slate
some peece of English into Latine, for the more speedie
attaining of the same. And after we had a little begun,
perceiuing what great trouble it was to come running to
me for euerie worde they missed, knowing then of no other
Dictionarie to helpe vs, but Sir Thomas Eliots Librarie,
which was come out a little before; I appointed them
certaine leaues of the same booke euerie daie to write
the english before the Latin, & likewise to gather a
number of fine phrases out of Cicero, Terence, Caesar,
Liuie, &c. & to set them vnder seuerall titles, for the
more readie finding them againe at their neede. Thus,
within a yeere or two, they had gathered together a great
volume, which (for the apt similitude betweene the good
Scholers and diligent Bees in gathering their waxe and
honie into their Hiue) I called then their _Aluearie_,
both for a memoriall by whom it was made, and also by
this name to incourage other to the like diligence, for
that they should not see their worthie praise for the
same, vnworthilie drowned in obliuion. Not long after,
diuers of our friends borrowing this our worke which we
had thus contriued & wrought onelie for our owne priuate
vse, often and many waies moued me to put it in print for
the common profet of others, and the publike propagation
of the Latine tongue.'

But when Baret at length resolved to comply with this suggestion,
there were many difficulties to be overcome, the expense of the work
being not the least:--

'And surelie, had not the right honourable Sir Thomas
Smith knight, principall Secretarie to the Queenes
Maiestie, that noble Theseus of learning, and comfortable
Patrone to all Students, and the right Worshipfull M.
Nowell, Deane of Pawles, manie waies encouraged me in
this wearie worke (the charges were so great, and the
losse of my time so much grieued me) I had neuer bene
able alone to haue wrestled against so manie troubles,
but long ere this had cleane broken off our worke begun,
and cast it by for euer.'

Between the dates of the _Abecedarium_ and the _Alvearie_, Peter
Levins, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, published, in 1570, the
first essay at an English Riming Dictionary, the _Manipulus
Vocabulorum_, or Handful of Vocables, an original copy of which is in
the Bodleian Library; it was reprinted for the Early English Text
Society in 1867 by Mr. H.B. Wheatley