LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 355 



often goes out of his way to explain in his notes such 

 simple matters as that " shape " means " form," and that 

 " Johan of the golden mouthe " means " St. Chrysostom," 

 which, indeed, it does not, any more than Johannes Bap- 

 tista means St. Baptist. We will supply Mr. Hazlitt 

 with an illustration of the passage from Bekker's Fera- 

 bras, the more willingly as it may direct his attention to 

 a shining example of how an old poem should be 

 edited : 



" en la crotz vos pendero li fals luzieu truun, 

 can Longis vos ferie de sa lansa trencan: 

 el non avia vist en trastot son vivan ; 

 lo sane li venc per 1'asta entro al punh colan; 

 e [el] toquet ne sos huelhs si vie el mantenan." 



Mr. Hazlitt, to be sure (who prints sang parlez for sanz 

 parler) (Vol. I. p. 265), will not be able to form any no 

 tion of what these verses mean, but perhaps he will be 

 able to draw an inference from the capital L that longes 

 is a proper name. The word truan at the end of the first 

 verse of our citation may also suggest to him that truant 

 is not quite so satisfactory an explanation of the word 

 trewdt as he seems to think. (Vol. IV. p. 24, note.) In 

 deference to Mr. Hazlitt's presumed familiarity with an 

 author sometimes quoted by him in his notes, we will 

 point him to another illustration : 



" Ac ther cam forth a knyght, 

 With a kene spere y-grounde 

 Highte Longeus, as the lettre telleth, 

 And longe hadde lore his sighte." 



Piers Ploughman, Wright, p. 374. 



Mr. Hazlitt shows to peculiar advantage where old 

 French is in qhestion. Upon the word Osyll he favors 

 us with the following note : " The blackbird. In East 

 Cornwall ozell is used to signify the windpipe, and thence 

 the bird may have had its name, as Mr. Couch has sug 

 gested to me." (Vol. II. p. 25.) Of course the black- 



