A Glossary of Stuart and Tudor Words Especially from the Dramatists

In the summer of 1910 I was staying at Llandrindod, and had the pleasure of meeting there my old friend Professor Skeat. Of course we had many a long talk about our favourite studies, and about his literary plans. He was always planning some literary task, for before he had finished one work, he had either begun another, or had another in prospect. I said to him one day, 'You're always working, do you ever find time for recreation?' 'Well,' he said, 'when I want to amuse myself, I take up some old play.' This story explains the genesis of this book. Like John Gilpin's wife, it seems that though on pleasure he was bent, he had a frugal mind. He did not forget business. When reading Ben Jonson or Beaumont and Fletcher he had pencil in hand, and whenever he came to a word that might prove a stumbling-block to the general reader, he noted that word, and eventually wrote it on a separate slip (note-paper size) with exact reference and explanation. In July, 1911, in Oxford, when we were together for the last time, the professor told me about the book he was preparingmainly consisting of the words he had collected in reading the Tudor and Stuart dramatists. He did not intend it to be a big book. When I asked whether it would contain quotations like Nares' Glossary, he said it would contain only a few quotations, and those short ones, and would consist mostly of explanations and references, with brief etymologies. I heard no more of the book during his lifetime. But frequent letters passed between us on the etymologies of English words, many of which he was meeting with in the material he was collecting. On October 6, 1912, that eager, enthusiastic spirit passed away, to the regret of all who work in the field of English philology, of all who love the English tongue, wherever on this habitable globe they may chance to live. Not long after, in November, I heard from Mrs. Skeat that her husband had left material for a Glossary of Rare Words, in slips amounting to nearly 7,000, arranged in alphabetical order, and that Professor Skeat's executors would be very glad if I would be able to edit and prepare the work for publication. I agreed to do this, on condition that the executors should ask the advice of a pupil of Dr. Skeat, an eminent English scholar, and also, of course, that the Delegates of the Clarendon Press would consent to the arrangement. On December 4 I received a letter from the Clarendon Press, informing me that the Delegates accepted my offer. A day or two after the box containing the MS. arrived, and on December 9 I addressed myself to the task. With the exception of a short intermission in July, the work has had my continuous and undivided attention for one year. On examination of the MS. it appeared that, although Professor Skeat had arranged the material in the form of a Glossary, he had not put the finishing touches to the book (many slips were practically duplicates or triplicates), and had not even finally limited the scope: the title of the book was not settled. And now it will be proper to state as clearly as possible what the Editor thought it his duty to do in preparing his friend's work for publication. In the first place he did not think that it fell within his province to make any considerable addition to the Word-list. The Vocabulary remains much as Professor Skeat left it. But it was found necessary, in going over the work, to make additions in many articles, in order to explain the history of the word, or to illustrate its meaning; connecting links had to be supplied, where the meanings of a word apparently had no connexion with one another. In this part of the work the Editor found great help in the New English Dictionary; and it will be seen that there is hardly a page of this book on which there does not occur the significant abbreviation (NED.).

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