OCRed data provided
for searching only. SHAKSPERE'S LATINS 719
all, accommodate was his word, so he is determined to define it
himself.
Pardon me, sir; I have heard the word. Phrase call you it? by this good day, I know not the phrase; but I will maintain the word with my sword to be a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command, by heaven. Accommodated; that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or when a man is, being, whereby a' may be thought to be accommodated; which is an excellent thing.129
Nor was Shakspere the only one to poke fun at the use of this word accommodate. In Every Man in his Humour, Jonson also gibes it in much the same sense. BobadilI desires to show Master Mathew a fine point in fencing.
Hostesse, accommodate vs with another bed-staffe here, quickly: Lend vs another bed-staffe. The woman do's not vnderstand the wordes of A'ction'50
Both Bardolph and Bobadill give the word a military cast, and both characters were presented by the one company not far apart. Shakspere's play was probably produced in 1597, and Jonson's in 1598.
About 16oo, John Hoskins, who at some time coached Jonson, instructs a pupil of his,
You are not to cast a ring"' for the perfumed terms of the time, as, appre-
hensiveness, compliments, spirit, acccommodate, etc., but use them properly
in their places, as others.'32
Shakspere knew a hawk from a handsaw, a word from a phrase; and he could poke fun at pedantic but ignorant etymologizing.
Indeed, one of his own etymologies may appear to us to fall into that classification, but Shakspere could have quoted, no doubt, very learned authority for it. In Cymbeline, the soothsayer has etymologized Leonatus as Leo-natus, "the lion's whelp;"m and proceeds to mulier.
The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter, Which we call 'mollis aer;' and 'mollis aer' We term it 'mulier:' which 'mulier' I divine Is this most constant wife.'m
ID 2 Henry IV, III, 2, 72-88. 1D Every Man in his Humour, I, 5: 125 If.
131 "Cast a ring" =conjure. in Hudson, Hoskins, p. 7; cf. p. 6o. '" Cymbeline, V, 5, 443. The reader will remember,
Something that hath a reference to my state;
No longer Celia, but Aliena (4s You Like It, I, 3, 129-130) and
Admired Miranda!
Indeed the top of admiration! (Tempest, III, t, 37-38). r" Cymbeline, V, 5, 446-449.
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