Long Friday, meaning of

C. Knight, in his *Pictorial Shakspeare*, explains Mrs. Quickly's phrase in *Henry the Fourth*—"'Tis a *long* loan for a poor lone woman to bear,"—by the synonym *great*: asserting that *long* is still used in the sense of great, in the north of England; and quoting the Scotch proverb, "Between you and the long day be it," where *we* talk of the *great* day of judgment. May not this be the meaning of the name *Long Friday*, which was almost invariably used by our Saxon forefathers for what we now call Good Friday? The commentators on the Prayer Book, who all confess themselves ignorant of the…