13.  CHAMPYON, V. PG. 12.

  Wee better for to doe do champyon anie onne.

I do not believe that champion was used as a verb by any writer much earlier than Shakespeare.

  14.  CONTAKE.  T. 87.  CONTEKE.  E. II. 10.

  ——­I contake thie waie.
  Conteke the dynnynge ayre and reche the skies.

Conteke is used by Chaucer, as a noun, for Contention.  I know no instance of its being used as a verb.

15.  DERNE.  AE 582.  DERNIE.  E. I. 19.  El. 8.  M. 106.

  Whan thou didst boaste soe moche of actyon derne. 
  Oh Raufe, comme lyste and hear mie dernie tale. 
  O gentle Juga, beare mie dernie plainte. 
  He wrythde arounde yn drearie dernie payne.

Derne is a Saxon adj. signifying secret, private, in which sense it is used more than once by Chaucer, and in no other.

16.  DROORIE.  Ep. 47.

  Botte lette ne wordes, whiche droorie mote ne heare,
  Bee placed in the same ——.

The only sense that I know of druerie is courtship, gallantry, which will not suit with this passage.

17.  FONNES.  E. II. 14.  AE 421.  FONS.  T. 4.

  Decorn wyth fonnes rare ——­
  On of the fonnis whych the clerche have made. 
  Quayntyssed fons depictedd on eche sheelde.

A fonne in Chaucer signifies a fool, and fonnes—­fools; and Spenser uses fon in the same sense; nor do I believe that it ever had any other meaning.

18.  KNOPPED. M. 14.

  Theyre myghte ys knopped ynne the froste of fere.

Knopped is used by Chaucer to signifie fastened with a button, from knoppe, a button; but what poet, that knew the meaning of his words, would say that any thing was buttoned with frost?

19.  LECTURN.  Le. 46.

  An onlist lecturn and a songe adygne.

I do not see that lecturn can possibly signifie any thing but a reading-desk, in which sense it is used by Chaucer.

20.  LITHIE.  Ep. 10.

  Inne lithie moncke apperes the barronnes pryde.

If there be any such word as this, we should naturally expect it to follow the signification of lithe; soft, limber:  which will not suit with this passage.

* * * * *

I go on to the third general head of words inflected contrary to grammar and custom.  In a language like ours, in which the inflections are so few and so simple, it is not to be supposed that a writer, even of the lowest class, would commit very frequent offences of this sort.  I shall take notice of some, which I think impossible to have fallen from a genuine Rowley.

1.  CLEVIS.  H. 2. 46.

  Fierce as a clevis from a rocke ytorne.