Note return to page 1 “As You Like It” was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies twenty-three pages, viz. from p. 185 to p. 207 inclusive, in the division of “Comedies.” It preserved its place in the three subsequent impressions of that volume in 1632, 1664, and 1685.

Note return to page 2 1If we suppose that the third edition of Lodge's “Rosalynde” was occasioned by the popularity of Shakespeare's comedy, founded upon one of the earlier impressions in 1590 or 1592, it would show that “As You Like It” was acted in 1598, and might have been written in 1597.

Note return to page 3 1The list of the persons omitted in the old editions, was added by Rowe.

Note return to page 4 1&lblank; it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will,] Orlando and Adam are in the midst of a conversation, on the contents of the will of the father of the former, when they enter. It has been objected, that the sense is incomplete; and Malone, at the suggestion of Blackstone, placed a period after “fashion,” and inserted “He” for the commencement of a new sentence. However, as Johnson observed, there was no necessity for the alteration of the text, which is quite intelligible without any change, excepting in the old punctuation. The words are therefore left as in the original folios of 1623 and 1632; excepting that “poor a thousand crowns, [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0317” of the first folio, is properly printed “a poor thousand crowns,” in the second.

Note return to page 5 2&lblank; and be naught awhile.] A proverbial north-country expression, equivalent (says Warburton) to “a mischief on you,” and Gifford agrees with him. See Ben Jonson's Works, vol. iv. 421. and vol. vi. 160. Dr. Johnson was of opinion, that “be better employed, and be naught awhile,” was to be taken in the same sense as saying, “It is better to do mischief than to do nothing.”

Note return to page 6 3&lblank; begin you to grow upon me?] This is the old reading, and it is probably right, in reference to the “rankness” mentioned in the next line; but it has been suggested to me, that possibly Shakespeare wrote, “begin you to growl upon me?” following up the simile of the “old dog,” which Oliver had just applied to Adam.

Note return to page 7 4&lblank; that she would have followed her exile,] The first folio reads he, and the error is repeated in the others: clearly a mistake of the press.

Note return to page 8 5&lblank; like the old Robin Hood of England.] Lodge represents Gerismond, the banished king of France, as living like “an outlaw in the forest of Arden.” Ardenne is a large forest in French Flanders.

Note return to page 9 6&lblank; and would you yet I were merrier?] The old copies omit “I,” which seems necessary for the sense; though still it might be intelligible, were we to suppose Rosalind to express a wish, that Celia were yet even merrier than she appeared to be. Pope inserted the pronoun.

Note return to page 10 7Enter Touchstone.] “Enter Clown” is the direction in the old folios.

Note return to page 11 8&lblank; who, perceiving our natural wits too dull to reason of such goddesses, hath sent this natural for our whetstone:] Malone read perceiveth, and inserted and before “hath,” to carry on the sentence; but the error lies in “perceiveth,” as it stands in the folio of 1623: the folio of 1632 has perceiving, which is evidently right; and the MS. corrector of Lord Francis Egerton's folio of 1623 suggested the same alteration.

Note return to page 12 9&lblank; the dulness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.] Malone, Steevens, &c. read “his wits;” but the meaning is quite clear, that “the dulness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits” of other people, not of his own.

Note return to page 13 1One that old Frederick, your father, loves.] As Malone remarks, there is some error here, as Frederick is the father of Celia, and not of Rosalind. He suggests that we might read Ferdinand for “Frederick.” Perhaps the name of the knight was Frederick, and the clown's answer ought to run, “One old Frederick, that your father loves,” which only changes the place of “that.” This is the more likely, because Frederick the usurper, being younger than the exiled Duke, would hardly be called by the Clown “Old Frederick.”

Note return to page 14 2My father's love is enough to honour him enough.] This is Rosalind's answer, in Shakespeare's characteristic manner, as it stands distinctly in the old copies; but Malone and others give it as follows:—“My father's love is enough to honour him. Enough! speak no more of him;” which sacrifices the point of the reply.

Note return to page 15 3&lblank; you'll be whipp'd for taxation.] It was the custom to whip fools when they allowed their tongues too great licence. See the comedy of “Patient Grissil,” printed for the Shakespeare Society, p. 82.

Note return to page 16 4With bills on their necks,] There is reason to think that “with bills on their necks,” as Farmer suggested, should be part of the description Le Beau is giving of the “old man and his three sons.” Lodge, in his novel of “Rosalynde,” calls the father “a lustie Franklin of the country,” with “two tall men that were his sonnes,” and they would properly be furnished “with bills on their necks.” These bills were commonly carried by foresters; and Rosalind immediately misinterprets the word “bills,” as if it meant public notices—“Be it known to all men by these presents.” However, though “with bills on their necks” may belong to Le Beau, the old copies give the words to Rosalind; and it is only in cases of very clear and decided error that we venture to vary from the ancient text. The later folios reprint the passage as it stands in the first.

Note return to page 17 5&lblank; there is such odds in the man.] i. e. Such a difference in the man, as compared with Charles, the wrestler. Sir Thomas Hanmer changed “man” to men; but without necessity, and against all authority.

Note return to page 18 6&lblank; the princess calls for you.] So the old copies; and surely there is no need for change: yet Theobald, and some modern editors, read, “the princesses call for you.” It is Celia who had desired Le Beau to call Orlando to her: Orlando, seeing two ladies, very naturally answers, “I attend them, with all respect and duty.”

Note return to page 19 7&lblank; his will hath in it, &c.] In Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, “in it” is misprinted it in.

Note return to page 20 8Is but a quintaine, a mere lifeless block.] A quintaine was originally a wooden object, generally in the figure of a man, used in martial exercises, as a mark against which weapons were directed. It afterwards became a sport, and was such in the time of Shakespeare.

Note return to page 21 9&lblank; the smaller is his daughter:] The old copies have taller, which is certainly wrong, because Rosalind in the next scene says, that she is “more than common tall.” Pope altered it to shorter; but, as Malone observes, smaller comes nearer to the old reading, and we may add, that shorter and “daughter” read dissonantly.

Note return to page 22 1No, some of it for my child's father.] This is according to the old copies; but, as Coleridge suggests, (Lit. Rem. ii. 116,) we ought to read my father's child; an improvement both natural and delicate. However, with this observation, we feel bound, notwithstanding, to adhere to the ancient text.

Note return to page 23 2&lblank; take your change upon you,] The folio, 1632, reads, charge.

Note return to page 24 3&lblank; smirch my face.] See vol. ii. p. 235, note 7; and p. 246, note 11.

Note return to page 25 4&lblank; curtle-ax] i. e. cutlass, or broad-sword.

Note return to page 26 5No longer Celia, but Aliena.] Ganymede and Aliena are the names they assume in Lodge's “Rosalynde.”

Note return to page 27 6Now go we in content] The first folio transposes the words “we in,” but the second folio corrects the error.

Note return to page 28 7The seasons' difference;] “The penalty of Adam,” here referred to, seems to have been, to be sensible of the “difference” between heat and cold after his expulsion from Paradise.

Note return to page 29 8Being native burghers of this desert city,] Our poet may have derived this thought from two lines in “Montanus' Sonnet,” in Lodge's “Rosalynde.” See “Shakespeare's Library,” part ii. p. 93. “About her wond'ring stood The citizens of the wood.”

Note return to page 30 P. 27.&lblank; Being native burghers of this desert city] Nash, in his “Pierce Penniless,” sign. 1 3, edit. 1592 (Shakespeare Society's reprint, p. 70) calls deer, in the very terms of Lodge, “the nimble citizens of the wood.”

Note return to page 31 9&lblank; with forked heads,] i. e. The “forked,” or barbed “heads” of arrows.

Note return to page 32 10First, for his weeping into the needless stream;] “Into” is to be read in the time of one syllable. Malone and Steevens altered “into” to in, but the stag did not weep in, but “into” the “needless stream.”

Note return to page 33 11The body of the country, city, court,] The first folio omits “the,” which is inserted in the second folio.

Note return to page 34 12&lblank; the roynish clown,] Roynish, from rogneux, Fr. scurvy.

Note return to page 35 2&lblank; so fond to overcome] i. e. so foolish. See vol. ii. p. 37, note 5.

Note return to page 36 3The bony priser] In all the folios, “bony” is spelt bonny.

Note return to page 37 4&lblank; to some kind of men] Oldest copy, “seeme kind.” Corrected in the second folio.

Note return to page 38 5Why, what's the matter?] These words are made part of Adam's speech in the folio of 1623; but are properly assigned to Orlando in the folio of 1632. An error of a similar kind occurs in Orlando's next speech.

Note return to page 39 6From seventeen years,] The old copies read, seventy. The correction was made by Rowe, and is warranted by what follows in the next line but one.

Note return to page 40 7&lblank; and Clown, alias Touchstone.] The whole of this is precisely the old stage-direction; and as it is perfectly intelligible, it is to be preferred.

Note return to page 41 8O Jupiter! how weary are my spirits!] In the old copies it stands, “how merry are my spirits!” an easy misprint: and that it was so, seems shown by the answer of Touchstone, “I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary.” It has been suggested, that Rosalind was assuming good spirits, as well as male attire, and would therefore say, “how merry are my spirits;” but why should she assume good spirits here to Celia, when in the very next sentence she utters she says, that her spirits are so bad that she could almost cry?

Note return to page 42 9&lblank; I can go no farther.] The copy of 1623 reads, “I cannot go no farther;” but the second folio corrects the error.

Note return to page 43 10Wearying thy hearer] The first folio reads wearing, and the second folio, wearying.

Note return to page 44 1O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe!] In the old folios this is made a separate line, and properly; for it is very clear that Shakespeare meant to adopt a species of blank-verse lyrical measure in this speech, each staff ending with “Thou hast not lov'd.”

Note return to page 45 2&lblank; searching of thy wound,] The folio of 1623 reads, they would; and the second folio only half corrects the error by substituting their wound. Our text is, no doubt, the true reading.

Note return to page 46 3&lblank; kissing of her batler,] The folio of 1632 reads, batlet: a bat used for washing linen.

Note return to page 47 4&lblank; to you, friend.] First folio, your: second folio, “you.”

Note return to page 48 5And little recks &lblank;] i. e. little cares.

Note return to page 49 6And turn his merry note] Malone and some other modern editors vary from the old copies, by reading tune instead of “turn,” which was the language of the period. Pope first made the alteration.

Note return to page 50 7Ducdame,] Sir Thomas Hanmer altered “Ducdame” to Duc ad me, which is probably right; but duc ad me being harsh, when sung to the same notes as its translation “Come hither,” it was corrupted to duc-da-me, a trisyllable which ran more easily. Farmer observes, that “if duc ad me were right, Amiens would not have asked its meaning.” Why not? if Amiens be supposed not to understand Latin. When Jaques declares it to be “a Greek invocation,” he seems to intend to jeer Amiens upon his ignorance.

Note return to page 51 8Well said!] In authors of the time, “Well said” was often used for “Well done.”

Note return to page 52 9The Same.] i. e. The same part of the forest, where Amiens had sung to Jaques, and where Amiens had said, “the duke will drink under this tree.”

Note return to page 53 1Not to seem senseless of the bob:] The old copies read, “seem senseless of the bob;” which appears wrong, not merely as regards the meaning, but the measure: both are completed by the insertion of “Not to,” supplied by Theobald; though they may not be the very words accidentally omitted by the compositor, or which had dropped out in the press.

Note return to page 54 2Till that the weary very means do ebb?] The old copies give this line literatim as follows:— “Till that the wearie verie meanes do ebbe?” which Pope altered thus, Malone and other modern editors following him:— “Till that the very very means do ebb?” A clear sense can be made out of the passage as it stands in the old text, and we therefore reprint it; but the compositor may have misread wearie for “wearing,” and transposed very; and if we consider Jaques to be railing against pride and excess of apparel, the meaning may be, that “the very wearing means,” or means of wearing fine clothes, “do ebb.” To read “very, very,” with Pope and others, is poor, and unlike Shakespeare.

Note return to page 55 3&lblank; yet am I inland bred,] The word occurs again in Act. iii. sc. 2, “who was in his youth an inland man.” “Inland” was generally used in our old writers in opposition to upland, which meant rustic and unpolished.

Note return to page 56 4&lblank; and modern instances;] i. e. common instances. The use of the word in this sense is frequent.

Note return to page 57 5Then, heigh, ho!] First folio, The.

Note return to page 58 6&lblank; expediently,] i. e. expeditiously. Expedient, throughout our author's plays, says Steevens, signifies expeditious.

Note return to page 59 7&lblank; unexpressive &lblank;] i. e. inexpressible. Milton, as Malone observes, uses the same word, in precisely the same sense, in his Hymn on the Nativity.

Note return to page 60 8Thou art in a parlous state,] Ritson tells us, correctly, that “parlous” is a corruption of perilous. It sometimes seems to mean talkative, as in the following line from Day's “Law Tricks,” 1608, “A parlous youth, sharp and satirical.” Perhaps, being “sharp and satirical,” the youth was on that account perilous, or “parlous.” In the old MS. Interlude of “Misogonus,” it is said of one of the characters, “O! its a parlous unthriftye ladde.”

Note return to page 61 7God make incision in thee!] i. e. says Steevens, “Cut thee for the simples.” If the shepherd were “raw,” he might be the more fit for “incision.” The explanation of Steevens seems supported by the next speech of Touchstone, “That is another simple sin in you,” &c.

Note return to page 62 8All the pictures, fairest lin'd,] i. e. delineated, and not limn'd, as Steevens truly observes: it has been sometimes printed limn'd.

Note return to page 63 9But the fair of Rosalind.] “Fair” for fairness. See vol. ii. p. 126, note 3.

Note return to page 64 10&lblank; the right butter-women's rank to market.] So the old copies; and “rank” is certainly as good as rate or rant, which some editors would substitute without authority. “Rank,” as Whiter observes, means the order in which they go one after another, and therefore Shakespeare says, “butter-women's,” and not butter-woman's, as it has been corrupted of late years.

Note return to page 65 1&lblank; then it will be the earliest fruit i' the country;] Steevens observes upon this passage, “Shakespeare seems to have had little knowledge of gardening: the medlar is one of the latest fruits.” It was not that Shakespeare did not understand gardening, but that Steevens did not here understand Shakespeare. Shakespeare was well aware that the medlar is “one of the latest fruits,” and this constitutes the point of what Rosalind says:—“Then it will be the earliest fruit in the country,” although now it is one of the latest. To “graff” the tree with the clown would be to “graff” it with a medlar; but the clown was so prematurely intrusive, that the nature of the fruit would be changed, and it would be ripe early instead of late—“then it will be the earliest fruit in the country.” The substance of this note I owe to Mr. Amyot.

Note return to page 66 2Why should this desert be?] Tyrwhitt would read, “Why should this desert silent be?” and Pope, “Why should this a desert be?” No alteration of the old copies seems absolutely necessary, but Pope was a good judge of metre, and a may easily have dropped out.

Note return to page 67 3Helen's cheek, but not her heart,] Misprinted “his heart” in the old copies. See p. 96. of this vol., note 2.

Note return to page 68 4&lblank; for look here what I found on a palm-tree:] “A palm-tree,” as Steevens remarks, “in the forest of Arden, is as much out of its place as the lioness in a subsequent scene.” Shakespeare cared little about such “proprieties;” but possibly he wrote plane-tree, which may have been misread by the transcriber or compositor.

Note return to page 69 5&lblank; that I was an Irish rat,] Ben Jonson, and other poets of the time, have mentioned this mode of killing rats in Ireland; but in a passage in his “Bartholomew Fair,” A. iii. sc. 1, where Cokes begins singing a ballad, he seems to represent it as general: “The rat-catcher's charms,” observes Cokes, “are all fools and asses to this.”

Note return to page 70 6&lblank; a chain, that you once wore, about his neck?] Alluding to the chain which Rosalind had given to Orlando, in Act i. sc. 2.

Note return to page 71 7&lblank; mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and so encounter.] The same proverb—“friends may meet, but mountains never greet”—is referred to in “The Three Lordes of London,” 1590, “I'll tell thee why we met; because we are no mountains.” Sig. c 4 b.

Note return to page 72 8&lblank; and after that, out of all whooping!] i. e. “Out of all cry,” or out of all measure. “Out o' cry” often occurs in “Patient Grissil,” 1603, by Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton, reprinted by the Shakespeare Society.

Note return to page 73 9One inch of delay more is a South-sea of discovery;] The meaning is, that a single “inch” of delay is more to Rosalind than a whole continent in the South-sea. It appears strange that this passage should have given so much trouble to Warburton, Farmer, Henley, and Malone.

Note return to page 74 10&lblank; and relish it with good observance.] So the old copies: modern editors print “with a good observance.”

Note return to page 75 11&lblank; when it drops forth such fruit.] The oldest copy reads, “when it drops forth fruit.” The word such was supplied by the second folio.

Note return to page 76 1&lblank; it curvets unseasonably.] “It curvets very unseasonably” is the reading of Malone and Steevens; but where they obtained the additional adverb they do not explain: it is not found in any of the old copies. Just before, the folio of 1623 has “Cry holla! to the tongue.”

Note return to page 77 2Not so; but I answer you right painted cloth,] The answers of Orlando are so “pretty,” that Jaques asks him if he had not learnt them from the posies of rings? Orlando's reply has reference to the sentences often inscribed upon tapestry, or “painted cloth:” “I answer you right painted cloth;” i. e. exactly in the style of the inscriptions upon tapestry.

Note return to page 78 3&lblank; all, forsooth, deifying the name of Rosalind:] The oldest folio reads, defying: the improvement was made in the second folio.

Note return to page 79 4&lblank; point-device &lblank;] i. e. exact, drest with nicety: an expression of very common occurrence.

Note return to page 80 5&lblank; from his mad humour of love, to a loving humour of madness;] The old copies have it, “living humour of madness;” which is not very intelligible, unless it mean (as Steevens supposed) a lasting, humour of madness. The antithesis is however complete, if, with Johnson, we read loving, which is only the change of a letter: and this reading is supported by the MS. correction of the early possessor of the first folio, in the library of Lord Francis Egerton. The meaning thus is, that Rosalind drove her suitor from his mad humour of love, into a humour in which he was in love with madness, and forswore the world.

Note return to page 81 6&lblank; worse than Jove in a thatch'd house!] Alluding of course to the story of Baucis and Philemon in Ovid, Met. 8. See also “Much Ado about Nothing,” vol. ii. p. 204.

Note return to page 82 7&lblank; Sir Oliver Mar-text,] The title of “Sir” was of old given commonly to the clergy, especially by the lower orders.

Note return to page 83 8&lblank; the rascal.] Lean, poor deer, were called rascals.

Note return to page 84 9&lblank; God'ild you &lblank;] i. e. God yield you, God reward you.

Note return to page 85 1&lblank; his bow,] i. e. His yoke. The ancient yoke in form resembled a bow.

Note return to page 86 2Come, sweet Audrey:] In the first folio, this speech is given to Oliver: the error is corrected in the second folio.

Note return to page 87 3But wind away,] So the old copies; but it seems doubtful whether we ought not to read, “But wend away;” i. e. go away; although in Ben Jonson's ballad of “Robin Goodfellow,” quoted in the “Introduction” to “Midsummer-Night's Dream,” vol. ii. p. 389, we have, “And wind out laughing,” &c. This scrap of an old unknown ballad occurs to the Clown on uttering the name of Oliver, and possibly he altered the last line to render it more applicable. Steevens says, that in the books of the Stationers' Company, Aug. 6, 1584, was entered, by Richard Jones, the ballad of “O sweete Olyver, leave me not behinde thee.” Again, “The answere of O sweete Olyver.” Again, in 1586, “O sweete Olyver, altered to the Scriptures.”

Note return to page 88 4Something browner than Judas's.] Judas, in old paintings, and in old poetry, is usually represented with red hair.

Note return to page 89 5&lblank; as full of sanctity as the touch of holy bread.] Warburton would read, “holy beard;” but without authority or necessity. “Holy bread,” as the Rev. Mr. Barry observes to me, is sacramental bread; and he adds, that “pax-bread” is rendered by Coles, panis osculandus.

Note return to page 90 6&lblank; a pair of cast lips of Diana:] The folio of 1632 has chaste for “cast.”

Note return to page 91 7&lblank; besides, the oath of a lover] The folio, 1632, omits a, and in the next line but one has confirmer for “confirmers.” The folio, 1632, corrects only the first error.

Note return to page 92 8&lblank; breaks his staff like a noble goose.] The humour of this simile depends upon its allusion to tilting, in which it was a disgrace for any knight to break his lance across, and not directly against the breast of his adversary: “quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover,” means, unskilfully across the breast of the lady with whom he was in love.

Note return to page 93 9Bring us to this sight,] Malone altered “to” to unto. Shakespeare, perhaps, preferred the natural and hasty mode of expression to the mere observation of ten-syllable metre. The folio of 1632 follows that of 1623.

Note return to page 94 10Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?] Possibly we ought to read, “lives and dies;” but there is no change here in the folio of 1632 from the text of that of 1623, although “As You Like It” seems to have been one of the plays best corrected by the editor of the second folio. Steevens suspected a quibble upon the word “dies,” but apparently without any reason.

Note return to page 95 11&lblank; lean but upon a rush,] The folio of 1632 inserts but.

Note return to page 96 1What though you have no beauty,] This passage very needlessly puzzled Malone and Steevens; the meaning seems quite clear. Rosalind intends, throughout her speech, to check the vanity of Phebe, and begins by telling her that she has no beauty, and therefore no excuse for being “proud and pitiless.” The difficulty seems to be to understand the passage when, varying from the old copies, mo is substituted for “no.” Mo, or more, indicates comparison, but with whom was Phebe here to be compared in point of beauty? Not with Silvius, because Rosalind says he was “a properer man.”

Note return to page 97 2He's fallen in love with your foulness, and she'll fall in love with my anger.] This is the text of the old copies, though changed by modern editors: it is correct, and only supposes the first part of the sentence to be addressed to Phebe, and the second to Silvius, as the continuation shows that it was. Here again Rosalind tells Phebe pretty plainly that she has “no beauty.”

Note return to page 98 3Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might; “Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?”] The “dead shepherd” was Christopher Marlowe, who was killed in 1593, and whose paraphrase of “Hero and Leander,” from Musæus, was not printed until 1598: he did not finish the work, but it was completed by Geo. Chapman, and published entire in 1600. The line above quoted concludes a passage in the first Sestiad, the whole of which Shakespeare seems to have had in his mind when he wrote this scene, and it runs thus:— “It lies not in our power to love or hate, For will in us is over-ruled by fate. When two are stripp'd, long ere the course begin, We wish that one should lose, the other win: And one especially we do affect Of two gold ingots, like in each respect. The reason no man knows: let it suffice, What we behold is censur'd by our eyes. Where both deliberate, the love is slight: Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?”

Note return to page 99 4That the old carlot once was master of.] “Carlot,” in the old copies, is printed in Italic, and with a capital letter, as if the printer thought it a name. Douce says, that “it is a word of Shakespeare's coinage:” it is derived from carl, and means a peasant.

Note return to page 100 5I have more cause &lblank;] This is the improvement of the second folio, the first reading only, “Have more cause,” and omitting I, which seems necessary to the metre. The correction was adopted by Malone and Steevens, and others.

Note return to page 101 6&lblank; let me be better acquainted with thee.] The first folio reads, defectively, “let me better acquainted with thee;” and the second folio, “let me be better acquainted with thee.” No doubt the word “be” had accidentally dropped out.

Note return to page 102 7&lblank; are abominable fellows,] Spelt abhominable in the old copies. See vol. ii. p. 346, note 3.

Note return to page 103 8&lblank; which, by often rumination,] In the first folio, in is inserted before “which,” and is apparently redundant: the second folio substitutes my for “by;” but the proper cure for the defect is, evidently, to omit in.

Note return to page 104 9&lblank; disable all the benefits of your own country;] i. e. underrate them.

Note return to page 105 10&lblank; of a better leer than you.] Tyrwhitt, in his glossary to Chaucer, explains lere to mean the skin, and he derives it from the Saxon. In the instance before us, it is to be taken as complexion or feature. It occurs again in “Titus Andronicus,” A. iv. sc. 2, in a similar sense. Sir F. Madden translates it countenance in his excellent glossary to “Syr Gawayne.”

Note return to page 106 1&lblank; the foolish chroniclers of that age found it was—Hero of Sestos.] Sir Thomas Hanmer would read coroners for “chroniclers;” but without authority, all the old copies being uniform. Monck Mason was in favour of inserting coroners in the text.

Note return to page 107 2There's a girl, goes before the priest;] Alluding to her anticipating what Celia ought to have said:—There's a girl who goes faster than the priest. Malone and Steevens read, “There a girl,” &c.

Note return to page 108 3“Wit, whither wilt?”] A proverbial exclamation, found in many authors of the time. In Act i. sc. 2, of this play, Rosalind, addressing Touchstone, asks, “How now, wit! whither wander you?” which seems only a variation of the same expression.

Note return to page 109 4Then sing him home:] The words, “Then sing him home: the rest shall bear this burden,” are clearly only stage-directions, although, by error, printed as part of the song in the old copies. “Then sing him home” has reference to the carrying of the lord, who killed the deer, to the duke; and we are to suppose that the foresters sang as they quitted the stage for their “home” in the wood. “The rest shall bear this burden” alludes to the last six lines, which are the burden of the song. Modern editors have taken upon them to divide the song between the first and second lord, by the figures 1 & 2; but without any warrant. We have reprinted it precisely as it stands in the original copies, with the exception above noticed. It is to be observed, that it is found in Playford's “Musical Companion,” (as Boswell pointed out,) without the words “Then sing him home.” It is also in “Catch that Catch can,” 1652, in the same form.

Note return to page 110 5To sleep. Look, who comes here.] We regulate this and the four preceding lines of verse as in the old copies: modern editors have taken it for granted, because a little irregular, that they were prose.

Note return to page 111 6My gentle Phebe did bid me give you this:] So the first folio: the second omits “did.” “Phebe” is to be spoken in the time of one syllable.

Note return to page 112 7&lblank; I will o'er-run thee with policy;] “Policy” is printed police in the oldest folio, and corrected in the second.

Note return to page 113 8&lblank; nor her sudden consenting;] Rowe inserted “her,” not found in the old copies. The sense requires it.

Note return to page 114 9Here comes my Rosalind.] This speech is regulated according to the first and other folios. Malone printed all his, in the third line, instead of “all's,” which is required by the metre, and warranted by the old copies.

Note return to page 115 1Exit.] This necessary stage-direction is omitted in all the old, and in most of the modern editions, that of Capell excepted.

Note return to page 116 2—clubs cannot part them.] “It appears,” observes Malone, “from many of our old dramas, that in our author's time, it was a common custom, on the breaking out of a fray, to call out ‘Clubs—Clubs!’ to part the combatants.”

Note return to page 117 3&lblank; all observance;] Malone suggests the reading of obedience in this place, to avoid the repetition of “observance,” which occurs two lines above. It certainly looks like an error of the press; but we are not thereby warranted in so far altering the original text.

Note return to page 118 4Why do you speak, too,] This is the old reading of all the folios; which is perfectly intelligible, when addressed to Orlando, who replies, that he speaks too, notwithstanding the absence of his mistress. If altered, it need not be altered, as by the modern editors, to bad English—“Who do you speak to.”

Note return to page 119 5&lblank; a woman of the world.] See note to “Much Ado about Nothing,” Vol. ii. p. 210, note 6.

Note return to page 120 6This song may be seen somewhat more at large in Chappell's “Collection of National English Airs,” vol. ii. p. 130, from a MS. now in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. Hence we find, as Dr. Thirlby conjectured, that the stanzas had been transposed, and that the second ought to come last, although not so printed in the old copies of the play. Here, too, we see that “rang time,” in the first stanza, is misprinted in the folios for “ring time.”

Note return to page 121 7&lblank; yet the note was very untuneable.] So the old editions. Monck Mason was strongly of opinion that it was a misprint for untimeable, and the error might be easily made; but Touchstone would hardly say, that “the note” of the song was very untimeable. The page might mistake the nature of Touchstone's remark, and apply to the time what was meant of the tune: the clown subsequently hopes that their voices may be mended, in order that they may sing more tuneably.

Note return to page 122 8As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.] This line has produced a diversity of opinions; but the meaning of it seems to be, that Orlando is in the state of mind of those who fear what they hope, and know they fear it. He dares not hope that Rosalind will perform her promise, yet hopes that she will, and knows that he fears she will not.

Note return to page 123 9Keep you your word, Phebe,] Malone, following Pope, omits you, and contends that this colloquial mode of speaking is a misprint, although just above we have had “Keep you your word, O duke!” &c. Here again “Phebe” is to be pronounced in the time of a monosyllable.

Note return to page 124 1God'ild you, sir;] i. e. God yield you, or reward you. We have had the expression before in this play: see p. 62, note 9.

Note return to page 125 2&lblank; to the “lie circumstantial,”] So the second folio: the first omits “the.”

Note return to page 126 3O sir, we quarrel in print, by the book;] “The poet,” says Warburton, “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, entitled, ‘Of Honour and Honourable Quarrels,’ in quarto, printed by Wolf, 1594. The first part of this tract he entitles, ‘A Discourse most necessary for all Gentlemen that have in regard their Honours, touching the giving and receiving the Lie, whereupon the Duello and the Combat in divers Forms doth ensue; and many other Inconveniences, for lack only of true Knowledge of Honour, 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 Lie is given ought to become Challenger, and of the Nature of Lies. II. Of the Manner and Diversity of Lies. III. Of Lies certain, [or direct.] IV. Of conditional Lies, [or the lie circumstantial.] V. Of the Lie in general. VI. Of the Lie in particular. VII. Of foolish Lies. VIII. A Conclusion touching the wresting or returning back of the Lie, [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, as if a man should say or write these words:—if thou hast said that I have offered my lord abuse, thou liest; or if thou sayest so hereafter, thou shalt lie. Of these kind of lies, given in this manner, often arise much contention in words, —whereof no sure conclusion can arise.’” There was another edition of this work in 1595, “Printed for William Mattes.” See the “Cat. of the Bridgewater Library,” 4to, 1837, p. 275.

Note return to page 127 4Atone together.] i. e. Agree; together, or are reconciled: from at one. The use of this word is very frequent by the contemporaries of Shakespeare.

Note return to page 128 5That thou might'st join her hand with his, Whose heart within her bosom is.] The old copies read his for “her” in both these instances, which is evidently wrong: the error was, no doubt, produced by the not unfrequent custom at that date, of spelling “her,” hir, which misled the compositor. See p. 51 of this vol. note 3.

Note return to page 129 3Enter Second Brother.] So called in the old copies to avoid confusion with the “melancholy Jaques.” The name of this “second brother” must have been also Jaques, and he is mentioned in the first scene as then “at school.” He is in fact the third brother introduced in the play; but what is meant is, that he is second in point of age, younger than Oliver, and older than Orlando; but this supposition would seem to make Orlando too much of a stripling at the wrestling-match to have had any chance against Charles. In Lodge's novel (which ends very differently,) Fernandine, the second of the three brothers, is represented as “a scholar in Paris,” not “at school” there. He, like Jaques de Bois, arrives quite at the end of the story.

Note return to page 130 4And all their lands restor'd to him again] So the old copies, which modern editors have altered without notice to “restor'd to them again.” The meaning is, that the converted brother restores to the banished brother his dukedom, and all the lands of those who were in exile with him, in order that he (the duke) may bestow the lands again on their former possessors. The duke afterwards tells his nobles that he will give them back their estates.

Note return to page 131 5As we do trust they'll end in true delights.] The universal modern stage-direction here is “a dance,” which probably followed the duke's speech: the ancient direction, however, is exit; but there seems no sufficient reason why the duke should go out before the conclusion of the Epilogues—nevertheless, according to the custom of our old stage, he may have done so. Malone, Steevens, and all the modern editors, Capell excepted, read And instead of “As” in this line, without any reason for change, and without attempting to assign any.

Note return to page 132 6&lblank; no bush,] It was formerly the custom, says Steevens, to hang a tuft of ivy at the door of a vintner. It is alluded to by many old writers.

Note return to page 133 7If I were a woman,] The female characters in plays, it is hardly necessary to observe, were at this time, and until after the Restoration, performed by boys, or young men.

Note return to page 134 “The Taming of the Shrew” was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies twenty-two pages, viz. from p. 208 to p. 229 inclusive, in the division of “Comedies.” It was reprinted in the three later folios.

Note return to page 135 1Malone was mistaken when he said (Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 342.) that “our author's genuine play was entered at Stationer's Hall” on the 17th Nov. The entry is of the 19th Nov. and not of Shakespeare's “Taming of the Shrew,” but of the old “Taming of a Shrew.”

Note return to page 136 2If we suppose Shakespeare, in Act iv. sc. 1, to allude to T. Heywood's play, “A Woman Killed with Kindness,” it would show that “The Taming of the Shrew” was written after Feb 1602–3; but the expression was probably proverbial, and for this reason Heywood took it as the title of his tragedy.

Note return to page 137 1A list of the characters was first printed by Rowe.

Note return to page 138 1I'll pheese you, in faith.] Thus the word is printed in the folio of 1623. In the old “Taming of a Shrew,” it is printed fese, in the three editions of 1594, 1596, and 1607. Ben Jonson uses the word in his “Alchemist,” and spells it, in his folio of 1616, feize. It is the same word, however spelt; and Gifford, who was a West of England man, says that in that part of the country it means, “to beat, chastise, or humble,” &c. Jonson's Works, iv. 188. Dr. Johnson, on the authority of Sir Thomas Smith, in his book De Sermone Anglico, says that it means in fila diducere. Such may have been its original sense, but there is no doubt that it is used figuratively in the way Gifford has explained.

Note return to page 139 P. 107.&lblank; I'll pheese you, in faith] Possibly the word “pheese” in its etymology may claim some kindred with the Angl. Sax. fesian, fugare. See Way's Promptorium (printed for the Camden Society) p. 158.

Note return to page 140 2Therefore paucas pallabris; let the world slide: Sessa!] Pocas palabras is Spanish for “few words,” a foreign phrase in common use in the time of Shakespeare. See vol. ii. p. 240. The same remark will apply to “let the world slide,” or “let the world slip,” as Sly afterwards words it; but we do not find sessa, or cessa (cease), so employed in other authors. It occurs again, under the form of sesseg, in “King Lear,” Act iii. sc. 4.

Note return to page 141 3&lblank; you have burst?] To burst and to break were anciently synonymous.

Note return to page 142 4&lblank; Go by, S. Jeronimy: Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.] In this passage, there is a double allusion to “The Spanish Tragedy,” by Thomas Kyd. How the capital S became introduced into the text, it is not easy to explain; but Monck Mason would make out that it is part of the word says, the rest having dropped out; but why should it have been printed with a capital letter? The phrase “Go by” is derived from one part of “The Spanish Tragedy,” of which Jeronimo may be called the hero; and “Go to thy cold bed, and warm thee,” refers to another part of the same play, where Jeronimo exclaims, “What outcries pluck me from my naked bed?” when he enters in his night-dress, after the murder of his son. See “Dodsley's Old Plays,” last edition, vol. iii. p. 130 & 163. Different parts of this popular play were often quoted and ridiculed by contemporary writers. Sly can scarcely mean to canonize Jeronimo, and call him a saint, from his being such a favourite with the frequenters of our early theatres; and when Malone remarks, that “Sly's making Jeronimy a saint is not more extravagant than his exhorting his hostess to go to her cold bed and warm herself,” he was not aware of the allusion to “The Spanish Tragedy” in the last line of Sly's reply.

Note return to page 143 5&lblank; I must go fetch the headborough.] So it stands in all the old copies, but in all the modern editions it has been needlessly altered to thirdborough, under the notion that it made Sly's answer more apposite. The threat regarding the “headborough,” by the hostess, brings the “thirdborough” (an officer of similar duties, and often mentioned in connection) into Sly's mind. The “thirdborough” (as Ritson shows by a quotation from “The Constable's Guide,” 1771) is an officer still known in Warwickshire. Dull calls himself “tharborough,” or thirdborough, in “Love's Labour's Lost,” vol. ii. p. 289.

Note return to page 144 6Brach Merriman,—the poor cur is emboss'd,] “Brach” generally meant a hound. A dog, or a deer, are said to be embossed when fatigue makes them foam at the mouth.

Note return to page 145 7And, when he says he is—, say, that he dreams,] The lord leaves something here to be understood. Sir Thomas Hanmer would insert poor, and Johnson Sly, although the lord could not know the name of the beggar; but no change is necessary. There is no dash after “is” in the folios, and it will be observed that the line is syllabically complete without any addition.

Note return to page 146 8I think, 'twas Soto that your honour means.] This line is given to Sincklo in the first folio; and as there was an actor of that name in Shakespeare's company, he was most likely the person who played the character. He is introduced again in “Henry IV.” pt. 2, in “Henry VI.” pt. 3, &c. It has been supposed by Theobald, that the reference was to Soto in Beaumont and Fletcher's “Woman Pleased;” but, as Tyrwhitt remarks, the circumstance of “wooing the gentlewoman so well” does not tally with the story of that play. Probably a character called Soto figured in some other play of the time, now lost. Pope assigned the line to a character he calls Sim; having probably been misled by the second folio, where Sincklo's name is only printed Sin.

Note return to page 147 9Sly is discovered,] The old stage-direction is, “Enter aloft the drunkard with attendants,” &c.; the meaning of which is, that Sly and those about him were represented in a balcony at the back of the stage, whence they were to witness the performance of the actors. Such appears to have been invariably the case when a play within a play was represented in our old theatres; directly the reverse of our modern practice, where the play within a play is exhibited on a raised platform at the back of the stage, and the actors in the main play are in front.

Note return to page 148 1&lblank; I ne'er drank sack in my life;] So the old copy of 1623; as afterwards, “Ne'er ask me,” &c. This is consistent, and there is no reason against it; though the modern editions have “never” in one instance, and “ne'er” in the other.

Note return to page 149 2&lblank; old Sly's son, of Burton-heath;] Perhaps, as Malone suggests, we ought to read, Barton-on-the-heath, a village in Warwickshire.

Note return to page 150 3&lblank; by transmutation a bear-herd,] i. e. Bear-ward. See vol. ii. p. 202, note 2.

Note return to page 151 4Ask Marian Hacket, the fat alewife of Wincot,] Doubtless, Marian Hacket was living and well known at Wincot, about four miles from Stratford-upon-Avon, at the time this play was written. Afterwards (p. 116) Cicely Hacket is spoken of by one of the servants.

Note return to page 152 5What! I am not bestraught.] “Bestraught” was used by Lord Surrey, Warner, and other good writers, as synonymous with distraught, or distracted. We also meet with it in the very rare romance of “Narbonus,” by Austin Saker, 1580, 4to: “Now, if the olde souldyours were thus afflicted, and the auncient captaynes so tormented, Narbonus was also bestraught and incensed.”

Note return to page 153 6O! this it is &lblank;] The folio inverts it is; but most likely it was meant that one servant should follow the form of expression used by the other.

Note return to page 154 7&lblank; leet,] i. e. At the Court-leet.

Note return to page 155 8&lblank; old John Naps of Greece,] Blackstone suggested that we ought to read, o' the Green, instead “of Greece;” and it is the more probable, when we reflect that green was formerly almost invariably spelt with a final e. “John Naps of Greece” seems nonsense, notwithstanding it has been shown by Steevens that “a hart of greece” or grease, meant a fat hart: hence he argues that it was only a mode of calling John Naps a fat man.

Note return to page 156 9My trusty servant,] Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, has Most.

Note return to page 157 10&lblank; and haply institute &lblank;] In the modern editions, “haply” is misprinted happily, which is a distinct word, with a different etymology. “Haply” means perhaps, and not fortunately. So at the end of the first scene of the Induction, the lord says, &lblank; “haply, my presence May well abate,” &c. In both cases, the line requires a word of two and not of three syllables. When the line requires that “haply” should be pronounced as a trisyllable, it was generally spelt “happily.” A. iv. sc. 4, of this comedy affords examples of “happily” used in both senses.

Note return to page 158 1Vincentio's come of the Bentivolii.] i. e. “My father, first a merchant of great traffic through the world, Vincentio, is come of the Bentivolii.” This is the old and rather obscure reading; but to vary from it, as has been usually done, makes the sense even less clear. By “Vincentio's son,” in the next line, Lucentio, of course, means himself.

Note return to page 159 2Talk logic &lblank;] Old copies, Balk. Corrected by Rowe.

Note return to page 160 3A pretty peat!] “Peat or pet,” says Johnson, “is a word of endearment, from petit, little.” Possibly it is from petto, Ital.

Note return to page 161 4&lblank; I will wish him to her father.] i. e. I will recommend him: to wish was often used in this sense. In Act i. sc. 2, of this play, Hortensio says, “And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife.”

Note return to page 162 5&lblank; to labour and effect one thing 'specially.] The whole of this speech by Hortensio runs metrically, and, with very slight alteration, it might be reduced to regular verse. The same remark may apply, though not so obviously, to another speech by Hortensio, beginning, “Tush, Gremio!” They were, perhaps, measure in the original MS.

Note return to page 163 6Happy man be his dole!] A proverbial expression. Dole is any thing dealt out or distributed. The phrase is equivalent to “happy man be his lot or portion.”

Note return to page 164 7He that runs fastest, gets the ring.] “An allusion,” as Douce remarks, “to the sport of running at the ring.”

Note return to page 165 8Redime te captum &lblank;] This line is in Lily's Grammar, and, as Dr. Farmer observes, in his Essay, (p. 72. Edit. 1821,) it is quoted by Shakespeare as it stands in the Grammar, and not in Terence.

Note return to page 166 9&lblank; so longly on the maid,] i. e. So longingly, says Steevens.

Note return to page 167 1Because she will not be annoy'd with suitors.] Thus the old folios, properly; the meaning being, that Bianca wishes not to be fruitlessly annoyed with suitors. Malone, and the other modern editors, apparently not understanding the difference between “will” and shall, in this place substituted the latter for the former.

Note return to page 168 2Basta;] i. e. enough; Italian and Spanish. The same word, applied in the same way, occurs in R. Brome's “Court Beggar,” A. iv. sc. 1:— “Say to thyself and boldly, she's thine own, And for thy means, basta, let me alone.” It is also used by Beaumont and Fletcher.

Note return to page 169 3In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is,] Malone and Steevens inserted then before “sir,” in opposition to all the old copies.

Note return to page 170 4So would I,] The old copies have could.

Note return to page 171 P. 126.&lblank; You use you manners.] Read “your manners.”

Note return to page 172 5&lblank; your master, Lucentio.] So the folio, 1632: that of 1623 has you. In both, this speech is printed as prose, but it seems intended for rhyming verse.

Note return to page 173 6My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play.] The old stage-direction before these interlocutions is, “The presenters above speak;” meaning, Sly, the attendants, &c, in the balcony. Afterwards, before the next scene commences, we have, “They sit and mark.”

Note return to page 174 7Help, masters,] The old copy has “Help, mistress;” and probably it was a misprint, arising from the fact that in MS. (as sometimes in print) the words “master” and “mistress” were both signified merely by the letter M.

Note return to page 175 8&lblank; what he 'leges in Latin.] Grumio is supposed to mistake Italian for Latin; for though Italian were his native language, as Monck Mason observes, he speaks English, and Shakespeare did not mean to treat him otherwise than as an Englishman. Tyrwhitt's suggestion for reading be leges, instead of “he 'leges,” is, however, ingenious. Modern editors omit “sir” in this sentence.

Note return to page 176 9&lblank; a pip out?] The old folios have “a peepe out.” Pope corrected the old orthography.

Note return to page 177 1Where small experience grows, but in a few.] This is the old and true reading, the meaning being, that only a few have the power to gain much experience at home. The common reading is, “But in a few,” &c.

Note return to page 178 2Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,] The story of Florentius, or Florent, is told in Gower's “Confessio Amantis,” lib. i.; and, as Farmer showed, in Lupton's “Thousand Notable Things,” the earliest known edition of which was printed in 1586: it was reprinted in 1595. Florentius married over-night, for the sake of wealth, and next morning found his wife &lblank; “the lothest wighte That ever man caste on his eyes.”

Note return to page 179 3Were she as rough] This is the reading of the second folio: the first has, “Were she is as rough:” it is singular, therefore, that in the second folio a gross blunder should have been committed in the first half of the same line, where “Affection's edge in me” is printed “Affection's edge in time.”

Note return to page 180 4&lblank; or an aglet-baby;] Aglets, or properly aiguillettes, (Fr.) were the ends or tags of the strings used to fasten or sustain dress. In the 25th Coventry Play, edited by Mr. Halliwell for the Shakespeare Society, p. 241, the devil, disguised as a gallant, says that he has “Two doseyn poyntys of cheverelle, the aglottes of sylver feyn.” These aglets not unfrequently represented figures; and hence Grumio's joke about “an aglet-baby.” The strings were themselves often called points, as in the preceding quotation.

Note return to page 181 5Since we are stepp'd thus far in,] Malone reads have for “are.”

Note return to page 182 6&lblank; he'll rail in his rope-tricks:] A blunder on the part of Grumio for rhetoricks. Sir T. Hanmer substituted rhetorick, not seeing the joke.

Note return to page 183 7and other more,] The folios read “Other more,” without the necessary conjunction, which was added by Capell.

Note return to page 184 8To whom they go.] The folios read, “To whom they go to;” redundant by the sense and metre. Three lines above, they have paper for “papers.”

Note return to page 185 9&lblank; to help me to another,] Folios, one for “me:” corrected by Rowe.

Note return to page 186 1&lblank; old Antonio's son:] The old copies read, “old Batonio's son.”

Note return to page 187 2That gives not half so great a blow to hear,] This, as the old reading, is to be preferred; and it is perfectly intelligible without altering “to hear” into “to the ear,” as Sir Thomas Hanmer, Malone, Steevens, &c., thought fit to do.

Note return to page 188 3&lblank; fear boys with bugs.] i. e. Frighten boys with bug-bears.

Note return to page 189 4Hark you, sir: you mean not her to &lblank;] In the old copies there is a dash after “to,” as if Gremio were interrupted by Tranio, who appears to have anticipated that Gremio meant to conclude by the word woo.

Note return to page 190 5And if you break the ice, and do this seek,] Rowe substituted feat for “seek,” but unnecessarily. Tranio refers of course to Petruchio's enterprise to “seek” and “achieve the elder.” All the modern editors have here abandoned the ancient authorities. “And do this seek,” is equivalent to, “and do this one seek.”

Note return to page 191 6&lblank; generally beholding.] Such was the language of the time (see Vol. ii. p. 83, note 8, &c.), though modern editors have substituted beholden. Shakespeare always employs the active participle, and it was the universal practice of his contemporaries.

Note return to page 192 7Please ye we may contrive this afternoon,] i. e. Spend the afternoon, or wear out the afternoon: from the Latin contero. The word is used in the same sense in the novel of Romeo and Juliet, in Painter's “Palace of Pleasure:” “Juliet, knowing the fury of her father, &c. retired for the day into her chamber, and contrived that whole night more in weeping than sleeping.”

Note return to page 193 8Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto.] The beginning of Act ii. is not marked in the old copies, although we meet with “Actus Primus,” “Actus Tertia,” “Actus Quartus,” and “Actus Quintus.” The first act probably ended here; but in the folios the divisions are so obviously wrong, that it has been necessary to vary from them.

Note return to page 194 9&lblank; but for these other goods,] Theobald read gawds, and all the modern editors have followed him, but without any necessity for the change from the old reading.

Note return to page 195 1&lblank; here I charge thee, tell &lblank;] An obvious omission was here supplied by the editor of the second folio, who inserted “thee.”

Note return to page 196 2&lblank; hilding &lblank;] The word hilding, or hinderling, says Johnson, means a low wretch, and was applied to both sexes. In “Romeo and Juliet,” Act iii. sc. 5, Old Capulet calls his daughter “hilding;” and in “All's Well that Ends Well,” Act iii. sc. 6, the same term is used towards Parolles. Horne Tooke derives “hilding” from hyldan, Sax. to crouch.

Note return to page 197 3Backare: you are marvellous forward.] This is a word of doubtful etymology and frequent occurrence: it is possibly only a corruption of “back there;” for it is always used as a reproof to over-confidence. In “Ralf Roister Doister,” A. i. sc. 2, we meet with it:— “Ah, sir! backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow.” And this expression is introduced by old John Heywood into his Proverbs. Many other instances might easily be accumulated, but the mode of employing the word is uniform.

Note return to page 198 4&lblank; more kindly beholding to you than any, I freely give unto you &lblank;] See p. 136, note 6. The folios omit “I,” which is necessary to the sense. In a preceding line they have neighbours for “neighbour.”

Note return to page 199 5That is, her love;] Malone reads, “This is,—her love.”

Note return to page 200 6For dainties are all cates:] “Cates” generally signified delicate food; but sometimes, merely provisions.

Note return to page 201 7No such jade as you, if me you mean.] The second folio adds “sir” after “jade.” The object was the improvement of the metre; but it lessens the force of Katharine's retort: in such a dialogue it is not likely that exact measure would be regarded.

Note return to page 202 8And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate Conformable &lblank;] It is probable that a joke was here intended, arising out of the similarity of sound between cat and Kate. Formerly, when the letter a was pronounced broadly, this similarity of sound might be more obvious. Some modern editors substitute cat for “Kate;” but this variation from the old copy is needless.

Note return to page 203 9&lblank; a second Grissel,] Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton had made this story better known by their comedy acted about 1600. See Introduction.

Note return to page 204 10She vied so fast,] To vie was a term at cards, and sometimes we meet with re-vie; out-vie occurs in this play hereafter (p. 150). It meant to challenge, or stake.

Note return to page 205 1&lblank; 'tis a world to see,] The meaning seems to be, “it is worth a world to see.” So in Rydley's “Brief Declaration of the Lord's Supper,” 1555 (as Mr. Bruce pointed out to me), “It is a world to see the answer of the Papists to this place of Origen.”

Note return to page 206 2A meacock wretch &lblank;] i. e. A cowardly wretch. “Meacock” has been derived by some from meek and cock (but mes coq, Fr. Skinner), and it is used by old writers both as an adjective and as a substantive.

Note return to page 207 3&lblank; we will be married o' Sunday.] Portions of this and the two preceding lines read as if they had been taken from a ballad. If any such be in print, it has never been pointed out by the commentators; but the following, from the recitation of an old lady, who heard it from her mother (then forty) at least sixty years ago, bears a strong resemblance to what Petruchio seems to quote: “To church away!   We will have rings And fine array,   With other things, Against the day, For I'm to be married on Sunday.” There are other ballads with the same burden, but none so nearly in the words of Petruchio.

Note return to page 208 4&lblank; quiet in the match.] The old copy has me for “in.”

Note return to page 209 5Shall have my Bianca's love.] Malone and Steevens omit “my,” without any reason: the line, being a hemistich, could require no amendment.

Note return to page 210 6&lblank; counterpoints,] i. e. As we now call them, counterpanes.

Note return to page 211 7&lblank; in Marseilles' road.] It is spelt Marcellus in the old copy, and it must be read as a trisyllable, for the sake of the measure.

Note return to page 212 8Yet I have fac'd it with a card of ten.] This expression seems to have been proverbial: “cards of ten” were the highest in the pack.

Note return to page 213 9&lblank; celsa senis.] Ovid. Epist. Her. Penelope Ulyssi, v. 33.

Note return to page 214 10&lblank; that we might beguile the old pantaloon.] In the first scene in which Gremio appears, he is called in the stage-direction “a Pantelowne,” a character apparently adopted from the Italian stage.

Note return to page 215 1How fiery and forward our pedant is!] In the old copies, this and the two next lines are erroneously given to Lucentio, and in other places the characters are evidently confounded: for instance, the line, “In time I may believe, yet I mistrust,” is assigned to Lucentio instead of Bianca.

Note return to page 216 2To change true rules for odd inventions.] The reading of the folio, 1623, is, “To charge true rules for old inventions.” The folio, 1632, reads “change” for charge, and Theobald properly altered old into “odd.” Old would be inconsistent with the meaning of the speaker, who has already said, “old fashions please me best.” Both errors were mere misprints, and on p. 25 of this vol. we have already seen charge for “change.”

Note return to page 217 3Enter a Servant.] This servant is called “Nick” as the prefix to what he says. There was an actor of the name of Nicholas Tooley in Shakespeare's company, but when “The Taming of the Shrew” was produced, he must have been of more importance than to appear merely as a messenger. Possibly he doubled his part in order to summon Bianca.

Note return to page 218 4Make friends, invite, yes, and proclaim the banns;] “Yes” was added after “invite” by the editor of the second folio, in order to complete what he considered an imperfect line. Malone and other modern editors inserted them instead of “yes,” but without any authority. The reading of the second folio is certainly to be preferred to any recent conjectural emendation, and we may, perhaps, presume that a small word like “yes” dropped out in the press.

Note return to page 219 5&lblank; of thy impatient humour.] The second folio reads “of thy impatient humour,” the first folio omitting the pronoun, which seems necessary, as well for the sense as for the metre.

Note return to page 220 6&lblank; old news,] “Old” is wanting in the early editions. Rowe added it in consequence of Baptista's question, “Is it new and old too?” which shows that the word had been accidentally omitted. It was very common in the time of Shakespeare to use old as a species of superlative.

Note return to page 221 7&lblank; and chapeless;] i. e., says Todd, without a hook to the scabbard.

Note return to page 222 8&lblank; infected with the fashions,] i. e. Faroins, a well-known disease in horses; often mentioned by old writers, as in Rowlands' “Looke to it, for I'll Stabbe you,” 1604:— “You gentle-puppets of the proudest size, That are, like horses, troubled with the fashions.” Sign. D. 2 b.

Note return to page 223 9&lblank; past cure of the fives,] i. e. Vices, or avives, another disorder in horses.

Note return to page 224 1&lblank; swayed in the back,] “Waid in the back,” old copies.

Note return to page 225 2&lblank; an old hat, and “the humour of forty fancies” [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0382 prick'd in't for a feather.] It seems likely that this “humour of forty fancies” was either a ballad so called, or a collection of ballads, stuck in the “lackey's” hat instead of a feather. No such publication is now known.

Note return to page 226 3And yet not many.] This is undoubtedly a scrap of some old ballad. Perhaps Biondello was led to recollect it by his own mention of “the humour of forty fancies” just before.

Note return to page 227 4But, sir, to love &lblank;] The preposition is wanting in the old copies, and without it both metre and meaning are defective. Malone injured the line, by adding her also, after “to.” Tranio is here addressing himself to Lucentio, on the subject of their joint scheme. [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0385

Note return to page 228 5As I before imparted &lblank;] The pronoun is omitted in the old copies.

Note return to page 229 6Hark, hark! I hear the minstrels play.] The whole of this speech is printed as prose in the first folio, but reduced to irregular verse in the second.

Note return to page 230 7&lblank; the oats have eaten the horses.] Grumio, perhaps, means to disparage Petruchio's horses by saying, by implication, that they are not worth the oats they have eaten. Such is the interpretation of Steevens.

Note return to page 231 8No, nor to-morrow, not till I please myself.] Modern editors have substituted nor for “not.”

Note return to page 232 9Act iv.] In the old copies, Act iv. does not begin until the third scene following. Malone properly divided the comedy otherwise.

Note return to page 233 1&lblank; was ever man so rayed?] i. e. bewrayed, made dirty.

Note return to page 234 2I am no beast.] Grumio had called Curtis a beast by calling him his fellow, having first called himself a beast.

Note return to page 235 3&lblank; “Jack, boy! ho boy!”] The commencement of an old drinking round: jack was the name for the black leathern jug in which drink was served.

Note return to page 236 4Come, you are so full of conycatching.] “Conycatching” means cheating or deceiving, and is a word of very common occurrence. Its etymology has reference to the facility with which conies, i. e. rabbits, are caught.

Note return to page 237 5This 'tis to feel a tale,] Malone and the modern editors read, “This is to feel a tale,” against all authority.

Note return to page 238 6Both of one horse?] This was the phraseology of the time, which all the editors have modernized to “both on one horse.” They took exactly the same liberty later in this play, (A. v. sc. 2,) where Petruchio says, “Ill venture so much of my hawk or hound,” referring to the proposed wager.

Note return to page 239 7&lblank; garters of an indifferent knit:] The sense of “indifferent” here was not unusual at the time; i. e. not different. Grumio probably means, that the garters ought to correspond. Blue was the common colour for livery.

Note return to page 240 8“Where is the life that late I led” &lblank;] Probably the first line of some ballad. A song to that tune is inserted in “The Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions,” 1578; and a poem with that title, subscribed I. P., is in Clement Robinson's “Handful of Pleasant Delights,” 1584. This, however, is evidently not what Petruchio sings.

Note return to page 241 9Soud, soud, soud, soud!] An ejaculation, meant probably to indicate impatience.

Note return to page 242 10“As he forth walked on his way:”] See Percy's “Reliques,” i. 263, edit. 1812.

Note return to page 243 11Enter Servant, with water.] This stage-direction, from the old folio, is omitted by modern editors, though necessary to the business of the scene.

Note return to page 244 1&lblank; will you let it fall?] Before this line the modern editors insert “Servant lets the ewer fall;” but such does not appear to be the case, or Petruchio would not have asked him, “will you let it fall?” The servant holds the bason awry, and spills some of the water.

Note return to page 245 2Be patient; to-morrow 't shall be mended,] So the line is properly printed in the old copies: the word “patient” being pronounced as a trisyllable, as Shakespeare intended: to print “'t shall” it shall, as the modern editors have done, was to spoil the measure. Shakespeare sometimes uses “patient” and “patience” as dissyllables, but obviously not so here.

Note return to page 246 3This is a way to kill a wife with kindness;] Thomas Heywood wrote a play under the title of “A Woman Killed with Kindness;” mentioned by Henslowe in his “Diary” under the date of Feb. 1602–3, and printed in 1607. On p. 147 we have had an allusion to the comedy of “Patient Grissill,” by Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton, printed in 1603, but written and acted before “The Taming of the Shrew.” See the Introduction.

Note return to page 247 4Lov'd none &lblank;] Old copies, “Lov'd me.” Corrected by Rowe.

Note return to page 248 5&lblank; her withal.] The old copies of 1623 and 1632 read, “them withal.” The emendation was made in the third folio.

Note return to page 249 6An ancient engle coming down the hill,] The old folios read angel; but the proper mode of spelling the word seems to be engle or ingle. It means a person of weak understanding, who may be easily gulled. The etymology is doubtfull; but Steevens derives it from the French engluer, i. e. to lime, or catch with bird-lime. Gifford (Ben Jonson's Works, ii. 429) shows decisively, by reference to Gascoigne's “Supposes,” (which resembles this part of Shakespeare's plot,) that engle is the true reading. Theobald was the first to substitute “engle” for angel.

Note return to page 250 7Master, a mercatantè,] Marcantant in the old folio: “mercatantè” is Italian for a merchant: Biondello did not know whether he was a merchant or a pedant. “Mercatante” is the amendment of Steevens.

Note return to page 251 8Take in your love,] The old folios have me for “in;” which may possibly be right, supposing Tranio to mean, “Take me your love away.” Petruchio, A. i. sc. 2, says, “Knock me at this gate.”

Note return to page 252 9&lblank; and this I will advise you.] Malone reads will I for “I will.”

Note return to page 253 10Nor never needed that I should entreat,] This line is omitted in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell; but is correctly given in Mr. Knight's “Pictorial Shakspere,” and in other modern editions.

Note return to page 254 1What, sweeting, all amort?] “Amort” was a word of frequent occurrence in plays of Shakespeare's time, though he does not very often use it. It is met with again in Henry VI. pt. l, A. iii. sc. 2, and it is derived from the French, and means dead, flat, or dispirited.

Note return to page 255 2&lblank; is sorted to no proof.] i. e. approof, or approbation. See p. 216.

Note return to page 256 3With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.] These four lines read as if they were recited by Petruchio from some old ballad or poem. Johnson objected to “things,” as a “poor word” to rhyme with “rings;” but perhaps hypercritically. It occurs exactly in the same way in a MS. poem, preserved at Dulwich College among Alleyn's papers:— “Oh! but he gives her gay gold rings,   And tufted gloves for holiday, And many other goodly things,   That have stolen my love away.

Note return to page 257 4Here is the cap your worship did bespeak.] This line has the prefix of Fel. in the folios; possibly the beginning of the actor's name, or more likely the first letters of Fellow, a word commonly applied to players.

Note return to page 258 5A custard-coffin,] “A coffin,” says Steevens, “was the ancient culinary term for the raised crust of a pie or custard.”

Note return to page 259 6Like to a censer in a barber's shop.] Steevens tells us that these “censers” were like modern brasieres. They were probably curiously ornamented.

Note return to page 260 7&lblank; take thou the bill, give me thy mete-yard, and spare not me.] The joke intended is lost, unless we remember that “bill” meant either a piece of paper, or a weapon, such as was carried by watchmen, &c. in the time of Shakespeare. On the title-page of Dekker's “Lanthorne and Candle-light,” 4to, 1609, is a representation of a watchman armed with a “bill.”

Note return to page 261 8Exeunt Tailor and Haberdasher.] The exit of the Haberdasher is not mentioned in any edition. He had perhaps stood trembling by, after producing his cap.

Note return to page 262 9If thou account'st it shame,] Old copies, account'st.

Note return to page 263 1Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.] This line clearly is the conclusion of the Pedant's speech, and not the beginning of Tranio's, as it stands in all the old folios.

Note return to page 264 2No worse than I, upon some agreement,] The folio, 1632, inserted sir in the middle of this line, and at the end of one lower down in the page; but properly read they hardly require amendment. In the same way it added most twice over in the line, “Me shall you find ready and willing.” It seems very doubtful if Shakespeare did not mean to leave the passage as in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 265 3I pray the gods she may with all my heart!] This line belongs to Lucentio, as Rowe correctly printed it; but in the old copies Biondello is supposed to speak it.

Note return to page 266 4&lblank; get thee gone.] “Enter Peter” is the stage-direction of the old copies after this line; but he comes in only to usher out Tranio, Baptista, and the supposed Vincentio.

Note return to page 267 5I cannot tell; expect they are busied about a counterfeit assurance:] The first folio reads expect, which is probably right, Biondello telling Lucentio to “expect” that Baptista and the pretended Vincentio were engaged in making “a counterfeit assurance;” but the editor of the second folio changed “expect” to except.

Note return to page 268 6&lblank; it is the blessed sun.] The reading of the second folio: the first has “it in the blessed sun.”

Note return to page 269 7&lblank; to make a woman of him.] The folio, 1623, has “the woman:” corrected by the folio, 1632.

Note return to page 270 8&lblank; and if she be froward,] The first folio omits “be,” which is supplied in the second folio.

Note return to page 271 9&lblank; and then come back to my master as soon as I can.] Mistress is the reading of the old copies: the mistake no doubt arose, as in other cases of the same kind, from M. being put in the MS. for either master or mistress. The “Master” Biondello alludes to (as Theobald remarked) is Tranio. He has called him so before, on p. 185.

Note return to page 272 1&lblank; his father is come from Pisa,] Padua in the old copies; a decided error, which was corrected by Tyrwhitt.

Note return to page 273 2Come hither, crack-hemp.] The more usual compound, just before the time of Shakespeare was crack-rope. We meet with it in “Damon and Pithias,” by R. Edwards, 1571, “Handsomely, thou crack-rope.” Again, in “Appius and Virginia,” by R. B. 1575, “You codshed, you crack-rope, you chattering pye;” and again in “The Two Italian Gentlemen,” by A. Munday, printed about 1584, “Then let him be led through every street in the town, That every crack-rope may fling rotten eggs at the clown.”

Note return to page 274 3&lblank; and a copatain hat!] It is not known what kind of hat was intended by a “copatain hat:” it is supposed to mean a hat with a conical crown. Gascoigne, in his poems (as Steevens showed) speaks of “coptankt hats,” and of “high-copt hats,” but neither word occurs in “The Supposes,” from which this part of the plot of “The Taming of the Shrew” is taken.

Note return to page 275 4Why, sir, what 'cerns it you,] So the folio of 1623;—a colloquial abbreviation of concerns, which is substituted in the folio of 1632.

Note return to page 276 5&lblank; lest you be cony-catched &lblank;] i. e. cheated. See p. 165, note 4.

Note return to page 277 6Lives my sweet son? Malone and Steevens without authority read sweetest.

Note return to page 278 7Biondello, Tranio, and Pedant run out.] The old simple stage-direction is, “Exit Biondello, Tranio, and Pedant, as fast as may be.”

Note return to page 279 8While counterfeit supposes blear'd thine eyne.] This sense of the word “supposes” is exactly the same as that in which it is employed by Gascoigne, throughout his comedy, “The Supposes.”

Note return to page 280 9My cake is dough:] A proverbial expression, when any disappointment was sustained. Gremio has already used it in A. i. sc. 1 of this play, with an addition, “our cake's dough on both sides,” more emphatically to indicate how completely expectation had failed. See p. 122.

Note return to page 281 1Tranio, Biondello, Grumio, and others, attending.] According to the old stage-direction, “the serving-men with Tranio bring in a banquet.” A banquet, as Steevens observes, properly meant what we now call a desert, though often taken generally for a feast; and to this Lucentio refers when he says, “My banquet is to close our stomachs up, After our great good cheer.”

Note return to page 282 2&lblank; when raging war is done,] Rowe's emendation. The old copies have, “when raging war is come.” It is very possible that Shakespeare's word was gone, and that the old compositor substituted come, from the direct opposition of gone and come.

Note return to page 283 3Have at you for a better jest or two.] So the old copies; but Capell suggested “bitter jest or two,” and he has been usually followed. Petruchio means “a better jest or two” than Bianca's last, about “head and horn.”

Note return to page 284 4&lblank; for assurance,] Instead of “for,” the folio of 1623 has sir. Corrected by the editor of the folio of 1632.

Note return to page 285 5I'll venture so much of my hawk, or hound,] So all the old copies. The modern editors, objecting to Shakespeare's phraseology, have uniformly represented him to have written “on my hawk, or hound.” See p. 165, note 6.

Note return to page 286 6&lblank; an hundred crowns &lblank;] Old copies, “five hundred.” Corrected by Pope.

Note return to page 287 7Then vail your stomachs,] i. e. lower or abate your pride.

Note return to page 288 8&lblank; though you hit the white;] To “hit the white” is a phrase borrowed from archery; the white being the centre of the target.

Note return to page 289 “All's Well that Ends Well” was first printed in the folio of 1623, and occupies twenty-five pages, viz. from p. 230 to p. 254 inclusive, in the division of “Comedies.” It fills the same space and place in the three later folios.

Note return to page 290 1The two passages run as follows:— &lblank; “We must away; Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us: All's well that ends well; still the fine's the crown.” A. iv. sc. 4. &lblank; “All's well that ends well yet, Though time seem so adverse, and means unfit.” Mr. Hunter prints “All's well that ends well” in Italic, and with capitals, in both instances, as if it were a title; but in the original edition the words appear only in the ordinary type and in the usual way. According to my supposition, these passages, as well as another in the Epilogue, “All is well ended, if this suit is won,” were added when the comedy was revived in 1605 or 1606, and when a new name was given to it. “All's well that ends well” is merely a proverbial phrase, which was in use in our language long before Shakespeare wrote. See note 10 to “The Comedy of Errors,” vol. ii. p. 159.

Note return to page 291 2They were published together in 1575, and hence has arisen the error into which some modern editors have fallen, when they suppose that “The Palace of Pleasure” was first printed in that year. Painter dates the dedication of his “second tome” “From my pore house, besides the Towre of London, the iiij. of November, 1567.”

Note return to page 292 1First enumerated by Rowe.

Note return to page 293 1&lblank; all in black.] We have thought nothing lost by preserving the simplicity of the old stage-direction, instead of its modernization “in mourning.”

Note return to page 294 2&lblank; to whom I am now in ward,] It seems from Howell's fifteenth letter, as quoted by Tollet, that only the province of Normandy was subject to the law of wardships, prevailing generally in this country: by it the infant heirs of large estates were the king's wards. Shakespeare has extended the custom to a part of France where, it seems, it did not exist.

Note return to page 295 3&lblank; would have made nature immortal,] Another instance of the manner in which Shakespeare sometimes left the nominative case of the verb to be understood. See vol. ii. p. 478, note 7.

Note return to page 296 4In Painter's novel the passage relating to the disorder of the King of France runs thus:—“She heard by report that the French king had a swelling upon his breast, which by reason of ill cure, was growen to be a fistula, which did put him to marveilous paine and griefe; and that there was no Phisician to be found (although many were proved) that could heale it.” Vol. i. fo. 88.

Note return to page 297 5And these great tears grace his remembrance more Than those I shed for him.] Her meaning seems to be, that the great tears she lets fall grace the remembrance of Bertram more than those she sheds for her father, her grief being for the departure of the former.

Note return to page 298 6In our heart's table;] A “table” was the old word for a picture: here it is used for the canvass on which a picture was to be painted. As Malone has observed, Shakespeare uses the expression “table of my heart” in his 24th Sonnet. The word “trick,” in the next line, was technical with reference to painting; and it here means tracing, rather than peculiarity. Compare “King John,” A. i. sc. 1, “He hath a trick of Cœur-de-lion's face.” Ben Jonson, in his “Every Man out of his Humour,” A. iii. sc. 1, uses tricking as an heraldic term, in reference to the tracing of coats of arms. In his “Poetaster,” A. i. sc. 1, speaking of actors, he says, “they are blazoned there: there they are tricked.”

Note return to page 299 7And you, monarch.] The word “queen” had a double application, perhaps not in the mind of Parolles: when Helena says, “And you, monarch,” she may have intended a reference to a character called “a Monarcho” in the time of Shakespeare. See note to “Love's Labour's Lost,” A. iv. sc. 1. A “Monarcho” seems to have been a blustering braggart, not unlike Parolles.

Note return to page 300 8&lblank; some stain of soldier &lblank;] i. e. Some tincture or colour of a soldier.

Note return to page 301 9&lblank; the most inhibited sin &lblank;] i. e. prohibited: “inhibit” and “inhibited” are elsewhere employed by Shakespeare in the same sense.

Note return to page 302 10&lblank; within ten years it will make itself ten,] The old copy reads, “within ten years it will make itself two.” The emendation was made by Sir T. Hanmer; and it is supported by what Parolles previously says, “Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found.” Two children in ten years would hardly be a “goodly increase.” This reading is confirmed by a MS. note in Lord Francis Egerton's first folio, where “10” is written in the margin.

Note return to page 303 1&lblank; marry, ill; to like him that ne'er it likes.] Meaning, that Helena must do ill, by liking a man who does not like virginity.

Note return to page 304 2Not my virginity yet.] We do not see the difficulty of this passage, on which, and on the question of Parolles, “Will you any thing with it?” various notes have been written. Parolles has been describing an “old virginity,” and has called it “a withered pear;” on which Helena observes, “Not my virginity yet;” i. e. my virginity is not a withered pear yet.

Note return to page 305 3There shall your master have a thousand loves,] It is not easy to decide to what the adverb “there” applies: whether to Helena's virginity, as Steevens conjectured, or to the French court, whither Bertram had gone. The last seems the more probable; but the whole speech is abrupt and obscure, and possibly, as Sir Thomas Hanmer contended, something has been lost, such as the words, “You're for the court,” which would have rendered it more intelligible. Warburton thought that great part of the speech was “the nonsense of some foolish conceited player.” There is no pretence for this notion.

Note return to page 306 4The Florentines and Senoys &lblank;] The Senoys are the inhabitants of the Republic of Sienna, so called by Painter in his novel.

Note return to page 307 51 Lord.] In the old copies, the lords are distinguished as “1 Lord G,” and “2 Lord E,” being perhaps the initials of the players who filled these small parts.

Note return to page 308 6So in approof lives not his epitaph,] “Approof” is approbation; (see p. 177;) and the meaning seems to be, that the approbation of Bertram's father is not recorded in his epitaph with so much effect as in the King's speech. On p. 251 “approof” seems used for proof.

Note return to page 309 7Mere fathers of their garments;] Tyrwhitt would read feathers for “fathers;” but the sense of the old reading is very obvious: the judgments of such persons are only employed in begetting new modes of dressing their persons.

Note return to page 310 8&lblank; ability enough to make such knaveries yours.] The meaning of the whole sentence appears to be, “It is my slowness that makes me not believe all I hear against you; for you are foolish enough to commit such knaveries, and do not want ability for the purpose.”

Note return to page 311 9&lblank; to go to the world,] This phrase signifies to be married: thus, in “As You Like It,” Audrey says, “—it is no dishonest desire, to desire to be a woman of the world.” See p. 90, note 5: also Vol. ii. p. 210, note 6.

Note return to page 312 10&lblank; and I will do as we may.] This is the text according to the second folio: in the first the letter w is found, as if we ought to have been the word printed, but I suits the grammar and the sense better.

Note return to page 313 1&lblank; e'en great friends;] The old copy reads, “in great friends;” a mistake for e'en, which has before been frequently made.

Note return to page 314 2&lblank; howsome'er their hearts are severed &lblank;] The modern editions invariably read howsoe'er, and the ancient copies, howsomere or howsome'er, which most likely was meant for a vulgarism on the part of the clown. If there be any personal allusion in the names of Charbon and Poysam, it has not been discovered.

Note return to page 315 3&lblank; and I speak the truth the next way:] i. e. the nearest or most direct way.

Note return to page 316 4Fond done, done fond,] i. e. Foolishly done. This line of the old ballad here quoted is evidently incomplete; and Warburton proposed to finish the line with the words, “for Paris, he,” on the plausible ground that Paris, and not Helen, was Priam's joy. The fragment has application only to the name of Helen, and not to anything said by the countess.

Note return to page 317 5With that she sighed as she stood,] At the end of this line, bis is inserted in the old copies, showing that these words were to be sung twice. The first fragment quoted by the clown is printed in prose, and the last partly in prose and partly in verse, so as to make a strange jumble of the clown's quotation.

Note return to page 318 6&lblank; but ere every blazing star,] Steevens left out ere, (printed ore in the old copies,) not being able to make anything of it; and Malone suggested that it was put for or, i. e. before: the fact seems to be, that o was merely substituted for e, by an error of the press: “ere every blazing star” is prior to the appearance of every blazing star. It is surprising that “ere,” which occurs again just below, did not explain the mystery to Malone.

Note return to page 319 7&lblank; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart.] The meaning seems to be, that honesty will do no harm, though it be no puritan, and that it will conform so far as to wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart. The Puritans objected to the use of the surplice; but some conformed so far as to wear it, perhaps, over the black gown in which they usually preached. Such is Johnson's inference from this passage.

Note return to page 320 8&lblank; Diana, no queen of virgins,] Theobald supplied the words “Diana, no,” which are omitted in the old copies: he also added “to be” in the next line, and those words seem equally necessary.

Note return to page 321 9&lblank; sithence,] The old and unabridged form of since.

Note return to page 322 1Why, that you are my daughter?] In the old copies, there is a long line before “Why, that you are my daughter?” to indicate a pause, and an interrupted sentence: the obvious meaning is, “Why, because I call you my daughter, does your eye put on this appearance?”

Note return to page 323 2&lblank; Can't no other, But, I your daughter, he must be my brother?] The meaning is, “Cannot it be otherwise, than that if I am your daughter, he must be my brother?”

Note return to page 324 3The mystery of your loneliness,] The old copies have loveliness for “loneliness;” but the mistake is evident, and the correction is made in old MS. in Lord F. Egerton's copy of the first folio.

Note return to page 325 4Yet, in this captious and intenible sieve,] Johnson is inclined to displace “captious” in favour of carious; and Farmer supposes “captious” to be a contraction of capacious. Where is the difficulty? It is true that this sense of “captious” may not have an exact parallel, but the intention of Shakespeare is very evident: “captious” means, as Malone says, capable of taking or receiving, and “intenible,” (printed intemible in the first folio, and rightly in the second,) incapable of retaining. Two more appropriate epithets could hardly be found, nor a simile more happily expressive.

Note return to page 326 5More than they were in note.] “Receipts,” says Johnson, “in which greater virtues were enclosed than appeared to observation.”

Note return to page 327 6To cure the desperate languishings &lblank;] So the old editions. Malone and others read languishes.

Note return to page 328 7There's something in't,] The emendation of Sir Thomas Hanmer is, “There's something hints;” but the old copies read, “There's something in't,” which is very intelligible, and therefore ought to be preserved. In “Twelfth Night,” A. iv. sc. 3, just the same expression occurs.

Note return to page 329 8Bertram,] In the old stage-directions, Bertram is here called “Count Rosse,” for Rossillion, as it is spelt in the folios.

Note return to page 330 9&lblank; and you, my lords, farewell.] Our reading is precisely that of the first and later folios, and no change seems required. The king is addressing himself to two separate bodies of young noblemen, who are about to take their departure, and he is supposed to have explained certain “warlike principles” to them before the scene opens. When the king afterwards says, “Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all,” &c. he means both the parties of nobility to whom he has been speaking. This interpretation enables us to retain “lords” in the plural in both instances, instead of making it singular, as recommended by Tyrwhitt, and adopted by some modern editors, Malone, however, excepted.

Note return to page 331 10&lblank; he owes the malady &lblank;] i. e. owns. See vol. ii. p. 45. 136. 297, &c.

Note return to page 332 1&lblank; let higher Italy Those 'bated, that inherit but the fall Of the last monarchy,) see, &c.] Upon this obscure passage, Coleridge has the following note. It ought to be observed that Hanmer was before him in the “guess” of bastards for “'bated.”—“It would be, I own, an audacious and unjustifiable change of the text; but yet, as a mere conjecture, I venture to suggest bastards for ‘'bated.’ As it stands, I can make little or nothing of it. Why should the king except the then most illustrious states, which, as being republics, were the more truly inheritors of the Roman grandeur? With my conjecture the sense would be, ‘let higher, or the more northern part of Italy, (unless ‘higher’ be a corruption of hir'd, the metre seeming to demand a monosyllable,) those bastards that inherit only the infamy of their fathers, see,’ &c. The following ‘woo’ and ‘wed’ are so far confirmative, as they indicate Shakespeare's manner of connexion by unmarked influences of association from some preceding metaphor. This it is which makes his style so peculiarly vital and organic. Likewise, ‘those girls of Italy’ strengthen the guess.” Lit. Rem. ii. 120.

Note return to page 333 2&lblank; and no sword worn, But one to dance with!] In Shakespeare's time, as Malone remarks, it was usual for gentlemen to dance with swords on.

Note return to page 334 3&lblank; with his cicatrice,] The old copy reads, “his cicatrice with.”

Note return to page 335 4Stay; the king &lblank;] So the old copies; and to make the passage intelligible, modern editors have necessarily added, “Seeing him rise.” Possibly with was accidentally omitted, and we ought to read, “Stay with the king.”

Note return to page 336 5I'll see thee to stand up.] “See” is the reading of all the old copies; but in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell “see” is printed fee, without any notice of a change, which is certainly unnecessary. In “The Merchant of Venice,” A. iii. sc. 2, directly the reverse was done, for there “fee me an officer” was printed “see me an officer.”

Note return to page 337 6Will you be cur'd of your infirmity?] The verse of this part of the scene is regulated as in the first folio, where it runs much more rythmically than as it was printed by Malone: this complete line, for instance, he separated into two hemistichs. In the same way he divided “Then here's a man stands, that has brought his pardon;” And, “Good faith across. But, my good lord, 'tis thus!” The incomplete lines were put by the poet into the mouth of the king, who may be supposed to have been a little abrupt and petulant.

Note return to page 338 7&lblank; and make you dance canary,] Canary was the name of a lively kind of dance. See vol. ii. p. 310, note 3.

Note return to page 339 8&lblank; a pen in's hand,] So the old copies: Malone reads “in his hand.”

Note return to page 340 9&lblank; I am Cressid's uncle,] i. e. Pandarus. If Malone's conjecture be correct, that “Troilus and Cressida” was written in 1602, Shakespeare had contributed to the notoriety of the story, when, as I have supposed, he revived “All's Well that Ends Well.”

Note return to page 341 1When judges have been babes.] The allusion, as Malone has shown, is to St. Matthew's Gospel, xi. 25: “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” See also 1 Cor. i. 27.

Note return to page 342 2&lblank; and despair most fits.] The old copies have shifts, which Pope, for the sake of the rhyme, as well as the sense, altered to sits. Lord Francis Egerton's copy has been corrected to fits, in a hand-writing of about the time; and it seems the true reading. See Shakespeare's Sonnets (cxx.), where “fits,” for befits, is made to rhyme with “hits.”

Note return to page 343 3&lblank; ne worse of worst extended,] The modern editors print no for “ne,” which is equivalent to nor: the meaning may be what is expressed by the phrase, “Let the worse come to the worst;” i. e. let “worse” be “extended” to the “worst.”

Note return to page 344 4Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all] Warburton fancied this line imperfect, because it has only eight syllables; but the pauses between these important and weighty words abundantly make up the time, which is more important than the mere syllables. Warburton inserted virtue after “courage;” not a very happy conjecture, certainly, because the French king, excepting by intuition, could form no opinion of the virtue of Helena. As the Rev. Mr. Barry observes to me, the king could judge of her “youth, beauty, wisdom, and courage,” from her appearance and conversation. Malone adopted Warburton's emendation. Mr. Knight, in his “Pictorial Shakspere,” follows the true text, and for the true reason.

Note return to page 345 5That happiness and prime &lblank;] Johnson interprets “prime,” youth, the spring of life; which, on all accounts, is preferable to the pride of Tyrwhitt. “Prime” is often used in this sense.

Note return to page 346 6&lblank; and my hopes of heaven.] The old copies have help for “heaven,” which last is probably right; Shakespeare having used the somewhat forced expression, “But will you make it even?” for the sake of closing the couplet emphatically with “heaven.” All this part of the scene is in rhyme. Thirlby suggested the change.

Note return to page 347 7&lblank; as Tib's rush for Tom's fore-finger,] This passage seems to allude to mock-marriages by rush rings. Tib means a woman, and it might therefore be more proper to say, “Tom's rush for Tib's fore-finger,” but at this date rings were exchanged. Tom and Tib are often coupled in old writers, as Malone and Steevens have shown by various examples.

Note return to page 348 8An end, sir: to your business. Give Helen this,] The punctuation of this passage has usually been, “An end, sir, to your business: give Helen this,” but it is clearly wrong. The countess, having just before reproached herself, tells the clown to cease talking, and to attend to the duty she is about to impose upon him. Mr. Knight also prefers this mode of pointing.

Note return to page 349 9&lblank; modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless.] “Modern” is often used by Shakespeare for common. See p. 44 of this vol., note 4. Upon the word “causeless,” Coleridge has the subsequent remark:—“Shakespeare, inspired, as it might seem, with all knowledge, here uses the word ‘causeless’ in its strict philosophical sense;—cause being truly predicable only of phenomena, that is, things natural, and not of noumena, or things supernatural.” Lit. Rem. ii. 121.

Note return to page 350 10Lustick, as the Dutchman says:] This word came into common use from Holland in the beginning of the seventeenth century: it occurs, among other authorities, in Dekker and Webster's “Wyat's History,” 1607:— “If my old master be hang'd, why so; If not, why rustick and lustick.” When the Rev. A. Dyce published his edition of Webster's Works in 1830 he doubted the existence of a copy of this play dated 1612. The Duke of Devonshire has one in his collection.

Note return to page 351 1&lblank; to lead her a coranto.] A species of dance often mentioned in writers of Shakespeare's time. It was of a very active and lively description. “Coranto” occurs again in “Twelfth Night,” A. i. sc. 3.

Note return to page 352 2Mort du vinaigre!] The old copy has Mor du vinager; most likely a corruption of Mort du vinaigre, an affected exclamation by Parolles.

Note return to page 353 3&lblank; marry, to each, but one.] i. e. I wish a mistress to each of you, with one exception. This is Monck Mason's judicious explanation of the passage.

Note return to page 354 4&lblank; bay curtal,] i. e. a bay, docked horse.

Note return to page 355 5My mouth no more were broken &lblank;] A broken mouth is a mouth which has lost some of its teeth.

Note return to page 356 6And to imperial Love,] So the first folio, “Love” being printed without a capital. These words illustrate curiously the progress of error. The second folio has “imperial Iove,” the l in love having been mistaken for a capital I. The third folio alters “imperial” to impartial; so that “imperial Love” of the first folio becomes “impartial Jove” in the third.

Note return to page 357 7Thanks, sir: all the rest is mute.] In other words, “I have no more to say to you;” and she therefore proceeds to the second lord.

Note return to page 358 8&lblank; than throw ames-ace for my life.] “Ames-ace,” or both aces, was the lowest throw upon two dice: to throw ames-ace is an expression often met with, indicating ill luck. Lafeu is contrasting it with the happy chance of being the choice of Helena.

Note return to page 359 9Laf. There's one grape yet,] In the folios, the whole of this speech is given to Ol. Lord, meaning probably “Old Lafeu,” as he is sometimes called in the prefixes. Theobald assigned “There's one grape yet” to Lafeu, and “I am sure thy father drank wine” to Parolles, making Lafeu conclude with “If thou be'st not an ass,” &c. addressed to Parolles. Hamner and Warburton adopted this distribution, which does not however seem necessary. Lafeu must anticipate Bertram's refusal of Helena, in order to make the latter part of what he says apply to him.

Note return to page 360 1From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,] The old reading is whence for “when,” a necessary correction, made by Theobald at the suggestion of Thirlby.

Note return to page 361 2Where great additions swell's, and virtue none,] So the old copy, which abbreviates swell as into “swell's,” to show that the line requires it to be pronounced as a monosyllable. Malone and other modern editors read swell, taking no notice of us.

Note return to page 362 3&lblank; good alone Is good, without a name; vileness is so:] Malone gives the correct interpretation of this passage:—“Good is good, independent on [of] any worldly distinction or title; so vileness is vile, in whatever state it may appear.”

Note return to page 363 4And is not like the sire: honours thrive,] The editor of the second folio thought this line defective, and therefore read “honours best thrive;” but the rhythm requires no such addition.

Note return to page 364 5Debauch'd on every tomb;] Old copies debosh'd; but it is only the old form of “debauch'd,” though some lexicographers make it a different word.

Note return to page 365 6&lblank; which to defeat,] Tyrwhitt suggests that Shakespeare uses the word “defeat” in its etymological sense, from defaire, Fr., to free or disembarrass.

Note return to page 366 7&lblank; whose ceremony Shall seem expedient on the now borne brief,] Malone mistook in stating that any old copy has it now-born: it is printed in the old folios of 1623 and 1632 “now borne,” without a hyphen, and with a final e to “borne.” The clear meaning is obscurely expressed: if we take now (to which Shakespeare prefixes the definite article) to be used substantively, and if we derive borne from the verb to bear, the king says that the marriage shall not be deferred, “whose ceremony shall seem expedient on the now, (or on the instant,) to be borne briefly,” or concluded without delay.

Note return to page 367 8&lblank; and Attendants.] The old copies have the following stage-direction here: “Parolles and Lafeu stay behind, commenting of this wedding.”

Note return to page 368 9&lblank; for two ordinaries,] While I dined in your company twice.

Note return to page 369 10&lblank; for thou hast to pull at a smack o' the contrary.] Lafeu here uses “smack” ironically: it is employed again later in this play, (A. iv. sc. 1,) where it is said, that Parolles “hath a smack of all neighbouring languages.”

Note return to page 370 1&lblank; in what motion age will give me leave.] Edwards has thus explained the meaning of this speech:—“I cannot do much, says Lafeu; doing I am past, as I will by thee in what motion age will give me leave; i. e. as I will pass by thee as fast as I am able:”—and he immediately goes out.

Note return to page 371 2&lblank; than the commission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry.] Such is the text of the old copies; and there is no sufficient reason for making “commission” and “heraldry” change places, as was done by Malone. The sense is evident without any alteration.

Note return to page 372 3That hugs his kicky-wicky here at home,] So the old copies, and why it has been altered to kicksy-wicksy nobody has explained. What Parolles means by the word is very clear: not so the origin of the term. Possibly it was a mere invention for the occasion, and as Sir T. Hanmer says, used “in disdain of a wife.” If we change the word at all, we ought to make it kicksy-winsy, which, as Grey remarks, was a term employed by Taylor, the water-poet, in the title of an attack upon persons who were in his debt and would not pay him. “Kicky-wicky” is quite as intelligible as kicksy-wicksy, which is found in Malone's and some other modern editions.

Note return to page 373 4&lblank; and the detested wife.] The old copies have “detected wife,” which Rowe altered to detested, no doubt, the word Shakespeare wrote. In Act iii. sc. 5, Bertram is called Helena's “detesting lord.”

Note return to page 374 5&lblank; mine own good fortunes.] Fortune in the old copies; but the answer of Parolles shows that it ought to be in the plural.

Note return to page 375 6&lblank; and the increase of laughter.] This is clearly the end of the Clown's speech, which is made in the old copies to finish at “or were you taught to find me,” and to begin again at “The search, sir, was profitable.” Thus the Clown is made in the folios to speak twice running: perhaps Parolles interposed something, which has been lost; but it was not wanted for the congruity of the dialogue.

Note return to page 376 7But puts it off to a compelled restraint;] i. e. Postpones it owing to a compulsory restraint.

Note return to page 377 8&lblank; the curbed time,] The time to which the “compell'd restraint” applies.

Note return to page 378 9May make it probable need.] i. e. May give it the appearance of necessity.

Note return to page 379 1End ere I do begin.] All the copies, ancient and modern, read, “And ere I do begin—” as if it were a broken sentence; but the true reading has been pointed out by the MS. corrector of Lord F. Egerton's first folio, where End is substituted for And, or rather E for A, by the insertion of the former letter in the margin. This is a very happy suggestion, and gives the full meaning of Bertram, that he will end his matrimonial rite ere he begins it.

Note return to page 380 2&lblank; like him that leaped into the custard;] Theobald makes the following apposite quotation from Ben Jonson's “Devil is an Ass,” A. i. sc. l, upon this passage:— “He may perchance, in tail of a sheriff's dinner, Skip with a rhyme on the table, from New-nothing, And take his Almain-leap into a custard, Shall make my lady mayoress, and her sisters, Laugh all their hoods over their shoulders.” See also Gifford's note on this passage, Ben Jonson's Works, vol. v. p. 14.

Note return to page 381 3&lblank; than you have or will deserve at my hand;] So the folio, 1632; that of 1623 reads, superfluously, “than you have or will to deserve at my hand.”

Note return to page 382 4I am not worthy of the wealth I owe;] i. e. I own or am possessed of. See vol. ii. p. 45, note 1, and many other places where “owe” bears the same signification.

Note return to page 383 5Where are my other men? monsieur, farewell.] This line, since the time of Theobald, has been transferred from Helena to Bertram, but, as Mr. Amyot agrees with me in thinking, without propriety. She inquires for her other attendants, and bids adieu to Parolles, whereas there is no reason why Bertram should take leave of Parolles. The punctuation of the old copy, though it be no rule, may be some guide, and there the line stands thus:— “Where are my other men? Monsieur, farewell.” Helena immediately afterwards makes her exit, as it is marked in the first and other folios, and so far the modern editors are correct.

Note return to page 384 6Holy seems the quarrel] This should seem to be the remark of a Florentine Lord; as in the old copies the “two Frenchmen” (so called in the introduction to the scene) are distinguished by “French E.” and “French G.,” perhaps French Envoy and French Gentleman, before what is assigned to them in the dialogue. Malone and the modern editors make no such distinction, but merely call them “1 Lord” and “2 Lord.” The speech to which the present note applies is the only one given to “1 Lord” in the folios. These appear to be the same “French E.” and “French G.” who afterwards accompany Helena to Rousillon.

Note return to page 385 7&lblank; mend the ruff, and sing;] The tops of the boots, in our author's time, observes Whalley, turned down, and hung loosely over the leg. The folding may be what the Clown means by the ruff. Ben Jonson calls it ruffle. “Not having leisure to put off my silver spurs, one of the rowels catch'd hold of the ruffle of my boot.” “Every man out of his Humour,” Act iv. (Works by Gifford, vol. ii. p. 155.) Ruffs were also worn round the neck.

Note return to page 386 8&lblank; sold a goodly manor for a song.] The two oldest folios have hold instead of sold; and in the writing of the time a long s might be mistaken for an h. If the expression had been “hold a goodly manor by a song,” it would have shown that the reading of the oldest authorities was correct. To hold a manor by any suit or service, as Mr. Barron Field correctly observes to me, is the language of tenures.

Note return to page 387 9&lblank; and two French Gentlemen.] The same who had appeared in a former scene, and are now, in the old copies, called “French E.” and “French G.” i. e. perhaps, French Envoy and French Gentleman.

Note return to page 388 10Can woman me &lblank;] i. e. “Affect me,” says Steevens, “as my sex are usually affected.”

Note return to page 389 11&lblank; for thence we came,] Malone and other modern editors read, “from thence we came,” in opposition to all the folios.

Note return to page 390 1When thou canst get the ring upon my finger,] The meaning is, “When thou canst get possession of the ring now upon my finger.” Painter's words are, “when she shall have this ring (meaning a ring which he wore) upon her finger.”

Note return to page 391 2Which holds him much to have.] The meaning is obscure; but it seems to be, that Parolles has a great deal too much of that which it imports him to have much of, in order to keep up appearances—impudence. Heath thought the meaning was, that Parolles had “a deal too much of that which alone can hold or judge that he has much in him, i. e. folly and ignorance.”

Note return to page 392 3Fly with false aim; move the still-peering air, That sings with piercing,] We have left this passage as it stands in the first folio, being satisfied with none of the improvements offered by the commentators, nor with any conjectures of our own. “Still-peering” will admit of a meaning quite as well as still-piecing, which Malone substituted. The oldest copy misprints fings for “sings;” and this obvious error was rendered worse by the printer of the second folio, who made it stings.

Note return to page 393 4&lblank; Parolles,] Why the modern editors omit Parolles in this scene is not explained. It is true that he says nothing, but he was the constant companion of Bertram, and his name is found in the stage-direction of all the old copies.

Note return to page 394 5To th' extreme edge of hazard.] Steevens pointed out the following passage in Milton's “Paradise Regained,” book i. where a similar expression occurs:— “You see our danger on the utmost edge Of hazard.” Milton, we see, changed “extreme” (which perhaps sounded ill to his ears with the accent on the first syllable) to “utmost.”

Note return to page 395 6I am St. Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone.] Johnson remarks that the shrine of St. Jaques of Compostella was rather out of the road from Rousillon to Florence; and Reed conjectures that Helena alluded to St. Jaques at Orleans; but she might mention St. Jaques to mislead the countess as to her route, if indeed Shakespeare considered the relative geographical position of the several places at all important.

Note return to page 396 7With sainted vow &lblank;] In Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, “sainted” is misprinted fainted.

Note return to page 397 8A tucket afar off.] A “tucket” was not the name of an instrument, but of the sound produced by an instrument—the trumpet. See Vol. ii. p. 357, note 7.

Note return to page 398 9&lblank; Diana,] She is called “daughter” in the stage-direction, and “Diana” in the prefixes.

Note return to page 399 10&lblank; those suggestions for the young earl.] i. e. Temptations. See vol. ii. p. 288, note 6.

Note return to page 400 11&lblank; are not the things they go under:] i. e. Are not the things they pretend to be, under the names of which they go and are known.

Note return to page 401 12If you will tarry, holy pilgrim,] Here, and in a preceding line, “I'll question her. God save you, pilgrim,” the word pilgrim is evidently to be pronounced as three syllables. Steevens thought fit to regulate the text differently, and omitted “holy,” for the avowed purpose of mending Shakespeare's metre!

Note return to page 402 1His face I know not.] “Shall we say here,” asks Coleridge, “that Shakespeare has unnecessarily made his loveliest character utter a lie? Or shall we dare think that, where to deceive was necessary, he thought a pretended verbal verity a double crime, equally with the other a lie to the hearer, and at the same time an attempt to lie to one's own conscience.” Lit. Rem. ii. 121.

Note return to page 403 2I write good creature:] The first folio has “I write good creature,” which Malone retains, in the sense of “I consider her a good creature.” The fact is that such was the phraseology of Shakespeare's time, and in this very play (see p. 245) Lafeu tells Parolles, “I write man, to which title age cannot bring thee.” Malone omits this apposite instance, but quotes, “About it, and write happy when thou hast done,” from “King Lear,” A. v. sc. 3, and “Since I writ widow,” from Lodowick Barry's comedy of “Ram Alley,” 1611. It is curious to note how soon this mode of expression had gone out of use, for in the second folio the passage in the text is altered to “I (i. e. ay) right, good creature.”

Note return to page 404 3&lblank; a party of the Florentine army,] The old copies read “and the whole army;” i.e. “the whole army” the theatre could put upon the stage.

Note return to page 405 4I will bestow some precepts of this virgin, Worthy the note.] All the modern editors follow the second folio in reading “on this virgin;” but the first folio has it “of this virgin,” which was the language of the time. We have already met with several instances in this vol. of the use of “of” for on: thus in “The Taming of the Shrew,” p. 165, we had “both of one horse;” and in the same comedy, p. 196, Petruchio says, “I'll venture so much of my hawk or hound.”

Note return to page 406 5Enter Bertram, and the two Frenchmen.] The old stage-direction is, “Enter Count Rousillon and the Frenchmen, as at first,” referring to the scene, in which “French E.” and “French G.” had appeared. In the present scene, in the old copies, they are called “Cap. E.” and “Cap. G.” in the prefixes, while the modern editors create them “lords,” “1 Lord” and “2 Lord.” For the sake of consistency, they are called in our text, as before, “French Envoy,” and “French Gentleman.” It appears, by A. iv. sc. 3, that both of them were named Dumaine, and that they were brothers.

Note return to page 407 6&lblank; a hilding,] A hilding is a low, cowardly fellow. See p. 138, note 2.

Note return to page 408 7&lblank; he is carried into the leaguer of the adversaries,] i. e. Camp. Douce aptly quotes the following:—“They will not vouchsafe in their speaches or writings to use our ancient termes belonging to matters of warre, but doo call a campe by the Dutch name of Legar; nor will not affoord to say, that such a towne or such a fort is besieged, but that it is belegard.” Sir John Smythe's Discourses, &c. 1590. Malone omits “own” before “tents,” at the end of this sentence.

Note return to page 409 8&lblank; of his success in't,] The old copies have this for “his.”

Note return to page 410 9&lblank; counterfeit lump of ore &lblank;] The old copies read ours for “ore.” Theobald made the judicious alteration.

Note return to page 411 10&lblank; John Drum's entertainment,] This proverbial expression seems equivalent to drumming out. It is often met with in old writers, beginning with Gosson, in his “School of Abuse,” 1579. In 1601, a play was published, called “Jack Drum's Entertainment,” which was so popular as to be reprinted twice afterwards. One of the earliest dramas, in which Jack Drum's entertainment is mentioned, is “The Three Ladies of London,” 1584, where Dissimulation tells Simplicity, “Pack hence, away—Jack Drum's entertainment.”

Note return to page 412 1&lblank; hinder not the honour of his design:] This is the reading of the old copies, which ought to be adhered to: “the honor of his design” is the honor Parolles will pretend to gain by it. Modern editors have changed “honor” to humour, without either warranty or fitness.

Note return to page 413 2&lblank; be damned than to do't.] So the old copies: Malone omits “to.”

Note return to page 414 3&lblank; we have almost embossed him,] To emboss a deer (as appears by a passage from Markham's “Country Contentments,” adduced by Steevens) is to run it, until it is weary and foams at the mouth. In Heywood's “Edward IV.” 1600, pt. i. sign. e. 3, this dialogue occurs:— “Duchess. Came thou down the wood? “Hobs. Yes, mistress, that I did. “Duchess. And saw'st thou not the deer imbost?” The “fall of the deer” was also technical. See likewise p. 108, note 6.

Note return to page 415 4&lblank; ere we case him.] Ere we deprive him of his “case,” strip him.

Note return to page 416 P. 271.&lblank; ere we case him.] “To uncase a hare” is still a phrase in use, meaning to skin it, and the skins are called cases.

Note return to page 417 5Fr. Env. I'll leave you.] There is some little confusion of persons in this part of the dialogue. The Fr. Env. should say, “I'll leave you,” and make his exit, for the purpose of “looking to his twigs:” the Fr. Gent. should remain with Bertram. Perhaps all that is absolutely necessary is to give, “As't please your lordship: I'll leave you,” to the Fr. Env. instead of the Fr. Gent. as in the old copies.

Note return to page 418 6Resolved to carry her:] The first folio has resolve, and the second resolves; but the true reading seems given in a MS. correction in Lord Francis Egerton's edit. of 1623, which has “resolved.”

Note return to page 419 7Now, his important blood &lblank;] i.e. Importunate—emportant, Fr. as Tyrwhitt observes. See Vol. ii. p. 169, note 5. Also, pp. 203 & 348 of the same vol.

Note return to page 420 8Herself most chastely absent: after this,] The word “this” is an addition in the second folio; and the probability is, that it had dropped out in the press, as the line is imperfect without it: it is however not absolutely required by the sense, and I have therefore had some doubts as to the propriety of inserting “this” in the text. Possibly the true reading is “afterwards,” and not “after this;” but the folio of 1632 is, of course, next in authority to that of 1623.

Note return to page 421 9Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact:] This riddle may be thus solved: Bertram's “meaning” was “wicked,” though the “deed” he committed was “lawful:” Helen's “meaning” and “act” were both “lawful;” and neither of them sinned, although the “fact” appeared “sinful.” The passage has produced controversy. Warburton would read, “And lawful meaning in a wicked act,” and Hanmer, “Unlawful meaning in a lawful act;” but no change is required.

Note return to page 422 1Enter French Envoy,] Called “one of the Frenchmen” in the old stage-direction, and “first Lord” by the modern editors. He is the same who was originally designated in the prefixes as “French E.” and afterwards as “Cap. E.” We have called him consistently “French Envoy” throughout.

Note return to page 423 2Wherefore? what's the instance?] Johnson says that “instance” here means proof; but it seems rather to mean, as in “Hamlet,” A. iii. sc. 2, motive. “What motive is there (asks Parolles) that I should give myself great hurts!” He does not see the absolute necessity of wounding himself, but is resolved to rely upon his tongue.

Note return to page 424 3&lblank; and buy myself another of Bajazet's mule,] The allusion here is not intelligible in our day, though probably well understood in the time of Shakespeare. The old copies read “mule,” which Warburton altered to mute; thereby not rendering the allusion at all more perspicuous: in Turkey they have both “mules” and mutes. Reed added the following note in defence of the reading of the folios:— “Perhaps there may be here a reference to the following apologue, mentioned by Maitland, in one of his despatches to Secretary Cecil: ‘I think yow have hard the apologue off the Philosopher who for th' emperor's plesure tooke upon him to make a Moyle speak: In many yeares the lyke may yet be, eyther that the Moyle, the Philosopher, or Eamperor may dye before the tyme be fully ronne out.’ Haynes's Collection, 369. Parolles probably means, he must buy a tongue which has still to learn the use of speech, that he may run himself into no more difficulties by his loquacity.” On the other hand, we know that Tamerlane and Bajazet had both been brought upon the stage before the year 1590, and Bajazet may have been attended by a mute, who figured prominently, though none such is found in Marlowe's play. Malone omits “myself” in his reading of the passage.

Note return to page 425 4Or the baring of my beard;] We have the expression of “baring” applied to the shaving of the head in “Measure for Measure,” vol. ii. p. 76: “Shave the head, and tie the beard; and say it was the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his death.”

Note return to page 426 5I understand thee, and can speak thy tongue:] The person who utters this line is called Inter. or Interpreter, in the old copies; but he is the “1 Sold.” who, in the beginning of the scene, had undertaken the task.

Note return to page 427 6Exit, with Parolles guarded.] The folios have here “a short alarum within;” no doubt, to give a panic to Parolles, as he was taking his departure hoodwinked.

Note return to page 428 7&lblank; Inform on that.] i. e. Inform on that point. Rowe substituted “Inform 'em that,” without the slightest necessity.

Note return to page 429 8I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows.] i. e. The vows he has made never to cohabit with his wife.

Note return to page 430 9If I should swear by Jove's great attributes,] Thus distinctly printed in all the folios I have seen; but Johnson says, that “it is doubtful whether it be Iove's or love's.” Either way, he found the passage difficult. The second folio has, “Jove's great attribute.”

Note return to page 431 1When I did love you ill?] i. e. When I did love you, for your ill or injury. This is Heath's interpretation.

Note return to page 432 2&lblank; this has no holding, To swear by him, whom I protest to love, That I will work against him.] These lines have not been understood, on account of the inversion: “to swear by him” is to swear by Jove, previously mentioned; and the meaning seems evident when we read the passage thus:— “This has no holding, to swear by him, [i. e. Jove,] that I will work against him whom I protest I love.”

Note return to page 433 3I see that men make ropes in such a scarre, That we'll forsake ourselves.] There have been many conjectures for setting right this evidently corrupt passage. Rowe read “make hopes in such affairs;” which is sense, but hardly such sense as Shakespeare would have written: his emendation was adopted, until Malone introduced scene instead of affairs, which is only an improvement inasmuch as scene is a more likely misprint for scarre, than affairs. The old reading may possibly stand, taking the meaning to be, that men make “ropes” in order to overcome obstructions, such as “scarres” or rocks may be considered. However, any explanation is unsatisfactory. We might read slopes for “ropes,” in reference to the “scarre,” and the difficulty of passing over it; or perhaps, after all, scarre is the corrupt word, and we ought to read staire, and the allusion may be to a ladder or stair of “ropes.”

Note return to page 434 4Since Frenchmen are so braid,] The explanation of this word given by Steevens seems the right one, though it has been disputed: “Braid signifies crafty, deceitful;” and he derives it from the Anglo-Saxon bred, which is usually translated fraus. The ordinary sense is that which Palsgrave gives in his Dictionary, 1530, “hastynesse of mynde.’ For this reference I have to thank the Rev. A. Dyce, and it accords with the sense given in Sir F. Madden's Glossary to “Syr Gawayne.” “At a braid,” or on a sudden, is a not unusual expression; the meaning of Diana might, therefore, possibly be, that Frenchmen are so hasty and sudden; but this is hardly consistent with what she has previously said of them.

Note return to page 435 5Marry that will, I live and die a maid:] Thus the first and second folios. Malone, without assigning any reason, adopted the reading of the third folio, 1664, “I'll live and die a maid.” This form of expression, using the present tense for the future, is common.

Note return to page 436 6&lblank; his company &lblank;] i. e. His companion; meaning Parolles.

Note return to page 437 7&lblank; dialogue between the fool and the soldier?] Some popular production of this kind probably then existed. It is a species of performance of which John Heywood seems to have been the inventor in the reign of Henvy VIII. See “Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” vol. ii. pp. 393 and 396.

Note return to page 438 8&lblank; bring forth this counterfeit model:] It is spelt module in the old copies; and it appears from Minsheu (says Malone) that module and “model” were “synonymous.” They were not synonymous, but the same word differently spelt—“model,” from the Fr. modelle, and “module,” from the Lat. modulus.

Note return to page 439 9All's one to him.] In the old copy, these words are given by mistake to Parolles.

Note return to page 440 1&lblank; that had the whole theorick &lblank;] i. e. Theory. In 1597 was published, as Reed informs us, “Theorique and Practise of Warre, written by Don Philip Prince of Castil, by Don Bernardino de Mendoza. Translated out of the Castilian Tonge in Englishe, by Sir Edward Hoby, Knight.” 4to.

Note return to page 441 2&lblank; the chape of his dagger.] We have already had a “chapeless” sword mentioned in “The Taming of the Shrew,” p. 156. The “chape” of a dagger would seem to have been the hook by which it was suspended.

Note return to page 442 P. 286.&lblank; the chape of his dagger.] In confirmation of this meaning of “chape,” we may quote the following from Mr. P. Cunningham's “Revels' Accounts,” p. 185, by which it appears that the “chape” or hook was upon the scabbard. “For xij chapes, guilte, for the same scaberdes ........ ijs. “Chapes” of swords and daggers are not unfrequently mentioned in the “Household Accounts of Lord Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk,” printed for the Roxburghe Club, 4to, 1844.

Note return to page 443 3&lblank; I con him no thanks for't,] To con thanks (says Steevens) answers the French savoir gré. To con is to know. The expression is idiomatic, and occurs frequently in old writers.

Note return to page 444 4&lblank; if I were to live this present hour,] We are to recollect that Parolles is speaking under the fear of instant death.

Note return to page 445 5&lblank; off their cassocks,] Cassock, according to Steevens, here signifies “a horseman's loose coat,” but Parolles is speaking of foot-soldiers, who must likewise have worn it. Steevens has shown by various quotations, that the word was also used for a part of the dress of shepherds, and even of ladies.

Note return to page 446 6&lblank; a dumb innocent, that could not say him, nay.] An idiot or natural fool, (distinguished from the jocose, domestic fool in many writers by the term “innocent,”) assigned to the care and custody of the sheriff.

Note return to page 447 7Men are to mell with,] i. e. Meddle with. See Vol. ii. p. 73, note 4.

Note return to page 448 8I could endure any thing before but a cat,] Bertram therefore was one of those described by Shylock, (“Merchant of Venice,” A. iv. sc. 1,) who could not endure “a harmless necessary cat.”

Note return to page 449 9I perceive, sir, by our general's looks,] The folios have it “by your general's looks;” but a letter too much has been accidentally inserted. The modern editors have invariably substituted the for our. Soon after Parolles is brought in, hoodwinked, the “1 Soldier” says to him, “Our general bids you to answer,” &c.

Note return to page 450 10Faith, sir, he has led the drum before the English tragedians,] The actors of Shakespeare's day, and a little earlier, usually went about the country, preceded by a drum, to give notice of their arrival in any town where they wished to perform. Dekker, in his “Belman of London,” 4to, 1608, mentions the practice when players “travelled upon the hard hoof from village to village.” Many other writers might be quoted.

Note return to page 451 11&lblank; he had the honour to be the officer at a place there call'd Mile-end,] Mile-end was the place where the citizens of London were often mustered and trained. See “The Knight of the Burning Pestle,” Dyce's edit. p. 217, note y.

Note return to page 452 12&lblank; for a quart d'ecu &lblank;] A quart d'ecu is the fourth part of the smaller French crown; about eightpence of our money. It is usually spelt cardecue, as in the old copies: it occurs again p. 300.

Note return to page 453 1His grace is at Marseilles, to which place] Marseilles, for the sake of the verse, must be pronounced as a trisyllable. It is here spelt Marcellæ in the old copies, and we have had it Marcellus in “The Taming of the Shrew:” in that form it occurs again in this play on p. 297.

Note return to page 454 2Nor you, mistress,] The folio, 1623, reads, “Nor your mistress.” None of the later folios correct the obvious error.

Note return to page 455 3Yet, I pray you: But with the word, &c.] Blackstone proposed to read, “Yet I fray you but with the word,” meaning the word “suffer,” which is plausible; but the old copy is intelligible enough, if, with Warburton, we understand “but with the word” to be equivalent to in a very short time.

Note return to page 456 4&lblank; whose villanous saffron &lblank;] We have before had allusion to the gay fantastic dress of Parolles, with “the scarfs and bannerets about him,” A. ii. sc. 3; and here we find that yellow was the prevailing colour. It seems to have been much in fashion in the reign of James I., and perhaps before the death of Elizabeth; for in a passage, quoted by Steevens, from Heywood's “If you know not me you know Nobody,” printed in 1606, it is said that the custom of wearing yellow had been “long used in London.” Starch was coloured with saffron, and Mrs. Turner, who was concerned in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, was a manufacturer of it. See note to Dodsley's “Old Plays,” vol. vii. p. 132, last edition.

Note return to page 457 5&lblank; that red-tailed humble bee I speak of.] The colour of the hose worn by Parolles must have been red, as we may conclude from this part of the description Lafeu gives of him. Shakespeare had therefore settled the colours of the habiliments of Parolles before the play was acted.

Note return to page 458 6They are not salad-herbs,] Rowe inserted “salad,” the old copies having merely “herbs;” which word may, however, have been applied to salad-herbs, and others distinguished as “nose-herbs,” &c.

Note return to page 459 7&lblank; I have not much skill in grass.] It is spelt grace in the old folios, which was then pronounced something like grass, and was perhaps a designed quibble by the Clown: he had spoken of “herb of grace” just before.

Note return to page 460 8&lblank; my bauble, sir,] Douce, “Illustr. of Shakespeare,” ii. 318, gives the following description of the bauble usually carried by fools:—“The fool usually carried in his hand an official sceptre or bauble, which was a short stick, ornamented at the end with the figure of a fool's head, or sometimes with that of a doll or puppet. To this instrument there was frequently annexed an inflated skin or bladder, with which the fool belaboured those who offended him, or with whom he was inclined to make sport: this was often used by itself in lieu, as it should seem, of a bauble.”

Note return to page 461 9&lblank; an English name;] The first folio has maine, and the error is adopted in the second folio. Henley would retain it, supposing it to allude to the “thick head of hair” of the devil. Of old, the devil was represented in Miracle-plays and Moralities as covered with hair; and hence his name of “Old Hairy,” which has been corrupted in our day to “Old Harry.” In the old jest-book, “A C. mery Talys,” printed before 1533, is one “Of John Adroyns in the dyvyls apparell,” where the dress is particularly described. See also “Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” vol. ii. p. 262.

Note return to page 462 1&lblank; to suggest thee from thy master &lblank;] i. e. To tempt thee from thy master. See Vol. ii. p. 288, note 6.

Note return to page 463 2A shrewd knave, and an unhappy.] i. e. Mischievous. In the Romance of “Howleglas,” unhappiness is used for mischievousness:—“In such manner colde he cloke and hyde his unhappinesse and falsnesse.” The word unhappy is often used in the sense of mischievous by our old dramatists. See Dodsley's “Old Plays,” last edition, ii. 148, and v. 89. It sometimes means only unlucky.

Note return to page 464 3&lblank; a cheek of two file and a half,] Referring, of course, to the pile of the velvet patch.

Note return to page 465 4Enter a gentle Astringer.] A “gentle astringer” (says Steevens) is a “gentleman falconer,” the word being derived from osterous or austerous, a goshawk.

Note return to page 466 5&lblank; muddied in fortune's mood,] Mud was in Shakespeare's day pronounced nearly like mood, and hence the intended jingle, which Warburton not adverting to, changed “mood” to moat. On page 295 we have had “grace” pronounced like grass.

Note return to page 467 6Pr'ythee, allow the wind.] i. e. Allow me to stand to windward of you.

Note return to page 468 7&lblank; under her?] Her was supplied by the editor of the second folio.

Note return to page 469 8You beg more than a word, then.] Parolles, or paroles, being French for words, a quibble was most likely intended. The two first folios omit the indefinite article, which seems necessary for the sense, and is added in MS. in Lord Francis Egerton's copy of the folio of 1623. The folio of 1664 has “You beg more than one word, then.”

Note return to page 470 9&lblank; done i' the blade of youth;] i. e. as Johnson says, “the spring of early life;” and since the sense is very intelligible, we adhere to the old text, as it stands in all the editions anterior to that of Theobald. Malone and Steevens adopted the corrupted reading, blaze, which could hardly have been an error of the press.

Note return to page 471 10I am not a day of season,] i. e. A day when the season is settled; but a day when it hails while the sun shines.

Note return to page 472 1Admiringly.] The usual regulation of this passage makes two imperfect lines, when there is in fact only one hemistich: “Admiringly” concludes the line commenced by the king with the words “The daughter of this lord:” Bertram then proceeds, “My liege, at first,” which was probably not meant to be a complete line.

Note return to page 473 2Our own love, waking,] Monck Mason would substitute old for “own;” but perhaps “own” may be taken in the sense of real or true.

Note return to page 474 3Which better than the first, O, dear heaven, bless! Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cease!] This couplet (ending in the original copies with “cesse” for cease) was assigned by Theobald to the countess, and has been given to her by subsequent editors. This is doing some violence to the text, but it seems necessary, though we would willingly have restored the lines to the king, in accordance with the old copies. That “cesse” means cease there can be no doubt, and in the second folio the word is printed ceasse.

Note return to page 475 4The last that, ere I took her leave at court,] There seems some corruption in this line: to convert “I” into she, as was done by Rowe, does not completely cure the defect. The meaning seems to be, “the last time that I took leave of her at court.”

Note return to page 476 5I stood engag'd;] i. e. The noble lady thought that Bertram “stood engaged” to her. Malone understands it unengaged.

Note return to page 477 6Enter a Gentleman.] This gentleman must have been “gentle Astringer,” whom Helena had previously encountered and solicited.

Note return to page 478 7With an importing visage;] Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell reads important, in opposition to all the folios.

Note return to page 479 8I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll: for this, I'll none of him.] The meaning is very plain, although much comment has been wasted upon the passage. Lafeu says, “I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and pay toll for him on the purchase: as for this son-in-law, I'll have nothing to do with him.”

Note return to page 480 9I wonder, sir, for wives are monsters to you,] The first folio repeats “sir” instead of for, which has been added in old MS. in Lord Francis Egerton's copy: sir, with a long s, would be easily misprinted for for. The modern editors read since; but “for” is used in the sense of because. The second folio gives the line thus:— “I wonder, sir, wives are such monsters to you.”

Note return to page 481 10He blushes, and 'tis his:] The old folios have hit, instead of his. Malone reads, “He blushes, and 'tis it;” but the error lies in the last not in the first letter of hit, t having been substituted for s. The countess of course means that the ring is the property of Bertram.

Note return to page 482 1Her insuit coming with her modern grace,] i. e. Her solicitation joining with her common beauty, or beauty that was common. This sense of modern is frequent in Shakespeare.

Note return to page 483 2And I had that, which any inferior might] This line illustrates the worse than needlessness of the change made by Pope in a line in “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 287:— “Why should I joy in any abortive birth!” Pope substituted an for any, because only one syllable was required for the ten-syllable measure. The fact is, that in both these instances “any” being pronounced in the time of one syllable, the metre is perfect, and such as Shakespeare intended.

Note return to page 484 3May justly diet me.] The meaning, according to the explanation of Collins, seems to be, “You may justly make me fast, by depriving me (as Desdemona says) of the rites for which I love you.” Steevens quotes “to fast like one that takes diet,” from “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” A. ii. sc. 1, to show that to fast and to diet were used in some sort synonymously.

Note return to page 485 4Enter Parolles.] In the old folios the entrance of Parolles is twice marked, here, and with the Widow and Diana. This is evidently the proper place for him to make his appearance.

Note return to page 486 5But thou art too fine in thy evidence;] i. e. Too full of finesse; too artful. Malone needlessly cites several instances.

Note return to page 487 6This ring, you say, was yours?] This speech is clearly metrical, though printed as prose in all the editions, ancient and modern. The King invariably uses blank-verse.

Note return to page 488 7“And are by me with child,”] Is for “are,” a grammatical error running through all the old copies. Helena only gives the import of the words of the letter, and not the exact words. Her repetition of them shows clearly the sense of the passage. See p. 258.

Note return to page 489 8If it appear not plain, and prove untrue,] In Painter, and in his original, Boccaccio, Helen comes before Count Bertram at Rousillon with twins in her arms, “Io ti richieggio per Dio, che le conditioni postemi per li due cavalieri, che io ti mandai, tu le mi osservi: ed ecco nelle mie braccia non un solo figliuolo di te ma due; ed ecco qui il tuo anello:” which Painter thus renders:—“Therefore I now beseche thee, for the honoure of God, that thou wilt observe the conditions which the twoo Knightes that I sent unto thee did commannde me to doe: for beholde here, in my armes, not onely one sonne begotten by thee, but twayne, and likewyse thy ryng.” Palace of Pleasure, i. fo. 92. Edit. Marsh. It is to be remarked, that in the original story the King is not present at Rousillon at the reconcilement of Bertram and Helena.

Note return to page 490 “Twelfe Night, Or what you will,” was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies twenty-one pages; viz. from p. 255 to 275 inclusive, in the division of “Comedies,” p. 276 having been left blank, and unpaged. It appears in the same form in the three later folios.

Note return to page 491 P. 318.&lblank; Rich his Farewell to Military Profession.] This work was originally printed in 1581, 4to, and the following is a copy of the title-page of the first edition, which seems to have been unknown to bibliographers:— “Riche his Farewell to Militarie profession: conteinyng verie pleasaunt discourses fit for a peaceable tyme: Gathered together for the onely delight of the courteous Gentlewomen, bothe of Englande and Irelande, for whose onely pleasure thei were collected together, And unto whom thei are directed and dedicated by Barnabe Riche, Gentleman. Malui me divitem esse qu&abar; vocari. Imprinted at London, by Robert Walley. 1581.” 4to. B. L.

Note return to page 492 1First given by Rowe in his edition.

Note return to page 493 1&lblank; like the sweet south, That breathes upon a bank of violets,] The old copies read “the sweet sound.” Pope substituted south, to the manifest improvement of the passage; and as sound for south was an easy misprint, we have continued the alteration, being of opinion, that it is much more likely that the printer should have made an error, than that Shakespeare should have missed so obvious a beauty. As Steevens remarked, there is great similarity of expression in the following passage from Sir P. Sidney's “Arcadia,” 4to, 1590:—“her breath is more sweet than a gentle south-west wind, which comes creeping over flowery fields and shadowed waters.” There is no doubt that Shakespeare saw this passage. See p. 325, note 4. No “sweet sound” “breathes upon a bank of violets,” but “the sweet south” may very properly be said to breathe upon it.

Note return to page 494 2Of what validity &lblank;] i. e. value. See “All's Well that Ends Well,” A. v. sc. 3.

Note return to page 495 3And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E'er since pursue me.] Malone quoted the whole of the fifth sonnet of Samuel Daniel, to show that this thought was not new in Shakespeare. Daniel's “Delia,” in which it is contained, was twice printed in 1592, 4to, and when coincidences of the kind occur, dates are important: Malone used an edition of 1594. The following are the only applicable lines, as they stand in the first impression: the poet is complaining of the disdain of his mistress, “Which turn'd my sport into a hart's dispaire,   Which still is chac'd, whilst I have any breath, By mine owne thoughts, set on me by my faire:   My thoughts, like hounds, pursue me to my death.” While Malone was insisting that Shakespeare undoubtedly had Daniel's sonnet in his mind, he himself produced several instances, which prove that various other writers had fallen upon the same thought, in nearly the same words, including Adlington, in his translation of “Golden Asse (not Ages, as misprinted in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell) of Apuleius,” which came from the press as early as 1566, and of which there were various subsequent impressions.

Note return to page 496 4Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else] Sir P. Sidney, in his “Arcadia,” 1590, as Steevens observes, has a similar expression,—“the flock of unspeakable virtues,” meaning, of course, the assemblage of them. It deserves remark, that this passage occurs in the “Arcadia,” just below one already quoted, respecting “the sweet south,”—a confirmation of that reading.

Note return to page 497 5(Her sweet perfections)] The passage would run better for the sense, and equally well for the verse, if we were to read, &lblank; “when liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, her sweet perfections, Are all supplied and fill'd with one self king.” In the folio, 1623, there are no marks of parenthesis before or after “her sweet perfections,” but they seem necessary to cure the defective collocation in the old text. “Liver, brain, and heart,” says Steevens, “are admitted in poetry as the residence of passions, judgment, and sentiments. These are what Shakespeare calls ‘her sweet perfections.’” If we could read “perfections” in the singular, the meaning might be that “one self king,” viz. “her sweet perfection,” would fill the three sovereign thrones of “liver, brain, and heart.”

Note return to page 498 6&lblank; with one self king.] The second folio reads “with one self same king,” as if the metre were defective; but “perfections” being read as four syllables, as is constantly the case with words ending in tion and sion, the line is complete.

Note return to page 499 7When you, and those poor number saved with you,] Shakespeare uses “number” as the plural, and there is no need to alter “those” into that, as was done by Malone, Steevens, &c.

Note return to page 500 8&lblank; A noble duke, in nature As in name.] Malone or Boswell silently interpolated his before “name.” As the text now stands it is not exactly according to the old copies, where “A noble duke, in nature as in name,” is made a line by itself, without regard to “Who governs here!” preceding it, and “What is his name?” following it. It may be doubted which is the better regulation.

Note return to page 501 9They say, she hath abjur'd the company And sight of men.] In all the old copies the passage stands as follows:— “They say she hath abjur'd the sight, And company of men.” The alteration, making “sight” and “company” change places, was introduced by Sir Thomas Hanmer; and it is unquestionably for the better, both as regards metre and sense. Olivia has abjured not only the “company” but even the “sight” of men.

Note return to page 502 10He's as tall a man as any's in Illyria.] The use of “tall” for courageous and bold was extremely common in the time of Shakespeare. In “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” A. i. sc. 4, Simple says, “he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head: he hath fought with a warrener.” In the same comedy, A. ii. sc. 1, Shallow speaks of “four tall fellows” as four courageous fellows. Instances innumerable might be collected from other writers of the same age. See Dodsley's Old Plays, last edit. vol. iii. p. 39. vol. v. p. 255. 388, &c.

Note return to page 503 1&lblank; he plays o' the viol-de-gamboys,] Meaning, of course, the viol-di-gambo, an instrument then much in use.

Note return to page 504 2He's a coward, and a coystril,] A “coystril” is a kestrel, or bastard hawk: the term was figuratively applied.

Note return to page 505 3&lblank; like a parish-top.] A large top was formerly kept in parishes or towns, for the exercise and amusement of the lower orders. See Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher, “Thierry and Theodoret,” vol. i. p. 138.

Note return to page 506 4Castiliano vulgo;] Sir Toby probably uses this as a drinking exclamation; and in “The Rich Jew of Malta,” by Marlowe, we have Rico Castiliano employed in the same way. Warburton supposed that vulgo should be printed volto, and that Maria was to put on a Castilian, or grave countenance on the approach of Sir Andrew.

Note return to page 507 5Accost, Sir Andrew, accost.] Sir Andrew did not understand the word “accost,” and since the time of Dryden, who employs it, the use of it in this sense is rare. Sir Toby afterwards explains it, “front her, board her,” &c. “Accost” is from the Fr. accoster, and means strictly, to come side by side, and more generally, to approach. Spenser, “Faerie Queene,” book v. c. x. stanza 42, uses it more licentiously for the sake of the rhyme:— “For all the shores, which to the sea accoste, He day and night doth ward, both far and wide.”

Note return to page 508 6&lblank; bring your hand to the buttery-bar, and let it drink.] The buttery was the place from which meat and drink were formerly delivered. In the Induction to “The Taming of the Shrew,” the lord tells a servant to take the players to the buttery. To have a dry hand was formerly considered a symptom of debility, as Steevens established by various quotations.

Note return to page 509 7&lblank; but I am a great eater of beef, and, I believe, that does harm to my wit.] Ben Jonson, in “Every Man out of his Humour,” asserts that porridge thickens the brain:—“'Slud, I think he feeds her with porridge, I: she could never have such a thick brain else.” Gifford's “Ben Jonson,” vol. ii. p. 63.

Note return to page 510 8&lblank; it will not curl by nature.] The old copies read, “cool my nature.” The happy emendation was made by Theobald.

Note return to page 511 9What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight?] A “galliard” was a lively species of dance, said to be of Spanish origin, the name of it being derived from gallardo in that language, which signifies cheerful or gay.

Note return to page 512 1&lblank; mistress Mall's picture?] The name of this woman was Mary Frith. She was in the habit of wearing men's clothes, and obtained extraordinary celebrity in connexion with many low characters of the time. Her picture might be curtained, either because it was considered indecent, or simply, as Sir Toby says, to preserve it from the dust. If she were born in 1584, as Malone states, at the time “Twelfth-Night” was first acted, (Feb. 1601–2,) she was only sixteen or seventeen years old. Her birth is, therefore, in all probability to be placed earlier: her death is said not to have occurred until 1659, and in 1662 her “Life and Death” was published. John Day, the dramatist, wrote a tract upon her “mad pranks,” which was entered at Stationers' Hall in August, 1610, but it is not known to have been printed. Possibly, her “Life and Death,” 1662, was only Day's tract with additions. All the known particulars regarding her have been collected by the Rev. Mr. Dyce, in his introduction to Dekker's and Middleton's comedy, “The Roaring Girl,” 1611, which has a wood-cut of the heroine upon the title-page. See also Dodsley's Old Plays, last edit. vol. vi.

Note return to page 513 2&lblank; and come home in a coranto?] A “coranto” was an active species of dance, and it is also mentioned by Ben Jonson in conjunction with a galliard. “Coranto” is the same as couranto, and has the same etymology; probably from the Spanish correr, or from the Italian correre. The termination shows that it was not of French origin.

Note return to page 514 3&lblank; sink-a-pace.] i. e. cinque-pas: “the name of a dance,” says Sir J. Hawkins, “the measures whereof are regulated by the number five.” It is often spoken of by Shakespeare's contemporaries. All the dances mentioned by Shakespeare will shortly be explained by Mr. E. F. Rimbault, in his forthcoming very interesting work, to be entitled, “A Collection of Ancient Music, illustrating the Plays and Poems of Shakespeare.” It will contain all that now remains of the original music to his dramas, which, if not composed for the first representation of them, was written during the life-time of the poet: we understand that the whole of the score for “The Tempest” will be included, Mr. Rimbault having discovered it in the British Museum. Another division of his work will consist of the old ballads inserted or alluded to by Shakespeare, with their tunes. The dances will form the third part. All will be taken from English MSS., and old printed books. Mr. Rimbault informs me, with respect to the Cinque-pas, that the only specimen of it he has yet been able to find is contained in two contemporary MSS., one in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and the other in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.

Note return to page 515 4&lblank; flame-coloured stock.] “Dam'd coloured stock,” or stocking, is the reading of the original editions. Pope altered it to “flame-coloured,” which is possibly right, though we do not meet with any mention of “flame-coloured stocks” elsewhere.

Note return to page 516 5Taurus? that's sides and heart.] Alluding, as Johnson remarks, 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 517 6&lblank; yet, a barful strife!] i. e. A struggle on my part full of bars, or impediments.

Note return to page 518 7Enter Maria, and Clown.] The clown in this play, as well as in “All's Well that Ends Well,” is the domestic fool, or jester. In “As You Like It,” he is the court fool. All three wore “motley.”

Note return to page 519 8&lblank; needs to fear no colours.] This expression is a common one, but not easy to be explained. It seems to be used in a double sense, but somewhat connected, with reference to complexion and deception. Maria afterwards alludes to the colours used in war.

Note return to page 520 9A good lenten answer.] i. e. as Steevens explains it, a short, spare answer, in allusion to the diet in Lent. The word “lenten” is often used in a figurative sense; but when in “Hamlet” we meet with the words “what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you,” the speaker adverts to the obstructions the actors in London met with during Lent, when restrictions were put upon their performances. Such, however, does not seem have been Steevens's notion of the passage. John Taylor, the water-poet, in his “Praise of Clean Linen,” mentions “a lenten top,” which people whipped by way of amusement during Lent.

Note return to page 521 1&lblank; or, if both break, your gaskins fall.] Gaskins were large breeches or hose. Maria puns upon the word “points,” which were the tags at the ends of strings, used to fasten or sustain the dress before the general introduction of buttons. See this Vol. p. 130.

Note return to page 522 1&lblank; that's as much as to say, I wear, &c.] In the old copies it stands, “that's as much to say, as I wear,” &c., “as” having been misplaced.

Note return to page 523 2&lblank; no better than the fools' zanies.] We have had “zany” before, in “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 367. Douce says, that “fools' zanies” in the text means “fools' baubles, which had upon the top of them the head of a fool.”

Note return to page 524 3Now, Mercury endue thee with leasing, for thou speakest well of fools!] The sense is not very clear. Johnson says that it is, “May Mercury teach thee to lie, since thou liest in favour of fools.” Warburton would read pleasing; and Hanmer substitutes learning; but the old copies are correct, and Johnson's interpretation seems to be the true one. The clown means to say, that unless Olivia lied she could not “speak well of fools;” consequently, he prays Mercury to endue her with “leasing,” or lying.

Note return to page 525 4&lblank; one draught above heat &lblank;] i. e. Above the proper degree of warmth, as Steevens explains it.

Note return to page 526 5&lblank; like a sheriff's post,] The posts at the doors of sheriffs, on which originally proclamations and placards were exhibited, are very often mentioned in writers of the time. Modern editions, without warrant, read “supporter of a bench,” just afterwards.

Note return to page 527 6&lblank; as a squash is before 'tis a peascod,] See “Midsummer-Night's Dream,” Vol. ii. p. 425. Farther on, “e'en standing water,” is printed in the old copies “in standing water.” This error is not unfrequent.

Note return to page 528 7&lblank; I am very comptible,] “Comptible” is accountable; and here seems to mean subject to, or sensitive of, “the least sinister usage.”

Note return to page 529 8If you be not mad, be gone;] Monck Mason would omit the negative, but surely the old reading is very intelligible.

Note return to page 530 9&lblank; I am to hull here a little longer.] Viola follows up Maria's sea-phrase, and tells her that she is to lie there a little longer. To hull is to remain, “driven to and fro by the waves,” as it is expressed in a passage, quoted by Steevens, from Philemon Holland's Translation of Pliny, fo. 1601. Other instances are unnecessary.

Note return to page 531 10Tell me your mind; I am a messenger.] Since the time of Warburton, “Tell me your mind” has been given to Olivia, and “I am a messenger” made a very inconsequential observation by Viola. All the old copies have the passage as it stands in our text, Viola asking Olivia to tell her her mind, because she is a messenger, and wishes to take back an answer. Olivia could hardly say to Viola, “Tell me your mind,” when she knew that Viola only brought a message from the duke.

Note return to page 532 1Look you, sir; such a one I was this present: is't not well done?] This is the old and true reading; but some modern editors have inserted as before “I was this present,” and thus confused the plain meaning. The notes of the commentators, including Warburton, Steevens, Monck Mason, and Malone, are curious specimens of reasoning upon false premises: the foundation of their argument is not in the old text. Olivia removes her veil, as if it were the curtain before a picture, and telling Viola “such a one I was this present,” asks, in addition, if the picture were not well painted? Viola follows up the notion of painting, and hints that Olivia's colour might be artificial.

Note return to page 533 2'Tis beauty truly blent,] i. e. blended. So in “The Merchant of Venice,” Vol. ii. p. 525, we have had, “Where every something, being blent together, Turns to a wild of nothing”—

Note return to page 534 3And leave the world no copy.] Shakespeare has expressed the same thought in his 9th, 11th, and 13th Sonnets.

Note return to page 535 4Were you sent hither to praise me?] Malone would read 'praise, or appraise; but the old word was apprise, as in Bishop Hall's “Specialties of Life,” p. 57, as quoted by Todd in his edition of Johnson's Dictionary:—“The sequestrators sent certain men, appointed by them to apprise all the goods that were in the house.” Again, “They would have apprised our very wearing clothes,” &c. Monck Mason's objection, that the inventory had been drawn up by Olivia herself, seems to deserve little weight, because, though Olivia prepared it, Viola might be called upon to put a price on the various “items.” There is no apostrophe before “praise” in the old copies, and as the speech is only prose, the word (if Shakespeare had intended to use it and had it been the word in use) might have been printed at length. Olivia refers to the manner in which Viola had extolled her beauty in the preceding speech.

Note return to page 536 5Write loyal cantons of contemned love,] “Cantons” was the old English word for canto. Heywood, in his “Great Britain's Troy,” 1609, calls the seventeen divisions of his poem “cantons;” but on the other hand, Spenser divides his “books” of the “Faerie Queene,” 1590, into cantos, in imitation of the Italian poets. Sir John Harrington, in his translation of the Orlando Furioso, 1591, called the cantos of Ariosto “books.”

Note return to page 537 6Run after that same peevish messenger,] Another instance, out of many, to prove that in the time of Shakespeare, and earlier, “peevish” did not mean petulant or testy, but silly or foolish. See vol. ii. p. 150, note 8, and p. 162, note 4. In this place Olivia may wish Malvolio not to perceive that she takes any interest about so insignificant a person as “the county's man.”

Note return to page 538 7&lblank; ourselves we do not owe:] i. e. own, as in Vol. ii. p. 45, and many other places. The meaning, as Malone remarks, is “we are not our own masters.”

Note return to page 539 7&lblank; but, though I could not with such estimable wonder overfar believe that,] “The meaning is,” says Johnson, “that he could not venture to think so highly as others of his sister.” Warburton would read merely, “but though I could not overfar believe that,” omitting “with such estimable wonder,” as an interpolation by the players: “estimable wonder” is esteeming wonder.

Note return to page 540 8Enter Viola; Malvolio following.] The old stage-direction is, “Enter Viola and Malvolio at several doors.” Malvolio may be supposed to be coming out of Olivia's house, but Viola must necessarily be in the street, having lately quitted Olivia.

Note return to page 541 9&lblank; receive it so.] i. e. understand or take it so, without reference to the ring. Viola follows it up by expressing surprise at what Malvolio had said about the ring, which she had never seen till then.

Note return to page 542 10That, methought,] The second folio inserts sure before “methought,” to amend the measure; but if the measure be defective, which may admit of doubt, sure could hardly be the word omitted, as it occurs in the next line but one. “She loves me, sure,” &c.

Note return to page 543 1Alas! our frailty is the cause, not we, For such as we are made, if such we be,] The first folio has O, for which the second folio substitutes “our;” and it was probably a misprint, “our” having been written, in the MS. used by the old printer, with a contraction, as was frequently done. Malone and Steevens give the second line thus:— “For, such as we are made of, such we be;” but this seems a decided error. The meaning of the four lines, beginning at “How easy is it,” appears not so difficult as some of the commentators imagined: “proper,” as Steevens suggests, is to be understood handsome, a sense it will bear. “How easy is it (says Viola) for handsome false men to set their forms in the waxen hearts of women! for which, alas! our frailty is the cause, not ourselves, inasmuch as we are made such as we are, if indeed we be such.”

Note return to page 544 2How will this fadge?] To “fadge” is to suit, to answer the purpose—a word of common occurrence in our old writers. We have had it before in “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 349.

Note return to page 545 3A stoop of wine!] The word “stoop,” says Reed, is derived from the Belgic, and is equivalent to a measure of two quarts.

Note return to page 546 4&lblank; an excellent breast.] “Breast” and voice were of old synonymous, and it is therefore not necessary to substitute “breath,” as some have recommended.

Note return to page 547 5I sent thee sixpence for thy lemon:] The word is spelt “lemon” in the old copies, and the meaning may only be, that Sir Andrew sent the Clown sixpence in return for, or to buy a lemon. On the other hand, Sir Andrew may have sent the sixpence to the Clown's mistress or sweet-heart. Leman has been differently derived, from l'aimant, Fr., or more probably from the Saxon leof, dear, and man. Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary to Chaucer, gives the Saxon etymology, and spells it lemman. The word occurs in this sense in “Henry IV.,” pt. 2. A. v. sc. 3, and in “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” A. iv. sc. 2. In the drama of “The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality,” 1602, we find the double meaning played upon by one of the characters:— “He shall have a lemman to moysten his mouth; A lymon, I mean, no lemman, I trow: Take heede, my faire maides, you take me not so.” Sign. C. 4.

Note return to page 548 6&lblank; and the Myrmidons are no bottle ale-houses.] This seems only given as specimen of the sort of “fooling” which Sir Andrew considered “gracious.” It is to be observed, that Sir Toby says nothing in favour of such nonsense: it is only Sir Andrew who exclaims “Excellent!”

Note return to page 549 7&lblank; or a song of good life?] i. e. a “civil and virtuous song,” as it is called in “The Mad Pranks, &c., of Robin Good-fellow,” (4to, 1628, reprinted for the Percy Society) in opposition to “a long song.”

Note return to page 550 8They sing a catch.] This catch is contained in Ravenscroft's “Deuteromelia,” 1609, where the air is given to the following words:— “Hold thy peace, and I pr'ythee hold thy peace, Thou knave, thou knave! hold thy peace, thou knave.” “It appears to be so contrived,” says Sir John Hawkins, “that each of the singers calls the other knave in turn.” [Subnote: P. 355.—Add to note 8: A catch of the same kind, where the singers call each other “fool,” (the music by John Bennett) is contained in Ravenscroft's “Briefe Discourse,” &c. London, 1614, 4to.]

Note return to page 551 9My lady's a Cataian;] It is not easy to explain this term of reproach, nor is it perhaps of much consequence. Warburton contends, in a note to “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” A. ii. sc. 1, that “Cataian” was equivalent to liar; and Steevens supposes it to mean a cheat, or a thief. Cataian is found in Davenant's “Love and Honour,” in the sense of sharper. Cathay was the old name of China.

Note return to page 552 1&lblank; Malvolio's a Peg-a-Ramsey,] Peg-a-Ramsey, or Peggy-Ramsey, was an old popular tune. “There are two tunes under this name as old as Shakespeare's time, and several ballads to each.” Chappell's National English Airs, Vol. ii. p. 131. A tune called “Little Pegge of Ramsie,” as we find on the same authority, was composed by Dr. Bull. “Peg-a-Ramsey,” and “Watton Townsend,” are the identical tune, and it was also known by the latter name in the time of Shakespeare.

Note return to page 553 2“Three merry men be we.”] This seems to have been the burden of various old songs, and it was parodied, as “Three merry boys,” “Three merry wives,” &c.

Note return to page 554 3“There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady!”] A line from the ballad of “The Goodly and Constant Wyfe Susanna,” licensed for the press in 1562. See Percy's Reliques, Vol. i. p. 224, edit. 1812. Malone says that the oldest song with the burden of “Lady, lady!” he had met with is in “The Trial of Treasure,” an interlude, 1567; but in the volume of Old Ballads, printed for the Percy Society, 1840, is one by Elderton to the same tune, printed by R. Lant as early as 1559. It is entitled, “The Panges of Love, and Lovers' Fittes.”

Note return to page 555 4“O! the twelfth day of December,”] A fragment of some ballad, of which no other trace seems to remain.

Note return to page 556 5&lblank; coziers' catches &lblank;] i. e. Botchers' catches: a cozier meant either a tailor or a cobbler. Minsheu says that it is a cobbler; but it is, in fact, any person engaged in sewing, from the Fr. coudre.

Note return to page 557 6Snick up!] A term of contempt, of which the precise meaning seems to have been lost. Steevens would derive it from “sneak-up,” applied to the Prince (“Henry the Fourth,” pt. i.) by Falstaff, and such may possibly have been its origin; but it became afterwards equivalent to the phrase, “Go and hang yourself,” or “Go and be hanged.” See the Rev. A. Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher, “Knight of the Burning Pestle,” Vol. ii. p. 156.

Note return to page 558 7&lblank; I must be round with you.] i. e. Plain with you. The same phrase occurs in “The Comedy of Errors,” Vol. ii. p. 125.

Note return to page 559 8“Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone.”] In Percy's Reliques, Vol. i. p. 224, edit. 1812, the ballad from which this line is taken is inserted at length, from “The Golden Garland of Princely Delight.” What is subsequently sung by Sir Toby and the clown is a modification, for their purpose, of parts of the first two stanzas of the ballad.

Note return to page 560 9Out o' tune!] So all the old copies; but modern editors read “Out of time?” as if it were a question put by Sir Toby to Malvolio, in reference to what he had said very soon after his entrance. All that Sir Toby means is, that the clown had sung out of tune. “Sir, ye lie!” is addressed to Malvolio with the purpose of affronting him.

Note return to page 561 1Go, sir: rub your chain with crumbs.] Stewards formerly wore gold chains, as a mark of distinction, and these chains were cleaned with crumbs. Upon this passage Steevens made the following apposite quotations:—“Nash, in his ‘Have With You to Saffron Walden,’ 1596, (not 1595, as Steevens has it,) charges Gabriel Harvey with having ‘stolen a nobleman's steward's chain;’ and in Webster's ‘Dutchess of Malfy,’ 1623, occurs this passage, ‘Yea, and the chippings of the buttery fly after him, to scouer his gold chain.’”

Note return to page 562 2&lblank; a nayword,] i. e. a byeword, says Steevens. Lexicographers quote no other instances of its use, but from Shakespeare. In the old copies it is printed “an ayword,” and perhaps that is the true reading, the meaning being “an everlasting word:” “ay” is ever. In “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” however, it stands “nayword” in the folios.

Note return to page 563 3&lblank; an affectioned ass,] i. e. An affected ass. In “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 345 & 365, we have “affection” used for affectation; and the sense was common at the time.

Note return to page 564 4&lblank; and utters it by great swaths:] The word swath occurs again in the same sense in “Troilus and Cressida,” A. v. sc. 5; but there, in the old copies, it is spelt swath; here, “swarth.” In the “Promptorium Parvulorum,” as quoted by Todd, a swath is “a line of grass or corn cut down by the mowers.” It is as much as a mower can cut down by the sweep of his scythe.

Note return to page 565 5&lblank; call me cut.] “Cut” was a common term of contempt, and seems equivalent to Falstaff's “call me horse,” in “Henry the Fourth,” pt. i.; for cut and horse were synonymous. We meet with the phrase “call me cut” in H. Medwell's Interlude of “Nature,” written before 1500:— “Yf thou se him not take his own way, Call me cut, when thou metest me another day.” “Cut” (as Steevens suggests) was probably abbreviated from curtal, a horse whose tail has been docked; and hence the frequent opposition, in old comic writers, of cut and longtail.

Note return to page 566 6&lblank; upon some favour that it loves;] Favour is often used for feature or countenance. In her reply, Viola plays upon the double meaning of the word, “a little, by your favour.”

Note return to page 567 7&lblank; sooner lost and worn,] Johnson would read won for “worn,” adopting the alteration of Hanmer. It is “worne” in the old copies; and although an easy misprint for wonne, which would probably have been so spelt in the first folio, we are not warranted in introducing it into the text when “worn” affords a clear sense: “lost and worn” means lost and worn out; and Malone needlessly cites various passages to show that “worn” had this sense.

Note return to page 568 8Like the old age.] “The ‘old age,’” says Johnson, “is the ages past, the times of simplicity.”

Note return to page 569 9Fly away, fly away, breath;] The old reading is, literatim, “Fye away, fie away breath;” which may possibly be strained into a meaning, but it is much more likely to be a mere misprint.

Note return to page 570 1&lblank; for thy mind is a very opal!] An opal is a stone of various colours, according to the light in which it is seen. The clown wishes the duke to have his dress made to correspond with his mind.

Note return to page 571 2It cannot be so answer'd.] i. e. My love to her cannot be so answered. The modern editors read, “I cannot be so answered,” in opposition to the folios. When Viola replies, “Sooth, but you must,” she means, that if your love cannot be so answered, you must be content with the answer. Malone adopted the correction of I for “It,” (which was made by Sir T. Hanmer) but expressing doubts whether he ought to do so.

Note return to page 572 3A blank, my lord. She never told her love, &lblank;] Coleridge says, “After the first line the actress ought to make a pause, and then start afresh, from the activity of thought, born of suppressed feelings, and which thought had accumulated during the brief interval, as vital heat under the skin during a dip in cold water.” Lit. Remains, ii. 118.

Note return to page 573 4&lblank; bide no denay.] i. e. denial. “Denay” is sometimes used as a verb, but I recollect no other instance in which it is converted into a substantive.

Note return to page 574 5&lblank; how he jets under his advanced plumes!] To “jet” is to strut, or swagger, one of the commonest words in writers of the time, as well as long before and afterwards.

Note return to page 575 6&lblank; the lady of the Strachy married the yeoman of the wardrobe.] There is, doubtless, an allusion here to some popular story not now known, “Strachy” (printed, or misprinted, in italic in the original edition) being the name of some noble family of which one of the female branches had condescended to marry a menial. Possibly that family was the Strozzi of Florence; and the copyist of Shakespeare's MS. for the theatre, not being able to read the word, wrote “Strachy” for Strozzi, or Strozzy. On the other hand, Mr. R. P. Knight suggested that “Strachy” was the strategus or governor of some province, whose widow had married below her rank. Warburton's conjecture of Trachy, from Thrace, and Steevens's notion about the starchy, connected with the laundry, are equally untenable. The meaning of Malvolio merely is, that a great lady had married a servant; and whether Strachy be a corruption, or the real name given in the old story to which Shakespeare referred, is a matter of little consequence.

Note return to page 576 7O, for a stone-bow,] A bow used for the purpose of discharging stones.

Note return to page 577 8&lblank; where I have left &lblank;] Malone omits “have.”

Note return to page 578 9&lblank; or play with my—some rich jewel.] So the old copy, but omitting the dash. Steevens understands “my some rich jewel” to mean, “some rich jewel of my own;” but it is more natural to suppose that Malvolio, having mentioned his watch, then a rarity, wishes to enumerate some other valuable in his possession, and pauses after “or play with my,” following it up with the words “some rich jewel,” not being able on the sudden to name any one in particular.

Note return to page 579 10Though our silence be drawn from us with cars,] Thus the old copies, but some corruption may be suspected. Tyrwhitt would substitute cables for “cars;” but Steevens and Johnson consider the expression to allude to the force necessary to draw a car or cart. Sometimes “cars” has been misprinted ears.

Note return to page 580 11By your leave, wax.—Soft!] Malone contends that the word “Soft” applies to the wax, and is not an exclamation; but Steevens shows that the wax used for letters at this period was not commonly “soft.” There can be no doubt that “soft!” here is to be taken exactly in the same sense as “softly!” and “soft!” used by Malvolio afterwards.

Note return to page 581 1&lblank; brock!] i. e. badger. Malone says very truly that “brock” was used in the same way by other authors in Shakespeare's time, and quotes the following from Peele's “Merry Conceited Jests:”—“This self-conceited brock had George invited,” &c. Malone gives the date of 1657 to this production, but the Rev. Mr. Dyce printed the “Jests” in his excellent edition of Peele's Works, ii. 263, from a copy dated 1627. There can be no doubt that they first appeared soon after Peele's death, which occurred before Meres published his Palladis Tamia in 1598, where he is spoken of as dead: the earliest known copy of Peel's “Jests” is dated 1607.

Note return to page 582 2And with what wing the stannyel checks at it!] In the old copies stallion is misprinted for “stannyel,” which signifies a species of hawk. The judicious change was made by Sir T. Hanmer.

Note return to page 583 3&lblank; to any formal capacity.] i. e. To any one in his senses—not deranged. See “Measure for Measure,” Vol. ii. p. 96, note 8; and “Comedy of Errors,” in the same vol. p. 168, note 2.

Note return to page 584 4Sowter will cry upon't,] Sowter is used for the name of a dog, which having found the scent gives tongue. Fabian afterwards carries on the allusion: “the cur is excellent at faults.”

Note return to page 585 5&lblank; some are born great,] “Some are become great,” is the reading of the old folios; but no doubt it is an error, and Rowe corrected it from the subsequent repetition of the words by Malvolio and the Clown.

Note return to page 586 6Remember who commended thy yellow stockings,] By various passages quoted by Steevens, (which it would be easy to multiply) it appears that yellow stockings were more or less worn from about the middle of the reign of Elizabeth to the breaking out of the civil wars.

Note return to page 587 7&lblank; cross-gartered:] It seems also to have been the fashion to wear garters crossed, but no authority for it has been produced quite as old as this comedy. The earliest I have met with is in “The Woman Hater,” 1607.

Note return to page 588 8The fortunate-unhappy.] This letter is most confusedly printed in the old folios, those of later date making no improvement upon the older impressions. As a proof of the confusion, the end of it, where it is mixed up with what Malvolio says, may be quoted literatim:—“Farewell, Shee that would alter services with thee, the fortunate unhappy daylight and champian discovers not more.”

Note return to page 589 9Day-light and champaign discovers not more,] That is, day-light and open country do not discover more. Champaign (spelt champian in the old editions) was not an uncommon word for a wide expanse of country.

Note return to page 590 1&lblank; I will be point-device,] A frequent expression, meaning exactly, and with great nicety. See p. 59, note 4.

Note return to page 591 2&lblank; at tray-trip,] Tray-trip, or trey-trip, seems, by various quotations, to have been a game at which dice were employed. By “play my freedom,” Sir Toby means, stake his freedom.

Note return to page 592 3Dost thou live by thy tabor?] Theatrical fools often appeared with a tabor, and in the representation of “Tarlton” (see the Bridgewater Catalogue, p. 300) he is furnished with one. The clown's reply, “No, sir; I live by the church,” is not intelligible, if we do not suppose him to have wilfully misunderstood Viola to ask whether he lived near the sign of the tabor, which might either be a music-shop or a tavern.

Note return to page 593 4&lblank; the king lies by a beggar,] Ought we not to read lives, the letter v having dropped out in the press.

Note return to page 594 5&lblank; but a cheveril glove &lblank;] i. e. a kid glove, from the French chevreau. It is a word of ancient use in our language, and occurs in the Coventry Plays, p. 241, edit. Halliwell. We meet with it also in the old interlude of “Jacob and Esau,” which was printed in 1568, “O! ye rent my cheverell: let me be past my paine.”

Note return to page 595 6Would not a pair of these have bred, sir?] Meaning a couple of pieces of money, instead of one only, which Viola had given him.

Note return to page 596 7&lblank; Cressida was a beggar.] Malone appositely quotes the following passage, from Chaucer's “Testament of Creseyde,” &lblank; “great penurye Thou suffer shalt, and as a beggar dye.” The poet is speaking of Cressida.

Note return to page 597 8&lblank; but the word is over-worn.] By the affected use of it; in the same way that Armado, in “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 312, uses “welkin.”

Note return to page 598 9&lblank; like the haggard,] A haggard is a wild or untrained hawk, which flies at all birds without distinction. See Vol. ii. p. 224, note 1.

Note return to page 599 10But wise men's folly fall'n quite taints their wit.] This is the old and correct reading, which Heath thus explains:—“But wise men's folly, when once it is fallen into extravagance, overpowers their discretion.” Malone reads, “But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit.”

Note return to page 600 11&lblank; she is the list of my voyage.] Viola follows up Sir Toby's figure of a trading voyage, and says that she is bound to Olivia, who is the limit (or list) of her expedition. We have “lists” in the sense of bounds or limits in the opening of “Measure for Measure,” Vol. ii. p. 7, note 2.

Note return to page 601 1&lblank; to your own most pregnant and vouchsafed ear.] i. e. Ready or prepared ear: as in “Measure for Measure” we have “pregnant,” p. 7, and “unpregnant,” p. 85, for ready and unready.

Note return to page 602 2&lblank; I'll get 'em all three all ready.] This is Malone's reading, or rather Malone's construction of the old reading, where it stands, “I'll get them all three already.” Possibly Sir Andrew pulled out his table-book, or memorandum-book, and wrote down the words, meaning that he would “get them all three all ready” for use on some future occasion.

Note return to page 603 3&lblank; a cyprus, not a bosom, Hides my heart:] Meaning, that her heart may be as easily seen as if it were covered only with a cyprus veil, and not with flesh and blood.

Note return to page 604 4&lblank; not a grise;] i. e. not a step: from the Fr. grez. The word occurs again in “Timon of Athens,” A. iv. sc. 3:— &lblank; “for every grise of fortune Is smooth'd by that below.” We also meet with it in “Othello.”

Note return to page 605 5Then westward ho!] This was one of the exclamations of the watermen on the Thames; and, used in this way, it is met with as a stage-direction in Peele's “Famous Chronicle of Edward I.,” printed in 1593 and 1599:—“Make a noise, Westward Ho!” when the Queen is about to embark on the river at “Potter's Hive.” Webster and Dekker wrote two plays, under the titles of “Westward ho” and “Northward ho.” See Dyce's Webster's Works, Vol. iii. Jonson, Marston, and Chapman, wrote a comedy called “Eastward ho.”

Note return to page 606 6&lblank; maugre &lblank;] i. e. in spite of. From malgré, Fr. The word is common in old writers.

Note return to page 607 7And that no woman has;] i. e. I have given my “heart,” “bosom,” and “truth,” to no woman.

Note return to page 608 8Did she see thee the while,] Thee was added by Rowe, and is not in the old copies: the compositor was, perhaps, misled by the definite article, which he fancied ought not to be repeated: “thee” in old MSS. is often written the, and “the” is sometimes written thee.

Note return to page 609 9&lblank; I had as lief be a Brownist, as a politician.] The sect of the Brownists arose in the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, and was so called from Robert Brown, its founder; who, after separating himself from the Church, and causing much confusion in it for about ten years, returned to it in the year 1589 or 1590, and died in 1630. The sect was ridiculed during a long period, and to laugh at a Brownist did not go out of fashion until after the Restoration.

Note return to page 610 1&lblank; if thou thou'st him some thrice,] Theobald and others would make out an allusion here to Coke's conduct to Sir Walter Raleigh on his trial, which took place at Winchester in November, 1603, more than eighteen months after, we now know, “Twelfth Night” had been acted at the Temple. With respect to the practice of superiors thouing their inferiors, we may copy the following Rule of St. Bridget from Aungier's “History of Syon,” p. 297. “When the sustres in convenient tymes and places speke any to other, they schall have ther handes withe in ther cowle sleves, or els, honestly and religiously joyned togyder, holde hem before them: none of hyghenesse schal thou another in spekynge, but eche schal speke reverently to other, the yonger namely to the elder.” I have to thank Mr. Bruce for drawing my attention to this quotation, so much in point.

Note return to page 611 2And his opposite,] i.e. his adversary or antagonist. The use of “opposite” in this sense is very usual in Shakespeare and other dramatists. It occurs in “Measure for Measure,” Vol. ii. p. 63. See also p. 392 and 393.

Note return to page 612 3Look where the youngest wren of nine comes.] The old reading is “wren of mine,” but the expression, as it stands in the text, seems to have been proverbial. Theobald was the first to adopt the change. The allusion is to the small stature of Maria, who has before been called “the little villain,” and who was ironically termed “giant” by Viola, A. i. sc. 5. Some little boy must have played the part, and Shakespeare, perhaps, intended it for him when he wrote the comedy.

Note return to page 613 4He does smile his face into more lines, than are in the new map, with the augmentation of the Indies.] “A clear allusion,” says Steevens, “to a map engraved for Linschoten's Voyages, an English translation of which was published in 1598. This map is multilineal in the extreme, and is the first in which the Eastern Islands are included.” See the Introduction.

Note return to page 614 5And thanks, and ever: oft good turns &lblank;] This is the reading, though not the punctuation of the folio, 1623, where the colon is mistakingly inserted after thanks. The line is certainly syllabically defective, but the sense is complete; and we have no right to presume that Shakespeare meant it necessarily to consist of ten syllables. Malone and Steevens read, “And thanks and ever thanks: often good turns,” &c. Sebastian means that he has nothing to give in return but “thanks and thanks” interminably. None of the editors seem to have remarked upon the fact, that the folio, 1632, omits not only “And thanks, and ever: oft good turns,” but the line which immediately follows, the intelligibility of which could not be disputed.

Note return to page 615 6&lblank; 'gainst the Count his galleys &lblank;] This is the old form of printing the Saxon genitive. Malone “suspected” that Shakespeare wrote “County's galleys:” he certainly often used count and county indifferently, as it was convenient to adopt or drop a syllable.

Note return to page 616 7&lblank; what bestow of him?] This was the language of the time, though Steevens calls it a “vulgar corruption” for “on him.” It was the form of expression among the highest classes. On and of were used differently in Shakespeare's day; and on p. 350, “fond as much on him,” is a phrase employed.

Note return to page 617 8&lblank; he is sad, and civil,] i. e. grave and decorous. See Vol. ii. p. 221, note 10, and p. 499, note 9.

Note return to page 618 9“Please one and please all.”] We have no other memorial of this “very true sonnet.”

Note return to page 619 10&lblank; what is the matter with thee?] In the folio, 1623, this speech is given to “Mal,” or Malvolio: the folio, 1632, assigns it to Olivia, which is perhaps right; but it may in fact belong to Maria, Mal having been printed as the prefix instead of Mar. The form of expression, “Why, how dost thou, man?” seems rather more fit for Maria than for Olivia.

Note return to page 620 1Not black in my mind, though yellow in my legs.] There was an old ballad-tune called “Black and Yellow,” and to this Malvolio seems to allude.

Note return to page 621 2&lblank; let thy tongue tang with arguments of state,] The folio of 1623 reads “langer” for “tang,” and follows it by the preposition with. The second folio corrects langer into tang, but retains with, which is not in the letter as read by Malvolio, A. ii. sc. 5. The variation is of little consequence.

Note return to page 622 3Fellow!] “Fellow” at this period was used for companion, as well as in its derogatory sense. The actors constantly called each other “fellows.” In “The Winter's Tale,” A. ii. sc. 3, Antigonus speaks of the lords present as his “noble fellows.”

Note return to page 623 4Ay, Biddy, come with me.] It is printed in the old copies, “I biddy come with me,” which may be only a corruption of “I bid ye come with me,” or “biddy” may be meant for a term of familiarity. It is most likely a quotation, though no original of it has come to light.

Note return to page 624 5&lblank; to play at cherry-pit &lblank;] The game of cherry-pit was played by pitching cherry-stones into a hole.

Note return to page 625 6Hang him, foul collier!] The Devil is called collier, on account of his blackness, and on account of its being at that date a term of abuse. “Like will to like, quoth the Devil to the Collier,” is the proverbial title of a piece of dramatic drollery by Ulpian Fulwell, printed in 1568, 4to.

Note return to page 626 7Very brief, and to exceeding good sense-less.] Modern editors omit “to;” but the meaning is evident either way. A pause must be made, before “less” is added to “sense.”

Note return to page 627 8If this letter move him not, his legs cannot. I'll give't him.] In nearly all editions these words are made a new speech by sir Toby; but they are merely an observation by him, after he has read the letter.

Note return to page 628 9&lblank; like a bum-bailie:] This was the old jocose pronunciation, as it is printed in the old copies, and is so still. There is no reason for altering it to bum-bailiff, as has been done by Malone, Steevens, and others. It would be just as reasonable to reduce the first part of the word to its etymology, bound, as the last.

Note return to page 629 10And laid mine honour too unchary on't.] i. e. On the heart of stone: “bestowed my honour too incautiously on a heart of stone.” Theobald changed “on't” (the reading of all the old copies) to out, but without reason.

Note return to page 630 1&lblank; dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation,] “Tuck” is rapier, and “yare,” nimble. See Vol. ii. p. 72, note 2.

Note return to page 631 2&lblank; dubbed with unhatch'd rapier, and on carpet consideration;] An “unhatched rapier” is an unhacked rapier, from the Fr. hacher. The words “carpet consideration” have reference to the dubbing of what were called carpet-knights, as distinguished from knights who had had the honour conferred upon them on the field of battle. Such knights were over and over again made the objects of ridicule by authors of the time.

Note return to page 632 3Hob, nob, is his word;] “Hob nob” is a corruption of hap or ne hap; i. e. “let it happen or not happen,’ and is equivalent to “come what may.”

Note return to page 633 4&lblank; sir priest, than sir knight:] This expression was probably proverbial, and arose out of the habit in old time of calling a priest “sir” as well as a knight. In A. iv. sc. 2, Topas, “the curate,” is called “Sir Topas.”

Note return to page 634 5Why, man, he's a very devil; I have not seen such a firago.] No doubt, as Johnson observes, Sir Toby means to indicate by “firago,” that though Viola looked like a woman, she possessed manly prowess. Virago is often used for a female warrior, but it is spelt firago in the old editions, perhaps with allusion to the word “devil” in the preceding part of the sentence.

Note return to page 635 6Nay, if you be an undertaker, I am for you.] An undertaker here merely means a person who “undertakes” or takes upon himself the quarrels of others. From the use of this word, Tyrwhitt argued that “Twelfth-Night” was not written until “undertakers” (or “persons who had undertaken, through their influence, to carry things according to the king's wishes in the House of Commons”) had made themselves odious, about the year 1614. How futile such reasoning must be, we know from the fact, that this play was actually in being in February, 1601–2. Besides, Tyrwhitt understands the word “undertaker” in a sense very different to that in which Shakespeare employs it.

Note return to page 636 7&lblank; put your sword up, if you please.] Malone reads “put up your sword, if you please.”

Note return to page 637 8Than lying vainness, babbling drunkenness,] The usual punctuation of this line is, “Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness;” but “lying” and “babbling” are not to be taken as substantives, but as participial adjectives.

Note return to page 638 9&lblank; but the beauteous evil Are empty trunks, o'erflourish'd by the devil.] Steevens thinks that Shakespeare here has an allusion to old trunks ornamented by carving; but it seems very doubtful whether Shakespeare meant more than to refer to human trunks, with a fair outside, but within deficient in all virtuous qualities.

Note return to page 639 10&lblank; so do not I.] i. e. I do not believe myself, because I dare not hope that my brother is still living.

Note return to page 640 11I am afraid this great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney. [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0459] The sense of this passage seems extremely evident. The clown is struck by the affected word “vent;” and hearing it from Sebastian, expresses his fear lest the whole world, “this great lubber, the world,” should “prove a cockney;” i. e. use such ridiculous terms as were employed by cockneys. Dekker, in his “Knight's Conjuring,” 1607, derives “cockney” from cockering; and in this sense it seems used in “The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality,” 1602. “I was at first like a cockney dandled.” Sign. D. 3. There is no pretence for supposing that the clown means to call Sebastian, whom he mistakes for Viola, a “great lubber.”

Note return to page 641 12&lblank; foolish Greek,] Sebastian calls the clown “foolish Greek,” in reference to his jocularity. “Merry Greek” was a well understood expression. Matthew Merrygreek is a character in “Ralph Roister Doister,” a play written by N. Udall, as early as the reign of Edward VI.

Note return to page 642 1&lblank; after fourteen years' purchase.] The meaning may be, that they do not obtain a good report by such means until after the lapse of much time, and longer experience of their liberality than the clown had had. On the other hand, Tollet plausibly argues that fourteen years' purchase being in Shakespeare's time the highest price for land, the clown means, that wise men pay the utmost value for “a good report.”

Note return to page 643 2&lblank; draw thy sword.] Here the modern editors insert “Draws” as a stage-direction; but it is very clear from what Sir Toby last says, “Come my young soldier, put up your iron,” &c. that Sebastian had already drawn his sword. It was drawn at the time when Sir Toby had threatened to throw Sebastian's “dagger o'er the house.”

Note return to page 644 3I am not tall enough to become the function well:] “Tall,” in the time of Shakespeare, meant lusty, as well as bold; (see p. 330, note 10;) and is a sufficient antithesis to “lean,” which occurs immediately afterwards, if any were intended. Malone and Steevens read fat instead of “tall,” at the recommendation of Farmer, deviating from the old copies.

Note return to page 645 4The competitors enter.] Shakespeare not unfrequently uses the word “competitor” synonymously with confederate: we have it so in “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” A. ii. sc. 6, “Myself in counsel his competitor;” and in “Love's Labour's Lost,” “And he and his competitors in oath,” Vol. ii. p. 303. It would be easy to add other instances.

Note return to page 646 5&lblank; it hath bay-windows &lblank;] A bay-window is the same as what is commonly called a bow-window; a window in a recess, or bay.

Note return to page 647 6&lblank; and the clear stories &lblank;] The first folio has “clear stores,” and the second “clear stones;” but there can be no doubt that it is an error, one letter having been omitted. “Clear story,” as Blakeway states, is a technical term in gothic architecture, very well understood to mean a row of windows running along the upper part of the wall of an apartment.

Note return to page 648 7Nay, I am for all waters.] Monck Mason thought that a play upon words was here intended, and that when the clown says he is “for all waters,” he alludes to his name, Topas, as a precious stone. Smith's interpretation is much more natural and probable, when he says the phrase means a cloak for all kinds of knavery, and derives it from the Italian mantillo di ogni acqua.

Note return to page 649 8“Hey Robin, jolly Robin,”] This ballad (with some imperfections) may be seen at length in Percy's “Reliques,” Vol. i. p. 198, edit. 1812. The air to which it was sung has been recently recovered by Mr. E. F. Rimbault, in “The Citthern Schoole,” by Anth. Holborne, published in 1597.

Note return to page 650 9They have here propertied me;] “They have taken possession of me, as of a man unable to look to himself.” This is Johnson's explanation; but it may be doubted, whether Shakespeare had not some allusion to the “properties” (as they were then, and are still called) of a theatre, which when out of use were thrust into some dark loft or lumber-room.

Note return to page 651 10&lblank; leave thy vain bibble babble.] This, of course, is spoken to Malvolio by the clown, in the supposed voice of Sir Topas. The clown's next speech is of the same kind, first as Sir Topas, and then in his own person answering him.

Note return to page 652 1I am shent, &c.] i. e. rebuked, reproved. The word is common in Shakespeare, and in many other writers. We meet with it in “Hamlet,” A. iii. sc. 2; in “Coriolanus,” A. v. sc. 2; and in “Troilus and Cressida,” A. ii. sc. 3. It is uniform in its signification.

Note return to page 653 P. 404.&lblank; I am shent, &c.] Dele the last part of the note referring to “Troilus and Cressida.” “Shent,” as already remarked, (p. cclxxxiv.) in its most ancient, as well as correct signification, is destroyed or ruined.

Note return to page 654 2Adieu, goodman devil.] This is unquestionably a part of some well-known old comic song, alluding to the business of the Vice in old interludes to beat the devil with his wooden dagger. See Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet. and the Stage, vol. ii. p. 265. Johnson, instead of “goodman devil,” would read “goodman mean-evil,” as if the clown were translating Malvolio's name, and Monck Mason concurred in this notion. Farmer and Steevens incline to think we ought to read “goodman drivil;” but they do not seem to have adverted sufficiently to the general import of the song, which has relation rather to the character of the clown, as derived from the old Moralities, than to the situation of Malvolio. Nothing can well be clearer than the text as it stands in the old editions, and it was very usual, even in serious poems, to make the same word rhyme with itself.

Note return to page 655 3Yet there he was, and there I found this credit,] Theobald, Warburton, Monck Mason, Steevens, and Malone, controverted the point, whether we ought to read “credit,” with the old authorities, or credent, without any authority. The meaning of Sebastian merely is, that he had not been able to find Antonio at the Elephant, where, however, he had been, and where he (Sebastian) found this “credit,” or belief, that Antonio had gone to seek Sebastian. The passage seems to want no explanation.

Note return to page 656 4That is deceivable.] i. e. Deceitful, or deceptive; able to deceive.

Note return to page 657 5This is, to give a dog,] Malone and Steevens read, That is, &c.

Note return to page 658 6&lblank; at this throw:] i. e. at this time, a word in use with our poets from Chaucer downwards, but not very common in our old dramatists.

Note return to page 659 7Whom thou, in terms so bloody, and so dear,] Steevens says that “dear” means immediate, consequential; but he mistakes the sense. “Dear” here is not from the Saxon deor, beloved; but from the Saxon dere, hurt. “Deare,” to injure, occurs in Sir F. Madden's Glossary to “Syr Gawayne.” In this place, and in another quoted by Steevens from “Hamlet” in support of his erroneous notion, “dearest” is to be taken as most hateful, or grievous:— “Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven!” does not mean my immediate foe, but rather my direst foe.

Note return to page 660 8Like to the Egyptian thief at point of death, Kill what I love?] The allusion is, as Theobald pointed out, to the story of Thyamis, in the Ethiopian History of Heliodorus, which had been translated by Thomas Underdowne: the date of the first edition is not known, but it was reprinted in 1587, and again in 1605.

Note return to page 661 9Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings;] “In our ancient marriage ceremony,” says Steevens, “the man received, as well as gave, a ring.”

Note return to page 662 10When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case?] i. e. On thy exterior. The skin of a fox, or of a rabbit, is called its case.

Note return to page 663 11Then he's a rogue, and a passy-measures pavin.] There is a slight error in the original text of this passage, where “pavyn” is printed panyn, the u, for v, having been turned; but otherwise, with a little explanation, it is sufficiently intelligible. The pavin, or peacock dance, was a slow heavy movement, such as a drunken man, like “Dick surgeon,” might be supposed to execute in his intoxication: “passy measures” is a corruption of passamezzo, which signified, in Italian, a mode of dancing not much differing from walking, (Sir J. Hawkins' Hist. of Music, iv. 386,) so that “Dick surgeon” in his drunkenness, went through this species of slow half-walking dance, and hence, probably, the humour of Sir Toby's allusion to “a passy-measures pavin.” The misprint in the folio, 1623, of panyn for “pavyn,” or “pavin,” led some editors to suppose that paynim, or panym, was intended.

Note return to page 664 1You throw a strange regard upon me, and by that I do perceive it hath offended you:] This is the regulation of the folios, which Malone altered by placing “by that” at the beginning of the second line.

Note return to page 665 2A natural perspective,] i. e. a natural illusion, as if seen through a perspective glass, representing the same figure twice over.

Note return to page 666 3&lblank; it skills not much &lblank;] i. e. it signifies not much, a very common idiomatic expression. See also “Henry VI.” pt. 2, A. iii. sc. 1.

Note return to page 667 4&lblank; you must allow vox.] The Clown begins to read the letter as a madman; and for this violence of voice Olivia reproves him, and he justifies himself. An explanation would hardly seem necessary, if the passage had not been disputed.

Note return to page 668 4&lblank; geck,] A fool; from the Saxon geac, a cuckoo, and figuratively a fool. The word occurs again in the same sense in “Cymbeline,” A. v. sc. 4.

Note return to page 669 P. 418.&lblank; then camst in smiling.] Possibly “then” in this place is a misprint for thou, but it seemed inexpedient to alter the old text.

Note return to page 670 5&lblank; at sir Toby's great importance;] i. e. importunity, in the same way that in Vol. ii. p. 169. 203. and 348, “important” means importunate.

Note return to page 671 6&lblank; greatness thrown upon them.] The words in the letter are, “greatness thrust upon them,” according to Malvolio's repetition. See p. 370.

Note return to page 672 7But when I came unto my bed,] The folios read “beds,” and in the corresponding line “heads.”

Note return to page 673 “The Winters Tale” was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies twenty-seven pages, viz. from p. 277 to 303, and is the last in the division of “Comedies.” The back of p. 303 is left blank and unpaged. The later folios adopt the same arrangement.

Note return to page 674 1From the Introduction to the same work, we find that “The Winter's Tale” was also represented at court on Easter Tuesday, 1618.

Note return to page 675 2The expenses of eleven other plays are included in the same account, viz. “The Tempest,” “King and no King,” “The City Gallant,” “The Almanack,” “The Twins' Tragedy,” “Cupid's Revenge,” “The Silver Age,” “Lucretia,” “The Nobleman,” “Hymen's Holiday,” and “The Maid's Tragedy.” At most, only one of these had been printed before they were thus acted, and some of them never came from the press. “The Nobleman,” by Cyril Tourneur, was entered at Stationers' Hall for publication on 15th February, 1611. “Lucretia” may have been a different play from Heywood's “Rape of Lucrece,” which bears date in 1608: if so, there is no exception, and all that came from the press at any period were printed subsequently to 1611–12, the earliest in 1613, and the latest in 1655. Hence a strong inference may be drawn, that they were all dramas which had been recommended for court-performance by their novelty and popularity.

Note return to page 676 3The circumstance that “The Tempest” and “The Winter's Tale” were both acted at court at this period, and that they might belong to nearly the same date of composition, seems to give great additional probability to the opinion, that Ben Jonson alluded to them in the following passage in the Induction to his “Bartholomew Fair,” which was acted in 1614, while Shakespeare's two plays were still high in popular favour:—“If there be never a Servant-monster i' the Fair, who can help it, he says? nor a nest of Anticks? He is loth to make nature afraid in his Playes, like those that beget Tales, Tempests, and such like Drolleries.” The Italic type and the capitals are as they stand in the original edition in folio, 1631. Gifford (Ben Jonson's Works, Vol. iv. p. 370) could not be brought to acknowledge that the words “Servant-monster,” “Anticks,” “Tales,” and “Tempests,” applied to Shakespeare, but with our present information the fact seems hardly disputable.

Note return to page 677 4How long it continued popular, may be judged from the fact that it was printed as a chap-book as recently as the year 1735, when it was called “The Fortunate Lovers; or the History of Dorastus, Prince of Sicily, and of Fawnia, only daughter and heir to the King of Bohemia,” 12mo.

Note return to page 678 5In a note upon a passage in Act iii. sc. 2, a reason is assigned for thinking that Shakespeare did not employ the first edition of Greene's novel, but in all probability that of 1609.

Note return to page 679 1An incomplete list of characters is appended to the play in the old copies, under the title of “The Names of the Actors.”

Note return to page 680 1&lblank; unintelligent of our insufficience,] Here we have an authority, if any were wanted, for sufficience, instead of “sufficiency,” in “Measure for Measure,” Vol. ii. p. 7, for the purpose of curing the defective metre. Were we warranted in taking any such liberty with the text, we might there read, with improvement both to the sense and verse, &lblank; “then, no more remains, But your sufficience, as your worth is able, And let them work.”

Note return to page 681 2&lblank;shook hands, as over a vast,] This is the reading of the first folio: the second has it, “shook hands, as over a vast sea,” which, being an unnecessary addition, is here rejected. “Vast” is used substantively, and, as Steevens observed, Shakespeare uses it for the sea in the following line from “Pericles,” “Thou God of this great vast, rebuke these surges.” In “The Tempest” also we have the expression of the “vast of night.” This opportunity may be taken to mention, that the line in “Hamlet,” A. i. sc. 2, which is printed in the folio, 1623, “In the dead waste and middle of the night,” is given in the earliest 4to, of 1603, in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, “In the dead vast and middle of the night.”

Note return to page 682 3&lblank; one that, indeed, physics the subject,] Here, as in “Measure for Measure,” A. iii. sc. 2, (and perhaps A. ii. sc. 4,) the word “subject” is used in a plural sense for “subjects.” The expression “physics the subject” means, gives the subjects of the king, or the state generally, health and vigour.

Note return to page 683 4&lblank; that may blow No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, “This is put forth too truly.”] “Sneaping” is snipping or nipping, as in “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 286. The meaning seems to be, that Polixenes hopes that no sharp winds may blow at home, to induce him to say that he too truly prognosticated the consequences of his absence. Farmer would take “that may blow,” &c. as an exclamation, “O, that may blow;” &c. and he is correct in saying that that is not unfrequently put for “O, that,” but this construction of the passage adds little to its intelligibility. Warburton calls it “nonsense,” and some corruption is pretty evident.

Note return to page 684 5To let him there a month, behind the gest Prefix'd for's parting:] i. e. I will give him leave to detain himself there a month beyond the time prefixed for his departure. “Gest” was a term employed with reference to the royal progresses, and meant the place of abiding for a certain period. Malone properly derives it from the French giste. It has been suggested to me by Mr. Lemon, of the State Paper Office, that the line in “Midsummer-Night's Dream,” Vol. ii. p. 432, “My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd,”, ought to be printed “gest-wise,” in reference to the gests, or resting places, in royal and other progresses. He refers to a letter printed by Mr. Tytler in his “Edward VI. and Mary,” Vol. ii. p. 494, where Sir P. Hoby says to Sir W. Cecil, under date of Nov. 1557, “I have perceived by my brother that you will not be here at Bysham this Christmas but as guest-wise.” It is “gest-wise” in the original MS., and Mr. Lemon apprehends, that both there and in “Midsummer-Night's Dream” it ought to have been printed with that orthography. He is probably right as regards Sir P. Hoby's letter, but “guest-wise,” or like a guest, seems to be the natural reading in Shakespeare, and to express exactly what was meant. Common audiences might not have understood “gest-wise.”

Note return to page 685 6&lblank; yet, good deed,] The second folio has it “good heed,” which is not less forced than to take “good deed” in the sense of indeed. In the old copies the two words are in parenthesis.

Note return to page 686 7I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind What lady should her lord.] “A jar o' the clock” is a tick of the clock; “jar” being used for tick by many writers of the time. The words “what lady should her lord” have hitherto stood rather unintelligibly, “what lady she her lord.” The emendation is made on the authority of the old MS. corrector of the first folio belonging to Lord Francis Egerton. “Should” was perhaps written, in the MS., from which the printer composed the first folio, with an abbreviation, which he misread she.

Note return to page 687 8The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd] So the first folio: the second inserts no before “nor dream'd,” probably under the notion that the measure was incomplete.

Note return to page 688 9Temptations have since then been born to's;] If, with Malone, we read “to us” as two syllables, the verse is redundant: therefore, to show that the two words were to form one syllable, they are printed “to's” in the old copies.

Note return to page 689 1I pr'ythee tell me. Cram's with praise, and make's] i. e. “Cram us with praise and make us,” but, for the sake of the metre, the old copies, by their mode of printing, inform us that “cram us” and “make us” were each to be read as one syllable. Such doubtless was the mode in which the words were written in the MS. used by the old compositor, and we may presume that in this form they came from the pen of Shakespeare. This remark will apply to “to's” on the preceding page, and to other portions of this play.

Note return to page 690 3&lblank; and then to sigh, as 'twere The mort o' the deer;] The “mort o' the deer” is the death of the deer. Leontes likens the violence of the sighs of Hermione to the long blast of a horn at “the mort o' the deer.”

Note return to page 691 4I' fecks?] Steevens supposes this exclamation to be a corruption of i' faith: it is as likely to be a corruption of in fact.

Note return to page 692 5Why, that's my bawcock.] Perhaps, says Steevens, from beau and coq.

Note return to page 693 6They say, it is a copy out of mine.] Thus the folios: why Malone altered “it is” to it's, excepting to spoil the metre, cannot easily be explained. “Come, captain,” is only a fragment of an incomplete line, thrown in, perhaps, for the sake of varying the measure.

Note return to page 694 7Still virginalling] i. e. Playing with her fingers, as on the virginals.

Note return to page 695 8Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have,] Mr. Holloway, in his “General Dictionary of Provincialisms,” 8vo, 1838, informs us that “pash” in Cheshire signifies the brains, and that “mad pash” is the same as mad brains. “Pash” is to be taken in this place for the head, for which Malone states it is used in Scotland. The meaning of Leontes is therefore quite evident: by the “rough pash” is to be understood the hair on the forehead of a bull, which Mamillius wants, as well as the “shoots,” i. e. the budding horns, which Leontes feels on his forehead.

Note return to page 696 9&lblank; but were they false As o'er-dyed blacks,] Some of the commentators contend, that “o'er-dyed” here means too much dyed; but surely it is to be understood as only dyed over; i. e. coloured cloth that has been died over in order to make it black. The epithet “false” does not relate to the die, but to the blacks, the falsehood of those who wore black under pretence of mourning for somebody dead. Upon this point Steevens made the following apt quotation from “The Old Law,” by Massinger, Middleton, and Rowley:— &lblank; “Blacks are often such dissembling mourners, There is no credit given to't, it has lost All reputation by false sons and widows: I would not hear of blacks.”

Note return to page 697 1Look on me with your welkin eye:] i. e. blue eye,—the colour of the welkin, or what we call the blue sky.

Note return to page 698 2&lblank; may't be Affection? thy intention stabs the centre:] Most of the editors, from Rowe downwards, have agreed to understand “affection” as imagination; but the meaning is clear without any such forced construction. Leontes is looking towards Hermione and Polixenes when he asks, “Can thy dam?—may't be affection?” i. e. is it possible she feels love for him? and then he goes on to observe that her intention stabs him to the centre, and makes possible things considered impossible. Shakespeare, over and over again, uses “affection” for love, and “intention” here is to be taken rather as intentness, vehemence, or ardour of mind. In the old copies the punctuation is such as we have adopted, and although, as we have said before, that can and ought to be no rule, in cases of difficulty it may be some guide.

Note return to page 699 3&lblank; Then, 'tis very credent,] In “Measure for Measure,” Vol. ii. p. 85, we have “credent,” as here, used for credible.

Note return to page 700 4What cheer? how is't with you, best brother?] There is no reason whatever for taking this passage from Leontes, and adding it to the preceding exclamation of Polixenes, “How, my lord!” The old copies are uniform in the present distribution of the dialogue. Leontes is endeavouring to recover himself, and breaks from a fit of abstraction with the line, “What cheer? how is't with you, best brother?” What Hermione subsequently says confirms this restoration.

Note return to page 701 5&lblank; Looking on the lines Of my boy's face, my thoughts I did recoil Twenty-three years,] In the old copies it stands, “me thoughts I did recoil,” and so it has been since usually printed. A MS. correction in Lord F. Egerton's copy shows that me has been inserted for my. “Methought” occurs just afterwards, and it is there printed without the letter s at the end, and in parenthesis. Such would have been the case with “me thoughts,” if methought had been intended. What Leontes says is, that “looking in the lines of his boy's face, he recoiled his thoughts twenty-three years.”

Note return to page 702 6This squash,] i. e. This immature peascod. See Vol. ii. p. 425, note 3.

Note return to page 703 7Will you take eggs for money?] This phrase was proverbial for putting up with an affront, and so it was understood by Mamillius.

Note return to page 704 8&lblank; why, happy man be his dole!] i. e. May happiness be his portion: “dole” is another word for share, or what is dealt to a man. The expression, “happy man be his dole,” is of frequent occurrence in old writers, and we have had it before on p. 123 of this vol.: see note 6.

Note return to page 705 9If you would seek us, We are yours i' the garden:] In Greene's novel of “Pandosto,” we read, “When Pandosto was busied with such urgent affaires that hee could not bee present with his friend Egistus, Bellaria would walke with him into the garden, where they two in privat and pleasant devises would passe away the time to both their contents.” Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 7.

Note return to page 706 1Many a thousand on's.] Malone prints it “of us;” but if he chose to alter on to of, he ought, for the sake of the verse, to have read of's: “on's” is an abbreviation for the sake of the verse, and the language of the time: fidelity, metre, and custom require its preservation.

Note return to page 707 2I am like you, they say.] The second folio inserts “they,” after “you,” while the first folio has it, “I am like you say.” It may possibly be doubted whether we ought not to read, “I am like you, you say;” the old printer having omitted the repetition of the pronoun you. Leontes has previously told Mamillius that they are said to be alike,   “Yet they say we are Almost as like as eggs.” The authority of the second folio is to be preferred to any conjectural emendation; and “they” may have dropped out in the press.

Note return to page 708 3They're here with me already; whispering, rounding,] “They're here with me” means, “They are aware of my condition.” Rounding is another word for whispering: “to round in the ear” is a very common phrase in old writers. “To round,” or roun, is derived from the German runen.

Note return to page 709 P. 441.&lblank; whispering, rounding.] The Rev. A. Dyce, in his edition of Skelton's Works, vol. ii. p. 120, makes a distinction, and perhaps a just one, between “whispering” and “rounding,” and adduces various passages from our elder writers to establish it, besides this line in “The Winter's Tale,” where the words occur: to “round” rather means, as he observes, to mutter.

Note return to page 710 4When I shall gust it last.] i. e. taste or perceive it last, while other people are already whispering and rounding.

Note return to page 711 5Lower messes,] i. e. people who sit at lower, or more removed tables. Each four diners at an inn of court are still said to constitute a mess.

Note return to page 712 6&lblank; hoxes honesty behind,] To “hox” is properly to hough or to ham-string.

Note return to page 713 7Which oft infects the wisest.] Malone reads affects for infects, as it is given in all the old copies.

Note return to page 714 8&lblank; (for cogitation Resides not in that man that does not think,)] The second folio adds it after “think,” but needlessly, the word being clearly understood; and, as Malone contends, the sense, notwithstanding the parenthesis, carried on to the words “my wife is slippery.” Otherwise, to say that “cogitation resides not in that man that does not think,” is a mere truism.

Note return to page 715 9My wife's a hobbyhorse;] All the old folios read “holy horse,” which is corrected in MS. in Lord F. Egerton's copy to “hobby horse,” which is most likely the true reading, and was first adopted by Pope.

Note return to page 716 10&lblank; and all eyes blind With the pin and web,] The pin and web was the old name for a cataract in the eyes: thus Florio, in his “New World of Words,” 1611, informs us that cataratta is “a dimness of sight, occasioned by humours hardened in the eyes called a cataract, or a pin and a web. This explanation is wanting in Florio's first edition, 1598.

Note return to page 717 1Why he, that wears her like her medal,] So the old copies; but some of the later editors have altered it to “his medal,” which is anything but an improvement: the meaning is, that Polixenes wears Hermione round his neck, as if it were a medal or resemblance of her—“her medal.”

Note return to page 718 2His cup-bearer,] Greene, in his novel of “Pandosto,” says, that “devising with himself a long time how he might best put away Egistus, without suspition of treacherous murder, he concluded at last to poyson him: which opinion pleasing his humour, he became resolute in his determination, and the better to bring the matter to passe he called unto him his cup-bearer,” meaning the cup-bearer of Egistus. Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 9.

Note return to page 719 3How I am galled,—might'st bespice a cup,] The second folio repeats thou before “might'st;” but to read “galled” as a dissyllable renders it unnecessary.

Note return to page 720 4Make that thy question, and go rot!] The commentators have differed in their printing and interpretation of this passage, which in the folios is given exactly as in our text. Malone would read “Make't thy question,” which rather seems to refer to the interrupted observation of Camillo, “I have lov'd thee,” than to what the words, “Make that thy question,” really appear to relate to. The meaning of Leontes surely is, as Mr. Knight suggests, that Camillo may go rot, if he doubts or makes question of that which he has just been told. What follows in the king's speech fully supports this interpretation.

Note return to page 721 5Could man so blench?] To blench is to start off. See Vol. ii. p. 86, note 4. Leontes means, “could any man so start or fly off from propriety of behaviour.” Such is the correct interpretation of Steevens.

Note return to page 722 6I am appointed him to murder you.] i. e. says Boswell, “I am appointed by him to murder you.” Surely not: the meaning is, “I am appointed the man who is to murder you.”

Note return to page 723 7&lblank; an instrument To vice you to't,] “To vice,” had a very general signification in the time of Shakespeare: here it means, to draw as by a mechanical power. Warburton's mistaken notion was, that there was some allusion in the text to the character called the Vice in old Moralities.

Note return to page 724 8&lblank; and my name Be yok'd with his that did betray the Best!] i. e. Be coupled with that of Judas Iscariot. “Best,” as Henderson remarked, is printed with a capital; but so are “jelly,” “name,” “reputation,” “nostril,” and “infection,” in the same speech. However, there can be no doubt that such is the allusion.

Note return to page 725 9Swear his thought over] So the old copies; with, perhaps, sufficient intelligibility, taking “Swear his thought over” in the sense “Overswear his thought:” Theobald would read “Swear this though over.”

Note return to page 726 10&lblank; My ships are ready,] In Green's novel of “Pandosto,” the fleet which conveyed Egistus (i. e. Polixenes) has to be prepared for sea on the instant. Shakespeare, most judiciously, has taken care that they shall be ready to sail.

Note return to page 727 11&lblank; and comfort The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Of his ill-ta'en suspicion!] The absence of Polixenes, the object of the jealousy of Leontes, was to comfort the queen, who was part of the theme on which the king dwelt, (Polixenes being the other part) but who, being innocent, may be said to be “nothing” of the “ill-ta'en suspicion” against her.

Note return to page 728 1Who taught this?] All the modern editors read, “Who taught you this?” but “you” is not in the old copies, is not necessary for the sense, and is not wanted for the metre.

Note return to page 729 2Enter Leontes, Antigonus, Lords, and Others.] Their entrance is marked in the old copies at the beginning of the scene, but it takes place here.

Note return to page 730 3With violent hefts.] i. e. heavings.

Note return to page 731 4For them to play at will.] Heath's explanation is, that Leontes means that he remains “a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please.” This is probably the correct interpretation of the passage; and, as Mr. Barron Field observes to me, puppets are still moved and played by pinching them between the finger and thumb.

Note return to page 732 5&lblank; and Camillo is A federary with her,] A “federary” means, of course, a confederate; but it may be reasonably doubted whether it is not a misprint for feodary, a word Shakespeare uses in “Measure for Measure,” (see Vol. ii. p. 45,) and again in “Cymbeline,” A. iii. sc. 2, “Art thou a feodary for this act!” Malone truly states that “there is no such word as federary;” and Steevens calls it “a word of our author's coinage;” but it is more likely to be a word of the printer's corrupting, though not corrected in the later folios.

Note return to page 733 6&lblank; No; if I mistake] Malone and Steevens, taking upon them to improve Shakespeare's versification, printed “No, no; if I mistake.” How can we be at all sure, that our great poet did not mean to leave the line syllabically incomplete, for the sake of the emphasis to be placed upon the single “no,” which, with a pause after it, would amply make up the time? Even the second folio makes no change.

Note return to page 734 7&lblank; I'll keep my stables where I lodge my wife;] The meaning is not very clear, unless we take “stable” in its etymological sense from stabulum, a standing-place, abode, or habitation. In that case, Antigonus only says that he will take care never to allow his wife to dwell in any place where he is not. The Rev. Mr. Barry recommends this interpretation to me; but if so, we ought to read “stables” in the singular.

Note return to page 735 8I would land-damn him.] This word seems inexplicable; and all the learned ink the commentators have spent upon it has been merely wasted. Dr. Farmer's suggestion of laudanum him comes nearest to the sound, perhaps, but seems quite as far from the sense as any of the other conjectures. The word “lamback” occurs in various writers, and means to beat; but it can hardly have been mistaken by the printer, and it would not be forcible enough for Antigonus' state of mind. We meet with “lamback” in the unique drama of “The rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune,” 1589:— “Heare you, sirra: you are no devill: mas, and I wist you were, I would lamback the devill out of you, for all your geare.” Again, in Munday and Chettle's “Death of Robert Earl of Huntington,” 1601: “And with this dagger lustily lambacked.”

Note return to page 736 9The second, and the third, nine, and some five;] i. e. the second nine, and the third some five.

Note return to page 737 1&lblank; and see withal The instruments that feel.] Leontes, at these words, must be supposed to take hold of Antigonus. “The instruments that feel” are of course his fingers.

Note return to page 738 2&lblank; nought for approbation But only seeing,] i. e. That required no other proof excepting sight, all other circumstances being complete.

Note return to page 739 3Re-enter Attendant, with the Jailor.] So called in the old copies; from which there is no reason to vary, by calling the “Jailor” Keeper, as has been done by the modern editors. They took a similar liberty in “The Comedy of Errors,” Vol. ii. p. 158, where the “Jailor” of the folios is converted into “an Officer.”

Note return to page 740 4These dangerous, unsafe lunes i' the king! [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0484] The word “lunes” does not occur in any other English dramatist of the time, that I am aware of, but moon is used precisely in the same sense, in Cyril Tourneur's “Revenger's Tragedy,” 1608:— “I know 'twas but some peevish moon in him.” Shakespeare is partial to “lunes,” and it is met with in “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” A. iv. sc. 2, if not in “Troilus and Cressida,” A. ii. sc. 3, where the word is, however, misprinted lines in the folio. Cotgrave has “lune folie;” and Theobald derives the phrase from the French, in which “il y a de la lune” is a familiar expression. Malone and Steevens take some credit for correcting “i' the king” into “o' the king;” but where was the propriety of the change?

Note return to page 741 5Fie, fie! no thought of him:] i. e. Of Polixenes, to whom the thoughts of Leontes naturally revert without naming him. Coleridge called this, in his lectures in 1815, an admirable instance of propriety in soliloquy, where the mind leaps from one object to another, however distant, without any apparent interval; the operation here being perfectly intelligible without mentioning Polixenes. The king is talking to himself, while his lords and attendants stand at a distance.

Note return to page 742 6And in his parties, his alliance,] So, in Greene's novel: “Pandosto, although he felt that revenge was a spurre to warre, and that envy alwaies proffereth steele, yet he saw Egistus was not only of great puissance and prowesse to withstand him, but also had many kings of his alliance to ayde him, if neede should serve; for he married the Emperour's daughter of Russia. These and the like considerations something daunted Pandosto his courage, so that he was content rather to put up a manifest injurie with peace, than hunt after revenge, dishonor, and losse; determining, since Egistus had escaped scot-free, that Bellaria should pay for all at an unreasonable price.” Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 14.

Note return to page 743 7What noise there, ho?] The first folio reads who: the error was corrected in the second folio.

Note return to page 744 8&lblank; in comforting your evils,] “Comforting” is here used, as Monck Mason observes, in the legal sense of comforting and abetting a person in any criminal action.

Note return to page 745 9A mankind witch!] i. e. A masculine witch: “mankind” was frequently used in this sense. In “Coriolanus,” A. iv. sc. 2, Sicinius asks Volumnia, “Are you man kind?” meaning, are you of the male sex?

Note return to page 746 10&lblank; thou art woman-tir'd,] i. e. in familiar terms, hen-peck'd: “dame Partlet,” which Leontes just afterwards mentions, was the proverbial name for a hen. To tire on is to peck at with the beak. In Histriomastix, 1610, sig. F. 3, we find these lines:— “O! how this vulture, vile ambition, Tires on the heart of greatness, and devours.” In “Timon of Athens,” A. iii. sc. 6, we read:—“Upon that were my thoughts tiring.” The use of the word in that sense is not at all uncommon in our old dramatists.

Note return to page 747 1&lblank; thy crone.] A “crone” is an old woman. Chaucer employs the word.

Note return to page 748 2&lblank; A callat, Of boundless tongue,] “Callat” is sometimes spelt callet, and is a very old term of abuse applied to women. It seems originally to have meant merely a low mean woman, and has been derived from calle, which Tyrwhitt tells us is Fr. for “a species of cap,” (Gloss. to Chaucer,) or from calote, which Grey says was a sort of head-dress worn by country girls. Calle, in Spanish, is a street, and in the time of Shakespeare, and much earlier, “callet” was generally used for a lewd woman, a drab. In “Henry the Sixth,” Pt. iii. A. ii. sc. 2, we have “shameless callet;” and the word occurs again in a similar sense in “Othello,” A. iv. sc. 2.

Note return to page 749 3And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd,] “Lozel” is a word of the commonest occurrence, in the sense of a worthless and abandoned fellow. “A lozel,” says Verstegan in his “Restitution,” 1605, as quoted by Reed, “is one that hath lost, neglected, or cast off his own good and welfare, and who is become lewd, and careless of credit and honesty.”

Note return to page 750 4So sure as thy beard's grey,] The old MS. corrector of Lord Francis Egerton's copy of the folio, 1623, altered “this” into thy, which, probably, was the true reading. Leontes could not, of course, refer to his own beard; and in order to make “this beard” intelligible, he must touch or pluck that of Antigonus.

Note return to page 751 5Fertile the isle,] i.e. The isle of Delphos. Warburton points out a geographical blunder here, inasmuch as the temple of Apollo at Delphi was not in an island, but in Phocis on the continent. This is of course true; but Shakespeare had “isle” from Greene, in whom the error was less excusable, as he was Master of Arts in both Universities. In “Pandosto,” Bellaria requests “that it would please his Majestie to send sixe of his noble men, whom he best trusted, to the isle of Delphos, there to inquire of the Oracle of Apollo, whether she had committed adultery with Egistus, or conspired to poyson him with Tranion.” Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 20.

Note return to page 752 6[Silence.] The word “Silence” is printed as a stage-direction in the first folio, without any indication of the entrance of the queen, &c. This deficiency the second folio supplied merely by the word “Enter,” which follows “Silence.” The third and fourth folios adopt the reading of the second. Malone and all the other modern editors have chosen to take “Silence” as an exclamation of the officer: so it might be; but the printer of the folio, 1623, did not so understand it, and the editor of the folio, 1632, when correcting an obvious omission, did not think fit to alter the reading. The word Silence was probably meant to mark the suspense, that ought to be displayed by all upon the stage, on the entrance of Hermione to take her trial. [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0487

Note return to page 753 7&lblank; to fly away by night.] These are nearly Greene's words:—“it was objected against her that she had committed adulterie with Egistus, and conspired with Tranion to poyson Pandosto, her husband; but their pretence being partly spyed, she counselled them to flie away by night for their better safety.” Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 19. In both Shakespeare and Greene, the word “pretence” is used in the sense of intention; but this was common to many writers of the time.

Note return to page 754 8Tremble at patience.] Shakespeare here also adheres pretty closely to the terms of the novel, where Bellaria thus commences her defence:—“If the devine powers bee privy to humane actions, (as no doubt they are,) I hope my patience shall make fortune blushe, and my unspotted life shall staine spightful discredit.” Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 22.

Note return to page 755 9&lblank; which owe] i. e. which own. See Vol. ii. pp. 45. 136. 297, &c.

Note return to page 756 10&lblank; since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent I Have strain'd, t' appear thus:] This passage is difficult, and Johnson confessed that he could not understand it. Steevens considers it a metaphor from running at tilt; but Mr. Amyot has given me the following explanation of the sentence, in which the meaning of the author has probably been ascertained:— “Hermione intends to say, beloved as I was by you before Polixenes arrived, and deservedly so, I appeal to your conscience how it has happened that I have had to struggle against so untoward a current, as to appear thus before you in the character of a criminal.” [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0488

Note return to page 757 1My life stands in the level of your dreams,] A metaphor from gunnery: to stand in the level means to be the object at which direct aim is taken.

Note return to page 758 2&lblank; As you are past all shame, (Those of your fact are so) so past all truth;] “And as for her, it was her parte to denye such a monstrous crime, and to be impudent in forswearing the fact, since shee had past all shame in committing the fault.” Greene's “Pandosto,” in Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 19.

Note return to page 759 3&lblank; before I have got strength of limit.] i. e. before I have recovered a limited degree of strength: Monck Mason's interpretation.

Note return to page 760 4&lblank; if that which is lost be not found.] This oracle, with the change of names, is from Greene's “Pandosto.”—“Suspition is no proofe; jealousie is an unequall judge; Bellaria is chast; Egistus blamelesse; Tranion a true subject; Pandosto treacherous: his babe an innocent; the king shall die without an heire, if that which is lost be not founde.” Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 21. The editions of “Pandosto” subsequent to that of 1588, read “his babe innocent,” and “the king shall live without an heire,” &c. Therefore, Shakespeare employed one of the later impressions; probably that of 1609, the year before we suppose him to have commenced this play.

Note return to page 761 5Of the queen's speed,] i. e. of how the queen would speed in the trial.

Note return to page 762 6Which you knew great, and to the hazard] This line, in the folio of 1623, is deficient two syllables, and the editor of the folio of 1632 supplied them by the word “certain.” Malone considers “certain” of all words the “most objectionable,” while Steevens urges that it is “quite in Shakespeare's manner.” We may, therefore, safely leave the line as it stands in the oldest and most authentic copy, and as, in all probability, Shakespeare left it.

Note return to page 763 7Thorough my rust!] The first folio has “Through my rust,” and the second folio, “Through my dark rust;” but the addition to the old text is needless, if we only read Through “Thorough.”

Note return to page 764 8That did but show thee of a fool,] Theobald would read soul for fool; and Warburton, “that did but show thee off a fool.” No change is necessary.

Note return to page 765 9Enter Antigonus with the Babe;] It is called “Babe” in the old copies, nor can we see any reason for changing, with the modern editors, the word to child, and every reason for preserving the word which, we may suppose, Shakespeare wrote.

Note return to page 766 1&lblank; thy character:] Thy description, with the name, “Perdita,” as prescribed in the dream of Antigonus.

Note return to page 767 2A lullaby too rough.] So, in “Pandosto:” “Shalt thou have the whistling windes for thy lullabie, and the salt sea fome instede of sweete milke?” Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 18. These verbal resemblances show, that Shakespeare wrote, not merely with Greene's novel in his memory, but before him.

Note return to page 768 3Exit, pursued by a bear.] This is the only stage direction in the old copies, but the others relating to the exposure of the child, &c. seem proper, though not absolutely necessary to the intelligibility of the text.

Note return to page 769 4&lblank; To see how the sea flap-dragoned it;] The meaning is, that the sea swallowed the ship as drinkers swallowed flap-dragons, which were almonds, or other inflammable substances set on fire, set afloat, and gulped down while blazing. See Vol. ii. p. 346, note 6.

Note return to page 770 5&lblank; this is some changeling.] Some child changed by the fairies. “Changeling” was often used synonymously with idiot, because the fairies were supposed to leave idiots instead of the children they took away.

Note return to page 771 6You're a made old man:] The old folios read “mad” for made, but Lord Francis Egerton's copy is corrected in the margin. In “Pandosto,” as Farmer observed, the phrase occurs, where the old shepherd desires his wife to hold her peace, and “they were made for ever.”

Note return to page 772 7&lblank; that I slide O'er sixteen years,] In Greene's “Pandosto,” the supposed interval is the same: “In so much that when she came to the age of sixteene yeeres,” &c. Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 28.

Note return to page 773 8Doth set my pugging tooth on edge;] It is very likely that “pugging” is misprinted for prigging or thieving. The clown afterwards uses the word “prig” for a thief. However, “a puggard” was a well known kind of cheat; and hence Autolycus may have obtained his participle.

Note return to page 774 9With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay:] The first folio has only “with heigh!” the repetition, necessary for the metre, is from the second folio.

Note return to page 775 10&lblank; and, in my time, wore three-pile;] i. e. Three-pile velvet,—velvet of the richest description.

Note return to page 776 11&lblank; tods;] A tod, according to Percy, is twenty-eight pounds of wool.

Note return to page 777 1&lblank; three-man song-men all,] i. e. Singers of songs in three parts, or for three men.

Note return to page 778 2A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with trol-my-dames:] An old French game, called trou-madame, from the hole into which the ball was to be driven. It seems to have been very similar to what we now call bagatelle. In English, says Steevens, the game was also of old called pidgeon-holes, when the ball had to pass through the arches of a wooden bridge across the board.

Note return to page 779 3&lblank; it will no more but abide.] i. e. It will do no more than remain there for a time.

Note return to page 780 4&lblank; a motion of the prodigal son,] A “motion” was technical for a puppet-show, of which the history of the prodigal son was here the subject.

Note return to page 781 5Jog on, jog on, &c.] These lines, Reed observes, are part of a catch printed in “An Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills, compounded of witty Ballads, Jovial Songs, and merry Catches,” 1661, 4to, p. 69. “A merry heart lives long-a” is a quotation by Mrs. Merrythought, in “The Knight of the Burning Pestle.” See Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher, Vol. ii. p. 148.

Note return to page 782 6And merrily hent the stile-a:] To hent is to take. See Vol. ii. p. 87, note 6.

Note return to page 783 7Scene III.] This is Scena Quarta in the old copies, and the two previous scenes have been called secunda and tertia, the address of Time being considered by the editor of the first folio as one scene.

Note return to page 784 8&lblank; no shepherdess, but Flora Peering in April's front.] So in “Pandosto:”—“Which attire became her so gallantly, as shee seemed to be the goddesse Flora her selfe for beauty.” Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 29.

Note return to page 785 9Digest it &lblank;] The necessary word it was inserted in the second folio.

Note return to page 786 1&lblank; sworn, I think, To show myself a glass.] She means to say, (Malone remarks,) that the prince, by the rustic habit that he wears, seems as if he had sworn to show her a glass, in which she might behold how she ought to be attired, instead of being “most goddess-like prank'd up.”

Note return to page 787 2Sir, welcome.] So the folios: “Welcome, sir!” Malone; who assigns no reason for the transposition. He probably thought it improved the measure, and that on this account he was entitled to take a liberty with the text. Shakespeare was a better judge of verse than Malone.

Note return to page 788 3&lblank; and streak'd gillyflowers,] Pronounced of old gillyvors, and so spelt in the folios, both here, when the word is spoken by Perdita, and afterwards by Polixenes. Steevens would make out “some farther conceit” respecting gilly-flowers, and would derive the word “gill-flirt” from a corruption of gilly-flower, but there seems no sufficient ground for the supposition.

Note return to page 789 4For I have heard it said, There is an art which, in their piedness, shares With great creating nature.] i. e. “There is an art,” says T. Warton, which can produce flowers with as great a variety of colours as nature herself.” Steevens denies the existence of the art.

Note return to page 790 5&lblank; that, frighted, thou let'st fall From Dis's waggon!] See Ovid. Metam. lib. v.

Note return to page 791 6That makes her blood look on't.] This is the old and probably the true reading. Camillo observes that Florizel tells Perdita something that makes her blood come into her cheeks “to look on it.” There is no more violence in this expression than in reading out for “on't,” which has hitherto been done without any warrant. If out had been the reading, it would not have been printed with an apostrophe, as it stands in the old copies.

Note return to page 792 7&lblank; “fadings,” “jump her and thump her;”] The burdens of old songs and ballads, mentioned in writers of the time.

Note return to page 793 8&lblank; Whoop, do me no harm, good man.] A ballad to this tune is contained in the old romance of “Friar Bacon,” printed before 1594. See Thoms's “Romances,” 8vo, 1828: and Ritson informs us that the tune is preserved in Corbine's “Ayres to sing and play to the Lute and Basse Violl,” fo. 1610.

Note return to page 794 9&lblank; points, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle,] “Points,” as has been before mentioned, were tags (usually of metal) to laces and strings, for fastening or sustaining dress.

Note return to page 795 10&lblank; inkles, caddisses,] Malone states that inkle is “a kind of tape,” and caddis “a narrow worsted galloon,” but without citing any authority. It may be suspected that “caddis” was some ornament brought from Cadiz, with other fashions, by the Earl of Essex. The Cadiz or caddis beard was in high vogue in 1598, and is frequently mentioned in “Skialetheia,” a collection of Epigrams and Satires, by Ed. Guilpin, printed in that year. “Inkle” is spoken of by Costard in “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 315.

Note return to page 796 1&lblank; poking-sticks of steel,] Poking-sticks were heated in the fire, and made use of to set the plaits of ruffs. Stowe informs us, that “about the sixteenth yeare of the queene [Elizabeth] began the making of steele poking-sticks, and untill that time all lawndresses used setting stickes made of wood or bone.” My friend Mr. W. B. D. D. Turnbull, of Edinburgh, in 1836, edited a very beautiful re-impression of “The Anatomie of Abuses,” by Philip Stubbes, from the edition of 1585. Here much curious matter may be found respecting dress of the time, and especially about ruffs and “poking-sticks.” The work was first printed in May, 1583, and it was so extremely popular that it went through two editions in that year.

Note return to page 797 2Clamour your tongues,] Grey suggested that “clamour” is a misprint for charm. Gifford (Ben Jonson, iv. 405) expresses the same opinion, with some abuse of the commentators for doubting it. Nevertheless, it may be urged that the clown means that the shepherdesses should ring off their peal at once, and then be silent.

Note return to page 798 3&lblank; a tawdry lace,] It was sometimes only called a tawdry, and it was not used for lacing, but worn as an ornament for the head or neck, as many examples might be adduced to establish.

Note return to page 799 4Here's another ballad, of a fish,] Malone would make out an allusion here to a particular publication, entered in 1604 on the books of the Stationers' Company under the following title:—“A strange reporte of a monstrous fish that appeared in the form of a woman from her waist upward, seene in the sea.” In the first place, it does not appear that this “strange reporte” was a ballad, probably not; and in the next, it is out of the question to suppose that Shakespeare meant to refer to any one production of the kind, but to the whole class. This seems evident from the terms he employs.

Note return to page 800 5&lblank; my father and the gentlemen are in sad talk,] i. e. serious or grave talk. See Vol. ii. p. 221. 499, &c.

Note return to page 801 6&lblank; they call themselves saltiers;] i. e. Satyrs, says Malone; men covered with hairy skins, to give them the appearance of satyrs; but possibly the true explanation is saultiers, i. e. vaulters: the servant says afterwards, that the worst of one of the threes “jumps twelve foot and a half by the squire.” The stage-direction in the old copies after they enter is, “Here a dance of twelve satyrs,” and perhaps “saltiers” is only the servant's blunder.

Note return to page 802 7&lblank; by the squire.] i. e. By the rule, Fr. esquierre. The same word is used in “Love's Labour's Lost.” See Vol. ii. p. 368, note 3.

Note return to page 803 8O father! you'll know more of that hereafter.] This is apparently the continuation of a conversation which Polixenes has carried on with the old shepherd, while the satyrs have been dancing.

Note return to page 804 9&lblank; that's bolted] i. e. sifted by the northern blasts.

Note return to page 805 1&lblank; who of force must know] The expression “of force” is equivalent to of necessity.

Note return to page 806 2That thou no more shalt never see this knack,] “Never” is surplusage in this line as regards the metre, but the reduplication of negatives was a common mode of writing at the time, and the word is found in all the old copies.

Note return to page 807 3You know your father's temper:] The copy of 1623 reads, “my father's,” which is corrected by the second folio.

Note return to page 808 4I am; and by my fancy:] i. e. By my love: the use of the word “fancy” in this sense is perpetual in Shakespeare and authors of his age. See “Merchant of Venice,” Vol. ii. p. 520, note 5.

Note return to page 809 5&lblank; asks thee, the son, forgiveness,] The old copies of 1623 and 1632 have this passage “asks thee there son forgiveness.” The folio of 1664 reads as in our text, which is no doubt correct.

Note return to page 810 6&lblank; pomander,] A pomander was a ball of perfumes, and worn in the pocket, or about the neck.

Note return to page 811 7&lblank; I would have filed keys off,] “I would have fill'd keys of” in the old copies of 1623 and 1632, but corrected in the third folio of 1664.

Note return to page 812 8&lblank; with a whoo-bub &lblank;] So spelt in the original, supporting the etymology of whoop-up given by some lexicographers. The meaning, of course, is what we now call a hubbub; and in this form we meet with it in several writers of the time of Shakespeare. In 1619, Barnabe Rich (regarding whom see the Introduction to “Twelfth-Night”) published a tract, which he calls “The Irish Hubbub, or English Hue and Cry,” which fortifies Todd's opinion, that “it seems clearly to have implied ‘the whoop is up,’ the hue and cry is making.”

Note return to page 813 9And pluck it o'er your brows;] Malone reads “thy brows,” and higher in the page he omits the indefinite article.

Note return to page 814 10(For I do fear eyes ever,) to ship-board] The old reading is, “For I do fear eyes over,” which the MS. corrector of Lord Francis Egerton's copy of the folio of 1623 altered to “For I do fear eyes ever;” the sense of which is clear, and the change inconsiderable. Rowe added you after “over,” and in this reading he has been universally followed.

Note return to page 815 1&lblank; I would not do't:] The meaning seems very evident, though Malone and Steevens differed about it. Autolycus says, “I would not acquaint the king with what I know, because it would be a piece of honesty, and inconsistent with my profession. I hold it the more knavery to conceal it.”

Note return to page 816 2&lblank; pedler's excrement.] i. e. his beard. In “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 348, Armado calls his beard “excrement.”

Note return to page 817 3&lblank; or touze from thee thy business,] The first folio has three misprints in these two words, “or touze,” which stand there at toaze: the second folio corrects “at” into or, but leaves toaze. Malone quotes Minsheu to show that to touze is to pull or tug, and in this sense it is used in “Measure for Measure:” Vol. ii. p. 98.— —“We'll touze you joint by joint,” &c.

Note return to page 818 P. 519.&lblank; or touze from thee thy business.] To toaze and to toze seem both proper modes of spelling the word, as well as “touze.” In Northbrooke's “Treatise against Playes,” &c. p. 81, (Shakespeare Society's reprint) we meet with it:—“Many of them which lacke the use of their feete, with their hands may pick wool, and sow garments, or toze okum.”

Note return to page 819 4&lblank; court-word for a pheasant:] A pheasant was a very common present from country tenants to great people.

Note return to page 820 5Bred his hopes out of: true.] We restore here the reading of all the old editions. Leontes, in grief and remorse, states a fact, and adds mournfully “true;” to which Paulina naturally adds that it is “too true.” All the modern editors, from the time of Theobald, have disturbed the authentic text, and have made Paulina say, “True, too true, my lord.” The word “true,” printed without a capital, could hardly have found its way into the preceding line by a mere error of the press.

Note return to page 821 6&lblank; nor the remembrance Of his most sovereign name.] Nearly all the modern editions, in opposition to all the old copies, have dame instead of “name;” as if the reference were to Hermione, and not the preservation of the name of Leontes, by marrying again, and having issue to succeed to the throne. Not the slightest notice is taken of the important and injurious change. In the folios “name” is printed with a capital letter, as if to avoid the possibility of error. How the blunder came to be originally committed is, therefore, surprising, but more surprising still, how it came to be so often repeated, by those who professed to have printed from a new and careful collation of the old folios. The editor who passed the error first might plead that the compositor had accidentally taken up a wrong letter; but no such excuse can avail for those who, one after another, have reiterated the mistake, merely because they did not consult the authorities they affected to follow.

Note return to page 822 7&lblank; and, on this stage, (Where we offenders now appear) soul-vex'd, Begin, “And why to me?”] The old copies gave this passage thus:— &lblank; “and on this stage (Where we offenders now appear) soul-vex'd, And begin, why to me?” It was the source of much conflict and conjecture, but all that seems necessary is to transpose the words “And begin,” and then the sense is clear. “And why to me?” means “And why such treatment to me, who deserved so much better, than one worse and better used?” Steevens made the judicious transposition.

Note return to page 823 8She had just cause.] The two oldest editions insert such after “just,” which is prejudicial to the meaning and to the metre: the necessary correction was made in the third folio.

Note return to page 824 9Good madam,—I have done.] Steevens proposed to transfer “I have done” to Paulina, who has anything but concluded. Malone adopted the change, which seems on every ground objectionable. Cleomenes endeavours to interpose, but finding it vain, he gives over the attempt with “I have done,” and then Paulina continues. Mr. Knight rightly prefers the old reading.

Note return to page 825 10Enter a Gentleman.] In the old copies, the stage-direction is, “Enter a Servant;” but it is obvious from what he says, and is said to him, that he is above the rank of “a servant.”

Note return to page 826 1&lblank; so must thy grace] The MS. corrector of Lord Francis Egerton's folio, 1623, has altered “grave” to grace, which seems the true reading, although Edwards says, “Thy grave here means thy beauties, which are buried in the grave: the continent for the contents.” “Grace” is synonymous with beauty, as could easily be shown by a hundred instances.

Note return to page 827 2And your fair princess,] Malone, Shakespeare by Boswell, reads “And you fair princess.”

Note return to page 828 3&lblank; that a king, as friend,] The old folios read “at friend;” but Lord F. Egerton's copy is corrected in MS. to “as friend,” which was a very easy misprint, and it no doubt restores the true reading.

Note return to page 829 4Here in your city;] Malone, and others after him, read “in the city,” contrary to all authority.

Note return to page 830 5&lblank; if the importance were joy or sorrow,] Malone says that “importance” here means merely import; but the word is rather to be taken in its etymological sense, from the Fr. emporter. Spenser uses “important” in a kindred manner: &lblank; “He fiercely at him flew, And with important outrage him assail'd.” The meaning of the text seems to be, that a beholder could not say if they were carried away by joy or sorrow.

Note return to page 831 6&lblank; favour.] i. e. countenance—often employed in this sense.

Note return to page 832 7&lblank; with clipping her:] i. e. embracing her. A word of very constant use.

Note return to page 833 8&lblank; like a weather-bitten conduit &lblank;] The third folio, of 1664, changed “bitten” to beaten; but the old reading is more expressive, and ought to be preserved: weather-beaten may have been only a corruption of weather-bitten, and we still say frost-bitten.

Note return to page 834 9&lblank; thou art a tall fellow of thy hands,] i. e. A courageous fellow of thy size. See this Vol. p. 330, note 10.

Note return to page 835 1Lonely, apart.] Misprinted lovely in the folio, 1623. The letter n was mistaken for u, with which lovely was then printed.

Note return to page 836 2Paulina undraws a curtain, and discovers a statue.] In the old editions there is no stage-direction, excepting that at the beginning of the scene “Hermione (like a statue)” is inserted among the characters. Hermione was most likely concealed by a curtain.

Note return to page 837 3Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already &lblank;] Leontes, in his ecstasy, breaks off without completing what he was about to say: what was in his thought seems to have been something to contradict his wish, “Would I were dead,” because he almost fancies that the statue of Hermione is alive.

Note return to page 838 4On, those that think, &c.] The meaning is, “Let those go on, and depart, who think it is unlawful business I am about.” Sir T. Hanmer, without necessity, altered “on,” the reading of the old copy, to or, and he has been usually followed. “On” could hardly have been misprinted for or, because in all the old copies it is followed by a colon.

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