In the dead carrion."
Here also the editors have always printed it as two words; and, as before, Mr. Collier here repeats the comma.
That the word was current with our ancestors, is certain; and I have no doubt that other instances of it may be found. We have a similar compound in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, v. 7958.:
"I me rejoyced of my lyberté,
That selden-tyme is founde in mariage."
Palsgrave, too, in his Eclaircissement de la Langue Françoise, 1530, has—
"Seldom-what, Gueres souvent."
Seldom-when, as far as my experience goes, seems to have passed out of use where archaisms still linger; but anywhen may be heard any day and every day in Surrey and Sussex. Those who would learn the rationale of these words will do well to consult Dr. Richardson's most excellent Dictionary, under the words An, Any, When, and Seldom.
This is at least a step towards Mr. Fraser's wish of seeing anywhen legitimatised; for what superior claim had seldom-when to be enshrined and immortalised in the pages of the poet of the world?
S. W. Singer.