' Gall in thy death's-head there, tie ap thy fean.'
3. There are two kinds of fear, a ' slavish feare, and a sonlike feare' (Hieron, Works, i. 130). The latter is now used only of our relation to God. But it was formerly applied to the reverence due to any superior, as Ro 13' ' Render to all their dues : tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom custom ; fear to whom fear.' Cf. Knox, Hist. 194, ' we deny neither Toll, Tribute, nor fear, to her [the Queen Regent] nor her olhcers.' Ascham {Toxophilus, B. fol. 35, ed. 1545) says that a priest should have ' a bodye f ul of manlye authoritie to fear ill men.' i. The article being formerly used freely with abstract nouns, we find ' a fear,' Ezk 30'" ' 1 wdl put a fear in the land of Egypt ' (nijn:, RV retains); Ad. Est 15' 'in a fear' (dyundffos, RV ' in an agony ').
In the quotation from Ascham above, the verb to fear is used in the active sense of put fear into, terrify. This meaning, though it occurs but once in A V, is common in the earlier VSS and in Eng. writers of the time.
Thus Lv 26M Wye. ' the sown of a fleynge leef shal fere hem ' ; Dn 411 Gov. ' O Balthasar, let nether the dreame ner the inter- pretacion thereoff feare the' ; i Co lu» Gen. 1600, ' Thu I jay that I may not seme as if wen to feare you with letters ' (so Wye). Cf. Elyot, The iioveriumrA. 247, 'the good husbande, wiian he hath sowen his grounde, settethe up cloughtes or thredes, which some call sliailes, some blenchars, or otlier like showes, to feare away birdcs, which he foreseeth redy to de- uoure and hurte his come.' So Foxe, Actet and Man. i. 436 (ed. 1583). 'A wonderfull an<i terrible earthquake fell through out al Englond : wherupon diuera of the sullraganes being feared by the strange and wonderfull demonstration, doubting what it should nieane, thought it good to leaue of from their determin- ate purpose ' ; Spenser, /''V n. xii. 25—
' For all that here on earth we dreadftill hold. Be btit as bugs to fearen l>abes withall. Compared to the creatures in the seas enthrall.' More, f7(opio ( Itob. tr>, Lumby's e<l. p. 145, I. 26). expresses his ideal of tolunition in the words, * They also which do not ai^reo to Christes religion, feare no man from it, nor speake agiunst any man that hath received it.' Tindale, WorLi, i. 7, says Scripture is ' a comfort in adversity that we despair not, an<l feareth us in prosperity, that we sin not'; and lizpoiitumt, 148. 'fearing you with tile bilg of excommunication.' From Shaks. take /'am. 0/ Shrnc, I. it 806—
•Have I not in a pitched battle heard
Loud 'larums, neigliing steeds, and trumpet's okuig t
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue,
Ttiat gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chestnut in a fanner's fire?
Tush I tush I fear Iwys with bugs."
* Earle (I'laltrr of 1630, p. 201) says that in this example 'fear 'is used in t)ie ancient sense or F.Kli, sudden aliinii, shock of rlanger. Hut that Hense seems to have been dropped very early, long before the days of Coverdalo, who first uses 'fear' here (Wyclif as usual liaving ' dread '), and tile Heb. is the siune as in the other ;:aHsages quoted above.
DavleB quotes from Bp. Andrewes (v. 8), * Knowing tTiat we fear Uonovir and power, though it laat but for a small time, He feareth UB with One whose honour and power lastt^th for ever,' where the neuter and active seiuefl of the word are found tog^ether. ■
The example in AV is Wis 17' ' For though no terrible thing did fear them ; yet being scared with beasts tliat passed by, and hissing of serpents, they died for fear ' {i<p63ei, RV ' affrighted '). A Heb. idiom is expressed in the phrase ' fear before,' which occurs 1 Ch IG*", Ps 96», Ec 8"- ^, Hag 1". Tlius Ps 96' ' O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness : fear before him, all the earth ' (iS>n VJ50, ItV ' tremble before him '). The verb is nsed in a grammatical misconstruction in Is 57" ' And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared,' which is rectified in RV 'And of whom hast thou been afraid and in fear t '
Fearful in older Eng. meant 'greatly fearing' as well as 'greatly to be feared.' Both senses are used in AV and retained in RV. 1. Dt 20« ' What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted ? ' (Kvn); Jg 7' 'fearful and afraid' (kx) ; Is 35* ' Say to them that are of a fearful heart. Be strong, fear not' (D^-'i.qDj^, lit. 'hasty of heart,' as RVm) ; Mt 8^ ' Wliy are ye fearful, O ye of little faith ? ' [SeiUi ; bo Mk 4*>, Rev 218 [all]) ; Sir 2'2 22'8, 1 Mac 3« 2 Mac 8". Cf. Adams, // Peter, 55, ' If thou lovest God, thou wilt be fearful to offend him, careful to please him ' ; and Chapman, Homer's Iliads, xxiii. 740 —