3 JANUARY 1947, Page 20

SHAKESPEARE AND PHILOLOGY

Sm,—Though without those "lavish works of reference" which Mr. Harold Nicolson so lovingly describes and, I hope, possesses, I venture to enter his labyrinth of strange word dhasing and to comment on his .remark that the American word " chore " does not figure in Snakespeare's writings. In Antony and Cleopatra (IV. 13) the Queen of Egypt speaks of "the maid that milks and does the meanest chares," while again in the same play (V. 2) she says to Channian, "When thou hast done this chare I'll give thee leave to play till doomsday." It would seem that in our word " charwoman " we have kept the old spelling, while in America the " a " has become "o."—Yours truly,