the direction of John Heming (d. 1630) and Henry Condell (d. 1627), both
of whom had been Shakespeare's colleagues at the Globe theatre, but as
Blount combined the functions of printer and editor on other occasions,
it is fair to conjecture that he to some extent edited the first folio.
The Stationers' _Register_ states that he was the son of Ralph Blount or
Blunt, merchant tailor of London, and apprenticed himself in 1578 for
ten years to William Ponsonby, a stationer. He became a freeman of the
Stationers' Company in 1588. Among the most important of his
publications are Giovanni Florio's Italian-English dictionary and his
translation of Montaigne, Marlowe's _Hero and Leander_, and the _Sixe
Court Comedies_ of John Lyly. He himself translated _Ars Aulica, or the
Courtier's Arte_ (1607) from the Italian of Lorenzo Ducci, and
_Christian Policie_ (1632) from the Spanish of Juan de Santa Maria.

BLOUNT, THOMAS (1618-1679), English antiquarian, was the son of one
Myles Blount, of Orleton in Herefordshire. He was born at Bordesley,
Worcestershire. Few details of his life are known. It appears that he
was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, but, being a zealous Roman
Catholic, his religion interfered considerably with the practice of his
profession. Retiring to his estate at Orleton, he devoted himself to the
study of the law as an amateur, and also read widely in other branches
of knowledge. He died at Orleton on the 26th of December 1679. His
principal works are _Glossographia; or, a dictionary interpreting the
hard words of whatsoever language, now used in our refined English
tongue_ (1656, reprinted in 1707), which went through several editions
and remains most amusing and instructive reading; _Nomolexicon: a law
dictionary interpreting such difficult and, obscure words and terms as
are found either in our common or statute, ancient or modern lawes_
(1670; third edition, with additions by W. Nelson, 1717); and _Fragmenta
Antiquitatis: Ancient Tenures of land, and jocular customs of some
mannors_ (1679; enlarged by J. Beckwith and republished, with additions
by H.M. Beckwith, in 1815; again revised and enlarged by W.C. Hazlitt,
1874). Blount's _Boscobel_ (1651), giving an account of Charles II.'s
preservation after Worcester, with the addition of the king's own
account dictated to Pepys, has been edited with a bibliography by C.G.
Thomas (1894).

BLOUNT, SIR THOMAS POPE (1649-1697), English author, eldest