[Obsolete Dutch paltsgrave, from Middle Dutch palsgrēve, palsgrāve : pals, palatine (from Vulgar Latin *palantia, palace, from Latin palātia, pl. of Palātium, imperial palace; see palace) + Middle Dutch grēve, grāve, count; see margrave.]
All tastes were catered for; if you liked Shakespeare you could read "Lamb's Tales"; if you were poetic there was "Palsgrave's Golden Treasury"; if you fancied an evening with the aristocracy you could read P G Wodehouse.
This applies to most of what we call slacking, a verb at least as old as 1530, when Jehan Palsgrave asked of a task-shirking friend "Whye slacke you your busynesse thus?"
For most of us, the second list is the most interesting because Alleyn notes that, among others, Richard Gunnell, an actor who had performed at the Fortune with the Lord Palsgrave's Men since 1613, was 50 [pounds sterling] in debt; and even more impressive, "the kinges Maiestie in the Exchequer" owed Alleyn the staggering sum of 800 [pounds sterling].
Testimonies from contemporary grammarians corroborate this fact: "About everywhere else, finale consonants were silenced at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and one pronounced 'ave,' 'soy,' 'fi,' 'mo' (but 'beaucoup') according to Palsgrave (p.
The origin of the Mode word monkey, recorded since 1530 in John Palsgrave's English--French dictionary Lesclarcissement della langue francoyse, ranks among the etymological riddles still to be solved.
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