60 ERRATA RECEPTA. 



his works, the notice of the expression stands thus, without further 

 explanation : *' Wis, in the compound ' I wis,' certainly. B. III. 1. 3." 

 It is, no doubt, one more form of the Anglo-Saxon ise, gese, gise, and 

 gyse, which are all our modern yes, and akin to gewiss, the Nether- 

 landish and German for " in truth." 



In the old English " iwis," it is obvious, I think, that we have the 

 original of the JISTew Englander's "I guess." It is well known that 

 the first English colonists brought with them to this continent many 

 expressions which were in vogue in the mother country at the time 

 of their departure from it, but which while maintained through thera 

 in some use here, have now became well-nigh obsolete there. The 

 idiomatic use of "I guess" and "guess" without the "I," in the 

 Biglow Papers of Professor Lowell, is quite Chaucerian when read 

 as "I wis," — as, for example, where Sawin says of the negro who, by 

 suddenly running ofi" with his wooden leg, had him at such a great 

 disadvantage : " He showed his ivory some iwis." In fact, it is 

 acknowledged that "guess" is akin to the Anglo-Saxon verb wissian, 

 and, as may be seen by the comparison of guard with -ward, guerre 

 with war, &c., gu and w are often interchanged. An expression 

 usually held to be simply a vulgarism thus suddenly ascends into the 

 sphere of poetry. 



One other phrase may be added which modern typographical use 

 has fixed in the language in a changed form. "We all probably know 

 the first line of a certain hymn, " With one consent let all the earth." 

 Now, in the time of Shakspeare, it is certain that the form of speech 

 "with one consent" used in relation to music and song, was under- 

 stood to be written " with one concent." In the early editions of 

 Shakspeare, the lines 181 and 206 of Henry V. i. 2, exhibited in both 

 instances, " with one concent." And thus the words are printed in 

 the Variorum edition of Reed. Steevens' note on the place is this : " 1 

 learn from Dr. Burney that concent is connected with harmony," and 

 that " concentio and concentus are both used by Cicero for the union 

 of voices or instruments, in what we should now call a chorus or 

 concert." Of course, the word is con-cantus, a joint singing. There 

 is an especial appropriateness then in, at all events mentally, under- 

 standing the words "With one consent let all the earth" in the 

 sense anciently intended by the words, however immaterial now may 

 be the error in their received typography. It is not impossible that 

 the well-known word "concert," a musical entertainment, is also 



