¹ Robert Nares, A Glossary … New Edition … 2 vols., 1876.

² J. O. Halliwell, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words … 2 vols., 1857.

³ Francis Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, 2 vols., 1807.

⁴ Joseph Hunter, New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakespeare … 2 vols., 1845.

⁵ This article, a part of a longer study of lexicography in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is concerned primarily with the Italian-English dictionary (1598) of Florio, the Spanish-English (1599) of Percival and Minsheu, and the French-English (1611) of Cotgrave.

⁶ Op. cit., p. 190.

⁷ Only William Thomas, as Miss Yates (op. cit., p. 190) points out, had preceded Florio with an Italian-English dictionary.

⁸ This subject I have treated in detail in another study.

⁹ Undoubtedly Elyot added much from other sources, such as Robert Estienne's (Stephanus) Latin-French dictionary and his Latin-Latin Thesaurus, and from his own reading. His debt to Calepine is however, acknowledged, indirectly in his address to the reader (1538 edition), and can be amply verified by a comparison of that text with the Calepine.

¹⁰ For Cooper's statement of his purpose, see his Epistola to Robert Dudley, Lord Leicester, and his address to young men who might be expected to use his Thesaurus, printed in the preliminary matter of the text.

¹¹ The evidence of Thomas's wholesale borrowing from Cooper is abundant, but it seems unnecessary to give details here. A comparison of several definitions in the two texts will, I think, convince the most skeptical.

¹² See in the respective texts the definitions of the following pairs of words. The Latin word is within the parenthesis with the corresponding Italian form without: Abaco (abacus), ábba (abba), abdómen (abdomen), abdúto (abductus), abgiūráre (abiuro), abrótane (abrotonum), abstrúso (abstrusus), absurdaménte (absurde) abúso (abusio), acantávola (acanthavola), acárno (acame), acáro (acaros, acar, and acarus), accédere (accedo), acceleráre (accelero), accéndere (accendo), accéso (accessus), accíngere (accingo), ácie (acies), acónito (aconitum), acóntia (acontia), ácopo (acopum), acóro (acorum), ána (ana), anacárdio (anacardium), anachíte (anachites), analéssia (analesia), andragóne (andrago), anheláre (anhelo), antiési (antiaesi), apoplessfa (apolexia), apparitóre (apparitor).

Similarly the following words from the letter v reveal the close relationship of Florio to Thomas: Véna (vena), venále (venalis), venalítio (venalitium), venatióne (venatio), venatóre (venator), vendíbile (vendibilis), vendicáre (vendico), véndita (venditio), venditóre (venditor), venefício (veneficium), veneficatáre (venefica), venéfico (veneficus), venenário (venenarius), venerábile (venerabilis), veneráre (veneror), venéreo (venereus), venéto (venetus), vénia (venia), veníale (venialis), veníre (venio), venóso (venosus), ventiláre (ventilo), véntre (venter), ventrále (ventrale), ventrículo (ventriculus), venustá (venustas).

¹³ The augmented edition appeared under the title Queen Anna's New World of Words, or Dictionarie of the Italian and English tongues, collected and newly much augmented by John Florio, Reader of the Italian unto the Soveraigne Maiestie of Anna.—For an example of further indebtedness to Thomas in this second edition, see in the two editions the Italian word Fasce from the Lstin fascia and fascis in Thomas.

¹⁴ The title-page of the 1599 edition runs thus: “A Dictionarie in Spanish and English first published into the English tongue by Ric. Percivale, Gent. Now enlarged and amplified with many thousand words, as by this marke * to each of them prefixed may appeare; together with the accenting of every word throughout the whole Dictionarie, for the true pronunciation of the language, as also for the divers signification of one and selfe same word…. All done by John Minsheu, Professor of Languages in London.

“Hereunto for the further profite and pleasure of the learned or delighted in this tongue, is annexed an ample English Dictionarie, Alphabetically set downe with the Spanish words thereunto adioyned, as also an Alphabeticall Table of the Arabicke and Moorish words now commonly received and used in the Spanish tongue…. Imprinted at London by Edm. Bollifant. 1599.”

¹⁵ Compare also in the two texts definitions of the following words: cation or cautione, caterva, catapulta, caso, cavana.

¹⁶ In 1589 John Rider published his Bibliotheca Scholastica, an English-Latin dictionary. Though this work is largely indebted to Thomas's dictionary, it borrowed also from Baret's Alvearie (1573, 1580). When Rider's dictionary next appeared, in 1606, it was augmented by Francis Holyoke and continued to be edited by him through the first half of the seventeenth century, editions appearing in 1617, 1623, 1627, etc.

¹⁷ See in Hollyband antimonie, antipathie, antipodes, ignomine, ignominieux, ignorer, illustrer, illustration, indulgence, ineffable, liberall, sequester.

¹⁸ For example, Claudius (M. for M., i, ii,) says … for in her youth There is prone and speechless dialect. This is an usual meaning of Prone. Cotgrave defines the word as “easily moving,” a meaning that gives the sense of Claudius's remark.

¹⁹ For Shakespeare's knowledge of the Latin text of Pliny and for discussion of his probable use of Withals' Dictionary and Cooper's Thesaurus, see the excellent article by T. W. Baldwin, “A Note upon Shakespeare's Use of Pliny,” in The Parrott Presentation Volume (1935), pp. 161, 174, etc.