Words_, in which he set forth the proper spelling and meaning of some
3,000 of these learned terms; his work reached a third edition in
1612[8]. In 1616, Dr. John Bullokar, then resident in Chichester,
followed with a work of the same kind and size, named by him _An
English Expositor_, of which numerous editions came out, one as late
as 1684. And in 1623 appeared the work which first assumed the title
of 'The English Dictionarie,' by H.C., Gent. H.C., we learn from the
dedication, was Henry Cockeram, to whom John Ford the dramatist
addressed the following congratulatory lines:--

To my industrious friend, the Author of this English Dictionarie,
MR. HENRY COCKRAM OF EXETER.

Borne in the West? liue there? so far from Court?
From Oxford, Cambridge, London? yet report
(Now in these daies of Eloquence) such change
Of words? vnknown? vntaught? tis new and strange.
Let Gallants therefore skip no more from hence
To Italic, France, Spaine, and with expence
Waste time and faire estates, to learne new fashions
Of complementall phrases, soft temptations
To glorious beggary: Here let them hand
This Booke; here studie, reade, and vnderstand:
Then shall they find varietie at Home,
As curious as at Paris, or at Rome.
For my part I confesse, hadst not thou writ,
I had not beene acquainted with more wit
Than our old English taught; but now I can
Be proud to know I have a Countryman
Hath strugled for a fame, and what is more,