LIBKARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 343 



tween rave and bereave is perhaps a little too slightingly 

 treated." 



The meaning of Lovelace was, " the fire that raved." 

 But what jMi'. Hazlitt would make with " reaved o'er my 

 purer thoughts," we cannot conceive. On the whole, we 

 think he must have written the note merely to make his 

 surprising glossological suggestion. All that Worcester 

 docs for the etymology, by the way, is to cite Richard- 

 son, no safe giiide. 



" Where now one so so spatters, t'other: no! " (p. 112.) 



The comma in this verse has, of course, no right there, 

 but Mr. Hazlitt leaves the whole passage so corrupt that 

 we cannot spend time in disinfecting it. We quote it 

 only for the sake of his note on " so so." It is marvel- 

 lous. 



" An exclamation of approval when an actor made a hit. 

 The corruption seems to be somewhat akin to the Italian, ' si, 

 si,' a corruption of ' sia, sia.' " 



That the editor of an English poet need not under- 

 stand Italian we may grant, but that he should not 

 know the meaning of a phrase so common in his own 

 language as so-so is intolerable. Lovelace has been say- 

 ing that a certain play might have gained applause un- 

 der certain circumstances, but that everybody calls it 

 so-so, — something very different from " an exclamation 

 of approval," one should say. The phrase answers 

 exactly to the Italian cost cosl, while si (not si) is derived 

 from sic, and is analogous with the affirmative use of the 

 German so and the Yankee jW so. 



" Oil, how he hast'ned death, burnt to be fryed! " (p. 141.) 

 The note on fryed is, — 



" I. e. freed. Free and freed were sometimes pronounced 

 like/ry a,ud fryed ; for Lord Nortli, in his Forest of Varieties, 

 1645, has these Hnes : — 



