file sb. (2 and 3 are not pre-Eliz.)
1.
list, roll
All'sW. IV. iii. 190
“the muster-,”
2H4 I. iii. 10,
H8 I. i. 75
“the Of all the
gentry,”
Mac. III. i. 95
“the valu'd
file.”
2.
the number of men
constituting the depth from front to rear of a
formation in line; often used loosely for ‘ranks, numbers, army’
All'sW. III. iii. 9
“Great Mars, I put
myself into thy ,”
IV. iii. 305
“the doubling of
f-s”
(=putting two files into one and so making
the ranks smaller), Cor. V. v.
[vi.] 34,
Tim. V. ii. 1
“are his f-s As full as
thy report?,”
Ant. I. i. 3, IV. i. 12.
3.
body (of persons),
properly, a small one H8 I. ii.
42,
V. iv. 60
“a of boys,”
Cor. II. i. 26
“us o' the righthand
”
(=the patricians), Cym. V. iii.
30 (‘three who are really active
practically constitute the whole troop’);
hence in phrases “the greater
,”
the majority
Meas. III. ii. 148
“The common ,”
the common herd Cor. I. vi.
43.
