er run; on the contrary he confidently anticipates a
_palingenesy_ for many among them{85}; and I am convinced that there has
been such in the case of our English words to a far greater extent than
we are generally aware. Words slip almost or quite as imperceptibly back
into use as they once slipped out of it. Let me produce a few facts in
evidence of this. In the contemporary gloss which an anonymous friend of
Spenser's furnished to his _Shepherd's Calendar_, first published in
1579, "for the exposition of old words", as he declares, he thinks it
expedient to include in his list, the following, 'dapper', 'scathe',
'askance', 'sere', 'embellish', 'bevy', 'forestall', 'fain', with not a
few others quite as familiar as these. In Speght's _Chaucer_ (1667),
there is a long list of "old and obscure words in Chaucer explained";
including 'anthem', 'blithe', 'bland', 'chapelet', 'carol', 'deluge',
'franchise', 'illusion', 'problem', 'recreant', 'sphere', 'tissue',
'transcend', with very many easier than these. In Skinner's
_Etymologicon_ (1671), there is another list of obsolete, words{86}, and
among these he includes 'to dovetail', 'to interlace', 'elvish',
'encombred', 'masquerade' (mascarade), 'oriental', 'plumage', 'pummel'
(pomell), and 'stew', that is, for fish. Who will say of the verb 'to
hallow' that it is now even obsolescent? and yet Wallis two hundred
years ago observed--"It has almost gone out of use" (fer. desuevit). It
would be difficult to find an example of the verb, 'to advocate',
between Milton and Burke{87}. Franklin, a close observer in such
matters, as he was himself an admirable master of English style,
considered the word to have sprung up during his own residence in
Europe. In this indeed he was mistaken; it had only during this period
revived{88}. Johnson says of 'jeopardy' that it is a "word not now in
use"; which certainly is not any longer true{89}.

{Sidenote: _Dryden and Chaucer's English_}

I am persuaded that in facility of being understood, Chaucer is not
merely as near, but much nearer, to us than Dryden and his cotemporaries
felt him to be to them. He and the writers of his time make exactly the
same sort of complaints, only in still stronger language, about his
archaic phraseology and the obscurities which it involves, that are made
at the present day. Thus in the _Preface_ to his _Tales from Chaucer_,
having quoted some not very difficult lines from the earlier poet whom
he was modernizin