The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.0917  Monday, 31 May 1999.

[1]     From:   Nora Kreimer <
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        Date:   Saturday, 29 May 1999 09:31:18 -0300
        Subj:   RE: SHK 10.0909 Queries Thomas More's Richard III

[2]     From:   Robin Hamilton <
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        Date:   Sunday, 30 May 1999 11:10:35 +0100
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.0912 Various Responses


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Nora Kreimer <
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Date:           Saturday, 29 May 1999 09:31:18 -0300
Subject: 10.0909 Queries Thomas More's Richard III
Comment:        RE: SHK 10.0909 Queries Thomas More's Richard III

The complete play is available in WWW. Should you want me to post it in
.html , I'd be delighted to be of help.

Less than two cents for a grand text,
Nora Kreimer

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[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Robin Hamilton <
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Date:           Sunday, 30 May 1999 11:10:35 +0100
Subject: 10.0912 Various Responses
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.0912 Various Responses

>Both the passages quoted are from the anonymous play Sir Thomas More.
>My electronic version is from Tom Merriam via Lou Ule and doesn't seem
>to be divided into Acts and Scenes, but "Grant them removed is on p. 17
>of 61, "lead the majesty of law in liom" on p. 18.  "Liom" is "lyam" in
>the Merriam text, is probably derived from the Latin ligamen, and means
>"leash."  I don't know where Merriam got his text, but Ule checked it
>against the 1918 Tucker-Brook edition of the Shakespeare Apocrypha.
>
>Yours, Ward Elliott

The particular passage in question [printed as "Passages Attributed to
Shakespeare" from the play] is also found in the Norton Shakespeare, p.
2017.

Both Tucker Brook and the 1961 revision of Greg issued (and recently
reissued) by the Malone Society read "in liom".  Norton [following
Oxford, and without noting whether it is presented as an emendation or a
simple modernisation] prints "in lyam", and glosses as "on a leash",
which may be where the Merriam reading comes from.

The line in Wells and Taylor's +Textual Companion+ is printed as
follows:

    and lead the matie of lawe in liom

Robin Hamilton

>From the Shorter OED:

lyam  n. obs. exc. Hist. & dial. Also lyme LME. [OFr. liem (mod.
LIEN), f. L ligamen bond, f. ligare to tie. Cf. LIMER n.1]
1 A leash for a dog; Her. a charge representing this. LME.
2 More fully lyam-hound. A bloodhound. L15.