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LX. Some Interrelations of English Dictionaries of the Seventeenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Gertrude E. Noyes
Gertrude E. Noyes*
Affiliation:
Connecticut College
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Extract

In a recent issue of the University of Texas Bulletin, D. T. Starnes has contributed a long-needed and most useful survey of early English lexicography and has clearly outlined the many aspects of this complicated subject. It is my purpose here to offer a few notes and comments.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , December 1939 , pp. 990 - 1006
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1939

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References

1 “English Dictionaries of the Seventeenth Century,” University of Texas Studies in English, No. 17 (July 8, 1937), pp. 15–51.

2 “Being a Collection of the choisest words contained in the Table Alphabelicall and English Expositor, and of some thousands of words neuer published by any heretofore.”

3 Cawdry's work, which appeared originally in 1604, reached a third edition in 1613 and a fourth in 1617. In each case E. Weaver's name appears on the title-page as bookseller.

4 The English Dictionarie was entered on the Stationers' Register for Butter on February 15, 1623, but was transferred to Weaver on July 17, 1623.

5 The two 1623 versions are identical except for a slight variation in the headings of the second part and in the Butter version a shorter form of the passage quoted above from the Weaver title-page. The passage in question appears as follows on the Butter title-page: “Being a Collection of some thousands of words, neuer published by any heretofore.”

6 “I am not ignorant of the praise-worthy labours which some Schollers of deserued memorie haue heretofore bestowed on the like subiect that I haue here aduentured on: howsoeuer it might therefore seeme a needlesse taske of mine, to intrude vpon a plot of study, the foundation of whose building hath beene formerly leuel'd and laid, yet the Iustice of defence herein is so cleere, that my endeuours may bee truly termed rather a necessity of doing, than an arrogancie in doing. For without appropriating to my owne comfort any interest of glory, the understanding Readers will not, the ignorant cannot, and the malicious dare not, but acknowledge that what any before me in this kinde haue begun, I haue not onely fully finished, but thoroughly perfected.”—1623 ed. A 4 r-v.

7 Op. cit., p. 28.

8 Bullokar, Gab to Garrulitie, 1616 ed.; Cockeram, Gabbing to Garrulity, 1623 ed. Compare the definitions of Gabbing, Gabions, Galiard, Galoch, Galpe, Gargarisme, Gargoning, Garrulity.

9 The Bullokar entries below are from the 1616 edition. Except for occasional orthographical variations, however, they are identical with the corresponding items in the 1641 edition; and the references given apply to both editions. It is of interest to consider side by side the Bullokar 1641 and the Cockeram 1642 editions, which despite their rivalry had so much material in common. That there is no debt to Cawdry's Table Alphabeticall in the definitions quoted above can be seen from the following facts. The words, abyss and ablepsie, do not occur in the Table. Cawdry's definitions of the words in common or the nearest equivalents follow: “abettors, counsellors” (B 1 r, 1604 ed.); “abbesse, abbatesse, Mistris of a Nunnerie, comforters of others” (B 1 r); “abbridge, to shorten, or make short” (B 1 r);“adopt, to take for his child, freely to choose” (B 2 v);“anathema, accursed or giuen ouer to the deuill” (B 4 r); “annuall, yearely” (B 4 v).

10 Bullokar, 1616 ed., B 8 r; Cockeram, 1623 ed., B 5 v.

Neither apoplexy nor any of the herbs mentioned above occurs in Cawdry. Although some of the words considered below in the text occur in Cawdry's list, the definitions are very brief and contributed nothing to Bullokar's longer discussions. Contrast with Bullokar's definitions, for example, Cawdry's “canon, law or rule” (C 1 v, 1604 ed.); “crocodile, (k) beast” (C 8 r); “action, the forme of a suite” (B 2 r).

11 Bullokar, 1616 ed., B 7 r; Cockeram, 1623 ed., B 5 r.

12 Bullokar, 1616 ed., B 2 r, B 2 r, C 1 v, C 1 r.

13 Bullokar, 1616 ed., E 4 vf. Cockeram had not originally carried this item; but it appears in the 1642ed., T1 r.

14 Bullokar, 1616 ed., C 5 r-v. This item also was not in the original Cockeram but appears in the 1642 ed. X 5 v.

15 From the title-page and the address to the reader in the 1616 edition we learn that John Bullokar was a doctor of physic living at Chichester in Sussex in 1616. The D.N.B. article by Jennett Humphreys describes Bullokar as flourishing in 1622 and “alive from about 1580 to about 1641.”

16 There was also a change of printers at this time. The Legatts had printed the Expositor from 1616 on; but a new printer, J. Field, was responsible for the 1663 edition.

17 The following words, not present in the 1616 Bullokar but present in the 1623 Cockeram, occur in the 1663 revision of Bullokar. In instances where the authors do not use the same form of the word, the form as it appears in Cockeram is given in parentheses. It will be noted that Bullokar's reviser favors the noun form, whereas Cockeram favored the verb or participle. Abaction (Abacted), Abarstick, Abduction, Abecedary (Abecedarian), Abequitation (Abequitate), Aberration, Abhorrency (Abhorre), Ablactation (Ablacted), Ablocation (Ablocate), Abnegation, Abrasion (Abrase), Absonant, Abstorted (Abstorqued), Abvolation (Abvolate), Accent, Acceptilation, Acervation (Aceruate), Acetar, A colasticke, Acrimony, Acumination (Acuminate), Acupiction (Acupinge, “To embroder”), Adaction (Adacted), Adamate (Adamal, “to love dearly”), Adcorporate (Adcorporated), Ademption (Ademtion), Adequation (Adequate), Adequitation (Adequitate), Adhamation (Adhamate, “To hook, to bind”), Adiaphorous (Adiaphoricie, “Indifferencie”), Adjument, Adonai, Adriatick Sea, etc.

18 Abash, Abstemious, Abstersive, Adminicular.

19 For example where Bullokar has a single item, Babling (sic), Cockeram has: to Babble, a Babbler, much Babbling, Babbling, love of Babbling.

20 Note that, unlike Cockeram's third part, the Nomenclator takes the form of a single unclassified list. It is not completely unified, as there are a few curious miscellaneous items; but the entries dealing with famous persons and inventors strongly predominate and give a semblance, of unity.

21 Cockeram, 1623 ed., I 6 v.

22 Ibid., I 6 r.

23 Ibid., K 1 r-v.

24 That is, there are two lists for each letter: the first list consisting of miscellaneous items and the second, somewhat shorter, list consisting entirely of legal items.

25 Through the 1658 edition these items appeared under the heading, Men that were Captains. References in the first column are to the 1658 edition, but entries are identical with those of the 1623 edition.

26 To the Candid and Ingenuous Reader, A 5 v–6 r.

27 The Preface to the Reader, A 2 v.

28 Ibid., A 2 r-v.

29 Op. cit., 30.

30 The English-Latin dictionary, which forms the first part of the Rider-Holyoke work, gives the English word first in black type, then a definition or synonyms, and finally, in indented lines, the Latin equivalents. The English word-list was thus prominent, and definitions were available. On the whole, the definitions are much briefer than in Cockeram and Bullokar; but the convenient word-list may have been helpful.

31 The short second section of the Rider-Holyoke dictionary consists of word-lists under the following headings: Birds, Colours, Dogs, Fishes, Hawkes, Hearbs, Numbers, Stones, Trees, Weightes, and Calendars. Besides the headings discussed above, Rider and Cockeram have in common Birds and Dogs; but there is no considerable debt here. Cockeram appears to have been less interested in dogs than Rider, listing only a few, and more interested in birds. Whereas Rider gives only the Latin names for birds, Cockeram goes on to recount legends.

32 In the note To the Reader, 1656 ed., A 3 r, Blount says that the work “has taken me up the vacancy of above Twenty years.” In a similar note in A World of Errors, 1673, A 2 r, Blount calls the Glossographia “the fruit of above Twenty years spare hours.” Although such phrases are often misleading, the facts of Blount's life would lead us to believe that he had ample leisure. Although he was called to the Bar, his Catholic belief greatly restricted his practice so that he had much opportunity for study.

33 In To the Reader, 1656 ed., A 6 r, Blount says he consulted “authors of different perswasions in Controversial points.”

34 Title-page, first and subsequent editions.

35 To the Reader, 1656 ed., A 3 v.

36 This was natural, since—as indicated above—Blount was himself a barrister. Occasionally, however, even in this field Blount accepted material from Bullokar; cf. Canon, etc. Starnes, op. cit., p. 38, notes Blount's borrowing legal data also from Rastell's Expositiones lerminorum legum Anglorum and Cowell's Interpreter.

37 Starnes, op. cit., p. 36, refers to definitions borrowed without acknowledgment by Blount from other predecessors.

38 To the Reader, 1656 ed., A 5 r.

39 Editions of Blountwere as follows: 1—1656;2—1661;3—1670;4—1674;5—1681;folio edition by W. Nelson, 1717.

40 This item is rather different in nature. Bullokar ends his long definition as follows: “… notwithstanding I suppose it rather to be a minerall.”—1616 ed., C 8 r. Blount copies the item, only changing the end to read: “… but Dr. Bullokar rather conceives it to be a Mineral.”—1656 ed., G 3 r.

41 Op. cit., pp. 45, 46.

42 I have omitted this link in the chain of interrelationships of the lexicographers as well known through Blount's own complaint in A World of Errors Discovered in the New World of Words, etc. (London, 1673) and analyzed by Starnes, op. cit., pp. 40–43.

43 In fact, as H. B. Wheatley observes, “Chronological Notices of the Dictionaries of the English Language.” Transactions of the Philological Society (1865), p. 233, Phillips' work is “overloaded with proper names.”

44 In To the Reader, 1676 ed., A 3 r, Coles professes a special interest in geographical names, which he believes to be an important feature of a dictionary. Concerning his inclusion of poetic and legendary material he says: “Poetical expressions may be allowed to Poetical Relations and Fictions; yet I here and there give a hint, to let you know, that I take them not for real Verities.”

45 Definition from Coles, 1676 ed., B 1 r.

46 Identical definitions in Phillips, 1658 ed., A 1 v, and Coles, 1676 ed., B 1 r.

47 All of these items except the English place-names had been available for Phillips in Estienne's Dictionarium. Starnes discusses Phillips' use of Estienne, op. cit., p. 43.