“Out-ray—spread out in array; abbreviated from array. Dr. Taylor says ‘rush out,’ from the Anglo-Saxon ‘rean,’ to flow; but there seems no necessity for such an etymology.” We should think not! Chapman, like Pope, made his first sketch from the French, and corrected it by the Greek. Those who would understand Chapman’s English must allow for traces of his French guide here and there. This is one of them, perhaps. The word is etymologically unrelated to array. It is merely the old French oultréer, a derivative of ultra. It means “they pass beyond their gates even to your fleet.” He had said just before that formerly “your foes durst not a foot address without their ports.” The word occurs again Il. xxiii. 413.
“When none, though many kings put on, could make his vaunt, he led
Tydides to renewed assault or issued first the dike.” (Il. viii. 217.)
“Tydides.—He led Tydides, i. e. Tydides he led. An unusual construction.” Not in the least. The old printers or authors sometimes put a comma where some connecting particle was left out. We had just now an instance where one took the place of so. Here it supplies that. “None could make his vaunt that he led (that is, was before) Tydides.” We still use the word in the same sense, as the “leading” horse in a race.
“And all did wilfully expect the silver-throned morn.” (Il. viii. 497.)
“Wilfully—willingly, anxiously.” Wishfully, as elsewhere in Chapman.
“And as, upon a rich man’s crop of barley or of wheat,
Opposed for swiftness at their work, a sort of reapers sweat.”
“Opposed—standing opposite to one another for expedition’s sake.” We hope Mr. Hooper understood his own note, for it baffles us utterly. The meaning is simply “pitted against each other to see which will reap most swiftly.” In a note (Il. xi. 417.) we are told that “the etymology [of lucern] seems uncertain.” It is nothing more than a corruption of the old French leucerve (loup-cervier).
“I would then make-in in deed and steep
My income in their bloods.” (Il. xvii. 481.)
“Income—communication, or infusion, of courage from the Gods. The word in this sense Todd says was a favorite in Cromwell’s time.” A surprising note! Income here means nothing more than “onfall,” as the context shows.
“To put the best in ure.” (Il. xvii. 545.)