1600. O. E., Repl. Libel, I. ii. 43. Let this lunaticall or extaticall frier … forbeare to bragge.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., III. xv. 320. At the solemne Feasts of Bellona those sacred seruants wounded each other in an extaticall furie.
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempl. N. T., IV. xii. (1634), 174. This was not Abrahams or Elihus ecstaticall sleepe.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxliv. 3. David’s rapture, expressed in an ecstatical question of sudden wonder.
a. 1678. Woodhead, Holy Living (1881), 186. Graces … which some saints of God enjoy in extatical … raptures.
1678. Norris, Coll. Misc. (1699), 239. Extatical Love … continually carries me out to Good without my self.
1682. News fr. France, 5. If he thinks what he sayes will be reported in the Kings hearing … he grows almost Ecstatical.
Hence Ecstatically adv., in an ecstatic manner; in a state of ecstasy. Also † Ecstaticalness, ecstatic condition.
1664. H. More, Synopsis Proph., 293. Spoken rapturously and ecstatically. Ibid. (1667), Div. Dial., ii. § 14 (1713), 131. Madness is nothing else but an Ecstaticalness of the Soul.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 63. The Dutch discoverers … made certain of the natives most ecstatically drunk.
1824–9. Landor, Imag. Conv. (1846), II. 6. I would … extatically shed the last drop of my blood for His Holiness.
1885. Spectator, 8 Aug., 1047. Blackwood … rejoices ecstatically … over the downfall of the Gladstone Government.
