element (1 this sense colours the whole word)
1.
general name for earth, water, air, and fire, which
were held in ancient and mediaeval philosophy to be
the simple substances of which all material bodies
are compounded; hence, a constituent part of a
whole, material or immaterial; pl. materials
Tp. III. iii. 61
“the e-s Of whom your
swords are temper'd,”
Ado II. i. 359
“There's little of the
melancholy in her,”
Tw.N. I. v. 296,
II. iii. 10
“Does not our life
consist of the four e-s?,”
R2 III. iii. 55, H5 III. vii. 23, H8 I. i. 48*
“no ” (=no component
part),
Troil. I. iii. 41
“the two moist
e-s,”
Cæs. V. v. 73
“the e-s So mix'd in
him,”
Ham. IV. vii. 181, Oth. II. iii. 60,
Ant. II. vii. 51
“the e-s once out of
it”
(=at its dissolution), V. ii. 291, Sonn. xlv. 5.
2.
the air, atmosphere,
or sky Tw.N. I. i. 26,
2H4 IV. iii. 58
“the cinders of the
,”
H5 IV. i. 108,
Cæs. I. iii. 128
“the complexion of the
,”
Lr. III. i. 4.
3.
pl. atmospheric
agencies or powers, sometimes= heavens
Tp. I. i. 25
“command these e-s to
silence,”
V. i. 317,
Cor. I. x. 10
“By the e-s,”
Lr. III. ii. 16, Oth. II. i. 45, Ant. III. ii. 40; (?)
the celestial spheres of ancient astronomy
Oth. III. iii. 465
“Your e-s that clip us
round about.”
4.
that one of the
‘four elements’ which is the natural
abode of a being, (hence) appropriate or natural
surroundings or sphere
Wiv. IV. ii. 190
“beyond our ,”
Tw.N. III. i. 66,
III. iv. 139
“not of your ,”
Lr. II. iv. 58,
Ant. V. ii. 90
“above The they liv'd
in.”
