334 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



least degree probable that Shakespeare in this place intended to 

 convey a meaning wholly at variance with that indicated in every 

 other passage in which the word "pate" has been used by him. 

 Moreover, although I have read the plays of Shakespeare three 

 times through, I have failed to discover a single instance in which 

 the poet has used the word " patted" for " footed." 



As regards the suggestion that this use of the word is 

 supported by the French heraldic expression croix pattee, it is 

 not to be denied that here the word pattee (from patte, a paw 

 or foot) does imply a cross with a foot, in other words a cross 

 the arms of which are narrow at the inner and broad at the 

 outer end, as in the familiar " Maltese Cross." But it does not 

 follow from this that the English word " pated," with one t as 

 Shakespeare wrote it (as in " grey-pated," " addle-pated," &c), 

 means anything but " headed." 



(3) To prove that " russet" is not necessarily " red," although 

 it has been applied by some to objects which may have a reddish 

 tinge (as, for example, russet leaves in autumn), it will be 

 instructive to examine a few illustrations of the use of this word 

 by poets and prose writers of repute, in order to discover in what 

 sense they have employed it. 



Skinner, in his ' Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanse,' 1671, has 

 " Russet, ravus, a Fr. rousset, roux, It. rossetto, rutilus, rufus, 

 hoc a rosse quod Italis rubrum signat tanquam sub-ruber." 



It is natural, therefore, to connect the word "russet" with 

 some subdued shade of red. But whatever may have been its 

 original signification, it has by long custom come to be applied 

 to shades of colour in which no trace of red is to be found ; and 

 this not with a few authors of a particular age, but with many 

 poets and prose writers of different periods. From what follows 

 it would appear that many probably derived their sense of the 

 colour termed "russet" from the material which was formerly 

 known as "russet" or " russetting," and which, as will presently 

 be shown, was gray. 



Bishop Mant, in the following lines, has employed the term 

 "russet" as if it were synonymous with some pale shade of 



brown : — 



" Before the scythe's wide-sweeping sway 

 The russet meadows tall array 

 Falls, and the bristly surface straws 

 With the brown swathe's successive rows." 



