Four speedy cherubims
Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy.
Milt., Par. Lost, ii, 517.
Such were his arms, false gold, true alchymie.
Fletch., Purple Isl., c. vii, s. 39.
They are like rings and chaines bought at St. Martin's,
that weare faire for a little time, but shortly after will

prove alchimy, or rather pure copper. Minshull Essay, p. 23. It was afterwards corrupted into occamy, which is not yet quite disused, among some classes. ALDERLIEFEST. Dearest of all; from alder, aller, or alre, used as the genitive of all; and lief dear. Chaucer has alderfirst, alderlast, &c. With you, mine alderliefest sovereign. Thus:

2 Hen. VI, i, 1.

And alderfirst he bad them all a bone. Chauc., C. Tales, 9492. See other instances in the notes upon the above passage of Shakespeare.

+And alder-next was the fresshe quene;

I mean Alceste, the noble true wife,
And for Admete howe she lost her lyfe;
And for her trouthe, if I shall nat lye,
How she was turned into a daysye.

Lydgate's Temple of Glas.

+ALDERMAN'S PACE. A slow stately pace. "Pas d'abbé, a leasurely walking, slow gate, Alderman's pace." Cotgrave.

+ALDGATE. The Pye was formerly a celebrated inn in this neighbourhood:

coined in imitation of lunacy, which
means being under lunar influence.
It he had arrested a mare instead of a horse, it had
beene a slight oversight, but to arrest a man, that
hath no likenesse of a horse, is flat lunasie, or alecie.
Lyly's Mother Bombie, cc. 9.

ALECONNER. Explained in Johnson and Chambers's Dictionaries to be an officer in the city of London, which is true; but he is not peculiar to that place. Better explained by Kersey; "Aleconner or ale-taster, an officer appointed in every court-leet, to look to the assize and goodness of bread, ale, and beer." Thus it is said of the celebrated Captain Cox (q. v.) that he was

Of very great credite and trust in the toun heer, for he haz been chozen ale-cunner many a yeer, when hiz betterz have stond by; and ever quitted himself with such estimation, az yet, too tast of a cup of nippitate, his judgement will be taken above the best in the parish, be hiz noze near so read.

Progr. of Eliz., vol. i, an. 1575.

In

In some parishes, the aleconner's jurisdiction was very extensive. that of Tottenham, Middlesex, it is thus described:

It is the custom in most manors, for the lord to appoint the ale-conners at the court-leet; but there not having been a court-leet for some years held for the manor of Tottenham, these officers have been regularly appointed by the parishioners in vestry. The aleconners are authorized to search for, destroy, seize, and take away all unwholesome provisions, false balances, short weights and measures; to enter mills and bakehouses, to search for and seize (if any should be found) all adulterated flour and bread; and also to enter into brewhouses, and examine the quality of beer, ale, &c., and the materials of which it is made. All persons coming into the parish, with carts or otherwise, with peas, potatoes, &c., from London, are subject to the inspection of these officers, and liable to all the penalties attached to the selling with short weights and measures.

ales, and several more.

ALECOST.

Robinson's Hist. of Tottenh., p. 241. An herb: the same as

ALE, for ALEHOUSE.

O, Tom, that we were now at Putney, at the ale there.

Thom., Lord Cromwell, iii, 1. In the folio of 1623, ale is read for alehouse, in Two Gent. of Ver., ii, 5.

A humorous term for

keeper of an ale-house.

I came up to London, and fall to be some tapster, hostler, or chamberlaine in an inn. Well, I get mee a wife; with her a little money; when we are married, seeke a house we must; no other occupation have ĺ but to be an ale-draper.

Henry Chettle, Kind-Harts Dreame, 1592. Two milch maydens that had set up a shoppe of aledrapery.

lb.

and sugar, and sops of bread.

After that, cause an aleberry to be made for her, and put into it powder of camphire, and give it to her to The Pathway to Health, f. 54.

eate. Indeede it was never knowne to be so farre out of reparations, that it needed the assistance of cawdle, alebery, julep, cullisse, grewell, or stewd-broth, onely a messe of plaine frugall countrey pottage was alwayes sufficient for him. Taylor's Workes, 1630. ALECIE, 8. Drunkenness; the state of being influenced by ale: a word

alecgan, Sax.; alleger, Fr.

The joyous time now nigheth fast, That shall alegge this bitter blast, And slake the winter sorrow. Spens., Shep. Kal., iii, 4. Dr. Johnson has it aligge, in his dictionary, and supposes it to be derived from a and lig, to lie down; but the reading and etymology are both erroneous.

+ALE-KNIGHT, s. A haunter of ale

houses; a tippler.

Come, all you brave wights,
That are dubbed ale-knights,

Now set out your selves in fight:

And let them that crack

In the praises of sack,

Know malt is of mickle might.

Witts Recreations, 1654.

Methought nothing my state could more disgrace, Than to beare name, and in effect to be

A cypher in algrim, as all men might see.

Mirr. for Mag., p. 338.

ALICANT. A Spanish wine, formerly much esteemed; said to be made near Alicant, and of mulberries.

You'll blood three pottles of alicant, by this light, if
you follow them.
O. Pl., ii, 252.

at the door of an alehouse.

He and I never dranke togyder,
Yet I knowe many an ale-stake.
Hawkins's Old Plays, i, 109.
The beare

He plaies with men, who (like doggs) feele his force, That at the alestake baite him not with beere. Davies, Scourge of Folly, 1611. +ALESTANBEARER is thus described: An alestan-bearer: porters that carry burthens with slings, as we see brewers doe, when they laye beere into the seller. Nomenclator, 1585.

ALEW. Howling, lamentation, outery; probably only another form of halloo.

Yet did she not lament, with loude alew As women wont, but with deep sighs and singults few. Sp., F. Q., V, vi, 13. ALFAREZ, or ALFERES. A Spanish word, meaning an ensign; contracted, according to Skinner, from aquilifer.

Commended to me from some noble friends
For my alferes.
B. & Fl., Rule a W., i, 1.
Jug here, his alfarez:
An able officer, gi' me thy beard, round jug.
B. Jon., New Inn, iii, 1.
The heliotropeum or sunflower, it is said, "is the true
alferes, bearing up the standard of Flora."

Emblems, to the Parthenian Sodalitie, p. 49.

It may be said to have been adopted for a time as an English word, being in use in our army during the civil wars of Charles I. In a MS. in the Harleian collection, No. 6804, § 96, among papers of that period, it is often repeated. "Alferes John Manering, Alferes Arthur Carrol," &c. ALFRIDARIA. A term in the old judicial astrology, which is thus explained by Kersey: "A temporary power which the planets have over the life of a person."

I'll finde the cuspe, and alfridaria.

means, your children, the consequence of drunkenness." This is what is meant by allegant, in the Fair M. of the Inn, act iv, p. 399. [See ALIGAUNT.] To ALIEN. To alienate; to wean.

What remains now, but that he alien himselfe from
the world, seeing what he had in the world is aliened
from him.
Clitus. Whimz., p. 63.

A'-LIFE.

As my life; excessively.

I love a ballad in print a'-life.

Thou lov'st a'-life

Their perfum'd judgement.

A clean instep,

And that I love a'-life.

Wint. T., iv, 3.

B. Jon.

B. & F., Mons. Th., ii, 2.

The editor of 1750 very wisely altered it to "as life :" and the same emendation he has offered in B. and Fl.'s Wit at several Weapons, act iii, p. 292. He loves a-life dead payes, yet wishes they may rather happen in his company by the scurvy, than by a battell. Overbury's Char., fol. K., 8. TALIGAUNT. A not uncommon mode of spelling alicant, the name of a wine. See ALICANT.

Thirtie rivers more

With aligaunte; thirtie hills of sugar;

Ale flowed from the rockes, wine from the trees Which we call muscadine. Timon, ed. Dyce, p. 39. The ambassador receiving the cup from his princelye hand, returned againe to his owne place, where all of us standing, drank the same helth out of the same cup, being of fayre christall, as the emperor had commanded, the wine (as farre as my judgement gave leave) being alligant.

Sir Thomas Smith's Voyage to Russia, 1605.
Vinum atrum, Plaut. rubeum. Tinture. Redde wine
or allegant.
Nomenclator, 1585.

ALIGGE. See ALEGGE.
ALL. Although.

And those two froward sisters, their faire loves,
Came with them eke, all they were wondrous loth.
Sp., F. Q., II, ii, 34.
ALL. For exactly.

All as the dwarfe the way to her assyn'd.
Spens., F. Q., I, vii, 18.

ALGATES. By all means.

And therefore would I should be algates slain;
For while I live his right is in suspense.
Also, notwithstanding.

Fairf. T., iv, 60.

Maugre thine head; algate I suffer none. O. Pl., x, 284.
And Spenser,

Which when Sir Guyon saw, all were he wroth,
Yet algates mote he soft himself appease.

When there was neither time nor place, nor space,
And silence did the chaos round imbrace:
Then did the archwork-master of this all
Create this massie universail ball,
And with his mighty word brought all to passe,
Saying but, Let there be, and done it was.
Taylor's Workes, 1630..

It may be this my exhortation

Seems harsh, and all unpleasant.

TALL. Very.

F. Q., II, ii, 12.

final result.

ALGRIM. A contraction of algorism,

an old name for arithmetic.

Marlowe's Tragedy of Doctor Faustus.

When all comes to all, i. e., in the

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus: he spake
of a foxe, but when all came to all, it was but a ferne-
brake.
Withals' Dictionary, ed. 1634, p. 574.
+All along, prostrate.

The bishop going into his study, which only could get
into but himself, found his own picture lying all along
on its face, which extremely perplexed him, he looking
upon it as ominous. Heylin's Life of Archbishop Laud.
All one, all the same thing.

O Clinia, you take your love otherwise then shee is:
for shee lives after the old use and custome, and her
mind towards you is all one that it was before, as farre
as by the thing itselfe we two could conjecture.
Terence in English, 1614.
But all's one, let him doe his worst, shee is confidently
arm'd with innocency; and the threats or danger of
the bad cannot affright her, but that shee will attempt
to recreate the good.
Taylor's Workes, 1630.
It is all one, sir, where you open the book, his rheto-
rical humour is so very much the same.
Eachard's Observations, 8vo, 1671, p. 133.

To throw or push at all, to risk the whole. A term in gambling.

At dice they plaid for faieries; at each cast
A knight at least was lost: what doe you set?
This knight cries one (and names him), no, a lord
Or none; tis done,-he tlrrowes and sweepes the bord;
His hatte is full of lords up to the brimme;
The sea threw next at all, won all and him.

Decker's Whore of Babylon, 1607.
Think not to please your servants with half-pay:
Good gamesters never stick to through at all.

Cotgrave's Wits Interpreter, 1671, p. 164.
And so be all suspected: wondrous good.
Go bravely on then, Dampierre, push at all,
Honour attends th' attempt, tho thou shouldst fall.
Unnatural Brother, 1697.
At all, quoth Rufus, lay you what you dare,
I'll throw at all, and 'twere a peck of gold;
No life lies on't, then coyn I'll never spare;
Why Rufus, that's the cause of all that's sold?
For which frank gamesters it doth oft befall,
They throw at all, till thrown quite out of all.
Witts Recreations, 1654.

ALL AND SOME.

one; everything.

One and all; every

Thou who wilt not love do this,
Learn of me what woman is;

Something made of thread and thrumme,
A mere botch of all and some.

Herrick, p. 84.
In armour eke the souldiers all and some,
With all the force that might so soon be had.
Mirr. for Mag., p. 91.
ALLEGANCE. See

ALLEGGE,
ALEGGE.
ALL TO. Entirely; very much. The to
seems to have an augmentative power,
so as to increase the force of the word
following. Thus all-to-torn means very
much torn. [Nares has apparently
mistaken the origin of this form: to
belongs to the following word, being a
particle answering to the German zu-.
To-broken, means broken to pieces;
to-frozen, intensely frozen; to-brake,
broke to pieces.]

That did with dirt and dust him al-to-dash. Harr. Ariosto, xxxiv, 48. Now, forsooth, as they went together, often al-tokissing one another, the knight told her he was brought up among the water nymphs. Pembr. Arc., p. 154. Mercutio's ycy hand had al to frozen mine.

Romeus and Jul., Suppl., i, 285.

It occurs even in the authorised version of the Bible:

And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull.

Judges ix, 53. Where it has sometimes been ignorantly printed "all to break." See Newcome on Versions, p. 303.

It is used also by Milton, in a very beautiful passage; and this, being the last known instance of it, has been much misunderstood.

Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, She [Wisdom] plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, That, in the various bustle of resort, Were all to ruffled, and sometimes impair'd. Comus, i, 376. This has been read, "all too ruffled," as if to be ruffled in some degree was allowable, which the author certainly did not mean. Warton says, that the corruption began with Tickell; but it is so quoted at the end of No. 98 of the Tatler, whether in the original editions or not, I cannot say. I find it so in the London edition of 1797. All-to-be is also met with, but rather in a ludicrous way, and was so retained for a long time in jocular language, after beginning to be obsolete.

I'll have you chronicled and chronicled and cut and chronicled, and all-to-be-prais'd, and sung in sonnets. B. & F., Philaster, act v. The editors of 1750 unnecessarily changed this to "sung in all-to-beprais'd sonnets." It was right before. We find it in one of Swift's letters to Pope :

This moment I am so happy as to have a letter from Lord Peterborow, for which I intreat you will present him with my humble respects and thanks, tho' he all-to-be-Gullivers me by very strong insinuations. Letter 21. I wonder my Lord of Canterbury is not once more all-to-be-traytor'd for dealing with the lyons, to settle the commission of array in the Tower.

Clevel., Char. of a diurn. Wr. +ALL-BONES. A nickname for a thin

bony fellow in How a Man may Chuse a Good Wife from a Bad, 1602. +ALL-CIRCUMFERENCE. The circumference of the universe.

Th' eternall spring of power and providence,
In forming of this all-circumference,
Did not unlike the bear, which bringeth forth
In th' end of thirty dayes a shapeless birth.
+ALLECTED. Enticed.

Du Bartas.

Tooke great booties and riche prayes both of goodes and prisoners, and allected with the sweetnesse of such spoyle. Holinshed's Chronicles, 1577. ALLECTIVE. A bait; an allurement.

For what better alective coulde Satan devise, to allure and bring men pleasantly into damnable servitude. Northbrooke's Treatise against Dicing, 1577.

Wherein ar comprysyde many and dyvers solacyons and ryght pregnant allectyves of syngular pleasure, as more at large it doth apere in the pees folowynge. British Bibliographer, iv, 390. +To ALLEGATE. To allege. Why, belike he is some runnagate, that will not show his

name:

Ah, why should I this allegate? he is of noble fame. Peele's Works, iii, p. 68.

ALLESTREE.

Richard, of Derby, a

Lylie's Euphues and his England, 1623. To compare.

To ALLUDE, v.

son's time.

1 Hen. IV, i, 2.

In the ignorance of Popish superstition, all-hallows was worshipped as a single saint; or at least this ignorance was imputed to them.

Frendes, here shall ye se evyn anone
Of all-hallowes the blessed jaw-bone,
Kisse it hardely with good devocion.

Four Ps, O. P., i, 74. +And least (quoth he) you deeme it were presumption, If I should offer you my bare assumption,

I sweare all-hallows, I will make repayment,
Yea though I pawn mine armour and my rayment.
Sir John Harington's Epigrams, 1633.

†ALLIANT, adj. Akin to.

Thys they toke so muche the souner, bycause, it is sumwhat allyaunte to them. More's Utopia, 1551. ts. A kinsman; a relation.

For

Wherefore Jesus, thoughe he were almyghtye, and
desyrous to save as many as myght be, yet could he
not there among his countreymen worke many my-
racles, for that he was letted so to dove by the un-
belefe of his acquayntaunce and kynsfolkes.
where as being among alyauntes, he had easely cured
very many of all kyndes of diseases, caste out dyvels,
and healed leapers, here in his owne countrey, he
oneley healeth a fewe sicke folkes, and that with the
laying of his handes upon them.

Paraphrase of Erasmus, 1548. ALLIGARTA. The alligator, or crocodile. In Spanish lagarto.

It
appears by the following passage,
that the urine of this creature was
supposed to render any herb poisonous
on which it was shed.

And who can tell, if before the gathering and making
up thereof, the alligarta hath not piss'd thereon?
B. Jons., Bart. F., ii, 6.

TALL-NIGHT. A wick set in the middle of a large cake of wax. Johns. & Stev.

Shak., vii, 146.

ALLOW, v. To approve.

O heav'ns,
If you do love old men, if

your sweet sway

Lear, ii, 4.

Allow obedience.
First, whether ye allow my whole device-
And if ye like it, and allow it well.

O. Pl., i, 114. See also, ii, 149.

+In the time of Romulus, all heads were rounded of

Tro. & Cr., ii, S.

A stirring dwarf we do allowance give Before a sleeping giant. Spenser has very licentiously accented this word on the first syllable.

Through fowle intemperance

Frayle men are oft' captiv'd to covetise;
But would they thinke with how small allowance
Untroubled Nature doth herself suffise,
Such superfluities they would despise.

F. Q., II, vii, 15.

ALMAIN-LEAP. A dancing leap. And take his almain-leap into a custard.

B. Jon., Dev. an Ass, i, 1.

Almain, or allemande, by the testi-
mony of Skinner and others, meant
a kind of solemn music. So in
Tancred and Gismunda, Introductio
in actum tertium, "Before this act
the haubois sounded a lofty almain.”
O. Pl., 230. The connection between
music and dancing is so intimate, that
there is no wonder that it should
signify a dance also. Allemands were
danced here a few years back.
Also, a German :

Your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander, are nothing to your English-he drinks you with facility, your Dane dead drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hol lander, &c. Oth., ii, 3. Of Almains, and to them for their stout captain gave The valiant Martin Swart.

Drayt. Polyolb., S. 22, p. 1102. +ALMAN, or ALEMAN. A German. Chonodomarius and Vestralpus, Aleman kings, after they had put to flight Barbatio, colonell of the Romane footmen, and chased part of the armie with a puissant army, sat them downe neere unto Argentoratum, and by their embassadours insult over Julianus.

Holland's Ammianus Marcellinus, 1609.
Tis good to be and have, a Greek, I think,
Once said; an Alman added, and to drink.

TALMAN-RIVET.

+ALMERIE, 8. A cupboard; the low Latin almariolum.

Into the buttrie hastelie he yeede,
And stale into the almerie to feede.

Heywood's Spider and Flie, 1556. TALMONDS were very extensively used in a variety of preparations for the table. Almond-milk, composed of almonds ground and mixed with milk or other liquid was a favorite beverage, as were also almond-butter and almond-custard. The antiquity of the practice of serving almonds and raisins together at dessert, seems to be shown from the name almonds-and

raisins being given as that of an old English game, in Useful Transactions in Philosophy, 1709, p. 43. Almond-cakes were perhaps what we now call a macaroon.

4. Give me then some crummes of bread, or of my

powder of almond cakes, with beane flower, and the

little sheeres also.

M. Heere they are. Passenger of Benvenuto, 1612. +ALMOSE, 8. Alms.

Be yt then established and enactyd, that the governor
of any such monastery, which at any tyme shall be
voyde of religious persons, shall bestow the money,
wherwyth he was befor chargyd, for the fynding and
stypending of the sayd religeous persons in the almose
and releff of the poor people of the same town, or yter,
wheryn the sayd monasterye standyth, yf ther be
sufficient nomber to be chery shed, or ells yn the townys
nex adjoinyng therunto, by the discretion of the sayd
governor and survoyor of the sayd lands, and provost
of the sayd cort of Čentenar. Old Monast. Rules.
A nobleman sent a gent. of his, in great diligence,
about some especiall affaires, and such was his dili
gence that he kill'd his lords horse by the way. Being
returned home, it pleas'd the nobleman to make him
pay fifty crownes for the horse, saying that he was
content to reward him so well as to forgive him the
rest. The gentleman thought himselfe hardly dealt
withall, and answered: Sir, this is neither reward nor
almose.
Copley's Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614.

+ALMES-GATE, 8. The gate at which the alms of the house were distributed

to the poor.

Tarlton called Burley-house gate, in the Strand

towards the Savoy, the lord treasurers almes-gate,

because it was seldom or never opened.

Tarlton's Jests.

+ALMUTE. A governing planet.
Without a sign masculine? Dem. Sir, you mistake me:
You are not yet initiate. The almutes
Of the ascendent is not elevated
Above the almutes of the filial house:
Venus is free, and Jove not yet combust.

Randolph's Jealous Lovers, 1646. +ALMS-PENNY seems to mean what we should call a lucky penny. Father, here is an alms-penny for me, and if I speed in that I go for, 1 will give thee as good a gown of grey as ever thou diddest wear.

Peele's Old Wives Tale, 1595.

+ALOFT, adv. Upwards. Upwards. To come aloft was used in the sense of to rise, to prosper.

Diogenes having seen that the kingdom of Macedon, which before was contemptible and low, began to come aloft, when he died, was asked how he would be buried, he answered, With my face downward; for within a while the world will be turned upside down, and then I shall lie right.

King James's Witty Apothegms. I wyll, said Wyll, clyme hye alought; Such folke, said Wytte, fall muche onsought. ALONELY, adv. MS. Coll. Corp. Christ., 168.

Merely; only.

I speak not this alonly for mine owne. Mirr. for Mag., p. 367. Alonely let me go with thee, unkind. Fairf. T., xvi, 47. Mr. Todd has found examples of it as an adjective. But the derivation is surely from the English word alone, and not from a foreign source. ALONGST. Along.

And as alongst I did my journey take,

I dranke at Broomes-well, for pure fashions sake.
Taylor's Workes, 1630.
He that, still stooping, toghes against the tide
His laden barge alongst a rivers side,
And filling shoars with shouts, doth melt him quite;
Upon his pallet resteth yet at night.

Du Bartas, by Sylvester.

ALOW, adv. Low down; the common correlative to aloft, but used without it in the following instance.

Not the thousandth part so much for your learning, and what other gifts els you have, as that you will creep alowe by the ground. Fox's Life of Tindal. See Wordsw. Eccl. Biog., ii, 266, and the note. Todd has aloft and alow together, from Dryden.

ALOYSE. A word, of which the mean

ing and etymology are both uncertain. Aloyse, aloyse, how pretie it is! is not here a good face? O. Pl., i, 226.

Chaucer uses alosed for praised, but that seems not to afford any illustration. Perhaps it may be for alas! alas! There is much corrupted language in the same scene. ALS. At the same time.

And the cleane waves with purple gore did ray,
Als in her lap a lovely babe did play.
Sp., F. Q., II, i, 40.

ALSATIA. A jocular name for a part of the City of London, near Fleet Street, properly called the White Friars, from a convent of Carmelites formerly there situated. "In the year 1608," says an account of London, "the inhabitants [of this district] obtained several liberties, privileges, and exemptions, by a charter granted them by King James I; and this rendered the place an asylum for insolvent debtors, cheats, and gamesters, who gave to this district the name of Alsatia;" but the inconvenience