there is something too dreadful in suspecting Spenser (who borealised in his pastorals) of having ever been guilty of geaun! And yet some delicate mouths even now are careful to observe the Hibernicism of ge-ard for guard, and ge-url for girl.  Sir Philip Sidney (credite posteri!) wrote furr for far.  I would hardly have believed it had I not seen it in facsimile.  As some consolation, I find furder in Lord Bacon and Donne, and Wittier rhymes far with cur.  The Yankee, who omits the final d in many words, as do the Scotch, makes up for it by adding one in geound.  The purist does not feel the loss of the d sensibly in lawn and yon, from the former of which it has dropped again after a wrongful adoption (retained in laundry), while it properly belongs to the latter.  But what shall we make of git, yit, and yis?  I find yis and git in Warner’s ‘Albion’s England,’ yet rhyming with wit, admit, and fit in Donne, with wit in the ‘Revenger’s Tragedy,’ Beaumont, and Suckling, with writ in Dryden, and latest of all with wit in Sir Hanbury Williams.  Prior rhymes fitting and begetting.  Worse is to come.  Among others, Donne rhymes again with sin, and Quarles repeatedly with in. Ben for been, of which our dear Whittier is so fond, has the authority of Sackville, ‘Gammer Gurton’ (the work of a bishop), Chapman, Dryden, and many more, though bin seems to have been the common form.  Whittier’s accenting the first syllable of rom’ance finds an accomplice in Drayton among others, and, though manifestly wrong, is analogous with Rom’ans.  Of other Yankeeisms, whether of form or pronunciation, which I have met with I add a few at random.  Pecock writes sowdiers (sogers, soudoyers), and Chapman and Gill sodder.  This absorption of the l is common in various dialects, especially in the Scottish.  Pecock writes also biyende, and the authors of ‘Jack Jugler’ and ‘Gammer Gurton’ yender.  The Yankee includes ‘yon’ in the same catagory, and says ‘hither an’ yen,’ for ‘to and fro.’ (Cf.  German jenseits.) Pecock and plenty more have wrastle.  Tindal has agynste, gretter, shett, ondone, debyte, and scace.  ‘Jack Jugler’ has scacely (which I have often heard, though skurce is the common form), and Donne and Dryden make great rhyme with set.  In the inscription on Caxton’s tomb I find ynd for end, which the Yankee more often makes eend, still using familiarly the old phrase ‘right anend’ for ‘continuously.’  His ’stret (straight) along’ in the same sense, which I thought peculiar to him, I find in Pecock.  Tindal’s debyte for deputy is so perfectly Yankee that I could almost fancy the