COLOUR-COMEDIAN. 55 Colour. Rarely used now in the sense of a cloak or pretext, with the view of giving a specious outward appearance. A legal plea deficient in this quality is still said to want 'colour.' To have an And this malice Under the colour of justice Is hid.-GoWER. honest colour to begin warres with the Romaines, he sent an herald before to Rome.-NORTH. That he should die is worthy policy, But yet we want a colour for his death. SHAKSPEARE, 2 Henry VI, iii. 1. The middle classes interest themselves in grave matters, the aggregate of their sentiments is called public opinion. The great interest themselves in frivolities, and the aggregate of their sentiments is called fashion. But the legislative constitutions of a people give a colouring even to their levities, and fashion is a shadow of the national character itself. In France, fashion was gallant under Louis XIV, and severe under the triumvirate of the Revolution; in Venice, it was mercantile; in Prussia, it is military.-LYTTON. Combine. In Shakspeare we find 'combined' in the place of 'bound.' I am combined by a sacred vow, And shall be absent. SHAKSPEARE, Measure for Measure, iv. 3. It is impossible to deny that Walpole's works have real merit, and merit of a very rare though not a very high character. Sir Joshua Reynolds used to say that there would be another Raphael before there was another Claude, and we own that we expect to see fresh Humes and fresh Burkes before we again fall in with that peculiar combination of moral and intellectual qualities to which the writings of Walpole owe their extraordinary popularity.-MACAULAY. Comedian. Once, a humorous writer. When the writings of Addison terminate in party, he loses 56 COMEDY-COMMERCE. himself extremely, and from a delicate and just comedian deviates into one of the lower kind.-Lord ORRERY. Met Matthews the comedian: Byron and he lunched with us at Long's. I never saw Byron so full of fun, frolic, wit, and whim; he was as playful as a kitten. I like better that Mathews should throw in his talent of mimicry and humour into the present current tone of the company, than that he should be required to give this, that, and t'other bit selected from his public recitations. They are good certainly-excellent, but then you must laugh; and that is always severe with me. When I do laugh in sincerity, the joke must be, or seem to be unpremeditated. Sir WALTER SCOTT. Comedy. Originally, a village play. The English Fathers caused sacred comedies to be acted, January 1st, 1417. The subjects were the Nativity, the arrival of the Eastern Magi, and the Massacre of the Innocents.— PERCY. Dr. Swift had been observing to Gay what an odd, pretty sort of thing a Newgate Pastoral might make. Gay was inclined to try at such a thing, but afterwards thought it would be better to write a comedy on the same plan. This was what gave rise to the Beggar's Opera. As he carried it on he showed what he wrote to both of us, and we now and then gave a correction and a word or two of advice, but it was wholly of his writing. Dr. JOHNSON. Comfort. The present signification 'to cheer' or 'console' has grown out of an older meaning 'to strengthen' (fortis). For the comforting of sturdy beggars.-Statute, Henry VIII. The comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.-Authorised Version, John xiv. 26. I am writing comfortably by the fire-side, for we are forced to raise an English July in a hot house, like grapes.—HORACE WALPOLE. Commerce. Once used for general intercourse, as well as trade. COMMISSION-COMMITTED. Come, but keep thy wonted state, And looks commercing with the skies : Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.—MILTON. 57 Whilst I have any ability to hold a commerce with you I will never be silent, and this chancing to be a day that I can hold a pen, I will drag it as long as I am able.-SWIFT to Pope. I have often been pleased to hear disputes adjusted between an inhabitant of Japan and an Alderman of London, or to see a subject of the Great Mogul entering into a league with one of the Czar of Muscovy. I am infinitely delighted in mixing with these several ministers of commerce, as they are distinguished by their several walks and languages.-ADDISON. Commission. The word occurs in Shakspeare as equivalent to 'permission.' Now only an appointment or order; and in a secondary sense a percentage on a transaction. I'll give him my commission To let him there a month. SHAKSPEARE, Winter's Tale, i. 2. You will have seen by the papers all the histories of our glorious expeditions and invasions of France, which have put Crecy and Agincourt out of all countenance. On the first view indeed one should think that our fleet had been to victual, for our chief prizes were cows, and geese, and turkeys; but I rather think the whole was fitted out by the Royal Society, for they came back quite satisfied with having discovered a fine bay! Then the expense has been enormous-two hundred thousand pounds, chiefly by employing young captains, instead of old halfpay officers, and by these means double commissions.-HORACE WALPOLE. Committed. Applied by Lovelace to linnets 'confined' in a cage. While like committed linnets I With shriller notes shall sing.-R. LOVELACE. Sir James Mackintosh. His mind was a vast magazine, 58 COMMODITY-COMPANION. admirably arranged everything was there; and everything was in its place. His judgment on men, on sects, on books, had been often carefully tested and weighed, and had then been committed each to its proper receptacle in the most capacious and accurately constructed memory that any human being ever possessed.-MACAULAY. Commodity. Profit, benefit. Sure I am that divers grave and of the best affected of them [the congregation] have shewn their misliking of him to me, not only of his disorderliness in the manner of the communion and contempt of the prayers, but also of his negligence in reading... whose lectures by their report are so barren of matter that his hearers take no commodity thereby.-Letter of Archbishop Whitgift to Lord Burleigh. By leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment. Let the government do this, and the people will assuredly do the rest.— MACAULAY. Compact. Once, put together, composed: now, condensed. A wandering fire Compact of unctious vapour.-MILTON. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact. SHAKSPEARE, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1, Love is a spirit all compact of fire, Not gross to sink, but light and will aspire. Id., Venus and Adonis. A different spinning every different web Asks from your glowing fingers; some require The more compact, and some the looser wreath.-DYER. Companion. Used by Shakspeare as a term of contempt an inferior follower. I scorn you, scurvy companion.-SHAKSPEARE, 2 Henry IV, ii. 4. COMPARATIVE-COMPASSIONATE. 59 What would the wars do with these jingling fools? Companion, hence !-SHAKSPEARE, Julius Cæsar, iv. 3. Dr. Johnson. What a singular destiny has been that of this remarkable man, to be regarded in his own times as a classic, and in ours as a companion. That kind of table talk, the memory of which he probably thought would die with him, is likely to be remembered as long as the English language is spoken in any quarter of the world.-MACAULAY. Comparative. An old meaning was that of 'a rival.' Gerard was ever His full comparative.-BEAUMONT and FLETCHER. Of every beardless vain comparative. SHAKSPEARE, I Henry IV, iii. 2. Hawksworth in the second paper of the Adventurer has drawn from his own feelings an eloquent comparative estimate of intellectual with corporeal labour. It may console the humble mechanic. Plato seems to have been aware of this analogy, for he consecrates all working men or artizans to Vulcan and Minerva, because both those deities are hard-workers.-I. DISRAELI. Compassionate. Once had the sense of 'claiming compassion.' It boots thee not to be compassionate, After our sentence plaining comes too late. SHAKSPEARE, Richard II, i. 3. Luther at Warteburg. I have been, he writes, for two days employed in the sports of the field, and was willing to taste this bitter-sweet amusement of the great heroes. Even in the midst of ferrets and dogs I have had theological pains. We have caught two hares and one brace of poor little partridges; but as much pleasure as the mere looking on afforded me, even so much it pitied me to think of the emblem and mystery which lies beneath it. For what doth this symbol signify but that the devil (and his Godless huntsmen the Bishops and theologians to wit) doth privily chase and catch the innocent poor little beasts. One poor little hare I compassionated, and hid in the sleeve of |