PREFACE DEDICATORY. xiii 



England the language has been so much 

 changed by the march of civilization, as to 

 be no longer characterised by the most 

 marked provincialisms; while, on the other 

 hand, in many villages of the Western 

 counties, the language has not very mate- 

 rially varied for centuries past. We cannot 

 doubt but that the speeches which Shak- 

 speare puts into the mouth of Edgar, when 

 personating Mad Tom, are a sample of the 

 language of the Warwickshire clown of his 

 day. One sentence is especially worthy of 

 notice : " Chill pick your teeth, Zir " (Zear, 

 Act iv.). Now this form of speech is 

 entirely obsolete in Warwickshire at the 

 present day, while <c chill" and u cham " 

 ("I will" and "I am") are still used in 

 parts of Somersetshire ; and it is only a 

 few weeks since that a Kentish gentle- 

 man, settled at Henley- in -Arden, found 

 that none of his neighbours knew what 

 a " keeler " was (a shallow vessel used 



