The Warrington Examiner. — 1872-12-14 (Warrington, Cheshire, England)

VII., 277) says, "Peacock seems to answer the sense better than any other word, the allusion being, peri.., pot as Pope says to the birds choosina a peacock instead of an eagle for a king, but to the fable of the crow which adorned itself with peacock's feathers. The king has usurped the throne and habiliments of his murdered brother, and is yet to be stripped of his borrowed plumes." Latham includes the word pajocke in his dictionary, with a reservation, his own opinion being against it. He defines two principles for it, one that it may be a real word, the other that it is a misprint. He suggests a word Polack-Pole, "which it may fairly be said that for Hamlet speaking as a Dane it has better claims than any of the words already suggested. It was a word of opprobrium to a Dane."  Theobald suggested paddock-toad. Puttock has been proposed; but the must extravagant proposition was that of Dr. Lea's, who suggested hiccups as a stage direction ! From these more or leas wild suggestions let us see what our reviewer says. The folio word is not only the right one, but peculiarly expressive. The critics have forgotten the character assigned to the peacock in the natural history of the time, as well as in popular opinion and belief. Looked at from this point of view, the word peacock expresses in a concentrated form the odious qualities of the guilty king, the bird being in fact the accredited representative of inordinate pride and envy, as well as of unnatural cruelty and lust." We have not space to give the quotation from the popular manual of natural history of that I day, but it fully bears out this assumption. In the scene at the Tower Gates (1 Hen. VI. 3) Gloster says to Winchester "I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat ; " and afterwards, "Thy scarlet robes, as a child's bearing-cloth, I'll use to carry thee out of this place." Latham defines canvass "to sift," to examine, and Wedgwood gives the same as sifting through canvass. Collier also gives it as "I'll sift thee." Our reviewer points out that it was a hawking phrase for a trap to catch wild hawks, and shows that the shape of a cardinal's hat was very similar to that 1 of the trap commonly used. We think his view is borne out in 2 Hen. IV., ii. 4, where Falstaff says of Pistol after he had been turned out of doors, "I will toss the rogue in a blanket," and Doll Tear Sheet replies, "If thou dost, I'll canvass thee between a pair of sheets." Now, it would be impossible to sift a man between a pair of sheets, but he might be caught between them.  In Hen. V., I. 2, the Ambassador presents the young king with a tun of treasure from his master the Dauphin, with the insolent reply to the king's demand for territory that the Dauphin thinks the tennis balls— the treasure—more befitting his capacity. What can this mean? A ton of tennis balls would be an apait from the difficulty of bringing bueli bulky parcel into the king's preseni,o. Collier and the lexicographers are silent. Our reviewer points out that a tun anciently was a parcel-gilt, goblet, and that there are still inn sign boards of the three tuns, showing three gilt goblets. The present, therefore, was a chased goblet, hokding some half dozen tennis balls. We must give one more extract only.  In the Tempest (IV., 1.) Shakespeare speaks of "Thy pioned and twilled brims," referring to a river (of course the Avon) in "spongy April." These have been very hard nuts for the critics. Most have thought that the first word referred to the peony, but then it neither flowers in April, nor does it grow wild.  Our reviewer came to the conclusion that it must be a local word in use among the common people. Ile ascertained that the marsh marigold, which is very abundant about Stratford, and flowersinApril, is called the peony, and that that, gorgeous garden favourite is pronounced pye-ony by the people, just as it is called pyenet on the borders of Lancashire and Cheshire. We think he justly came to the conclusion that the doubtful word refers to the marsh marigold. When our re viewer saw the long reeds bent down by the wind, and the Avon flowing over them, he at once saw the force of the simile of its "twilled brims."  We owe many thanks to the writer for his most interesting article, and we are glad to notice his half promise that he will continue the subject at some uture time. dip  I