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 ont of practice, as many savage nations still testify 

 ••.heir respect to a superior by holding their hand [either 

 'heir 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 lip each a hand as a token that they desire to 

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

 '^\ibjoined 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 loud, 

 And tharto to * held thej- up thaire hand.' " 



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



The admirable Tupper could not have done better than 

 th's, even so far as the mere English of it is concerned. 

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

 hut, 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 " iraply a solemn assent to an oath " by holding 

 np 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 pi'oceed to 

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

 among much other equally delicate satire of the other 

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

 undertakes to Drove that woman was made, not of the 

 rib of a man, but of a dog : — 



* The to is, we need not ."ay, Kn addition cf Mr. Fnzlitt's. What 

 faith can we put in the text ot a man who so oft«u copies eveu his 

 quotations inaccurately ? 



