160 FEATLY-FELLOW. featly, dexterously, neatly, i. 213; iii. 468 (The expression "foot it featly," which is now so familiar to us from the former of these passages, was not a usual one in the days of Shakespeare, who probably caught it from a line in Lodge's Glaucus and Scilla, 1589; Footing it featlie on the grassie ground." Sig. A 2 verso). feature, form, person in general: He is complete in feature, i. 304; Cheated of feature, v. 335; complete in mind and feature, v. 526; the feature of Octavia, viii. 292; for feature ("grace and dignity of form," STAUNTON) laming The shrine of Venus, &c., viii, 501. fedary, i. 497; iii. 425; viii. 436: "Fedary and federary in Shakespeare are the same word differently written (having no connection whatever with feud or feudatory), and signify a colleague, associate, or confederate." Richardson's Dict. in v.: But Richardson ought to have said that the form federary, which the folio gives only in one passage (iii. 425), is undoubtedly an error of the scribe or printer. fee-At a pin's, At the value of a pin, vii. 323. fee-Three thousand crowns in annual, "a feud or fee (in land) of that yearly value" (RITSON), vii. 338. feeder, a servant, a menial: your very faithful feeder, iii. 33; riotous feeders, vii. 35; By one that looks on feeders (By one, ¿e. Cleopatra, who condescends to look with unbecoming kindness on servants), viii. 331. feeding-A worthy, iii. 468: see note 104, iii. 468. fee-farm!-A kiss in, “Is a kiss of a duration that has no bounds; a fee-farm being a grant of lands in fee, that is, for ever, reserving a certain rent" (MALONE), vi. 59. fee-grief, "a peculiar sorrow, a grief that hath a single owner" (JOHNSON), vii. 276. fee-simple, with fine and recovery-In, i. 431: "Fee-simple, feo dum simplex, is that of which we are seised in these general words, To us and our heirs for ever" (Cowell's Law-Dict., sub "Fee," ed. 1727); fine and recovery is “the strongest assurance known to English law" (RITSON); fee-simple, iii. 283; v. 204; vi. 103, 424; And was my own fee-simple (“Had an absolute power over myself, as large as a tenant in fee has over his estate," MALONE), ix. 418. feet, but that's a fable—I look down towards his, viii. 243: “To see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven" (JOHNSON). fell, skin, viii. 111; fells, iii. 45. fell of hair, skin covered with hair,-hairy scalp, vii. 287. fellow, a companion: to be your fellow You may deny me, i. 240; fellow! not Malvolio, iii, 365 (where Malvolio chooses to understand fellow in the sense of "companion"). FELLOW-FESCUE. 161 fellow, an equal: my brother's servants Were then my fellows, i 227; princely fellows, viii. 445. fellow of this walk-My shoulders for the, i. 445: The forester, or park-keeper, used to receive, as his perquisite, one or both of the shoulders of the buck. fellow with the great belly, &c.—The, iv. 317: An allusion to some individual well known at that time,—some fat blind beggar who was led about by his dog. fellowly, sympathetic, i. 265. female fairies will his tomb be haunted—With, viii. 471: "¿.e. harmless and protecting spirits, not fairies of a mischievous nature" (DOUCE). fencing, swearing-Drinking, vii. 332: "Fencing, I suppose, means piquing himself on his skill in the use of the sword, and quarrelling and brawling in consequence of that skill" (Malone). fennel for you, and columbines, vii. 401: Fennel was an emblem of flattery ("Dare finocchio, to flatter or giue Fennell." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.), and was also considered as a provocative (see conger, &c.); and in the present passage, where Ophelia seems to address the King, we may certainly suppose that she offers him "flattery," though we do not agree with Mr. Staunton in supposing that here fennel signifies "lust" also (fennel, moreover, was thought to have the property of clearing the sight; but there appears to be no allusion to that property here, though Mr. Beisly, in his Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 158, positively states that there is): columbines, having no particular virtues or properties ascribed to them, perhaps are emblematical of ingratitude: Chapman, in his All Fools, 1605, calls columbine “a thankless flower." (Holt White quotes Browne's Britannia's Pastorals to show that "columbine was emblematical of forsaken lovers:" but here Ophelia is not assigning the columbines to herself, and except herself, there is no "love-lorn" person present.) fere, a companion, a mate (husband or wife), vi. 330 (husband); ix. 6 (wife); ix. 200 (wife). fern-seed-The receipt of, iv. 224: "The ancients, who often paid more attention to received opinions than to the evidence of their senses, believed that fern bore no seed. Our ancestors imagined that this plant produced seed which was invisible. Hence, from an extraordinary mode of reasoning, founded on the fantastic doctrine of signatures, they concluded that they who possessed the secret of wearing this seed about them would become invisible" (HOLT WHITE). fescue, "A small wire, [stick, straw, &c.] by which those who teach to read point out the letters" (Johnson's Dict.), ix. 146; (Peele, VOL. X L 162 FESTINATE-FIG. in his Honour of the Garter, describing the Englishmen of former days, says, festival terms, holiday language, fine phraseology, ii. 145. fet, fetched, iv. 450; v. 378. fetch of warrant-A, A warranted, sanctioned, or approved artifice or device, vii. 333 fettle, to prepare, to put in order, to get ready ("To fettle, to set or go about any thing, to dress or prepare. A word much used." Ray's North Country Words, p. 29, ed. 1768), vi. 450. few-In, In few words, i. 204, 508; iv. 310, 426; vii. 319. few-In a, In a few words, iii. 121. fewness and truth, In few words and those true, i. 472. fico for the phrase—A, i. 371; fico for thy friendship, iv. 464: In these passages, where fico, of course, means "fig," there does not seem to be any allusion either to the gesticulation mentioned in the article fig me, &c., or to the poisoning noticed in the article fig of Spain !—The. field is honourable-The, v. 185: Perhaps [Certainly] a quibble between field in its heraldic, and in its common acceptation, was designed" (STEEVENS). field-In her fair face's, ix. 273: "Field is here equivocally used. The war of lilies and roses requires a field of battle; the heraldry in the preceding stanza demands another field, i.e. the ground or surface of a shield or escutcheon" (STEEVENS). fielded friends, friends who are in the battle-field, vi. 149. fierce, vehement, precipitate, excessive, violent: With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, ii. 252; fierce extremes, iv. 93; fierce vanities, v. 470; fierce wretchedness, vii. 63; fierce ("terrible," WARBURTON, "extreme, excessive=terrible, bloody," CALDECOTT) events, vii. 304 ; This fierce ("vehement, rapid," JOHNSON) abridgment, viii. 509. fifteens-He that made us pay one-and-twenty, v. 194: “A fifteen was the fifteenth part of all the movables or personal property of each subject" (MALONE). fig me, like The bragging Spaniard, iv. 401: "The practice of thrusting out the thumb between the first and second fingers, to express the feelings of insult and contempt, has prevailed very generally among the nations of Europe, and for many ages been denomi FIG-FIGHTS. 163 nated making the fig, or described at least by some equivalent ex- Higo. Cierta especie de fig of Spain!—The, iv. 464: Here "Pistol, after spurting out his 'figo [fico] for thy friendship' [see fico, &c.]; as if he were not satisfied with the measure of the contempt expressed, more emphatically adds, 'the fig of Spain.' This undoubtedly alludes to the poisoned figs mentioned in Mr. Steevens's note, because [as Steevens observes] the quartos read the fig of Spain within thy jaw,' and 'the fig within thy bowels and thy dirty maw.' Or, as in many other instances, the allusion may be twofold; for the Spanish fig, as a term of contempt only [see the preceding article], must have been very familiar in England in Shakspeare's time" (DOUCE): In the note to which Douce refers above, Steevens, to illustrate "the custom of giving poisoned figs to those who were the objects either of Spanish or Italian revenge," cites, among other passages, "I do look now for a Spanish fig, or an Italian salad, daily." Webster's White Devil,-Works, p. 30, ed. Dyce, 1857: "I must poison him; One fig sends him to Erebus.' " Shirley's Brothers,—Works, vol. i. p. 231, ed. Gifford and Dyce. figs-I love long life better than, viii. 256: A proverbial expression. -bear-like, &c. fight the course-Bear-like, I must: see course—l fights-Up with your, i. 392: Phillips thus explains fights; “(In sea-affairs) the waste-cloaths that hang round about the ship in a fight, to hinder the men from being seen by the enemy: also any place wherein men may cover themselves, and yet use their firearms." The New World of Words, ed. 1706. 164 FIGURES-FINSBURY. figures, "pictures created by imagination or apprehension" (CRAIK): to scrape the figures out of your husband's brains, i. 431; He apprehends a world of figures here, iv. 218; Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, vii. 134. file, a number, a list: the greater file of the subject, i. 513; the valu'd file (the list in which is set down the value of each), vii. 243; a file of all the gentry, vii. 281. file, to polish: his tongue filed, ii. 218: when your countenance fil'd up his line, ix. 375 (see note 46, ix. 375); filèd talk, ix. 438. file, to defile: have I fil'd my mind, vii. 242. file, to keep equal pace: Yet fil'd with my abilities, V. 531: see note 94, V. 531. file our engines with advice-And she shall: see engines with advice, &c. fill-horse, (phill-horse or thill-horse) shaft-horse, ii. 356. fills, shafts of a cart or waggon: put you i' the fills, vi. 59. 66 filth, used as a term of reproach and contempt: Filth as thou art, i. 211; Filth, thou liest! viii. 241; to general filths Convert o' th' instant, green virginity, vii. 60; Filths savour but themselves, viii. 86: in the third of these passages Steevens explains general filths by common sewers;" but surely the meaning is common whores: and so in the second passage “Filth” seems from Iago's preceding speech to be equivalent to "whore." (Compare Greene's Notable Discovery of Coosnage, &c., 1592; “To him will some common filth (that neuer knew loue) faine an ardent and honest affection," &c. Sig. o 4-) find forth, to find out falling there to find his fellow forth, ii. 12; To find the other forth, ii. 341. find him not-If she, If she do not make him out, vii. 361. fine, a conclusion, an end: and the fine is, ii. 79; the fine's the crown, iii. 286. fine, to end: Time's office is to fine the hate of foes, ix. 299. fine and recovery, i. 431 ; ii. 20: see fee-simple, &c. fine his title with some show of truth—To, iv. 419: Here fine has been explained "refine," "embellish," &c. : but see note 8, iv. 419. fine in thy evidence, full of finesse, artful, in thy evidence, iii. 305. fine issues-To, "To great consequences, for high purposes" (JOHNSON), i. 460. fineless, endless, viii. 189. Finsbury-As if thou ne'er walk'dst further than, iv. 255: "In 1498, all the gardens which had continued time out of mind without Moorgate, to wit, about and beyond the lordship of Finsbury, were |
