OP SHAKESPEARE. 391 



tion of the Shakespearian passage. I quite agree with the Editor 

 as to the need, from his point of view, of establishing the first three 

 positions he takes up. As to the fourth, I think it immaterial 

 and arises from a misconception ; but there is a fifth, which is 

 very material and is overlooked by him. 



(1). That " Chough," without qualification, was a name used 

 by many writers indiscriminately for " Cornish " Chough and for 

 Daw, no proof is required ; but in this particular passage the 

 word is qualified by an epithet. Our business is to know what 

 that epithet means. 



(2). I admit that no other instance of "pated" being used 

 by Shakespear can be found, or can be adduced from any other 

 author, so far as I can learn. The word is thus oiiru^ teyopevov, 

 and every scholar knows the difficulties that such words present. 

 In the corrupt condition of all the old editions of the poet's works 

 no one can vouch for the spelling being that of the author ; or, if 

 it were, whether it would be any the better for that. People are 

 apt to forget that he lived when there were no settled rules for 

 spelling English, and that he himself, according to the few 

 autographs which have come down to us, had several ways of 

 spelling his own name. We are quite at liberty to read " patted" 

 or "pated" as we think fit, and the fact that the early printers 

 used the latter form is no proof of its being the right one. Indeed, 

 seeing that, as Mr. Harting says, Shakespear brings in the word 

 "pate" fourteen times (and of course about pate in the sense of 

 head there is no doubt), that might at once account for the printer 

 using "pated" in this case, for even a printer (with all respect 

 to him) is not wholly free from bias. But there is something 

 more to be said of this pate. I write with deference, but I think 

 it was not the custom in Shakespear's time, as it has since become, 

 to coin an adjective in form of a participle from a purely English 

 noun, such as I take pate to be, though as Prof. Skeat tells us, it 

 is of French origin. Where is the French pate = " headed "? 

 When that is found, and Littre is silent respecting such a word,* 

 it will be conceivable that Shakespear used pated = headed. But 

 in the French patte, well known in heraldry, f if not in other 

 ways, he had the word at hand. 



* Littre says that in old French patte was sometimes spelt pate. 

 | It is rather beside the question, but I take leave to remark that a 

 cross pate or pattee is not quite the same as a Maltese cross, 



