Note return to page 1 *The list of the persons being omitted in the old Editions, was added by Mr. Rowe.

Note return to page 2 The first Edition of this play is in the Folio of 1623.

Note return to page 3 1As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by Will, but a poor thousand crowns, &c.] The Grammar, as well as sense, suffers cruelly by this reading. There are two nominatives to the verb bequeathed, and not so much as one to the verb charged: and yet, to the nominative there wanted, [his blessing] refers. So that the whole sentence is confused and obscure. A very small alteration in the reading and pointing sets all right.— As I remember, Adam, it was upon this my father bequeathed me, &c. The Grammar is now rectified, and the sense also; which is this, Orlando and Adam were discoursing together on the cause why the younger brother had but a thousand crowns left him. They agree upon it; and Orlando opens the scene in this manner, As I remember, it was upon this, i. e. for the reason we have been talking of, that my father left me but a thousand crowns; however, to make amends for this scanty provision, he charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well. Warburton. There is, in my opinion, nothing but a point misplaced, and an omission of a word which every hearer can supply, and which therefore an abrupt and eager dialogue naturally excludes. I read thus: As I remember, Adam, it was on this fashion bequeathed me. By will but a poor thousand crowns; and, as thou sayst, charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well. What is there in this difficult or obscure? the nominative my father is certainly left out, but so left out that the auditor inserts it, in spite of himself.

Note return to page 4 2Stays me here at home, unkept.] We should read stys, i. e. keeps me like a brute. The following words—for call you that keeping—that differs not from the stalling of an ox, confirms this emendation. So Caliban says, And here you sty me in this hard rock. Warb. Sties is better than stays, and more likely to be Shakespeare's.

Note return to page 5 3His countenance seems to take from me.] We should certainly read his discountenance. Warburton. There is no need of change, a countenance is either good or bad.

Note return to page 6 4Be better employ'd, and be nought a while.] Mr. Theobald has here a very critical note; which, though his modesty suffered him to withdraw it from his second edition, deserves to be perpetuated, i. e. (says he) be better employed, in my opinion, in being and doing nothing. Your idleness as you call it may be an exercise, by which you may make a figure, and endear your self to the world: and I had rather you were a contemptible Cypher. The poet seems to me to have that trite proverbial sentiment in his eye quoted, from Attilius, by the younger Pliny and others; satius est otiosum esse quàm nihil agere. But Oliver in the perverseness of his disposition would reverse the doctrine of the proverb. Does the Reader know what all this means? But 'tis no matter. I will assure him—be nought a while is only a north-country proverbial curse equivalent to, a mischief on you. So the old Poet Skelton. Correct first thy selfe, walke and be nought, Deeme what thou list, thou knowest not my thought. But what the Oxford Editor could not explain, he would amend, and reads, &lblank; and do aught a while. Warburton. If be nought a while has the signification here given it, the reading may certainly stand; but till I learned its meaning from this note, I read, Be better employed, and be naught a while. In the same sense as we say, it is better to do mischief, than to do nothing.

Note return to page 7 5Albeit, I confess your coming before me is nearer to his reverence.] This is sense indeed, and may be thus understood,— The reverence due to my father is, in some degree, derived to you, as the first born—But I am persuaded that Orlando did not here mean to compliment his brother, or condemn himself; something of both which there is in that sense. I rather think he intended a satirical reflection on his brother, who by letting him feed with his hinds treated him as one not so nearly related to old Sir Robert as himself was. I imagine therefore Shakespear might write,—albeit your coming before me is nearer to his revenue, i. e. though you are no nearer in blood, yet it must be owned, indeed, you are nearer in estate. Warburton.

Note return to page 8 6I am no villain.] The word villain is used by the elder brother, in its present meaning, for a wicked or bloody man, by Orlando in its original signification for a fellow of base extraction.

Note return to page 9 7The old Duke's daughter.] The words old and new which seem necessary to the perspicuity of the dialogue, are inserted from Sir T. Hanmer's Edition.

Note return to page 10 8&lblank; mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel,] The wheel of fortune is not the wheel of a housewife, Shakespeare has confounded fortune whose wheel only figures uncertainty and vicissitude, with the destinie that spins the thread of life, though indeed not with a wheel.

Note return to page 11 9Clo. One, that old Frederick your father loves. Ros. My Father's Love is enough to honour him enough;] This Reply to the Clown is in all the Books plac'd to Rosalind; but Frederick was not her Father, but Celia's: I have therefore ventur'd to prefix the Name of Celia. There is no Countenance from any Passage in the Play, or from the Dramatis Personæ, to imagine, that Both the Brother-Dukes were Namesakes; and One call'd the Old, and the Other the Younger Frederick; and, without some such Authority, it would make Confusion to suppose it. Theobald. Mr. Theobald seems not to know that the Dramatis Personæ were first enumerated by Rowe.

Note return to page 12 1&lblank; since the little wit that fools have was silenc'd,] Shakespeare probably alludes to the use of fools or jesters, who for some ages had been allowed in all courts an unbridled liberty of censure and mockery, and about this time began to be less tolerated.

Note return to page 13 2&lblank; laid on with a trowel.] I suppose the meaning is, that there is too heavy a mass of big words laid upon a slight subject.

Note return to page 14 3You amaze me, ladies.] To amaze, here, is not to astonish or strike with wonder, but to perplex; to confuse; as, to put out of the intended narrative.

Note return to page 15 4With bills on their necks: Be it known unto all men by these presents; &lblank;] The ladies and the fool, according to the mode of wit at that time, are at a kind of cross purposes. Where the words of one speaker are wrested by another, in a repartee, to a different meaning. As where the Clown says just before—Nay, if I keep not my rank. Rosalind replies—thou losest thy old smell. So here when Rosalind had said, With bills on their necks, the Clown, to be quits with her, puts in, Know all men by these presents. She spoke of an instrument of war, and he turns it to an instrument of law of the same name, beginning with these words: So that they must be given to him. Warburton. This conjecture is ingenious. Where meaning is so very thin, as in this vein of jocularity, it is hard to catch, and therefore I know not well what to determine; but I cannot see why Rosalind should suppose, that the competitors in a wrestling match carried bills on their shoulders, and I believe the whole conceit is in the poor resemblance of presence and presents.

Note return to page 16 5&lblank; is there any else longs to see this broken musick in his sides?] A stupid error in the copies. They are talking here of some who had their ribs broke in wrestling: and the pleasantry of Rosalind's repartee must consist in the allusion she makes to composing in musick. It necessarily follows therefore, that the poet wrote—set this broken musick in his sides. Warburton. If any change were necessary I should write, feel this broken musick, for see. But see is the colloquial term for perception or experiment. So we say every day, see if the water be hot; I will see which is the best time; she has tried, and sees that she cannot lift it. In this sense see may be here used. The sufferer can, with no propriety, be said to set the musick; neither is the allusion to the act of tuning an instrument, or pricking a tune, one of which must be meant by setting musick. Rosalind hints at a whimsical similitude between the series of ribs gradually shortening, and some musical instruments, and therefore calls broken ribs, broken musick.

Note return to page 17 *Sir T. Hanmer. In the old Editions, the man.

Note return to page 18 6&lblank; If you yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your judgment,] Absurd! The sense requires that we should read, our eyes, and our judgment. The argument is, Your spirits are too bold, and therefore your judgment deceives you; but did you see and know yourself with our more impartial judgment you would forbear. Warburton. I cannot find the absurdity of the present reading. If you were not blinded and intoxicated, says the princess, with the spirit of enterprise, if you could use your own eyes to see, or your own judgment to know yourself, the fear of your adventure would counsel you.

Note return to page 19 7I beseech you, punish me not, &c. I should wish to read, I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts. Therein I confess myself much guilty to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing.

Note return to page 20 8&lblank; one out of suits with fortune,] This seems an allusion to cards, where he that has no more cards to play of any particular sort is out of suit.

Note return to page 21 9Is but a quintaine, a meer lifeless block.] A Quintaine was a Post or Butt set up for several kinds of martial exercises, against which they threw their darts and exercised their arms. The allusion is beautiful, I am, says Orlando, only a quintaine, a lifeless block on which love only exercises his arms in jest; the great disparity of condition between Rosalind and me, not suffering me to hope that love will ever make a serious matter of it. The famous satirist Regnier, who lived about the time of our author, uses the same metaphor, on the same subject, tho' the thought be different. Et qui depuis dix ans, jusqu'en ses derniers jours, A soûtenu le prix en l' escrime d' amours; Losse en fin de servir au peuple de quintaine, Elle &c. &lblank; Warburton.

Note return to page 22 1&lblank; the Duke's condition,] The word condition means character, temper, disposition. So Antonio the Merchant of Venice, is called by his friend the best conditioned man.

Note return to page 23 2&lblank; for my father's child.] The old Editions have it, for my child's father, that is, as it is explained by Mr. Theobald, for my future husband.

Note return to page 24 3&lblank; by this kind of chase,] That is, by this way of following the argument. Dear is used by Shakespeare in a double sense, for beloved, and for hurtful, hated, baleful. Both senses are authorised, and both drawn from etymology, but properly beloved is dear, and hateful is dere. Rosalind uses dearly in the good, and Celia in the bad sense.

Note return to page 25 4And thou wilt show more bright, and seem more virtuous,] This implies her to be some how remarkably defective in virtue; which was not the speaker's thought. The poet doubtless wrote, &lblank; and shine more virtuous. i. e. her virtues would appear more splendid, when the lustre of her cousin's was away. Warburton. The plain meaning of the old and true reading is, that when she was seen alone, she would be more noted.

Note return to page 26 5&lblank; Rosalind lacks then the love Which teacheth thee that thou and I are one.] The poet certainly wrote—which teacheth me. For if Rosalind had learnt to think Celia one part of herself, she could not lack that love which Celia complains she does. Warburton. Either reading may stand. The sense of the established text is not remote or obscure. Where would be the absurdity of saying, You know not the law which teaches you to do right.

Note return to page 27 6&lblank; take your change vpon you,] In all the later editions, from Mr. Rowe's to Dr. Warburton's change is altered to charge, without any reason.

Note return to page 28 7&lblank; curtle-axe, or cutlace, a broad sword.

Note return to page 29 8I'll have] Sir T. Hanmer, for we'll have.

Note return to page 30 9In former editions, Here feel we not the Penalty.] What was the Penalty of Adam, hinted at by our Poet? The being sensible of the Difference of the Seasons. The Duke says, the Cold and Effects of the Winter feelingly persuade him what he is. How does he not then feel the Penalty? Doubtless, the Text must be restor'd as I have corrected it: and 'tis obvious in the Course of these Notes, how often not and but by Mistake have chang'd Place in our Author's former Editions. Theobald.

Note return to page 31 1Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head:] It was the current opinion in Shakespeare's time, that in the head of an old toad was to be found a stone, or pearl, to which great virtues were ascribed. This stone has been often sought, but nothing has been found more than accidental or perhaps morbid indurations of the skull.

Note return to page 32 *I would not change it.] Mr. Upton, not without probability, gives these words to the duke, and makes Amiens begin, Happy is your Grace.

Note return to page 33 2&lblank; to cope him,] To encounter him; to engage with him.

Note return to page 34 3In the former editions. The bonny Priser &lblank;] We should read boney Priser. For this wrestler is characterised for his strength and bulk, not for his gayety or good-humour. Warburton. So Milton, Giants of mighty bone.

Note return to page 35 4&lblank; diverted blood.] Blood turned out of the course of nature.

Note return to page 36 5Even with the having.] Even with the promotion gained by service is service extinguished.

Note return to page 37 6O Jupiter! how merry are my Spirits?] And yet, within the Space of one intervening Line, She says, She could find in her Heart to disgrace her Man's Apparel, and cry like a Woman. Sure, this is but a very bad Symptom of the Briskness of Spirits: rather a direct Proof of the contrary Disposition. Mr. Warburton and I, concurred in conjecturing it should be, as I have reformed in the Text:—how weary are my Spirits? And the Clown's Reply makes this Reading certain. Theobald.

Note return to page 38 7I am inclined to believe that from this passage Suckling took the hint of his song.   Honest lover, whosoever,   If in all thy love there ever Were one wav'ring thought, thy flame Were not even, still the same.   Know this   Thou lov'st amiss,   And to love true Thou must begin again and love anew, &c.

Note return to page 39 8&lblank; batlet, &lblank;] The instrument with which washers beat their coarse cloaths.

Note return to page 40 *For cod it would be more like sense to read peas, which having the shape of pearls, resembled the common presents of lovers.

Note return to page 41 9&lblank; so is all nature in love mortal in folly.] This expression I do not well understand. In the middle counties, mortal, from mort a great quantity, is used as a particle of amplification; as, mortal tall, mortal little. Of this sense I believe Shakespeare takes advantage to produce one of his darling equivocations. Thus the meaning will be, so is all nature in love, abounding in folly.

Note return to page 42 1And in my voice right welcome shall ye be.] In my voice, as far as I have a voice or vote, as far as I have power to bid you welcome.

Note return to page 43 *In old editions, ragged.

Note return to page 44 *Old edition, to live.

Note return to page 45 †For ducdame Sir T. Hanmer, very acutely and judiciously, reads, duc ad me. That is, bring him to me.

Note return to page 46 2A motley fool; a miserable world!] What! because he met a motley fool, was it therefore a miserable world? This is sadly blundered; we should read, &lblank; a miserable varlet. His head is altogether running on this fool, both before and after these words, and here he calls him a miserable varlet, notwithstanding he railed on lady fortune in good terms, &c. Nor is the change we make so great as appears at first sight. Warburton. I see no need of changing fool to varlet, nor, if a change were necessary, can I guess how it should be certainly known that varlet is the true word. A miserable world is parenthetical exclamation, frequent among melancholy men, and natural to Jaques at the sight of a fool, or at the hearing of reflections on the fragility of life.

Note return to page 47 3Only suit] Suit means petition, I believe, not dress.

Note return to page 48 4He, whom a Fool doth very wisely hit, Doth very foolishly, although he smart, &lblank; Seem senseless of the bob. If not, &c.] Besides that the third Verse is defective one whole Foot in Measure, the Tenour of what Jaques continues to say, and the Reasoning of the Passage, shew it is no less defective in the Sense. There is no doubt but the two little Monosyllables, which I have supplyed, were either by Accident wanting in the Manuscript Copy, or by Inadvertence were left out. Theobald.

Note return to page 49 *If not, &c.] Unless men have the prudence not to appear touched with the sarcasms of a Jester, they subject themselves to his power, and the wise man will have his folly anatomised, that is, dissected and laid open by the squandring glances or random shots of a fool.

Note return to page 50 5As sensual as the brutish sting.] Though the brutish sting is capable of a sense not inconvenient in this passage, yet as it is a harsh and unusual mode of speech, I should read the brutish sty.

Note return to page 51 6&lblank; The thorny point Of sharp distress has ta'en from me the shew Of smooth civility.] We might read torn with more elegance, but elegance alone will not justify alteration.

Note return to page 52 7Then take upon command what help we have.] It seems necessary to read, then take upon demand what help, &c. that is, oste for what we can supply, and have it.

Note return to page 53 8Full of wise saws and modern instances.] It is remarkable that Shakespear uses modern in the double sense that the Greeks used &grk;&gra;&gria;&grn;&gro;&grst;, both for recens and absurdus. Warburton. I am in doubt whether modern is in this place used for absurd: the meaning seems to be, that the justice is full of old sayings and late examples.

Note return to page 54 9&lblank; The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon.] There is a greater beauty than appears at first sight in this image. He is here comparing human life to a stage play, of seven acts, (which was no unusual division before our author's time.) The sixth he calls the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, alluding to that general character in the Italian comedy, called Il Pantalone; who is a thin emaciated old man in slippers; and well designed, in that epithet, because Pantalone is the only character that acts in slippers. Warb.

Note return to page 55 1&lblank; Set down your venerable burthen.] Is it not likely that Shakespear had in his mind this line of the Metamorphoses? &lblank; Patremque Fert humerus, venerabile onus   Cythereius heros.

Note return to page 56 2Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen,] This song is designed to suit the Duke's exiled condition, who had been ruined by ungrateful flatterers. Now the winter wind, the song says, is to be prefer'd to man's ingratitude. But why? Because it is not seen. But this was not only an aggravation of the injury, as it was done in secret, not seen, but was the very circumstance that made the keenness of the ingratitude of his faithless courtiers. Without doubt, Shakespear, wrote the line thus, Because thou art not sheen. i. e. smiling, shining, like an ungrateful court-servant, who flatters while he wounds, which was a very good reason for giving the winter wind the preference. So in the Midsummer's Night's Dream, Spangled star light sheen. and several other places. Chaucer uses it in this sense, Your blissful luster Lucina the shene. And Fairf x, The sacred Angel took his Target shene, And by the Christian Champion stood unseen. The Oxford editor, who had this emendation communicated to him, takes occasion from thence to alter the whole line thus, Thou causest not that seen. But, in his rage of correction, he forgot to leave the reason, which is now wanting, Why the winter wind was to be preferred to man's ingratitude. Warburton. I am afraid that no reader is satisfied with Dr. Warburton's emendation, however vigorously enforced; and it is indeed enforced with more art than truth. Sheen, i. e. smiling, shining. That sheen signifies shining is easily proved, but when or where did it signify smiling? yet smiling gives the sense necessary in this place. Sir T. Hanmer's change is less uncouth, but too remote from the present text. For my part I question whether the original line is not lost, and this substituted merely to fill up the measures and the rhyme. Yet even out of this line, by strong agitation, may sense be elicited, and sense not unsuitable to the occasion. Thou winter wind, says the Duke, thy rudeness gives the less pain, as thou art not seen, as thou art an enemy that dost not brave us with thy presence, and whose unkindness is therefore not aggravated by insult.

Note return to page 57 3An absent argument.] An argument is used for the contents of a book, thence Shakespeare considered it as meaning the subject, and then used it for subject in yet another sense.

Note return to page 58 4Expediently.] That is, expeditiously.

Note return to page 59 5Thrice crowned Queen of night.] Alluding to the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some Mythologists to the same Goddess, and comprised in these memorial lines: Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana, Ima, superna, feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagittis.

Note return to page 60 6Unexpressive, for inexpressible.

Note return to page 61 7He that hath learned no wit by nature or art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of very dull kindred.] Common sense requires us to read, may complain of gross breeding. The Oxford editor has greatly improved this emendation by reading,—bad breeding. Warburton. I am in doubt whether the custom of the language in Shakespeare's time did not authorise this mode of speech, and make complain of good breeding the same with complain of the want of good breeding. In the last line of the Merchant of Venice we find that to fear the keeping is to fear the not keeping.

Note return to page 62 8Such a one is a natural philosopher.] The shepherd had said all the Philosophy he knew was the property of things, that rain wetted, fire burnt, &c. And the Clown's reply, in a satire on Physicks or Natural Philosophy, though introduced with a quibble, is extremely just. For the Natural Philosopher is indeed as ignorant (notwithstanding all his parade of knowledge) of the efficient cause of things as the Rustic. It appears, from a thousand instances, that our poet was well acquainted with the Physics of his time: and his great penetration enabled him to see this remediless defect of it. Warburton.

Note return to page 63 9Like an ill-rosted egg.] Of this jest I do not fully comprehend the meaning.

Note return to page 64 1Why, if thou never wast at Court, thou never saw'st good manners; if thou never, &c.] This reasoning is drawn up in imitation of Friar John's to Panurge in Rablais. Si tu es Coquu, ergo ta femme sera belle; ergo tu seras bien traité d'elle; ergo tu auras des Amis beaucoup; ergo tu seras sauvé. The last inference is pleasantly drawn from the popish doctrine of the intercession of Saints. And, I suppose, our jocular English proverb, concerning this matter, was founded in Friar John's logic. Warburton.

Note return to page 65 2Make incision in thee.] To make incision was a proverbial expression then in vogue for, to make to understand. So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humourous Lieutenant, &lblank; O excellent King, Thus he begins, thou life and light of creatures Angel-ey'd King, vouchsafe at length thy favour; And so proceeds to incision &lblank; i. e. to make him understand what he would be at. Warburton.

Note return to page 66 3Bawd to a Belwether.] Wether and Ram had anciently the same meaning.

Note return to page 67 4Rate to market. So Sir T. Hanmer. In the former Editions rank to market.

Note return to page 68 5That shall civil sayings shew.] Civil is here used in the same sense as when we say civil wisdom or civil life, in opposition to a solitary state, or to the state of nature. This desart shall not appear unpeopled, for every tree shall teach the maxims or incidents of social life.

Note return to page 69 6Therefore heaven nature charg'd] From the picture of Apelles, or the accomplishments of Pandora. &grP;&gra;&grn;&grd;&grwa;&grr;&grh;&grn;, &grora;&grt;&gri; &grp;&graa;&grn;&grt;&gre;&gri; &gros;&grl;&grua;&grm;&grp;&gri;&gra; &grd;&grwa;&grm;&gra;&grt;&grap; &gresa;&grx;&gro;&grn;&grt;&gre;&grst; &grD;&grwc;&grr;&gro;&grn; &gres;&grd;&grwa;&grr;&grh;&grs;&gra;&grn;. &lblank; So before, &lblank; But thou So perfect, and so peerless art counted Of ev'ry creature's best. Tempest. Perhaps from this passage Swift had his hint of Biddy Floyd.

Note return to page 70 7Atalanta's better part.] I know not well what could be the better part of Atalanta here ascribed to Rosalind. Of the Atalanta most celebrated, and who therefore must be intended here where she has no epithet of discrimination, the better part seems to have been her heels, and the worse part was so bad that Rosalind would not thank her lover for the comparison. There is a more obscure Atalanta, a Huntress and a Heroine, but of her nothing bad is recorded, and therefore I know not which was the better part. Shakespeare was no despicable Mythologist, yet he seems here to have mistaken some other character for that of Atalanta.

Note return to page 71 8Sad, is grave, sober, not light.

Note return to page 72 9The Touches.] The features; les traits.

Note return to page 73 1O most gentle jupiter!] We should read juniper, as the following words shew, alluding to the proverbial term of a Juniper lecture: A sharp or unpleasing one! Juniper being a rough prickly plant. Warburton. Surely Jupiter may stand.

Note return to page 74 2I was never so be-rhymed since Pythagoras's time, that I was an Irish rat.] Rosalind is a very learned Lady. She alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine which teaches that souls transmigrate from one animal to another, and relates that in his time she was an Irish rat, and by some metrical charm was rhymed to death. The power of killing rats with rhymes Donne mentions in his satires, and Temple in his treatises. Dr. Gray has produced a similar passage from Randolph. &lblank; My Poets Shall with a saytire steeped in vinegar Rhyme them to death, as they do rats in Ireland.

Note return to page 75 3Good my complexion!] This is a mode of expression, Mr. Theobald says, which he cannot reconcile to common sense. Like enough; and so too the Oxford Editor. But the meaning is, Hold good my complexion, i. e. let me not blush. Warburton.

Note return to page 76 4One inch of delay more is a South-sea of discovery.] This is stark nonsense; we must read— off discovery, i. e. from discovery. “If you delay me one inch of time longer, I shall think this secret as far from discovery as the South sea is.” Warburton. This sentence is rightly noted by the Commentator as nonsense, but not so happily restored to sense. I read thus: One Inch of delay more is a South-sea. Discover, I pr'ythee; tell me who is it quickly!—When the transcriber had once made discovery from discover, I, he easily put an article after South-sea. But it may be read with still less change, and with equal probability. Every Inch of delay more is a South-sea discovery: Every delay, however short, is to me tedious and irksome as the longest voyage, as a voyage of discovery on the South-sea. How much voyages to the South-sea, on which the English had then first ventured, engaged the conversation of that time, may be easily imagined.

Note return to page 77 5&lblank; Garagantua's mouth.] Rosalind requires nine questions to be answered in one word, Celia tells her that a word of such magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the giant of Rabelais.

Note return to page 78 6&lblank; I found him under a tree like a dropp'd acorn.] We should read, Under an oak tree. This appears from what follows —like a dropp'd acorn. For how did he look like a dropp'd acorn unless he was found under an oak-tree. And from Rosalind's reply, that it might well be called Jove's tree: For the Oak was sacred to Jove. Warburton.

Note return to page 79 7&lblank; but I answer you right painted cloth.] This alludes to the Fashion, in old Tapestry Hangings, of Motto's and moral Sentences from the Mouths of the Figures work'd or painted in them. The Poet again hints at this Custom in his Poem, call'd, Tarquin and Lucrece: Who fears a Sentence, or an old Man's Saw, Shall by a painted Cloth be kept in Awe. Theobald. Sir T. Hanmer reads, I answer you right, in the stile of the painted cloth. Something seems wanting, and I know not what can be proposed better.

Note return to page 80 *&lblank; inland man,] Is used in this play for one civilised, in opposition to the rustick of the priest. So Orlando before—Yet am I inland bred, and know some nurture.

Note return to page 81 8&lblank; an unquestionable spirit]. That is, a spirit not inquisitive, a mind indifferent to common objects, and negligent of common occurrences. Here Shakespeare has used a passive for an active mode of speech: so in a former scene, The Duke is too disputable for me, that is, too disputatious.6Q0046

Note return to page 82 9&lblank; to a living humour of madness;] If this be the true reading we must by living understand lasting, or permanent, but I cannot forbear to think that some antithesis was intended which is now lost; perhaps the passage stood thus, I drove my suitor from a dying humour of love to a living humour of madness. Or rather thus, from a mad humour of love to a loving humour of madness, that is, from a madness that was love, to a love that was madness. This seems somewhat harsh and strained, but such modes of speech are not unusual in our poet: and this harshness was probably the cause of the corruption.

Note return to page 83 1&lblank; it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room;] Nothing was ever wrote in higher humour than this simile. A great reckoning, in a little room, implies that the entertainment was mean, and the bill extravagant. The poet here alluded to the French proverbial phrase of the quarter of hour of Rablais: who said, there was only one quarter of hour in human life passed ill, and that was between the calling for the reckoning and paying it. Yet the delicacy of our Oxford Editor would correct this into, It strikes a man more dead than a great reeking in a little room. This is amending with a vengeance. When men are joking together in a merry humour, all are disposed to laugh. One of the company says a good thing; the jest is not taken; all are silent, and he who said it, quite confounded. This is compared to a tavern jollity interrupted by the coming in of a great reckoning. Had not Shakespeare reason now in this case to apply his simile, to his own case, against his critical editor? Who, 'tis plain, taking the phrase to strike dead in a literal sense, concluded, from his knowledge in philosophy, that it could not be so effectually done by a reckoning as by a reeking. Warburton.

Note return to page 84 *&lblank; and what they swear in poetry, &c.] This sentence seems perplexed and inconsequent, perhaps it were better read thus, What they swear as lovers they may be said to feign as poets.

Note return to page 85 2A material fool!] A fool with matter in him; a fool stocked with notions.

Note return to page 86 †By foul is meant coy or frowning. Hanmer.

Note return to page 87 3&lblank; what tho?] What then.

Note return to page 88 4Sir Oliver.] He that has taken his first degree at the University, is in the academical style called Dominus, and in common language was heretofore termed Sir. This was not always a word of contempt; the graduates assumed it in their own writings; so Trevisa the historian writes himself Syr John de Trevisa.

Note return to page 89 5Not O sweet Oliver, O brave, &c.] Some words of an old ballad. Warburton. Of this speech, as it now appears, I can make nothing, and think nothing can be made. In the same breath he calls his mistress to be married, and sends away the man that should marry them Dr. Warburton has very happily observed, that O sweet Oliver is a quotation from an old song; I believe there are two quotations put in opposition to each other. For wind I read wend, the old word for go. Perhaps the whole passage may be regulated thus, Clo. I am not in the mind, but it were better for me to be married of him than of another, for he is not like to marry me well, and not being well married it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife—Come, sweet Audrey, we must be married, or we must live in bawdry. Jaq. Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. [they whisper. Clo. Farewel, good Sir Oliver, not O sweet Oliver, O brave Oliver, leave me not behind thee, —but   Wend away,   Begone, I say, I will not to wedding with thee to-day. Of this conjecture the reader may take as much as shall appear necessary to the sense, or conducive to the humour.

Note return to page 90 6There is much of nature in this petty perverseness of Rosalind; she finds faults in her lover, in hope to be contradicted, and when Celia in sportive malice too readily seconds her accusations, she contradicts herself, rather than suffer her favourite to want a vindication.

Note return to page 91 7&lblank; as the touch of holy bread.] We should read beard, that is, as the kiss of an holy saint or hermit, called the kiss of charity: This makes the comparison just and decent; the other impious and absurd. Warburton.

Note return to page 92 8&lblank; a nun of Winter's sisterhood] This is finely expressed. But Mr. Theobald says, the words give him no ideas. And 'tis certain, that words will never give men what nature has denied them. However, to mend the matter, he substitutes Winifred's sisterhood. And, after so happy a thought, it was to no purpose to tell him there was no religious order of that denomination. The plain truth is, Shakespeare meant an unfruitful sisterhood, which had devoted itself to chastity. For as those who were of the sisterhood of the spring were the votaries of Venus; those of summer, the votaries of Ceres; those of autumn, of Pomona; so these of the sisterhood of winter were the votaries of Diana: Called, of winter, because that quarter is not, like the other three, productive of fruit or increase. On this account, it is, that, when the poet speaks, of what is most poor, he instances in winter, in these fine lines of Othello, But riches endless is as poor as winter To him that ever fears he shall be poor. The other property of winter that made him term them of its sisterhood is its coldness. So in Midsummer Night's Dream, To be a barren sister all your life, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. Warburton.

Note return to page 93 9&lblank; as concave as a cover'd goblet,] Why a cover'd? Because a goblet is never kept cover'd but when empty. Shakespeare never throws out his expressions at random. Warburton.

Note return to page 94 1&lblank; quite travers, athwart, &c.] An unexperienced lover is here compared to a puny Tilter, to whom it was a disgrace to have his Lance broken across, as it was a mark either of want of Courage or Address. This happen'd when the horse flew on one side, in the carrier: And hence, I suppose, arose the jocular proverbial phrase of spurring the horse only on one side. Now as breaking the Lance against his Adversary's breast, in a direct line, was honourable, so the breaking it across against his breast was, for the reason above, dishonourable: Hence it is, that Sidney, in his Arcadia, speaking of the mockcombat of Clinias and Dametas says, The wind took such hold of his Staff that it crost quite over his breast &c.—And to break across was the usual phrase, as appears from some wretched verses of the same author, speaking of an unskilful Tilter, Methought some Staves he mist: if so, not much amiss: For when he most did hit, he ever yet did miss. One said he brake across, full well it so might be &c. This is the allusion. So that Orlando, a young Gallant, affecting the fashion (for brave is here used, as in other places, for fashionable) is represented either unskilful in courtship, or timorous. The Lover's meeting or appointment corresponds to the Tilter's Carreer: And as the one breaks Staves, the other breaks Oaths. The business is only meeting fairly, and doing both with Address: And 'tis for the want of this, that Orlando is blamed. Warburton.

Note return to page 95 2&lblank; will you sterner be, Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?] This is spoken of the executioner. He lives indeed, by bloody Drops, if you will: but how does he die by bloody Drops? The poet must certainly have wrote—that deals and lives, &c. i. e. that gets his bread by, and makes a trade of cutting off heads: But the Oxford Editor makes it plainer. He reads. Than he that lives and thrives by bloody drops. Warburton. Either Dr. Warburton's emendation, except that the word deals wants its proper construction, or that of Sir T. Hanmer may serve the purpose; but I believe they have fixed corruption upon the wrong word, and should rather read, Than he that dies his lips by bloody drops? Will you speak with more sternness than the executioner, whose lips are used to be sprinkled with blood? The mention of drops implies some part that must be sprinkled rather than dipped.

Note return to page 96 3The cicatrice and capable impressure] Cicatrice is here not very properly used; it is the scar of a wound. Capable impressure arrows mark.6Q0047

Note return to page 97 4&lblank; power of fancy,] Fancy is here used for love, as before in Midsummer Night's Dream.

Note return to page 98 5&lblank; Who might be your mother,] It is common for the poets to express cruelty by saying, of those who commit it, that they were born of rocks, or suckled by tigresses.

Note return to page 99 6That you insult, exult, and all at once] If the Speaker intended to accuse the person spoken to only for insulting and exsulting; then, instead of—all at once, it ought to have been, both at once. But by examining the crime of the person accused, we shall discover that the line is to be read thus, That you insult, exult, and rail, at once. For these three things Phebe was guilty of. But the Oxford Editor improves it, and, for rail at once, reads domineer. Warb.

Note return to page 100 7&lblank; what though you have no beauty,] Tho' all the printed Copies agree in this Reading, it is very accurately observed to me by an ingenious unknown Correspondent, who signs himself L. H. (and to Whom I can only here make my Acknowledgements) that the Negative ought to be left out. Theobald.

Note return to page 101 8Of nature's sale-work:] i. e. those works that nature makes up carelesly and without exactness. The allusion is to the practice of Mechanicks, whose work bespoke is more elaborate, than that which is made up for chance-customers, or to sell in quantities to retailers, which is called sale-work. Warburton.

Note return to page 102 9That can entame my spirits to your worship.] I should rather think that Shakespeare wrote entraine, draw, allure. Warb. The common reading seems unexceptionable.

Note return to page 103 1Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer:] The only sense of this is, An ill-favoured person is most ill-favoured, when if he be ill-favoured, he is a scoffer. Which is a deal too absurd to come from Shakespeare; who, without question, wrote, Foul is most foul, being found to be a Scoffer: i. e. where an ill-favour'd person ridicules the defects of others, it makes his own appear excessive. Warburton. The sense of the received reading is not fairly represented, it is, The ugly seem most ugly when, though ugly, they are scoffers.

Note return to page 104 2&lblank; with her foulness,] So Sir T. Hanmer, the other editions, your foulness.

Note return to page 105 3&lblank; Though all the world could see, None could be so abus'd in sight as he] Though all mankind could look on you, none could be so deceived as to think you beautiful but he.

Note return to page 106 4&lblank; swam in a Gondola.] That is, been at Venice, the seat at that time of all licentiousness, where the young English gentlemen wasted their fortunes, debased their morals, and sometimes lost their religion. The fashion of travelling which prevailed very much in our author's time, was considered by the wiser men as one of the principal causes of corrupt manners. It was therefore gravely censured by Ascham in his Schoolmaster, and by Bishop Hall in his Quo Vadis, and is here, and in other passages ridiculed by Shakespeare.

Note return to page 107 5&lblank; chroniclers of that age.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, coroners, by the advice, as Dr. Warburton hints, of some anonymous critick.

Note return to page 108 6&lblank; and when you are inclin'd to sleep.] We should read, to weep. Warburton. I know not why we should read to weep. I believe most men would be more angry to have their sleep hindred than their grief interrupted.

Note return to page 109 7&lblank; Wit, whither wilt?] This must be some allusion to a story well known at that time, though now perhaps irretrievable.

Note return to page 110 8make her fault her husband's occasion,] That is, represent her fault as occasioned by her husband. Sir T. Hanmer reads, her husband's accusation.

Note return to page 111 9&lblank; I will think you the most pathetical break-promise.] There is neither sense nor humour in this expression. We should certainly read,—atheistical break-promise. His answer confirms it, that he would keep his promise with no less Religion, than &lblank;. Warburton. I do not see but that pathetical may stand, which seems to afford as much sense and as much humour as atheistical.

Note return to page 112 3In former Editions: Then sing him home, the rest shall bear this burden.] This is no admirable Instance of the sagacity of our preceding Editors, to say nothing worse. One should expect, when they were Poets, they would at least have taken care of the Rhimes, and not foisted in what has nothing to answer it. Now, where is the Rhime to, the rest shall bear this Burden? Or, to ask another Question, where is the Sense of it? Does the Poet mean, that He, that kill'd the Deer, shall be sung home, and the rest shall bear the Deer on their Backs? This is laying a Burden on the Poet, that We must help him to throw off. In short, the Mystery of the Whole is, that a Marginal Note is wisely thrust into the Text: the Song being design'd to be sung by a single Voice, and the Stanza's to close with a Burden to be sung by the whole Company. Theobald. This note I have given as a specimen of Mr. Theobald's jocularity, and of the eloquence with which he recommends his emendations.

Note return to page 113 4The foregoing noisy scene was introduced only to fill up an interval, which is to represent two hours. This contraction of the time we might impute to poor Rosalind's impatience, but that a few minutes after we find Orlando sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of the acts this absurdity can be obviated.

Note return to page 114 *Vengeance is used for a mischief.

Note return to page 115 5Youth and Kind.] Kind is the old word for nature.

Note return to page 116 *We must read, within two hours.

Note return to page 117 *Cousin, Ganymed.] Celia in her first fright forgets Rosalind's character and disguise, and calls out Cousin, then recollects herself and says Ganymede.

Note return to page 118 6The heathen philosopher, when be desired to eat a grape, &c.] This was designed as a sneer on the several trifling and insignificant sayings and actions, recorded of the ancient philosophers, by the writers of their lives, such as Diogenes Laertius, Philostratus, Eunapius, &c. as appears from its being introduced by one of their wise sayings. Warburton.

Note return to page 119 7I will deal in poison with thee, or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy with thee in faction, &c.] All this seems to be an allusion to Sir Thomas Overbury's affair. Warburton.6Q0048

Note return to page 120 8And you, fair sister.] I know not why Oliver should call Rosalind sister. He takes her yet to be a man. I suppose we should read, and you, and your fair sister.6Q0049

Note return to page 121 9Clubs cannot part them.] Alluding to the way of parting dogs in wrath.

Note return to page 122 1Human as she is.] That is, not a phantom, but the real Rosalind, without any of the danger generally conceived to attend the rites of incantation.

Note return to page 123 2Which I tender dearly, tho' I say, I am a magician:] Hence it appears this was written in James's time, when there was a severe inquisition after witches and magicians. Warburton.

Note return to page 124 3The stanzas of this song are in all the editions evidently transposed: as I have regulated them, that which in the former copies was the 2d stanza is now the last.6Q0050

Note return to page 125 4Truly, young Gentleman, tho' there was no great Matter in the Ditty, yet the Note was very untunable.] Tho' it is thus in all the pritned Copies, it is evident from the Sequel of the Dialogue, that the Poet wrote as I have reform'd in the Text, untimeable.— Time, and Tune, are frequently misprinted for one another in the old Editions of Shakespeare. Theobald. This emendation is received, I think very undeservedly, by Dr. Warburton.

Note return to page 126 5As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.] This strange nonsense should be read thus, As those that fear their hap, and know their fear. i. e. As those who fear the issue of a thing when they know their fear to be well grounded. Warburton. The depravation of this line is evident, but I do not think the learned Commentator's emendation very happy. I read thus, As those that fear with hope, and hope with fear. Or thus, with less alteration, As those that fear, they hope, and now they fear.

Note return to page 127 6Here come a pair of very strange beasts, &c.] What! strange beasts? and yet such as have a name in all languages? Noah's Ark is here alluded to; into which the clean beasts entered by sevens, and the unclean by two, male and female. It is plain then that Shakespear wrote, here come a pair of unclean beasts, which is highly humourous. Warburton. Strange beasts are only what we call odd animals. There is no need of any alteration.

Note return to page 128 7We found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause.] So all the copies; but it is apparent from the sequel that we must read, the quarrel was not upon the seventh cause.

Note return to page 129 8&lblank; I desire you of the like.] We should read, I desire of you the like. On the Duke's saying, I like him very well, he replies, I desire you will give me cause that I may like you too. Warb.

Note return to page 130 9According as marriage birds, and blood breaks.] The construction is, to swear as marriage binds. Which I think is not English. I suspect Shakespear wrote it thus, to swear and to forswear, according as marriage bids, and blood bids break. Warburton. I cannot discover what has here puzzled the Commentator: to swear according as marriage binds, is to take the oath enjoin'd in the ceremonial of marriage.

Note return to page 131 *Dulcet diseases.] This I do not understand. For diseases it is easy to read discourses: but, perhaps the fault may lie deeper.

Note return to page 132 1As thus, Sir; I did dislike the cut of a courtier's beard;] This folly is touched upon with high humour by Fletcher in his Queen of Corinth.   &lblank; Has he familiarly Dislik'd your yellow starch, or said your doublet Was not exactly frenchified?—or drawn your sword, Cry'd 'twas ill mounted? Has be given the lye In circle or oblique or semi-circle Or direct parallel; you must challenge him. Warb.

Note return to page 133 2O Sir, we quarrel in print, by the book;] The Poet has, in this scene, rallied the mode of formal duelling, then so prevalent, with the highest humour and address; nor could he have treated it with a happier contempt, than by making his Clown so knowing in the forms and preliminaries of it. The particular book here alluded to is a very ridiculous treatise of one Vincentio Saviolo, intitled, Of honour and honourable quarrels, in Quarto, printed by Wolf, 1594. The first part of this tract he intitles, A discourse most necessary for all gentlemen that have in regard their honors, touching the giving and receiving the lye, whereupon the Duello and the Combat in divers forms doth ensue; and many other inconveniences, for lack only of true knowledge of honor, and the right understanding of words, which here is set down. The contents of the several chapters are as follow. I. What the reason is that the party unto whom the lye is given ought to become challenger, and of the nature of lies. II. Of the manner and diversity of lies. III. Of the lye certain, or direct. IV. Of conditional lies, or the lye circumstantial. V. Of the lye in general. VI. Of the lye in particular. VII. Of foolish lies. VIII. A conclusion touching the wresting or returning back of the lye, or the countercheck quarrelsome. In the chapter of conditional lies speaking of the particle if, he says—Conditional lies be such as are given conditionally thus—if thou hast said so or so, then thou liest. Of these kind of lies, given in this manner, often arise much contention, whereof no sure conclusion can arise By which he means, they cannot proceed to cut one another's throats, while there is an if between. Which is the reason of Shakespear's making the Clown say, I knew when seven justices could not make up a quarrel: but when the parties were met themselves, one of them thought but of an if, as if you said so, then I said so, and they shook hands, and swore brothers. Your if is the only peace-maker; much virtue in if. Caranza was another of these authentick Authors upon the Duello. Fletcher in his last Act of Love's Pilgrimage ridicules him with much humour. Warburton.

Note return to page 134 3Enter Hymen.] Rosalind is imagined by the rest of the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced by a supposed aerial being in the character of Hymen.

Note return to page 135 *If there be truth in sight.] The answer of Phebe makes it probable that Orlando says, if there be truth in shape: that is, if a form may be trusted; if one cannot usurp the form of another.

Note return to page 136 4If truth holds true contents.] That is, if there be truth in truth, unless truth fails of veracity.

Note return to page 137 5&lblank; What a case am I in then, &c.] Here seems to be a chasm, or some other depravation, which destroys the sentiment here intended. The reasoning probably stood thus, Good wine needs no bush, good plays need no epilogue, but bad wine requires a good bush, and a bad play a good Epilogue. What case am I in then? To restore the words is impossible; all that can be done without copies is, to note the fault.

Note return to page 138 6&lblank; furnish'd like a beggar;] That is, dressed: so before, he was furnished like a huntsman.

Note return to page 139 7&lblank; I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as pleases you: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women,— that between you and the women, &c.] This passage should be read thus, I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as pleases them: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women,—to like as much as pleases them, that between you and the women, &c. Without the alteration of You into Them the invocation is nonsense; and without the addition of the words, to like as much as pleases them, the inference of, that between you and the women the play may pass, would be unsupported by any precedent premises. The words seem to have been struck out by some senseless Player, as a vicious redundancy. Warburton. The words you and ym written as was the custom in that time, were in manuscript scarcely distinguishable. The emendation is very judicious and probable.

Note return to page 140 8&lblank; If I were a woman,] Note that in this authour's time the parts of women were always performed by men or boys. Hanmer.

Note return to page 141 9Of this play the fable is wild and pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship. The character of Jaques is natural and well preserved. The comick dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant and harmonious. By hastening to the end of his work Shakespeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson in which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers.

Note return to page 142 This enumeration of the persons was made by Mr. Rowe. Of this Play there is an edition in 4to 1598, by W. W. for Cuthbert Burby, which I have not seen.

Note return to page 143 1With all these living in philosophy.] The stile of the rhyming scenes in this play is often entangled and obscure. I know not certainly to what all these is to be referred; I suppose he means that he finds love, pomp, and wealth in philosophy.

Note return to page 144 2The copies all have, When I to fast expresly am forbid.] But if Biron studied where to get a good Dinner, at a time when he was forbid to fast, how was This studying to know what he was forbid to know? Common Sense, and the whole Tenour of the Context require us to read, feast, or to make a Change in the last Word of the Verse. When I to fast expresly am forebid; i. e. when I am enjoin'd beforehand to fast. Theobald.

Note return to page 145 3&lblank; while truth the while Doth falsly blind &lblank;] Falsly is here, and in many other places, the same as dishonestly or treacherously. The whole sense of this gingling declamation is only this, that a man by too close study may read himself blind, which might have been told with less obscurity in fewer words.

Note return to page 146 4Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed, And give him light, that it was blinded by] This is another passage unnecessarily obscure: the meaning is, that when he dazzles, that is, has his eye made weak, by fixing his eye upon a fairer eye, that fairer eye shall be his heed, his direction or lodestar, (see Midsummer Night's Dream) and give him light that was blinded by it.

Note return to page 147 5Too much to know, is to know nought but fame; And every Godfather can give a name.] The first line in this reading is absurd and impertinent. There are two ways of setting it right. The first is to read it thus, Too much to know, is to know naught but shame; This makes a fine sense, and alludes to Adam's Fall, which came from the inordinate passion of knowing too much. The other way is to read, and point it thus, Too much to know, is to know nought: but feign, i. e. to feign. As much as to say, the affecting to know too much is the way to know nothing. The sense, in both these readings, is equally good: But with this difference; If we read the first way, the following line is impertinent; and to save the correction we must judge it spurious. If we read it the second way, then the following line compleats the sense. Consequently the correction of feign is to be preferred. To know too much (says the speaker) is to know nothing; it is only feigning to know what we do not: giving names for things without knowing their natures; which is false knowledge: And this was the peculiar defect of the Peripatetic Philosophy then in vogue. These philosophers, the poet, with the highest humour and good sense, calls the Godfathers of Nature, who could only give things a name, but had no manner of acquaintance with their essences. Warburton. That there are two ways of setting a passage right gives reason to suspect that there may be a third way better than either. The first of these emendations makes a fine sense, but will not unite with the next line; the other makes a sense less fine, and yet will not rhyme to the correspondent word. I cannot see why the passage may not stand without disturbance. The consequence, says Biron, of too much knowledge, is not any real solution of doubts, but mere empty reputation.6Q0051

Note return to page 148 6Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding.] To proceed is an academical term, meaning, to take a degree, as he proceeded bachelor in physick. The sense is, he has taken his degrees on the art of hindring the degrees of others.

Note return to page 149 7Why should I joy in an abortive Birth? At Christmas I no more desire a Rose, Than wish a Snow in May's new-fangled Shows: But like of each Thing, that in Season grows.] As the greatest part of this Scene (both what precedes and follows;) is strictly in Rhimes, either successive, alternate, or triple; I am persuaded, the Copyists have made a slip here. For by making a Triplet of the three last Lines quoted, Birth in the Close of the first Line is quite destitute of any Rhyme to it. Besides, what a displeasing Identity of Sound recurs in the Middle and Close of this Verse? Than wish a Snow in May's new-fangled Shows: Again; new-fangled Shows seems to have very little Propriety. The Flowers are not new-fangled; but the earth is new-fangled by the Profusion and Variety of the Flowers, that spring on its Bosom in May, I have therefore ventured to substitute, Earth, in the Close of the 3d Line, which restores the alternate Measure. It was very easy for a negligent Transcriber to be deceived by the Rhime immediately preceding; so mistake the concluding Word in the sequent Line, and corrupt it into one that would chime with the other. Theobald.

Note return to page 150 8A dangerous Law against Gentility!] I have ventured to prefix the Name of Biron to this Line, it being evident, for two Reasons, that it, by some Accident or other, slipt out of the printed Books. In the first place, Longueville confesses, he had devis'd the Penalty: and why he should immediately arraign it as a dangerous Law, seems to be very inconsistent. In the next place, it is much more natural for Biron to make this Reflexion, who is cavilling at every thing; and then for him to pursue his reading over the remaining Articles. —As to the Word Gentility, here, it does not signify that Rank of People called, Gentry; but what the French express by, gentilesse, i. e. elegantia urbanitas. And then the Meaning is this. Such a law for banishing Women from the Court, is dangerous, or injurious, to Politeness, Urbanity, and the more refined Pleasures of Life. For Men without Women would turn brutal, and savage, in their Natures and Behaviour. Theobald.

Note return to page 151 9Not by might master'd, but by special grace.] Biron amidst his extravagancies, speaks with great justness against the folly of vows. They are made without sufficient regard to the variations of life, and are therefore broken by some unforeseen necessity. They proceed commonly from a presumptuous confidence, and a false estimate of human power.

Note return to page 152 1Suggestions] Temptations.

Note return to page 153 2&lblank; quick recreation] Lively sport, spritely, diversion.

Note return to page 154 3A man of complements, whom right and wrong Have chose as umpire of their mutiny] As very bad a Play as this is, it was certainly Shakespeare's, as appears by many fine master-strokes scattered up and down. An excessive complaisance is here admirably painted, in the person of one who was willing to make even right and wrong friends: and to persuade the one to recede from the accustomed stubbornness of her nature. and wink at the liberties of her opposite, rather than he would incur the imputation of ill-breeding in keeping up the quarrel. And as our author, and Johnson his contemporary, are, confessedly, the two greatest writers in the Drama that our nation could ever boast of, this may be no improper occasion to take notice of one material difference between Shakespeare's worst plays, and the other's. Our author owed all to his prodigious natural genius; and Johnson most to his acquired parts and learning. This, if attended to, will explain the difference we speak of. Which is this, that, in Johnson's bad pieces, we do not discover the least traces of the author of the Fox and Alchemist; but, in the wildest and most extravagant notes of Shakespeare, you every now and then encounter strains that recognize their divine composer. And the reason is this, that Johnson owing his chief excellence to art, by which he sometimes strain'd himself to an uncommon pitch, when he unbent himself, had nothing to support him, but fell below all likeness of himself: while Shakespeare, indebted more largely to nature than the other to his acquired talents, could never, in his most negligent hours, so totally divest himself of his Genius but that it would frequently break out with amazing force and splendour. Warburton. This passage I believe means no more than that Don Armado was a man nicely versed in ceremonial distinctions, one who could distinguish in the most delicate questions of honour the exact boundaries of right and wrong. Compliment, in Shakespeare's time, did not signify, at least did not only signify verbal civility, or phrases of courtesy, but according to its original meaning, the trappings, or ornamental appendages of a character, in the same manner, and on the same principles, of speech with accomplishment. Compliment is, as Armado well expresses it, the varnish of a complete man.

Note return to page 155 4From tawny Spain, &c.] i. e. he shall relate to us the celebrated stories recorded in the old romances, and in their very stile. Why he says from tawny Spain is, because these romances being of Spanish original, the Heroes and the Scene were generally of that country. Why he says, lost in the world's debate is, because the subject of those romances were the crusades of the European Christians against the Saracens of Asia and Africa. So that we see here is meaning in the words. Warburton.

Note return to page 156 5&lblank; in the world's debate.] The world seems to be used in the monastick sense by the king now devoted for a time to a monastick life. In the world, in seculo, in the bustle of human affairs, from which we are now happily sequestred, in the world, to which the votaries of solitude have no relation.

Note return to page 157 6In former editions; Dull. Which is the Duke's own Person?] The King of Navarre is in several Passages, thro' all the Copies, called the Duke: but as this must have sprung rather from the Inadvertence of the Editors, than a Forgetfulness in the Poet, I have every where, to avoid Confusion, restored King to the Text. Theobald.

Note return to page 158 7In old editions, A high hope for a low heaven;] A low heaven, sure, is a very intricate Matter to conceive. I dare warrant, I have retrieved the Poet's true Reading; and the Meaning is this. “Tho' you hope for high Words, and should have them, it will be but a low Acquisition at best.” This our Poet calls a low Having: and it is a Substantive, which he uses in several other Passages. Theobald.

Note return to page 159 8&lblank; taken with the manner.] The following question arising from these words shews we should read—taken in the manner. And this was the phrase in use to signify, taken in the fact. So Dr. Donne in his letters, But if I melt into melancholy while I write, I shall be taken in the manner; and I sit by one, too tender to these impressions. Warburton.

Note return to page 160 9&lblank; base minow of thy mirth,] A minow is a little fish which cannot be intended here. We may read, the base minion of thy mirth.

Note return to page 161 1&lblank; dear imp.] Imp was anciently a term of dignity. Lord Cromwel in his last letter to Henry VIII. prays for the imp his son. It is now used only in contempt or abhorrence; perhaps in our authour's time it was ambiguous, in which state it suits well with this dialogue.

Note return to page 162 2&lblank; crosses love not him.] By crosses he means money. So in As you like it, the Clown says to Celia, if I should bear you I should bear no cross.

Note return to page 163 3Maid. Fair Weather after you. Come, Jaquenetta, away.] Thus all the printed Copies: but the Editors have been guilty of much Inadvertence. They make Jaquenetta, and a Maid enter; whereas Jaquenetta is the only Maid intended by the Poet, and is committed to the Custody of Dull, to be conveyed by him to the Lodge in the Park. This being the Case, it is evident to Demonstration, that—Fair Weather after you—must be spoken by Jaquenetta; and then that Dull says to her, Come Jaquenetta, away, as I have regulated the Text. Theobald. Mr. Theobald has endeavoured here to dignify his own industry by a very slight performance. The folios all read as he reads, except that instead of naming the persons they give their characters, enter Clown, Constable, and wench.

Note return to page 164 4It is not for prisoners to be silent in their words.] I suppose we should read, it is not for prisoners to be silent in their wards, that is, in custody, in the holds.

Note return to page 165 5The first and second cause will not serve my turn.] See the last act of As you like it with the notes.

Note return to page 166 *Chatman he seems to signify the seller, not, as now commonly, the buyer. Cheap or cheping was anciently Market, Chapman therefore is Marketman. The meaning is, that the estimation of beauty depends not on the uttering or proclamation of the seller, but on the eye of the buyer.6Q0054

Note return to page 167 *Well fitted, is well qualified.

Note return to page 168 †Match'd with, is combined or joined with.

Note return to page 169 *Sir T. Hanmer reads not sin to break it. I believe erroneously. The Princess shews an inconvenience very frequently attending rash oaths, which whether kept or broken produce guilt.

Note return to page 170 6The former editions read, &lblank; And not demands One payment of an hundred thousand Crowns, To have his Title live in Aquitaine.] I have restored, I believe, the genuine Sense of the Passage. Aquitain was pledg'd, it seems, to Navarre's father, for 200000 Crowns. The French King pretends to have paid one Moiety of this Debt, (which Navarre knows nothing of,) but demands this Moiety back again: instead whereof (says Navarre) he should rather pay the remaining Moiety and demand to have Aquitain re-deliver'd up to him. This is plain and easy Reasoning upon the Fact suppos'd; and Navarre declares, he had rather receive the Residue of his Debt, than detain the Province mortgag'd for Security of it. Theob.

Note return to page 171 *That is, mayst thou have sense and seriousness more proportionate to thy beard, the length of which suits ill with such idle catches of wit.

Note return to page 172 7My lips are not common though several they are.] Several is an inclosed field of a private proprietor, so Maria says, her lips are private property. Of a Lord that was newly married one observed that he grew fat; yes, said Sir Walter Raleigh, any beast will grow fat, if you take him from the common and graze him in the several.

Note return to page 173 8His tongue all impatient to speak and not see.] That is, his tongue being impatiently desirous to see as well as speak.

Note return to page 174 *To feel only looking.] Perhaps we may better read, to feed only by looking.

Note return to page 175 9Boyet. You are too hard for me.] Here, in all the Books, the 2d Act is made to end: but in my Opinion very mistakenly. I have ventur'd to vary the Regulation of the four last Acts from the printed Copies, for these Reasons. Hitherto, the 2d Act has been of the Extent of 7 Pages; the third but of 5; and the 5th of no less than 29. And this Disproportion of Length has crouded too many Incidents into some Acts, and left the others quite barren. I have now reduced them into a much better Equality; and distributed the Business likewise, (such as it is,) into a more uniform Cast. Theobald. Mr. Theobald has reason enough to propose this alteration, but he should not have made it in his book without better authority or more need. I have therefore preserved his observation, but continued the former division.

Note return to page 176 1Enter Armado and Moth.] In the folios the direction is, enter Braggart and Moth, and at the beginning of every speech of Armado stands Brag. both in this and the foregoing scene between him and his boy. The other personages of this play are likewise noted by their characters as often as by their names. All this confusion has been well regulated by the later Editors.

Note return to page 177 *Here is apparently a song lost.

Note return to page 178 2Canary was the name of a spritely nimble dance. Theob.

Note return to page 179 *Dr. Warburton has here changed compliments to 'complishments for accomplishments, but unnecessarily.

Note return to page 180 3The former Editors: &lblank; these betray nice Wenches, that would be betray'd without these, and make them Men of Note.] But who will ever believe, that the odd Attitudes and Affectations of Lovers, by which they betray young Wenches, should have power to make those young Wenches Men of Note? His Meaning is, that they not only inveigle the young Girls, but make the Men taken notice of too, who affect them. Theobald.

Note return to page 181 4Arm. But O, but O— Moth. The Hobby-horse is forgot.] In the celebration of May-day, besides the sports now used of hanging a pole with garlands, and dancing round it, formerly a boy was drest up representing Maid Marian; another, like a Fryar; and another rode on a Hobby-horse, with bells jingling, and painted streamers. After the reformation took place, and Precisian's multiplied, these latter rites were look'd upon to savour of paganism; and then maid Marian, the fryar, and the poor Hobby-horse, were turn'd out of the games. Some who were not so wisely precise, but regretted the disuse of the Hobby-horse, no doubt, satiriz'd this suspicion of idolatry, and archly wrote the epitaph above alluded to. Now Moth, hearing Armado groan ridiculously, and cry out, But oh! but oh!—humourously pieces out his exclamation with the sequel of this epitaph. Theobald.

Note return to page 182 *Colt is a hot mad-brained unbroken young fellow, or sometimes an old fellow with youthful desires.

Note return to page 183 5You are too swift, Sir, to say so.] How is he too swift for saying that lead is slow? I fancy we should read, as well to supply the rhyme as the sense, You are too swift, Sir, to say so, so soon Is that lead slow, Sir, which is fir'd from a gun?

Note return to page 184 6By thy favour, sweet welkin] Welkin is the sky, to which Armado, with the false dignity of a Spaniard, makes an apology for sighing in its face.

Note return to page 185 7No salve in the male, Sir.] The old folio reads, no salve in thee male, Sir, which in another folio, is no salve, in the male, Sir. What it can mean is not easily discovered: if mail for a packet or bag was a word then in use, no salve in the mail may mean no salve in the mountebank's budget. Or shall we read, no egma, no riddle, no l'envoy—in the vale, Sir—O, Sir, plantain. The matter is not great, but one would wish for some meaning or other.

Note return to page 186 *Costard is the name of a species of apple.

Note return to page 187 8Like the sequel, I.] Sequele, in French, signifies a great man's train. The joke is that a single page was all his train. Warburton.

Note return to page 188 9My in-cony jew!] Incony or kony in the north signifies, fine, delicate—as a kony thing, a fine thing. It is plain therefore, we should read, my in-cony jewel. Warburton. Cony has the signification here given it, but incony I never heard nor read elsewhere. I know not whether it be right, however specious, to change Jew to jewel. Jew, in our author's time, was, for whatever reason, apparently a word of endearment. So in Midsummer Night's Dream, Most tender Juvenile, and the most lovely Jew.

Note return to page 189 1No, I'll give you a remuneration: Why? It carries its remuneration. Why? It is a fairer name than a French crown.] Thus this passage has hitherto been writ, and pointed, without any regard to common sense, or meaning. The reform, that I have made, slight as it is, makes it both intelligible and humourous. Theobald.

Note return to page 190 2This Signior Junio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid.] It was some time ago ingeniously hinted to me, (and I readily came into the Opinion;) that as there was a Contrast of Terms in giant-dwarf, so, probably, there should be in the Word immediately preceding them; and therefore that we should restore, This Senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid. i. e. this old, young Man. And there is, indeed, afterwards in this play, a Description of Cupid, which sorts very aptly with such an Emendation. That was the way to make his Godhead wax, For he hath been five thousand years a Boy. The Conjecture is exquisitely well imagined, and ought by all means to be embrac'd, unless there is reason to think, that, in the former Reading, there is an Allusion to some Tale, or Character in an old Play. I have not, on this Account, ventured to disturb the Text, because there seems to me some reason to suspect, that our Author is here alluding to Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca. In that Tragedy there is the Character of one Junius, a Roman Captain, who falls in Love to Distraction with one of Bonduca's Daughters; and becomes an arrant whining Slave to this Passion. He is afterwards cured of his Infirmity, and is as absolute a Tyrant against the Sex. Now, with regard to these two Extremes, Cupid might very probably be stiled Junius's giant-dwarf: a Giant in his Eye, while the Dotage was upon him; but shrunk into a Dwarf, so soon as he had got the better of it. Theobald. Mr. Upton has made a very ingenious conjecture on this passage. He reads, This Signior Julio's Giant-dwarf. Shakespeare, says he, intended to compliment Julio Romano, who drew Cupid in the character of a Giant-dwarf. Dr. Warburton thinks, that by Junio is meant youth in general.

Note return to page 191 *An apparitor, or paritor, is the officer of the bishop's court who carries out citations; as citations are most frequently issued for fornication, the paritor is put under Cupid's government.

Note return to page 192 3In former Editions, And I to be a Corporal of his Field, And wear his Colours like a Tumbler's hoop! A Corporal of a Field is quite a new Term: neither did the Tumblers ever adorn their Hoops with Ribbands, that I can learn: for Those were not carried in Parade about with them, as the Fencer carries his Sword: Nor, if they were, is the Similitude at all pertinent to the Case in hand. I read, like a tumbler stoop. To stoop like a Tumbler agrees not only with that Profession, and the servile Condescensions of a Lover, but with what follows in the Context. The wise Transcribers, when once the Tumbler appear'd, thought his Hoop must not be far behind. Warburton. The conceit seems to be very forced and remote, however it be understood. The notion is not that the hoop wears colours, but that the colours are worn as a tumbler carries his hoop, hanging on one shoulder and falling under the opposite arm.

Note return to page 193 *To this line Mr. Theobald extends his second act, not injudiciously, but, as was before observed, without sufficient authority.

Note return to page 194 4Here—good my glass—] To understand how the princess has her glass so ready at hand in a casual conversation, it must be remembered that in those days it was the fashion among the French ladies to wear a looking glass, as Mr. Bayle coarsely represents it, on their bellies; that is, to have a small mirrour set in gold hanging at the girdle, by which they occasionally viewed their faces, or adjusted their hair.

Note return to page 195 5When for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, We bend to that the working of the heart.] The harmony of the measure, the easiness of the expression, and the good sense in the thought, all concur to recommend these two lines to the reader's notice. Warb.

Note return to page 196 6&lblank; that my heart means no ill] We should read, tho' my heart &lblank; Warb. That my heart means no ill, is the same with to whom my heart means no ill: the common phrase suppresses the particle, as I mean him [not to him] no harm.

Note return to page 197 7A member of the commonwealth.] Here, I believe, is a kind of jest intended; a member of the common-wealth is put for one of the common people, one of the meanest.

Note return to page 198 8An' your waste, mistress, were as slender as my wit, One o' these maids girdles for your waste should be fit.] And was not one of her maid's girdles sit for her? It is plain that my and your have all the way changed places, by some accident or other; and that the lines should be read thus, An' my waste, mistress, was as slender as your wit, One of these maids girdles for my waste should be fit. The lines are humourous enough, both as reflecting on his own gross shape, and her slender wit. Warburton. This conjecture is ingenious enough, but not well considered. It is plain that the Ladies girdles would not fit the princess. For when she has referred the clown to the thickest and the tallest, he turns immediately to her with the blunt apology, truth is truth; and again tells her, you are the thickest here. If any alteration is to be made, I should propose, An' your waist, mistress, were as slender as your wit. This would point the reply; but perhaps he mentions the slenderness of his own wit to excuse his bluntness.

Note return to page 199 9Boyet, you can carve: Break up this Capon.] i. e. open this Letter. Our Poet uses this Metaphor, as the French do their Poulet; which signifies both a young Fowl, and a Love-letter. Poulet, amatoriæ Literæ, says Richelet: and quotes from Voiture, Repondre au plus obligeant Poulet du Monde; To reply to the most obliging Letter in the World. The Italians use the same manner of Expression, when they call a Love-Epistle, una Pollicetta amorosa. I owed the Hint of this equivocal use of the Word to my ingenious friend Mr. Bishop. The.

Note return to page 200 1Break the neck of the wax.] Still alluding to the capon.

Note return to page 201 2King Cophetua.] This story is again alluded to in Henry IV. Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof. But of this King and Beggar the story then, doubtless, well known, is, I am afraid, lost. Zenelo bon ha not the appearance of a female name, but since I know not the true name, it is idle to guess.6Q0056

Note return to page 202 3Thus dost thou hear, &c.] These six lines appear to be a quotation from some ridiculous poem of that time. Warburton.

Note return to page 203 4&lblank; ere while.] Just now; a little while ago. So Raleigh, Here lies Hobbinol our shepherd, while e'er.

Note return to page 204 5&lblank; a monarcho,] Sir T. Hanmer reads, a mammuccio.

Note return to page 205 6&lblank; Come, lords, away.] Perhaps the Princess said rather Come, ladies, away.—The rest of the scene deserves no care.

Note return to page 206 7Enter &lblank; Holofernes,] There is very little personal reflexion in Shakespeare. Either the virtue of those times, or the candour of our author, has so effected, that his satire is, for the most part, general, and as himself says, &lblank; his taxing like a wild goose flies, Unclaim'd of any man. &lblank; The place before us seems to be an exception. For by Holofernes is designed a particular character, a pedant and schoolmaster of our author's time, one John Florio, a teacher of the Italian tongue in London, who has given us a small dictionary of that language under the title of A world of words, which in his Epistle Dedicatory he tells us, is of little less value than Stephens's treasure of the Greek tongue, the most compleat work that was ever yet compiled of its kind. In his preface, he calls those who had criticized his works Sea-dogs or Land-critics; Monsters of men, if not beasts rather than men; whose teeth are canibals, their toongs adders-forks, their lips aspes poison, their eyes basiliskes, their breath the breath of a grave, their words like swordes of Turks that strive which shall dive deepest into a Christian lying bound before them. Well therefore might the mild Nathaniel desire Holofernes to abrogate scurrility. His profession too is the reason that Holofernes deals so much in Italian sentences. There is an edition of Love's Labour's lost, printed 1598, and said to be presented before her Highness this last Christmas 1597. The next year 1598, comes out our John Florio with his World of Words, recentibus odiis; and in the preface, quoted above, falls upon the comic poet for bringing him on the stage. There is another sort of leering curs, that rather snarle than bite, whereof I could instance in one, who lighting on a good sonnet of a gentleman's, a friend of mine, that loved better to be a poet than to be counted so, called the author a Rymer. —Let Aristophanes and his comedians make plaies, and scowre their mouths on Socrates; those very mouths they make to vilifie shall be the means to amplifie his virtue, &c. Here Shakespeare is so plainly marked out as not to be mistaken. As to the sonnet of The Gentleman his friend, we may be assured it was no other than his own. And without doubt was parodied in the very sonnet beginning with The praisefull Princess, &c. in which our author makes Holophernes say, He will something affect the letter; for it argues facility. And how much John Florio thought this affectation argued facility, or quickness of wit, we see in this preface where he falls upon his enemy, H. S. His name is H. S. Do not take it for the Roman H. S. unless it be as H. S. is twice as much and in half, as half an A S. With a great deal more to the same purpose; concluding his preface in these words, The resolute John Florio. From the ferocity of this man's temper it was, that Shakespeare chose for him the name which Rablais gives to his Pedant of Thubal Holoferne. Warburton. I am not of the learned commentator's opinion, that the satire of Shakespeare is so seldom personal. It is of the nature of personal invectives to be soon unintelligible; and the authour that gratifies private malice, animam in volnere penit, destroys the future efficacy of his own writings, and sacrifices the esteem of succeeding times to the laughter of a day. It is no wonder, therefore, that the sarcasms which, perhaps, in the authour's time set the playhouse in a roar, are now lost among general reflections. Yet whether the character of Holofernes was pointed at any particular man, I am, notwithstanding the plausibility of Dr. Warburton's conjecture, inclined to doubt. Every man adheres as long as he can to his own pre-conceptions. Before I read this note I considered the character of Holofernes as borrowed from the Rhombus of Sir Philip Sidney, who, in a kind of pastoral entertainment exhibited to Queen Elizabeth, has introduced a schoolmaster so called, speaking a leash of languages at once, and puzzling himself and his auditors with a jargon like that of Holofernes in the present play. Sidney himself might bring the character from Italy; for as Peacham observes, the Schoolmaster has long been one of the ridiculous personages in the farces of that country.

Note return to page 207 8&lblank; and such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be; which we taste, and feeling are for those parts that do fructify in us more than he.] The Words have been ridiculously, and stupidly, transpos'd and corrupted. I read, we thankful should be for those parts (which we taste and feel ingradare) that do fructify, &c. The emendation I have offer'd, I hope, restores the author: At least, it gives him sense and grammar: and answers extremely well to his metaphors taken from planting. Ingradare, with the Italians, signifies, to rise higher and higher; andare di grado in grado, to make a progression; and so at length come to fructify, as the poet expresses it. Warburton. Sir T. Hanmer reads thus, And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be, For those parts which we taste and feel do fructify in us more than he. And Mr. Edwards in his animad-versions on Dr. Warburton's notes, applauds the emendation. I think both the editors mistaken, except that Sir T. Hanmer found the metre though he missed the sense. I read, with a slight change, And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be; When we taste and feeling are for those parts that do fructify in us more than he. That is, such barren plants are exhibited in the creation, to make us thankful when we have more taste and feeling than he, of those parts or qualities which produce fruit in us, and preserve us from being likewise barren plants. Such is the sense, just in itself and pious, but a little clouded by the diction of Sir Nathaniel.6Q0057

Note return to page 208 *The meaning is, to be in a school would as ill become a patch, or low fellow, as folly would become me.

Note return to page 209 9Th' allusion holds in the exchange.] i. e. the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when you use the name of Cain. Warburton.

Note return to page 210 1Makes fisty sores, O sorel!] We should read, of sorel, alluding to L being the numeral for 50. Concerning the beasts of chase, whereof the Buck, being the first, is called as followeth; the first year a Fawn; the second year a Pricket; the third year, a Sorel; the fourth year a Sore; the fifth year, a buck of the first head, &c. Manhood of the Laws of the Forest, p. 44. Warb.

Note return to page 211 2Nath. Fauste, precor, gelida] Though all the Editions concur to give this Speech to Sir Nathaniel, yet, as Dr. Thirlby ingeniously observ'd to me, it is evident, it must belong to Holofernes. The Curate is employ'd in reading the Letter to himself; and while he is doing so, that the Stage may not stand still, Holofernes either pulls out a Book, or, repeating some Verse by heart from Mantuanus, comments upon the Character of that Poet. Baptista Spagnolus, (sirnamed Mantuanus, from the Place of his Birth) was a Writer of Poems, who flourish'd towards the latter End of the 15th Century. Theobald. Fauste, precor gelida, &c.] A note of La Monnoye's on these very words in Les Contes des Periers, Nov. 42. will explain the humour of the quotation, and shew how well Shakespear has sustained the character of his pedant.— Il designe le Carme Baptiste Mantuan, dont au commencement du 16 siecle on lisoit publiquement à Paris les Poesies; si celebres alors, que, comme dit plaisamment Farnabe, dans sa preface sur Martial, les Pedans ne faisoient nulle difficulté de preferer à l' Arma virumque cano, le Fauste precor gelida, c'est-a-dire, à l' Eneide de Virgile les Eclogues de Mantuan, la premiere desquelles commence par Fauste precor gelida. Warburton.

Note return to page 212 3In old Editions: Venechi, venache a, qui non te vide, i non te piaech.] And thus Mr. Rowe, and Mr. Pope. But that Poets, Scholars, and Linguists, could not restore this little Scrap of true Italian, is to me unaccountable. Our Author is applying the Praises of Mantuanus to a common proverbial Sentence, said of Venice. Vinegia, Vinegia! qui non te vedi, ei non te pregia. O Venice, Venice, he, who has never seen thee, has thee not in Esteem. Theobald. The proverb, as I am informed, is this; He that sees Venice little, values it much; he that sees it much, values it little. But I suppose Mr. Theobald is right, for the true proverb would not serve the speaker's purpose.

Note return to page 213 4Nath. Here are only Numbers ratified;] Tho' this Speech has been all along plac'd to Sir Nathaniel, I have ventur'd to join it to the preceding Words of Holofernes; and not without Reason. The Speaker here is impeaching the Verses; but Sir Nathaniel, as it appears above, thought them learned ones: besides, as Dr. Thirlby observes, almost every Word of this Speech fathers itself on the Pedant. So much for the Regulation of it: now, a little, to the Contents. And why indeed Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous Flowers of Fancy? the Jerks of Invention imitary is nothing. Sagacity with a Vengeance! I should be asham'd to own myself a Piece of a Scholar, to pretend to the Task of an Editor, and to pass such Stuff as this upon the World for genuine. Who ever heard of Invention imitary? Invention and Imitation have ever been accounted two distinct Things. The Speech is by a Pedant, who frequently throws in a Word of Latin amongst his English; and he is here flourishing upon the Merit of Invention, beyond That of Imitation, or copying after another. My Correction makes the whole so plain and intelligible, that, I think, it carries Conviction along with it. Theobald.

Note return to page 214 5Ovidius Naso was the man.] Our author makes his pedant affect the being conversant in the best authors: Contrary to the practice of modern wits, who represent them as despisers of all such. But those who know the world, know the pedant to be the greatest affecter of politeness. Warburton.

Note return to page 215 6so doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider.] The pedant here, to run down Imitation, shews that it is a quality within the capacity of beasts: that the dog and the ape are taught to copy tricks by their master and keeper; and so is the tir'd horse by his rider. This last is a wonderful instance; but it happens not to be true. The author must have wrote—the tryed horse his rider: i. e. one, exercis'd, and broke to the manage: for he obeys every sign, and motion of the rein, or of his rider. So in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, the word is used in the sense of trained, exercised; And how he cannot be a perfect man, Not being try'd and tutor'd in the world. Warburton.

Note return to page 216 7Colourable colours.] That is, specious, or fairseeming appearances.

Note return to page 217 *Alluding to lady Rosaline's complexion, who is, through the whole play, represented as a black beauty.

Note return to page 218 8The night of dew, that on my cheeks down flows.] I cannot think the night of dew the true reading, but know not what to offer.

Note return to page 219 9He comes in like a perjure] The punishment of perjury is to wear on the breast a paper expressing the crime.

Note return to page 220 1Oh, Rhimes are Guards on wanton Cupid's Hose; Disfigure not his Shop.] All the Editions happen to concur in this Error; but what Agreement in Sense is there betwixt Cupid's Hose and his Shop? Or, what Relation can those two Terms have to one another? Or, what, indeed, can be understood by Cupid's Shop? It must undoubtedly be corrected, as I have reform'd the Text. Slops are large and wide-kneed Breeches, the Garb in Fashion in our Author's Days, as we may observe from old Family Pictures; but they are now worn only by Boors and Sea-faring Men: and we have Dealers whose sole Business it is to furnish the Sailors with Shirts, Jackets, &c. who are call'd, Slop-men; and their Shops, Slop-shops. Theobald.

Note return to page 221 2The liver vein.] The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love.

Note return to page 222 3Old Edition: By Earth, she is not, corporal, there you lye,] Dumain, one of the Lovers in spite of his Vow to the contrary, thinking himself alone here, breaks out into short Soliloquies of Admiration on his Mistress; and Biron, who stands behind as an Eves-dropper, takes Pleasure in contradicting his amorous Raptures. But Dumain was a young Lord: He had no Sort of Post in the Army: What Wit, or Allusion, then, can there be in Biron's calling him Corporal? I dare warrant, I have restor'd the Poet's true Meaning, which is this. Dumain calls his Mistress divine, and the Wonder of a mortal Eye; and Biron in flat Terms denies these hyperbolical Praises. I scarce need hint, that our Poet commonly uses corporal as corporeal. Theobald.

Note return to page 223 4Air, would I might triumph so.] Perhaps we may better read, Ah! would I might triumph so.

Note return to page 224 5&lblank; my true love's fasting pain;] I should rather chuse to read festring, rankling. Warb. There is no need of any alteration; fasting is longing, hungry, wanting.

Note return to page 225 6How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it?] We should certainly read, geap, i. e. jeer, ridicule. Warburton. To leap is to exult, to skip for joy. It must stand.

Note return to page 226 7To see a King transformed to a Knot!] Knot has no sense that can suit this place. We may read sot. The rhymes in this play are such as that sat and sot may be well enough admitted.

Note return to page 227 8&lblank; critic Timon &lblank;] ought evidently to be cynic. Warburton.

Note return to page 228 9With men like men, &lblank;] This is a strange senseless line, and should be read thus, With vane like men, of strange inconstancy. Warburton. This is well imagined, but perhaps the poet may mean with men like common men.

Note return to page 229 1She an attending star.] Something like this is a stanza of Sir Henry Wotton, of which the poetical reader will forgive the insertion. &lblank; Ye stars, the train of night,   That poorly satisfy our eyes More by your number than your light:   Ye common people of the skies, What are ye when the sun shall rise!

Note return to page 230 2Is Ebony like her? O Word divine!] This is the Reading of all the Editions that I have seen: but both Dr. Thirlby and Mr. Warburton concurr'd in reading, (as I had likewise conjectur'd,) O Wood divine! Theobald.

Note return to page 231 3In former editions; The School of Night.] Black, being the School of Night, is a Piece of Mystery above my Comprehension. I had guess'd, it should be, the Stole of Night: but I have preferr'd the Conjecture of my Friend Mr. Warburton, who reads the scowl of night, as it comes nearer in Pronunciation to the corrupted Reading, as well as agrees better with the other Images. Theobald.

Note return to page 232 4And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well.] This is a contention between two lovers about the preference of a black or white beauty. But, in this reading, he who is contending for the white, takes for granted the thing in dispute; by saying, that white is the crest of beauty. His adversary had just as much reason to call black so. The question debated between them being which was the crest of beauty, black or white. Shakespear could never write so absurdly: Nor has the Oxford Editor at all mended the matter by substituting dress for crest. We should read, And beauty's crete becomes the heavens well, i. e. beauty's white from creta. In this reading the third line is a proper antithesis to the first. I suppose the blunder of the transcriber arose from hence, the french word creste in that pronunciation and orthography is crete, which he understanding, and knowing nothing of the other signification of crete from creta, critically altered it to the English way of spelling, creste. Warburton. This emendation cannot be received till its authour can prove that crete is an English word. Besides, crest is here properly opposed to Badge. Black, says the King, is the badge of hell, but that which graces the heaven is the crest of beauty. Black darkens hell, and is therefore hateful: white adorns heaven, and is therefore lovely.

Note return to page 233 5Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil.] Quillet is the peculiar word applied to law-chicane. I imagine the original to be this, in the French pleadings, every several allegation in the plaintiff's charge, and every distinct plea in the defendant's answer, began with the words Qu'il est;—from whence was formed the word quillet, to signify a false charge or an evasive answer. Warburton.

Note return to page 234 6Affection's men at arms.] A man at arms, is a soldier armed at all points both offensively and defensively. It is no more than, Ye soldiers of affection.

Note return to page 235 *This and the two following lines are omitted, I suppose, by mere over-sight, in Dr. Warburton's edition.

Note return to page 236 7The nimble spirits in the arteries;] In the old system of physic they gave the same office to the arteries as is now given to the nerves; as appears from the name which is derived from &grasa;&gre;&grr;&gra; &grt;&grh;&grr;&gre;&gric;&grn;. Warburton.

Note return to page 237 8Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?] This line is absolute nonsense. We should read duty, i. e. ethics, or the offices and devoirs that belong to man. A woman's eye, says he, teaches observance above all other things. Warburton. This emendation is not so ill conceived as explained, but perhaps we might read, Reaches such beauty.6Q0058

Note return to page 238 9&lblank; In leaden contemplation have found out Such fiery numbers, &lblank;] Alluding to the discoveries in modern astronomy; at that time greatly improving, in which the ladies eyes are compared, as usual, to stars. He calls them numbers, alluding to the Pythagorean principles of astronomy, which were founded on the laws of harmony. The Oxford Editor, who was at a loss for the conceit, changes numbers to notions, and so loses both the sense and the gallantry of the allusion. He has better luck in the following line, and has rightly changed beauty's to beauteous. Warburton. Numbers are in this passage nothing more than poetical measures. Could you, says Biron, by solitary contemplation, have attained such poetical fire, such spritely numbers, as have been prompted by the eyes of beauty. The Astronomer, by looking too much aloft, falls into a ditch.

Note return to page 239 1&lblank; the suspicious head of theft is stopt.] i. e. a lover in pursuit of his mistress has his sense of hearing quicker than a thief (who suspects every sound he hears) in pursuit of his prey. But Mr. Theobald says, there is no contrast between a lover and a thief: and therefore alters it to thrift, between which and love, he says, there is a remarkable antithesis. What he means by contrast and antithesis, I confess I don't understand. But 'tis no matter: the common reading is sense; and that is better than either one or the other. Warb.

Note return to page 240 2For Valour is not Love a Hercules, Still climbing Trees in the Hesperides?] The Poet is here observing how all the senses are refined by Love. But what has the poor Sense of Smelling done, not to keep its Place among its Brethren? Then Hercules's Valour was not in climbing the Trees, but in attacking the Dragon gardant. I rather think that for valour we should read savour, and the Poet meant that Hercules was allured by the Odour and Fragrancy of the golden Apples. Theobald.

Note return to page 241 3As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair:] This expression, like that other in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, of— Orpheus' harp was strung with poets sinues, is extremely beautiful, and highly figurative. Apollo, as the sun, is represented with golden hair; so that a lute strung with his hair means no more than strung with gilded wire. Warburton.

Note return to page 242 4And when Love speaks the voice of all the Gods, Make, Heav'n drowsie with the harmony!] This nonsense we should read and point thus, And when love speaks the voice of all the Gods, Mark, heav'n drowsie with the harmony. i. e. in the voice of love alone is included the voice of all the Gods. Alluding to the ancient Theogony, that love was the parent and support of all the Gods. Hence, as Suides tells us, Palcephatus wrote a poem called, &GRAs;&grf;&grr;&gro;&grd;&gri;&grt;&grh;&grst; &grk;&gra;&grig; &GREsa;&grr;&grw;&grt;&gro;&grst; &grf;&grw;&grn;&grhg; &grk;&gra;&grig; &grl;&groa;&grg;&gro;&grst;. The voice and speech of Venus and Love, which appears to have been a kind of Cosmogony, the harmony of which is so great that it calms and allays all kinds of disorders; alluding again to the ancient use of music, which was to compose monarchs, when, by reason of the cares of empire, they used to pass whole nights in restless inquietude. Warburton. The ancient reading is, make heaven.

Note return to page 243 5&lblank; a word, that loves all men;] We should read, A word all women love. the following line Of for men's sake (the author of these women;) which refers to this reading, puts it out of all question. Warb. Perhaps we might read thus, transposing the lines, Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men; For women's sake, by whom we men are men; Or for men's sake, the authours of these women. The antithesis of a word that all men love, and a word which loves all men, though in itself worth little, has much of the spirit of this play.

Note return to page 244 6&lblank; sown cockle reap'd no corn;] This proverbial expression intimates, that beginning with perjury, they can expect to reap nothing but falshood. The following lines lead us to this sense. Warburton.

Note return to page 245 *Here Mr. Theobald ends the third act.

Note return to page 246 7Your reasons at dinner have been, &c.] I know not well what degree of respect Shakespeare intends to obtain for this vicar, but he has here put into his mouth a finished representation of colloquial excellence. It is very difficult to add any thing to this character of the schoolmaster's table-talk, and perhaps all the precepts of Castiglione will scarcely be found to comprehend a rule for conversation so justly delineated, so widely dilated, and so nicely limited. It may be proper just to note, that reason here, and in many other places, signifies discourse, and that audacious is used in a good sense for spirited, animated, confident. Opinion is the same with obstinacy or opiniatreté

Note return to page 247 8He is too piqued.] To have the beard piqued or shorn so as to end in a point, was in our Authour's time a mark of a traveller affecting foreign fashions: so says the Bastard in K. John.   &lblank; I catechise My piqued man of countries.

Note return to page 248 9this is abominable, &c.] He has here well imitated the language of the most redoubtable pedants of that time. On such sort of occasions, Joseph Scaliger used to break out, Abominor, execror. Asinitas mera est, impietas, &c. and calls his adversary Lutum stercore maceratum, Dæmoniacum retrimentum inscitiæ, Sterquilinium, Stercus Diaboli, Starabærum, larvam, Pecus postremum bestiarum, infame propudium, &grk;&graa;&grq;&gra;&grr;&grm;&gra;. Warb.

Note return to page 249 1In former Editions: It insinuateth me of infamy: Ne intelligis, Domine, to make frantick, lunatick? Nath. Laus Deo, bene intelligo. Hol. Bome, boon for boon Prescian; a little Scratch, 'twill serve.] This Play is certainly none of the best in itself, but the Editors have been so very happy in making it worse by their Indolence, that they have left me Augeas's Stable to cleanse: and a Man had need to have the Strength of a Hercules to heave out all their Rubbish. But to Business; Why should infamy be explained by making frantick, lunatick? It is plain and obvious that the Poet intended, the Pedant should coin an uncouth affected Word here, insanie, from insania of the Latines. Then, what a Piece of unintelligible Jargon have these learned Criticks given us for Latin? I think, I may venture to affirm, I have restored the Passage to its true Purity. Nath. Laus Deo, bone, intelligo. The Curate, addressing with Complaisance his brother Pedant, says, bone, to him, as we frequently in Terence find bone Vir; but the Pedant thinking, he had mistaken the Adverb, thus descants on it. Bone?—bone for bene. Priscian a little scratched: 'twill serve. Alluding to the common Phrase, Diminuis Prisciani caput, applied to such as speak false Latin. Theobald. It insinuateth me of infamy:] There is no need to make the pedant worse than Shakespear made him; who, without doubt, wrote insanity. Warburton. There seems yet something wanting to the integrity of this passage, which Mr. Theobald has in the most corrupt and difficult places very happily restored. For ne intelligis Domine, to make frantick, lunatick, I read (nonne intelligis, Domine?) to be mad, frantick, lunatick.

Note return to page 250 2In former Editions: The last of the five Vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth if I: Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, I. &lblank; Moth. The Sheep:—the other two concludes it out.] Is not the last, and the fifth, the same Vowel? Though my Correction restores but a poor Conundrum, yet if it restores the Poet's Meaning, it is the Duty of an Editor to trace him in his lowest Conceits. By, O, U, Moth would mean—Oh, You.—i. e. You are the Sheep still, either way; no matter which of Us repeats them. Theobald.

Note return to page 251 3I will whip about your Infamy unum cita;] Here again all the Editions give us Jargon instead of Latin. But Moth would certainly mean, circum circa: i. e. about and about: tho' it may be design'd, he should mistake the Terms. Theobald.

Note return to page 252 *The authour has before call'd the beard valour's excrement in the Merchant of Venice.

Note return to page 253 4&lblank; for past Care is still past Cure.] The Transposition which I have made in the two Words, Care and Cure, is by the Direction of the ingenious Dr. Thirlby. Theobald.

Note return to page 254 5'Ware pencils] The former Editions read, were pencils. Sir T. Hanmer here rightly restored 'ware pencils. Rosaline, a black beauty, reproaches the fair Catharine for painting.

Note return to page 255 6Pox of that jest, and I beshrew all Shrews.] In former copies this line is given to the Princess; but as she has behav'd with great Decency all along, there is no Reason why she should start all at once into this coarse Dialect. Rosaline and Catharine are rallying one another without Reserve; and to Catharine this first Line certainly belong'd, and therefore I have ventur'd once more to put her in Possession of it. Theobald.

Note return to page 256 7In former copies: So Pertaunt-like would I o'er sway his state, That he should be my Fool, and I his Fate.] In old farces, to shew the inevitable approaches of death and destiny, the Fool of the farce is made to employ all his stratagems to avoid Death or Fate: Which very stratagems, as they are ordered, bring the Fool, at every turn, into the very jaws of Fate. To this Shakespear alludes again in Measure for Measure, &lblank; merely thou art Death's Fool; For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun, And yet runs towards him still &lblank; It is plain from all this, that the nonsense of pertaunt-like, should be read, portent-like, i. e. I would be his fate or destiny, and like a portent hang over, and influence his fortunes. For portents were not only thought to forebode, but to influence. So the Latins called a person destined to bring mischief, fatale portentum. Warburton. Mr. Theobald reads, so Pedant-like.

Note return to page 257 8These are observations worthy of a man who has surveyed human nature with the closest attention.

Note return to page 258 9Saint Dennis, to St. Cupid.] The Princess of France invokes, with too much levity, the patron of her country, to oppose his power to that of Cupid.

Note return to page 259 *Spleen ridiculous is, a ridiculous fit.

Note return to page 260 1Like Muscovites, or Russians, as I guess.] The settling commerce in Russia was, at that time, a matter that much ingrossed the concern and conversation of the publick. There had been several embassies employed thither on that occasion; and several tracts of the manners and state of that nation written: So that a mask of Muscovites was as good an entertainment to the audience of that time, as a coronation has been since. Warburton.

Note return to page 261 2Beauties, no richer than rich Taffata.] i. e. The Taffata Masks they wore to conceal Themselves. All the Editors concur to give this Line to Biron; but, surely, very absurdly: for he's One of the zealous Admirers, and hardly would make such an Inference. Boyet is sneering at the Parade of their Address, is in the secret of the Ladies' Stratagem, and makes himself Sport at the Absurdity of their Proem, in complimenting their Beauty, when they were mask'd. It therefore comes from him with the utmost Propriety. Theobald.

Note return to page 262 *When Queen Elizabeth asked an ambassadour how he liked her Ladies, It is hard, said he, to judge of stars in the presence of the sun.

Note return to page 263 *To cogg signifies to falsify the dice, and to falsify a narrative, or to lye.

Note return to page 264 3Better wits have worn plain statute-caps.] This line is not universally understood, because every reader does not know that a statute cap is part of the academical habit. Lady Rosaline declares that her expectation was disappointed by these courtly students, and that better wits may be found in the common places of education.6Q0059

Note return to page 265 4Fair ladies, maskt, are roses in the bud; Dismaskt, their damask sweet commixture shewn, Are Angels veiling clouds, or roses blown.] This strange nonsense, made worse by the jumbling together and transposing the lines, I directed Mr. Theobald to read thus. Fair ladies masked are roses in the bud; Or Angels veil'd in clouds: are roses blown, Dismaskt, their damask sweet commixture shewn. But he willing to shew how well he could improve a thought, would print it, &lblank; Or Angel-veiling Clouds, i. e. clouds which veil Angels: And by this means gave us, as the old proverb says, a cloud for a Juno. It was Shakespear's purpose to compare a fine lady to an angel; it was Mr. Theobald's chance to compare her to a cloud: And perhaps the ill-bred reader will say a lucky one. However I supposed the Poet could never be so nonsensical as to compare a masked lady to a cloud, though he might compare her mask to one. The Oxford Editor who had the advantage both of this emendation and criticism, is a great deal more subtile and refined, and says it should not be angels veil'd in clouds, but angels vailing clouds, i. e. capping the sun as they go by him, just as a man veils his bonnet. Warburton. I know not why Sir T. Hanmer's explanation should be treated with so much contempt, or why vailing clouds should be capping the sun. Ladies unmasked, says Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting those clouds which obscured their brightness, sink from before them. What is there in this absurd or contemptible?

Note return to page 266 5&lblank; shapeless gear;] Shapeless, for uncouth, or what Shakespeare elsewhere calls diffused. Warburton.

Note return to page 267 *Mr. Theobald ends the fourth act here.

Note return to page 268 6This is the flower, that smiles on ev'ry one.] The broken disjointed metaphor is a fault in writing. But in order to pass a true judgment on this fault, it is still to be observed, that when a metaphor is grown so common as to desert, as it were, the figurative, and to be received into the common stile, then what may be affirmed of the thing represented, or the substance, may be affirmed of the thing representing, or the image. To illustrate this by the instance before us, a very complaisant, finical, over-gracious person, was so commonly called the flower, or as he elsewhere expresses it, the pink of courtesie, that in common talk, or in the lowest stile, this metaphor might be used without keeping up the image, but any thing affirmed of it as of an agnomen: hence it might be said, without offence, to smile, to flatter, &c. And the reason is this; in the more solemn, less-used metaphors, our mind is so turned upon the image which the metaphor conveys, that it expects, this image should be, for some little time, continued, by terms proper to keep it in view. And if, for want of these terms, the image be no sooner presented than dismissed, the mind suffers a kind of violence by being drawn off abruptly and unexpectedly from its contemplation. Hence it is that the broken, disjointed, and mix'd metaphor so much shocks us. But when it is once become worn and hacknied by common use, then even the very first mention of it is not apt to excite in us the representative image; but brings immediately before us the idea of the thing represented. And then to endeavour to keep up and continue the borrow'd ideas, by right adapted terms, would have as ill an effect on the other hand: Because the mind is already gone off from the image to the substance. Grammarians would do well to consider what has been here said when they set upon amending Greek and Roman writings. For the much-used hacknied metaphors being now very imperfectly known, great care is required not to act in this case temerariously. Warburton.

Note return to page 269 7&lblank; behaviour, what wert thou, 'Till this man shew'd thee? and what art thou now?] These are two wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call manners, and value themselves so much upon teaching, as a thing no where else to be learnt, is a modest silent accomplishment under the direction of nature and common sense, which does its office in promoting social life without being taken notice of. But that when it degenerates into shew and parade it becomes an unmanly contemptible quality. Warburton. What is told in this note is undoubtedly true, but is not comprised in the quotation.

Note return to page 270 8The virtue of your eye must break my oath.] Common sense requires us to read, &lblank; made break my oath, i. e. made me. And then the reply is pertinent—It was the force of your beauty that made me break my oath, therefore you ought not to upbraid me with a crime which you yourself was the cause of. Warburton. I believe the authour means that the virtue, in which word goodness and power are both comprised, must dissolve the obligation of the oath. The princess, in her answer, takes the most invidious part of the ambiguity.

Note return to page 271 9This is a very lofty and elegant compliment.

Note return to page 272 1Write, &c.] This was the inscription put upon the door of the houses infected with the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himself and his companions; and persuing the metaphor finds the tokens likewise on the ladies. The tokens of the plague are the first spots or discolorations by which the infection is known to be received.

Note return to page 273 2&lblank; how can this be true, That you should forfeit being those that sue.] That is, how can those be liable to forfeiture that begin the process. The jest lies in the ambiguity of sue which signifies to prosecute by law, or to offer a petition.

Note return to page 274 3You force not to forswear.] You force not is the same with you make no difficulty. This is a very just observation. The crime which has been once committed, is committed again with less reluctance.

Note return to page 275 4&lblank; smiles his cheek in years, &lblank;] Mr. Theobald says, he cannot, for his heart, comprehend the sense of this phrase. It was not his heart but his head that stood in his way. In years, signifies, into wrinkles. So in The Merchant of Venice, With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. See the note on that line.— But the Oxford editor was in the same case, and so alters it to fleers. Warburton.

Note return to page 276 5&lblank; In will and error Much upon this it is—And might not You.] I believe this passage should be read thus, &lblank; in will and error Boyet. Much upon this it is. Biron. And might not you, &c.

Note return to page 277 6&lblank; go, you are allow'd;] i. e. you may say what you will; you are a licensed fool, a common jester. So Twelfth Night. There is no slander in an allow'd fool. Warburton.

Note return to page 278 7You cannot beg us. That is, we are not fools, our next relations cannot beg the wardship of our persons and fortunes. One of the legal tests of a natural is to try whether he can number.

Note return to page 279 8That sport best pleases, which doth least know how. Where zeal strives to content, and the contents Dies in the zeal of that which it presents; Their form, &c.] The third line may be read better thus, &lblank; The contents Die in the zeal of him which them presents. This sentiment of the Princess is very natural, but less generous than that of the Amazonian Queen, who says on a like occasion in Midsummer-Night's Dream, I love not to see wretchedness o'ercharg'd, Nor duty in his service perishing.

Note return to page 280 9A bare throw at Novum.] This passage I do not understand. I fancy that Novum should be Novem, and the same allusion is intended between the play of nine pins and the play of the nine worthies, but it lies too deep for my investigation.

Note return to page 281 1With Libbard's head on knee.] This alludes to the old heroic habits, which on the knees and shoulders had usually, by way of ornament, the resemblance of a Leopard's or Lion's head. Warburton.

Note return to page 282 2Alluding to the arms given to the nine Worthies in the old History. Hanmer.

Note return to page 283 *There is a conceit of Ajax and A jakes.

Note return to page 284 3More Ates.] That is, more instigation. Ate was the mischievous goddess that incited bloodshed.

Note return to page 285 *&lblank; my arms &lblank;] The weapons and armour which he wore in the character of Pompey.

Note return to page 286 4It was enjoin'd him in Rome for want of linnen;] This may possibly allude to a story, well known in our author's time, to this Effect. A Spaniard at Rome falling in a duel, as he lay expiring, an intimate friend, by chance, came by, and offered him his best services. The dying man told him he had but one request to make to him, but conjured him by the memory of their past friendship punctually to comply with it, which was not to suffer him to be stript, but to bury him as he lay, in the habit he then had on. When this was promised, the Spaniard closed his eyes, and expired with great composure and resignation. But his friend's curiosity prevailing over his good faith, he had him stript, and found, to his great surprise, that he was without a shirt. Warburton.6Q0062

Note return to page 287 5&lblank; I have seen the days of wrong through the little hole of discretion, &lblank;] This has no meaning, we should read, the day of right, i. e. I have foreseen that a day will come when I shall have justice done me, and therefore I prudently reserve myself for that time. Warburton.

Note return to page 288 6In the converse of breath, &lblank;] Perhaps converse may, in this line, mean interchange.

Note return to page 289 7An heavy Heart bears not an humble Tongue:] Thus all the Editions; but, surely, without either Sense or Truth. None are more humble in Speech, than they who labour under any Oppression. The Princess is desiring, her Grief may apologize for her not expressing her Obligations at large; and my Correction is conformable to that Sentiment. Besides, there is an Antithesis between heavy and nimble; but between heavy and humble, there is none. Theobald.

Note return to page 290 8&lblank; which fain it would convince;] We must read, —which fain would it convince; that is, the entreaties of love, which would fain over-power grief. So Lady Macbeth declares, That she will convince the chamberlain with wine.

Note return to page 291 9Honest plain words, &c. &lblank;] As it seems not very proper for Biron to court the princess for the king in the king's presence, at this critical moment, I believe the speech is given to a wrong person. I read thus, Prin. I understand you not, my griefs are double: Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief. King. And by these badges, &c.

Note return to page 292 1Suggested us &lblank;] That is, tempted us.

Note return to page 293 2&lblank; We to ourselves prove false, By being once false, for ever to be true To those that made us false. &lblank;] We should read, We to ourselves prove true.6Q0063

Note return to page 294 3As bombast, than as lining to the time:] This line is obscure. Bumbast was a kind of loose texture not unlike what is now called wadding, used to give the dresses of that time bulk and protuberance, without much encrease of weight; whence the same name is yet given a tumour of words unsupported by solid sentiment. The princess, therefore, says, that they considered this courtship as but bumbast, as something to fill out life, which not being closely united with it, might be thrown away at pleasure.

Note return to page 295 4But more devout, than these are our respects Have we not been; &lblank;] This nonsense should be read thus, But more devout than this, (save our respects) Have we not been; &lblank; i. e. save the respect we owe to your majesty's quality, your courtship we have laughed at, and made a jest of. Warburton. I read with Sir T. Hanmer, But more devout than this, in our respects.

Note return to page 296 5We did not coat them so.] We should read, quote, esteem, reckon.

Note return to page 297 6To flatter up these powers of mine with rest;] We should read, fetter up, i. e. the turbulence of his passion, which hindered him from sleeping, while he was uncertain whether she would have him or not. So that he speaks to this purpose, If I would not do more than this to gain my wonted repose, may that repose end in my death. Warb. Flatter or sooth is, in my opinion, more opposite to the king's purpose than fetter. Perhaps we may read, To flatter on these hours of time with rest; That is, I would not deny to live in the hermitage, to make the year of delay pass in quiet.

Note return to page 298 7Biron. [And what to me, my Love? and what to me? Ros. You must be purged too: your Sins are rank: You are attaint with Fault and Perjury; Therefore if you my Favour mean to get, A Twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest, But seek the weary Beds of People sick.] These six Verses both Dr. Thirlby and Mr. Warburton concur to think should be expung'd; and therefore I have put them between Crotchets: Not that they were an Interpolation, but as the Author's first Draught, which he afterwards rejected; and executed the same Thought a little lower with much more Spirit and Elegance. Shakespeare is not to answer for the present absurd repetition, but his Actor-Editors; who, thinking Rosalind's Speech too long in the second Plan, had abridg'd it to the Lines above quoted: but, in publishing the Play, stupidly printed both the Original Speech of Shakespeare, and their own Abridgment of it. Theobald.

Note return to page 299 *&lblank; dear should here, as in many other places, be dere, sad, odious.

Note return to page 300 8The first lines of this song that were transposed, have been replaced by Mr. Theobald.

Note return to page 301 9Do paint the meadows with delight;] This is a pretty rural song, in which the images are drawn with great force from nature. But this senseless expletive of painting with delight, I would read thus, Do paint the meadows much-bedight, i. e. much bedecked or adorned, as they are in spring-time. The epithet is proper, and the compound not inelegant. Warburton. Much less elegant than the present reading.

Note return to page 302 *In this play, which all the editors have concurred to censure, and some have rejected as unworthy of our Poet, it must be confessed that there are many passages mean, childish, and vulgar; and some which ought not to have been exhibited, as we are told they were, to a maiden queen. But there are scattered, through the whole, many sparks of genius; nor is there any play that has more evident marks of the hand of Shakespeare.

Note return to page 303 11002001 Act I. Scene I. Page 119. This child of fancy, that Armado hight, &c.] This, as I have shewn, in the note in its place, relates to the stories in the books of Chivalry. A few words therefore concerning their Origin and Nature may not be unacceptable to the reader. As I don't know of any writer who has given any tolerable account of this matter: and especially as Monsieur Huet, the Bishop of Avranches, who wrote a formal treatise of the Origin of Romances, has said little or nothing of these in that superficial work. For having brought down the account of romances to the later Greeks, and entered upon those composed by the barbarous western writers, which have now the name of Romances almost appropriated to them, he puts the change upon his reader, and, instead of giving us an account of these books of Chivalry, one of the most curious and interesting parts of the subject he promised to treat of, he contents himself with a long account of the Poems of the Provincial Writters, called likewise Romances: and so, under the equivoque of a common term, drops his proper subject, and entertains us with another that had no relation to it more than in the name. The Spaniards were of all others the fondest of these fables, as suiting best their extravagant turn to gallantry and bravery; which in time grew so excessive, as to need all the efficacy of Cervantes's incomparable satire to bring them back to their senses. The French suffered an easier cure from their Doctor Rabelais, who enough discredited the books of Chivalry, by only using the extravagant stories of its Giants, &c. as a cover for another kind of satire against the refined Politicks of his countrymen; of which they were as much possessed as the Spaniards of their Romantic Bravery. A bravery our Shakespear makes their characteristic, in this description of a Spanish Gentleman: A man of compliments, whom right and wrong Have chose as Umpire of their mutiny: This Child of fancy, that Armado hight, For interim to our studies, shall relate In high-born words, the worth of many a Knight, From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate. The sense of which is to this effect: This Gentleman, says the speaker, shall relate to us the celebrated Stories recorded in the old Romances, and in their very stile. Why he says, from tawny Spain, is because, these Romances being of Spanish Original, the Heroes and the Scene were generally of that country. He says, lost in the world's debate, because the subject of those Romances were the Crusades of the European Christians against the Saracens of Asia and Africa. Indeed, the wars of the Christians against the Pagans were the general subject of the Romances of Chivalry. They all seem to have had their ground-work in two fabulous monkish Historians: The one, who, under the name of Turpin Archbishop of Rheims, wrote the History and Atchievements of Charlemagne and his twelve Peers; to whom, instead of his father, they assigned the task of driving the Saracens out of France and the South parts of Spain: the other, our Geoffry of Monmouth. Two of those Peers, whom the old Romances have rendered most famous, were Oliver and Rowland. Hence Shakespear makes Alanson, in the first part of Henry VI. say, “Froysurd, a countryman of ours, records, England all Olivers and Rowlands bred, during the time Edward the Third did reign.” In the Spanish Romance of Bernardo del Carpio, and in that of Roncesvalles, the feats of Roland are recorded under the name of Roldan el encantador; and in that of Palmerin de Oliva, or simply Oliva, those of Oliver: for Oliva is the same in Spanish as Olivier is in French. The account of their exploits is in the highest degree monstrous and extravagant, as appears from the judgment passed upon them by the Priest in Don Quixote, when he delivers the Knight's library to the secular arm of the house-keeper, “Eccetuando à un Bernardo del Carpio que anda por ay, y à otro Ilamado Roncesvalles; que estos en Ilegando a mis manos, an de estar en las de la ama, y dellas en las del fuego sin remission alguna.”1 And of Oliver he says; “effa Oliva se haga luego rajas, y se queme, que aun no queden della las cenizas.”2 The reasonableness of this sentence may be partly seen from one story in the Bernardo del Carpio, which tells us, that the cleft called Roldan, to be seen on the summit of an high mountain in the kingdom of Valencia, near the town of Alicant, was made with a single back-stroke of that hero's broad sword. Hence came the proverbial expression of our plain and sensible Ancestors, who were much cooler readers of these extravagances than the Spaniards, of giving one a Rowland for his Oliver, that is, of matching one impossible lye with another: as, in French, faire le Roland means, to swagger. This driving the Saracens out of France and Spain, was, as we say, the subject of the elder Romances. And the first that was printed in Spain was the famous Amadis de Gaula, of which the Inquisitor Priest says: “segun he oydo dezir, este libro fuè el primero de Cavallerias que se imprimiò en Espana, y todos los demás an tomado principio y origen deste;”3 and for which he humourously condemns it to the fire, como à Dogmatizador de una secta tan mala. When this subject was well exhausted, the affairs of Europe afforded them another of the same nature. For after that the western parts had pretty well cleared themselves of these inhospitable Guests: by the excitements of the Popes, they carried their arms against them into Greece and Asia, to support the Byzantine empire, and recover the holy Sepulchre. This gave birth to a new tribe of Romances, which we may call of the second race or class. And as Amadis de Gaula was at the head of the first, so, correspondently to the subject, Amadis de Grecia was at the head of the latter. Hence it is, we find, that Trebizonde is as celebrated in these Romances as Roncesvalles is in the other. It may be worth observing, that the two famous Italian epic poets, Ariosto and Tasso, have borrowed, from each of these classes of old Romances, the scenes and subjects of their several stories: Ariosto choosing the first, the Saracens in France and Spain; and Tasso, the latter, the Crusade against them in Asia: Ariosto's hero being Orlando or the French Roland: for as the Spaniards, by one way of transposing the letters, had made it Roldan, so the Italians, by another, make it Orland. The main subject of these fooleries, as we have said, had its original in Turpin's famous history of Charlemagne and his twelve peers. Nor were the monstrous embellishments of enchantments, &c. the invention of the Romancers, but formed upon eastern tales, brought thence by travellers from their crusades and pilgrimages; which indeed have a cast peculiar to the wild imaginations of the eastern people. We have a proof of this in the travels of Sir J. Maundevile, whose excessive superstition and credulity, together with an impudent monkish addition to his genuine work, have made his veracity thought much worse of than it deserved. This voyager, speaking of the isle of Cos, in the Archipelago, tells the following story of an enchanted dragon. “And also a zonge Man, that wiste not of the Dragoun, went out of a Schipp, and went thorghe the Isle, till that he cam to the Castelle, and cam into the Cave; and went so longe till that he fond a Chambre, and there he saughe a Damyselle, that kembed hire Hede, and lokede in a Myrour: and sche hadde meche Tresoure abouten hire: and he trowed that sche hadde ben a comoun Woman, that dwelled there to resceyve Men to Folye. And he abode, till the Damyselle, saughe the schadewe of him in the Myrour. And sche turned hire toward him, and asked him what he wolde. And he seyde, he wolde ben hire Limman or Paramour. And sche asked him, if that he were a Knyghte. And he sayde, nay. And then sche sayde, that he myghte not ben hire Limman. But sche bad him gon azen unto his Felowes, and make him Knyghte, and come azen upon the Morwe, and sche scholde come out of her Cave before him; and thanne come and kysse hire on the Mowth and have no drede. For I schalle do the no maner harm, alle be it that thou see me in lykeness of a Dragoun. For thoughe thou see me hideouse and horrible to loken onne, I do the to wytene that it is made by Enchauntement. For withouten doubte, I am none other than thou seest now, a Woman; and herefore drede the noughte. And zif thou kysse me, thou schalt have all this Tresoure, and be my Lord, and Lord also of all that Isle. And he departed, &c.” p. 29, 30. Ed. 1725. Here we see the very spirit of a Romance-adventure. This honest traveller believed it all, and so, it seems, did the people of the Isle. And some Men seyn (says he) that in the Isle of Lango is zit the Doughtre of Ypocras in forme and lykenesse of a great Dragoun, that is an hundred Fadme in lengthe, as Men seyn: For I have not seen hire. And thei of the Isles callen hire, Lady of the Land. We are not to think then, these kind of stories, believed by pilgrims and travellers, would have less credit either with the writers or readers of Romances: which humour of the times therefore may well account for their birth and favourable reception in the world. The other monkish historian, who supplied the Romancers with materials, was our Geoffry of Monmouth. For it is not to be supposed, that these Children of Fancy (as Shakespear in the place quoted above finely calls them, insinuating that Fancy hath its infancy as well as manhood) should stop in the midst of so extraordinary a carrier, or confine themselves within the lists of the terra firma. From Him therefore the Spanish Romancers took the story of the British Arthur, and the Knights of his round-table, his wife Gueniver, and his conjurer Merlin. But still it was the same subject, (essential to books of Chivalry) the Wars of Christians against Infidels. And whether it was by blunder or design they changed the Saxons into Saracens. I suspect by design: For Chivalry without a Saracen was so very lame and imperfect a thing, that even that wooden Image, which turned round on an axis, and served the Knights to try their swords, and break their lances upon, was called, by the Italians and Spaniards, Saracino and Sarazino; so closely were these two ideas connected. In these old Romances there was much religious superstition mixed with their other extravagancies; as appears even from their very names and titles. The first Romance of Lancelot of the Lake and King Arthur and his Knights, is called the History of Saint Greaal. This St. Greaal was the famous relick of the holy blood pretended to be collected into a vessel by Joseph of Arimathea. So another is called Kyrie Eleison of Montauban. For in those days Deuteronomy and Paralipomenon were supposed to be the names of holy men. And as they made Saints of their Knights-errant, so they made Knights-errant of their tutelary Saints; and each nation advanced its own into the order of Chivalry. Thus every thing in those times being either a Saint or a Devil, they never wanted for the marvellous. In the old Romance of Lancelot of the Lake, we have the doctrine and discipline of the Church as formally delivered as in Bellarmine himself. “La confession (says the preacher) ne vaut rien si le cœur n'est repentant; & si tu es moult & eloigne de l'amour de nostre Seigneur, tu ne peus estre raccordé si non par trois choses: premierement par la confession de bouche; secondement par une contrition de cœur, tiercement par peine de cœur, & par oeuvre d'aumône & charité. Telle est la droite voye d'aimer Dieu. Or va & si te confesse en cette maniere & recois la discipline des mains de tes confesseurs, car c'st le signe de merite.— Or mande le roy ses evesques, dont grande partie avoit en l'ost, & vinrent tous en sa chapelle. Le roy vint devant eux tout nud en pleurant, & tenant son plein point de meneës verges, si les jetta devant eux, & leur dit en soupirant, qu'ils prissent de luy vengeance, car je suis le plus vil pecheur, &c.—Apres prinst discipline & d'eux & moult doucement la receut.” Hence we find the divinity-lectures of Don Quixote and the penance of his Squire, are both of them in the ritual of Chivalry. Lastly, we find the Knight-errant, after much turmoil to himself, and disturbance to the world, frequently ended his course like Charles V. of Spain, in a Monastery; or turn'd Hermit, and became a Saint in good earnest. And this again will let us into the spirit of those Dialogues between Sancho and his master, where it is gravely debated whether he should not turn Saint or Archbishop. There were several causes of this strange jumble of nonsense and religion. As first, the nature of the subject, which was a religious War or Crusade: 2dly, The quality of the first Writers, who were religious Men: And 3dly, The end in writing many of them, which was to carry on a religious purpose. We learn, that Clement V. interdicted Justs and Tournaments, because he understood they had much hindered the Crusade decreed in the Council of Vienna. “Torneamenta ipsa & Hastiludia sive Juxtas in regnis Franciæ, Angliæ, & Almanniæ, & aliis nonnullis provinciis, in quibus ea consuevere frequentiùs exerceri, specialiter interdixit.” Extrav. de Torneamentis C. unic. temp. Ed. I. Religious men, I conceive, therefore, might think to forward the design of the Crusades by turning the fondness for Tilts and Torneaments into that channel. Hence we see the books of Knight-errantry so full of solemn Justs and Torneaments held at Trebizonde, Bizance, Tripoly, &c. Which wise project, I apprehend, it was Cervantes's intention to ridicule, where he makes his Knight propose it as the best means of subduing the Turk, to assemble all the Knights-errant together by Proclamation.* [Subnote: *See Part II. l. 5. c. 1.] Warburton.

Note return to page 304 1The Winter's Tale.] This play, throughout, is written in the very spirit of its author. And in telling this homely and simple, tho' agreeable, country tale, Our sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child, Warbles his native wood notes wild. Milton. This was necessary to observe in mere justice to the the Play, as the meanness of the fable, and the extravagant conduct of it, had missed some of great name into a wrong judgment of its merit; which, as far as it regards sentiment and character, is scarce inferior to any in the whole collection. Warburton.

Note return to page 305 2&lblank; our entertainment, &c.] Though we cannot give you equal entertainment, yet the consciousness of our good-will shall justify us.

Note return to page 306 3&lblank; royally attornied] Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies, &c.

Note return to page 307 4&lblank; physicks the subject,] Affords a cordial to the state; has the power of assuaging the sense of misery.

Note return to page 308 5&lblank; that may blow No sneaping winds at home, &c.] This is nonsense, we should read it thus, &lblank; may there blow, &c. He had said he was apprehensive that his presence might be wanted at home; but, lest this should prove an ominous speech, he endeavours, as was the custom, to avert it by a deprecatory prayer. &lblank; may there blow No sneaping winds—to make us say, This was put forth too truly. &lblank; But the Oxford Editor, rather than be beholden to this correction, alters it to, &lblank; there may blow Some sneaping winds &lblank; and so destroy's the whole sentiment. Warburton.6Q0065

Note return to page 309 6&lblank; I'll give him my commission,] We should read, &lblank; I'll give you my commission, The verb let, or hinder, which follows, shews the necessity of it: For she could not say she would give her husband a commission to let or hinder himself. The commission is given to Polixenes, to whom she is speaking, to let or hinder her husband. Warburton.

Note return to page 310 7&lblank; behind the gest] Mr. Theobald says, he can neither trace, nor understand the phrase, and therefore thinks it should be just: But the word gest is right, and signifies a stage or journey. In the time of Royal Progresses the King's stages, as we may see by the journals of them in the Herald's office, were called his gests; from the old French word giste, Diversorium. Warburton.

Note return to page 311 8&lblank; yet, good heed, Leontes,] i. e. yet take good heed, Leontes, to what I say. Which phrase, Mr. Theobald not understanding, he alters it to, good deed. Warburton.

Note return to page 312 9&lblank; th' imposition clear'd. Hereditary ours.] i. e. setting aside original sin; bating the imposition from the offence of our first parents, we might have boldly protested our innocence to heaven. Warburton.

Note return to page 313 1Grace to boot! Of this make no conclusion, lest you say, &c.] Polixenes had said, that since the time of childhood and innocence, temptations had grown to them; for that, in that interval, the two Queens were become women. To each part of this observation the Queen answers in order. To that of temptations she replies, Grace to boot! i. e. tho' temptations have grown up, yet I hope grace too has kept pace with them. Grace to boot, was a proverbial expression on these occasions. To the other part, she replies. as for our tempting you, pray take heed you draw no conclusion from thence, for that would be making your Queen and me devils, &c. Warburton.

Note return to page 314 2With spur we heat an acre. But to th' goal.] Thus this passage has been always pointed; whence it appears, that the Editors did not take the Poet's conceit. They imagined that, But to th' goal, meant, but to come to the purpose; but the sense is different, and plain enough when the line is pointed thus, &lblank; ere With spur we heat an acre, but to th' goal. i. e. good usage will win us to any thing; but, with ill, we stop short, even there where both our interest and our inclination would otherwise have carried us. Warburton.

Note return to page 315 3The mort o'th' deer; &lblank;] A lesson upon the horn at the death of the deer. Theobald.

Note return to page 316 *We must be neat.] Leontes, seeing his son's nose smutched, cries, we must be neat, then recollecting that neat is the term for horned cattle he says, not neat, but cleanly.

Note return to page 317 4&lblank; Still virginalling] Still playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the virginals.

Note return to page 318 *As o'er-dy'd blacks,] Sir T. Hanmer understands, blacks died too much, and therefore rotten.

Note return to page 319 5&lblank; welkin-eye,] Blue eye; an eye of the same colour with the welkin, or sky.

Note return to page 320 6Will you take eggs for mony?] This seems to be a proverbial expression, used when a man sees himself wronged and makes no resistance. Its original, or precise meaning, I cannot find, but I believe it means, will you be a cuckold for hire. The cuckow is reported to lay her eggs in another bird's nest; he therefore that has eggs laid in his nest, is said to be cucullatus, cuckow'd, or cuckold.6Q0066

Note return to page 321 *&lblank; happy man be's dole! &lblank;] May his dole or share in life be to be a happy man.

Note return to page 322 7Apparent &lblank;] That is, heir apparent, or the next claimant.

Note return to page 323 *&lblank; a fork'd one &lblank;] That is, a horned one; a cuckold.

Note return to page 324 *They're here with me already; &lblank;] Not Polixenes and Hermione, but casual observers, people accidentally present. Thirlby.

Note return to page 325 8&lblank; whisp'ring, rounding:] i. e. rounding in the ear, a phrase in use at that time. But the Oxford Editor not knowing that, alters the text to, whisp'ring round. Warburton. To round in the ear, is to whisper, or to tell secretly. The expression is very copiously explained by M. Casaubon, in his book de Ling. Sax.

Note return to page 326 9&lblank; lower messes,] Mess is a contraction of Master, as Mess John, Master John; an appellation used by the Scots, to those who have taken their academical degree. Lower Messes, therefore, are graduates of a lower form.

Note return to page 327 1Whereof the execution did cry out Against the non-performance, &lblank;] This is one of the expressions by which Shakespeare too frequently clouds his meaning. This sounding phrase means, I think, no more than a thing necessary to be done.

Note return to page 328 2&lblank; were sin As deep as that, tho' true.] i. e. Your suspicion is as great a sin as would be that (if committed) for which you suspect her. Warburton.

Note return to page 329 *&lblank; meeting noses?] Dr. Thirlby reads, meting noses; that is, measuring noses.

Note return to page 330 3But with a lingring dram, that should not work, Maliciously, like poison: &lblank;] The thought is here beautifully expressed. He could do it with a dram that should have none of those visible effects that detect the poisoner. These effects he finely calls the malicious workings of poison, as if done with design to betray the user. But the Oxford Editor would mend Shakespeare's expression, and reads, &lblank; that should not work Like a malicious poison: &lblank; So that Camillo's reason is lost in this happy emendation. Warb. Rash is hasty, as in another place, rash gunpowder. Maliciously is malignantly, with effects openly hurtful. Shakespeare had no thought of betraying the user. The Oxford emendation is harmless and useless.

Note return to page 331 4In former copies, &lblank; but I cannot Believe this Crack to be in my dread Mistress, So sovereignly being honourable. I have lov'd thee &lblank; Leo. Make that thy Question and go rot:] The last Hemistich assign'd to Camillo, must have been mistakenly placed to him. It is Disrespect and Insolence in Camillo to his King, to tell him that he has once lov'd him.—I have ventured at a Transposition, which seems self-evident. Camillo will not be persuaded into a Suspicion of the Disloyalty imputed to his Mistress. The King, who believes nothing but his Jealousy, provok'd that Camillo is so obstinately diffident, finely starts into a Rage and cries; I've lov'd thee.—Make't thy Question, and go rot, i. e. I have tender'd thee well, Camillo, but I here cancel all former Respect at once. If thou any longer make a Question of my Wife's Disloyalty, go from my Presence, and Perdition overtake thee for thy Stubbornness. Theobald. I have admitted this alteration, as Dr. Warburton has done, but am not convinced that it is necessary. Camillo, desirous to defend the Queen, and willing to secure credit to his apology, begins, by telling the King that he has loved him, is about to give instances of his love, and to infer from them his present zeal, when he is interrupted.

Note return to page 332 5In whose success we are gentle; &lblank;] I know not whether success here does not mean succession.

Note return to page 333 6To vice you to't, &lblank;] i. e. to draw, persuade you. The character called the Vice, in the old plays, was the Tempter to evil. Warburton.6Q0067

Note return to page 334 7Cam. &lblank; Swear his Thought over By each particular Star in Heaven, &c.] The Transposition of a single Letter reconciles this Passage to good Sense; Polixenes, in the preceding Speech, had been laying the deepest Imprecations on himself, if he had ever abus'd Leontes in any Familiarity with his Queen. To which Camillo very pertinently replies: &lblank; Swear this though over, &c. Theobald.

Note return to page 335 8&lblank; whose foundation Is pil'd upon his faith, &lblank;] This folly which is founded upon settled belief.

Note return to page 336 9Good expedition be my friend, and comfort The gracious Queen; &lblank;] But how could this expedition comfort the Queen? on the contrary it would increase her Husband's suspicion. We should read, &lblank; and comfort The gracious Queen's; &lblank; i. e. be expedition my friend, and be comfort the Queen's friend. The Oxford Editor has thought fit to paraphrase my correction, and so reads, &lblank; Heaven comfort The gracious Queen; &lblank; Warburton. Dr. Warburton's conjecture is, I think, just; but what shall be done with the following words, of which I can make nothing? Perhaps the line which connected them to the rest, is lost.

Note return to page 337 1Alack, for lesser knowledge &lblank;] That is, O that my knowledge were less.

Note return to page 338 2He hath discover'd my design, And I Remain a pinch'd thing; &lblank;] Alluding to the superstition of the vulgar, concerning those who were enchanted, and fastened to the spot, by charms superior to their own. Warburton.

Note return to page 339 3&lblank; if I mistake &lblank; The center, &c. &lblank;] That is, If the proofs which I can offer will not support the opinion I have formed, no foundation can be trusted.

Note return to page 340 4He who shall speak for her, is far off guilty, But that he speaks &lblank;] This cannot be the Speaker's Meaning. Leontes would say, I shall hold the Person in a great measure guilty, who shall dare to intercede for her: And this, I believe Shakespeare ventur'd to express thus: He, who shall speak for her, is far of guilty, &c. i. e. partakes far, deeply, of her Guilt. Theobald. It is strange that Mr. Theobald could not find out that far off guilty, signifies, guilty in a remote degree.

Note return to page 341 5&lblank; this action, &lblank;] The word action is here taken in the lawyer's sense, for indictment, charge, or accusation.

Note return to page 342 6&lblank; I'll keep my stable where I lodge my wife, &lblank;] Stable-stand (stabilis statio as Spelman interprets it) is a term of the Forest-Laws, and signifies a place where a Deer-stealer fixes his stand under some convenient cover, and keeps watch for the purpose of killing Deer as they pass by. From the place it came to be applied also to the person, and any man taken in a forest in that situation with a gun or bow in his hand, was presumed to be an offender, and had the name of a Stable-stand. In all former editions this hath been printed stables, and it may perhaps be objected, that another syllable added spoils the smoothness of the verse. But by pronouncing stable short the measure will very well bear it, according to the liberty allowed in this kind of writing, and which Shakespeare never scruples to use; therefore I read, stable-stand. Hanmer.

Note return to page 343 *Land-damn him:] Sir T. Hanmer interprets, stop his urine.6Q0068

Note return to page 344 *This is Mr. Theobald's correction; the former editions read, sans five.

Note return to page 345 7&lblank; nought for approbation, But only feeling; &lblank;] Approbation, in this place, is put for proof.

Note return to page 346 8&lblank; stuff'd sufficiency; &lblank;] That is, of abilities more than enough.

Note return to page 347 9Lest that the treachery of the two, &c. &lblank;] He has before declared, that there is a plot against his life and crown, and that Hermione is federary with Polyxenes and Camillo.

Note return to page 348 1These dang'rous, unsafe Lunes i'th' King! &lblank;] I have no where, but in our Author, observ'd this Word adopted in our Tongue, to signify, Frenzy, Lunacy. But it is a Mode of Expression with the French.— Il y a de la lune: (i. e. He has got the Moon in his Head; he is frantick.) Cotgrave. Lune. folie. Les femmes ont des lunes dans la tete, Richelet. Theobald.

Note return to page 349 2&lblank; out of the blank And level of my brain; &lblank;] Beyond the aim of any attempt that I can make against him Blank and level, are terms of archery.

Note return to page 350 3And would by combat make her good, so were I A man, the worst about you.] Paulina supposes the King's jealousy to be raised and inflamed by the courtiers about him; who she finely says, &lblank; creep like shadows by him, and do sigh At each his needless heavings: &lblank; Surely then, she could not say, that were she a man, the worst of these, she would vindicate her mistress's honour against the King's suspicions, in single combat. Shakespeare, I am persuaded, wrote, &lblank; so were I A man, on th' worst about you. i. e. were I a man, I would vindicate her honour, on the worst of these sycophants that are about you. Warburton. The worst means only the lowest. Were I the meanest of your servants, I would yet claim the combat against any accuser.

Note return to page 351 4A mankind witch! &lblank;] A mankind woman, is yet used in the midland counties, for a woman violent, ferocious, and mischievous. It has the same sense in this passage. Witches are supposed to be mankind, to put off the softness and delicacy of women, therefore Sir Hugh, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, says, of a woman suspected to be a witch, that he does not like when a woman has a beard. Of this meaning Mr. Theobald has given examples.

Note return to page 352 5Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou Take'st up the Princess by that forced baseness] Leontes had ordered Antigonus to take up the bastard, Paulina forbids him to touch the Princess under that appellation. Forced is false, uttered with violence to truth.

Note return to page 353 6No yellow in't; &lblank;] Yellow is the colour of jealousy.

Note return to page 354 7&lblank; commend it strangely to some place,] Commit to some place, as a stranger, without more provision.

Note return to page 355 8Fertile the isle, &lblank;] But the temple of Apollo at Delphi was not in an island; but in Phocis, on the continent. Either Shakespeare, or his Editors, had their heads running on Delos, an island of the Cyclades. If it was the Editor's blunder, then Shakespeare wrote, Fertile the soil,— which is more elegant too, than the present reading. Warburton. Shakespeare is little careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical errour, by which Bohemia is supposed to be a maritime country.

Note return to page 356 9I shall report, For most it caught me, &c.] What will he report? And what means this reason of his report, that the celestial habits most struck his observation? We should read, It shames report; Foremost it caught me, &lblank; Cleomines had just before said, that the Temple much surpassed the common praise it bore. The other, very naturally, replies—it shames report, as far surpassing what report said of it. He then goes on to particularize the wonders of the place: Foremost, or first of all, the priests garments, their behaviour, their act of sacrifice, &c. in reasonable good order. Warburton. Of this emendation I see no reason; the utmost that can be necessary is, to change, it caught me, to they caught me; but even this may well enough be omitted. It may relate to the whole spectacle.

Note return to page 357 1The time is worth the use on't] It should be just the reverse, The use is worth the time on't. and this alteration the Oxford Editor approves. Warburton. Either reading may serve, but neither is very elegant. The time is worth the use on't, means, the time which we have spent in visiting Delos has recompensed us for the trouble of so spending it.

Note return to page 358 2&lblank; pretence &lblank;] Is, in this place, taken for a scheme laid, a design formed; to pretend means to design, in the Gent. of Verona.

Note return to page 359 3Mine integrity, &c.] That is, my virtue being accounted wickedness, my assertion of it will pass but for a lie. Falshood means both treachery and lie.

Note return to page 360 4For life I prize it, &c.] Life is to me now only grief, and as such only is considered by me, I would therefore willingly dismiss it.

Note return to page 361 5&lblank; Since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent I Have strain'd t' appear thus.] These lines I do not understand; with the license of all Editors what I cannot understand I suppose unintelligible, and therefore propose that they may be altered thus, &lblank; Since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent have I Been stain'd to appear thus.

Note return to page 362 6I ne'er heard yet, That any of those bolder vices wanted Less impudence to gainsay what they did, Than to perform it first.] It is apparent that according to the proper, at least according to the present, use of words, less should be more, or wanted should be had. But Shakespeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives. It may be necessary once to observe, that in our language two negatives did not originally affirm, but strengthen the negation. This mode of speech was in time changed, but as the change was made in opposition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and uniformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confusion.6Q0071

Note return to page 363 7My life stands in the level of your dreams.] To be in the level is by a metaphor from archery to be within the reach.

Note return to page 364 8&lblank; As you were past all shame, Those of your Fact are so, so past all truth.] I do not remember that fact is used any where absolutely for guilt, which must be its sense in this place. Perhaps we may read, Those of your Pack are so. Pack is a low coarse word well suited to the rest of this royal invective.

Note return to page 365 9I have got strength of limit] I know not well how strength of limit can mean strength to pass the limits of the childbed chamber, which yet it must mean in this place, unless we read in a more easy phrase, strength of limb. And now, &c.

Note return to page 366 1The flatness of my misery.] That is, how low, how flat I am laid by my calamity.

Note return to page 367 2Of the Queen's Speed.] Of the event of the Queen's trial: so we still say, he sped well or ill.

Note return to page 368 3This vehement retractation of Leontes, accompanied with the confession of more crimes than he was suspected of, is agreeable to our daily experience of the vicissitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions of minds oppressed with guilt.

Note return to page 369 4That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing; That did but shew thee, of a Fool, inconstant, And damnable ingrateful.] I have ventur'd at a slight Alteration here, against the Authority of all the Copies, and for fool read soul. It is certainly too gross and blunt in Paulina, tho' she might impeach the King of Fooleries in some of his past Actions and Conduct, to call him downright a Fool. And it is much more pardonable in her to arraign his Morals, and the Qualities of his Mind, than rudely to call him Idiot to his Face. Theob. &lblank; shew thee of a fool &lblank;] So all the copies. We should read,—shew thee off, a fool,— i. e. represent thee in thy true colours; a fool, an inconstant, &c. Warburton. Poor Mr. Theobald's courtly remark cannot be thought to deserve much notice. Dr. Warburton too might have spared his sagacity if he had remembered, that the present reading, by a mode of speech anciently much used, means only, It show'd thee first a fool, then inconstant and ungrateful.

Note return to page 370 *This is another instance of the sudden changes incident to vehement and ungovernable minds.

Note return to page 371 5Thou art perfect then, &lblank;] Perfect is often used by Shakespeare for certain, well assured, or well informed.

Note return to page 372 *A savage clamour.] This clamour was the cry of the dogs and hunters; then seeing the bear, he cries, this is the chace, or, the animal pursued.

Note return to page 373 6Shep. Would, I had been by to have help'd the old Man.] Tho' all the printed Copies concur in this reading, I am persuaded, we ought to restore, Nobleman. The Shepherd knew nothing of Antigonus's Age; besides, the Clown had just told his Father, that he said, his Name was Antigonus a Nobleman, and no less than three times in this short Scene, the Clown, speaking of him, calls him the Gentleman. Theobald.

Note return to page 374 7In former copies, You're a mad old Man; if the Sins of your Youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold! all Gold! &lblank;] This the Clown says upon his opening his Fardel, and discovering the Wealth in it. But this is no Reason why he should call his Father a mad old Man. I have ventur'd to correct in the Text—You're a made old Man: i. e. your Fortune's made by this adventitious Treasure. So our Poet, in a Number of other Passages. Theobald.

Note return to page 375 8&lblank; that make and unfold Error;] This does not, in my Opinion, take in the Poet's Thought. Time does not make mistakes, and discover them, at different Conjunctures; but the Poet means, that Time often for a Season covers Errors, which he afterwards displays and brings to Light. I chuse therefore to read; &lblank; that mask and unfold Error. Theobald.

Note return to page 376 9&lblank; and leave the growth untry'd Of that wide gap; &lblank;] The growth of what? The reading is nonsense. Shakespeare wrote &lblank; and leave the gulf untry'd, i. e. unwaded thro'. By this means, too, the uniformity of the metaphor is restored. All the terms of the sentence, relating to a Gulf; as swift passage, —slide over—untry'd—wide gap. Warburton. This emendation is plausible, but the common reading is consistent enough with our authour's manner, who attends more to his ideas than to his words. The growth of the wide gap, is somewhat irregular; but he means, the growth, or progression of the time which filled up the gap of the story between Perdita's birth and her sixteenth year. To leave this growth untried, is to leave the passages of the intermediate years unnoted and unexamined. Untried is not, perhaps, the word which he would have chosen, but which his rhyme required.

Note return to page 377 1&lblank; since it is in my power, &c.] The reasoning of Time is not very clear; he seems to mean, that he who has broke so many laws may now break another; that he who introduced every thing may introduce Perdita on her sixteenth year; and he intreats that he may pass as of old, before any order or succession of objects, ancient or modern, distinguished her periods.6Q0072

Note return to page 378 2&lblank; imagine me, Gentle spectators, that I now may be In fair Bohemia; &lblank;] Time is every where alike. I know not whether both sense and grammar may not dictate, &lblank; imagine we, Gentle spectators, that you now may be, &c. Let us imagine that you, who behold these scenes, are now in Bohemia.

Note return to page 379 *&lblank; argument is the same with subject.

Note return to page 380 3I believe this speech of Time rather begins the fourth act than concludes the third.

Note return to page 381 4and my profit therein, the heaping friendships.] This is nonsense. We should read, reaping friendships. The King had said his study should be to reward his friend's deserts; and then concludes, that his profit in this study should be reaping the fruits of his friend's attachment to him; which refers to what he had before said of the necessity of Camillo's stay, or otherwise he could not reap the fruit of those businesses, which Camillo had cut out. Warburton. I see not that the present reading is nonsense; the sense of heaping friendships is, though like many other of our authour's, unusual, at least unusual to modern ears, is not very obscure. To be more thankful shall be my study; and my profit therein the heaping friendships. That is, I will for the future be more liberal of recompence, from which I shall receive this advantage, that as I heap benefits I shall heap friendships, as I confer favours on thee I shall increase the friendship between us.

Note return to page 382 5but I have (missingly) noted,] We should read, but I have (missing him) noted. This accounts for the reason of his taking note, because he often missed him, that is, wanted his agreeable company. For a compliment is intended; and, in that sense, it is to be understood. The Oxford Editor reads, musingly noted. Warburton. I see not how the sense is mended by Sir T. Hanmer's alteration, nor how it is at all changed by Dr. Warburton's.

Note return to page 383 6But I fear the Angle.] Mr. Theobald reads; And I fear the Engle.

Note return to page 384 7Why, then comes in the sweet o' th' year; For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.] I think this nonsense should be read thus, Why, then come in the sweet o' th' year;   'Fore the red blood reins in the winter pale. i. e. Why then come in, or let us enjoy, pleasure, while the season serves, before pale winter reins-in the red or youthful blood; as much as to say, let us enjoy life in youth, before old age comes and freezes up the blood. Warburton. Dr. Thirlby reads, perhaps rightly, certainly with much more probability, and easiness of construction; For the red blood runs in the winter pale. That is, for the red blood runs pale in the winter. Sir T. Hanmer reads, For the red blood reigns o'er the winter's pale.

Note return to page 385 8Pugging-tooth.] Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read, progging tooth. It is certain that pugging is not now understood. But Dr. Thirlby observes, that this is the cant of gypsies.

Note return to page 386 9My father nam'd me Autolicus, &c.] Mr. Theobald says, the allusion is unquestionably to Ovid. He is mistaken. Not only the allusion, but the whole speech is taken from Lucian; who appears to have been one of our Poet's favourite authors, as may be collected from several places of his works. It is from his discourse on judicial Astrology, where Autolycus talks much in the same manner; and 'tis only on this account that he is called the son of Mercury by the ancients, namely because he was born under that planet. And as the infant was supposed by the Astrologers to communicate of the nature of the star which predominated, so Autolicus was a thief. Warburton.

Note return to page 387 1my revenue is the silly cheat.] Silly is used by the writers of our author's time, for simple, low, mean; and in this the humour of the speech consists. I don't aspire to arduous and high things, as bridewell or the gallows; I am content with this humble and low way of life, as a snapper up of unconsidered trifles. But the Oxford Editor, who, by his emendations, seems to have declared war against all Shakespear's humour, alters it to, the sly cheat. Warburton.

Note return to page 388 *I believe me should be blotted out.

Note return to page 389 2with trol my-dames:] Trou-madame, French. The game of nine-holes. Warburton.

Note return to page 390 *—to abide, here, must signify, to sojourn, to live for a time without a settled habitation.

Note return to page 391 3motion of the prodigal son,] i. e. the Puppet-shew, then called Motions. A term frequently occurring in our author. Warb.

Note return to page 392 4let me be unroll'd, and my name put into the book of virtue!] Begging gipsies, in the time of our author, were in gangs and companies, that had something of the shew of an incorporated Body. From this noble society he wishes he may be unrolled if he does not so and so. Warburton.

Note return to page 393 5Your extremes.] That is, your excesses, the extravagance of your praises.

Note return to page 394 6The gracious mark o' th' land.] The object of all men's notice and expectation.

Note return to page 395 7&lblank; sworn, I think, To shew myself a glass] i. e. one would think that in putting on this habit of a shepherd, you had sworn to put me out of countenance; for in this, as in a glass, you shew me how much below yourself you must descend before you can get upon a level with me. The sentiment is fine, and expresses all the delicacy, as well as humble modesty of the character. But the Oxford Editor alters it to, &lblank; swoon, I think, To shew myself a glass. What he means I don't know. But Perdita was not so much given to swooning, as appears by her behaviour at the King's threats, when the intrigue was discovered. Warburton. Dr. Thirlby inclines rather to Sir T. Hanmer's emendation, which certainly makes an easy sense, and is in my opinion preferable to the present reading. But concerning this passage I know not what to decide.

Note return to page 396 8His work so noble, &c.] It is impossible for any man to rid his mind of his profession. The authourship of Shakespeare has supplied him with a metaphor, which rather than he would lose it, he has put with no great propriety into the mouth of a country maid. Thinking of his own works his mind passed naturally to the Binder. I am glad that he has no hint at an Editor.

Note return to page 397 *Grace and remembrance &lblank;] I suppose she means, May you, old Gentlemen, be good and may your memories be honoured.6Q0074

Note return to page 398 9&lblank; violets dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,] I suspect that our authour mistakes Juno for Pallas, who was the goddess of blue-eyes. Sweeter than an eyelid is an odd image: but perhaps he uses sweet in the general sense, for delightful.6Q0075

Note return to page 399 *Gold is the reading of Sir T. Hammer; the former editions have told.

Note return to page 400 *&lblank; Each your doing,] That is, your manner in each act crowns the act.

Note return to page 401 1I think, you have As little skill to fear &lblank;] To have skill to do a thing was a phrase then in use equivalent to our to have reason to do a thing. The Oxford Editor, ignorant of this, alters it to, As little skill in fear, &lblank; which has no kind of sense in this place. Warburton.

Note return to page 402 †Per. I'll swear for 'em.] I fancy this half line is placed to a wrong person, and that the king begins his speech aside. Pol. I'll swear for 'em, This is the prettiest, &c.

Note return to page 403 2He tells her something, That makes her Blood look on't:] Thus all the old Editions. The Meaning must be this. The Prince tells her Something, that calls the Blood up into her Cheeks, and makes her blush. She, but a little before, uses a like Expression to describe the Prince's Sincerity. &lblank; your Youth And the true Blood, which peeps forth fairly through it, Do plainly give you out an unstain'd Shepherd. Theo.

Note return to page 404 *&lblank; we stand, &c.] That is, we are now on our behaviour.

Note return to page 405 3&lblank; a worthy feeding; &lblank;] Certainly breeding. Warburton. I conceive feeding to be a pasture, and a worthy feeding to be a track of pasturage not inconsiderable, not unworthy of my daughter's fortune.

Note return to page 406 *Unbraided wares.] Surely we must read braided, for such are all the wares mentioned in the answer.

Note return to page 407 4&lblank; sleeve-band is put very properly by Sir T. Hanmer; it was before sleeve-hand.

Note return to page 408 5&lblank; clamour your tongues,] The phrase is taken from ringing. When bells are at the height, in order to cease them, the repetition of the strokes becomes much quicker than before; this is called clamouring them. The allusion is humourous. Warburton.6Q0076

Note return to page 409 6Master, there are three Carters, three Shepherds, three Neatherds, and three Swine-herds, &lblank;] Thus all the printed Copies hitherto. Now, in two Speeches after this, these are called four three's of Herdsmen. But could the Carters properly be called Herdsmen? At least, they have not the final Syllable, Herd, in their Names; which, I believe, Shakespeare intended, all the four three's should have. I therefore guess that he wrote;—Master, there are three Goat-herds. &c. And so, I think, we take in the four Species of Cattle usually tended by Herdsmen. Theobald.

Note return to page 410 7&lblank; all men of hair,] i. e. nimble, that leap as if they rebounded: The phrase is taken from tennis-balls, which were stuffed with hair. So in Henry V. it is said of a courser, He bounds as if his entrails were hairs. Warburton. This is a strange interpretation. Errors, says Dryden, flow upon the surface, but there are men who will fetch them from the bottom. Men of hair are hairy men, or satyrs. A dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages. At a great festival celebrated in France, the king and some of the nobles personated satyrs dressed in close habits, tufted or shagged all over, to imitate hair. They began a wild dance, and in the tumult of their merriment one of them went too near a candle and set fire to his satyr's garb, the flame ran instantly over the loose tufts, and spread itself to the dress of those that were next him; a great number of the dancers were cruelly scorched, being neither able to throw off their coats nor extinguish them. The king had set himself in the lap of the dutchess of Burgundy, who threw her robe over him and saved him.

Note return to page 411 *Bowling, I believe, is here a term for a dance of smooth motion without great exertion of agility.

Note return to page 412 8Pol. O, father, you'll know more of that hereafter.] This is replied by the King in answer to the shepherd's saying, since these good men are pleased. Yet the Oxford Editor, I can't tell why, gives this line to Florizel, since Florizel and the old man were not in conversation. Warburton.

Note return to page 413 9&lblank; dispute his own estate?] Perhaps for dispute we might read compute; but dispute his estate may be the same with talk over his affairs.6Q0078

Note return to page 414 *Far than.] I think for far than we should read far as. We will not hold thee of our kin even so far off as Deucalion the common ancestor of all.

Note return to page 415 1I was not much afraid; &c.] The Character is here finely sustained. To have made her quite astonished on the king's discovery of himself, had not become her birth; and to have given her presence of mind to have made this reply to the King, had not become her education. Warburton.

Note return to page 416 2You have undone a man of fourscore three, &c.] These sentiments, which the Poet has heighten'd by a strain of ridicule that runs thro' them, admirably characterize the speaker; whose selfishness is seen in concealing the adventure of Perdita; and here supported, by shewing no regard for his son or her, but being taken up entirely with himself, though fourscore three. Warburton.

Note return to page 417 *It must be remembered that fancy in this author very often, as in this place, means love.

Note return to page 418 *As chance has driven me to these extremities, so I commit myself to chance to be conducted through them.

Note return to page 419 3Things known betwixt us three I'll write you down, The which shall point you forth at ev'ry sitting, What you must say; &lblank;] Every Sitting, methinks, gives but a very poor Idea. Every fitting, as I have ventur'd to correct the Text, means, every convenient Opportunity: every Juncture, when it is fit to speak of such, or such, a Point. Theobald. The which shall point you forth at every sitting,] Every sitting, says Mr. Theobald, methinks, gives us but a very poor idea. But a poor idea is better than none; which it comes to, when he has alter'd it to every fitting. The truth is, the common reading is very expressive; and means, at every audience you shall have of the King and Council. The Council-days being, in our author's time, called, in common speech, the Sittings. Warburt.

Note return to page 420 *This alludes to beads often sold by the Romanists, as made particularly efficacious by the touch of some relick.

Note return to page 421 *Boot, that is, something over and above, or; as we now say, something to boot.

Note return to page 422 4This is the reading of Sir T. Hanmer, instead of if I thought it were a piece of honesty to acquaint the King withal, I'd not do it.

Note return to page 423 *What he means by his Pedler's excrement, I know not.6Q0080

Note return to page 424 5&lblank; therefore they do not give us the lie.] Dele the negative: the sense requires it. The Joke is this, they have a profit in lying to us, by advancing the price of their commodities; therefore they do lie. Warburton.

Note return to page 425 6Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant;] This satire, on the bribery of courts, not unpleasant. Warburton. This satire or this pleasantry, I confess myself not well to understand.6Q0081

Note return to page 426 7A great man &lblank; by the picking of his teeth.] It seems, that to pick the teeth was, at this time, a mark of some pretension to greatness or elegance. So the bastard in King John, speaking of the traveller, says, He and his pick-tooth at my worship's mess.

Note return to page 427 8&lblank; the hottest day, &c.] That is, the hottest day foretold in the Almanack.

Note return to page 428 *&lblank; gently consider'd] That is, I who am regarded as a gentleman will bring you to the king.

Note return to page 429 9In former editions, Destroy'd the sweet'st Companion, that e'er Man Bred his hopes out of, true. Paul. Too true, my Lord] A very slight Examination will convince every intelligent Reader, that, true, here has jumped out its place in all the Editions. Theobald.

Note return to page 430 *This is a favourite thought; it was bestowed on Miranda and Rosalind before.

Note return to page 431 1Than to rejoice, the former Queen is well?] The speaker is here giving reasons why the King should marry again. One reason is, pity to the State; another, regard to the continuance of the royal family; and the third, comfort and consolation to the King's affliction. All hitherto is plain, and becoming a Privy-counsellor. But now comes in, what he calls, a holy argument for it, and that is a rejoicing that the former Queen is well and at rest. To make this argument of force, we must conclude that the speaker went upon this opinion, that a widower can never heartily rejoice that his former wife is at rest, till he has got another. Without doubt Shakespeare wrote, &lblank; What were more holy, Than to rejoice the former Queen? This will. What, says the speaker, can be a more holy motive to a new choice than that it will glad the spirit of the former Queen? for she was of so excellent a disposition that the happiness of the King and Kingdom, to be procured by it, will give her extreme pleasure. The Poet goes upon the general opinion, that the spirits of the happy in the other world are concerned for the condition of their surviving friends. Warburton. This emendation is one of those of which many may be made; it is such as we may wish the authour had chosen, but which we cannot prove that he did chuse; the reasons for it are plausible, but not cogent.

Note return to page 432 2In the old copies, &lblank; would make her sainted Spirit Again possess her Corps, and on this Stage (Where we Offenders now appear) soul-vext. And begin, &c.] 'Tis obvious, that the Grammar is defective; and the Sense consequently wants supporting. The slight Change, I have made, cures both: and, surely, 'tis an Improvement to the Sentiment for the King to say, that Paulina and he offended his dead Wife's Ghost with the Subject of a second Match; rather than in general Terms to call themselves Offenders, Sinners. Theobald.

Note return to page 433 *To affront, is to meet.

Note return to page 434 3&lblank; Sir, you yourself Have said, and writ so; &lblank;] The reader must observe, that so relates not to what precedes, but to what follows that, she had not been—equal'd.

Note return to page 435 4&lblank; Whose daughter His tears proclaim'd his parting with her.] This is very ungrammatical and obscure. We may better read, &lblank; Whose daughter His tears proclaim'd her parting with her. The prince first tells that the Lady came from Lybia, the king interrupting him. says, from Smalus; from him, says the Prince, whose tears, at parting, showed her to be his daughter.

Note return to page 436 5Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty.] The Poet must have wrote. Your choice is not so rich in birth as beauty; Because Leontes was so far from disparaging, or thinking meanly of her worth, that, on the contrary, he rather esteems her a treasure; and, in his next speech to the Prince, calls her his precious mistress. Warburton. Worth is as proper as birth. Worth signifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high descent. The King means that he is sorry the Prince's choice is not in other respects as worthy of him as in beauty.

Note return to page 437 6That rare Italian Master, Giulio Romano;] All the Encomiums, put together, that have been conferred on this excellent Artist in Painting and Architecture, do not amount to the fine Praise here given him by our Author. He was born in the Year 1492, liv'd just that Circle of Years which our Shakespear did, and died eighteen Years before the latter was born. Fine and generous, therefore, as this Tribute of Praise must be own'd, yet it was a strange Absurdity, sure, to thrust it into a Tale, the Action of which is supposed within the Period of Heathenism, and whilst the Oracles of Apollo were consulted. This, however, was a known and wilful Anachronism; which might have slept in Obscurity, perhaps Mr. Pope will say, had I not animadverted on it. Theobald. That rare Italian master, Julio Romano; &c.] Mr. Theobald says, All the encomiums put together, that have been conferred on this excellent artist in painting and architecture, do not amount to the fine praise here given him by our Author. But he is ever the unluckiest of all criticks when he passes judgment on beauties and defects. The passage happens to be quite unworthy Shakespear. 1. He makes his speaker say, that was Julio Romano the God of Nature, he would outdo Nature. For this is the plain meaning of the words, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, he would beguile Nature of her custom. 2dly, He makes of this famous Painter, a Statuary; I suppose confounding him with Michael Angelo; but, what is worst of all, a painter of statues, like Mrs. Salmon of her wax-work. Warburton. Poor Theobald's encomium of this passage is not very happily conceived or expressed, nor is the passage of any eminent excellence; yet a little candour will clear Shakespeare from part of the impropriety imputed to him. By Eternity he means only Immortality, or that part of Eternity which is to come; so we talk of eternal renown and eternal infamy. Immortality may subsist without Divinity, and therefore the meaning only is, that if Julio could always continue his labours, he would mimick nature.

Note return to page 438 *&lblank; of her custom,] That is, of her trade,—would draw her customers from her.

Note return to page 439 †It was, I suppose, only to spare his own labour that the poet put this whole scene into narrative, for though part of the transaction was already known to the audience, and therefore could not properly be shewn again, yet the two kings might have met upon the stage, and after the examination of the old shepherd, the young Lady might have been recognised in sight of the spectators.

Note return to page 440 *—franklin, is a freeholder, or yeoman, a man above a villain, but not a gentleman.

Note return to page 441 †Tall, in that time, was the word used for stout.

Note return to page 442 7&lblank; therefore I keep it Lovely, apart. &lblank;] Lovely, i. e. charily, with more than ordinary regard and tenderness. The Oxford Editor reads. Lonely, apart. &lblank; As if it could be apart without being alone. Warburton. I am yet inclined to lonely, which in the old angular writing cannot be distinguished from lovely. To say, that I keep it alone, separate from the rest, is a pleonasm which scarcely any nicety declines.

Note return to page 443 9O patience.] That is, Stay a while, be not so eager.

Note return to page 444 9Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already—] The sentence compleated is, &lblank; but that, methinks, already I converse with the dead. But there his passion made him break off. Warburton.

Note return to page 445 1The fixure of her eye has motion in't.] This is sad nonsense. We should read, The fissure of her eye &lblank; i. e. the socket, the place where the eye is. Warburton. Fixure is right. The meaning is, that her eye, though fixed, as in an earnest gaze, has motion in it. Edwards.

Note return to page 446 2Ye precious winners all.] You who by this discovery have gained what you desired may join in festivity, in which I, who have lost what can never be recovered, can have no part. Of this play no edition is known published before the folio of 1623. The story is taken from the novel of Dorastus and Faunia, which may be read in Shakespeare illustrated. This play, as Dr. Warburton justly observes, is, with all its absurdities, very entertaining. The character of Autolycus is very naturally conceived, and strongly represented.

Note return to page 447 The first edition of this play is in the Folio of 1623. The Persons of the Drama were first enumerated, with all the cant of the modern Stage, by Mr. Rowe.

Note return to page 448 1&lblank; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.] There is an impropriety of expression in the present reading of this fine passage. We do not say, that the appetite sickens and dies thro' a surfeit; but the subject of that appetite. I am persuaded, a word is accidentally dropt; and that we should read, and point, the passage thus, &lblank; that, surfeiting The app'tite, love may sicken, and so die. Warburt. It is true, we do not talk of the death of appetite, because we do not ordinarily speak in the figurative language of poetry; but that appetite sickens by a surfeit is true, and therefore proper.

Note return to page 449 2That strain again;—it had a dying fall: O! it came o'er my ear, like the sweet south, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour. &lblank;] Amongst the beauties, of this charming similitude, its exact propriety is not the least. For, as a south wind, while blowing over a violet-bank, wafts away the odour of the flowers, it, at the same time, communicates its own sweetness to it; so the soft affecting musick, here described, tho' it takes away the natural, sweet, tranquillity of the mind, yet, at the same time, it communicates a new pleasure to it. Or, it may allude to another property of musick, where the same strains have a power to excite pain or pleasure, as the state is, in which it finds the hearer. Hence Milton makes the selfsame strains of Orpheus proper to excite both the affections of mirth and melancholy, just as the mind is then disposed. If to mirth, he calls for such musick, That Orpheus' self may heave his head From golden slumbers on a bed Of heapt Elysian flowers, and hear Such strains as would have won the ear Of Pluto, to have quite set free His half-regain'd Eurydice. L'allegro. If to melancholy— Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing Such notes as warbled to the string, Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, And made Hell grant what love did seek. Il penseroso. Warburton.

Note return to page 450 3&lblank; so full of shapes is fancy, That it alone is high fantastical.] This complicated nonsense should be rectified thus, &lblank; so full of shapes in fancy, That it alone is hight fantastical, i. e. love is so full of shapes in fancy, that the name of fantastical is peculiarly given to it alone. But, for the old nonsense, the Oxford Editor gives us his new. &lblank; so full of shapes is fancy, And thou all o'er a t high fantastical, Says the Critic. Warburton.

Note return to page 451 4That instant I was turn'd into a hart,] This image evidently alludes to the story of Acteon, by which Shakespeare seems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. Acteon, who saw Diana naked, and was torn in pieces by his hounds, represents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain, has his heart torn with incessant longing. An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in his Wisdom of the Antients, supposes this story to warn us against enquiring into the secrets of princes, by showing, that those who knew that which for reasons of state is to be concealed, will be detected and destroyed by their own servants.

Note return to page 452 5these sov'reign thrones &lblank;] We should read three sov'reign thrones. This is exactly in the manner of Shakespeare. So, afterwards, in this play, Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, do give thee fivefold blazon. Warburton.

Note return to page 453 6her sweet perfections, &lblank;] We should read, and point it thus, (O sweet perfection!) Warburton.

Note return to page 454 7A noble Duke in nature, as in name.] I know not whether the nobility of the name is comprised in Duke, or in Orsino, which is, I think, the name of a great Italian family.

Note return to page 455 8And might not be deliver'd, &c.] I wish I might not be made publick to the world, with regard to the state of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a ripe opportunity for my design. Viola seems to have formed a very deep design with very little premeditation: she is thrown by shipwreck on an unknown coast, hears that the prince is a batchelor, and resolves to supplant the lady whom he counts.

Note return to page 456 9&lblank; I'll serve this Duke;] Viola is an excellent schemer, never at a loss; if she cannot serve the lady, she will serve the Duke.

Note return to page 457 1&lblank; Castiliano vulgo;] We should read volto. In English, put on your Castilian countenance; that is, your grave, solemn looks. The Oxford Editor has taken my emendation: But, by Castilian countenance, he supposes is meant most civil and courtly looks. It is plain, he understands gravity and formality to be civility and courtliness. Warburton.

Note return to page 458 2It's dry, Sir.] What is the jest of dry hand, I know not any better than Sir Andrew. It may possibly mean, a hand with no money in it; or, according to the rules of Physiognomy, she may intend to insinuate, that it is not a lover's hand, a moist hand being vulgarly accounted a sign of an amorous constitution.

Note return to page 459 3In former copies, &lblank; thou seest, it will not cool my nature] We should read, it will not curl by nature. The joke is evident. Warburton.

Note return to page 460 4&lblank; and yet I will not compare with an old man.] This is intended as a satire on that common vanity of old men, in preferring their own times, and the past generation, to the present. Warburton.

Note return to page 461 5Taurus? that's sides and heart.] Alluding to the medical astrology still preserved in Almanacks, which refers the affections of particular parts of the body, to the predominance of particular constellations.

Note return to page 462 6&lblank; a woman's part.] That is, thy proper part in a play would be a woman's. Women were then personated by boys.

Note return to page 463 7&lblank; lenten answer: &lblank;] A lean, or as we now call it, a dry answer.

Note return to page 464 8Hall, in his Chronicle, speaking of the death of Sir Thomas More, says, that he knows not whether to call him a foolish wise man, or a wise foolish man.

Note return to page 465 9Now Mercury indue thee with leasing, for thou speak'st well of fools!] This is a stupid blunder. We should read, with pleasing, i. e. with eloquence, make thee a gracious and powerful speaker, for Mercury was the God of orators as well as cheats. But the first Editors, who did not understand the phrase, indue thee with pleasing, made this foolish correction; more excusable, however, than the last Editor's, who, when this emendation was pointed out to him, would make one of his own; and so in his Oxford edition, reads, with learning; without troubling himself to satisfy the reader how the first editor should blunder in a word so easy to be understood as learning, tho' they well might in the word pleasing, as it is used in this place. Warburton. I think the present reading more humourous. May Mercury teach thee to lye since thou liest in favour of fools.

Note return to page 466 1'Tis a gentleman. Here, &lblank;] He had before said it was a gentleman. He was asked what gentleman? and he makes this reply; which, it is plain, is corrupt, and should be read thus, 'Tis a Gentleman-heir. i. e. some lady's eldest son just come out of the nursery; for this was the appearance Viola made in mens clothes. See the character Malvolio draws of him presently after. Warburton.

Note return to page 467 2&lblank; stand at your door like a Sheriff's post, &lblank;] It was the custom for that officer to have large posts set up at his door, as an indication of his office. The original of which was, that the King's proclamations, and other publick acts, might be affixed thereon by way of publication. so Johnson's Every man out of his humour, &lblank; put off To the Lord Chancellor's tomb, or the Shrives posts. So again in the old play called Lingua, Knows he how to become a scarlet gown, hath he a pair of fresh posts at his door? Warburton.

Note return to page 468 3&lblank; I am very comptible,] Comptible for ready to call to account. Warburton.

Note return to page 469 *&lblank; skipping &lblank;] Wild, frolick, mad.

Note return to page 470 4Ladies, in romance, are guarded by giants, who repel all improper or troublesome advances. Viola seeing the waiting-maid so eager to oppose her message, intreats Olivia to pacify her giant.

Note return to page 471 5Vio. &lblank; tell me your mind, I am a messenger.] These words must be divided between the two speakers thus, Oli. Tell me your mind. Vio. I am a messenger. Viola growing troublesome, Olivia would dismiss her, and therefore cuts her short with this command, Tell me your mind. The other taking advantage of the ambiguity of the word mind, which signifies either business or inclinations, replies as if she had used it in the latter sense, I am a messenger. Warburton.

Note return to page 472 6Look you, Sir, such a one I was this present: is't not well done?] This is Nonsense. The change of was to wear, I think, clears all up, and gives the Expression an Air of Gallantry. Viola presses to see Olivia's Face: The other at length pulls off her Veil, and says; We will draw the Curtain, and shew you the Picture. I wear this Complexion to day, I may wear another to morrow; jocularly intimating, that she painted. The other, vext at the Jest, says, “Excellently done, if God did all.” Perhaps, it may be true, what you say in Jest; otherwise 'tis an excellent Face. 'Tis in Grain, &c. replies Olivia. Warburton.

Note return to page 473 7Hollow your Name to the reverberate Hills,] I have corrected, reverberant. Theobald.

Note return to page 474 *Mine eye, &c.] I believe the meaning is; I am not mistress of my own actions, I am afraid that my eyes betray me, and flatter the youth without my consent, with discoveries of love.

Note return to page 475 8To express myself.] That is, to reveal myself.

Note return to page 476 9With such estimable wonder.] These words Dr. Warburton calls an interpolation of the players, but what did the players gain by it? they are sometimes guilty of a joke without the concurrence of the poet, but they never lengthen a speech only to make it longer. Shakespeare often confounds the active and passive adjectives. Estimable wonder is esteeming wonder, or wonder and esteem. The meaning is, that he could not venture to think so highly as others of his sister.

Note return to page 477 1Her eyes had lost her tongue.] This is nonsense: we should read, &lblank; her eyes had crost her tongue; Alluding to the notion of the fascination of the eyes; the effects of which were called crossing. Warburton. That the fascination of the eyes was called crossing ought to have been proved. But however that be, the present reading has not only sense but beauty. We say a man loses his company when they go one way and he goes another. So Olivia's tongue lost her eyes; her tongue was talking of the Duke and her eyes gazing on his messenger.

Note return to page 478 2How easy is it, for the proper false In women's waxen hearts to set their forms!] This is obscure. The meaning is, how easy is disguise to women; how easily does their own falshood, contained in their waxen changeable hearts, enable them to assume deceitful appearances. The two next lines are perhaps transposed, and should be read thus. For such as we are made, if such we be, Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we.

Note return to page 479 3I think, it rather consists of eating and drinking.] A ridicule on the medical theory of that time, which supposed health to consist in the just temperament and balance of these elements in the human frame. Warburt.

Note return to page 480 4I sent thee six pence for thy Lemon, had'st it.] But the Clown was neither Pantler, nor Butler. The Poet's Word was certainly mistaken by the Ignorance of the Printer. I have restor'd, leman, i. e. I sent thee Sixpence to spend on thy Mistress. Theo.

Note return to page 481 5I did impeticos, &c.] This, Sir T. Hanmer tells us, is the same with impocket thy gratuity. He is undoubtedly right; but we must read, I did impeticoat thy gratuity. The fools were kept in long coats, to which the allusion is made. There is yet much in this dialogue which I do not understand.

Note return to page 482 6In delay there lies no plenty:] This is a proverbial saying corrupted; and should be read thus, In decay there lies no plenty. A reproof of avarice, which stores up perishable fruits till they decay. To these fruits the Poet, humorously, compares youth or virginity; which, he says, is a stuff will not endure. Warb. I believe delay is right.

Note return to page 483 *Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,] This line is obscure; we might read, Come, a kiss then, sweet, and twenty. Yet I know not whether the present reading be not right, for in some counties sweet and twenty, whatever be the meaning, is a phrase of endearment.

Note return to page 484 7Make the welkin dance.] That is, drink till the sky seems to turn round.

Note return to page 485 8draw three souls out of one weaver?] Our Author represents weavers as much given to harmony in his time. I have shewn the cause of it elsewhere. This expression of the power of musick, is familiar with our Author. Much ado about nothing. Now it is soul ravished. Is it not strange that Sheep's-guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?— Why, he says, three souls, is because he is speaking of a catch in three parts. And the peripatetic philosophy, then in vogue, very liberally gave every man three souls. The vegetative or plastic, the animal, and the rational. To this, too, Johnson alludes, in his Poetaster; What, will I turn sharke upon my friends? or my friends friends? I scorn it with my three souls. By the mention of these three, therefore, we may suppose it was Shakespear's purpose, to hint to us those surprising effects of musick, which the antients speak of. When they tell us of Amphion, who moved stones and trees; Orpheus and Arion, who tamed savage beasts, and Timotheus, who governed, as he pleased, the passions of his human auditors. So noble an observation has our Author conveyed in the ribaldry of this buffoon character. Warburton.

Note return to page 486 9This catch is lost.

Note return to page 487 1Peg-a-Ramsey I do not understand. Tilly valley was an interjection of contempt, which Sir Thomas More's lady is recorded to have had very often in her mouth.

Note return to page 488 2A Cozier is a taylor, from couser to sew. French.

Note return to page 489 3Rub your chain with crums.] I suppose it should be read, rub your chin with crums, alluding to what had been said before that. Malvolin was only a steward, and consequently dined after his lady.6Q0084

Note return to page 490 4Rule is, method of life, so misrule is tumult and riot.

Note return to page 491 5Possess us.] That is, inform us, tell us, make us masters of the matter.

Note return to page 492 6an affectioned ass.] Affectioned, for full of affection. Warb.

Note return to page 493 *Recollected, studied. Warb. I rather think that recollected signifies, more nearly to its primitive sense, recalled, repeated, and alludes to the practice of composers who often prolong the song by repetitions.

Note return to page 494 *The word favour ambiguously used.

Note return to page 495 7Lost and worn.] Though lost and worn may mean lost and worn out, yet lost and won being, I think, better, these two words coming usually and naturally together, and the alteration being very slight, I would so read in this place with Sir Tho. Hanmer.

Note return to page 496 8Free is, perhaps, vacant, unengaged, easy in mind.

Note return to page 497 *Silly sooth.] It is plain, simple truth.

Note return to page 498 9And dallies with the innocence of love,] Dallies has no sense. We should read, tallies, i. e. agrees with; is of a piece with. Warburton.

Note return to page 499 1The old age is the ages past, the times of simplicity.

Note return to page 500 2My part of death no one so true Did share it.] Though Death is a part in which every one acts his share, yet of all these actors no one is so true as I.

Note return to page 501 2a very opal!] A precious stone of almost all colours. Pope.

Note return to page 502 3that their business might be every thing, and their intent every where;] Both the preservation of the antithesis, and the recovery of the sense, require we should read,—and their intent no where. Because a man who suffers himself to run with every wind, and so makes his business every where, cannot be said to have any intent; for that word signifies a determination of the mind to something. Besides, the conclusion of making a good voyage out of nothing, directs to this emendation. Warburton.

Note return to page 503 4But 'tis that miracle, and Queen of Gems, That nature pranks her in, &lblank;] What is that miracle, and Queen of Gems? we are not told in this reading. Besides, what is meant by nature pranking her in a miracle? —We should read, But 'tis that miracle, and Queen of Gems, That nature pranks, her mind, &lblank; i. e. what attracts my soul, is not her Fortune, but her Mind, that miracle, and Queen of Gems that nature pranks, i. e. sets out, adorns. Warburton. The miracle and Queen of Gems is her beauty, which the commentator might have found without so imphatical an enquiry. As to her mind, he that should be captious would say, that though it may be formed by nature it must be pranked by education. Shakespeare does not say that nature pranks her in a miracle, but in the miracle of gems, that is, in a Gem miraculously beautiful.6Q0085

Note return to page 504 5She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief,] Mr. Theobald supposes this might possibly be borrowed from Chaucer. And her besidis wonder discretlie Dame Pacience ysittinge there I fonde With facé pale, upon an hill of sonde. And adds, If he was indebted, however, for the first rude draught, how amply has he repaid that debt, in heightning the picture! How much does the green and yellow melancholy transcend the old bard's pale face; the monument his hill of sand.—I hope this Critick does not imagine Shakespear meant to give us a picture of the face of Patience, by his green and yellow melancholy; because, he says, it transcends the pale face of Patience given us by Chaucer. To throw Patience into a fit of melancholy, would be indeed very extraordinary. The green and yellow then belonged not to Patience, but to her who sat like Patience. To give Patience a pale face, was proper: and had Shakespeare described her, he had done it as Chaucer did. But Shakespeare is speaking of a marble statue of Patience; Chaucer, of Patience herself. And the two representations of her, are in quite different views. Our Poet, speaking of a despairing lover, judiciously compares her to Patience exercised on the death of friends and relations; which affords him the beautiful picture of Patience on a monument. The old Bard speaking of Patience herself, directly, and not by comparison, as judiciously draws her in that circumstance where she is most exercised, and has occasion for all her virtue; that is to say, under the losses of shipwreck. And now we see why she is represented as sitting on an hill of sand, to design the scene to be the seashore. It is finely imagined; and one of the noble simplicities of that admirable Poet. But the Critick thought, in good earnest, that Chaucer's invention was so barren, and his imagination so beggarly, that he was not able to be at that charge of a monument for his Goddess, but left her, like a stroller, sunning herself upon a heap of sand. Warburton.

Note return to page 505 6I'm all the daughters of my fathers' house, And all the brothers too &lblank;] This was the most artful answer that could be given. The question was of such a nature, that to have declined the appearance of a direct answer, must have raised suspicion. This has the appearance of a direct answer, that the sister died of her love; she (who passed for a man) saying, she was all the daughters of her father's house. But the Oxford Editor, a great enemy, as should seem, to all equivocation, obliges her to answer thus, She's all the daughters of my father's house, And I am a l the sons &lblank; But if it should be asked now, how the Duke came to take this for an answer to his question, to be sure the Editor can tell us. Warburton.

Note return to page 506 *Nettle of India means, I believe, nothing more than precious nettle.6Q0086

Note return to page 507 7the Lady of the Strachy.] We should read Trachy, i. e. Thrace; for so the old English writers called it. Mandeville says, As Trachye and Macedoigne of the which Alisandre was Kyng. It was common to use the article the before names of places: And this was no improper instance, where the scene was in Illyria. Warburton. What we should read is hard to say. Here is an allusion to some old story which I have not yet discovered.6Q0087

Note return to page 508 8Stone-bow.] That is, a cross-bow, a bow which shoots stones.

Note return to page 509 9Wind up my watch.] In our authour's time watches were very uncommon. When Guy Faux was taken, it was urged as a circumstance of suspicion that a watch was found upon him.

Note return to page 510 1Tho' our silence be drawn from us with cares,] i. e. Tho' it is the greatest pain to us to keep silence. Yet the Oxford Editor has altered it to, Tho' our silence be drawn from us by th' ears There is some conceit, I suppose, in this, as in many other of his alterations, yet it oft lies so deep that the reader has reason to wish he could have explained his own meaning. Warburton. I believe the true reading is, Though our silence be drawn from us with carts, yet peace. In the Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the Clowns says, I have a mistress, but who that is, a team of horses shall not draw from me. So in this play, Oxen and wain-ropes will not bring them together.

Note return to page 511 2What employment have we here?] A phrase of that time, equivalent to our common speech of—What's to do here. The Oxford Editor, not attending to this, alters it to What implement have we here? By which happy emendation, he makes Malvolio to be in the plot against himself; or how could he know that this letter was an implement made use of to catch him? Warburton.

Note return to page 512 3Stannyel, the name of a kind of hawk, is very judiciously put here for Stallion, by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

Note return to page 513 4formal capacity.] Formal, for common. Warburton.

Note return to page 514 5So Sir Thomas Hanmer. The other editions, though it be as rank.

Note return to page 515 6And O shall end I hope.] By O is here meant what we now call a hempen collar.

Note return to page 516 7with thee. The fortunate and happy day-light and champian discovers no more:] Wrong pointed: We should read,—with thee, the fortunate and happy. Day-light and champian discover no more: i. e. Broad day and an open country cannot make things plainer. Warburton.

Note return to page 517 8The word tray-trip I do not understand.6Q0088

Note return to page 518 9Aqua vitæ is the old name of strong waters.

Note return to page 519 1Lord Pandarus.] See our authour's play of Troilus and Cressida.

Note return to page 520 2But wise men's folly fall'n.] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, folly shewn.

Note return to page 521 3In former editions. Sir To. Save you, Gentleman. Vio. And you, Sir. Sir And. Dieu vous guarde, Monsieur. Vio. Et vous aussi; votre Serviteur. Sir And. I hope, Sir, you are; and I am yours.] I have ventured to make the two Knights change Speeches in this Dialogue with Viola; and, I think, not without good reason. It were a preposterous Forgetfulness in the Poet, and out of all probability, to make Sir Andrew not only speak French, but understand what is said to him in it, who in the first Act did not know the English of Pourquoi. Theobald.

Note return to page 522 4The list is the bound, limit, farthest point.

Note return to page 523 5most pregnant and vouchsafed ear.] Pregnant, for ready. Warb.

Note return to page 524 6After the last enchantment, you did hear,] Nonsense. Read and point it thus, After the last enchantment you did here, i. e. after the enchantment, your presence worked in my affections. Warburton. The present reading is no more nonsense than the emendation.

Note return to page 525 7to one of your receiving] i. e. to one of your ready apprehension. She considers him as an arch page. Warburton.

Note return to page 526 8A cyprus is a transparent stuff.

Note return to page 527 9A grice is a step, sometimes written greese from degres, French.

Note return to page 528 1And that no woman has.] And that heart and bosom I have never yielded to any woman.

Note return to page 529 2Save I alone.] These three words Sir Thomas Hanmer gives to Olivia probably enough.

Note return to page 530 3&lblank; taunt him with the Licence of Ink; if thou thou'st him some thrice,] There is no Doubt, I think, but this Passage is One of those, in which our Author intended to shew his Respect for Sir Walter Raleigh, and a Detestation of the Virulence of his Prosecutors. The Words, quoted, seem to me directly levelled at the Attorney-General Coke, who, in the Trial of Sir Walter, attacked him with all the following indecent Expressions.—“All that he did was by thy Instigation, thou Viper; for I thou thee, thou Traytor!” (Here, by the way, are the Poet's three thou's.) “You are an odious Man.”—“Is he base? I return it into thy Throat, on his behalf.”—“O damnable Atheist!”—“Thou art a monster; thou hast an English Face, but a Spanish Heart.”— “Thou hast a Spanish Heart, and thyself art a Spider of Hell.” —“Go to, I will lay thee on thy Back for the confident'st Traytor that ever came at a Bar, &c.” Is not here all the Licence of Tongue, which the Poet satyrically prescribes to Sir Andrew's Ink? And how mean an Opinion Shakespeare had of these petulant Invectives, is pretty evident from his Close of this Speech; Let there be Gall enough in thy Ink, tho' thou write it with a Goose-pen, no matter.—A keener Lash at the Attorney for a Fool, than all the Contumelies the Attorney threw at the Prisoner, as a suppos'd Traytor! Theobald.

Note return to page 531 *Look, where the youngest wren of nine comes.] The womens parts were then acted by boys, sometimes so low in stature, that there was occasion to obviate the in propriety by such kind of oblique apologies. Warburton.

Note return to page 532 4In former editions, I can no other Answer make but Thanks, And Thanks: and ever-oft good Turns Are shuffled off with such uncurrent Pay; &lblank;] The second Line is too short by a whole Foot. Then, who ever heard of this goodly double Adverb, ever-oft, which seems to have as much Propriety as, alway-sometimes? As I have restor'd the Passage, it is very much in our Author's Manner and Mode of Expression. So, in Cymbeline; &lblank; Since when I have been Debtor to You for Courtesies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still. And in All's well, that Ends well, And let me buy your friendly Help thus far, Which I will over-pay, and pay again When I have found it. Theobald.

Note return to page 533 5In former editions, I have sent after him; he says he'll come;] From whom could my Lady have any such Intelligence? Her Servant, employ'd upon this Errand, was not yet return'd; and, when he does return, he brings Word, that the Youth would hardly be intreated back. I am persuaded, she was intended rather to be in Suspense, and deliberating with herself: putting the Supposition that he would come; and asking Herself, in that Case, how She should entertain him. Theobald. &lblank; he says he'll come;] i. e. I suppose now, or admit now, he says he'll come; which Mr. Theobald, not understanding, alters unnecessarily to, say he will come; in which the Oxford Editor has followed him. Warb.

Note return to page 534 6Hot weather often turns the brain, which is, I suppose, alluded to here.

Note return to page 535 7I have lim'd her, &lblank;] I have entangled or caught her, as a bird is caught with birdlime.

Note return to page 536 8fellow! &lblank;] This word which originally signified companion, was not yet totally degraded to its present meaning; and Malvolio takes it in the favourable sense.

Note return to page 537 9This is, I think, an allusion to the witch-finders, who were very busy.

Note return to page 538 1&lblank; he may have mercy upon mine, &lblank;] We may read, He may have mercy upon thine, but my hope is better. Yet the passage may well enough stand without alteration. It were much to be wished, that Shakespeare in this and some other passages, had not ventured so near profaneness.

Note return to page 539 *Jewel does not properly signify a single gem, but any precious ornament or superfluity.

Note return to page 540 2He is Knight, dubb'd with unhack'd rapier, and on carpet consideration; &lblank;] That is, he is no soldier by profession, not a Knight Banneret, dubbed in the field of battle, but, on carpet consideration, at a festivity, or on some peaceable occasion, when knights receive their dignity kneeling not on the ground, as in war, but on a carpet. This is, I believe, the original of the contemptuous term a carpet knight, who was naturally held in scorn by the men of war.

Note return to page 541 *Virago cannot be properly used here, unless we suppose Sir Toby to mean, I never saw one that had so much the look of woman with the prowess of man.

Note return to page 542 *So do not I.] This, I believe, means, I do not yet believe myself, when, from this accident, I gather hope of my brother's life.

Note return to page 543 *I am afraid this great lubber.] That is, affectation and foppery will overspread the world.

Note return to page 544 3I pr'ythee, foolish Greek, &lblank;] Greek, was as much as to say Bawd or Pander. He understood the Clown to be acting in that office. A bawdy-house was called Corinth, and the frequenters of it Corinthians, which words occur frequently in Shakespeare, especially in Timon of Athens, and Henry IVth. Yet the Oxford Editor alters it to Geek. Warburton.

Note return to page 545 4&lblank; get themselves a good report after fourteen years purchase.] This seems to carry a piece of satire upon Monopolies, the crying grievance of that time. The Grants generally were for fourteen years; and the petitions being referred to a committee, it was suspected that money gained favourable reports from thence. Warburton.

Note return to page 546 5In this uncivil and unjust extent] Extent is, in law, a writ of execution, whereby goods are seized for the king. It is therefore taken here for violence in general.

Note return to page 547 6This ruffian hath botch'd up, &lblank;] i. e. swelled and inflamed. A botch being a swelling or abscess. Warburton. I fancy it is only a coarse expression for made up, as a bad taylor is called a botcher, and to botch is to make clumsily.

Note return to page 548 7He started one poor heart of mine in thee.] I know not whether here be not an ambiguity intended between heart and hart. The sense however is easy enough. He that offends thee attacks one of my hearts; or, as the antients expressed it, half my heart.

Note return to page 549 8What relish is in this.] How does this taste? What judgment am I to make of it.

Note return to page 550 9as to say, a careful man and a great scholar.] This refers to what went before, I am not tall enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought a good student; it is plain then that Shakespear wrote, as to say a graceful man, i. e. comely. To this the Oxford Editor says, rectè. Warburton.

Note return to page 551 1very wittily said &lblank; that that is, is:] This is a very humourous banter of the rules established in the schools, that all reasonings are ex præcognitis & præconcessis, which lay the foundation of every science in these maxims, whatsoever is, is; and it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be; with much trifling of the like kind. Warb.

Note return to page 552 2Constant question.] A settled, a determinate, a regular question.

Note return to page 553 3Nay, I am for all waters.] A phrase taken from the actor's ability of making the audience cry either with mirth or grief. Warburton. I rather think this expression borrowed from sportsmen, and relating to the qualifications of a complete spaniel.6Q0089

Note return to page 554 4Propertied me.] They have taken possession of me as of a man unable to look to himself.

Note return to page 555 *Here the Clown in the dark acts two persons, and counterfeits, by variation of voice, a dialogue between himself and Sir Topas.—I will, Sir, I will, is spoken after a pause, as if, in the mean time, Sir Topas had whispered.

Note return to page 556 5Tell me, are you not mad, or do you but counterfeit.] If he was not mad, what did he counterfeit by declaring that he was not mad? The fool, who meant to insult him, I think, asks, are you mad, or do you but counterfeit? That is, you look like a madman, you talk like a madman: Is your madness real, or have you any secret design in it? This, to a man in poor Malvolio's state, was a severe taunt.6Q0090

Note return to page 557 *Vice was the fool of the old moralities. Some traces of this character are still preserved in puppet shows, and by country mummers.

Note return to page 558 6Yet there he was, and there I found this Credit, That he did range, &c.] i. e. I found it justified, credibly vouched. Whether the Word Credit will easily carry this Meaning, I am doubtful. The expression seems obscure; and tho' I have not disturbed the Text, I very much suspect that the Poet wrote; &lblank; and there I found this credent. He uses the same Term again in the very same Sense in the Winter's Tale. &lblank; Then 'tis very credent, Thou may'st cojoin with something, and thou dost, &c. Theobald. &lblank; I sound this credit.] Credit, for account, information. The Oxford Editor roundly alters it to current; as he does almost every word that Shakespear uses in an anomalous signification. Warburton.

Note return to page 559 7&lblank; all instance, all discourse;] Instance, for sense; discourse, for reason. Warburton. Instance is example.

Note return to page 560 *To any other trust.] To any other belief, or confidence, to any other fixed opinion.

Note return to page 561 *Whiles is until. This word is still so used in the northern counties.

Note return to page 562 †Truth is fidelity.

Note return to page 563 8So that conclusions to be as kisses, &lblank;] Tho' it might be unreasonable to call our Poet's Fools and Knaves every where to account; yet, if we did, for the generality we should find them responsible. But what monstrous absurdity have we here? To suppose the text genuine, we must acknowledge it too wild to have any known meaning: and what has no known meaning, cannot be allowed to have either wit or humour. Besides, the Clown is affecting to argue seriously and in form. I imagine, the Poet wrote; So that, conclusion to be asked, is, i. e. So that the conclusion I have to demand of you is this, if your four, &c. He had in the preceding words been inferring some premisses, and now comes to the conclusion very logically; you grant me, says he, the premisses; I now ask you to grant the conclusion. Warb. Though I do not discover much ratiocination in the Clown's discourse, yet, methinks, I can find some glimpse of a meaning in his observation, that the conclusion is as kisses. For, says he, if four negatives make too affirmatives, the conclusion is as kisses: that is, the conclusion follows by the conjunction of two negatives, which, by kissing and embracing, coalesce into one, and make an affirmative. What the four negatives are I do not know. I read, So that conclusion be as kisses.

Note return to page 564 9Bells of St. Bennet.] When in this play he mentioned the bed of Ware, he recollected that the scene was in Illyria, and added in England; but his sense of the same impropriety could not restrain him from the bells of St. Bennet.

Note return to page 565 1Desperate of shame and state.] Unattentive to his character or his condition, like a desperate man.

Note return to page 566 2&lblank; as fat and fulsome.] We should read, as flat. Warburton. Fat means dull; so we say a fatheaded fellow, and fat is more congruent to fulsome than flat.

Note return to page 567 3Why should I not, had I the heart to do it, Like to th' Egyptian Thief, at point of Death Kill what I love?] In this Simile, a particular Story is presuppos'd; which ought to be known to shew the Justness and Propriety of the Comparison. It is taken from Heliodorus's Æthiopics, to which our Author was indebted for the Allusion. This Egyptian Thief was Thyamis, who was a Native of Memphis, and at the Head of a Band of Robbers. Theagenes and Chariclea falling into their Hands, Thyamis fell desperately in love with the Lady, and would have married her. Soon after, a stronger Body of Robbers coming down upon Thyamis's Party, he was in such Fears for his Mistress, that he had her shut into a Cave with his Treasure. It was customary with those Barbarians, when they despair'd of their own Safety, first to make away with those whom they held dear, and desired for Companions in the next Life. Thyamis, therefore, benetted round with his Enemies, raging with Love, Jealousy, and Anger, he went to his Cave; and calling aloud in the Egyptian Tongue, so soon as he heard himself answer'd towards the Cave's Mouth by a Grecian, making to the Person by the Direction of her Voice, he caught her by the Hair with his left Hand, and (supposing her to be Chariclea) with his right Hand plung'd his Sword into her Breast. Theobald.

Note return to page 568 *Case is a word used contemptuously for skin. We yet talk of a fox case, meaning the stuffed skin of a fox.

Note return to page 569 *A nat'ral perspective,] A perspective seems to be taken for shows exhibited through a glass with such lights as make the pictures appear really protuberant. The Duke therefore says, that nature has here exhibited such a show, where shadows seem realities; where that which is not appears like that which is.

Note return to page 570 4A most extracting frenzy &lblank;] i. e. A frenzy that drew me away from every thing but its own object. Warburton.

Note return to page 571 *&lblank; lighter &lblank;] People of less dignity or importance.

Note return to page 572 5&lblank; geck &lblank;] A fool.

Note return to page 573 6&lblank; here were presupos'd] Presuppos'd, for imposed. Warburton.

Note return to page 574 This play is in the graver part elegant and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous. Ague-cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the proper prey of a satirist. The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comick; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contrived to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life.

Note return to page 575 1The Merry Wives of Windsor.] Queen El'zabeth was so well pleased with the admirable Character of Falstaff in the two Parts of Henry IV, that, as Mr. Rowe informs us, She commanded Shakespear to continue it for one Play more, and to shew him in Love. To this Command we owe the Merry Wives of Windsor: which, Mr. Gildon says, he was very well assured, our Author finish'd in a Fortnight. But this must be meant only of the first imperfect Sketch of this Comedy, an old Quarto Edition whereof I have seen, printed in 1602; which says in the Title-page—As it hath been divers times acted both before her Majesty and elsewhere. Pope. Theobald.

Note return to page 576 2Custalorum.] This is, I suppose, intended for a corruption of Custos Rotulorum. The mistake was hardly designed by the Authour, who, though he gives Shallow folly enough, makes him rather pedantick than illiterate. If we read: Shal. Ay, cousin Slender, and Custos Rotulorum. It follows naturally: Slen. Ay, and Ratalorum too.

Note return to page 577 3The luce, &c.] I see no consequence in this answer. Perhaps we may read, the salt-fish is not an old coat. That is, the fresh-fish is the coat of an ancient family, and the salt-fish is the coat of a merchant grown rich by trading over the sea.

Note return to page 578 4&lblank; which is Daughter to Master Thomas Page,] The whole Set of Editions have negligently blunder'd one after another in Page's Christian Name in this place; tho' Mrs. Page calls him George afterwards in at least six several Passages. Theobald.

Note return to page 579 5Speaks small like a woman.] This is from the Folio of 1623, and is the true reading. He admires her for the sweetness of her voice. But the expression is highly humourous, as making her speaking small like a woman one of her marks of distinction; and the ambiguity of small, which signifies little as well as low, makes the expression still more pleasant. Warburton.

Note return to page 580 *This probably alludes to some real incident, at that time well known.

Note return to page 581 6A Coneycatcher was in the time of Elizabeth, a common name for a cheat or sharper. Green, one of the first among us who made a trade of writing pamphlets, published a detection of the frauds and tricks of Coneycatchers and Couzeners.

Note return to page 582 7Edward Shovelboards.] By this term, I believe, are meant, brass casters, such as are shoveled on a board, with king Edward's face stamped upon them.

Note return to page 583 8I combat challenge of this Latin bilboe:] Our modern Editors have distinguish'd this Word, Latin, in Italic Characters, as if it was address'd to Sir Hugh, and meant to call him pedantic Blade, on account of his being a Schoolmaster, and teaching Latin. But I'll be bold to say, in This they do not take the Poet's Conceit. Pistol barely calls Sir Hugh Mountain-foreigner, because he had interpos'd in the Dispute: but then immediately demands the Combat of Slender, for having charg'd him with picking his Pocket. The old Quarto's write it Latten, as it should be, in the common Characters: And as a Proof that the Author design'd This should be address'd to Slender, Sir Hugh does not there interpose one Word in the Quarrel. But what then signifies —latten Bilbo? Why, Pistol seeing Slender such a slim, puny, Wight; would intimate, that he is as thin as a Plate of that compound Metal, which is call'd latten: and which was, as we are told, the Old Orichalc. Monsieur Dacier, upon this Verse in Horace's Epistle de Arte Poetica, Tibia non ut nunc Orichalco vincta, &c. says, C'est une espece de Cuivre de montagne, comme son nom mesme le temoigne; c'est ce que nous appellons aujourd huy du leton. “It is a sort of Mountain-Copper, as its very Name imports, and which we at this time of Day call Latten.” Theobald.

Note return to page 584 9Word of denial in thy Labra's here;] I suppose it should rather be read, Word of denial in my Labra's hear. That is, hear the word of denial in my lips. Thou liest.

Note return to page 585 *Marry trap.] When a man was caught in his own stratagem, I suppose the exclamation of insult was marry, trap!

Note return to page 586 1&lblank; base humour] Read, pass the Nuthooks humour. Nuthook was a term of reproach in the vulgar way, and in cant strain. In the second part of Hen. IV. Dol. Tearsheet says to the beadle, Nuthook, Nuthook, you lie. Probably it was a name given to a bailiff or catchpole, very odious to the common people. Hanmer.

Note return to page 587 2&lblank; Scarlet and John?] The names of two of Robin Hood's companions; but the humour consists in the allusion to Bardolph's red face; concerning which see the second part of Henry the fourth. Warburton.

Note return to page 588 *Careires.] I believe this strange word is nothing but the French cariere, and the expression means, that the common bounds of good behaviour were overfassed.

Note return to page 589 3&lblank; upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas.] Sure, Simple's a little out in his Reckoning. Allhallowmas is almost five Weeks after Michaelmas. But may it not be urg'd, it is design'd, Simple should appear thus ignorant, to keep up Character? I think, not. The simplest Creatures (nay, even Naturals) generally are very precise in the Knowledge of Festivals, and marking how the Seasons run: and therefore I have ventur'd to suspect our Poet wrote Marilemas, as the Vulgar call it: which is near a fortnight after All-Saints Day, i. e. eleven Days, both inclusive. Theobald. This correction, thus seriously and wisely enforced, is received by Sir Tho. Hanmer, but probably Shakespeare intended a blunder.

Note return to page 590 4&lblank; I hope upon Familiarity will grow more Content:] Certainly, the Editors in their Sagacity have murder'd a Jest here. It is design'd, no doubt, that Slender should say decrease, instead of increase; and dissolved, dissolutely, instead of resolved and resolutely: but to make him say, on the present Occasion, that upon Familiarity will grow more Content, instead of Contempt, is disarming the Sentiment of all its Salt and Humour, and disappointing the Audience of a reasonable Cause for Laughter. Theobald.

Note return to page 591 5&lblank; that it past: &lblank;] It past, or this passes, was a way of speaking customary heretofore, to signify the excess, or extraordinary degree of any thing. The sentence completed would be, This passes all expression, or perhaps, This passes all things. We still use passing well, passing strange. Warburton.

Note return to page 592 6&lblank; at a minute's rest.] It was very judiciously suggested to me by a young gentleman who knows more of musick than I, that our authour probably wrote at a minim's rest.

Note return to page 593 7The anchor is deep; will that humour pass?] I see not what relation the anchor has to translation. Perhaps we may read, the authour is deep; or perhaps the line is out of its place, and should be inserted lower after Falstaff has said, Sail like my pinnace to those golden shores.6Q0097

Note return to page 594 8she is a Region in Guiana, all Gold and Bounty] If the Tradition be true, (as I doubt not, but it is;) of this Play being wrote at Queen Elizabeth's Command; this Passage, perhaps, may furnish a probable Conjecture that it could not appear 'till after the Year 1598. The mention of Guiana, then so lately discover'd to the English, was a very happy Compliment to Sir W. Raleigh, who did not begin his Expedition for South America 'till 1595, and return'd from it in 1596, with an advantageous Account of the great Wealth of Guiana. Such an Address of the Poet was likely, I imagine, to have a proper Impression on the People, when the Intelligence of such a golden Country was fresh in their Minds, and gave them Expectations of immense Gain. Theobald.

Note return to page 595 9I will be Cheater to them both, and they shall be Exchequers to me; &lblank;] The same joke is intended here, as in the second part of Henry the fourth, Act 2. —I will bar no honest man my house, nor no Cheater.—By which is meant Escheatours, an officer in the exchequer, in no good repute with the common people. Warburton.

Note return to page 596 1&lblank; for gourd, and Fullam holds: And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.] Fullam is a cant term for false dice, high and low. Torriano, in his Italian Dictionary, interprets Pise by false dice, high and low men, high Fullams, and low Fullams. Johnson, in his Every man out of his humour, quibbles upon this cant term. Who, he serve? He keeps high men and low men, he has a fair living at Fullam.— As for Gourd, or rather Gord, it was another instrument of gaming, as appears from Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady.— And thy dry bones can reach at nothing now, but gords or nine-pins. Warburton.

Note return to page 597 2&lblank; the Revolt of Mien] I suppose we may read, the revolt of men. Sir T. Hanmer reads, this revolt of mine. Either may serve, for of the present text I can find no meaning.6Q0098

Note return to page 598 3&lblank; at the latter end, &c.] That is, when my master is in bed.

Note return to page 599 4&lblank; a cane-colour'd beard.] Thus the latter Editions. I have restor'd with the old Copies. Cain and Judas, in the Tapestries, and Pictures of old, were represented with yellow Beards. Theobald.6Q0099

Note return to page 600 5&lblank; tho' love use reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his counsellor:] This is obscure; but the meaning is, tho' love permit reason to tell what is fit to be done, he seldom follows its advice.—By precisian, is meant one who pretends to a more than ordinary degree of virtue and sanctity. On which account they gave this name to the puritans of that time. So Osborne,— Conform their mode, words and looks to these precisians. And Maine, in his City match, &lblank; I did commend A great precisian to her, for her woman. Warburton. Precisian. Of this word I do not see any meaning that is very apposite to the present intention. Perhaps Falstaff said, Though love use reason as his physician, he admits him not for his counsellor. This will be plain sense. Ask not the reason of my love; the Business of Reason is not to assist love but to cure it.

Note return to page 601 6&lblank; I was then frugal of my mirth, &c.] By breaking this speech into exclamations, the text may stand; but I once thought it must be read, If I was not then frugal of my mirth.

Note return to page 602 7&lblank; a bill in the Parliament for the putting down of Men: &lblank;] What, Mrs. Page, put down the whole Species Unius ob noxam, for a single Offender's Trespass? Don't be so unreasonable in your Anger. But 'tis a false Charge against You. I am persuaded, a short Monosyllable is dropt out, which, once restor'd, would qualify the Matter. We must necessarily read,—for the putting down of fat Men.—Mrs. Ford says in the very ensuing Scene, I shall think the worse of fat Men, as long as I have an Eye, &c. And in the old Quarto's, Mrs. Page, so soon as she has read the Letter, says, Well, I shall trust fat Men the worse, while I live, for his sake: And he is call'd, the fat Knight, the greasy Knight, by the Women, throughout the Play. Theobald. &lblank; I'll exhibit a Bill in Parliament for putting down of men:] Mr. Theobald says, we must necessarily read, —for putting down of fat men. But how is the matter mended? or the thought made less ridiculous? Shakespeare wrote, —for the putting down of mum, i. e. the fattening liquor so called. So Fletcher in his Wild-goose chase: What a cold I have over my stomach, would I had some mum. This is truly humorous, and agrees with the character she had just before given him of Flemish drunkard. But the greatest confirmation of this conjecture is the allusion the words, in question, bear to a matter then publickly transacting. The Merry Wives of Windsor appears to have been wrote in 1601, or very shortly after. And we are informed by Sir Simon D'Ewes' Journal, that no home affair made more noise in and out of parliament at that time, than the suppression and regulation of taverns, inns, ale-houses, strong liquors and the drinkers of them. In the Parliament held 1597, a bill was brought into both houses, For suppressing the multitude of Maltsters, &c. Another, To restrain the excessive making of Malt, and disorderly brewing of strong beer. Another, For regulation of Inns, Taverns, &c. In the next Parliament, held 1601, was a bill, For the suppressing of the multitude of Alehouses and Tipling-houses. Another, Against excessive and common drunkenness; and several others of the same nature. Some of which, after much canvassing, were thrown out, and others passed into Acts. Warburton. I do not see that any alteration is necessary, if it were, either of the foregoing conjectures might serve the turn. But surely Mrs. Ford may naturally enough, in the first heat of her anger, rail at the sex for the fault of one.

Note return to page 603 8What, thou liest! Sir Alice Ford! these Knights will hack, and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry.] The unintelligible nonsense of this speech is hardly to be matched. The change of a single letter has occasioned it, which is thus easily removed. Read and point,— These Knights will lack, and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry. The other had said, I could be knighted, meaning, I could have a Knight for my lover; her companion took it in the other sense, of conferring the title, and says, What, thou liest! Sir Alice Ford! —these Knights will lack a title, [i. e. risk the punishment of degradation] rather than not make a whore of thee. For we are to observe that—and so thou shouldst not, is a mode of speech, amongst the writers of that time, equivalent to—rather than thou shouldst not. Warburton. Upon this passage the learned Editor has tried his strength, in my opinion, with more spirit than success. I read thus—These knights we'll hack, and so thou shouldest not alter the article of thy gentry. The punishment of a recreant or undeserving knight, was to back off his spurs: the meaning therefore is; it is not worth the while of a gentlewoman to be made a Knight, for we'll degrade all these Knights in a little time, by the usual form of hacking off their spurs, and thou, if thou art knighted, shalt be hacked with the rest.

Note return to page 604 *Press is used ambiguously, for a press to print, and a press to squeeze.

Note return to page 605 *&lblank; curtail-dog] That is, a dog that misses his game. The tail is counted necessary to the agility of a greyhound, and one method of qualifying a dog according to the forest laws, is to cut his tail, or make him a curtail.

Note return to page 606 9Away, Sir corporal Nym. Believe it, Page, he speaks sense.] Nym, I believe, is out of place, and we should read thus: Away, Sir corporal. Nym. Believe it, Page, he speaks sense.

Note return to page 607 1I have a sword, and it shall bite upon my necessity. He loves your wife; &c.] This absurd passage may be pointed into sense. I have a sword, and it shall bite &lblank; upon my necessity, he loves your wife, &c.] — Having said his sword should bite, he stops short, as was fitting: For he meant that it should bite upon the high-way. And then turns to the subject of his conference, and swears, by his necessity, that Falstaff loved his wife. Warburton. I do not see the difficulty of this passage: no phrase is more common than—you may, upon a need, thus. Nym, to gain credit, says, that he is above the mean office of carrying love-letters; he has nobler means of living; he has a sword, and upon his necessity, that is, when his need drives him to unlawful expedients, his sword shall bite.

Note return to page 608 2I will not believe such a Cataian] Mr. Theobald has here a pleasant note, as usual. This is a piece of satire that did not want its force at the time of this play's appearing; tho' the history on which it is grounded is become obsolete. And then tells a long story of Martin Frobisher attempting the north-west passage, and bringing home a black-stone, as he thought, full of gold-ore: that it proved not so, and that therefore Cataians and Frobishers became by-words for vain boasters. —The whole is an idle dream. All the mystery of the term Cataian, for a liar, is only this. China was anciently called Cataia or Cathay, by the first adventurers that travelled thither; such as M. Paulo, and our Mandeville, who told such incredible wonders of this new discovered empire, (in which they have not been outdone even by the Jesuits themselves, who followed them) that a notorious liar was usually called a Cataian. Warburton. Mr Theobald and Dr. Warburton have both told their stories with confidence, I am afraid, very disproportionate to any evidence that can be produced. That Cataian was a word of hatred or contempt is plain, but that it signified a boaster or a liar has not been proved. Sir Toby in Twelfth-Night says of the Lady Olivia to her maid, thy Lady's a Cataian; but there is no reason to think he means to call her liar. Besides Page intends to give Ford a reason why Pistol should not be credited. He therefore does not say, I would not believe such a liar: for that he is a liar is yet to be made probable: but he says, I would not believe such a Cataian on any testimony of his veracity. That is: This fellow has such an odd appearance; is so unlike a man civilized, and taught the duties of life, that I cannot credit him. To be a foreigner was always in England, and I suppose every where else, a reason of dislike. So Pistol calls Slender in the first act, a mountain foreigner; that is, a fellow uneducated and of gross behaviour; and again in his anger calls Bardolph, Hungarian wight.

Note return to page 609 3Very rogues, now they be out of service.] A rogue is a wanderer or vagabond, and, in its consequential signification, a cheat.

Note return to page 610 4And tell him, my Name is Brook;] Thus both the old Quarto's; and thus most certainly the Poet wrote. We need no better Evidence, than the Pun that Falstaff anon makes on the Name, when Brook sends him some burnt Sack. Such Brooks are welcome to me, that overflow with such Liquor. The Players, in their Editions, altered the Name to Broom. Theobald.

Note return to page 611 5Will you go an heirs?] This nonsense is spoken to Shallow. We should read, Will you go on, Heris? i. e. Will you go on, Master. Heris, an old Scotch word for master. Warburton.

Note return to page 612 6My long sword.] Not long before the introduction of rapiers, the swords in use were of an enormous length, and sometimes raised with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, censures the innovation by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once have done with his long sword, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier.

Note return to page 613 7And stand so firmly on his Wife's Frailty.] No surely; Page stood tightly to the opinion of her Honesty, and would not entertain a Thought of her being frail. I have therefore ventured to substitute a Word correspondent to the Sense requir'd; and one, which our Poet frequently uses, to signify conjugal faith. Theobald. And stand so firmly on his wife's frailty.] Thus all the copies. But Mr. Theobald has no conception how any man could stand firmly on his wife's frailty. And why? Because he had no conception how he could stand upon it, without knowing what it was. But if I tell a stranger, that the bridge he is about to cross is rotten, and he believes it not, but will go on, may I not say, when I see him upon it, that he stands firmly on a rotten plank? Yet he has changed frailty for fealty, and the Oxford Editor has followed him. But they took the phrase, to stand firmly on, to signify to insist upon; whereas it signifies to rest upon, which the character of a secure fool, given to him, shews. So that the common reading has an elegance that would be lost in the alteration. Warburton.

Note return to page 614 8I will retort the sum in equipage.] This is added from the old Quarto of 1619, and means, I will pay you again in stolen goods. Warburton.

Note return to page 615 9a short knife and a throng,] So Lear, When Cutpurses come not to throngs. Warburton.

Note return to page 616 1A noted place for thieves and pickpockets. Theobald.

Note return to page 617 2Red lettice phrases.] Your ale-house conversation.

Note return to page 618 3your bold beating oaths;] We should read bold-bearing oaths, i. e. out-facing. Warburton. A beating oath, is, I think, right, so we now say, in low language, a thwacking or swinging thing.

Note return to page 619 4Canary.] This is the name of a brisk light dance, and is therefore properly enough used in low language for any hurry or perturbation.

Note return to page 620 5Frampold.] This word I have never seen elsewhere except in Dr. Hacket's life of Archbishop Williams, where a frampul man signifies a peevish troublesome fellow.

Note return to page 621 6In former editions, This punk is one of Cupid's carriers, Clap on more sails; pursue; up with your fights, Give fire; she is my prize.] This punk is one of Cupid's carriers, is a plausible reading, yet absurd on examination. For are not all punks Cupid's carriers? Shakespear certainly wrote, This pink is one of Cupid's carriers, and then the sense is proper, and the metaphor, which is all the way taken from the marine, entire. A Pink is a vessel of the small craft, employed as a carrier (and so called) for merchants. Fletcher uses the word, in his Tamer Tamed. This pink, this painted foist, this cockle-boat, To hang her fights out, and defy me, Friends! A well known man of war &lblank; As to the word fights, both in the text and in the quotation, it was then, and, for aught I know, may be now, a common seaterm. Sir Richard Hawkins in his voyages, p. 66. says,— For once we cleared her deck, and had we been able to have spared but a dozen men, doubtless we had done with her what we would; for she had no close fights, i. e. if I understand it right, no small arms. So that by fights is meant any manner of defence, either small arms or cannon. So Dryden, in his tragedy of Amboyna, Up with your fights. And your nettings prepare, &c. But, not considering this, I led the Oxford Editor into a silly conjecture, which he has done me the honour of putting into his text, which is indeed a proper place for it, Up with yond' frigat. Warburton. The quotation from Dryden might at least have raised a suspicion that fights were neither small arms, nor cannon. Fights and nettings are properly joined. Fights, I find, are cloaths hung round the ship to conceal the men from the enemy, and close-fights are bulkheads, or any other shelter that the fabrick of a ship affords.

Note return to page 622 *&lblank; not to charge you,] That is, not with a purpose of putting you to expence, or being burthensome.

Note return to page 623 7Instance and argument.] Instance is example.

Note return to page 624 8Eleven o'clock.] Ford should rather have said ten o'clock: the time was between ten and eleven; and his impatient suspicion was not likely to stay beyond the time.

Note return to page 625 1Sir T. Hanmer reads Cardalian, as used corruptedly for Cœur de lion.

Note return to page 626 9The host means, I believe, to reflect on the inspection of urine, which made a considerable part of practical physick in that time; yet I do not well see the meaning of mock-water.

Note return to page 627 2In old editions, I will bring thee where Anne Page is, at a farm-house a feastling; and thou shalt woo her, cry'd game; said I well?] Mr. Theobald alters this nonsense to try'd game; that is, to nonsense of a worse complexion. Shakespear' wrote and pointed thus, cry aim, said I well? i. e. consent to it, approve of it. Have not I made a good proposal? for to cry aim signifies to consent to, or approve of any thing. So again in this play, p. 503. And to these violent proceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim, i. e. approve them. And again in King John, Act 2. Scene 2. It ill becomes this presence to cry aim To these ill-turned repetitions. i. e. to approve of, or encourage, them. The phrase was taken, originally, from archery. When any one had challenged another to shoot at the butts (the perpetual diversion, as well as exercise, of that time) the standers-by used to say one to the other, Cry aim, i. e. accept the challenge. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in the Fair maid of the inn, Act 5. make the Duke say, &lblank; must I cry aime To this unbeard of insolence &lblank; i. e. encourage it, and agree to the request of the duel, which one of his subjects had insolently demanded against the other.— But here it is remarkable, that the senseless editors not knowing what to make of the phrase Cry aim, read it thus, &lblank; must I cry ai-me; As if it was a note of interjection. So again Massinger in his Guardian, I will cry aim, and in another room Determine of my vengeance &lblank; And again, in his Renegado, &lblank; to play the Pandor To the Viceroy's loose embraces, and cry aim, While he by force or flattery &lblank; But the Oxford Editor transforms it to Cock o' th' Game; and his improvements of Shakespear's language abound with these modern elegancies of speech, such as Mynheers, Bull-baitings, &c. Warburton.

Note return to page 628 3By shallow rivers, &c.] This is part of a beautiful little poem of the author's, which poem, and the answer to it, the reader will not be displeased to find here. The Passionate Shepherd to his Love. Come live with me, and be my Love, And we will all the Pleasure prove, That Hills and Vallies, Dale and Field, And all the craggy Mountains yield. There will we sit upon the Rocks, And see the Shepherds feed their Flocks, By shallow Rivers, by whose Falls Melodious Birds sing Madrigals: There will I make thee Beds of Roses, And then a thousand fragrant Posies; A Cap of Flowers, and a Kirtle Imbroider'd all with leaves of Myrtle; A Gown made of the finest Wool, Which from our pretty Lambs we pull; Fair lined Slippers for the Cold, With Buckles of the purest Gold; A Belt of Straw, and Ivie Buds, With Coral Clasps, and Amber Studs. And if these Pleasures may thee move, Come live with me, and be my Love. Thy silver Dishes for thy Meat, As precious as the Gods do eat, Shall on an ivory Table be Prepar'd each Day for thee and me. The Shepherds Swains shall dance and sing, For thy Delight each May Morning. If these Delights thy Mind may move, Then live with me, and be my-Love. The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd. If all the World and Love were young, And Truth in every Shepherd's Tongue; These pretty Pleasures might me move, To live with thee, and be thy Love. But time drives Flocks from Field to Fold, When Rivers rage, and Rocks grow cold; And Philomel becometh dumb, And all complain of Cares to come: The Flowers do fade, and wanton Fields To wayward Winter reckoning yields. A honey Tongue, a Heart of Gall, Is Fancy's Spring, but Sorrow's Fall. Thy Gowns, thy Shoes, thy Bed of Roses; Thy Cap, thy Kirtle, and thy Posies: Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten, In Folly ripe, in Reason rotten. Thy Belt of Straw and Ivy-Buds, Thy Coral Clasps, and Amber Studs, All these in me no means can move, To come to thee, and be thy Love. What should we talk of Dainties then, Of better Meat than's fit for Men? These are but vain: that's only good Which God hath blest, and sent for Food. But could Youth last, and Love still breed, Had Joys no date, and Age no need; Then these Delights my Mind might move, To live with thee, and be thy Love. These two Poems, which Dr. Warburton gives to Shakespeare, are, by writers nearer that time, disposed of, one to Marlow, the other to Raleigh. These Poems are read in different Copies with great Variations.

Note return to page 629 3Scall scurvey.] Scall was an old word of reproach, as Scab was afterwards. Chaucer imprecates on his Scrivener, Under thy longe lockes mayest thou have the Scalle.

Note return to page 630 4We have linger'd &lblank;] They have not lingered very long. The match was proposed by Sir Hugh but the day before.6Q0102

Note return to page 631 5&lblank; he writes verses, he speaks holy-day,] i. e. in a high-flown, fustian stile. It was called a holy-day stile, from the old custom of acting their Farces of the mysteries and moralities, which were turgid and bombast, on holy-days. So in Much ado about nothing,—I cannot woo in festival terms. And again in the Merchant of Venice,—thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him. Warburton.

Note return to page 632 6&lblank; of no Having,] Having is the same as estate or fortune.

Note return to page 633 7How now, my Eyas-musket,] Eyas is a young unfledg'd hawk. I suppose from the Italian Niaso, which originally signified any young bird taken from the nest unfledg'd, afterwards, a young hawk. The French, from hence, took their niais, and used it in both those significations; to which they added a third, methaphorically a silly fellow; un garçon fort niais, un niais.—Musket signifies a sparrow hawk, or the smallest species of hawks. This too is from the Italian Muschetto, a small hawk, as appears from the original signification of the word, namely, a troublesome stinging fly. So that the humour of calling the little page an Eyas-musket is very intelligible. Warburton.

Note return to page 634 8&lblank; that becomes the ship-tire, the tire-valiant, or any Venetian attire.] The old Quarto reads, Tire vellet, and the old Folio reads, Or any tire of Venetian admittance. So that the true reading of the whole is this, That becomes the ship-tire, the tire-vailant, or any 'tire of Venetian admittance. The speaker tells his mistress, she had a face that would become all the head-dresses in fashion. The ship-tire was an open head-dress, with a kind of scarf depending from behind. Its name of ship-tire was, I presume, from its giving the wearer some resemblance of a ship (as Shakespeare says) in all her trim: with all her pennants out, and flags and streamers flying. Thus Milton, in Samson Agonistes, paints Dalila. But who is this, what thing of sea or land? Female of sex it seems, That so bedeckt, ornate and gay, Comes this way sailing Like a stately ship Of Tarsus, bound for th' Isles Of Javan or Gadier, With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Sails fill'd and streamers waving, Courted by all the winds that hold them play. This was an image familiar with the poets of that time. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in their play of Wit without money,— She spreads sattens as the King's ships do canvas every where, she may space her misen; &c. This will direct us to reform the following word of tire-valiant, which I suspect to be corrupt, valiant being a very incongruous epithet for a woman's head-dress. I suppose Shakespeare wrote tire-vailant. As the ship-tire was an open head-dress, so the tire-vailant was a close one; in which the head and breast were covered as with a vail. And these were, in fact, the two different head-dresses then in fashion, as we may see by the pictures of that time. One of which was so open, that the whole neck, breasts and shoulders, were open'd to view: the other, so securely inclosed in kerchiefs, &c. that nothing could be seen above the eyes or below the chin. &lblank; or any Venetian attire.] This is a wrong reading, as appears from the impropriety of the word attire here used for a woman's head-dress: whereas it signifies the dress of any part. We should read therefore, Or any 'tire of Venetian admittance. For the word attire, reduced by the Aphæresis, to 'tire, takes a new signification, and means only the head-dress. Hence Tire-woman, for a dresser of the head. As to the meaning of the latter part of the sentence, this may be seen by a paraphrase of the whole speech. —Your face is so good, says the speaker, that it would become any head-dress worn at court, either the open or the close, or indeed any rich and fashionable one worth adorning with Venetian point, or which will admit to be adorned. [Of Venetian admittance] The fashionable lace, at that time, was Venetian point. Warburton. This note is plausible, except in the explanation of Venetian admittance: but I am afraid this whole system of dress is unsupported by evidence.

Note return to page 635 9&lblank; So now uncate.] So the Folio of 1623 reads, and rightly. It is a term in Fox-hunting, which signifies to dig out the Fox when earth'd. And here is as much as to say, take out the foul linnen under which the adulterer lies hid. The Oxford Editor reads uncouple, out of pure love to an emendation. Warburt.

Note return to page 636 *&lblank; father's wealth] Some light may be given to those who shall endeavour to calculate the encrease of English wealth, by observing, that Latymer in the time of Edward VI. mentions it as a proof of his father's prosperity, That though but a yeoman, he gave his daughters five pounds each for her portion. At the latter end of Elizabeth, seven hundred pounds were such a temptation to courtship, as made all other motives suspected. Congreve makes twelve thousand pounds more than a counterballance to the affectation of Belinda. No poet would now fly his favourite character at less than fifty thousand.

Note return to page 637 1If opportunity and humblest suit] Dr. Thirlby imagines, that our Author with more Propriety wrote; If Importunity and humblest Suit. I have not ventur'd to disturb the Text, because it may mean, “If the frequent Opportunities you find of solliciting my Father, and your Obsequiousness to him, cannot get him over to your Party, &c.” Theobald.

Note return to page 638 2Anne. Alas, I had rather be set quick i'th' earth, And bowl'd to death with turnips.] Can we think the speaker would thus ridicule her own imprecation? We may be sure the last line should be given to the procuress, Quickly, who would mock the young woman's aversion for her master the Doctor. Warburton.

Note return to page 639 *&lblank; fool and a physician?] I should read fool or a physician, meaning Slender and Caius.

Note return to page 640 3In former copies, &lblank; as they would have drown'd a blind Bitch's puppies,] I have ventur'd to transpose the Adjective here, against the Authority of the printed Copies I know, in horses, a Colt from a blind Stallion loses much of the Value it might otherwise have; but are puppies ever drown'd the sooner, for coming from a blind Bitch? The Author certainly wrote, as they would have drown'd a Bitch's blind puppies. Theob.

Note return to page 641 4A bilbo is a Spanish blade, of which the excellence is flexibleness and elasticity.

Note return to page 642 *&lblank; kidney;] Kidney in this phrase now signifies kind or qualities, but Falstaff means a man whose kidnies ars as fat as mine.

Note return to page 643 5There is no image which our authour appears so fond of as that of a cuckold's horns. Scarcely a light character is introduced that does not endeavour to produce merriment by some allusion to horned husbands. As he wrote his plays for the stage rather than the press, he perhaps reviewed them seldom, and did not observe this repetition, or finding the jest, however frequent, still successful, did not think correction necessary.

Note return to page 644 6This is a very trifling scene, of no use to the plot, and I should think of no great delight to the audience; but Shakespeare best knew what would please.

Note return to page 645 *To take or, which is now used for to grieve, seems to be used by our authour for to rage. Perhaps it was applied to any passion.

Note return to page 646 †Peer-out,] That is, appear horns. Shakespeare is at his old lanes.6Q0103

Note return to page 647 7This wrongs you.] This is below your character, unworthy of your understanding, injurious to your honour. So in the Taming of the Shrew, Bianca being ill treated by her rugged sister, says, You wrong me much, indeed you wrong yourself.

Note return to page 648 8Runnion, applied to a woman, means, as far as can be traced, much the same with scall or scab spoken of a man.

Note return to page 649 9I spy a great peard under her muffler.] As the second stratagem, by which Falstaff escapes, is much the grosser of the two, I wish it had been practised first. It is very unlikely that Ford having been so deceived before, and knowing that he had been deceived, would suffer him to escape in so slight a disguise.

Note return to page 650 1Cry out upon no trail.] The expression is taken from the hunters. Trail is the scent left by the passage of the game. To cry out, is to open or bark.

Note return to page 651 2They must come off;] This never can be our Poet's or his Host's meaning. To come off being in other terms to go scot-free. We must read, compt off, i. e. clear their reckoning. Warburton. To come off, signifies in our authour, sometimes to be uttered with spirit and volubility. In this place it seems to mean what is in our time expressed by to come down, to pay liberally and readily. These accidental and colloquial senses are the disgrace of language, and the plague of commentators.

Note return to page 652 3And takes the cattle.] To take, in Shakespeare, signifies to seize or strike with a disease, to blast. So in Hamlet, No planet takes. So in Lear, &lblank; Strike her young limbs Ye taking airs with lameness.

Note return to page 653 4Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our Device, That Falstaff at that Oak shall meet with us. Page. Well; let it not be doubted, but he'll come. And in this Shape when you have brought him thither,] Thus this Passage has been transmitted down to us, from the Time of the first Edition by the Players: But what was this Shape, in which Falstaff was to be appointed to meet? For the women have not said one word to ascertain it. This makes it more than suspicious, the Defect in this Point must be owing to some wise Retrenchment. The two intermediate Lines, which I have restored from the old Quarto, are absolutely necessary, and clear up the matter. Theobald.

Note return to page 654 5With some diffused song:] A diffused song signifies a song that strikes out into wild sentiments beyond the bounds of nature, such as those whose subject is fairy-land. Warburton.

Note return to page 655 6And fairy-like to pinch the unclean Knight;] The Grammar requires us to read, And fairy-like too, pinch the unclean Knight. Warburton.

Note return to page 656 7That silk will I go by, and in that time &lblank;] Mr. Theobald referring that time to the time of buying the silk, alters it to tire. But there is no need of any change: That time evidently relating to the time of the mask with which Falstaff was to be entertained, and which makes the whole subject of this dialogue. Therefore the common reading is right. Warburton.

Note return to page 657 8Standing-bed and truckle-bed,] The usual furniture of chambers in that time, was a standing-bed, under which was a trochle, truckle or running bed. In the standing-bed lay the master, and in the truckle-ben the servant. So in Hall's account of a servile tutor: He lieth in the truckle-bed, While his young master lieth o'er his head.

Note return to page 658 9Bohemian-Tartar.] The French call a Bohemian what we call a Gypsey, but I believe the Host means nothing more than, by a wild appellation, to insinuate that Simple makes a strange appearance.

Note return to page 659 1Mussel-shell.] He calls poor Simple mussel-shell, because he stands with his mouth open.

Note return to page 660 2Primero.] A game at cards.

Note return to page 661 3Action of an old Woman.] What! was it any Dexterity of Wit in Sir John Falstaff, to counterfeit the Action of an old Woman, in order to escape being apprehended for a Witch? Surely, one would imagine, This was the readiest Means to bring him into such a Scrape: for none but Old Women have ever been suspected of being Witches. The Text must certainly be restor'd, a wood Woman, a crazy, frantick Woman; one too wild, and silly, and unmeaning, to have either the Malice, or mischievous Subtlety of a Witch in her. Theobald. This emendation is received by Sir Thomas Hanmer, but rejected by Dr. Warburton. To me it appears reasonable enough.

Note return to page 662 4The great fault of this play is the frequency of expressions so profane, that no necessity of preserving character can justify them. There are laws of higher authority than those of criticism.

Note return to page 663 5No man means evil but the devil.] This is a double blunder; for some, of whom this was spoke, were women. We should read then, no one means. Warburton.

Note return to page 664 6The former impression:] And the Welch Devil Herne?] But Falstaff was to represent Herne, and he was no Welchman. Where was the Attention, or Sagacity, of our Editors, not to observe that Mrs. Ford is inquiring for Evans by the Name of the Welch Devil? Dr. Thirlby likewise discover'd the Blunder of this Passage. Theobald.

Note return to page 665 7Divide me like a brib'd-Buck,] Thus all the old Copies, mistakingly: It must be bribe-buck; i. e. a Buck sent for a Bribe. Theobald.

Note return to page 666 8Fellow of this walk.] Who the fellow is, or why he keeps his shoulders for him, I do not understand.6Q0104

Note return to page 667 9You orphan-heirs of fixed destiny.] But why Orphan-heirs? Destiny, whom they succeeded, was yet in being. Doubtless the Poet wrote, You ouphen heirs of fixed destiny. i. e. you Elves, who minister, and succeed in some of the works of destiny. They are called, in this Play, both before and afterwards, Ouphes; here Ouphen; en being the plural termination of Saxon nouns. For the word is from the Saxon, Alpenne, lamiæ, dæmones. Or it may be understood to be an adjective, as wooden, woollen, golden, &c. Warburton.

Note return to page 668 1raise up the organs of her fantasie;] The sense of this speech is—that she, who had performed her religious duties, should be secure against the illusion of fancy; and have her sleep, like that of infancy, undisturbed by disordered dreams. This was then the popular opinion, that evil spirits had a power over the fancy; and, by that means, could inspire wicked dreams into those who, on their going to sleep, had not recommended themselves to the protection of heaven. So Shakespear makes one, on his lying down, say, From fairies, and the tempters of the night, Protect us heav'n! As this is the sense, let us see how the common reading expresses it; Raise up the organs of her fantasie, i. e. inflame her imagination with sensual ideas; which is just the contrary to what the Poet would have the speaker say. We cannot therefore but conclude he wrote, rein up the organs of her fantasie, i. e. curb them, that she be no more disturbed by irregular imaginations, than children in their sleep. For, he adds immediately, Sleep she as sound as careless infancy. So in the Tempest, Give not dalliance too much the rein. And in Measure for Measure, I give my sensual race the rein. To give the rein, being just the contrary to rein up. The same thought he has again in Mackbeth, &lblank; Merciful powers! Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose. Warburton.

Note return to page 669 2In state as wholsome.] The Oxford Editor not knowing the meaning of wholsome, has alter'd it to, In site as wholsom, and so has made the wish a most absurd one. For the site or situation must needs be what it is, till the general destruction. But wholsom here signifies integer. He wishes the castle may stand in its present state of perfection, which the following words plainly shew, &lblank; as in state 'tis fit. Warburton.

Note return to page 670 3Worthy the owner, and the owner it.] And cannot be the true reading. The context will not allow it; and his court to Queen Elizabeth directs us to another, &lblank; as the owner it. for, sure he had more address than to content himself with wishing a thing to be, which his complaisance must suppose actually was, namely, the worth of the owner. Warburton.

Note return to page 671 4In emrold-tuffs, flow'rs purple, blue and white, Like saphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,] These lines are most miserably corrupted. In the words,—Flowers purple, blue and white,—the purple is left uncompared. To remedy this, the Editors, who seem to have been sensible of the imperfection of the comparison, read, and rich embroidery; that is, according to them, as the blue and white flowers are compared to saphire and pearl, the purple is compared to rich embroidery. Thus instead of mending one false step they have made two, by bringing saphire, pearl and rich embroidery under one predicament. The lines were wrote thus by the Poet, In emrold-tuffs, flow'rs purfled, blue and white, Like saphire, pearl, in rich embroidery, i. e. let there be blue and white flow'rs worked on the greensword, like saphire and pearl in rich embroidery. To purfie is to over-lay with tinsel, gold thread, &c. so our ancestors called a certain lace of this kind of work a purfling-lace. 'Tis from the French, pourfiler. So Spencer, &lblank; she was yclad All in a silken Camus, lilly-white, Purfled upon, with many a folded plight. The change of and into in, in the second verse, is necessary. For flow'rs worked, or purfled in the grass, were not like saphire and pearl simply, but saphire and pearl in embroidery. How the corrupt reading and was introduced into the text, we have shewn above. Warburt.

Note return to page 672 4&lblank; charactery.] For the matter with which they make letters.

Note return to page 673 5&lblank; of middle earth.] Spirits are supposed to inhabit the ethereal regions, and fairies to dwell under ground, men therefore are in a middle station.

Note return to page 674 6Eva. It is right, indeed, &lblank;] This short Speech, which is very much in Character for Sir Hugh, I have inserted from the old Quarto's. Theobald.

Note return to page 675 7Lust is but a bloody fire,] So the old copies. I once thought it should be read, Lust is but a cloudy fire, but Sir T. Hanmer reads with less violence, Lust is but i'th' blood a fire.

Note return to page 676 8During this Song,] This Direction I thought proper to insert from the old Quarto's. Theobald.

Note return to page 677 9See you these husbands? Do not these fair Oaks Become the Forest better than the Town?] What Oaks, in the Name of Nonsense, do our sagacious Editors make Mrs. Page talk of? The Oaks in the Park? But there was no Intention of transplanting them into the Town. —Talis inscitiæ me quidem pudet, pigetque. The first Folio reads, as the Poet intended, Yoaks: and Mrs. Page's Meaning is this. She speaks it to her own, and Mrs. Ford's Husband, and asks them, if they see the Horns in Falstaff's Hand; and then, alluding to them as the Types of Cuckoldom, puts the Question, whether those Yoaks are not more proper in the Forest than in the Town, i. e. than in their Families, as a Reproach to them. Theobald.

Note return to page 678 1&lblank; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me;] Though this be perhaps not intelligible, yet it is an odd way of confessing his dejection. I should wish to read, &lblank; ignorance itself has a plume o' me. That is, I am so depressed that ignorance itself plucks me, and decks itself with the spoils of my weakness.6Q0105

Note return to page 679 2Mrs. Ford. Nay, Husband,] This and the following little Speech I have inserted from the old Quarto's. The Retrenchment, I presume, was by the Players. Sir John Falstaff is sufficiently punish'd, in being disappointed and exposed. The Expectation of his being prosecuted for the twenty Pounds, gives the Conclusion too tragical a Turn. Besides, it is poetical Justice that Ford should sustain this Loss, as a Fine for his unreasonable Jealousy. Theobald.

Note return to page 680 3The two plots are excellently connected, and the transition very artfully made in this speech.

Note return to page 681 *In the first sketch of this play, which, as Mr. Pope observes, is much inferiour to the latter performance, the only sentiment of which I regret the omission occurs at this critical time, when Fenton brings in his wife, there is this dialogue. Mrs. Ford. Come, Mistress Page, I must be bold with you, 'Tis pity to part love that is so true. Mrs Page. [aside.] Although that I have missed in my intent, Yet I am glad my husband's match is crossed. &lblank; Here, Fenton, take her. &lblank; Eva. Come, Master Page, you must needs agree. Ford. I' faith, Sir, come, you see your wife is pleased. Page. I cannot tell, and yet my heart is eased; And yet it doth me good the doctor missed. Come hither, Fenton, and come hither, Daughter.

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