They that are wise had rather have their judgments at liberty in differences of readings, than to be captivated to the one when it may be the other.-The Translators [of the Authorized Version] to the Reader.

How ill beseeming is it in thy sex

To triumph, like an Amazonian trull,
Upon their woes whom Fortune captivates.

SHAKESPEARE, 3 Henry VI. act i. sc. 4.

CAREFUL. Now full of diligence and attention; but once of anxiety.

The stretes of Sion mourn; her priests make lamentacions, her maydens are carefull, and she herself is in great hevynesse. -Lament. i. 4. COVERDALE.

He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, . . . and shall not be careful in the year of drought.—Jer. xvii. 8. Authorized Version.

Pale as he is, here lay him down,

Oh, lay his cold head on my pillow;

Take off, take off, these bridal weeds,

And crown my careful head with willow.

HAMILTON, The Braes of Yarrow.

CARP. The Promptorium gives fabulor,' 'confabulor,' 'garrulo' as Latin equivalents; nor do we anywhere in early English find the subaudition of fault-finding or detraction, which now is ever implied in the word.

Ac to carpe moore of Crist, and how He come to that name,
Faithly for to speke his firste name was Jhesus.

Piers Ploughman, 13088. Now we leven the kyng, and of Joseph carpen.-Joseph of Arimathie, 212.

So gone thei forthe, carpende fast

On this, on that.

GOWER, Confessio Amantis, 1. 7.

CARPET. The covering of floors only at present, but once of tables as well. It was in this sense that a matter was 'on the carpet.' For the etymology see Transactions of the Philological Society, 1859, p. 77.

In the fray one of their spurs engaged into a carpet upon which stood a very fair looking-glass and two noble pieces of porcelain, drew all to the ground, broke the glass.—Harleian Miscellany, vol. x. p. 189.

Private men's halls were hung with altar-cloths; their tables and beds covered with copes, instead of carpets and coverlets.— FULLER, Church History of Britain, b. vii. § 2, I.

And might not these [copes] be handsomely converted into private uses, to serve as carpets for their tables, coverlids to their beds, or cushions to their chairs or windows?-HEYLIN, History of the Reformation, To the Reader.

CARRIAGE. Now, that which carries, or the act of carrying; but once, that which was carried, and thus baggage. From ignorance of this, the Authorized Translation, at Acts xxi. 15, has been often found fault with, but unjustly. See the quotation from Webster, 8. v. 'Blackguard.'

Spartacus charged his [Lentulus'] lieutenants that led the army, gave them battle, overthrew them, and took all their carriage [Thν àπookevhv äñaσav].—NORтí, Plutarch's Lives,

p. 470.

And David left his carriage [Tà σkeúŋ avtoû, LXX.] in the hand of the keeper of the carriage.—1 Sam. xvii. 22. Authorized Version.

An index is a necessary implement, and no impediment of a book, except in the same sense in which the carriages of an army are termed impedimenta. FULLER, Worthies of England: Norfolk.

CATTLE. This and chattel' are only different forms of the same word. At a time when wealth

mainly consisted in the number of heads of cattle (capita, capitalia), the word which designated them easily came to signify all other kinds of property as well. (Note the well-known parallel in 'pecus' and 'pecunia; ' in 'multa' which meant originally a fine in cattle,' and then in money; in 'fee' and ‘vieh.') At a later day this was found to have its inconveniences; which some of the writers of the Elizabethan age sought to remedy by using the term 'quick cattle' when they intended live stock; so Sir J. Harington (Epigrams, i. 91), and Puttenham (Art of English Poesy, b. i. c. 18). The distinction, however, was more effectually asserted by the appropriating of the several forms 'cattle' and 'chattel,' one to the living, the other to the dead.

Though a man give al the catel of his hous [omnem substantiam domûs suæ, Vulg.] for love, he schal despise that catel as nought.-Cant. viii. 7. WICLIF.

A womman that hadde a flux of blood twelve yeer, and hadde spendid all hir catel [omnem substantiam suam, Vulg.] in leechis.-Luke viii. 43, 44. WICLIF.

The avaricious man hath more hope in his catel than in Jesu Christ.-CHAUCER, The Persones Tale.

CENSURE. It speaks ill for the charity of men's judgments, that 'censure,' which designated once favourable and unfavourable judgments alike, is now restricted to unfavourable; for it must be that the latter, being by far the most frequent, have in this way appropriated the word exclusively to themselves.

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, act i. sc. 3.

His [Richard, Earl of Cornwall's] voyage was variously censured; the Templars, who consented not to the peace, flouted

thereat, as if all this while he had laboured about a difficult nothing; others thought he had abundantly satisfied any rational expectation.-FULLER, The Holy War, b. iv. c. 8.

Which could not be past over without this censure; for it is an ill thrift to be parsimonious in the praise of that which is very good. - HACKET, Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 13.

CHAFFER. Once, to buy, to make a bargain, to higgle or dispute about the making of a bargain, it has at length seen the buying or bargaining quite disappear from it; so that 'to chaffer' is now to talk much and idly.

That no man overgo, nether disceyve his brother in chaffaringe [in negotio, Vulg.].-1 Thess. iv. 6. WiCLIF.

He comaundid his servauntis to be clepid, to whiche he hadde geve money to witte how myche ech had wonne by chaffarynge. -Luke xix. 15. WICLIF.

Where is the fair flock thou was wont to lead?
Or been they chaffred, or at mischief dead?

SPENSER, Shepherd's Calendar, Ecl. 9.

CHAOS. The earliest meaning of xáos in Greek, of 'chaos in Latin, was empty infinite space, the yawning kingdom of darkness; only a secondary, that which we have now adopted, namely, the rude, confused, indigested, unorganized matter out of which the universe according to the heathen cosmogony was formed. But the primary use of 'chaos' not strange to the literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth century.

was

Beside all these things, between us and you there is fixed a great chaos, that they which will pass from hence to you may not.

-Luke xvi. 26. Rheims.

And look what other thing soever besides cometh within the chaos of this monster's mouth, be it beast, boat, or stone, down

it goeth incontinently that foul great swallow of his.-HOLLAND,

Plutarch's Morals, p. 975.

To the brow of heaven

Pursuing, drive them out from God and bliss
Into their place of punishment, the gulf
Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide
His fiery chaos to receive their fall.

MILTON, Paradise Lost, b. 6.

CHEAT, The steps by which 'escheat' has yielded CHEATER. 'cheat,' and 'escheatour''cheater,' are interesting to trace. The 'escheatour' was an officer in each county who took notice of fines and forfeitures technically called 'escheats' on the royal manors which had fallen in to the Crown, and certified these to the Exchequer. But he commonly allowed himself in so much fraud and concussion in the execution of his office, that by an only too natural transition the 'escheatour' passed into the 'cheater,' and 'escheat' into 'cheat.' The quotation from Gurnall is curious as marking the word in the very act of this transition.

And yet the taking off these vessels was not the best and goodliest cheat of their victory; but this passed all, that with one light skirmish they became lords of all the sea along those coasts.-HOLLAND, Livy, p. 444.

This man who otherwise beforetime was but poor and needy, by these windfalls and unexpected cheats became very wealthy. -Id. Plutarch's Morals, p. 1237.

Falstaff. Here's another letter to her. She bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheaters to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me.— SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. 2.

By this impudence they may abuse credulous souls into a belief of what they say, as a cheater may pick the purses of innocent people, by showing them something like the King's broad seal, which was indeed his own forgery.-GURNALL, Christian Armour, 1639, vol. ii. p. 201.