frome one to an other by fraudulent feoffementes, fynes, recoveryes and other assurances, craftely made to secrete uses, intentes, and trustes.' The word 'conveyance' is only used once in the act, viz., in sec. 3, where it bears its present legal signification, and appears as the equivalent of a suffycyent graunt.' In an old Morality, or Interlude, called Hyckescorner, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and therefore certainly not later than 1534, Imagination, one of the characters, is made to say:

"

Sir, the whoresons could not convey
clean;
For, and they could have carried by craft as
I can,

In

process of gentleman.

years each of them should be a

Yet as for me I was never thief;
If my hands were smitten off, I can steal with
my teeth;

For ye know well, there is craft in daubing;
I can look in a man's face and pick his purse,
And tell new tidings that was never true, I

wis;

For my hood is all lined with lesing.'

Dodsley's Coll. Old Engl. Plays, vol. i. p.
159, ed. 1874.

The words italicised in the second line of the above seem exactly to represent the meaning of the cant expression in the first, and possibly Shakespeare had this play in his mind when writing The Merry Wives. The same idea is conveyed in the following passage from the comedy of King Cambises, written by Preston in the reign of Elizabeth :

'He is as honest a man as euer spurd cow; My cosin Cutpurse I meane, I beseech ye judge you.

Beleeue me, Cosin, if to be the Kings gest
ye could be taken,

I trust that offer would not be forsaken.
But Cosin, because to that office ye are not
like to come,

Frequent your exercises, a horne on your
thumb,

A quick eye, a sharp knife, at hand a receiuer,

But then take heed, Cosin, ye be a clenly conuayour.'

Signat. E. iii. b. ed. 1570.

Bale, Bishop of Ossory, in his Actes of English Votaries, first published in 1546, employs the word several times. Thus, speaking of the Papists he says: 'He that wolde take the payne to conferre their Chronycles and writynges but concerninge thys onlye matter, obser

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481

uynge dylygentlye their diuerse bestowynge of tymes, places, and names, with other thynges perteynynge to the circumstaunce of hystorye, shuld anon percyue their subtyle conueyaunce in many other matters.'-Fo.21, ed. 1551. Again, speaking of the contempt of marriage exhibited by monks, he says: "Ye maye se by thys, the vertuouse studye of these holye chast fathers, and the clarkelye conueyaunce of their fleshlye mouynges.' -Fo. 29. Again, in a chapter entitled A spirituall conueyaunce to be marked,' Bale narrates a scandalous story, affect. ing Saint Etheldreda, who was professed a nun by Wilfred, Bishop of York (A. D. 664), 'This kyng (i.e. Egfride, king of Northumberland) after that perceyuynge his (i.e. Wilfred's) knauerye, by assent of Theodorus, the archebyshop of Caunterbury, bannyshed hym out of hys lande. Then followed she (ie. Etheldreda) after a pace, and whyles he was byshop of Eastsexse, she became abbasse of hely (i.e. Ely), not farre from his elbone. Marke thys conueyaunce for your learnynge. If this were not knauerye, where shal we fynde knauery? Yet was this gentylman conueyer admytted for a saynte, because he buylded a college at Rippon.' -Fol. 43. In another place, speaking of Dunstan's trick to make the rood speak at Winchester, Bale says: 'Al they were astonyed that knewe not therof the crafty conueyaunce. If thys were not cleane legerdemayne, tell me.'-Fo. 70. Foxe, in his account of the trial of Lord Cobham, says: 'The which commission and inditement, albeit in countenance of words, will seeme to ministre much suspition against them (i.e. the prosecution), to the simple reader, before he be better acquainted with these subtile dealings and practises of Prelates; yet trusting upon the goodnesse of the cause which I see here so falsely and sleightly to be handled, I nothing feare nor doubt to produce the same out of the Records in Latine, as they stand; to the intent that when the craftie handling of the aduersaries shall be disclosed, the true simplicitie of the innocent, to the true

harted reader shall the more better appeare. The words first of the Commission here follow under written, which when thou shalt heare, let them not trouble thy minde, gentle reader, I besech thee, before thou understand further what packing and subtile conueyance lieth couered and hid under the same.'-Actes and Mon. vol. i. p. 574, ed. 1583. Spenser, in depicting a courtier in Mother Hubberds Tale, uses this word :

'All his care was himselfe how to advaunce,
And to uphold his courtly countenaunce
By all the cunning meanes he could devise
Were it by honest wayes, or otherwise,
He made small choyce; yet sure his honestie
Got him small gaines, but shameles flatterie,
And filthie brocage, and unseemly shifts,
And borowe base, and some good Ladies
gifts:

But the best helpe, which chiefly him sus-
tain'd,

Was his man Raynolds purchase which he
gain'd.

For he was school'd by kinde in all the skill
Of close conveyance, and each practise ill
Of coosinage and cleanly knaverie,
Which oft maintain'd his masters braverie.'

Poet. Works, vol. v. p. 25, ed. 1866.

dered: 'to take away craftily or falsly:'
but to which Cooper adds: 'to conueigh
away falsly that was lent one, or com-
mitted into his handes;' and a quo-
tation from Marcellus (Dig. xvi. 3. 22.)
'Si hæredes rem apud defunctum depo-
sitam dolo interverterint;' which is
translated: 'If the heyres craftily
conuey away any thing left in the
custody of the dead person.' Also
Cicero's phrase, 'intervertere et ad se
transferre (2 Philipp. cap. 32.), 'To
conuey away and take to his owne use.'
And interverso regali dono' (Verr. iv.
30), 'The princely present craftily con
ueyed away? Cavendish, in his Life of
Wolsey, narrates a conversation between
himself and the Cardinal in which the
latter is made to say, 'I considered that
mine enemies had brought the matter
so to passe against me, that they conveied
and made it the King's matter and case,
and caused the King to take the matter
into his owne hands.'-Wordsworth's
Eccles. Biog. vol. i. p. 621, ed. 1853.
Turning now to Shakespeare, we see
that the word is a favourite one with
him. Thus in The First Part of King
Henry VI. the Duke of Gloster says:

Huloet, in his Dictionary, published in
1572, has, Conuey craftely, Subduco.
Conuoyer (Palsgrave). Conueye in pry-
uely, Submitto. Conueyed craftely or
pryuely, Subductus, Submissus, Deduc-
tus, Amené.' Also Crafty conueyaunce,
Subductio, Crafty conueyer, Subductor.'
In Cooper's edition of Elyot's Dictio-
nary, published in 1578, subduco is
translated To take away, to plucke or
drawe away, to remoue, to steale away
priuily, to conuey away priuily, to
plucke backe, to draw backe, to deceiue,
to steale.' And 'subducere pallium lap-
sum à cubito' (Martial viii. 59), 'Pri-
uily and by stealth to take up and
conuey away a robe falne away from
Manticulatio which the
author in 1538 translated 'slyenesse,
deceite' appears in 1578 as 'slye and
deceytfull conueyance.' The inference
being that this expression had become
much more common in the interval
which elapsed between the respective
editions. The same remark applies to
'interverto' which Elyot merely ren-

ones arme."

'First Gent.

His only child.
if this be worth your

He had two sons,
hearing,
Mark it, the eldest of them at three years
old,

I' the swathing-clothes the other, from their
nursery

Were stol'n; and to this hour no guess in
knowlege

Which way they went.

'Sec. Gent. How long is this ago?

First Gent. Some twenty years.

'Sec. Gent. That a king's children should
be so convey'd!

So slackly guarded! and the search so slow,
That could not trace them!

Vol. vii. p. 637.

And in The Merry Wives of Windsor, when Mrs. Page says: "If you know yourself clear, why I am glad of it; but if you have a friend here, convey, convey him out. Your husband's here at hand; bethink you of some conveyance: in the house you cannot hide him.'-Vol. i. p. 383. It only remains to add that the Latin word 'conveare' was in use in the Middle Ages, and probably the English word was derived immediately from that. We find, for instance, in a licence to import armour, granted by Hen. VII. in 1492: Cum Dominus Merue Flandriæ gubernator . . concesserit et licentiam dederit præfato Johanni quòd ipse per se aut deputatum suum diversas hernesias in hoc regnum nostrum Angliæ pro viagio nostro afferre et conveare possit.' Rymer, tom. xii. p. 471, ed. 1711.

Couch, to compose, express, also to lay or place together.-II. 78, 136, 317. From the French coucher, which Cotgrave translates To couch, or lie, also to lay down or along; to goe, also to get, bring, or have, to bed; also to mention or set downe in writing; also to plant, or set a root or slip flat along within the ground; also to stake at play.' He gives also the phrases

Coucher de belles. Ils en couchent de belles. They write goodly matters sure; 'tis sweet stuffe that they set downe; ironically.' Sherwood, on the other hand, renders To couch in writing: Mettre par escrit.' Palsgrave has: I endyte, I write, Je compose, je dicte, and je couche. Write thou and

le

I wyll endyte tu escripras, et je composeray, or je dicteray, or je couche ay langaige.'-L'Esclair. p. 534. We find it used in the sense of 'to express," by Commines, in the fifteenth century; for in the Prologue to his Memoires, he says Par laquelle œuvre se pourra connoistre la grandeur du prince dont vous parleray, et aussi de votre entendement. Et là où je faudroye, vous trouverez Monseigneur du Bouchage, et autres, qui mieux vous en sçauroient parler que moy, et le coucher en meilleur langage.-P. 2, ed. Pan. Litt. Wilson, in his Arte of Rhetorique, seems to use the worde in a double sense, combining both the meanings implied in Elyot's usage: Elocution is an applying of apte wordes and sentences to the matter, founde out to confirme the cause. When all these are had together, it auaileth little if man haue no Memorie to containe them. The Memorie therefore must be cherished, the whiche is a fast holdyng bothe of matter and wordes couched together, to confirme any cause.' --P. 6, ed. 1584. Wolsey uses the word in his 'Instructions' to Magnus and Radclyff in 1524: The said Quene and Erle of Arayne have sent unto His Grace, and to the said Lord Legate, letters, articles, and clauses commynatoryes . . . and therupon do make a demonstracion by waye of a threate, that they woll not send their ambassadours, with other thynges, couched so ferre from good reason, humanite, or discretion, that the same nedeth not to be rehersed . . Wherwith they shal say the Kinges Grace is nothing contented, ne pleased, supposing that his said derest suster, with whom His Grace procedeth so sincerely and lovingly, shuld never have cowched suche a commynacion or threate unto hym.'— State Pap. vol. iv. pp. 195, 196. So Dr. Magnus, in his report to Wolsey, in the same year, from Edinburgh, speaks of having received 'An other letter directe from my saide Lorde of Norffolk to the Quenes Grace, right roundely penned and cowched.'-Ibid. p. 247. And in a letter from the Duke of Richmond's Council (Magnus, Parre, and Uvedale)

to the King, dated September 7, 1527,
they say that the said King of
Scottes and Erle of Angwyshe have
bothe addressed their severall letters
of awnswer at this tyme unto my said
Lordes Grace, right effectuelly couched
and penned in full honourable maner
and fourme, lyke as shall and maye
appere unto Your said Highnes by
the same.'-Ibid. p. 476. In the
Nomenclator of Adrianus Junius, trans-
lated by Higins in 1585, we find the
word used in the last sense given above:
'Opus emplecton. Vitru. Cum frontibus
utrinque politis medium naturalis saxo-
rum materia temerè collocata farcit.
ἔμπλεκτον. Worke wel knit and couched
togither: properly stones so layd, that
their fronts or partes which are in sight,
being smooth and trim on both sides,
their naturall substance remaineth rough
and unhewne, to stuffe and fill up the
middest of a wall, &c.'-P. 199. And
also Coagmentum, Plauto, commis-
sura. Arcta et compressa conjunctio,
proprie lapidum, σύστημα, συναφὴ, ἅρμη.
Jointure, attachement, liaison. The
close ioyning or couching of things
together, properly of stones.'-P. 417.
The Promptorium has Cowchyn or
leyne thinges togedyr, Colloco.'—P. 96.

M. Littré cites from a collection of
documents of the thirteenth century
by M. Tailliar, a passage which would
serve to illustrate the use of the form
covenables, if it could be relied upon as
accurate, but on referring to the autho-
rity quoted by M. Littré, the Editor
finds that the word actually used was
covenaules. Froissart, in his account
of the assembly at Paris, in 1356, says:
'Si se accordèrent que les prélats éli-
roient douze personnes bonnes et sages
entre eux, qui auroient pouvoir, de par
eux et de par le clergé, de ordonner et
aviser voies convenables pour faire ce
que dessus est dit.'-Chron. tom. i.
p. 363, ed. Pan. Litt. This is trans-
lated by Lord Berners: Than they
agreed that the prelates shuld chose
out twelfe persones amonge theym, who
shulde haue power by theym, and by
all the clergy, to ordayne and to aduyse
all thynges couenable to be done.'-
Chron. vol. i. p. 208, ed. 1812. Sir
John Maundevile says: No man may
zeven covenable Medicyne, but zif he
knowe the qualitee of the dede.'-
Voiage, &c., p. 145, ed. 1727. Chaucer,
in The Persones Tale, says: 'Many
ben the wayes espirituels that leden
folk to oure Lord Jhesu Christ, and
to the regne of glorie; of whiche weyes
ther is a ful noble way, and ful coven-
able, which may not faile to man ne to
womman and this wey is cleped
penitence.'-Poet. Works, vol. iii. p. 264:
and in The Romaunt of the Rose:

Couenable, convenient, proper.-I.
78. This is really the French word con-
venable, as appears from Palsgrave, who
gives 'Conuenable-m. et f., conuenable
s.-L'Esclair. p. 308. In his Introduc-
tion, he uses the same form as Elyot: 'So
that the leruar maybe advertised what
gendre all their substantyves be of...
and fardermore, what order and con-
gruite they use in the covenable joyn-
yng of every of the sayd partes, one
with another, as they come togyder in
- Ibid. p. 151. Cotgrave
sentences.'
translates convenable, Convenient; apt,
fit, meet for ; agreeable, sutable, accord-
ing unto; proper, comely, decent,
beseeming, seemly.' In Le Roman de
la Rose, we read:

'Or est-il voirs, sans point de fable,
Bien est ceste mort convenable
A la vie que tu menoies,
Quant l'ame avec ce cors avoies.'

Tom. ii. p. 291, ed. 1814.