372 LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



and thirdly as a signal for mercy. In all these senses it 

 has been employed from the most ancient times ; nor is it 

 yet out of practice, as many savage nations still testify 

 their respect to a superior by holding their hand [either 

 their hands or the hand, Mr. Hazlitt !] over their head. 

 Touching the hat appears to be a vestige of the same 

 custom. In the present passage the three outlaws may 

 be understood to kneel on approaching the throne, and 

 to hold up each a hand as a token that they desire to 

 ask the royal clemency or favour. In the lines which are 

 subjoined it [what f] implies a solemn assent to an oath : 



' This swore the duke and all his men, 

 And all the lordes that with him lond, 

 And tharto to* held they up thaire hand.' " 



Minot's Poems, ed. 1825, p. 9. 



The admirable Tupper could not have done better than 

 this, even so far as the mere English of it is concerned. 

 Where all is so fine, we hesitate to declare a preference, 

 but, on the whole, must give in to the passage about 

 touching the hat, which is as good as " mobbled queen." 

 The Americans are still among the " savage nations " 

 who " imply a solemn assent to an oath " by holding 

 up the hand. Mr. Hazlitt does not seem to know that 

 the question whether to kiss the book or hold up the 

 hand was once a serious one in English politics. 



But Mr. Hazlitt can do better even than this ! Our 

 readers may be incredulous ; but we shall proceed to 

 show that he can. In the " Schole-House of Women," 

 among much other equally delicate satire of the other 

 sex (if we may venture still to call them so), the satirist 

 undertakes to prove that woman was made, not of the 

 rib of a man, but of a dog : 



* The to is, we need not say, an addition of Mr. Hazlitt's. What 

 faith can we put in the text of a man who so often copies even his 

 quotations inaccurately ? 



