"Of Paradise the well in sothfastnes Foyson that floweth in to sondry royames The soyle to ADEWE with his swete streames." "Wherefore his mother of very tender herte Out Braste on teres and might herselfe nat Stere, Ibid. pag. 167. "And let my breste, benigne lorde, be DEWED Downe with somme drope from thy mageste." Ibid. pag. 182. "With teares augmenting the fresh mornings DEAW." Romeo and Juliet, pag. 54. "Her costly bosom strew'd with precious orient pearl, ["The drouping night thus creepeth on them fast: As messenger of Morpheus, on them cast Sweet slombring DEAW, the which to sleep them biddes." Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 1. st. 36. "There Tethys his wet bed Doth ever wash, and Cynthia still doth steepe In silver DEAW his ever-drouping hed." "Now when the rosy-fingred morning faire, Weary of aged Tithones saffron bed, Ibid. st. 39. Had spread her purple robe through DEAWY aire." Ibid. cant. 2. st. 7. "From that first tree forth flow'd, as from a well, As it had DEAWED bene with timely raine." Ibid. cant. 11. st. 48. "The joyous day gan early to appeare; Faerie Queene, book 1. cant. 11. st. 51. "As fresh as flowres in medow greene doe grow, Ibid. cant. 12. st. 6. "She alway smyld, and in her hand did hold Ibid. book 3. cant. 12. st. 13. "And all the day it standeth full of DEOW, "Like as a tender rose in open plaine, That with untimely drought nigh withered was, Spenser. Faerie Queene, book 5. cant. 12. st. 13. Spenser's Muiopotmos, st. 23. "Whose beautie shyneth as the morning cleare, Spenser. Colin Clouts come home again.] After the BREAD has been wetted (by which it becomes DOUGH) then comes the Leaven (which in the AngloSaxon is termed Dæpe and Daren); by which it becomes LOAF. LOAF-in Anglo-Saxon Dlap, a broad) is the past participle of lifian, to raise; and means merely Raised. So in the Moso-Gothic, haЛIBS is LOAF; which is the past participle of hAEIBGAN, to raise, or to lift up. In the old English translation we read-" He hauynge mynde of his mercy Took up Israel his child." In the modern version-" He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy." Luke, chap. 1. ver. 54. But in the Gothic it is hÀ¤IBIAA ÏSKAEAA, He hath raised or lifted up Israel. When the etymologist had thus discovered that Dlar meant Raised; I think he must instantly have perceived that Dlafond was a compound word of Dlap (raised or exalted) and Ond, Ortus, source, origin, birth. LORD therefore means High-born, or of an Exalted Origin. With this explanation of the word, you will perceive, that [kings] can no more make a LORD, than they can make a Traitor. They may indeed place a Thief and a Traitor amongst LORDS; and destroy an innocent and meritorious man as a Traitor. But the theft and treachery of the one, and the innocence and merits. of the other, together with the infamy of thus mal-assorting them, are far beyond the reach and power of any [kings] to do away. F. If Dlafond, i. e. LORD, does not mean (as I before suspected, and you have since satisfied me it does not mean) an Afforder of Bread; neither can Hlafdig, 1. e. LADY, mean a Distributor or Server out of that Bread*: as (still * Verstegan, in his Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, edit. 1634, pag. 316, gives us the following account of LORD and LADY. "LORD. "I finde that our ancestors used for LORD the name of Laford, which (as it should seeme) for some aspiration in the pronouncing, they wrot Hlaford and Hlafurd. Afterward it grew to be written misled by lap) the same etymologists have supposed. Yet in lardig there is no Opd, nor any equivalent word to make her name signify High-born. Loverd and by receiving like abridgment as other our ancient appellations have done, it is in one syllable become LORD. "To deliver therefore the true etymology, the reader shall understand, that albeit wee have our name of Bread from Breod, as our ancestors were woont to call it, yet used they also, and that most commonly, to call Bread by the name of Illaf; from whence we now only retaine the name of the forme or fashion wherein Bread is usually made, calling it a Loaf; whereas Loaf comming of Hlaf or Laf, is rightly also Bread it selfe, and was not of our ancestors taken for the forme only, as now we use it. "Now was it usuall in long foregoing ages, that such as were endued with great wealth and meanes above others, were chiefely renowned (especially in these Northerne regions) for their housekeeping and good hospitality; that is, for being able and using to feed and sustaine many men; and therefore were they particularly honoured with the name and title of Hlaford, which is as much to say as An Aforder of Laf, that is a Bread-giver: intending (as it scemeth) by Bread, the sustenance of man; that being the substance of our food, the most agreeable to nature, and that which in our daily prayers we especially desire at the hands of God. "And if we duly obserue it, wee shall finde that our nobility of England, which generally doe beare the name of LORD, have alwaies, and as it were of a successive custome (rightly according unto that honourable name) maintayned and fed more people, to wit, of their servants, retayners, dependants, tenants, as also the poore, than the nobility of any country in the continent, which surely is a thing very honourable and laudable, and most well befitting noblemen and right noble minds. “LADY. "The name or title of Lady, our honourable appellation generally for all principall women, extendeth so farre, as that it not only mounteth up from the wife of the knight to the wife of the king, but H. Nor does it so signify. Dlardig signifies and is merely Lofty, i. e. Raised or Exalted: her birth being intirely out of the question; the wife following the condition of the husband. But I wish you here to observe, that the past participle of the verb lipian, besides Loaf, lord, and LADY, has furnished us with two other supposed substantives; viz. LIFT (Lỳft) and LOFT. The former of these, LIFT, is not used at present in England; but, I am told, is still common in Scotland. remaineth to some women whose husbands are no knights, such as having bin Lord Majors are afterward only called Masters, as namely the Aldermen of York. "It was anciently written Hleafdian or Leafdian, from whence it came to be Lafdy, and lastly Lady. I have shewed here last before how Hlaf or Laf was sometime our name of Bread, as also the reason why our noble and principall men came to be honoured in the name of Laford, which now is LORD, and even the like in corespondence of reason must appeare in this name of Leafdian, the feminine of Laford: the first syllable whereof being anciently written Hleaf and not Hlaf, must not therefore alienate it from the like nature and sense; for that only seemeth to have bin the feminine sound; and we sea that of Leafdian we have not retained Leady but Lady. Well then both Hlaf and Hleaf we must here understand to signifie one thing, which is Bread: Dian is as much to say as Serve; and so is Leafdian, a Bread-server. Whereby it appeareth that as the Laford did allow food and sustenance, so the Leafdian did see it served and disposed to the guests. And our ancient and yet continued custome that our Ladies and Gentlewomen doe use to carue and serve their guests at the table, which in other countries is altogether strange and unusuall, doth for proofe hereof weil accord and corespond with this our ancient and honourable feminine appellation." |