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 fi-om Bekker's Fera- 



hras, 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'truan, 

 can Longis vos ferie de sa lansa treucan : 

 el non avia vist en trastot sou vivan ; 

 lo sane li venc per I'asta entro al pnnh 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. 26.5), 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 

 trexvat 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 : — 



" Ae ther cam forth a knyglit, 

 With a kene spere y-grounde 

 Highte Longeus, as the lettre telleth, 

 And louge hadde lore his sighte." 



Pitrs Ploughman, "Wright, p. 374. 



Mr. Hazlitt shows to peculiar advantage where old 

 French is in question. 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- 



