E. Thomson.
[NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS.]
(Continued from p. 376.)
Imperseverant, undiscerning. This word I have never met with but twice,—in Shakspeare's Cymbeline, with the sense above given; and in Bishop Andrewes' Sermon preached before Queen Elizabeth at Hampton Court, A.D. 1594, in the sense of unenduring:
"For the Sodomites are an example of impenitent wilful sinners; and Lot's wife of imperseverant and relapsing righteous persons."—Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology, vol. ii. p. 62.
Perseverant, discerning, and persevers, discerns, occur respectively at pp. 43. and 92. of Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure (Percy Society's edition). The noun substantive perseverance=discernment is as common a word as any of the like length in the English language. To omit the examples that might be cited out of Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure, I will adduce a dozen other instances; and if those should not be enough to justify my assertion, I will undertake to heap together two dozen more. Mr. Dyce, in his Critique of Knight and Collier's Shakspeare, rightly explains the meaning of the word in Cymbeline; and quotes an example of perseverance from The Widow, to which the reader is referred. Mr. Dyce had, however, previously corrupted a passage in his edition of Rob. Greene's Dramatic Works, by substituting, "perceivance" for perseverance, the word in the original quarto of the Pinner of Wakefield, vol. ii. p. 184.:
"Why this is wondrous being blind of sight,
His deep perseuerance should be such to know us."
I subjoin the promised dozen: