Observation, 1) the act of observing, of seeing, of taking notice: “what o. madest thou in this case of his heart's meteors tilting in his face?” Err. IV, 2, 5. “how hast thou purchased this experience? By my penny of o.” LLL III, 28.
2) knowledge gained by observing, experience: “if my o. deceive me not now,” LLL II, 228. “in his brain he hath strange places crammed with o.” As II, 7, 41. “he is but a bastard to the time that doth not smack of o.” John I, 208. “all forms, all pressures past, that youth and o. copied there,” Hml. I, 5, 101. “the o. we have made of it hath not been little,” Lr. I, 1, 292. Plur. --s: “trust not my reading nor my --s, which with experimental seal doth warrant the tenour of my book,” Ado IV, 1, 167 (some M. Edd. o.).
3) remark: “that's a foolish o.” H6C II, 6, 108.
4) act of keeping, of adhering to in practice: “our o. is performed,” Mids. IV, 1, 109 (i. e. of the rites of May; cf. I, 1, 167 and IV, 1, 137). Hence adherence to truth and reality, naturalness: “with good life and o. strange my meaner ministers their several kinds have done,” Tp. III, 3, 87.
Shakespeare Lexicon. Alexander Schmidt. Berlin. Georg Reimer. 1902.
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