the booth were finished for the evening, he could not succeed in procuring a repetition of the piece, losing thereby the means of all further information on the subject."] Indeed, but for what follows, I might have been induced to suppose that the object he saw was nothing more or less than the hero of a well-known pantomime, entitled Harlequin Skeleton. This circumstance, however, having accidentally reached the ears of a venerable clergyman who is now more than eighty years of age, he told me that he very well remembered to have met with such another figure, above fifty years ago, at Salisbury. Being there during the time of some public meeting, he happened to call on a surgeon at the very instant when the representative of Death was brought in to be let blood on account of a tumble he had had on the stage, while in pursuit of his antagonist, a Merry Andrew, who very anxiously attended him (dressed also in character) to the phlebotomist's house. The same gentleman's curiosity, a few days afterwards, prevailed on him to be spectator of the dance in which our emblem of mortality was a performer. This dance, he says, entirely consisted of Death's contrivances to surprise the Merry Andrew, and of the Merry Andrew's efforts to elude the stratagems of Death, by whom at last he was overpowered; his finale being attended with such circumstances as mark the exit of the Dragon of Wantley. It should seem and that the general idea of this serio-comic pas-de-deux had been borrowed from the ancient Dance of Machabre, commonly called The Dance of Death, a grotesque ornament of cloisters, both here and in foreign parts. The aforesaid combination of figures, though erroneously ascribed to Hans Holbein, was certainly of an origin more remote than the times in which that eminent painter is known to have flourished" (STEEVENS): "The letter [representing a struggle between Death and the Fool] that occurs in Stowe's Survey of London, edit. 1618, 4to, is only an enlarged but imperfect copy from another belonging to a regular Dance of Death used as initials by some of the Basil printers in the sixteenth century, which, from the extraordinary skill that accompanies their execution, will ever rank amongst the finest efforts in the art of engraving on blocks of wood or metal. Most of the subjects in this Dance of Death have undoubtedly been supplied by that curious pageant of mortality which, during the middle ages, was so great a favourite as to be perpetually exhibited to the people either in the sculpture and painting of ecclesiastical buildings, or in the books adapted to the service of the church: yet some of them but ill accord with those serious ideas which the nature of the subject is calculated to inspire. In these the artist has indulged a vein of broad and satirical humour which was not wholly reserved for the caricatures of modern times; and in one or two instances he has even overleaped the bounds of decency. The letter in Stowe's Survey is the only one that appears to have been imitated from the above alphabet. It is to be remembered that in most of the old dances of death the subject of the fool is introduced; and it is, on the whole, extremely probable that some such representation might have suggested the image before us [in the letter copied from Stowe's Survey]" (DOUCE). fool-Poor, a sort of term of endearment: I thank it, poor fool, ii. 94; Alas, poor fool, iii. 396; my poor fool (i.e. Cordelia) is hang'd! viii. 122; poor venomous fool, viii. 377; The poor fool, ix. 242; the poor dappled fools, iii. 25; the poor fools, v. 263. (With poor dappled fools compare "Then he stroking once or twice his prettie goate (which hee yet held fast by the hornes) said thus, Lie downe, pide foole, by me, for we shall haue time enough to returne home againe." Shelton's transl. of Don Quixote, Part First, p. 556, ed. 1612.) fool-Pretty, a sort of term of endearment, like that of the preceding article, vi. 388 (twice). fool go with thy soul, whither it goes-A, A kind of proverbial impre cation, iv. 290. fool-The shrieve's, The sheriff's fool, iii. 280: "Female idiots were retained in families for diversion as well as male, though not so commonly; and there would be as much reason to expect one of the former in the sheriff's household as in that of any other person" (DOUCE-in opposition to a note of RITSON). fool till heaven hath sent me fortune-Call me not, iii. 37: "Alluding to the common saying [which may be traced up to classical antiquity], that fools are Fortune's favourites" (MALONE). fool, &c.—What is he for a: see What is he for a fool, &c. fool's bolt is soon shot-A, iv. 470; According to the fool's bolt, iii. 89: Ray gives "A fool's bolt is soon shot. De fol juge brieve sentence. Gall. A foolish judge passes a quick sentence." Proverbs, p. 108, ed. 1768: and see bolt. fools' zanies-The: see zany. fool-begg'd patience, ii. 15: "She seems to mean, by 'fool-begg'd patience,' that patience which is so near to idiotical simplicity, that your next relation [or any one who chose to do so] would take advantage from it to represent you as a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune" (JOHNSON): see beg us— - You cannot. viii. 492. foot, to seize with the foot: Stoop'd as to foot us, foot, to strike with the foot, to kick, to spurn: foot me as you spurn a stranger cur, ii. 350; foot her home again, viii. 455. foot, to tread, to walk: Swithold footed thrice the old, viii. 70. foot, to move with measured steps, to dance: Foot it featly, i. 213; foot it, girls, vi. 395. foot, to fix or set foot in, or to set foot on: he is footed in this land 172 FOOT-CLOTH-FORCE. already, iv. 448; there is part of a power already footed, viii. 65; the traitors Late footed in the kingdom, viii. 79. foot-cloth, a housing of cloth, hanging down on both sides of a horse, v. 195. foot-cloth mule, v. 179; foot-cloth horse, v. 399: animals ornamented with a foot-cloth. for, for that, because: for they are sent by me, i. 321; For I have had such faults, i. 475; But for my hand, as unattempted yet, &c., iv. 34 ; And, for my heart disdainèd, &c., iv. 119; And, for our coffers, with too great a court, &c., iv. 120; For it requires the royal debt it lent you, v. 377; For she is with me, viii. 152; for I am black, viii, 192; For we do fear the law, viii. 468. for, because of: Leave nothing out for length, vi. 176; For certain friends that are both his and mine, vii. 244. for catching cold, i. 291; For swallowing the treasure of the realm, v. 180; For going on death's net, ix. 8; For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure, ix. 358: In these passages for has generally been glossed "for fear of, in prevention of:" but Horne Tooke maintains that for is properly a noun, and has always one and the same meaning, viz. "cause;" so that, according to his explanation of the word, the cause of Lucetta's taking up the papers was that they might not catch cold; the cause of the Captain's damming-up Pole's mouth was that it might not swallow the treasure of the realm; the cause of Pericles's being advised to desist was that he might not go on death's net; and the cause of the rich man not every hour surveying his treasure is that he may not blunt the fine point of seldom pleasure; philologers, however, are far from agreed about the etymology of for; see Webster's Dict., Latham's ed. of Johnson's Dict. for and, equivalent to and also, vii. 414: see note 136, vii. 414. for me, for, or on, my part: Faith, none for me, iv. 119. for thy hand-The lily I condemned, "I condemned the lily for presuming to emulate the whiteness of thy hand" (MALONE), ix. 381. for why, because, for this reason that, i. 319; ii. 35; iii. 152; iv. 176; vi. 321; ix. 308, 432 (twice), 434: see note 59, ii. 35. forage, and run, iv. 79: see note 118, iv. 79. forbid, under a curse, forspoken, bewitched: He shall live a man forbid, vii. 209. force-Of, Of necessity, necessarily: We must of force dispense, ii. 164; of force she must, ii. 292; of force must yield, ii. 397, 398; of force I must, ii. 408; of force, must know, iii. 476; It must of force, iv. 231; must, of force, give place to better, vii. 180. force, to regard, to care for, to heed: you force not to forswear, ii. 238; I force not argument a straw, ix. 302. FORCE-FORFEIT. 173 force, to enforce, to urge: When he would force it, i. 504; force them with a constancy, v. 524; Why force you this? vi. 208. force, to stuff: force him with praises, vi. 51; malice forced with wit, vi. 104. force, to strengthen: Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours, vii. 287. force perforce, "Force, forcée. Of force, of necessitie, will he nill he, in spite of his teeth" (Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.), iv. 366, 379; V. 114: compare first force and perforce. fordo, to undo, to destroy, vii. 418; fordoes, vii. 335; viii. 232; fordid, viii. 120; fordone (overcome), ii. 329; viii. 121. fore-end of my time-The, The fore part, the early part of my time, viii. 440. foregoers, progenitors, ancestors, iii. 236. forehand sin-The, The previous sin, ii. 123. forehand-shaft, iv. 354: “An arrow particularly formed for shoot ing straight forward; concerning which Ascham [in his Toxophilus] says, that it should be big-breasted. His account is, however, rather obscure," &c. Nares's Gloss. forehead As low as she would wish it-Her, viii. 309: see note -96, viii. 309. forehorse to a smock-The, iii. 222: "The forehorse of a team was gaily ornamented with tufts and ribbons and bells. Bertram complains that, bedizened like one of these animals, he will have to squire ladies at the court, instead of achieving honour in the wars" (STAUNTON). foreign man still-Kept him a, "Kept him out of the king's presence, employed in foreign embassies" (JOHNSON), v. 504. forestall'd remission—A ragged and, iv. 393: Johnson thinks that "perhaps by forestall'd remission he [the author] may mean a pardon begged by a voluntary confession of offence and anticipation of the charge:" according to Mason, both here and in Massinger (The Duke of Milan, act iii. sc. 1, and The Bondman, act iii. sc. 3,— Works, vol. i. p. 282, vol. ii. p. 69, ed. Gifford, 1813) “a forestall'd remission seems to mean, a remission that it is predetermined shall not be granted, or will be rendered nugatory:" Malone believes that here "forestall'd only means asked before it is granted:" Mr. Knight explains a forestall'd remission by "a pardon supplicated, not offered freely: "} see ragged. forfeit, to transgress, to offend: still forfeit in the same kind, i. 515. forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life—The, v. 373: “He means the remission of the forfeit" (JOHNSON). 1/4 FORFEITS—FORKS. forfeits, penalties, punishments: Remit thy other forfeits, i. 556. forfeits in a barber's shop-Like the, i. 548: "[Barbers'] shops were places of great resort, for passing away time in an idle manner. By way of enforcing some kind of regularity, and, perhaps, at least as much to promote drinking, certain laws were usually hung up, the transgression of which was to be punished by specific forfeitures. It is not to be wondered, that laws of that nature were as often laughed at as obeyed." Nares's Gloss. in "Forfeits," &c. : Steevens pronounced the metrical list of forfeits published by Kenrick to be a forgery: but it would seem that they are not wholly so. "Upwards of forty years ago," says Moor, "I saw a string of such rules at the tonsor's of Alderton, near the sea. I well recollect the following lines to have been among them; as they are also in those of Nares [i.e. those cited from Kenrick by Nares in his Gloss.], said to have been copied in Northallerton in Yorkshire ; 'First come, first serve-then come not late,' &c. Suffolk Words, &c., 1823, p. 133. forfend, to forbid, to prohibit, to avert, iii. 480; iv. 168; v. 93, 162, 252; vi. 292; viii. 233, 239, 506; forfended, viii, 107. forgetive, inventive, iv. 377. forgot?-How comes it, Michael, you are thus, How comes it, Michael, that you have thus forgot yourself? viii. 174. fork, a barbed arrow-head,—a barbed arrow (see forked heads): though the fork invade The region of my heart, viii. II. fork, a forked tongue: the soft and tender fork Of a poor worm, i. 500; Adder's fork, vii. 260. forked, horned: o'er head and ears a fork'd one (a cuckold), iii. 412; this forkèd plague (cuckold's horns), viii. 192. "Whose face forked heads, iii. 25: "The barbed or forked head of an arrow. Fer 'Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow (EDWARDS): "To preserve the modesty of Mr. Edwards's happy |
