"The father's fact condemns the son to die."
It is possible that doom by dint of sword may mean, to be executed by dint of sword; that is, on the son. The doom in the Scotch court, in the Heart of Mid Lothian, is not the verdict, but the punishment.
Immediately before, we have this passage, also described as unintelligible:—
"King. Did not your selves, in presence, see the bondes sealde and assignde?
"Lo. What tho my lord, the vardits own, the titles doth resign.
"King. The bond is broke, and I will sue the fine."
I see no emendation for this but the vardits own to mean, "the party who has the verdict in his favour," and the speech to be a question. The King tries to persuade himself that there is, ipso facto, no room for forgiveness. Lovel answers, upon the principle of the rule of law, "Qui vis potest renunciare juri pro se introducto."
C.B.
FOLK LORE.
Merry-Lwyd.—My attention has been called to an inquiry in No. 11. p. 173., as to the origin and etymology of the Merry-Lwyd, still kept up in Wales.
I believe that all these mummings may be traced to the disguisings which formed so popular an amusement in the Middle Ages, and that the name applied in Wales to this remnant of our ancient pastimes is nothing more than a compound of our English adjective "merry" and a corruption of the Latin word "Ludi," which these masquings were formerly termed.