began to restore to each
body his colour, then with curtains bar'd he himselfe from the
enjoying of it; neither willing to feele the comfort of the day,
nor the ease of the night."

Here, _delight_ is apparently used for _the return of light_, and the
prefix _de_ is probably only intensive. Now, presuming that Shakspeare
also used _delighted_ for _lighted_, _illuminated_ the passage in
_Measure for Measure_ would bear this interpretation: "the delighted
spirit, i.e., the spirit _restored to light_," freed from "that dark
house in which it long was pent." In _Othello_, "if virtue lack no
delighted beauty," i.e. "_want not the light of beauty_, your son-in-law
shows far more fair than black." Here the opposition between _light_ and
_black_ is much in its favour. In _Cymbeline_, I must confess it is not
quite so clear: "to make my gifts, by the dark uncertainty attendant
upon delay, more lustrous (delighted), more radiant when given," is not
more satisfactory than Mr. {201} HICKSON'S interpretation of this
passage. But is it necessary that _delighted_ should have the same
signification in all the three passages? I think not.

These are only suggestions, of course, but the passage from Sidney is
certainly curious, and, from the correct and careful manner in which the
book is printed, does not appear to be a corruption. I have not seen the
earlier editions. I have only further to remark, that none of our old
authorities favour DR. KENNEDY'S suggestion, "that the word represents
the Latin participle _delectus_."

Since the above was written, Mr. HICKSON'S reply to MR. HALLIWELL has
reached me, upon which I have only to observe that he will find _to
guile_ was used as a verb. Thus in Gower, _Confessio Amantis_, fo. 135.
ed. 1532:

"For often he that will begyle,
Is _gyled_ with the same gyle,
And thus the gyler is begyled."

We most probably had the word from the old French _Guiller_=tromper, and
the proverb is to the purpose:--

"Qui croit de _Guiller_ Guillot, Guillot le Guile."

Horne Tooke's fanciful etymology cannot be sustained. MR. HICKSON'S
explanation of "guiled shore," is, however, countenanced by the
following passage in _Tarquin and Lucrece_:--

"To me came Tarquin armed, so _beguil'd_
With outward honesty, but yet defil'd
With inward vice."

MR. HICKSON has, I think, conferred a singular favour in calling
attention to these perplexing passages in our great poet and these
re