wear the same colours," STEEVENS), ix. 369; weeds, i. 314; ii. 149, 250; iii. 392, 393, 460; vi. 74, 186, 295, 315, 469; vii. 407; viii. 484; mourning-weeds, v. 289, 293; vi. 277, 366. week!-0, that I knew he were but in by the, ii. 225: "This I sup pose to be an expression taken from hiring servants or artificers; meaning, I wish I was as sure of his service for any time limited, as if I had hired him. The expression was a common one (STEEVENS): Mr Halliwell explains in by the week to mean "ensnared in my meshes, imprisoned in my bonds," and cites, from a Ms. dated 1619, "Captus est; he is taken, he is in the snare, he is in for a byrd, he is in by the weeke." week, "a period of time indefinitely" (CALDECOTT): too late a week, iii. 30. ween, to think, to suppose, to imagine, v. 559; weening, v. 42. weeping philosopher-The, Heraclitus, ii. 344. weeping ripe, ripe for weeping, ready to weep, ii. 233; v. 246. weeping tears- With, iii. 32: This expression, which now appears absurd, was not unfrequently used, and seriously, by our early writers, who perhaps considered it as equivalent to "flowing tears" ("And thenne sire Lamorak knelyd adoune, and vnlaced fyrst hys vmberere, and thenne his owne, and thenne eyther kyssed other with wepynge teres." Morte Darthur, B. viii. c. 41, vol. i. p. 310, ed. Southey : Many a wydowe with wepyng teyres Ther makes they fette away.' The Battle of Otterbourne,-Percy's Rel. of A. E. P. vol. i. p. 33, ed. 1794: "the weeping teares Of widdows, virgins, nurses, sucking babes." weet, to know, viii. 254. A Pleasant Commodie called Looke about you, 1600, sig. B). weigh out, to outweigh, to counterbalance: They that must weigh out my afflictions, v. 521. weird sisters,--The, vii. 209, 217, 227, 254, 265; the weird women, vii. 240: Weird Sisters, the Fates. This corresponds to Lat. Parcœ. The remanant hereof, quhat euer be it, The weird sisteris defendis that suld be wit.' Doug. Virgil, 80. 48; i.e. forbid that it should be known. 'The weird sisters wandring, as they were wont then,' &c. Montgomerie, Watson's Coll. iii. 12.. ... WELKIN-WELL. ... 501 A. S. wyrd, fatum, fortuna, eventus; Wyrde, Fata, Parcæ," &c. Jamieson's Etym. Dict. of the Scot. Lang. &c.: "Cloto . . . anglice, one of the thre wyrde systers." Ortus Vocabulorum, ed. 1514: Holinshed (on whose narrative Shakespeare formed his Macbeth), speaking of the "three women in strange and wild apparell, resembling creatures of elder world," who prophesied to Macbeth and Banquo, and then disappeared, observes, "afterwards the common opinion was, that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries," &c. Chronicles (Scotland), vol. v. pp. 268-9, ed. 1807–8. welkin, the sky, i. 198, 373; ii. 185; iii. 337; iv. 85, 89, 341; v. 457; vi. 320, 321; ix. 254. welkin eye, a sky-coloured, a sky-blue eye, iii. 410. well, at rest, happy: the former queen is well, iii. 491; seeing that she is well, vi. 465; Then she is well, vi. 469; we use To say the dead are well, viii. 289. well-advised: see advised. well-appointed: see appointed. well desir'd," much solicited by invitation " (STEEVENS): you shall be well desir'd in Cyprus, viii. 163. well-favoured, good-looking, i. 295, 396; ii. 112; iii. 327; viii. 58; ix. 67: see favour. well-fitted, "well-qualified" (JOHNSON): Well-fitted in the arts, ii. 176. well-a-near, ix. 48: "This exclamation is equivalent to well-a-day, and is still used in Yorkshire, where I have often heard it. The Glossary to The Praise of Yorkshire Ale, 1697, says—wella-neerin is lack-a-day or alas, alas!" (REED): So in Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict., "Well a day, Well a-neer, Well a way, Eheu.” well-found-In what he did profess, iii. 225: Here Steevens explains well-found" of known, acknowledged excellence," Mr. Grant White "well furnished; " well skilled? well-liking, good-conditioned, plump, ii. 232: see liking. well said, equivalent to "well done:" Well said! thou lookest cheerly, iii. 36; Well said, Hal! iv. 295; Well said, i' faith, Wart, iv. 360; well said, Davy, iv. 397; Well said, my masters, v. 126; Why, that's well said, v. 161; Well said, my lord, v. 491; O, well said, Lucius ! vi. 340; Well said, my hearts! vi. 397; 0, that's well said;—the chair, viii. 231; this way; well said, viii. 340; Well said, well said, ix. 57. (I believe I was the first to point out the meaning of this expression, which occurs very frequently in our early writers.) seen, well-skilled, proficient, iii. 123. well 502 WELSH-WHELK'D. Welsh hook-Upon the cross of a, iv. 241: A Welsh hook was a sort of bill, hooked at the end, and with a long handle: "Minsheu, in his Dict. [sub" Hooke"], 1617, explains it thus; 'Armorum genus est ære in falcis modum incurvato, perticæ longissimæ præfixo.' Cotgrave calls it 'a long hedging-bill, about the length of a partisan (MALONE): and see sword—To swear by a. wend, to go, i. 534; ii. 10, 303; iii. 451. wesand, the throat, i. 244. westward ho! iii. 357: one of the exclamations of the water-men who plied on the Thames (So in Peele's Edward I.; "Q. Elinor. Ay, good woman, conduct me to the court, That there I may bewail my sinful life, And call to God to save my wretched soul. [A cry of Westward, ho!' Woman, what noise is this I hear? and in Day's Isle of Guls; " A stranger? the better welcome: comes hee East-ward, West-ward, or North-ward hoe?" Sig. A 2, ed. 1606). whales-bone—As white as, ii. 235: Our ancient writers appear to have supposed that ivory, formerly made of the teeth of the walrus, was part of the bones of the whale (This simile was a standard one with the earliest English poets). what is he for a fool that betroths himself to unquietness? ii. 84: The expression what is he for a fool is equivalent to "what manner of fool is he?". "what fool is he?" (Compare Middleton's A Mad World, my Masters; "What is she for a fool would marry thee, a madman?" Works, vol. ii. p. 421, ed. Dyce: and Warner's Syrinx, &c.; “And what art thou for a man that thou shouldest be fastidious of the acquaintance of men?" Sig. Q 4 verso, ed. 1597.) wheel becomes it!-0, how the, vii. 401: Malone was "inclined to think that wheel is here used in its ordinary sense, and that these words allude to the occupation of the girl who is supposed to sing the song alluded to by Ophelia :" but most critics seem now to agree with Steevens in supposing that wheel signifies the burden or refrain of the song. wheels! That it (the world) might go on, viii. 301: A proverbial expression; which Taylor the water-poet made the title of one of his pamphlets,―The World runnes on wheeles, or, Oddes betwixt Carts and Coaches. Wheeson-week, the Hostess's blunder for Whitsun-week, iv. 326. whelk'd, "twisted, convolved. A welk or whilk is a small shellfish ["The Welke (a shell-fish): Turbin." Cotgrave's Fr. and. Engl. Dict.]" (MALONE), viii. 96. WHELKS-WHETHER. 5°3 whelks, wheals, pustules ("A whelk, Papula, pustula." Coles's Lat. when? an expression of impatience: Come, thou tortoise! when ? when? can you tell? ii. 28; when? canst tell? iv. 222: a proverbial ("Still good in Law; ile fetch him ore of all, When, can you tell?" Day's Law-Trickes, 1608, sig. D 3.) where, whereas : where I thought the remnant of mine age, &c., i. 318; where that, whereas : And where that you have vow'd to study, ii. 215. wherein went he? how was he dressed? iii. 50. whether, whichever, which of the two : whether can force his |