"His treacherous father hath neglect his word, And done imparshall past by dint of sword." is considered by Mr. Baron Field as unintelligible. It seems to me that the correction of it is obvious, and the explanation probable, though not exactly fitting what had been said before, which is merely that Lord Stanley had refused to come to Richard, not that he had actually joined Richmond, much less fought for him. I read-- "And dome imparshall;" _i.e._ and _doom impartial_, and interpret, "pass'd upon himself impartial judgment," or rather on his son, as is said just before:-- "The father's fact condemns the son to die." It is possible that doom by dint of sword may mean, to be executed by dint of sword; that is, on the son. The _doom_ in the Scotch court, in the _Heart of Mid Lothian_, is not the verdict, but the punishment. Immediately before, we have this passage, also described as unintelligible:-- "_King._ Did not your selves, in presence, see the bondes sealde and assignde? "_Lo._ What tho my lord, the _vardits own_, the titles doth resign. "_King._ The bond is broke, and I will sue the fine." I see no emendation for this but the _vardits own_ to mean, "the party who has the verdict in his favour," and the speech to be a question. The King tries to persuade himself that there is, _ipso facto_, no room for forgiveness. Lovel answers, upon the principle of the rule of law, "Qui vis potest renunciare juri pro se introducto." C.B. * * * * * FOLK LORE. _Merry-Lwyd._--My attention has been called to an inquiry in No. 11. p. 173., as to the origin and etymology of the Merry-Lwyd, still kept up in Wales. I believe that all these mummings may be traced to the disguisings which formed so popular an amusement in the Middle Ages, and that the name applied in Wales to this remnant of our ancient pastimes is nothing more than a compound of our English adjective "merry" and a corruption of the Latin word "Ludi," which these masquings were formerly termed. Strutt, in his _Sports and Pastimes_, Book iii. chap. 13., speaks of Christmas Spectacles in the time of Edward III., as known by the name of Ludi; and in Warton's _History of English Poetry_, it is said of these representations that "by the ridiculous and exaggerated oddity of the Vizors, and by the singularity and splendour of the dresses, every thing was out of nature and propriety." In Strutt's 16th Plate, specimens will be found of the whimsical habit and attire in which the mummers were wont to appear. My impression that the Merry-Lwyd was by no means a diversion exclusively Welsh is corroborated by the fact noticed in your Number of the 23rd of Feb., of its being found to exist in Cheshire. And we know that many ancient customs lingered in the principality long after they fell into disuse in England. GWYNN AB NUDD. Glamorganshire, March 1. 1850.