88 THE MASTIFF IN HENRY VTIl'S REIGN. 



1609, Moreclake being an old spelling of Mortlake, near 

 London) also a mastif as printed in The Book of St. Albans, 

 and the old English form mastivc, as example 



'' As savage bull, whom two fierce ruastives 



" When rancour doit with rage him once engage, 



" Forget with wary ward them to await, 



" But with his dreadful horus them drives afar." 



Spenser, 

 Also in Butler's Hudibras 



"For now the mastives charging home." 



Part 1, Canto ii., line 79. 



By consulting the older dictionaries we get some insight 

 into the etymology and accepted derivation, and meaning of 

 the word mastiff among scholars. In S. Patrick's Edition of 

 Ainsworth 1746, under the word mastiff is given, mastiff, 

 masty or masty dog, a molossus. Here we see the word masty 

 accepted for a mastiff down to 1746. In the 1736 edition of 

 Ainsworth, Latin and English, is given band-dog or bandog 

 a molossus or canis eaten arms, and under molossus a mastive 

 dog. 



N. Bailey, in the 1737 edition of his Dictionary, under 

 bandog, gives the definition a mastiff. While in his 1742 

 edition he states as follows: u mastif" (note only single f) 

 French un matin. Barbarian Latin mastivus, a sort of great 

 dog. In L. Desperez edition of Horace, published 1740, 

 under annotation 5, the molossus is explained as canis 

 ingens, Gallice a dogue, Anglice a mastiff. J\J T C\OSSKS ex Epiro 

 iibi populo fuei'e Molossl Strabo, Lib. vii. In A. Boyers' 

 Dictionary, French and English, 1783, is as follows : ''English, 

 mastiff, masty, a masty dog, French, a dog of the largest kind, 

 un matin, un gros chicn ponv la gvarde d'un bassc cour." " Masty 



