1800.] 
To another of my papers publifhed in 
your Magazine of laft November, 1 am 
happy to add further evidence. 
To wreke, meaning to revenge, feems 
to me now, asit did then, to be the word 
reckow with fome alteration of fpelling. 
_ Vide Monthly Magazine. 
I have there fhewn reckoz tometimes to 
be equivalent in fignification to the word 
quite or pay. Now a reckoning or pay- 
ment makes the parties evez, and in cale 
“of revenge, a {chool-boy has the fame end, 
moft clearly fhewn, I think, in the fol- 
' lowing expreffions towards the other, on 
whom he defires to be revenged, §* I’ll be 
even with you for that—Ill be a maich 
with you for that—I’'ll be wp to you for 
that—Ill pay you for that.””, 
About Bath, among the common peo- 
ple, the injured perfon will threaten the 
other who provokes him, thus : 
_ © Be quiet, or thee and I fhall reckoz, 
or have a reckowing.” 
Your correfpondent of Stockton upon 
Tees may ftill call the word wreke ‘a 
wery diferent word in every refpect” from 
xeckon; but this round affertion he has 
not fupported by a fingle proof. He may 
call my interpretation of a pafiage from 
' Chaucer ** (framed, and then proceed to 
fhew a paflage, as he calls it, of <¢ lefs 
equivocal authority, to the contrary.” 
What he means ** to the contrary,” I 
know not ; but I thall quote the pafiage he 
gives, and continue ‘* my ftrained inter- 
pretation.” I doubt not «my readers will 
find it quite eafy and natural. 
. I fhall begin at an earlier part of Chau- 
cer’s ftory of Antiochus, as‘ given in the 
Monkes Tale, than at the ‘lefs equivo- 
cal’ couplet. : 
Antiochus threatens to wreke his ire on 
Jerufalem. 
*¢ God for his manace him fore {mote 
With invyfible wounde, aye incurable, 
That in his guttes carfe fo and bote 
That his paynes were importable; 
“And certainly the qreche was refonable, 
For many a mannes guttes did he payne. 
Wreche means reckoning, paymeni—for 
what? For that he many a man’s guts 
did payne. 
What made your correfpondent pafs by 
this paflage, though fixty-one lines before, 
to chufe the following celebrated couplet 
of ‘lefs equivocal authority,” is beft 
known to himfelf. 
«¢ The wreche of God him {mote fo cruelly 
« That in his body wicked wormés crept.” 
Subftitute reckoning, payment, for 
nureche, and ufe the explanation for the 
* 
Dr. Gillum’s Remarks on lords. 
Zig 
firfk quotation, for it muft be thé fame in 
both inftances. ne 
My explanation is further confirmed by 
the concluding lines of this fhort ftory, 
‘* He fterfe ful wretchedly on a mountayne. 
Thus hath this robbour and this homycide, 
That many.a man. made to wepe and plaine, 
Such guerdon as belongeth to pride,” 
Guerdon means reward, and reward is 
payment, ox reckoning, or wreche. 
DT have not cavilled becaufe the word 
wreche was quoted to prove my interpre= 
tation ofthe word wreke ‘* firained;” 
though on a difputed. word it was but 
reafonable and fair that the fame ward, 
and not a variety of it, fhould have beer 
chofen, efpecially for a ‘ lefs equivocal’? 
inflance, but I have not found this gene 
tleman either reafonable or fair towards 
me throughout his paper. _ 
I. fhall obferve, that after the couplet 
was given, the explanation was very con- 
veniently omitted, as ufual with him. 
After telling your readers, very learn= 
edly, that rich is derived either from the 
Saxon or the French, your correfpondent 
fuddenly tells us that rich “can confe= 
quently have no -difcoverable connection 
with reck, rake, or reek.” Tallow none 
at all from fuch reafoning as this he gives; 
but if he will put on his fpeftacles and 
read the preceding paragraph of his own 
performance, he may perhaps difcover that 
while in fearch of a ‘‘lefs equivocal’ ex 
ample, he did know wreche to be a variety 
‘ef the word wreke, and that confequently 
there is a difcoverable connection between. 
rich and reck, &c. : 
OF fimilar difcoverable connection I 
fhall add fome more examples;. perhaps he 
may remember another a little longer than 
he can himfelf, 
{peke makes {peech 
breaé breach 
{tick ftitch 
milk a milch-cow 
hank the haunch bone 
poke pouch 
face fatchel 
lizerous lecherous 
You may difcover, Mr. Editor, that 
your correfpondent of Stockton upon Tees 
was not the fole motive of this communi- 
cation ; indeed, heis, throughout his fhort 
paper, the infinuator of my errors, but 
the prover of no one. Between him and 
me there can beno reckoninz, for no whére 
does he fo much as allude to one of the 
reafons [have given. When he attacks 
me in my ftrongeft hold, he fhall meet with 
Ee 2 one 


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