Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners

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PREFACE.
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE TEMPEST.
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
TWELFTH NIGHT.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
MERCHANT OF VENICE.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
TAMING OF THE SHREW.
WINTER'S TALE.
COMEDY OF ERRORS.
MACBETH.
KING JOHN.
KING RICHARD II.
KING HENRY IV. PART I.
KING HENRY IV. PART II.
KING HENRY V.
KING HENRY VI. PART I.
KING HENRY VI. PART II.
KING HENRY VI. PART III.
KING RICHARD III.
KING HENRY VIII.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
TIMON OF ATHENS.
CORIOLANUS.
JULIUS CÆSAR.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
CYMBELINE.
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
PERICLES.
KING LEAR.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
HAMLET.
OTHELLO.
ADDITIONS TO THE NOTES.
DISSERTATION I.
DISSERTATION II.
DISSERTATION III.
INDEX.
GLOSSARIAL INDEX.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

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The practice, and also the necessity of explaining the writings of Shakspeare, have already been so ably defended by former commentators, that no other apology on the part of those who may elect to persevere in this kind of labour seems to be necessary than with regard to the qualifications of the writer: but as no one in this case perhaps ever thought, or at least should think, himself incompetent to the task assumed of instructing or amusing others, it may be as well, on the present occasion, to waive altogether such a common-place intrusion on the reader's time. It is enough to state that accident had given birth to a considerable portion of the following pages, and that design supplied the rest. The late Mr. Steevens had already in a manner too careless for his own reputation, and abundantly too favourable to his friend, presented to public view such of the author's remarks as were solely put together for the private use and consideration of that able critic. The former wish of their compiler has, with the present opportunity, been accomplished; that is, some of them withdrawn, and others, it is hoped, rendered less exceptionable.

The readers of Shakspeare may be properly divided into three classes. The first, as they travel through the text, appeal to each explanation of a word or passage as it occurs. The second read a large portion of the text, or perhaps the whole, uninterruptedly, and then consult the notes; and the third reject the illustrations altogether. Of these the second appear to be the most rational. The last, with all their affectation, are probably the least learned, but will undoubtedly remain so; and it may be justly remarked on this occasion, in the language of the writer who has best illustrated the principles of taste, that "the pride of science is always meek and humble compared with the pride of ignorance." He, who at this day can entirely comprehend the writings of Shakspeare without the aid of a comment, and frequently of laborious illustration, may be said to possess a degree of inspiration almost commensurate with that of the great bard himself. Mr. Steevens has indeed summed up every necessary argument in his assertion that "if Shakspeare is worth reading, he is worth explaining; and the researches used for so valuable and elegant a purpose, merit the thanks of genius and candour, not the satire of prejudice and ignorance."

The indefatigable exertions of Messrs. Steevens, Malone, Tyrwhitt, and Mason, will ever be duly appreciated by the true and zealous admirers of Shakspeare's pages. If the name of a celebrated critic and moralist be not included on this occasion, it is because he was certainly unskilled in the knowledge of obsolete customs and expressions. His explanatory notes therefore are, generally speaking, the most controvertible of any; but no future editor will discharge his duty to the public who shall omit a single sentence of this writer's masterly preface, or of his sound and tasteful characters of the plays of Shakspeare. Of all the commentators Dr. Warburton was surely the worst. His sentiments indeed have been seldom exhibited in modern editions but for the purpose of confuting them.

The wide dispersion of those materials which are essential to the illustration of inquiries like the present, will necessarily frustrate every endeavour at perfection; a circumstance that alone should teach every one discussing these difficult and obscure subjects, to speak of them with becoming diffidence. The present writer cannot flatter himself that he has uniformly paid a strict attention to this rule; the ardour of conjecture may have sometimes led him, in common with others, to forget the precepts he had himself laid down.

It may be thought by some, and even with great justice, that several of the corrections are trifling and unimportant; but even these may perhaps be endured wherever it shall be manifest that their object, and it is hoped their effect, has been to remove error and establish truth; a matter undoubtedly of some consequence in the school of criticism. One design of this volume has been to augment the knowledge of our popular customs and antiquities, in which respect alone the writings of Shakspeare have suggested better hints, and furnished ampler materials than those of any one besides. Other digressions too have been introduced, as it was conceived that they might operate in diminishing that tedium which usually results from an attention to matters purely critical; and that whilst there was almost a certainty of supplying some amusement, there might even be a chance of conveying instruction. Sometimes there has been a necessity for stepping in between two contending critics; and for showing, as in the case of many other disputes, that both parties are in the wrong.

Some excuse may seem necessary for obtruding on the reader so many passages from what Mr. Steevens has somewhere called "books too mean to be formally quoted." And yet the wisest among us may be often benefited by the meanest productions of human intellect, if, like medicinal poisons, they be administered with skill. It had escaped the recollection of the learned and accomplished commentator that he had himself condescended to examine a multitude of volumes of the above class, and even to use them with advantage to his readers in the course of his notes.

With respect to what is often absurdly denominated black letter learning, the taste which prevails in the present times for this sort of reading, wherever true scholarship and a laudable curiosity are found united, will afford the best reply to the hyper-criticisms and impotent sarcasms of those who, having from indolence or ignorance neglected to cultivate so rich a field of knowledge, exert the whole of their endeavours to depreciate its value. Are the earlier labours of our countrymen, and especially the copious stores of information that enriched the long and flourishing reign of Elizabeth, to be rejected because they are recorded in a particular typography?

Others again have complained of the redundancy of the commentators, and of an affected display of learning to explain terms and illustrate matters of obvious and easy comprehension. This may sometimes have been the case; but it were easier to show that too little, and not too much, has been attempted on many of these occasions. An eminent critic has declared that "if every line of Shakspeare's plays were accompanied with a comment, every intelligent reader would be indebted to the industry of him who produced it." Shakspeare indeed is not more obscure than contemporary writers; but he is certainly much better worth illustrating. The above objectors, affectedly zealous to detect the errors of other men, but more frequently betraying their own self-sufficiency and over-weening importance, seem to forget that comments and illustrations are designed for the more ignorant class of readers, who are always the most numerous; and that very few possess the happiness and advantage of being wise or learned.

It might be thought that in the following pages exemplifications of the senses of words have been sometimes unnecessarily introduced where others had already been given; but this has only been done where the new ones were deemed of greater force or utility than the others, or where they were supposed to be really and intrinsically curious. Some of the notes will require that the whole of others which they advert to, should be examined in Mr. Steevens's edition; but these were not reprinted, as they would have occupied a space much too unreasonable.

At the end of every play in which a fool or clown is introduced there will be found particular and discriminative notice of a character which some may regard as by no means unworthy of such attention.

The Dissertations which accompany this work will, it is hoped, not be found misplaced nor altogether uninteresting. The subject of the first of them, though often introduced into former notes on the plays of Shakspeare and other dramatic writers, had been but partially and imperfectly illustrated. The Gesta Romanorum, to which The Merchant of Venice has been so much indebted for the construction of its story, had, it is true, been already disserted on by Mr. Warton with his accustomed elegance; but it will be found that he had by no means exhausted the subject. The morris dance, so frequently alluded to in our old plays, seemed to require and deserve additional researches.

This preface shall not be concluded without embracing the opportunity of submitting a very few hints to the consideration of all future editors of Shakspeare.

It were much to be wished that the text of an author, and more especially that of our greatest dramatic writer, could be altered as seldom as possible by conjectural emendation, or only where it is manifestly erroneous from typographical causes. The readers of Dr. Bentley's notes on Milton will soon be convinced of the inexpediency of the former of these practices, and of what little importance are the conjectures of the mere scholar, when unaccompanied by skill and judgement to direct them.

As the information on a particular subject has been hitherto frequently dispersed in separate notes, and consequently remains imperfect in each of them, would it not be more desirable to concentrate this scattered intelligence, or even to reduce it to a new form, to be referred to whenever necessary?

Although the strict restitution of the old orthography is not meant to be insisted on, nor would indeed accommodate the generality of readers, there are many instances in which it should be stated in the notes; and such will occur to every skilful editor.

Every word or passage that may be substituted in the text in the room of others to be found in any of the old editions should be printed in Italics, and assigned to its proper owner, with a reason for its preference to the originals. The mention of variations in the old copies must of course be left to an editor's discretion. No disparagement is meant to the memory or talents of one of the greatest of men, when a protest is here entered against "the text of Dr. Johnson." It is to be regretted that all editions of Shakspeare, as well as of other dramatic writers, have not marginal references to the acts and scenes of each play. Those of Bell and Stockdale are, in this respect, preeminently useful. The time and trouble that would be saved in consulting them would be very considerable.

The Edition of Shakspeare used in the compilation of this volume, and to which the pages cited refer, is the last published by Mr. Steevens himself, in fifteen volumes 8vo, 1793; but in order to facilitate a reference to most other editions, the acts and scenes of the plays are specified.

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Scene 1. Page 9.

Mr. Steevens has remarked that merely in this place signifies absolutely. His interpretation is confirmed by the word merus in Littelton's dictionary, where it is rendered downright.

Scene 2. Page 10.

There is a peculiar propriety in this expression that has escaped the notice it deserved. Miranda had as yet seen no other man than her father. She had perceived, but indistinctly, some living creatures perish in the shipwreck; and she supposes they might be of her father's species. Thus she afterwards, when speaking of Ferdinand, calls him noble.

Scene 2. Page 11.

This word should always be written ere, and not ever, nor contractedly e'er, with which it has no connection. It is pure Saxon, æꞃ. The corruption in Ecclesiastes cited in the note, is as old as the time of Henry the Eighth; but in Wicliffe we have properly "er be to broke the silveren corde," and so it is given by Chaucer.

Scene 2. Page 20.

The present note is more particularly offered to the admirers of ancient romances, and to which class Shakspeare himself, no doubt, belonged. It is well known that the earliest English specimen of these singular and fascinating compositions is the Geste of king Horn, which has been faithfully published by the late Mr. Ritson, who has given some account of a French copy in the British Museum. He did not live to know that another manuscript of this interesting romance, in the same language, is still remaining in private hands, very different in substance and construction from the other. One might almost conclude that some English translation of it existed in Shakspeare's time, and that he had in the above passage imitated the following description of the boat in which Horn and his companions were put by king Rodmund at the suggestion of Browans,

That is,

Scene 2. Page 26.

This is a very elegant description of a meteor well known to sailors. It has been called by the several names of the fire of Saint Helen, Saint Elm, Saint Herm, Saint Clare, Saint Peter, and Saint Nicholas. Whenever it appeared as a single flame it was supposed by the ancients to be Helena, the sister of Castor and Pollux, and in this state to bring ill luck, from the calamities which this lady is known to have caused in the Trojan war. When it came double it was called Castor and Pollux, and accounted a good omen. It has been described as a little blaze of fire, sometimes appearing by night on the tops of soldiers' lances, or at sea on masts and sail-yards whirling and leaping in a moment from one place to another. Some have said, but erroneously, that it never appears but after a tempest. It is also supposed to lead people to suicide by drowning.

Further information on the subject may be collected from Plin. Hist. nat. 1. ii. c. 37. Seneca Quæst. nat. c. 1. Erasm. Colloq. in naufragio. Schotti. Physica curiosa, p. 1209. Menage Dict. etym. v. Saint Telme. Cotgrave Dict. v. feu, furole. Trevoux Dict. v. furole. Lettres de Bergerac, p. 45. Eden's Hist. of travayle, fo. 432 b. 433 b. Camerarii Horæ subsecivæ iii. 53. Cambray Voy. dans la Finisterre ii. 296. Swan's Speculum mundi p. 89. Shakspeare seems to have consulted Stephen Batman's Golden books of the leaden goddes, who, speaking of Castor and Pollux, says "they were figured like two lampes or cresset lightes, one on the toppe of a maste, the other on the stemme or foreshippe." He adds that if the light first appears in the stem or foreship and ascends upwards, it is good luck; if either lights begin at the top-mast, bowsprit or foreship, and descend towards the sea, it is a sign of tempest. In taking therefore the latter position, Ariel had fulfilled the commands of Prospero to raise a storm.

Scene 2. Page 28.

The voyage of Sir George Sommers to the Bermudas in the year 1609 has been already noticed with a view of ascertaining the time in which The tempest was written; but the important particulars of his shipwreck, from which it is exceedingly probable that the outline of a considerable part of this play was borrowed, has been unaccountably overlooked. Several contemporary narratives of the above event were published, which Shakspeare might have consulted; and the conversation of the time might have furnished, or at least suggested, some particulars that are not to be found in any of the printed accounts. In 1610 Silvester Jourdan, an eyewitness, published A discovery of the Barmudas, otherwise called the ISLE OF DIVELS: By Sir Thomas Gates, Sir Geo. Sommers, and Captayne Newport, with divers others. Next followed Strachey's Proceedings of the English colonie in Virginia 1612, 4to, and some other pamphlets of less moment. From these accounts it appears that the Bermudas had never been inhabited, but regarded as under the influence of inchantment; though an addition to a subsequent edition of Jourdan's work gravely states that they are not inchanted; that Sommers's ship had been split between two rocks; that during his stay on the island several conspiracies had taken place; and that a sea-monster in shape like a man had been seen, who had been so called after the monstrous tempests that often happened at Bermuda. In Stowe's Annals we have also an account of Sommers's shipwreck, in which this important passage occurs, "Sir George Sommers sitting at the stearne, seeing the ship desperate of reliefe, looking every minute when the ship would sinke, hee espied land, which according to his and Captaine Newport's opinion, they judged it should be that dreadfull coast of the Bermodes, which iland were of all nations said and supposed to bee inchanted and inhabited with witches and devills, which grew by reason of accustomed monstrous thunder, storm, and tempest, neere unto those ilands, also for that the whole coast is so wonderous dangerous of rockes, that few can approach them, but with unspeakable hazard of ship-wrack." Now if some of these circumstances in the shipwreck of Sir George Sommers be considered, it may possibly turn out that they are "the particular and recent event which determined Shakspeare to call his play The tempest,"[1] instead of "the great tempest of 1612," which has already been supposed to have suggested its name, and which might have happened after its composition. If this be the fact the play was written between 1609 and 1614 when it was so illiberally and invidiously alluded to in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew-fair.

Scene 2. Page 30.

The spirits or familiars attending on magicians were always impatient of confinement. Thus we are told that the spirit Balkin is wearied if the action wherein he is employed continue longer than an hour; and therefore the magician must be careful to dismiss him. The form of such a dismission may be seen in Scot's Discovery of witchcraft, edit. 1665, folio, p. 228.

Scene 2. Page 35.

Quaint here means brisk, spruce, dexterous. From the French cointe.

Scene 2. Page 35.

The following passage in Batman uppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, 1582, folio, will not only throw considerable light on these lines, but furnish at the same time grounds for a conjecture that Shakspeare was indebted to it, with a slight alteration, for the name of Caliban's mother Sycorax the witch. "The raven is called corvus of Corax ... it is said that ravens birdes be fed with deaw of heaven all the time that they have no black feathers by benefite of age." Lib. xii. c. 10. The same author will also account for the choice which is made, in the monster's speech, of the South-west wind. "This Southern wind is hot and moyst.... Southern winds corrupt and destroy; they heat and maketh men fall into sicknesse." Lib. xi. c. 3. It will be seen in the course of these notes that Shakspeare was extremely well acquainted with this work; and as it is likely hereafter to form an article in a Shakspearean library, it may be worth adding that in a private diary written at the time, the original price of the volume appears to have been eight shillings.

Scene 2. Page 36.

Although urchins sometimes means hedge-hogs, it is more probable that in this place they denote fairies or spirits, and that Mr. Malone is right in the explanation which he has given. The present writer's former note must therefore be cancelled, as should, according to his conception, such part of Mr. Steevens's as relates to the hedge-hog. The same term both in the next act, and in the Merry Wives of Windsor, is used in a similar sense.

Mr. Steevens in a note on this word in the last mentioned play has observed that the primitive sense of urchin is a hedge-hog, whence it came, says he, to signify any thing dwarfish. There is however good reason for supposing it of Celtic origin. Erch in Welsh, is terrible, and urzen, a superior intelligence. In the Bas Breton language urcha signifies to howl. "Urthinwad Elgin," says Scot in his Discovery of witchcraft, p. 224, edit. 1665, "was a spirit in the days of King Solomon, came over with Julius Cæsar, and remained many hundred years in Wales, where he got the above name."

The urchin or irchin, in the sense of a hedge-hog, is certainly derived from the Latin ericeus; and whoever is desirous of more information concerning the radical of ericeus may be gratified by consulting Vossius's Etymologicon v. erinaceus. With respect to the application of urchin to any thing dwarfish, for we still say a little urchin, this sense of the word seems to have originated rather from the circumstance of its having once signified a fairy, who is always supposed to be a diminutive being, than from the cause assigned by Mr. Steevens.

It is true that in the ensuing act Caliban speaks of Prospero's spirits as attacking him in the shape of hedge-hogs, for which another reason will be offered presently; and yet the word in question is only one out of many used by Shakspeare, which may be best disposed of by concluding that he designed they should be taken in both or either of their senses.

In a very rare old collection of songs set to music by John Bennett, Edward Piers or Peirce, and Thomas Ravenscroft, composers in the time of Shakspeare, and entitled Hunting, hawking, dauncing, drinking, enamoring, 4to, no date, there are, the fairies dance, the elves dance, and the urchins dance. This is the latter:

Scene 2. Page 40.

In Dr. Farmer's note it should have been added that the passage from Eden's History of travayle was part of Magellan's Voyage; or in Mr. Tollet's, that Magellan was included in Eden's collection.

Scene 2. Page 42.

We had already had this image in King Richard the third, where Clarence, describing his dream, says:

Scene 2. Page 44.

The incident of Miranda's surprise at the first sight of Ferdinand, and of her falling in love with him, might have been suggested by some lost translation of the 13th tale in the Cento novelle antiche, and which is in fact the subject of father Philip's geese, so admirably told by Boccaccio and Lafontaine. It seems to have been originally taken from the life of Saint Barlaam in The golden legend.

Scene 1. Page 54.

Lush, as Mr. Malone observes, has not yet been rightly interpreted. It is, after all, an old word synonymous with loose. In the Promptuarium parvulorum 1516, 4to, we find "lushe or slacke, laxus." The quotation from Golding, who renders turget by this word, confirms the foregoing definition, and demonstrates that as applied to grass, it means loose or swollen, thereby expressing the state of that vegetable when, the fibres being relaxed, it expands to its fullest growth.

Scene 2. Page 76.

Shakspeare, who seems to have been well acquainted with Bishop Harsnet's Declaration of Popish impostures, has here recollected that part of the work where the author, speaking of the supposed possession of young girls, says, "they make anticke faces, girn, mow and mop like an ape, tumble like a hedge-hogge, &c." Another reason for the introduction of urchins or hedge-hogs into this speech is, that on the first discovery of the Bermudas, which, as has been already stated, gave rise in part to this play, they were supposed to be "haunted as all men know with hogs and hobgoblings." See Dekkar's Strange horserace, &c. sign. f. 3. b. and Mr. Steevens's note in p. 28.

Scene 2. Page 77.

This speech happily ridicules the mania that appears to have always existed among our countrymen for beholding strange sights, however trifling. A contemporary writer and professor of divinity has been no less severe. Speaking of the crocodile, he says, "Of late years there hath been brought into England, the cases or skinnes of such crocodiles to be seene, and much money given for the sight thereof; the policy of strangers laugh at our folly, either that we are too wealthy, or else that we know not how to bestow our money." Batman uppon Bartholome, fo. 359 b.

Scene 2. Page 82.

The best account of this fabulous substance may be found in Drayton's poem with that title.

Scene 2. Page 83.

This is a very old superstition founded, as Mr. Ritson has observed, on Numbers xv. 32. See Ancient songs, p. 34. So far the tradition is still preserved among nurses and schoolboys; but how the culprit came to be imprisoned in the moon, has not yet been accounted for. It should seem that he had not merely gathered sticks on the sabbath, but that he had stolen what he gathered, as appears from the following lines in Chaucer's Testament of Creseid, where the poet, describing the moon, informs us that she had

We are to suppose that he was doomed to perpetual confinement in this planet, and precluded from every possibility of inhabiting the mansions of the just. With the Italians Cain appears to have been the offender, and he is alluded to in a very extraordinary manner by Dante in the twentieth canto of the Inferno, where the moon is described by the periphrasis Caino e le spine. One of the commentators on that poet says, that this alludes to the popular opinion of Cain loaded with the bundle of faggots, but how he procured them we are not informed. The Jews have some Talmudical story that Jacob is in the moon, and they believe that his face is visible. The natives of Ceylon, instead of a man, have placed a hare in the moon; and it is said to have got there in the following manner. Their great Deity Budha when a hermit on earth lost himself one day in a forest. After wandering about in great distress he met a hare, who thus addressed him: "It is in my power to extricate you from your difficulty; take the path on your right hand, and it will lead you out of the forest." "I am greatly obliged to you, Mr. Hare," said Budha, "but I am unfortunately very poor and very hungry, and have nothing to offer you in reward for your kindness." "If you are hungry," returned the hare, "I am again at your service; make a fire, kill me, roast me, and eat me." Budha made the fire, and the hare instantly jumped into it. Budha now exerted his miraculous powers, snatched the animal from the flames, and threw him into the moon, where he has ever since remained. This is from the information of a learned and intelligent French gentleman recently arrived from Ceylon, who adds that the Cingalese would often request of him to permit them to look for the hare through his telescope, and exclaim in raptures, that they saw it. It is remarkable that the Chinese represent the moon by a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar. Their mythological moon Jut-ho is figured by a beautiful young woman with a double sphere behind her head, and a rabbit at her feet. The period of this animal's gestation is thirty days; may it not therefore typify the moon's revolution round the earth?

Scene 2. Page 86.

Scraping trenchers was likewise a scholastic employment at college, if we may believe the illiterate parson in the pleasant comedy of Cornelianum dolium, where speaking of his haughty treatment of the poor scholars whom he had distanced in getting possession of a fat living, he says, "Illi inquam, qui ut mihi narrârunt, quadras adipe illitas deglubere sunt coacti, quamdiu inter academicas ulnas manent, dapsili more à me nutriti sunt, saginati imò &c." It was the office too of apprentices. In The life of a satirical puppy called Nim, 1657, 12mo, a citizen describes how long "he bore the water tankard, scrap't trenchers, and made clean shoes."

Scene 1. Page 91.

The old copy reads than to suffer, which, however ungrammatical, is justly maintained by Mr. Malone to be Shakspeare's language, and ought therefore to be restored. Mr. Steevens objects on the score of defective metre: but this is not the case; the metre, however rugged, is certainly perfect.

Scene 1. Page 92.

Mr. Malone has cited a very apposite passage from Catullus, but Shakspeare had probably on this occasion the pathetic old poem of The nut-brown maid in his recollection.

Scene 2. Page 94.

The curious reader may nevertheless be gratified with a ludicrous instance of eyes set in the tail, if he can procure a sight of the first cut in Caxton's edition of Æsop's fables. In the mean time he is referred to the genuine chap. xx. of Planudes's life of that fabulist, which is generally omitted in the modern editions.

Scene 2. Page 97.

Dr. Johnson would transfer this speech to Stephano, on the ground that Caliban could know nothing of the costume of fools. This objection is fairly removed by Mr. Malone; besides which it may be remarked that at the end of the play Caliban specifically calls Trinculo a fool. The modern managers will perhaps be inclined for the future to dress this character in the proper habit.

Scene 2. Page 100.

Troll is from the French trôler, to lead, draw, or drag, and this sense particularly applies to a catch, in which one part is sung after the other, one of the singers leading off. The term is sometimes used as Mr. Steevens has explained it. Littelton renders to troll along his words, by volubiliter loqui sive rotundè. Trolling for fish, is drawing the bait along in the water, to imitate the swimming of a real fish.

Scene 2. Page 104.

Bartholomæus De propriet. rerum, speaking of Arabia, says, "there breedeth a birde that is called Phœnix;" and from what has already been said of this book, it was probably one of Shakspeare's authorities on the occasion.

Scene 2. Page 106.

The "dewlapp'd mountaineers" are shown to have been borrowed from Maundeville's travels, and the same author doubtless supplied the other monsters. In the edition printed by Thomas Este, without date, is the following passage: "In another ile dwell men that have no heads, and their eyes are in their shoulders, and their mouth is on their breast." A cut however which occurs in this place is more to the purpose, and might have saved our poet the trouble of consulting the text, for it represents a complete head with eyes, nose, and mouth, placed on the breast and stomach.

Scene 1. Page 122.

An elegant expansion of these lines in Phaer's Virgil. Æn. end of book 4.

Scene 1. Page 131.

Dr. Johnson has introduced a passage from Drayton's Nymphidia, as resembling the above description. It is still more like an incident in the well known story of the friar and the boy.

Scene 1. Page 136.

Mr. Collins's note, it is presumed, will not be thought worth retaining in any future edition. His account of the barnacle is extremely confused and imperfect. He makes Gerarde responsible for an opinion not his own; he substitutes the name of Holinshed for that of Harrison, whose statement is not so ridiculous as Mr. Collins would make it, and who might certainly have seen the feathers of the barnacles hanging out of the shells, as the fish barnacle or Lepas anatifera is undoubtedly furnished with a feathered beard. The real absurdity was the credulity of Gerarde and Harrison in supposing that the barnacle goose was really produced from the shell of the fish. Dr. Bullein not only believed this himself, but bestows the epithets, ignorant and incredulous on those who did not; and in the same breath he maintains that crystal is nothing more than ice. See his Bulwarke of defence, &c. 1562, Folio, fo. 12. Caliban's barnacle is the clakis or tree-goose. Every kind of information on the subject may be found in the Physica curiosa of Gaspar Schot the Jesuit, who with great industry has collected from a multitude of authors whatever they had written concerning it. See lib. ix. c. 22. The works of Pennant and Bewick will supply every deficiency with respect to rational knowledge.

Scene 1. Page 140.

The different species of the fairy tribe are called in the Northern languages ælfen, elfen, and alpen, words of remote and uncertain etymology. The Greek ολβιος, felix, is not so plausible an original as the Teutonic helfen, juvare; because many of these supernatural beings were supposed to be of a mischievous nature, but all of them might very properly be invoked to assist mankind. Some of the northern nations regarded them as the souls of men who in this world had given themselves up to corporeal pleasures, and trespasses against human laws. It was conceived therefore that they were doomed to wander for a certain time about the earth, and to be bound in a kind of servitude to mortals. One of their occupations was that of protecting horses in the stable. See Olaus Magnus de gentibus septentrionalibus, lib. iii. cap. xi. It is probable that our fairy system is originally derived from the Fates, Fauns, Nymphs, Dryads, Deæ matres, &c., of the ancients, in like manner as other Pagan superstitions were corruptedly retained after the promulgation of Christianity. The general stock might have been augmented and improved by means of the crusades and other causes of intercourse with the nations of the East.

Scene 1. Page 141.

Green sour, if the genuine reading, should be given, as in the first folio, without a hyphen; for such a compound epithet will not elsewhere be easily discovered. Though a real or supposed acidity in this kind of grass will certainly warrant the use of sour, it is not improbable that Shakspeare might have written greensward, i. e. the green surface of the ground, from the Saxon ꞅƿeaꞃꝺ, skin.

Scene 1. Page 158.

So in a former scene, Gonzalo had said, "You are gentlemen of brave mettle; you would lift the moon out of her sphere, &c." In Adlington's translation of Apuleius 1596, 4to, a book well known to Shakspeare, a marginal note says, "Witches in old time were supposed to be of such power that they could pul downe the moone by their inchauntment." In Fleminge's Virgil's Bucolics is this line, "Charms able are from heaven high to fetch the moone adowne;" and see Scot's Discoverie of witchcraft 1584, 4to, pp. 174, 226, 227, 250.

But all the above authorities are from the ancients, the system of modern witchcraft not affording any similar instances of its power. The Jesuit Delrio is willing to put up with any notice of this superstition among heathen writers, but is extremely indignant to find it mentioned by a Christian; contending that it exclusively belongs to the ancients. Disquis. magic. lib. ii. quæst. xi. The following classical references may not be unacceptable. The earliest on the list will be that in Aristophanes's Clouds, where Strepsiades proposes the hiring of a Thessalian witch to bring down the moon and shut her in a box that he might thus evade paying his debts by the month.

In the same author the witch Enothea, describing her power, says, "Lunæ descendit imago, carminibus deducta meis." p. 489.

It is said that Menanda wrote a play called the Thessalian, in which were contained the several incantations used by witches to draw the moon from the heavens.

So when the moon was eclipsed, the Romans supposed it was from the influence of magical charms; to counteract which, as well as those already enumerated, they had recourse to the sound of brazen implements of all kinds. Juvenal alludes to this practice when he describes his talkative woman.

And see particularly Macrob. Saturna. l. v. c. 19. It is not improbable that the rattling of the sistrum by the priests of Isis, or the moon, may be in some way or other connected with this practice, or have even been its origin.

In proportion to the advance of science, it will, no doubt, be found that the Greeks and Romans borrowed more than is commonly imagined from the nations of the East, where the present practice seems to have been universal. Thus the Chinese believe that during eclipses of the sun and moon these celestial bodies are attacked by a great serpent, to drive away which they strike their gongs or brazen drums; the Turks and even some of the American Indians entertain the same opinion. This is perhaps a solution of the common subject on Chinese porcelain, of a dragon pursuing a ball of fire, the symbol of the sun. The Hindoos suppose that a serpent, born from the head of a giant slain by Vishnu, is permitted by that deity to attack the sun. Krishna the Hindoo sun is sometimes represented combating this monster, whence the Greek story of Apollo and the serpent Python may have been derived.

The character of Trinculo, who in the dramatis personæ is called a jester, is not very well discriminated in the course of the play itself. As he is only associated with Caliban and the drunken butler, there was no opportunity of exhibiting him in the legitimate character of a professed fool; but at the conclusion of the play it appears that he was in the service of the king of Naples as well as Stephano. On this account therefore, and for the reasons already offered in page 20, he must be regarded as an allowed domestic buffoon, and should be habited on the stage in the usual manner.

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Scene 1. Page 170.

A beadsman is one who offers up prayers to heaven for the welfare of another. Many of the ancient petitions to great men were addressed to them by their "poor daily orators and beadsmen." To count one's beads, means, in the Romish church, to offer up as many prayers to God and the Virgin Mary as the priest or some voluntary penance or obligation shall have enjoined; and that no mistake may happen in the number, they are reckoned by means of certain balls strung in a kind of chaplet, and hence in the English language termed beads, from the Saxon beaꝺ, a prayer. There is much difference of opinion among ecclesiastical writers as to the origin of this practice. Some ascribe its invention to Peter the hermit in the eleventh century, others to Venerable Bede, misled probably by the affinity of the name. Monsieur Fleury more rationally conceives it to be not older than the eleventh century; but the probability is, that it was imported into Europe by the crusaders, who found it among the Mahometans. The latter use it wherever their religion has been planted, and there is even reason for supposing that it originated among the natives of Hindostan. These chaplets made of beads are called rosaries when they are used in prayers to the Virgin. The term bead, as applied to the materials of which necklaces, &c. are made, seems therefore to have been borrowed from the chaplet of rosaries in question.

Scene 1. Page 171.

An allusion, as it is supposed, to the diabolical torture of the boot. Not a great while before this play was written, it had been inflicted in the presence of King James on one Dr. Fian, a supposed wizard, who was charged with raising the storms that the King encountered in his return from Denmark. In the very curious pamphlet which contains the account of this transaction it is stated that "hee was with all convenient speed, by commandement, convaied againe to the torment of the bootes, wherein he continued a long time, and did abide so many blowes in them, that his legges were crushte and beaten togeather as small as might bee, and the bones and flesh so brused, that the bloud and marrowe spouted forth in great abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable for ever." The unfortunate man was afterwards burned. But the above instrument of torture was not, as suggested in one of the notes on this occasion, "used only in Scotland;" it was known in France, and in all probability imported from that country. The following representation of it is copied from Millæus's Praxis criminis persequendi, Paris, 1541, folio. This instrument of torture continued to be used in Scotland so late as the end of the 17th century. See A hind let loose, 1687, 8vo, pp. 186, 198, in the frontispiece to which work there is an indistinct representation of the boot. It is said to have been imported from Russia by a Scotchman. See Maclaurin's Arguments in remarkable cases, 4to, p. xxxvii.

Scene 1. Page 171.

Thus explained by Dr. Johnson. "This love will end in a foolish action, to produce which you are long to spend your wit, or it will end in the loss of your wit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love;" an explanation that is in part very questionable. The poet simply means that love itself is sometimes a foolish object dearly attained in exchange for reason; at others the human judgment subdued by folly. He is speaking of love abstractedly, and not alluding to that of Proteus.

Scene 1. Page 178.

Mr. Holt White's information from a passage in Latimer's sermons, that the tester was then worth more than six-pence, is so far correct; but as an inference might be drawn from the quotation that it was actually worth ten-pence, it becomes necessary to state that at that time, viz. in 1550, the tester was worth twelve-pence. It is presumed that no accurate account of this piece of coin has been hitherto given; and therefore the following attempt, which has been attended with no small labour, may not be unacceptable.

The term, variously written, teston, tester, testern, and, in Twelfth night, testril, is from the French teston, and so called from the king's head, which first appeared on this coin in the reign of Louis XII. A. D. 1513, though the Italians seem previously to have had a coin of the same denomination. In our own country the name was first applied to the English shilling (originally coined by Henry the Seventh) at the beginning of the reign of Henry the Eighth, probably because it resembled in value the French coin above described; so that shilling and teston were at that time synonymous terms. Although the teston underwent several reductions in value, it appears to have been worth twelve-pence at the beginning of Edward the Sixth's reign, from three several proclamations in his second and third years for calling in, and at length annihilating, this coin, on account of the forgeries that had been committed; Sir William Sharington having falsified it to the amount of 12,000l., for which by an express act of parliament he was attainted of treason. In the above proclamations the testons are specifically described as "pieces of xiid commonly called testons;" and in the last of them, the possessors are allowed twelve-pence apiece on bringing them to the mint. Sir Henry Spelman, who has asserted in his glossary that the teston was reduced to nine-pence in the first year of King Edward, must be mistaken. Stowe more correctly informs us that on the 9th of July 1551 (the fifth year of the King's reign), the base shillings of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. were called down to nine-pence, and on the 17th of August following to six-pence. He afterwards, under the year 1559, cites a proclamation for reducing it still lower, viz. to fourpence halfpenny. We must conclude that it again rose in value as the coin became improved; for it appears from Twelfth night, Act II. Scene 3, that it was in Shakspeare's time the same as the six-pence, and it has probably continued ever since as another name for that coin.

Scene 2. Page 185.

There is a great deal of quotation given in the notes, but nothing after all that amounts to an explanation of the term. It alludes to the mind or remembrance days of our Popish ancestors. Persons in their wills often directed that in a month, or any other specific time, from the day of their decease, some solemn office for the repose of their souls, as a mass or dirge, should be performed in the parish church, with a suitable charity or benevolence on the occasion. Polydore Vergil has shown that the custom is of Roman origin; and he seems to speak of the month's mind as a ceremony peculiar to the English. De rer. invent. lib. vi. c. 10.

Scene 2. Page 201.

This was the mode of plighting troth between lovers in private. It was sometimes done in the church with great solemnity, and the service on this occasion is preserved in some of the old rituals. To the latter ceremony the priest alludes in Twelfth night, Act V. Scene 1.

Scene 4. Page 210.

Dr. Johnson has here inserted the particle no, "to fill up the measure;" but the measure is not defective though the harmony is. Mr. Steevens, disputing the suggestion of a brother critic, that worthless might have been designed as a trisyllable, asks whether worthless in the preceding speech of Sylvia is a trisyllable? Certainly not; but he should have remembered the want of uniformity of metre in many words among the poets of this period. Thus in p. 223, lines 8 and 9, the word fire is alternately used as a monosyllable and dissyllable; and where the quantity is complete, as in the present instance, the harmony is often left to shift for itself.

Scene 1. Page 232.

It is far more likely that Shakspeare found this at the end of the first book of Golding's Ovid's metamorphosis, than in the authorities referred to in Mr. Steevens's note.

Scene 1. Page 239.

The true reason why this Saint was chosen to be the patron of Scholars may be gathered from the following story in his life, composed in French verse by Maitre Wace, chaplain to Henry the Second, remaining in manuscript but never printed. It appears from a passage in Ordericus Vitalis, p. 598, that the metrical legends of Saints were sung by the Norman minstrels to the common people.

That is, "Three scholars were on their way to school, (I shall not make a long story of it,) their host murdered them in the night, and hid their bodies; their ... he reserved. Saint Nicholas was informed of it by God Almighty, and according to his pleasure went to the place. He demanded the scholars of the host, who was not able to conceal them, and therefore showed them to him. Saint Nicholas, by his prayers, restored the souls to their bodies. Because he conferred such honour on scholars, they at this day celebrate a festival."

It is remarkable, that although the above story explains the common representation of the Saint, with three children in a tub, it is not to be found in that grand repertory of Monkish lies, The Golden Legend. It occurs, however, in an Italian life of Saint Nicholas, printed in 1645, whence it is extracted into the Gentleman's Magazine for 1777, p. 158. There is a note by Mr. Whalley on Saint Nicholas's clerks, as applied to highwaymen, in King Henry the Fourth, part the first, vol. viii. p. 418, which, though erroneously conceived, would have been more properly introduced on the present occasion. Standing where it does, the worthy author is made responsible for having converted the parish clerks of London into a nest of thieves, which he certainly never intended. Those respectable persons, finding that scholars, more usually termed clerks, had placed themselves under the patronage of Saint Nicholas, conceived that clerks of any kind might have the same right, and accordingly took this saint as their patron; much in the same way as the wool-combers did Saint Blaise, who was martyred with an instrument resembling a curry-comb, the nail-makers Saint Clou, and the booksellers Saint John Port-Latin.

Scene 2. Page 246.

Mr. Steevens explains very to be immediate. Is it not rather true, verus? Thus Massinger calls one of his plays A very woman. See likewise the beginning of the Nicene creed.

Scene 2. Page 257.

i. e. pleases, in which sense it is used by Chaucer. This is the genuine Saxon meaning of the word, however it might have been corrupted in early times from its Latin original licet. In the next speech Julietta plays upon the word.

Scene 2. Page 258.

On which Dr. Johnson observes, "The word will is here ambiguous. He wishes to gain her will; she tells him, if he wants her will he has it." The learned critic seems to have mistaken the sense of the word compass, when he says it means to gain. If it did, his remark would be just. But to compass in this place signifies, to perform, accomplish, take measures for doing a thing. Thus in Twelfth night, Act I. Scene 2, "that were hard to compass;" and in 1 Hen. VI. Act V. Scene 5, "You judge it impossible to compass wonders." Accordingly Sylvia proceeds to instruct Proteus how he may perform her will. Wish and will are here used, as in many other places, though inaccurately, as synonymous. If however Shakspeare really designed to make Proteus say that he was desirous of gaining Sylvia's good will, she must be supposed, in her reply, purposely to mistake his meaning.

Scene 2. Page 260.

Dr. Johnson objects to the sense of this passage, and the other commentators offer conjectural interpretations; yet surely nothing is more clear than the sense, and even the grammar may be defended. It is simply, "since your falsehood shall adapt or render you fit to worship shadows." Become here answers to the Latin convenire, and is used according to its genuine Saxon meaning.

Scene 2. Page 260.

This Mr. Ritson explains, by my holy doom, or sentence at the resurrection, from the Saxon halɩᵹꝺom; but the word does not appear to have had such a meaning. It rather signifies holiness or honesty. It likewise denoted a sacrament, a sanctuary, relics of saints, or anything holy. It seems in later times to have been corrupted into holidame, as if it expressed the holy virgin. Thus we have so help me God and hollidame. See Bullein's Book of the use of sicke men, 1579, in folio, fo. 2 b.

Scene 4. Page 270.

It was the fashion at this time for the ladies to wear masks, which are thus described by the puritanical Stubs in his Anatomie of abuses, 1595, 4to, p. 59. "When they use to ride abroad they have masks and visors made of velvet wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they looke. So that if a man that knew not their guise before, should chaunce to meet one of them, he would think he met a monster or a Devil, for face he can shew (see) none, but two broad holes against their eyes, with glasses in them." More will be said on the subject of this mode of disguising the female face in a remark on The merry wives of Windsor, Act IV. Scene 2.

Scene 4. Page 271.

A note is here inserted, "not" says its learned and classical author, "on the business of Shakspeare," but to introduce a conjecture relating to one of Guido's paintings commonly supposed to represent Ariadne as deserted by Theseus and courted by Bacchus, but which he conceives to have been intended for Bacchus's desertion of this lady for an Indian captive. An attentive examination of the print from Guido's picture will, it is presumed, incline any one to hesitate much before he shall decide on having discerned any traces of an Indian princess; and this supposed character may rather turn out to be Venus introducing the amorous Deity, attended by his followers, to Ariadne, forlorn and abandoned by Theseus in the isle of Chios, according to Ovid, or Naxos according to Lactantius. Nor is the female who accompanies Bacchus "hanging on his arm," as stated by the critic. It is impossible likewise to perceive in this figure the modest looks or demeanour of a female captive, or in the supposed Bacchus the character of a lover, insulting, according to Ovid's description, his former mistress by displaying the beauties of another. Boccaccio has very comically accounted for Ariadne's desertion by Theseus, and her subsequent transfer to Bacchus. He supposes the lady to have been too fond of the juice of the grape, and that on her continuing to indulge this propensity, she was therefore called the wife of Bacchus. See Geneal. deor. lib. xi. c. 29.

Scene 4. Page 274.

This was in old times the favourite colour of the eyes in both sexes:

And to come nearer to Shakspeare's time:—In the interlude of Marie Magdalene, a song in praise of her says, "your eyes as gray as glasse and right amiable." The French term ver or vair has induced some of their antiquaries to suppose that it meant green; but it has been very satisfactorily shown to signify in general the colour still called by heralds vair. It is certain however that the French romances and other authorities allude occasionally to green eyes.

Scene 4. Page 274.

In confirmation of Mr. M. Mason's note, it may be observed that in the comedy of Cornelianum dolium, Act I. Scene 5, statua is twice used for a picture. They were synonymous terms, and sometimes a statue was called a picture. Thus Stowe, speaking of Elizabeth's funeral, says that when the people beheld "her statue or picture lying upon the coffin" there was a general sighing, &c. Annals, p. 815, edit. 1631. In the glossary to Speght's Chaucer, 1598, statue is explained picture; and in one of the inventories of King Henry the Eighth's furniture at Greenwich, several pictures of earth are mentioned. These were busts in terra cotta like those still remaining in Wolsey's palace at Hampton Court.

Scene 1. Page 276.

The old copy reads "at friar Patrick's cell," which Mr. Steevens calls a redundance, justifying his alteration by a passage in the next scene, where "At Patrick's cell" occurs. But the old reading is right, and should not have been disturbed, there being no redundance when it is judiciously read. Silvia is often used as a dissyllable, and must here be read elliptically. Besides, we had "friar Patrick's cell" before in p. 263.

Scene 4. Page 280.

It has been already observed that this term refers to the singing of birds. It should have been added that it was formed from the recorder, a sort of flute by which they were taught to sing.

Scene 4. Page 286.

The speech had been begun with a metaphor from archery, and is here continued in the same strain. To cleave the pin, was to break the nail which attached the mark to the butt.

Scene 4. Page 290.

However ingenious and even just the system in this reply may be, it is evident that Shakspeare was not governed by it; but, on the contrary, that he has taken the liberties pointed out by Mr. Tyrwhitt. The proof is, 1. From the circumstance that none of Shakspeare's contemporaries have used similar words in such a protracted form. 2. Because he has used other words in the same manner which are not reducible to Mr. Ritson's system; such as country, assembly, &c. He never troubled himself about establishing a canon of which he was, in all likelihood, altogether ignorant; but occasionally took such liberties as his verses required. This is clearly manifested by his various use, in many instances, of the selfsame words.

The character of Speed is that of a shrewd witty servant. Launce is something different, exhibiting a mixture of archness and rustic simplicity. There is no allusion to dress, nor any other circumstance, that marks either of them as the domestic fool or jester.

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Scene 1. Page 309.

It may be doubted whether the real humour of this speech has been pointed out. Does it not consist in Slender's characterizing Ann Page by a property belonging to himself, and which renders him ridiculous? The audience would naturally smile at hearing him deliver the speech in an effeminate tone of voice.

Scene 1. Page 314.

This has the appearance of a fragment of some old ballad.

Scene 1. Page 317.

If, according to Mr. Henderson, Sir Hugh be justified in his censure of this phrase as a pleonasm, we must also censure the parson in his turn for having forgot that the common prayer would have furnished an example of Pistol's language. See also Jerem. xxvi. 11.

Scene 1. Page 317.

These sixpences were coined in 1561, and are the first milled money used in this kingdom. The invention is due to the French, and was introduced here by a native of France, who misapplied his talents by private coining, and suffered the penalty of the law. That seven groats could be lost in sixpences must be placed to the account of Master Slender's simplicity of wit.

With respect to the Edward shovel-boards:—Mr. Malone's inference from the reading in the old quarto that "Slender means the broad shilling of one of our kings," is sufficiently maintained by the other notes; but that it was the shilling of Edward the Sixth there is no doubt, no other Edward having coined such a piece of money. It still remains to explain how these shillings could have cost Master Slender two and twopence apiece; because, if Dr. Farmer's quotation from Folkes had gone far enough, it would have appeared that the thick shillings mentioned by that writer were pattern-pieces, even originally of great rarity, and never in circulation. Folkes could have seen very few of such pieces, and it would be extremely difficult at present to find a single one; whereas the common shillings of Edward the Sixth remain in great numbers. We must suppose then that the shillings purchased of the miller had been hoarded by him, and were in high preservation, and heavier than those which had been worn in circulation. These would consequently be of greater importance to a nice player at the game of shovel-board, and induce him, especially if an opulent man, to procure them at a price far beyond their original value.

Scene 1. Page 321.

We are told that this is a technical term in the manege; but no explanation is given. It was the same as running a career, or galloping a horse violently backwards and forwards, stopping him suddenly at the end of the career; "which career the more seldom it be used and with the lesse fury, the better mouth shall your horse have," says Master Blundeville in his Arte of ryding, b. l. 4to, where there is a whole chapter on the subject, as well as in "The art of riding," translated by Thomas Bedingfield from the Italian of Claudio Corte, 1584, 4to.

Scene 1. Page 325.

This is no more than a perversion of the common proverb, Familiarity breeds contempt. Slender's school learning had furnished him on the occasion. The phrase is still used in copy-books for children.

Scene 1. Page 327.

"Master of defence, on the present occasion, does not simply mean a professor of the art of fencing, but a person who had taken his master's degree in it," says Mr. Steevens, whose readers are under great obligations to him for pointing out one of the greatest curiosities extant on the ancient science of defence, in support of his position. Yet it may be doubted whether the expression master of defence does not very often, and even on the present occasion, signify merely a professor of the art. Numerous authorities might be adduced on this side of the question, but perhaps a single one that is apposite may suffice. In Eden's History of travayle, 1577, 4to, speaking of Calecut in the East Indies, he says, "they have in the citie certayne maisters of fence that teach them how to use the swoord, &c." The original Latin from which Eden translates has lanista. Now it is not to be presumed that the last-mentioned maisters of fence had taken any degree. It must be owned that the evidence of the manuscript cited by Mr. Steevens goes very far to show that none were allowed to practise as professors who had not taken a degree in some fencing school; an honour once conferred by king Edward the Sixth, and generally granted, though not till after many years' experience, by one who was himself a master. Yet a person who had only a provost's degree might be allowed to teach, and he would be termed a master of defence.

Scene 3. Page 330.

Messrs. Steevens and Whalley maintain that the above term (a cant one) derives its origin from the rook in the game of chess; but it is very improbable that that noble game, never the amusement of gamblers, should have been ransacked on this occasion. It means a hectoring, cheating sharper, as appears from A new dictionary of the terms of the canting crew, no date, 12mo, and from the lines prefixed to The compleat gamester, 1680, 12mo, in both which places it is spelt bully-rock. Nor is Mr. Whalley correct in stating that rock and not rook is the true name of the chess piece, if he mean that it is equivalent to the Latin rupes.

Scene 3. Page 333.

It is already shown that this is the same as Hungarian. It simply means a gipsy. The parts of Europe in which it is supposed that the gipsies originally appeared were Hungary and Bohemia. In Act IV. Scene 5, of this play, the host in the like cant language calls Simple a Bohemian Tartar; and Munster in his Cosmography informs us that the Germans denominated the gipsies Tartars.

Scene 3. Page 333.

There is a great deal of humour in this appellation. Falstaff alludes to Pistol's rubicund nose, which, like the above utensil, carried fire in it.

Scene 3. Page 333.

Either Shakspeare or the adage, if it be one, has borrowed from scripture. See Psalm cxlvii. 9. or Job xxxviii. 41.

Scene 3. Page 337. Note 4.

To the instances adduced by Mr. Steevens in this note, of particular phrases in old theatrical characters, may be added that of Murley in Sir John Oldcastle, who is continually prefacing his speeches with "fye paltry, paltry, in and out, to and fro upon occasion." This practice has been revived in our modern comedies.

Scene 4. Page 347.

It was the custom, in Shakspeare's time, for physicians to be attended by their servants when visiting their patients. This appears from the second part of Stubs's Anatomie of abuses, sign. H. 4 b., where, speaking of physicians, he says, "For now they ruffle it out in silckes and velvets, with their men attending upon them, whereas many a poor man (God wot) smarteth for it." Servants also carried their masters' rapiers: "Yf a man can place a dysh, fyll a boule and carrie his maister's rapier, what more is or can be required at his handes?"—Markham's Health to the gentlemanly profession of a serving-man, sign. F. 3.

Scene 1. Page 357.

Another ballad with this title, and which has an equally good claim to be the one alluded to as those already quoted, may be seen in Mr. Ellis's elegant Specimens of the early English poets, vol. iii. p. 327, edit. 1801.

Scene 1. Page 358.

The note seem to have wrested from this word its plain and obvious meaning of turn, humour, tendency, in which it is often used by Shakspeare.

Scene 1. Page 359.

A curtail or curtal dog is placed by Howel in the vocabulary at the end of his Dictionary of four languages among hunting-dogs, and is defined to be a dog without a tail good for any service. Yet we are not to suppose that the word uniformly signifies an animal with its tail cut off. It is in fact derived from tailler court, and applied to any animals that are defective, man not excepted. Thus in Greene's Quip for an upstart courtier, a collier is made to say, "I am made a curtall: for the pillory hath eaten off both my eares," sign. E. 2. Nashe, in his Prayse of the red herring, speaks of the "curtaild skinclipping pagans." fo. 20. Dr. Stukeley, in a manuscript note in his copy of Robin Hood's garland, states that "the curtal fryer of Fountain's abby is Cordelier, from the cord or rope which they wore round their wast, to whip themselves with. They were of the Franciscan order." But this is a mistake; and the opinion of Staveley much more probable, who, in chap. xxv. of his Romish horseleech, says, that in some countries where the Franciscan friars, conformably to the injunction of their founder, wore short habits, the order was presently contemned and derided, and men called them curtailed friars.

Scene 2. Page 360.

It is here observed by Mr. Steevens, and elsewhere by Dr. Johnson, that the liver was anciently supposed to be the inspirer of amorous passions, and the seat of love. In conformity with this opinion, we are told in the English translation of Bartholomæus De proprietatibus rerum, lib. v. cap. 39, that "the lyver is the place of voluptuousnesse and lyking of the flesh;" and again, "the liver is a member, hot, &c." There is some reason for thinking that the idea was borrowed from the Arabian physicians, or at least adopted by them; for in the Turkish tales, an amorous tailor is made to address his wife by the titles of "thou corner of my liver, and soul of my life!" and in another place the king of Syria, who had sustained a temporary privation of his mistress, is said to have had "his liver, which had been burnt up by the loss of her, cooled and refreshed at the sight of her." In Twelfth night, Fabian, speaking of Olivia's supposed letter to Malvolio, says, "This wins him, liver and all."

Scene 2. Page 367, 368.

The notes on these speeches are at variance on a supposed anachronism committed by Shakspeare in introducing the rapier in the time of Henry the Fourth. The same weapon is likewise found in Richard II. Act IV. Scene 1, where the controversy is renewed; and therefore it will be proper in considering this question to state the evidence and arguments in both places. It is maintained on one side that the rapier was not used in England before the reign of Elizabeth; and in support of this opinion a passage from Carleton's Thankful remembrance of God's mercy is offered; which, being only a second-hand and inaccurate statement from Darcie's Annals of Elizabeth, is not deserving of further notice. Darcie himself informs us that one Rowland York (who appears to have betrayed Deventer to the Spaniards in 1587) was the first that brought into England "that wicked and pernicious fashion to fight in the fields in duels with a rapier called a tucke onely for the thrust, &c." On this passage it may be remarked, that the rapier is not generally spoken of, but only a particular sort, the tucke for the thrust. On the same side Stowe is next cited, who mentions that the mode of fighting with the sword and buckler was frequent with all men till that of the rapier and dagger took place, when suddenly the general quarrel of fighting abated, which began about the 20th of Elizabeth (1578). Now here the date seems rather applicable to the cessation of the very popular combats with sword and buckler, and the substitution only, and, as it will presently appear, the revival of the rapier and dagger, as a more limited manner of fighting, from its superior danger. There is another passage in Stowe, p. 869, which not being already cited, and throwing some light on the nature of the rapier, may deserve notice. The historian relates that "Shortly after (referring to the 12th or 13th year of Elizabeth) began long tucks and long rapiers, and he was held the greatest gallant that had the deepest ruffe and longest rapier: the offence to the eye of the one, and the hurt unto the life of the subject that came by the other, caused her majesty to make proclamation against them both, and to place selected grave citizens at every gate to cut the ruffes, and breake the rapiers points of all passengers that exceeded a yeard in length of their rapiers, and a nayle of a yeard in depth of their ruffes." But this is likewise no evidence in favour of the general introduction of the rapier in the reign of Elizabeth, as Stowe merely refers to the long foining or thrusting rapier. The last quotation on this side of the question is from Bulleine's Dialogue between soarnesse and chirurgi, 1579, where the long foining rapier is also mentioned as "a new kind of instrument to let blood withall."

On the opposite side, Mr. Ritson produces a quotation from Nashe's Life of Jacke Wilton, who lived in the reign of Henry the Eighth, to show that rapiers were used at that period. This sort of evidence might appear, on a first view, inadmissible, on the ground that Nashe had committed an error, very common with Shakspeare, in ascribing a custom of his own time to a preceding one, if it were not supported by the manuscript cited by Mr. Steevens in vol. iii. p. 327, in which, but not in the quotation from it, it appears that the rapier actually was in use in the time of Henry the Eighth; and therefore it is impossible to decide that this weapon, which, with its name, we received from the French, might not have been known as early as the reign of Henry the Fourth, or even of Richard the Second. Shallow's ridicule of passes and stoccadoes seems more objectionable, and may possibly deserve the appellation of anachronism. It is not a little remarkable that the rapier was an article of exportation from this country in Cromwell's time. See Oliverian acts, A.D. 1657.

Scene 1. Page 369.

This speech is surely not so obscure as the notes seem to consider it. Ford says that Page makes a firm stand with respect to, or on the question of, his wife's frailty. What follows better deserves explanation, because the grammatical construction of the last sentence is, that Page's wife was in Falstaff's company; whereas Ford means to say, "I cannot put off my opinion, i. e. of my own wife, so easily; as she was in Falstaff's company," &c. The emphasis should be laid on the words his and my, and then the whole will be far more intelligible.

Scene 2. Page 375.

A term borrowed from the Spaniards, who call the wild cat gato-montes.

Scene 2. Page 375.

Mr. Steevens, speaking of this external mark of an alehouse, says, "Hence the present chequers." But in reality the lattice is the younger of the two, as the reference in the note to the Pompeii plate in Archæologia demonstrates. Although the Romans were not acquainted with the game of chess, they certainly were with such a one as required a board with squares; and in all probability this sign of a house of entertainment where table games were played, has been handed down to us from the ancients. The resemblance of lattice work, or laths crossing each other, to a chess or backgammon board, might induce some ignorant painters to exhibit the former; but the chequers have once more reassumed their station. Nor was red always the colour; for, in the cant language of jolly fellows, a red or blue lattice was termed a free school for all comers. See Heywood's Philocothonista, 1635, 4to.

Scene 2. Page 376.

Is it not more natural that Falstaff should, in this first instance, repeat the dame's own words, and say, "Well, one mistress Ford, you say."

Scene 2. Page 389.

Irish aqua vitæ was certainly usquebaugh, and not brandy, as Mr. Malone has observed; but Ford is here speaking of English aqua vitæ, which was very different from the other so called from the Irish words uisge, aqua, and beatha, vita. That the curious reader may judge for himself, and at the same time be furnished with the means of indulging any wish that he may have for tasting the respective sorts in their genuine form, the following receipts for making them are subjoined:—The first is from a manuscript monkish common-place book, written about the reign of Henry the Sixth. "For to make water of lyff, that ys clepyd aqua vitæ. Take and fylle thy violle fulle of lyes of stronge vine, and put therto these powdrys. First powder of canel, powder of clowes, powdyr of gyngevir, powdyr of notemugys, powder of galyngale and powdyr of quibibis, poudyr of greyn de parys, poudyr of longe pepyr, powdyr of blacke pepir, carewey, cirmowitteyn, comyn, fenyl, smallache, persile, sawge, myntys, rewe, calamente, origaun, one ounce or more or lesse as ye lykyth; stampe hem a lytill for it will be bettyr, and put hem to these powdrys, than set thy glas on the fyre set on the hovel and kepe it wel that the eyre come not owte and set ther undyr a viole and kepe the watyr." The next is from Cogan's Haven of health, 1612, 4to, chap. 222. "To make aqua vitæ. Take of strong ale, or strong wine, or the lees of strong wine and ale together, a gallon or two as you please, and take half a pound or more of good liquorice, and as much annise seedes; scrape off the bark from the liquorice, and cut it into thin slices, and punne the annise grosse, and steepe altogether close covered twelve houres, then distill it with a limbecke or serpentine. And of every gallon of the liquor you may draw a quart of reasonable good aqua vitæ, that is of two galons two quarts. But see that your fire be temperate, and that the heade of your limbecke bee kept colde continually with fresh water, and that the bottome of your limbecke bee fast luted with rye dough, that no ayre issue out. The best ale to make aqua vitæ of, is to be made of wheate malte, and the next of cleane barley malte, and the best wine for that purpose is sacke." The last is a receipt for making "Usquebath, or Irish aqua vitæ. To every gallon of good aqua composita, put two ounces of chosen liquorice bruised and cut into small peeces, but first cleansed from all his filth, and two ounces of annis seedes that are cleane and bruised; let them macerate five or six days in a wodden vessell, stopping the same close, and then draw off as much as will runne cleere, dissolving in that cleere aqua vitæ five or sixe spoonefulls of the best malassoes you can get: Spanish cute if you can get it, is thought better than malassoes: then put this into another vessell, and after three or foure dayes (the more the better) when the liquor hath fined itselfe, you maie use the same: some adde dates and raisins of the sun to this receipt; those grounds which remaine you maie redistill and make more aqua composita of them, and of that aqua composita you maie make more usquebath."—Plat's Delightes for ladies, 1611, 24to. It is to be observed, that aqua composita is wine of any kind distilled with spices and sweet herbs. Brandy, or burnt wine, seems first to occur in Skinner's Etymologicon, 1671, under the name of Brandewin, from the Dutch or German, and soon after in its present form; yet aqua vitæ was continued a long while afterwards.

Scene 3. Page 395.

The evidence, and indeed the sense, in favour of the phrase to cry aim, preponderates so greatly, that one cannot hesitate in discarding the nonsensical expression of cry'd game, which derives not the least support from any of Mr. Steevens's quotations. The probability is very great that there was an error of the press, and that the words should have been printed according to the orthography of the time, "Cry'd I ayme, said I well?" A g might easily have crept in instead of a y.

Scene 1. Page 398.

"The old editions read pittie-ward, the modern editors pitty-wary," says Mr. Steevens, who in this edition has abandoned the best part of a former note where he had proposed to read petty-ward, which is the right word, and of the same import as the old one. That such a word formerly existed is demonstrable from its still remaining as a proper name, and near Wimbledon is a wood so called, probably from the owner. Mr. Steevens mistakes in supposing ward to mean towards in this instance, where it is put for the division of a city; nor does his quotation from William of Worcester assist him. The via de Petty and the Pyttey gate might be named after the hundred of Pyttey in Somersetshire. In Lyne's Map of Cambridge, 1574, we find the petticurie.

Scene 1. Page 399.

This utensil was the usual concomitant of physicians in former times, as appears from most of the frontispieces to old medical books and other ancient prints.

Scene 2. Page 410.

The same as if he had said he smells of youth and courtship, symbolized by these months, the former of which in old calendars is described in these lines:

and the latter in the following:

Scene 2. Page 412.

It may be doubted whether the exact meaning of this cluster of puns has already been given. Mr. Tyrwhitt says he cannot understand the phrase to drink in pipe-wine, and suggests that Shakspeare might have written horn-pipe wine. Now Ford terms canary pipe-wine, both because the canary dance is performed to a tabor and pipe, and because the canary bird is said to pipe his tunes. Ford is speaking of Falstaff, not of Page, as Mr. Tyrwhitt's note implies when it refers to horns. He says he will make him pipe and dance too.

Scene 3. Page 414.

There was no reason for disturbing the etymology of this word given by Dr. Warburton, by substituting that of Dame Juliana Bernes, which for ingenuity and veracity may be well classed with many of those in Isidore of Seville, or The golden legend. Take an example from the latter. "Felix is sayd of fero fers, that is to saye, to bere, and of this word lis, litis, whiche is as moche to say as stryfe, for he bare stryfe for the fayth of our lorde." Turberville tells us that "the first name and terme that they bestowe on a falcon is an eyesse, and this name doth laste as long as she is in the eyrie and for that she is taken from the eyrie." This is almost as bad as the lady abbess's account. Eyrie is simply the nest or eggery, and has no connexion with the name of the bird. Eyas or nias, is a term borrowed from the French niais, which means any young bird in the nest, avis in nido. It is the first of five several names by which a falcon is called during its first year. The best account of this bird is in La fauconnerie de Charles d'Arcussa de Capre, seigneur d'Esparron, 1643, 4to. A musket is a sparrow-hawk, and is derived from the French mouchet, and the latter probably from musca, on account of its diminutive form. The humour therefore lies in comparing the page to a young male sparrow-hawk, an emblem of his tender years and activity.

Scene 2. Page 448.

It would oppress the reader by citing authorities to prove that the muffler was a contrivance of various kinds to conceal a part of the face, and that even a mask was occasionally so denominated. From an examination of several ancient prints and paintings, it appears that when the muffler was made of linen, it only covered the lower part of the face; such it was in the present instance, for the old woman of Brentford would not want to conceal her eyes. It is otherwise in King Henry V. Act III. Scene 1, where Fortune's blindness is described, and there a linen bandage would be meant, but perhaps not very correctly called a muffler. The term is connected with the old French musser or muçer, to hide, or with amuseler, to cover the museau or mufle, a word which has been indiscriminately used for the mouth, nose, and even the whole of the face; hence our muzzle. It was enacted by a Scotish statute in 1457, that "na woman cum to kirk, nor mercat, with her face mussaled or covered that scho may not be kend." Notwithstanding this interposition of the legislature, says Mr. Warton, the ladies of Scotland continued muzzled during three reigns; and he cites Sir David Lyndsay's poem In contemptioun of syde taillis, in which the author advises the king to issue a proclamation that the women should show their faces as they did in France. Hist. of Eng. poetry, ii. 324.

The annexed cuts exhibit different sorts of mufflers. The first and third figures are copied from Jost Amman's Theatrum mulierum, Francof. 1586, 4to; the second, from Speed's Map of England, is the costume of an English countrywoman in the reign of James I.; the fourth is from an old German print; and the others from Weigel's Habitus præcipuorum populorum, Nuremb. 1577, folio; a work which, for the beauty of the wood-cuts, has never been surpassed.

In the reign of Charles I. the ladies wore masks which covered the eye-brows and nose, holes being left for the eyes. Sometimes, but not always, the mouth was covered, and the chin guarded with a sort of muffler then called a chin-cloth; these were chiefly used to keep off the sun. See Hollar's print of Winter. The velvet masks probably came from France, as they are mentioned in the Book of values of merchandize imported, under the administration of Oliver Cromwell. There was another sort called visard masks, that covered all the face, having holes only for the eyes, a case for the nose, and a slit for the mouth. They were easily disengaged, being held in the teeth by means of a round bead fastened in the inside. These masks were usually made of leather, covered with black velvet. Randle Holme, from whose Academy of armory, book iii. c. 5, their description is extracted, adds, that the devil invented them, and that none about court except w——s, bawds, and the devil's imps, used them, being ashamed to show their faces.

Scene 2. Page 450.

The word had been already explained by Warburton in p. 329. Page, astonished at Ford's conduct, says it exceeds every thing. Such is the sense in the New Testament, "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge," Ephes. iii. 19. The French often use passer in the same manner; and in Hamlet we have this expression, "I have that within which passeth show."

Scene 2. Page 452.

Mr. Steevens derives it from the Dutch, a language whence we have borrowed few, if any words. The term is of Saxon origin, and leveman can be traced to an Anglo-Norman period. This was afterwards contracted into leman. The etymology is perhaps from leoꝼe, amabilis, and man, homo. The latter in Saxon denoted both man and woman; so that leman was formerly applied to both sexes as a person beloved.

Scene 2. Page 455.

This expression is from the same law manufactory referred to by Mr. Ritson in the preceding note. The incident in the present scene, of Falstaff's threshing in the habit of a woman, might have been suggested by the story of the beaten and contented cuckold in Boccaccio's Decameron, day 7. ver. 7.

Scene 5. Page 466.

Mr. Steevens cites Judges v. 29, on this occasion: but the wise ladies there were of a very different character from the old woman of Brentford, even according to the Hebrew text: see the Vulgate and Septuagint versions, where the expression is still more remote. The subject of these wise women will be resumed in a note on Twelfth night, Act III. Scene 4.

Scene 1. Page 475.

The word is properly explained by Mr. Steevens. Thus in Isaiah iii. 16, "walking and mincing as they go." Wicliffe has "with their feet in curious goyng;" and Tindale, "tryppyng so nicely with their feet." To mince is likewise to walk in a stately, or, as Littelton expresses it, Junonian step.

Scene 2. Page 477.

The word mumbudget, here divided, is used by Nashe in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, where, speaking of Gabriel Harvey, he says, "no villaine, no atheist, no murderer, but hee hath likened me too, for no other reason in the earth, but because I would not let him go beyond me, or be won to put my finger in my mouth and crie mumbudget when he had baffuld mee in print throughout England." To play mumbudget, is rendered demeurer court, ne sonner mot, in Sherwood's English and French dictionary, 1632, folio. Mumchance is silence; and a mummery was a silent masquerade. Mumbudget may be silence in a budget, a something closed or stopped up, Fr. bouché.

Scene 4. Page 479.

The tree in Windsor forest referred to in Mr. Steevens's note, was said, on newspaper authority in 1795, to have been cut down by his majesty's order, on account of its being totally decayed.

Scene 5. Page 490.

Old copy vild, which Mr. Malone shows to have been the old pronunciation. It may be added that it is likewise the modern in some of the provinces.

Scene 5. Page 492.

In the old collection of songs already cited in p. 7, there is one entitled "The fayries daunce," which bearing some resemblance to that by Shakspeare, may be entitled to the reader's notice:

Scene 5. Page 500.

This is either a proverbial saying now lost, or borrowed from one of the following, "What cannot be altered must be borne not blamed;" "What cannot be cured must be endured."

---

Scene 1. Page 8.

This golden shaft was supplied either from a description of Cupid in Sidney's Arcadia, book ii., or from Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Golding, 4to, fo. 8, where, speaking of Cupid's arrows, he says,

Milton seems to have forgotten that Love had only one shaft of gold. See Parad. Lost, iv. 1. 763.

Scene 2. Page 11.

This necessary and justifiable change in the ordo verborum from the reading in the old copy, and to which Mr. Steevens lays claim, had been already made by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

Scene 3. Page 21.

Mr. Malone's conjecture that curtains were at this time frequently hung before pictures of value, is further supported in Scene 5 of this Act, where Olivia, in unveiling her face, mentions the practice. In Deloney's Pleasant history of Jack of Newbery, printed before 1597, it is recorded that "in a faire large parlour, which was wainscotted round about, Jacke of Newbery had fifteene faire pictures hanging, which were covered with curtaines of greene silke, frienged with gold, which he would often shew to his friends and servants."

Scene 3. Page 23.

Both the knights are wrong in their astrology, according to the almanacs of the time, which make Taurus govern the neck and throat. Their ignorance is perhaps intentional.

Scene 5. Page 31.

There is great humour in this ambiguous word, which applies equally to the fool and the knight himself, in his drunken condition.

Scene 3. Page 51.

The original picture, or sign as it sometimes was, seems to have been two fools. Thus in Shirley's Bird in cage, Morello, who counterfeits a fool, says, "We be three of old, without exception to your lordship, only with this difference, I am the wisest fool." In Day's comedy of Law tricks, 1608, Jul. says, "appoint the place prest." To which Em. answers, "At the three fools." Sometimes, as Mr. Henley has stated, it was two asses. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's Queen of Corinth, Act III. Scene 1,

Scene 3. Page. 53.

This is undoubtedly the true reading, for the reason assigned by Mr. Malone. From the discordant notes on the passage, a question has arisen whether the fool means to say that he had put the six-pence into his own petticoats, or given it to his petticoat companion, his leman. Mr. Steevens has observed that "petticoats were not always a part of the dress of fools, though they were of idiots;" and on this assertion, coupled with another by Dr. Johnson, that "fools were kept in long coats to which the allusion is made," Mr. Ritson maintains that "it is a very gross mistake to imagine that this character (i. e. our clown's) was habited like an idiot." Now it is very certain, that although the idiot fools were generally dressed in petticoats, the allowed fool was occasionally habited in like manner, as is shown more at large in another part of this volume; which circumstance, though it may strengthen the opinion that the clown has alluded to his own dress, by no means decides the above question, which remains very equally balanced.

Scene 3. Page 63.

The holiday cakes referred to in Mr. Letherland's note were the yule or Christmas cakes; those on the lying-in of the Virgin; cross-buns, and twelfth cakes. Mr. Lysons, in his account of Twickenham, mentions an ancient custom of dividing two great cakes in the church on Easter-day among the young people. This was regarded as a superstitious relic; and it was ordered by the parliament in 1645, that the parishioners should forbear that custom, and instead thereof buy loaves of bread for the poor of the parish.

Scene 4. Page 70.

The private memoirs of Peter the wild boy, if they could be disclosed, would afford the best comment on the above disputed epithet, as applied to the websters in question.

Scene 4. Page 71.

Mr. Steevens has in this edition cancelled a brother commentator's note, which ought on every account to have been retained, and has himself attempted to show that a shroud and not a coffin of cypress or cyprus is intended. It is no easy matter, from the ambiguity of the word, to decide the question. The cypress tree was used by the ancients for funeral purposes, and dedicated to Pluto. As it was not liable to perish from rottenness, it appears to have been used for coffins. See Mr. Gough's Introduction to Sepulchral monuments, p. lxvi. In Quarles's Argalus and Parthenia, book iii., a knight is introduced, whose

In further behalf of the wood, it may be worth remarking that the expression laid seems more applicable to a coffin than to a shroud, in which a party may with greater propriety be said to be wrapped; and also that the shroud is afterwards expressly mentioned by itself. It is nevertheless very certain that the fine linen called Cyprus, perhaps from being originally manufactured in the island of that name, was used for shrouds. In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary's, Cambridge, mention is made of a sypyrs kyrcher belonging to the cross. In this instance there being the figure of a dead body on the cross, the cyprus was designed as a shroud.

Scene 5. Page 88.

Mr. Ritson having with great probability supplied the whole direction of the letter, there seems to be no foundation left for Blackstone's conjecture. Malvolio had no motive for any coarse allusion. With respect to the instance of the letter in All's well that ends well not being recited literally by Helen, it must be recollected that there was no reason for making her do so, as she talks in blank verse; and it would therefore have been improper that she should have given more than the substance of the letter.

Scene 5. Page 93.

Of this fashion but few vestiges remain; a circumstance the more remarkable, as it must have been at one time extremely common among the beaux in Elizabeth's reign. In the English edition of Junius's Nomenclator, 1585, 12mo, mention is made of "hose garters, going acrosse, or over-thwart, both above and below the knee." In the old comedy of The two angrie women of Abingdon, 1599, 4to, a serving-man is thus described:

Scene 5. Page 94.

As the instances of this expression are of rare occurrence, those which follow are offered as likely to be useful to the author of any future work that may resemble the well-planned, but unfinished glossary of obsolete and provincial words by the late Dr. Boucher. In the interlude of The nature of the four elements, Sensuality, one of the dramatis personæ, promises a banquet

In Newes from the North, 1579, 4to, mention is made of "costly banqueting houses, galleries, bowling-allees, straunge toies of point-devise and woorkmanship," sign. G. In an old and very rare satirical poem against married ladies, entitled, The proude wyves paternoster that wold go gaye, and undyd her husbande and went her waye, 1560, 4to, one of the gossips recommends her companion to wear

Some further account of this piece may not be unacceptable. It is described in Laneham's Letter from Killingworth as forming part of Captain Cox the mason's curious library. In the appendix to Baker's Biographia dramatica, p. 433, a play under the same title is mentioned as entered on the Stationers' books in 1559; but from the correspondence in the date, it was, most likely, the present work, which cannot be regarded as a dramatic one. It describes the hypocritical behaviour of women at church, who, instead of attending to their devotions, are more anxious to show their gay apparel. One of these, observing a neighbour much better clothed than herself, begins her paternoster, wherein she complains of her husband's restrictions, and prays that she may be enabled to dress as gaily as the rest of her acquaintance. She afterwards enters into conversation with a female gossip, by whose mischievous instigation she is seduced to rebel against her husband's authority. In consequence of this, the poor man is first entreated, next threatened, and finally ruined. The author of this poem is not the first who has irreligiously made use of the present vehicle of his satire. One of the old Norman minstrels had preceded him in The usurer's paternoster, which Mons. Le Grand has inserted among his entertaining fabliaux, and at the same time described some other similar compositions.

But to return to point-device:—There was no occasion for separating the two last syllables of this term, as in the quotation from Mr. Steevens's text, nor is it done when it occurs elsewhere in his edition. It has been properly stated that point-device signifies exact, nicely finical; but nothing has been offered concerning the etymology, except that we got the expression from the French. It has in fact been supplied from the labours of the needle. Poinet in the French language denotes a stitch; devisé any thing invented, disposed, or arranged. Point-devisé was therefore a particular sort of patterned lace worked with the needle; and the term point-lace is still familiar to every female. They had likewise their point-coupé, point-compté, dentelle au point devant l'aiguille, &c., &c. The various kinds of needle-work practised by our indefatigable grandmothers, if enumerated, would astonish even the most industrious of our modern ladies. Many curious books of patterns for lace and all sorts of needle-work were formerly published, some of which are worth pointing out to the curious collector. The earliest on the list is an Italian book under the title of Esemplario di lavori: dove le tenere fanciulle & altre donne nobile potranno facilmente imparare il modo & ordine di lavorare, cusire, raccamare, & finalmente far tutte quelle gentillezze & lodevili opere, le quali pò fare una donna virtuosa con laco in mano, con li suoi compasse & misure. Vinegia, per Nicolo D'Aristotile detto Zoppino, MDXXIX. 8vo. The next that occurs was likewise set forth by an Italian, and entitled, Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts du seigneur Federic de Vinciolo Venitien, pour toutes sortes d'ouvrages de lingerie. Paris, 1588, 4to. It is dedicated to the queen of France, and had been already twice published. In 1599 a second part came out, which is much more difficult to be met with than the former, and sometimes contains a neat portrait, by Gaultier, of Catherine de Bourbon, the sister of Henry the Fourth. The next is Nouveaux pourtraicts de point coupé et dantelles en petite moyenne et grande forme, nouvellement inventez et mis en lumiere. Imprimé à Montbeliard, 1598, 4to. It has an address to the ladies, and a poem exhorting young damsels to be industrious; but the author's name does not appear. Vincentio's work was published in England, and printed by John Wolf, under the title of New and singular patternes and workes of linnen, serving for paternes to make all sortes of lace, edginges and cut-workes. Newly invented for the profite and contentment of ladies, gentilwomen, and others that are desireous of this art. 1591, 4to. He seems also to have printed it with a French title. We have then another English book of which this is the title: Here foloweth certaine Patternes of Cut-workes: newly invented and never published before. Also sundry sortes of spots, as flowers, birdes and fishes, &c. and will fitly serve to be wrought, some with gould, some with silke, and some with crewell in coullers: or otherwise at your pleasure. And never but once published before. Printed by Rich. Shorleyker. No date, in oblong 4to. And, lastly, another oblong quarto entitled The needles excellency, a new booke wherin are divers admirable workes wrought with the needle. Newly invented and cut in copper for the pleasure and profit of the industrious. Printed for James Boler, &c. 1640. Beneath this title is a neat engraving of three ladies in a flower garden, under the names of Wisdom, Industrie, and Follie. Prefixed to the patterns are sundry poems in commendation of the needle, and describing the characters of ladies who have been eminent for their skill in needle-work, among whom are Queen Elizabeth and the Countess of Pembroke. These poems were composed by John Taylor the water poet. It appears that the work had gone through twelve impressions, and yet a copy is now scarcely to be met with. This may be accounted for by supposing that such books were generally cut to pieces, and used by women to work upon or transfer to their samplers. From the dress of a lady and gentleman on one of the patterns in the last mentioned book, it appears to have been originally published in the reign of James the First. All the others are embellished with a multitude of patterns elegantly cut in wood, several of which are eminently conspicuous for their taste and beauty.

It is therefore apparent that the expression point-devise became applicable, in a secondary sense, to whatever was uncommonly exact, or constructed with the nicety and precision of stitches made or devised by the needle.

Scene 1. Page 97.

This instrument is found in the hands of fools long before the time of Shakspeare. With respect to the sign of the tabor mentioned in the notes, it might, as stated, have been the designation of a musick shop; but that it was the sign of an eating-house kept by Tarleton is a mistake into which a learned commentator has been inadvertently betrayed. It appears from Tarleton's Jests, 1611, 4to, that he kept a tavern in Gracious [Gracechurch] street, at the sign of the Saba. This is the person who in our modern bibles is called the queen of Sheba, and the sign has been corrupted into that of the bell-savage, as may be gathered from the inedited metrical romance of Alexander, supposed to have been written at the beginning of the fourteenth century by Adam Davie, who, in describing the countries visited by his hero, mentions that of Macropy (the Macropii of Pliny), and adds,

Sibely savage, as a proper name, is another perversion of si belle sauvage; and though the lady was supposed to have come from the remotest parts of Africa, and might have been as black as a Negro, we are not now to dispute the superlative beauty of the mistress of Salomon, here converted into a Savage. It must be admitted that the queen of Sheba was as well adapted to a sign as the wise men of the East, afterwards metamorphosed into the three kings of Cologne.

Mr. Pegge, in his Anecdotes of the English language, p. 291, informs us that a friend had seen a lease of the Bell Savage inn to Isabella Savage; "which," says he, "overthrows the conjectures about a bell and a savage, la belle sauvage, &c." It is probable that the learned writer's friend was in some way or other deceived. The date of the instrument is not mentioned; and if the above name really appeared in the lease, it might have been an accidental circumstance at a period not very distant. Mr. Pegge was likewise not aware that the same sign, corrupted in like manner, was used on the continent.

Scene 2. Page 109.

Of the latter sentence Dr. Johnson has not given the exact explanation. It alludes to the proverb, "A curst cur must be tied short."

Scene 4. Page 120.

It was very much the practice with old writers, both French and English, to call the Devil, the enemy, by way of pre-eminence, founded perhaps on the words of Christ in Luke x. 19. Thus at the beginning of the Roman de Merlin, MS. "Mult fu iriez li anemis quant nre sires ot este en anfer;" and see other examples in Barbasan's glossary to the Ordene de chevalerie, 1759, 12mo, in v. Anemi. The cause of the Devil's wrath in the above instance, was the liberation of Adam, Noah, and many other saints and patriarchs from the purgatorial torments which they had endured. In a most curious description of hell in Examples howe mortall synne maketh the synners inobedyentes to have many paynes and doloures within the fyre of hell, b. l. no date, 12mo, the Devil is thus referred to: "Come than after me, and I shal shewe unto the the ryght cursed enemye of humayne lygnage." And again, "About the enemy there were so many devyls and of cursed and myserable soules that no man myght beleve that of all the worlde from the begynnynge myght be yssued and brought forth so many soules." Sometimes he was called the enemy of hell, as in Larke's Boke of wisdome, b. l. no date, 12mo, where it is said that "the enemye of hell ought to be doubted of every wise man." This note may serve also in further explanation of the line in Macbeth, Act III. Scene 1,

It is remarkable that the Devil should be likewise called the enemy of mankind in the East. See Gladwin's Persian moon-shee, part ii. p. 23.

Scene 4. Page 120.

Here may be a direct allusion to one of the two ladies of this description mentioned in the following passage from Heywood's play of The wise woman of Hogsdon; "You have heard of Mother Notingham, who for her time was prettily well skill'd in casting of waters: and after her, Mother Bombye." The latter is sometimes alluded to by Gerarde the Herbalist, who, speaking of the properties of vervain, says, "you must observe mother Bumbies rules to take just so many knots or sprigs, and no more, least it fall out so that it do you no good, if you catch no harme by it." Historie of plants, p. 581.

Lilly's comedy of Mother Bombie is well known. The several occupations of these impostors are thus described in the above play by Heywood: "Let me see how many trades have I to live by: First, I am a wise-woman, and a fortuneteller, and under that I deale in physicke and forespeaking, in palmistry, and recovering of things lost. Next, I undertake to cure madd folkes. Then I keepe gentlewomen lodgers, to furnish such chambers as I let out by the night: Then I am provided for bringing young wenches to bed; and, for a need, you see I can play the match-maker. Shee that is but one, and professeth so many, may well be tearmed a wise-woman, if there bee any." Such another character was Julian of Brentford, mentioned in the Merry wives of Windsor. These persons were sometimes called cunning and looming women.

Scene 4. Page 121.

The reason for putting Malvolio into a dark room was to make him believe that he was mad; for a madhouse seems formerly to have been called a dark-house. In the next act Malvolio says, "Good Sir Topas, do not think I am mad, they have laid me here in hideous darkness." And again, "I say this house is dark." In Act V. he asks, "Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd, kept in a dark-house?" In As you like it, Act III. Scene 1, Rosalind says that "love is a madness, and deserves as well a dark-house and a whip, as madmen do." Edward Blount, in the second dedication to his Hospitall of incurable fooles, 1600, 4to, a translation from the Italian, requests of the person whom he addresses to take on him the office of patron or treasurer to the hospital; and that if any desperate censurer shall stab him for assigning his office or place, he presently take him into the dark ward: and in the same work, certain idle fools are consigned to the darksome guesthouse of their madness.

Scene 4. Page 124.

This is the reading of the old copy, which has been unnecessarily disturbed at Theobald's suggestion by substituting out. It might be urged that laying honour out is but an awkward phrase. The old text simply means, I have placed my honour too incautiously upon a heart of stone. The preceding note had shown that adjectives are often used adverbially by Shakspeare.

Scene 4. Page 127.

The original word is unhatch'd, and if any alteration be admitted it should be an hatch'd, for the first reason assigned in Mr. Malone's ingenious note. Sir Toby says that his brother knight was no hero dubbed in the field of battle, but a carpet knight made at home in time of peace with a sword of ceremony richly gilt or engraved. In Don Quixote, the damsel whom Sancho finds wandering in the streets of Barataria disguised as a man, is furnished with "a very faire hatched dagger," chap. 49 of Shelton's translation. In The tragical history of Jetzer, 1683, 18mo, mention is made of "a sword richly hatcht with silver." Thus much in support of the above slight alteration of the old reading. The second conjecture of Mr. Malone, that unhatcht might have been used in the sense of unhack'd, deserves much attention; but there was no necessity for introducing the latter word into the text. To hatch a sword has been thought to signify to engrave it; but it appears from Holme's Academy of armory, B. iii. p. 91, that "hatching, is to silver or gild the hilt and pomell of a sword or hanger."

With respect to carpet knights, they were sometimes called knights of the green cloth. For this information we are also indebted to Holme, who, in his above cited work, B. iii. p. 57, informs us that "all such as have studied law, physic, or any other arts and sciences whereby they have become famous and serviceable to the court, city, or state, and thereby have merited honour, worship, or dignity, from the sovereign and fountain of honour; if it be the King's pleasure to knight any such persons, seeing they are not knighted as soldiers, they are not therefore to use the horseman's title or spurs; they are only termed simply miles et milites, knights of the carpet or knights of the green cloth, to distinguish them from knights that are dubbed as soldiers in the field; though in these our days they are created or dubbed with the like ceremony as the others are, by the stroak of a naked sword upon their shoulder, with the words, Rise up Sir T. A. knight."

Scene 1. Page 136.

A typographical corruption seems to have crept into this place from similitude of sound; but a very slight alteration will restore the sense. The clown is speaking of vent as an affected word; and we should therefore read "this great lubberly word will prove a cockney," i. e. will turn out to be cockney language.

Scene 2. Page 140.

Not the celebrated heresiarch Jerome of Prague, but another of that name born likewise at Prague, and called the hermit of Camaldoli in Tuscany.

Scene 2. Page 141.

This Mr. Malone conceives to be a pompous appellation for the small room in which Malvolio was confined; but it seems to be merely the designation of a madhouse. See the preceding note on Act III. Scene 4, p. 121.

Scene 1. Page 157.

It will be necessary, for the better illustration of these lines, to connect them with what Olivia had said to Sebastian at the end of the preceding act:

Now the whole has been hitherto regarded as relating to an actual marriage that had been solemnized between the parties; whereas it is manifest that nothing more is meant than a betrothing, affiancing or promise of future marriage, anciently distinguished by the name of espousals, a term which was for a long time confounded with matrimony, and at length came exclusively to denote it. The form of betrothing at church in this country, has not been handed down to us in any of its ancient ecclesiastical service books; but it is to be remembered that Shakspeare is here making use of foreign materials, and the ceremony is preserved in a few of the French and Italian rituals.

The custom of betrothing appears to have been known in ancient times to almost all the civilized nations among whom marriage was considered as a sacred engagement. Our northern ancestors were well acquainted with it. With them the process was as follows: 1. Procatio, or wooing. 2. Impetratio, or demanding of the parents or guardian. 3. The conditions of the contract. All these were sealed by joining the right hands, by a certain form of words, and a confirmation before witnesses. The length of the time between espousals and marriage was uncertain, and governed by the convenience of the parties; it generally extended to a few months. Sometimes in cases of necessity, such as the parties living in different countries, and where the interference of proxies had been necessary, the time was protracted to three years. The contract of the affiancing party was called handsaul; (whence our hansel) of the agreeing party, handfastening. See Thorlacius De borealium veterum matrimonio, 1785, 4to, pp. 33, 42. Vincent de Beauvais, a writer of the 13th century, in his Speculum historiale, lib. ix. c. 70, has defined espousals to be a contract of future marriage, made either by a simple promise, by earnest or security given, by a ring, or by an oath. During the same period, and the following centuries, we may trace several other modes of betrothing, some of which it may be worth while to describe more at large.

I. The interchangement of rings.—Thus in Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide, book 3.

When espousals took place at church, rings were also interchanged. According to the ritual of the Greek church, the priest first placed the rings on the fingers of the parties, who afterwards exchanged them. Sometimes the man only gave a ring. In the life of Saint Leobard, who is said to have flourished about the year 580, written by Gregory of Tours he gives a ring, a kiss, and a pair of shoes to his affianced. The ring and shoes were a symbol of securing the lady's hands and feet in the trammels of conjugal obedience; but the ring of itself was sufficient to confirm the contract. In The miracles of the Virgin Mary, compiled in the twelfth century by a French monk, there is a story of a young man who, falling in love with an image of the Virgin, inadvertently placed on one of its fingers a ring which he had received from his mistress, accompanying the gift with the most tender language of respect and affection. A miracle instantly took place, and the ring remained immoveable. The young man, greatly alarmed for the consequences of his rashness, consulted his friends, who advised him by all means to devote himself entirely to the service of the Madonna. His love for his former mistress prevailing over their remonstrances: he married her; but on the wedding night the newly-betrothed lady appeared to him, and urged her claim with so many dreadful menaces that the poor man felt himself compelled to abandon his bride, and that very night to retire privately to a hermitage, where he became a monk for the rest of his life. This story has been translated by Mons. Le Grand in his entertaining collection of fabliaux, where the ring is called a marriage ring: but this is probably a mistake in the translator, as appears from several copies of the above Miracles that have been consulted. The giving of rings was likewise a pledge of love in cases where no marriage could possibly happen. In The lay of Equitan, a married woman and her gallant exchange rings,

In a romance written by Raimond Vidal, a Provençal poet of the thirteenth century, a knight devotes himself to the service of a lady, who promises him a kiss in a year's time when she shall be married. They ratify the contract by an exchange of rings. Mr. Steevens has on the present occasion introduced a note, wherein a ludicrous superstition is mentioned, in order to prove that "in our ancient marriage ceremony, the man received as well as gave a ring." But the passage which he cites from Lupton is wrongly translated from Mizaldus, who only speaks of the marriage ring: and so it is in Scott's Discovery of witchcraft, fo. 82. edit. 1584, 4to, where a similar receipt is given. Mr. Steevens was indeed convinced of this by the author of these observations, and in a note on All's well that ends well has retracted his opinion. No instance has occurred where rings were interchanged at a marriage.

II. The kiss that was mutually given. When this ceremony took place at church, the lady of course withdrew the veil which was usually worn on the occasion; when in private, the drinking of healths generally followed.

III. The joining of hands. This is often alluded to by Shakspeare himself. See a note in the Winter's tale, p. 17, Steevens's edition, 1793.

IV. The testimony of witnesses. That of the priest alone was generally sufficient, though we often find many other persons attending the ceremony. The words "there before him," and "he shall conceal it," in Olivia's speech, sufficiently demonstrate that betrothing and not marriage is intended; for in the latter the presence of the priest alone would not have sufficed. In later times, espousals in the church were often prohibited in France, because instances frequently occurred where the parties, relying on the testimony of the priest, scrupled not to live together as man and wife; which gave rise to much scandal and disorder. Excesses were likewise often committed by the celebration of espousals in taverns and alehouses, and some of the synodal decrees expressly enjoin that the parties shall not get drunk on these occasions.

The ceremony, generally speaking, was performed by the priest demanding of the parties if they had entered into a contract with any other person, or made a vow of chastity or religion; whether they had acted for each other, or for any child they might have had, in the capacity of godfather or godmother, or whether they had committed incontinence with any near relation of the other party; but the latter questions might be dispensed with at the discretion of the priest. Then this oath was administered—"You swear by God and his holy saints herein and by all the saints of Paradise, that you will take this woman whose name is N. to wife within forty days, if holy church will permit." The priest then joined their hands, and said,—"And thus you affiance yourselves;" to which the parties answered,—"Yes, sir." They then received a suitable exhortation on the nature and design of marriage, and an injunction to live piously and chastely until that event should take place. They were not permitted, at least by the church, to reside in the same house, but were nevertheless regarded as man and wife independently of the usual privileges: and this will account for Olivia's calling Cesario "husband;" and when she speaks of "keeping celebration according to her birth," it alludes to future marriage. This took place in a reasonable time after betrothing, but was seldom protracted in modern times beyond forty days. So in Measure for measure, Claudio calls Julietta his wife, and says he got possession of her bed upon a true contract. The duke likewise, in addressing Mariana who had been affianced to Angelo, says, "he is your husband on a pre-contract."

Before we quit the subject, it may be necessary to observe that betrothing was not an essential preliminary to marriage, but might be dispensed with. The practice in this respect varied in different times and places. The desuetude of espousals in England seems to have given rise to the action at law for damages on breach of promise of marriage. And thus much may suffice for a general idea of this ancient custom; the legal niceties must be sought for in the works of the civilians.

Scene 1. Page 159.

Florio, in his Italian dictionary, 1598, has "passamezzo, a passameasure in dancing, a cinque pace;" and although the English word is corrupt, the other contributes to show a part, at least, of the figure of this dance, which is said to have consisted in making several steps round the ball-room and then crossing it in the middle. Brantôme calls it "le pazzameno d'Italie," and it appears to have been more particularly used by the Venetians. It was much in vogue with us during Shakspeare's time, as well as the Pavan; and both were imported either from France, Spain, or Italy. In a book of instructions for the lute, translated from the French by J. Alford, 1568, 4to, there are two passameze tunes printed in letters according to the lute notation.

As to the Pavan, there is some doubt whether it originally belongs to Spain or Italy. Spanish pavans are certainly mentioned by Ben Jonson in the Alchymist, and by Brantôme in his Dames illustres, who adds that he had seen it danced by Francis I. and his sister, the celebrated Margaret of Navarre, and also by Mary Queen of Scots. There is good reason, however, for thinking the term is Italian, and derived from the city of Padua, where the dance is said to have been invented. Massa Gallesi, a civilian of the sixteenth century, calls it saltatio Paduana. In a catalogue of books that were exposed to sale at Frankfort fair, from 1564 to 1592, the following are mentioned: "Chorearum molliorum collectanea omnis fere generis tripudia complectens, utpote Padoanas, passemezos, allemandas, galliardas, branles, et id genus alia, tam vivæ voci quam instrumentis musicis accommodata. Antverpiæ, 1583, 4to." "Cantiones Italicæ quas Paduana Itali vocant, quatuor vocum. Venetiis, 1565, 4to." "Sixti Kargen, renovata cythara, hoc est, novi et commodissimi exercendæ cytharæ modi, constantes cantionibus musicis, passomezo, podoanis, gaillardis, Alemanicis et aliis ejusmodi pulchris exemplis, ad tabulaturam communem redactis. Argentorati, 1575, et Moguntiæ, 1569, folio." In Alford's Instructions for the lute, above mentioned, there is a Paduane and a Pavane. Randle Holme, in his Academy of armory, 1688, folio, book iii. c. 3, speaking of the Pavan as a tune, describes it as "the height of composition made only to delight the ear: be it of 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 parts [it] doth commonly consist of three straines, each straine to be played twice over." In an old MS. collection of lessons for the virginals, there is one called "Dr. Bull's melancholy pavin." Mr. Tyrwhitt, therefore, is right in supposing that a jovial blade like Sir Toby would be naturally averse to these grave dances, and the dullness of the tunes belonging to them.

Scene 1. Page 162.

The several kinds of perspective glasses that were used in Shakspeare's time, may be found collected together in Scot's Discoverie of witchcraft, 1584, 4to, book xiii. ch. 19. They cannot be exceeded in number by any modern optician's shop in England. Among these, that alluded to by the Duke is thus described: "There be glasses also wherein one man may see another man's image, and not his own." It is to be observed that a perspective formerly meant a glass that assisted the sight in any way.

Scene 1. Page 169.

Dr. Johnson rightly explains geck, a fool. It is so in all the Northern languages. In Saxon, ᵹæc is a cuckow, whence gouk, gawk, and gawky. Mr. Steevens's quotations seem to exhibit the word in another sense, viz. a mock or mockery.

The clown in this play is a domestic or hired fool, in the service of Olivia. He is specifically termed "an allowed fool," and "Feste the jester, a fool that the lady Olivia's father took much delight in." Malvolio likewise speaks of him as "a set fool." Of his dress it is impossible to speak correctly. If the fool's expression, "I will impeticoat thy gratility," be the original language, he must have been habited accordingly. Mr. Ritson has asserted that he has neither coxcomb nor bauble, deducing his argument from the want of any allusion to them. Yet such an omission may be a very fallacious guide in judging of the habit of this character on the stage. It must, however, be admitted, that where this happens there can be no clue as to the precise manner in which the fool was dressed.

---

Scene 1. Page 180.

Sufficiency is, no doubt, ability, and not authority, as Warburton conceives; and this shows that there is an omission in the speech of what the duke would have added concerning the authority which he meant to delegate. The most rational addition is that suggested by Mr. Tyrwhitt. It is remarkable that Dr. Johnson should contend for the introduction of a line of thirteen syllables!

Scene 1. Page 186.

That is, "I delegate to thy tongue the power of pronouncing sentence of death, and to thy heart the privilege of exercising mercy." These are words of great import, and ought to be made clear, as on them depends the chief incident of the play.

Scene 2. Page 191.

This speech should have been given to the first gentleman, in order to correspond with the note, which is probably right.

Scene 2. Page 191.

The quotations already given sufficiently exemplify the meaning; yet that which follows being remarkably illustrative, is offered in addition. "More seeming friendship [is] to be had in an house of transgression for a French crown, though it be a bald one, than at Belinsgate for a boxe o' th'eare." Vox graculi, or Jack Dawe's prognostication, 1623, 4to, p. 60.

Scene 2. Page 192.

A most appropriate question to the bawd. The author of the facetious Latin comedy of Cornelianum dolium has named one of Cornelius's strumpets Sciatica. She thus speaks of herself; "In lectulo meo ægrè me vertere potui; podagram, chiragram, et hip-agram (si ita dicere liceat) nocte quotidie sensi."

Scene 2. Page 195.

Why does she call the clown by this name, when it appears from his own showing that his name was Pompey? Perhaps she is only quoting some old saying or ballad.

Scene 3. Page 201.

One of the old significations of this word appears to have been easily moving, which is evidently the sense required in this place. See Cotgrave's Dictionary, in prone.

Scene 4. Page 203.

Mr. Reed's explanation of this word as used for dwells, is confirmed by another passage in this play, Act IV. Scene 1.

Scene 5. Page 208.

It has been conceived that there is here a transposition at the press for "that for which." The emendation is more grammatical than harmonious; but the expression is quite in Shakspeare's manner. A few pages further on we have this similar phraseology:

Scene 5. Page 211.

This term was applied to the female sex not only in Shakspeare's time, but even to a very late period. Lady Wortley Montagu in a letter to her husband, speaking of a young girl who forbade the bans of marriage at Huntingdon, calls her lover. See her works, vol. i. p. 238.

Scene 1. Page 216.

On the very plausible authority of a passage in As you like it, where the executioner is said to "fall his axe," the present metaphor has been supposed to refer also to the punishment of decapitation. If it be so, there is a manifest impropriety in the expression "cut a little," as we are not to imagine that Escalus would intend to chop off a criminal's hand, or to deprive him of his ears; both modes of punishment, which though frequently practised in the reign of Elizabeth, seem exclusively adapted to a community of barbarians. May not the metaphor be rather borrowed from the cutting down of timber, and Escalus mean to say, "Is it not better to lop off a few branches, than to fall the whole tree?"

Scene 1. Page 217.

We have here one of Shakspeare's trips; an English jury in a German court of justice.

Scene 1. Page 223.

We must not conclude with Mr Steevens that a China dish was such an uncommon thing in the age of Shakspeare. In the first act of Massinger's Renegado, this article is mentioned, together with crystal glasses and pictures, as composing the furniture of a broker's shop; and it appears from other authorities that China dishes were used at banquets. During the reign of Elizabeth several Spanish carracks were taken, a part of whose cargoes was China ware of porcelaine. The recent seizure by Philip II. of Portugal and its colonies led to this sort of commerce in the East Indies. In Minsheu's Spanish dialogues, 1623, folio, p. 12, China mettall is explained to be "the fine dishes of earth painted, such as are brought from Venice." It is very probable that we had this commodity by means of our traffic with Italy, which also supplied the term porcelaine. China ware was so called from its resemblance to the polished exterior of the concha Veneris or some other similar shell, which, for reasons that cannot here be given, was called porcellana. The curious reader may find a clue by consulting Florio's Italian dictionary, 1598, under the word porcile. In the time of Cromwell a duty of twenty shillings was paid on every dozen China dishes under a quart, and of sixty on those of a quart and upwards. See Oliverian acts, A. D. 1657.

Scene 2. Page 238.

She means "not before it is in season; not prematurely, as you would kill my brother."

Scene 2. Page 240.

This fine sentiment, which nevertheless contains a very obvious fault in the mode of expressing it, appears to have been suggested by the following lines in Ovid's Tristia, lib. ii., that Shakspeare might have read in Churchyard's translation:

Scene 2. Page 240.

There is much affinity between the above lines and these in Persius, sat. ii.:

But although there were two or three editions of that author published in England in the reign of Elizabeth, he does not appear to have been then translated.

Scene 2. Page 243.

Here is no metaphor from preserved fruits, as Warburton fancifully conceives. Preserved is used in its common and obvious acceptation. Isabella alludes to the prayers of her fellow nuns in addition to her own.

Scene 2. Page 246.

Enemy is here used for the Devil. See before in p. 62, 63.

Scene 4. Page 260.

It is Isabella's purpose to give an evasive or ambiguous answer to Angelo's strange question, and she accordingly does so. Or, if it have any meaning, it may be "I would even consent to your terms if I could save my soul, or if my soul did not thereby incur perdition."

Scene 1. Page 272.

And in Pericles, Act III. Scene 2, "to please the fool and death." One note may serve for both these passages.

Dr. Warburton had conceived an allusion in the first speech to certain characters of death and the fool in the old moralities, in which, most unquestionably, they are not to be found, at least, in any which now remain. It is in this place that the latter part of Mr. Steevens's note on the passage in Pericles should have been introduced, with the following additional circumstances that had probably escaped the learned commentator's recollection; that his informant concerning the skeleton character at the fair remembered also to have seen another personage in the habit of a fool: and that arriving when the performances at the booth were finished for the evening, he could not succeed in procuring a repetition of the piece, losing thereby the means of all further information on the subject. It is therefore probable that the remainder of Dr. Warburton's note is correct, although he may have erred in his designation of this mummery. What connection the subject in question has with the old initial letter of death and the fool, and the dance of death, is shown in a note to Love's labour lost, vol. v. p. 316, and in another on the passage in Pericles, both of which should have been incorporated with the present.

Mr. Ritson, in correcting a remark made by the ingenious continuator of Ben Jonson's Sad shepherd, has inaccurately stated that the figures in the initial letter were "actually copied from the margin of an old missal." The letter that occurs in Stowe's Survey of London, edit. 1618, 4to, is only an enlarged but imperfect copy from another belonging to a regular dance of death used as initials by some of the Basil printers in the sixteenth century, and which, from the extraordinary skill that accompanies their execution, will ever rank amongst the finest efforts in the art of engraving on blocks of wood or metal. Most of the subjects in this dance of death have undoubtedly been supplied by that curious pageant of mortality which, during the middle ages, was so great a favourite as to be perpetually exhibited to the people either in the sculpture and painting of ecclesiastical buildings, or in the books adapted to the service of the church: yet some of them but ill accord with those serious ideas which the nature of the subject is calculated to inspire. In these the artist has indulged a vein of broad and satirical humour which was not wholly reserved for the caricaturists of modern times; and in one or two instances he has even overleaped the bounds of decency. The letter in Stowe's Survey is the only one that appears to have been imitated from the above alphabet; and as it throws some light on that part of the Duke's speech which occasioned the present note, it is here very accurately copied. It is to be remembered that in most of the old dances of death the subject of the fool is introduced: and it is, on the whole, extremely probable that some such representation might have suggested the image before us.

Scene 1. Page 285.

It is difficult to decide whether Shakspeare is here alluding to the pains of hell or purgatory. May not the whole be a mere poetical rhapsody originating in the recollection of what he had read in books of Catholic divinity? for it is very certain that some of these were extremely familiar to him. Among them he might have seen a compilation on the pains of hell, entitled Examples howe mortall synne maketh the synners inobedyentes to have many paynes and dolours within the fyre of hell; black letter, no date, 12mo, and chiefly extracted from that once popular work, the Sermones discipuli, which contains at the end a promptuary of examples for the use of preachers. From this little volume it may be worth while to select the following passage, as according in some degree with the matter of Claudio's speech:—"he tolde that he sawe in hell a torment of an yzye ponde where the soules the whiche therin were tormented cryed so horryble that they were herde unto heven," sign. B. iij. "And the sayde beest was upon a ponde full of strong yse, the which beest devoured the soules within his wombe in suche maner that they became as unto nothynge by the tormentes that they suffred. Afterwarde he put them out of his wombe within the yse of the sayde ponde," sign. G. iij. "The caytyve was in syke wyse, for she myght not helpe herself, the whiche herde terryble cryes and howlynges of soules," sign. H. And again, "And the devyll was bounde by every joynture of all his membres with great chaynes of yron and of copre brennyng. And of great torment and vehement woodnes whereof he was full he turned hym from the one syde unto the other, and stretched out his handes in the multytude of the sayde soules, and toke them, and strayned them in lykewyse as men may do a clustre of grapes in theyr handes for to make the wyne come forth. And in such maner he strayned them that he eyther brake theyr heedes, or theyr fete, or handes, or some other membres. Afterward he syghed and blewe and dysperpeled the sayde soules into many of the tormentes of the fyre of hell," sign. H. iiij.

The following lines from the sixth book of Phaer's Virgil might have furnished some materials on the occasion:

In the old legend of Saint Patrick's purgatory mention is made of a lake of ice and snow, into which persons were plunged up to their necks; and in the Shepherd's calendar, chap, xviii. there is a description of hell as "the rewarde of them that kepen the X comaundements of the Devyll," in in which these lines occur:

Chaucer, in his Assemblie of foules, has given an abridgement of Cicero's dream of Scipio; and speaking of souls in hell, he says:

It was not until the seventh century that the doctrine of purgatory was confirmed, when "they held that departed souls expiated their sins by baths, ice, hanging in the air, &c.," says a curious writer on this subject. See Douglas's Vitis degeneris, 1668, 12mo, p. 77.

With respect to the much contested and obscure expression of bathing the delighted spirit in fiery floods, Milton appears to have felt less difficulty in its construction than we do at present; for he certainly remembered it when he made Comus say,

Scene 2. Page 295.

Mr. Tyrwhitt remarks that father friar is a blunder, and so indeed the Duke from his answer seems to consider it. Yet friars have often been addressed in this way; and a few pages further Escalus calls the Duke father, who had just been introduced to him as a friar. The Duke, indeed, soon after uses the term brother when speaking of himself. Whilst the passage quoted by Mr. Steevens gives support to Mr. Tyrwhitt's observation that friar is a corruption of the French frere, it seems to disprove his assertion that Elbow's phrase is erroneous.

Scene 2. Page 298.

None of the explanations of this speech are satisfactory, but least of all such part of a note by the author of these remarks, as refers to the picklock, which has been better accounted for by Mr. Ritson. It is probable, after all, that Lucio simply means to ask the clown if he has no newly-coined money wherewith to bribe the officers of justice, alluding to the portrait of the queen.

Scene 2. Page 308.

The old belief certainly was that tyrants in general swore lustily; but here seems to be a particular allusion to the character of Herod, in the mystery of The slaughter of the innocents, formerly acted by the city companies in their pageants, and of which those for Chester and Coventry are still preserved in the British Museum. In this curious specimen of our early drama, Herod is made to swear by Mahound, by cockes blood, &c. He is uniformly in a passion throughout the piece; and this, according to the stage direction, "Here Erode ragis," is exemplified by some extraordinary gesticulation. See the notes of Messrs. Steevens and Malone on a passage in Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2.

Scene 2. Page 310.

Mr. Reed has certainly adduced an instance which proves that resolved occasionally means satisfied, and we still talk of resolving difficulties, or a question in arithmetic; but in the passage before us it seems rather to signify resolute, firm, determined. Thus the allegorical romance of Le chevalier deliberé was translated into English in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, under the title of The resolved gentleman; and into Spanish by that of Il cavalero determinado.

Scene 1. Page 318.

In the same sense Shylock says

It were better that Shakspeare should be thus made his own commentator where it can be done, than that he should be explained by quotations from other authors.

Scene 1. Page 319.

It is presumed that the sense of messengers annexed to this word by Mr. Ritson cannot be maintained, but that the very line he refers to establishes it to be searches, inquiries. Mr. Malone's note is, of the others, the most satisfactory. The Duke alludes to the false and various conclusions that result from investigating the actions of men high in office. There is an old pamphlet with the whimsical title of Jacke of Dover, his quest of inquiry, or his privy search for the veriest foole in England, 1604, 4to.

Scene 1. Page 321.

That is, decorate an action that would otherwise seem ugly. Two metaphors have already been suggested; a third remains to be stated. Flourish may, perhaps, allude to the ornaments that embellish the ancient as well as modern books of penmanship. There are no finer specimens of beautiful writing extant than some of the reign of Elizabeth, who herself wrote a very elegant Italian hand in the early part of her life.

Scene 2. Page 322.

Mr. Steevens makes unpitied, unmerciful; it is rather a whipping that none shall pity, for the reason that immediately follows.

Scene 2. Page 334.

This is a very different provost from one of whom Fabian in his Chronicle, p. 187, relates the following story: "In the thyrde yere of the reigne of this Philip, the provost of Paris, having in his prison a Picard, a man of greate riches, whiche for felony or like crime, was judged to be hanged. The sayde provost for great benefit to him done and payment of great summes by the sayd Pycard, tooke an other poore innocent man, and put him to death, in steede of the sayd Pycarde. Of the whiche offence whan due proofe of it was made before the kynges counsayle, the sayde provoste for the same dede was put unto like judgement."

Scene 3. Page 335.

The nefarious practice of lending young men money in the shape of goods which are afterwards sold at a great loss, appears to have been more prevalent in the reign of Elizabeth than even at present. It is very strongly marked in Lodge's Looking glasse for London and Englande, 1598, where a usurer being very urgent for the repayment of his debt is thus answered, "I pray you, sir, consider that my losse was great by the commoditie I tooke up; you know, sir, I borrowed of you forty pounds, whereof I had ten pounds in money, and thirtie pounds in lute strings, which when I came to sell againe, I could get but five pounds for them, so had I, sir, but fifteene pounds for my fortie: In consideration of this ill bargaine, I pray you, sir, give me a month longer." But this sort of usury is much older than Shakspeare's time, and is thus curiously described in one of the sermons of Father Maillard, a celebrated preacher at Paris at the end of the fifteenth century, and whose style very much resembles that of John Whitfield. "Quidam indigens pecunia venit ad thesaurarium supra quem fuerunt assignata mille scuta; dicit thesaurarius, Ego dabo tibi, sed pro nunc non habeo argentum; sed expectes usque ad quindecim dies. Pauper dicit, Non possum expectare; respondet thesaurarius, Dabo tibi unam partem in argento et alia in mercantiis: et illud quod valebit centum scuta, faciet valere ducenta. Hic est usura palliata." Sermo in feriam, iiii. de passione.

Scene 3. Page 337.

This spice was formerly held in very great repute, and especially among elderly persons. Sir Thomas Elyot in his Castle of health, 1580, 12mo, says, it comforts the head and stomach, and being green and well confectioned, quickens remembrance, if it be taken in a morning fasting. Henry Buttes, who wrote a whimsical book entitled Dyet's dry dinner, 1599, 12mo, speaks much in its praise, and says that being condite with honey it "warmes olde mens bellyes." In Ben Jonson's masque of The metamorphosed gipsies, a country wench laments the being robbed of "a dainty race of ginger;" and in the old play of The famous victories of Henry the fifth, a clown charges a thief with having "taken the great race of ginger, that bouncing Besse with the jolly buttocks should have had." In Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the burning pestle, the citizen's wife gives a man who had been soundly beaten some green ginger to comfort him. Ginger was used likewise to spice ale. In Lodge's Looking glasse for London and England, the clown says, "Ile tell you, sir, if you did taste of the ale, all Ninivie hath not such a cup of ale, it floures in the cup, sir, by my troth I spent eleven pence, besides three rases of ginger." The numerous virtues of this root are likewise detailed in Vennor's Via recta ad vitam longam.

Scene 3. Page 342.

Some attempt to elucidate this name has been made in the first note to the Merchant of Venice, into which it is rather improperly introduced. Mr. Heath had supposed that Ragozine was put for Ragusan, i. e. a native of the city of Ragusa on the gulf of Venice, famous for its trading vessels; but it was incumbent on that gentleman to have shown that the inhabitants of the above city were pirates. This however would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible; for, on the contrary, Rycaut, in his State of the Ottoman empire, has expressly declared that the Ragusans never offered injury; but that, on receiving any, they very patiently supported it. Wherever Shakspeare met with the name of Ragozine, it should seem to be a metathesis of the French Argousin, or the Italian Argosino, i. e. an officer or lieutenant on board a galley; and, as Menage conjectures, a corruption of the Spanish Alguasil. See Carpentier, Suppl. ad gloss. Dufresne, under the word Argoisillo.

Scene 1. Page 358.

The apparent difficulty in the last line proceeds from its elliptical construction; yet the meaning is sufficiently obvious. Isabella requests of the Duke to exert his reason to discover truth where it seems hid, and to suppress falsehood where it has the semblance of truth. Hide is, doubtless, a licentious word, but was used for the reason suggested by Mr. Malone.

Scene 1. Page 375.

There would have been little reason for dissenting from Mr. Henley's ingenious note, in which he supposes that this expression refers to the pillory, but for the subsequent remark by Lucio, "this may prove worse than hanging." It seems therefore more probable that "hang'd an hour" alludes to the time usually allotted for torturing the miserable object of the barbarous punishment by suspension, which is justly execrated by Randle Holme as "a dog's death," and always excites in the spectator a strange mixture of ludicrous and shocking sensations. It dishonours the living more than it degrades the criminal. The Turkish bowstring were much less offensive to the feelings of humanity: but the more solemn and decorous infliction of death, (if inflicted it must be,) would, as in military cases, be the stroke of the bullet, provided such a measure could be adopted without offending the soldier's honour. The pre-eminent mercy of the English law disdains to augment the horrors of premature dissolution by personal pain and torture; its object is to prevent or diminish the commission of the crime. On this principle, one could wish that, on the close of the usual necessary and consolatory preparation for death, some mode of stupefying the offender were adopted; that no sensation of torture on his part might be felt, nor any other on that of the spectator, than a satisfaction that the sentence of the law had been fulfilled. For this digression no apology can be necessary. As to Mr. Daines Barrington's supposition, that "the criminal was suspended in the air by the collistrigium or stretch-neck," a very little reflection will suffice to show that it is founded in error. Such a process would in half an hour's time most effectually prevent a repetition of the ceremony. The collistrigium was so called from the stretching out or projection of the neck through a hole made in the pillory for that purpose, or through an iron collar or carcan that was sometimes attached to the pillar itself. No punishment has been inflicted in so many different ways as that of the pillory; and therefore the following varieties of it have been thought worth exhibiting.

The first is from a manuscript of the Chronicle of Saint Denis, in the British Museum, Bibl. Reg. 16. G. vi. It was written in the thirteenth century. The second occurs in a manuscript of Froissart, preserved in the same collection. The third is copied from a print in Comenius's Orbis pictus, and furnishes a specimen of the carcan, the woman being confined to the pillar by an iron ring or collar. The fourth is from a table of the standard of ancient weights and measures in the exchequer, and shows the mode of punishing a forestaller or regrator in the time of Henry the Seventh. The fifth exhibits Robert Ockam in the pillory for perjury. The fact happened in the reign of Henry the Eighth, but the cut is copied from Fox's Martyrs, published long afterwards. The sixth and last figure represents an ancient pillory that formerly stood in the market-place of the village of Paulmy in Touraine. It is copied from a view of the castle of Paulmy in Belleforest's Cosmographie universelle, 1575, folio. Not long since there was remaining in the Section des halles at Paris an old hexangular building of stone, with open Gothic windows, through which appeared an iron circle or carcan, with holes for placing the hands and necks of several persons at the same time, in like manner as in the first and last figures. There is an engraving of it in Millin's Antiquités nationales, tom. iii. no. 34.

Scene 1. Page 378.

Mr. Malone thinks double refers to Angelo's conduct to Mariana and Isabel; but surely, however inaccurate the expression, it alludes to Angelo's double misconduct to Isabella, in having attempted her chastity, and violated his promise with respect to her brother. Thus in Promos and Cassandra:

In Cinthio Giraldi's novel, it is "Vous avez commis deux crimes fort grans, l'un d'avoir diffamé cette jeune femme, par telle tromperie que l'on peut dire que vous l'avez forcée: l'autre d'avoir fait mourir son frere contre la foy à elle donnée." Transl. by Chappuys, 1584.

Scene 1. Page 385.

Mr. Steevens has refined too much in supposing this word to mean carnal offences. It is simply penalties. The Duke remits all Lucio's offences except the injury done to the woman, and he is ordered to remain in prison until he marry her. Forfeit was also used in the French sense of the word, crime, transgression.

The clown in this play officiates as the tapster of a brothel; whence it has been concluded that he is not a domestic fool, nor ought to appear in the dress of that character. A little consideration will serve to show that the opinion is erroneous, that this clown is altogether a domestic fool, and that he should be habited accordingly. In Act II. Scene 1, Escalus calls him a tedious fool, and Iniquity, a name for one of the old stage buffoons. He tells him that he will have him whipt, a punishment that was very often inflicted on fools. In Timon of Athens we have a strumpet's fool, and a similar character is mentioned in the first speech in Antony and Cleopatra. But if any one should still entertain a doubt on the subject, he may receive the most complete satisfaction by an attentive examination of ancient prints, many of which will furnish instances of the common use of the domestic fool in brothels. In Twelfth Night, Act IV. Scene 1, Sebastian mistakes the clown for such a character as that before us, and calls him a foolish Greek, a term that is very happily explained by Dr. Warburton, whose note both communicates and receives support on the present occasion.

Three sources whence the plot of this play might have been extracted, have already been mentioned, viz. Whetstone's Heptameron, 1582, 4to; his Promos and Cassandra, 1578, 4to; and novel 5, decad. 8, in Cinthio Giraldi. It is probable that the general outline of the story is founded on fact, as it is related, with some variety of circumstance, by several writers, and appears to have been very popular. It has therefore been thought worth while to point out the following works in which it occurs.

In Lipsii Monita et exempla politica, Antverp. 1613, 4to, cap. viii. Charles the bold duke of Burgundy causes one of his noblemen to be put to death for offending in the manner that Angelo would have done; but he is first compelled to marry the lady. This story has been copied from Lipsius into Wanley's Wonders of the little world, book iii. ch. 29, edit. 1678, folio; and from Wanley into that favourite little chap book, Burton's Unparalleled varieties, p. 42. See likewise The spectator, No. 491. This event was made the subject of a French play by Antoine Maréchal, called Le jugement équitable de Charles le hardy, 1646, 4to. Here the offender is called Rodolph governor of Maestrick, and by theatrical licence turns out to be the duke's own son. Another similar story of Charles's upright judgment may be found in the third volume of Goulart's Thrésor d'histoires admirables, 1628, 8vo, p. 373.

Much about the time when the above events are supposed to have happened, Olivier le Dain, for his wickedness surnamed the Devil, originally the barber, and afterwards the favourite of Louis XI., is said to have committed a similar offence, for which he was deservedly hanged. See Godefroy's edition of the Memoirs of Philip de Comines, Brussels, 1723, 8vo, tom. v. p. 55.

At the end of Belleforest's translation of Bandello's novels, there are three additional of his own invention. The first of these relates to a captain, who, having seduced the wife of one of his soldiers under a promise to save the life of her husband, exhibited him soon afterwards through the window of his apartment suspended on a gibbet. His commander, the marshal de Brissac, after compelling him to marry the widow, adjudges him to death. The striking similitude of a part of this story to what Mr. Hume has related of colonel Kirke, will present itself to every reader, and perhaps induce some to think with Mr. Ritson, (however they will differ in his mode of expressing the sentiment,) that Mr. Hume's narration is "an impudent and barefaced lie." See The quip modest, p. 30. A defence also of Kirke may be seen in the Monthly magazine, vol. ii. p. 544. Yet though we may be inclined to adopt this side of the question, it will only serve to diminish, in a single instance, the atrocities of that sanguinary monster.

In Lupton's Siuqila. Too good to be true, 1580, 4to, there is a long story of a woman, who, her husband having slain his adversary in a duel, goes to the judge for the purpose of prevailing on him to remit the sentence of the law. He obtains of her, in the first place, a large sum of money, and afterwards the reluctant prostitution of her person, under a solemn promise to save her husband. The rest, as in Belleforest's novel.

In vol. i. of Goulart's Thrésor d'histoires admirables, above cited, there are two stories on this subject. The first, in p. 300, is of a citizen of Como in Italy, who in 1547 was detained prisoner by a Spanish captain on a charge of murder. The wife pleads for him as before, and obtains a promise of favour on the same terms. The husband recommends her compliance, after which the Spaniard beheads him. Complaint is made to the Duke of Ferrara, who compels the captain to marry the widow, and then orders him to be hanged. The other, in p. 304, is of a provost named La Vouste, whose conduct resembles that of the other villain's, with this addition; he says to the woman, "I promised to restore your husband; I have not kept him, here he is." No punishment is inflicted on this fellow.

The last example to be mentioned on this occasion occurs in Cooke's Vindication of the professors and profession of the law, 1646, 4to, p. 61. During the wars between Charles the Fifth and Francis the First, one Raynucio had been imprisoned at Milan for betraying a fort to the French. His wife petitions the governor Don Garcias in his favour, who refuses to listen but on dishonourable terms, which are indignantly rejected. The husband, like Claudio in Measure for measure, at first commends the magnanimity of his wife, and submits to his sentence; but when the time for his execution approaches, his courage fails him, and he prevails on his wife to acquiesce in the governor's demands. A sum of ten thousand crowns is likewise extorted from the unhappy woman, and she receives in return the dead body of her husband. The Duke of Ferrara, Hercules of Este, who was general for the Emperor, is informed of the circumstance. He first persuades the governor to marry the lady, and then orders him to be beheaded.

Towards the conclusion of this play Dr. Johnson has observed, that "every reader feels some indignation when he finds Angelo spared." This remark is rigorously just, and calculated to satisfy those moralists who would have preferred the catastrophe in some of the preceding stories. But in the construction of a play theatrical effect was to be attended to; on which ground alone the poet may be defended. The other charge against him in Dr. Johnson's note is doubtless unfounded, and even laboriously strained. Shakspeare has been likewise hastily censured by a female writer of great ingenuity, for almost every supposed deviation from the plot of Cinthio's novel, and even for adhering to it in sparing Angelo.[9] It might however be contended, that, if our author really used this novel,[10] he has, with some exceptions, exerted a considerable degree of skill and contrivance in his alterations; and that he has consequently furnished a rich and diversified repast for his readers, instead of serving up the simple story in the shape of such a tragedy as might have suited a Greek audience, but certainly would not have pleased an English one in his time. In the novel, the sister, when she solicits mercy for her brother's murderer and her own seducer, (in the play Angelo is neither but in intention,) justly urges that excess of justice becomes cruelty. He therefore who would refuse mercy to Angelo for an intentional offence, has no right to censure him for severity to Claudio who had committed a real one. In the novel, the sister is actually seduced, and her brother murdered; and yet she pleads for the offender. In the play, though Isabella believes her brother to be dead, she reconciles herself to the sad event, inasmuch as she knows that he suffered by course of law, as well as by the cruelty of Angelo, from whose iniquity she herself has happily escaped. She is stimulated to solicit this man's life, from the suggestion and situation of her friend the innocent Mariana, who would have felt more distress from the death of Angelo, than the other parties discontent from his acquittal. The female critic has likewise observed that "Measure for measure ought not to be the title, since justice is not the virtue it inculcates." But surely, if Angelo had died, it would have been outmeasuring measure; as it is, the administration of justice is duly balanced, and both he and Claudio are equally punished in imagination. The Duke too, who knew all the circumstances, deserves credit for some ingenuity in his arrangements to protect the innocent, and, if not rigidly to punish the guilty, at least to save a sinner. Nor will any one contend that Angelo has escaped punishment: the agonizing state of uncertainty in which he long remained after the mock sentence, the bitter reproof of his colleague, and the still severer language of the Duke, will, it is to be hoped, conduce to satisfy every feeling and humane spectator of this fine play, that the poet has done enough to content even the rigorous moralist, and to exemplify, in his own divine words, that "earthly power doth then seem likest heaven's, when mercy seasons justice."

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Scene 1. Page 395.

This is the name of the injured lady's father in the novel of Belleforest which Mr. Steevens supposes to have furnished the plot of the play; a circumstance that tends very much to prove the justness of that gentleman's opinion.

Scene 1. Page 396.

See a future note on The taming of the shrew, Act IV. Scene 1.

Scene 1. Page 397.

This mode of expression will admit of a little more illustration than it has already received. The practice to which it refers was calculated to advertise the public of any matters which concerned itself or the party whose bills were set up; and it is the more necessary to state this, because the passages which have been used in explanation might induce the reader to suppose that challenges and prize-fightings were the exclusive objects of these bills. This however was not the case. In Northbrooke's Treatise against dicing, dauncing, vaine plaies, &c., 1579, 4to, a work much resembling that extremely curious volume Stubbes's Anatomie of abuses, we are told that they used "to set up their billes upon postes certain dayes before, to admonish the people to make resort unto their theatres, that they may thereby be the better furnished, and the people prepared to fill their purses with their treasures." In the play of Histriomastix, a man is introduced setting up text billes for playes; and William Rankins, another puritanical writer against plays, which he calls the instruments of Satan, in his Mirrour of monsters, 1587, 4to, p. 6, says, that "players by sticking of their bils in London, defile the streetes with their infectious filthines." Mountebanks likewise set up their bills. "Upon this scaffold also might bee mounted a number of quacksalving emperickes, who arriving in some country towne, clap up their terrible billes in the market place, and filling the paper with such horrible names of diseases, as if every disease were a divell, and that they could conjure them out of any towne at their pleasure." Dekkar's Villanies discovered by lanthorne and candle-light, &c., 1616, 4to, sign. H. Again, in Tales and quick answeres, printed by Berthelette, b. l. n. d. 4to, a man having lost his purse in London "sette up bylles in divers places that if any man of the cyte had founde the purse and woulde brynge it agayn to him he shulde have welle for his laboure. A gentyllman of the Temple wrote under one of the byls howe the man shulde come to his chambers and told where." It appears from a very rare little piece entitled Questions of profitable and pleasant concernings talked of by two olde seniors, &c., 1594, 4to, that Saint Paul's was a place in which these bills or advertisements were posted up. Thomas Nashe in his Pierce Pennilesse his supplication to the divell, 1595, 4to, sign. E. speaks of the "maisterlessemen that set up theyr bills in Paules for services, and such as paste up their papers on every post, for arithmetique and writing schooles:" we may therefore suppose that several of the walks about Saint Paul's cathedral then resembled the present Royal Exchange with respect to the business that was there transacted; and it appears indeed, from many allusions in our old plays, to have been as well the resort of the idle, as the busy. The phrase of setting up bills continued long after the time of Shakspeare and is used in a translation of Suetonius published in 1677, 8vo, p. 227.

Scene 1. Page 399.

In further exemplification of this sort of arrow, the following representations have been collected. A very sagacious modern editor of King James's Christ's kirk on the green has stated that the line "the bolt flew o'er the bire" is a metaphor of a thunderbolt flying over the cowhouse!

Scene 1. Page 412.

There is a covert allusion in this speech that will not admit of a particular explanation. Debauchees imagine that wine recruits the loss of animal spirits. Love is used here in its very worst sense, and the whole is extremely gross and indelicate.

Scene 1. Page 429.

From the unfortunate loss of these Merry tales, a doubt has arisen from whence they were translated, it being pretty clear that they were not originally written in English. Two authorities have been produced on this occasion, the Cent nouvelles nouvelles, and the Decameron of Boccaccio.

Mr. Steevens is an advocate for the first of these, and refers to an edition of them mentioned by Ames. This, it is to be presumed, is the Hundred merry tales noticed under the article for James Roberts. To this opinion an objection has been taken by Mr. Ritson, on the ground that many of the tales in the Cent nouvelles nouvelles are "very tragical, and none of them calculated to furnish a lady with good wit." Now it appears that out of these hundred stories only five are tragical, viz. novels 32, 47, 55, 56, and 98. In the old editions they are entitled Comptes plaisans et recreatiz pour deviser en toutes compaignies, and Moult plaisans á raconter par maniere de joyeuseté.

Mr. Reed has "but little doubt that Boccace's Decameron was the book here alluded to." If this gentleman's quotation from Guazzo's Civile conversation, 1586, be meant to establish the existence of the above work in an English dress it certainly falls short of the purpose; because it is no more than a translation of an author, who is speaking of the original Decameron. But there is a more forcible objection to Mr. Reed's opinion, which is, that the first complete English translation of Boccaccio's novels was not published till 1620, and after Shakspeare's death. The dedication states indeed, that many of the tales had long since been published; but this may allude to those which had appeared in Painter's Palace of pleasure, or in some other similar work not now remaining. There are likewise two or three of Boccaccio's novels in Tarlton's Newes out of purgatory, which might be alluded to in the above dedication, if the work which now remains under the date of 1630 was really printed in 1589, as may be suspected from a license granted to Thomas Gubbin. There seems to have been some prior attempt to publish the Decameron in English, but it was "recalled by my Lord of Canterbury's commands." See a note by Mr. Steevens prefixed to The two gentlemen of Verona. There is a remarkable fact however that deserves to be mentioned in this place, which is, that in the proem to Sacchetti's Novelle, written about the year 1360, it appears that Boccaccio's novels had been then translated into English, not a single vestige of which translation is elsewhere to be traced.

A third work that may appear to possess some right to assert its claim on the present occasion is the Cento novelle antiche, which might have been translated before or in Shakspeare's time, as it has been already shown in a note on the story of Twelfth night that he had probably seen the 13th novel in that collection. It may likewise be worth mentioning that Nashe in his Pappe with an hatchet, speaks of a book then coming out under the title of A hundred merrie tales, in which Martin Marprelate, i. e. John Penry, and his friends were to be satirized.

On the whole, the evidence seems to preponderate in favour of the Cent nouvelles nouvelles. As the greatest portion of this work consists of merry stories, there is no impropriety in calling it The hundred merry tales; the term hundred being part of the original title, and the epithet merry in all probability an addition for the purpose of designating the general quality of the stories. The Decameron of Boccaccio, which contains more tragical subjects than the other, is called in the English translation A hundred PLEASANT novels.

Whatever the hundred merry tales really were, we find them in existence so late as 1659, and the entire loss of them to the present age might have been occasioned by the devastation in the great fire of London.

It was the custom for those who were forsaken in love to wear willow garlands. This tree might have been chosen as the symbol of sadness from the verse in psalm 137, "We hanged our harps upon the willows, in the midst thereof;" or else from a coincidence between the weeping willow and falling tears. Another reason has been assigned. The Agnus castus or vitex, was supposed by the ancients to promote chastity, "and the willow being of a much like nature," says an old writer, "it is yet a custom that he which is deprived of his love must wear a willow garland." Swan's Speculum mundi, chap. 6. sect. 4. edit. 1635. Bona, the sister of the king of France, on receiving news of Edward the Fourth's marriage with Elizabeth Grey, exclaims, "In hope he'll prove a widower shortly, I'll wear a willow garland for his sake." See Henry the Sixth, part iii. and Desdemona's willow song in Othello, Act IV. Two more ballads of a similar nature may be found in Playford's Select ayres, 1659, folio, pp. 19, 21.

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This reading of the older copy has been judiciously preferred to a jealous complexion. Yellow is an epithet often applied to jealousy by the old writers. In The merry wives of Windsor, Nym says he will possess Ford with yellowness. Shakspeare more usually terms it green-eyed.

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The print in Borde of the Englishman with a pair of shears, seems to have been borrowed from some Italian or other foreign picture in ridicule of our countrymen's folly. Coryat, in his Crudities, p. 260, has this remark; "we weare more phantasticall fashions than any nation under the sunne doth, the French onely excepted; which hath given occasion both to the Venetian and other Italians to brand the Englishman with a notable marke of levity, by painting him starke naked with a paire of shears in his hand, making his fashion of attire according to the vaine invention of his braine-sicke head, not to comelinesse and decorum." Purchas, in his Pilgrim, 1619, 8vo, speaks of "a naked man with sheeres in one hand and cloth in the other," as a general emblem of fashion. Many other allusions to such a figure might be cited, but it was not peculiar to the English. In La geographie Françoise, by P. Du Val d'Abbeville, 1663, 12mo, the author, speaking of the Frenchman's versatility in dress, adds, "dans la peinture des nations on met pres de luy le cizeau."

The inconstancy of our own countrymen in the article of dress is described in the following verses from John Halle's Courte of vertue, 1565, 12mo.

Randle Holme complained that in his time (1680) Englishmen were as changeable as the moon in their dress, "in which respect," says he, "we are termed the Frenchmen's apes, imitating them in all their fantastick devised fashions of garbs." Acad. of armory, book iii. ch. 5.

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It has been already shown that the stalking bull was equally common with the stalking horse. It was sometimes used for decoying partridges into a tunnelling net, or cage of net work, in the form of a tun, with doors. The process is described at large, with a print, in Willughby's Ornithology, 1678, folio, p. 34, where an account is also given of the stalking-horse, ox, stag, &c.

Howel in his Vocabulary, sect. xxxv. seems to have mistaken the tun or net into which the birds were driven, for the stalking bull itself. Sometimes, as in hunting the wolf, an artificial bush and a wooden screen were used to stalk with. See Clamorgan, Chasse du loup, 1595, 4to, p. 29.

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Mr. Theobald explains this "into a thousand pieces of the same bigness," as if Beatrice had torn the letter by rule and compass. Mr. Steevens more properly supposes halfpence to mean small pieces; but his note would have been less imperfect if he had added that the halfpence of Elizabeth were of silver, and about the size of a modern silver penny.

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Dr. Farmer has illustrated this term by citing a passage from Sidney's Arcadia; but he has omitted a previous description in which Cupid is metamorphosed into a strange old monster, sitting on a gallows with a crown of laurel in one hand, and a purse of money in the other, as if he would persuade folks by these allurements to hang themselves. It is certainly possible that this might have been Shakspeare's prototype; we should otherwise have supposed that he had called Cupid a hangman metaphorically, from the remedy sometimes adopted by desparing lovers.

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When Margaret adds that this tune "goes without a burden," she does not mean that it never had words to it, but only that it wanted a very common appendage to the ballads of that time. The name itself may be illustrated by the following extract from The glasse of man's follie, 1615, 4to. "There be wealthy houswives, and good house-keepers that use no starch, but faire water: their linnen is white, and they looke more Christian-like in small ruffes, then Light of love lookes in her great starched ruffs, looke she never so hie, with eye-lids awrye." This anonymous work is written much in the manner of Stubbes's Anatomie of abuses, and for the same purpose.

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Though three explanations have been already offered, there is room for further conjecture. From the latter words of Beatrice it is clear that Benedick had stopped her from going. She may therefore intend to say that notwithstanding she is detained by force, she is in reality absent; her heart is no longer Benedick's.

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An allusion to these lines in the old calendars that describe the state of man:

In the Notbrowne mayde we have the expression lusty May. Capel's edit. p. 6. Roger Ascham, speaking of young men, says; "It availeth not to see them well taught in yong yeares, and after when they come to lust and youthfull dayes, to give them licence to live as they lust themselves." Scholemaster, 1571, fo. 13. See a former note in p. 45.

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Mr. Holt White's ingenious note may be supported by the following passage in Carew's Survey of Cornwall, 1602, 4to. p. 76: the author is speaking of wrestling. "This hath also his lawes, of taking hold onely above girdle, wearing a girdle to take hold by, playing three pulles, for tryall of the mastery, &c."

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In this comparison the prince is the staff, and the question is what sort of a one is here alluded to. Messrs. Steevens, Reed, and Malone, conceive it to be the staff used in the ancient trial by wager of battle; but this seems to have but small claim to be entitled reverend. On the contrary, as the combatants were of the meaner class of people, who were not allowed to make use of edged weapons, the higher ranks usually deciding the business by hired champions, it cannot well be maintained that much, if any, reverence belongs to such a staff. It is possible, therefore, that Shakspeare, whose allusions to archery are almost as frequent as they are to cuckoldom, might refer to the bowstaff, which was usually tipped with a piece of horn at each end, to make such a notch for the string as would not wear, and at the same time to strengthen the bow, and prevent the extremities from breaking. It is equally possible that the walking-sticks or staves used by elderly people might be intended, which were often headed or tipped with a cross piece of horn, or sometimes amber. They seem to have been imitated from the crutched sticks, or potences, as they were called, used by the friars, and by them borrowed from the celebrated tau of St. Anthony. Thus in The Canterbury tales, the Sompnour describes one of his friars as having "a scrippe and tipped staf," and he adds that

In these instances the epithet reverend is much more appropriate than in the others.

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Mrs. Lenox, assuming, with the same inaccuracy as had been manifested in her critique on Measure for measure, that Shakspeare borrowed his plot from Ariosto, proceeds to censure him for "poverty of invention, want of judgment, and wild conceits," deducing all her reasoning from false premises. This is certainly but a bad method of illustrating Shakspeare.

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This is in reality no "misapplication of a modern title," as Mr. Steevens conceived, but a legitimate use of the word in its primitive Latin sense of leader; and so it is often used in the Bible. Not so the instance adduced of sheriffs of the provinces, which might have been avoided in our printed bibles. Wicliffe had most properly used prefectis. Shakspeare might have found Duke Theseus in the book of Troy, or in Turbervile's Ovid's Epistles. See the argument to that of Phædra to Hippolytus.

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The threatening to make a nun of poor Hermia is as whimsical an anachronism as any in Shakspeare.

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Momentany and momentary were indiscriminately used in Shakspeare's time. The former corresponds with the French momentaine.

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Mr. Steevens in the happy and elegant remark at the end of his note on the last line, has made a slight mistake in substituting Puck for the fairy. When the damsels of old gathered the May dew on the grass, and which they made use of to improve their complexions, they left undisturbed such of it as they perceived on the fairy-rings; apprehensive that the fairies should in revenge destroy their beauty. Nor was it reckoned safe to put the foot within the rings, lest they should be liable to the fairies' power.

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Dr. Johnson has very justly observed that to square here is to quarrel. In investigating the reason, we must previously take it for granted that our verb to quarrel is from the French quereller, or perhaps both from the common source, the Latin querela. Blackstone has remarked that the glaziers use the words square and quarrel as synonymous terms for a pane of glass, and he might have added for the instrument with which they cut it. This, he says, is somewhat whimsical; but had he been acquainted with the reason, he might have been disposed to waive his opinion, at least on the present occasion. The glazier's instrument is a diamond, usually cut into such a square form as the supposed diamonds on the French and English cards, in the former of which it is still properly called carreau, from its original. This was the square iron head of the arrow used for the cross-bow. In English it was called a quarrel, and hence the glazier's diamond and the pane of glass have received their names of square and quarrel. Now we may suppose without straining the point very violently, that these words being evidently synonymous in one sense, have corruptedly become so in another; and that the verb to square, which correctly and metaphorically, even at this time, signifies to agree or accord, has been carelessly and ignorantly wrested from its true sense, and from frequent use become a legitimate word. The French have avoided this error, and to express a meaning very similar to that of to quarrel or dispute, make use of the word contrecarrer.

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The celebrated duchess of Newcastle, in a poem of some fancy, entitled The queen of fairies, makes Puck or hobgoblin the queen of fairies' fool, and alludes to the above prank in the following lines:

The above dame is a farmer's wife who has been scolding because she was unable to procure any butter or cheese, and at Puck's holding up the hens' rumps to prevent their laying eggs too fast.

With respect to the word aunt, it has been usually derived from the French tante; but the original Norman term is ante. See examples in Carpentier Suppl. ad Ducang. v. avuncula. So the author of the old and excellent farce of Maistre Patelin,

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Mr. Tyrwhitt's remark that the Pluto and Proserpine of Chaucer were the true progenitors of Oberon and Titania, may be perfectly true; but the name of Oberon as king of the fairies, must have been exceedingly well known from the romance of Huon of Bourdeaux, in which this Oberon makes a very conspicuous figure.

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Milton, doubtless, had these lines in recollection when he wrote,

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An allusion to what the country people call fairy rings, which they suppose to be the tracks of the dances of those diminutive beings.

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This game was sometimes called the nine mens merrils, from merelles or mereaux, an ancient French word for the jettons or counters, with which it was played. The other term morris is probably a corruption suggested by the sort of dance which in the progress of the game the counters performed. In the French merelles each party had three counters only, which were to be placed in a line in order to win the game. It appears to have been the Tremerel mentioned in an old fabliau. See Le Grand Fabliaux et contes, tom. ii. p. 208.

Dr. Hyde thinks the morris or merrils was known during the time that the Normans continued in possession of England, and that the name was afterwards corrupted into three mens morals, or nine mens morals. If this be true, the conversion of morals into morris, a term so very familiar to the country people, was extremely natural. The doctor adds, that it was likewise called nine-penny, or nine-pin miracle, three-penny morris, five-penny morris, nine-penny morris, or three-pin, five-pin, and nine-pin morris, all corruptions of three-pin, &c. merels. Hyde Hist. Nerdiludii, p. 202.

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In the controversy respecting the immortality of fairies, Mr. Ritson's ingenious and decisive reply in his Quip modest ought on every account to have been introduced. A few pages further Titania evidently alludes to the immortality of fairies, when, speaking of the changeling's mother, she says, "but she, being mortal, of that boy did die." Spenser's fairy system and his pedigree were allegorical, invented by himself, and not coinciding with the popular superstitions on the subject. Human mortals is merely a pleonasm, and neither put in opposition to fairy mortals, according to Mr. Steevens, nor to human immortals, according to Ritson; it is simply the language of a fairy speaking of men.

A posthumous note by Mr. Steevens has not contributed to strengthen his former arguments, as the authors therein mentioned do not, strictly speaking, allude to the sort of fairies in question, but to spirits, devils, and angels. Shakspeare, however, would certainly be more influenced by popular opinion than by the dreams of the casuists. There is a curious instance of the nature of fairies, according to the belief of more ancient times, in the romance of Lancelot of the lake. "En celui temps," (the author is speaking of the days of king Arthur,) "estoient appellees faees toutes selles qui sentremettoient denchantemens et de charmes, et moult en estoit pour lors principalement en la Grande Bretaigne, et savoient la force et la vertu des paroles, des pierres, et des herbes, parquoy elles estoient tenues en jeunesse et en beaulte, et en grandes richesses comme elles devisoient." This perpetual youth and beauty cannot well be separated from a state of immortality. Nor would it be difficult to controvert the sentiments of those who have maintained the mortality of devils, by means of authorities as valid as their own. The above interesting romance will furnish one at least that may not be unacceptable. Speaking of the birth of the prophet and enchanter Merlin, it informs us that his mother would not consent to the embraces of any man who should be visible; and therefore it was by some means ordained that a devil should be her lover. When he approached her, to use the words of the romance, "la damoiselle le tasta et sentit quil avoit le corps moult bien fait; non pourtant les dyables n'ont ne corps ne membres que l'en puisse veoir ne toucher, car spirituelle chose ne peut estre touchée, et tous diables sont choses spirituelles." The fruit of this amour was Merlin; but he, being born of woman, was but a semi-devil, and subject to mortality. A damsel with whom he had fallen in love, prevailed on him to disclose some of his magical arts to her, by means of which she deceived him, and preserved her chastity by casting him into a deep sleep whenever he importuned her. The romance adds, "si le decevoit ainsi pource qu'il estoit mortel; mais s'il eust este du tout dyable, elle ne l'eust peu decepvoir; car ung dyable ne peut dormir."

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Thus in Newton's Direction for the health of magistrates and studentes, 1574, 12mo, we are told that "the moone is ladie of moysture;" and in Hamlet, Act I. Scene 1, she is called "the moist star." In Bartholomæus De propriet. rerum, by Batman, lib. 8. c. 29, the moon is described to be "mother of all humours, minister and lady of the sea." But in Lydgate's prologue to his Storie of Thebes, there are two lines which Shakspeare seems closely to have imitated;

The same mode of expression occurs in Parkes's Curtaine drawer of the world, 1612, 4to, p. 48: "the centinels of the season ordained to marke the queen of floods how she lends her borrowed light." This book deserves to be noticed for the good sense which it contains, and the merit of some occasional pieces of poetry.

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Of all the opinions concerning the origin of this word, that of Sir William Spelman alone can be maintained. If instead of deriving it from the German, he had stated that it came to us through the Saxon Henᵹeꞅꞇ, a horse, his information had been more correct. Although in more modern times the pages or henchmen might have walked on foot, it is very certain that they were originally horsemen, according to the term. Thus in Chaucer's Floure and the leafe:

If the old orthography henxmen had not been unfortunately disturbed, we should have heard nothing of the conjectures about haunch and haunch-men.

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However forward and indecorous the conduct of Helena in pursuing Demetrius may appear to modern readers, such examples are very frequent in old romances of chivalry, wherein Shakspeare was undoubtedly well read. The beautiful ballad of the Nut-brown maid might have been more immediately in his recollection, many parts of this scene having a very strong resemblance to it.

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Imitated by Milton:

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See what has been already said on this word in p. 8; the meaning is the same as there. Theobald's amendment from luscious was probably in conformity with that passage; and the printers of the old editions not comprehending the meaning of lush, which even in their time was an antiquated word, ignorantly, as well as unharmoniously, substituted luscious.

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That is, "let there be such separation," &c. A comma should be placed after modesty.

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It is submitted that brake cannot in this instance signify a large extent of ground, overgrown with furze, but merely the hawthorn bush or tyring-house as Quince had already called it.

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Again, in Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Scene 5:

On which consult Mr. Steevens's posthumous note in Mr. Reed's last edition.

Mr. Pope had justly remarked that to gleek is to scoff. In some of the notes on this word it has been supposed to be connected with the card game of gleek; but it was not recollected that the Saxon language supplied the term Glɩᵹ, ludibrium, and doubtless a corresponding verb. Thus glee signifies mirth and jocularity; and gleeman or gligman, a minstrel or joculator. Gleek was therefore used to express a stronger sort of joke, a scoffing. It does not appear that the phrase to give the gleek was ever introduced in the above game, which was borrowed by us from the French, and derived from an original of very different import from the word in question.

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Dr. Johnson's objection to the word eyes, has been very skilfully removed by Mr. Monck Mason; but this gentleman appears to have misconceived the meaning of Shakspeare's most appropriate epithet of ineffectual, in the passage from Hamlet. The glow-worm's fire was ineffectual only at the approach of morn, in like manner as the light of a candle would be at mid-day.

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Mr. Steevens has properly explained night-rule. Rule in this word has the same meaning as in the Christmas lord of mis-rule, and is a corruption of revel, formerly written reuel.

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The receipt for making a man resemble an ass, already given in a former note, must give place to the following in Scot's Discoverie of witchcraft, b. 13. c. xix. "Cutt off the head of a horsse or an asse (before they be dead), otherwise the vertue or strength thereof will be the lesse effectuall, and make an earthern vessell of fit capacitie to conteine the same, and let it be filled with the oile and fat thereof; cover it close, and dawbe it over with lome: let it boile over a soft fier three daies continuallie, that the flesh boiled may run into oile, so as the bare bones may be seene: beate the haire into powder, and mingle the same with the oile; and annoint the heads of the standers by, and they shall seem to have horsses or asses heads."

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Mr. Steevens deduces this word from the Italian cara; but it is from the old French chere, face. Lydgate finishes the prologue to his Storie of Thebes with these lines:

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It may be doubted whether this passage has been rightly explained, and whether the commentators have not given Shakspeare credit for more skill in heraldry than he really possessed, or at least than he intended to exhibit on the present occasion. Helen says, "we had two seeming bodies, but only one heart." She then exemplifies her position by a simile—"we had two of the first, i. e. bodies, like the double coats in heraldry that belong to man and wife as one person, but which, like our single heart, have but one crest."

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Aurora's harbinger is Lucifer, the morning star.

It was the popular belief that ghosts retired at the approach of day. Thus the spirit of Hamlet's father exclaims,

In further illustration see a subsequent note on Hamlet, Act I. Scene 1.

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Again, in Macbeth:

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Dr. Johnson suspects a line to be lost, as he "knows not what it is to stretch and con an intent;" but it is surely not intents that are stretch'd and conn'd but the play, of which Philostrate is speaking. If the line

were printed in a parenthesis, all would be right. Mr. Steevens, not perceiving this, has endeavoured to wrest from the word intents, its plain and usual meaning, and would unnecessarily convert it to attention, which might undoubtedly be stretch'd, but could not well be conn'd.

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We have borrowed this sense of the word (ready) from the French adressé.

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But why horned? He evidently refers to the materials of which the lantern was made.

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By this team is meant the chariot of the moon, said to be drawn by two horses, the one black, the other white. It is probable that Shakspeare might have consulted some translation of Boccaccio's Genealogy of the gods, which, as has been already remarked, appears to have occasionally supplied him with his mythological information. As this is the first time we meet with the name of Hecate in our author, it may be proper to notice the error he has committed in making it a word of two syllables, which he has done in several other places, though in one (viz. I. Henry Sixth, if he wrote that play) it is rightly made a trisyllable:

His contemporaries have usually given it properly. Thus Spenser in the Fairy queen,

Ben Jonson has, of course, always been correct. Mr. Malone observes, in a note on Macbeth, Act III. Scene 5, that Marlowe, though a scholar, has used the word Hecate as a dissyllable. It may be added that Middelton and Golding have done the same; the latter in his translation of Ovid, book vii. has used it in both ways.

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In confirmation of Dr. Johnson's remark that fairies delight in cleanliness, two other poems shall be quoted. The first is the Fairy queen, printed in Percy's Ancient Ballads, iii. 207, edit. 1775.

The other is the Fairies farewell, by Bishop Corbet, printed also in Percy's collection, iii. 210, from his Poetica stromata, 1648, 18mo. It is also in a preceding edition of the bishop's poems, 1647, 18mo.

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Mr. Steevens remarks that the ceremony of blessing the bed was observed at the marriage of a princess. It was used at all marriages. This was the form, copied from the Manual for the use of Salisbury. "Nocte vero sequente cum sponsus et sponsa ad lectum pervenerint, accedat sacerdos et benedicat thalamum, dicens: Benedic, Domine, thalamum istum et omnes habitantes in eo; ut in tua pace consistant, et in tua voluntate permaneant: et in amore tuo vivant et senescant et multiplicentur in longitudine dierum. Per Dominum.—Item benedictio super lectum. Benedic, Domine, hoc cubiculum, respice, quinon dormis neque dormitas. Qui custodis Israel, custodi famulos tuos in hoc lecto quiescentes ab omnibus fantasmaticis demonum illusionibus: custodi eos vigilantes ut in preceptis tuis meditentur dormientes, et te per soporem sentiant: ut hic et ubique defensionis tuæ muniantur auxilio. Per Dominum.—Deinde fiat benedictio super eos in lecto tantum cum Oremus. Benedicat Deus corpora vestra et animas vestras; et det super vos benedictionem sicut benedixit Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, Amen.—His peractis aspergat eos aqua benedicta, et sic discedat et dimittat eos in pace." We may observe on this strange ceremony, that the purity of modern times stands not in need of these holy aspersions to lull the senses and dissipate the illusions of the Devil. The married couple would, no doubt, rejoice when the benediction was ended. In the French romance of Melusine, the bishop who marries her to Raymondin blesses the nuptial bed. The ceremony is there represented in a very ancient cut, of which a copy is subjoined. The good prelate is sprinkling the parties with holy water. Sometimes during the benediction the married couple only sat upon the bed; but they generally received a portion of consecrated bread and wine. It is recorded in France, that on frequent occasions the priest was improperly detained till the hour of midnight, whilst the wedding guests rioted in the luxuries of the table, and made use of language that was extremely offensive to the clergy, and injurious to the salvation of the parties. It was therefore, in the year 1577, ordained by Pierre de Gondi, archbishop of Paris, that the ceremony of blessing the nuptial bed should for the future be performed in the day time, or at least before supper, and in the presence only of the bride and bridegroom, and of their nearest relations.

There is a singularity in this cut which may well excuse a short digression. This is the horned head-dress of the bride, a fashion that prevailed in England during the reign of Henry the Sixth, and for a short time afterwards. Lydgate has left us an unpublished ditty, in which he complains of it. As it is, like most of his other poetry, very dull and very tedious, a couple of stanzas may suffice; each concludes with a line to recommend the casting away of these horns.

In France, this part of female dress was a frequent subject of clerical reprehension. Nicholas de Claminges, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and contemporary with Lydgate, compares it to the horns of oxen. "Tenduntur hinc et inde mira et inaudita deformitate gemina cornua bipedali prope intervallo à se distantia, majorique latitudine caput fœmineum diffundunt quam bubalinum longitudine distenditur. Auro ac gemmis omnia rutilant. Stibio et cerusa pinguntur facies; patent colla; nudantur pectora." Nicolai de Clemangiis opera, Lugd. Batavor. 1613, 4to, p. 144. And again, in his letters, "quid de cornibus et caudis loquar, quas illic jam vulgo matronæ gestant, qua in re naturam videntur humanam reliquisse, bestialemque sibi ultro adscivisse. Adde quod in effigie cornutæ fœminæ Diabolus plerumque pingitur." We cannot but admire the pious writer's ingenuity in the latter declaration, and how well it was calculated to terrify the ladies out of this preposterous fashion.

Scene 2. Page 171.

Thus in the Merry wives of Windsor, Act V. Scene 5:

In the first line of Oberon's speech there seems to be a covert satire against holy water. Whilst the popular confidence in the power of fairies existed, they had obtained the credit of occasionally performing much good service to mankind; and the great influence which they possessed gave so much offence to the holy monks and friars, that they determined to exert all their power to expel the above imaginary beings from the minds of the people, by taking the office of the fairies' benedictions entirely into their own hands. Of this we have a curious proof in the beginning of Chaucer's admirable tale of the Wife of Bath:

The other quotation from Chaucer, which Mr. Steevens has given, is not to the present purpose. The fairies' blessing was to bring peace upon the house of Theseus; the night-spell in the Miller's tale, is pronounced against the influence of elves, and those demons, or evil spirits, that were supposed to occasion the night-mare, and other nocturnal illusions. As this is a subject that has never been professedly handled, it may be worth while to bring together a few facts that relate to it; to do it ample justice would require an express dissertation.

A belief in the influence of evil spirits has been common to all nations, and in the remotest periods of the human history. The gross superstitions of the middle ages, which even exceeded those in Pagan times, had given birth to a variety of imaginary beings, who were supposed to be perpetually occupied in doing mischief to mankind. The chief of these were the Incubus, or night-mare, and certain fairies of a malignant nature. It therefore became necessary to check and counteract their operations by spells, charms, and invocations to saints. Some of these have been preserved. The lines given to Mad Tom in Lear, beginning

is one of them; and in the notes belonging to it, as well as in those by Mr. Tyrwhitt on the Canterbury tales, vol. iv. 242, others have been collected. To these may be added the following in Cartwright's play of The Ordinary, Act III. Scene 1:

This indeed may be rather considered as satirical, but it is a parody on those which were genuine. Sinclair, in his Satan's invisible world discovered, informs us that "At night, in the time of popery, when folks went to bed, they believed the repetition of this following prayer was effectual to preserve them from danger, and the house too."

As darkness was supposed to be more immediately adapted to the machinations of these malicious spirits, it was natural that, on retiring to rest, certain prayers should be chosen to deprecate their influence, which was often regarded as of a particular kind. To this Imogen alludes when she exclaims,

So Banquo in Macbeth:

An ancient hymn by Saint Ambrose goes to the same point:

The demon who was supposed to have particular influence in these nocturnal illusions, was Asmodeus, the lame devil of whom Mons. Le Sage has made such admirable use. In expelling him, the sign of the cross was most efficacious; a very old practice on similar occasions, as we learn from the following lines in Prudentius:—

Relics of saints, images of the holy Virgin, sanctified girdles, and a variety of other amulets were resorted to on the same occasion, exhibiting a lamentable proof of the imbecility of human nature.

Scene 2. Page 172.

Thus in the epilogue to Stubbes's excellent play of Senile odium,

---

Scene 1. Page 181.

It was the fashion in Shakspeare's time, and had been so from the thirteenth century, to ornament the tombs of eminent persons with figures and inscriptions on plates of brass: to these the allusion seems rather to be made, than to monuments that were entirely of brass, such being of very rare occurrence.

Scene 1. Page 182.

From the Latin pinguis venter non gignit sensum tenuem. See Ray's Proverbs. The rest of Longaville's speech, "and dainty bits," &c. merely repeats the same sentiment for the sake of a rhime.

Scene 1. Page 183.

Mr. Ritson would read, If study's gain be this. There is no occasion for any change. Thus means after this manner; but the poet would not write this, in order to avoid a cacophony.

Scene 1. Page 191.

The context seems to indicate that child of fancy is here used precisely in the sense in which Milton applied it to Shakspeare, from whom he probably borrowed it. The meaning of this controverted speech may be as follows: "this child of invention shall relate to us, in his bombastic language, the worthy deeds of many a Spanish knight which are now forgotten amidst those topics that engage the attention of mankind." The expression tawny Spain may refer to the Moors in that country; for although they had been expelled from thence almost a century before the time of Shakspeare, it was allowable on the present occasion to refer to the period when they flourished in Spain; or he might only copy what he found in the original story of the play.

Scene 2. Page 198.

This word, which is well explained by Mr. Ritson, was often, as in the present instance, used to pages. Thus Urquhart in his Discovery of a jewel, &c. p. 133, calls a person of this description "a hopeful youth and tender imp of great expectation."

Scene 2. Page 200.

The best account of Banks and his famous horse Morocco is to be found in the notes to a French translation of Apuleius's Golden ass by Jean de Montlyard, Sieur de Melleray, counsellor to the Prince of Condé. This work was first printed in 1602, 8vo, and several times afterwards. The author himself had seen the horse, whose master he calls a Scotishman, at Paris, where he was exhibited in 1601, at the Golden Lion, Rue Saint Jaques. He is described as a middle-sized bay English gelding, about 14 years old. A few quotations from the work itself may not be unacceptable. "Son maistre l'appelle Moraco.... Nous avons vu son maistre l'interroger combien de francs vaut l'escu: et luy, donner trois fois du pied en terre. Mais chose plus estrange, parce que l'escu d'or sol et de poids vaut encor maintenant au mois de Mars 1601, plus que trois francs: l'Escossois luy demanda combien de sols valoit cest escu outre les trois francs; et Moraco frappa quatre coups, pour denoter les quatre sols que vaut lescu de surcroist." In which remark the counsellor shows himself less sagacious than the horse he is describing. He proceeds: "Après un infinité de tours de passe-passe, il luy fait danser les Canaries avec beaucoup d'art et de dexterité." The rest of the numerous tricks performed by this animal are much the same as those practised by the horses educated under the ingenious Mr. Astley. We also learn from this French work, that the magistrates, conceiving that all this could not be done without the aid of magic, had some time before imprisoned the master, and put the horse under sequestration; but having since discovered that every thing was effected by mere art and the making of signs, they had liberated the parties and permitted an exhibition. The Scotchman had undertaken to teach any horse the same tricks in a twelvemonth. It is said that both the horse and his master were afterwards burned at Rome as magicians; nor is this the only instance of the kind. In a little book entitled Le diable bossu, Nancy, 1708, 18mo, there is an obscure allusion to an English horse, whose master had taught him to know the cards, and which was burned alive at Lisbon in 1707; and Mr. Granger, in his Biographical history of England, vol. iii. p. 164, edit. 1779, has informed us that within his remembrance a horse which had been taught to perform several tricks was, with his owner, put into the Inquisition. The author of the life of Mal Cutpurse, 1662, 12mo, mentions her "fellow humourist Banks the vintner in Cheapside, who taught his horse to dance and shooed him with silver." In the eighth book of Markham's Cavalarice or the English horseman, 1607, 4to, there is a chapter "how a horse may be taught to doe and tricke done by Bankes his curtall." It is extremely curious, and towards the end throws light upon the second line of Bastard's epigram quoted by Mr. Steevens.

Scene 2. Page 203.

Green eyes, jealousy, and the willow, have been mentioned as the subjects of this allusion; but it is, perhaps, to melancholy, the frequent concomitant of love. Thus in Twelfth night, "And with a green and yellow melancholy;" certainly in that instance, the effect of love.

Scene 2. Page 206.

See more on the word dey in Mr. Tyrwhitt's edition of The Canterbury tales, iii. 287, who supposes that a dey originally meant a day labourer, however it came afterwards to be applied to the dairy: yet this conjecture must give way to Dr. Johnson's statement that day is an old word for milk. The doctor has not indeed produced any authority, and the original Saxon word seems lost; but in the Swedish language, which bears the greatest affinity to our own of any other, as far as regards the Teutonic part of it, dia signifies to milk, and deie, in Polish, the same. Die, in Danish, is the breast. The nearest Saxon word that remains is diende, sucklings; and there can be no doubt that we have the term in question from some of our northern ancestors. The dey or dairy maid is mentioned in the old statutes that relate to working people; and in that of 12 Ric. II. the annual wages of this person are settled at six shillings.

Scene 1. Page 221.

These alliterative and anapæstic lines are in the manner of Tusser, who has many such; for example,

It will be admitted that the construction of this sort of verse is rather less adapted to a court than a cottage; but it is presumed that none will be inclined to find Shakspeare guilty of such poetry, which a good deal resembles the halfpenny book style of

Scene 1. Page 222.

An allusion either to the figures of the human face often found in agates and other stones, or to an engraved gem.

Scene 1. Page 225.

The word brawl in its signification of a dance is from the French branle, indicating a shaking or swinging motion. The following accounts of this dance may be found more intelligible than that cited from Marston. It was performed by several persons uniting hands in a circle, and giving each other continual shakes, the steps changing with the tune. It usually consisted of three pas and a pied-joint, to the time of four strokes of the bow; which being repeated was termed a double brawl. With this dance balls were usually opened. Le branle du bouquet is thus described in Deux dialogues du nouveau langage François, Italianizé, &c. Anvers, 1579, 24mo:—"Un des gentilhommes et une des dames, estans les premiers en la danse, laissent les autres (qui cependant continuent la danse) et se mettans dedans la dicte compagnie, vont baisans par ordre toutes les personnes qui y sont: à sçavoir le gentil-homme les dames, et la dame les gentils-hommes. Puis ayans achevé leurs baisemens, au lieu qu'ils estoyent les premiers en la danse, se mettent les derniers. Et ceste façon de faire se continue par le gentilhomme et la dame qui sont les plus prochains, jusques à ce qu'on vienne aux derniers."—P. 385. It is probably to this dance that the puritan Stubbes alludes in the following words: "for what clipping, what culling, what kissing and bussing, what smouching and slabbering one of another: what filthy groping and unclean handling is not practised every where in these dauncings? Yea the very deed and action itselfe which I will not name for offending chaste eares, shall bee purtrayed and shadowed foorth in their bawdy gestures of one to another."—Anatomie of abuses, p. 114, edit. 1595, 4to. And John Northbrooke, another writer ejusdem farinæ, in his invective called A treatise wherein dicing, dauncing, vaine plaies or enterludes, &c. 1579, 4to, exclaims that "the Pagans were better and more sad than wee be, they never knewe this newe fashion of dauncing of ours, and uncleanely handling and groping, and kissings, and a very kindling of lechery: whereto serveth all that bassing, as were pigeons the birdes of Venus?" And again; "they daunce with disordinate gestures, and with monstrous thumping of the feete, to pleasant soundes, to wanton songues, to dishonest verses, maidens and matrons are groped and handled with unchaste hands, and kissed and dishonestly embraced," fo. 64, 66. Amidst a great variety of brawls mentioned in the very curious treatise on dancing by Thoinot Arbeau, entitled Orchesographie, Lengres, 1588, 4to, there is a Scotish brawl, with the music, which is here given as a specimen of an old Scotish tune.

The facetious macaronic poet Antony Sablon, or de Arena, whose work Camden says he "kept as a jewel," has left the following description of a brawl:—

This dance continued in fashion in our own country so late as the year 1693, when Playford published a book of tunes in which a brawl composed by Mons. Paisable occurs; and see many of the little French pieces in the Theatre de la foire, 1721.

Scene 1. Page 225.

The canary was another very favourite dance. In the translation of Leo's Description of Africa, by Pory, 1600, folio, there is an additional account of the Canary islands, in which the author, speaking of the inhabitants, says, "They were and are at this day delighted with a kind of dance which they use also in Spain, and in other places, and because it took originall from thence, it is called the Canaries." Thoinot Arbeau likewise mentions this opinion, but is himself, in common with some others, inclined to think that the dance originated from a ballet composed for a masquerade, in which the performers were habited as kings and queens of Morocco, or as savages with feathers of different colours. He then describes it as follows:—A lady is taken out by a gentleman, and after dancing together to the cadences of the proper air, he leads her to the end of the hall; this done he retreats back to the original spot, always looking at the lady. Then he makes up to her again, with certain steps, and retreats as before. His partner performs the same ceremony, which is several times repeated by both parties, with various strange fantastic steps, very much in the savage style. This dance was sometimes accompanied by the castagnets. The following Canary tune is from Arbeau.

Scene 1. Page 236.

Mr. Steevens deduces this word from the middle age Latin regardum. It is presumed that few, if any, words are derived from the Latin of that period, which itself was rather corrupted by the introduction of terms from the living languages of Europe Latinized by the Monkish writers. Guerdon, as used by us, is immediately from the French: not equivalent, as some have imagined, with don de guerre, but formed from the Teutonic werd or wurth, i. e. price, value.

Scene 1. Page 237.

If, as Mr. Steevens observes, the advocates for Shakspeare's learning, on a presumption that he might have been acquainted with the Roman flammeum, or seen the celebrated gem of the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, had applauded the choice of his epithet, it is certain they would have shown very little skill or critical judgment on the occasion. By wimpled, Shakspeare means no more than that Cupid was hood-winked, alluding to the usual representation in paintings where he is exhibited with a bandage over his eyes. It may be observed here that the blindness of the God of love is not warranted by the authority of any ancient classic author, but appears to have been the invention of some writer of the middle ages; not improbably Boccaccio, who in his Genealogy of the Gods gives the following account: "Oculos autem illi fascia tegunt, ut advertamus amantes ignorare quo tendant; nulla eorum esse indicia, nullæ rerum distinctiones, sed sola passione duci."—Lib. ix. c. 4.

The oldest English writer who has noticed the blindness of love is Chaucer, in his translation of the Roman de la rose:

But this line is not in the French original. Shakspeare himself has well accounted for Cupid's blindness:

Scene 1. Page 240.

Dr. Farmer's quotation of the line from Ben Jonson, "As corporal of the field, maestro del campo," has the appearance, without perhaps the intention, of suggesting that these officers were the same: this, however, was not the fact. In Styward's Pathway to martiall discipline, 1581, 4to, there is a chapter on the office of maister of the campe, and another on the electing and office of the foure corporalls of the fields; from which it appears that "two of the latter were appointed for placing and ordering of shot, and the other two for embattailing of the pikes and billes, who according to their worthinesse, if death hapneth, are to succeede the great sergeant or sergeant major."

Scene 1. Page 241.

Such part of Mr. Steevens's note as relates to the invention of clocks may, in a future edition, be rendered more correct by consulting Beckman's History of inventions. It is certain that we had clocks in England before the reign of Elizabeth; but they were not in general use till that time, when most, if not all, of them were imported from Germany. These clocks resembled what are still made for the use of the lower classes of people by several ingenious Germans established in London.

Scene 1. Page 242.

Alluding to the homely proverb, "Joan's as good as my lady in the dark:" and in Markham's Health to the gentlemanly profession of serving men, sign. I. 3, we have, "What hath Joan to do with my lady?"

Scene 1. Page 243.

The practice of ladies shooting at deer in this passage alluded to, is of great antiquity, as may be collected from Strutt's Sports and pastimes of the people of England, p. 9. The old romances abound with such incidents; but one of the most diverting is recorded in The history of prince Arthur, part 3, chap. cxxiv. where a lady huntress wounds Sir Lancelot of the Lake, instead of a deer, in a manner most "comically tragical."

Scene 1. Page 246.

"A corruption," says Mr. Malone very justly, "of God give you good even." Howel, at the end of his Parley of the beasts, has an advertisement relating to orthography, in which, after giving several examples that the French do not speak as they write, he observes that "the English come not short of him (the Frenchman); for whereas he writes, God give you good evening, he often saies, Godi, godin." But the whole of what Howel has said on this subject is unfairly pillaged from Claude de Sainliens, or, as he chose to call himself in this country, Hollyband; who after very successfully retorting a charge made by the English, that Frenchmen do not sound their words as they spell them, is nevertheless content to admit that his countrymen do sometimes err, as when they say avoo disné, for avez vous disné? See his treatise De pronuntiatione linguæ Gallicæ, Lond. 1580, 12mo, p. 81. This person was a teacher of languages in London, and wrote several ingenious works, among which is the first French and English dictionary, 1580, and 1593, 4to; afterwards much amplified by Randle Cotgrave, and by him rendered the best repertory of old French that is extant. It is in other respects an extremely valuable work.

Scene 1. Page 49.

Another trait of this person's character is preserved in Scot's Discoverie of witchcraft, edit. 1584, p. 54, where, speaking of the influence of melancholy on the imagination, he says, "the Italian, whom we call here in England the Monarch, was possessed of the like spirit or conceipt." This conceit was, that all the ships which came into port belonged to him.

Scene 2. Page 526.

A part of Mr. Steevens's note requires the following correction:—Florio's First fruites were printed in 1578, 4to, by Thomas Dawson. In 1598 he dedicated his Italian and English dictionary to Roger Earl of Rutland, Henry Earl of Southampton, and Lucy Countess of Bedford. As to the edition of 1595, mentioned by Mr. Steevens, does it really exist, or has not too much confidence been placed in the elegant but inaccurate historian of English poetry? See vol. iii. p. 465, note (h).

Scene 2. Page 262.

It is possible, as Mr. Steevens has remarked, that Shakspeare might have found Diana's title of Dictynna in Golding's Ovid; but there is reason for supposing that he had seen an English translation of Boccaccio's Genealogy of the Gods, though we have it not at present. E. Kerke, in his notes on Spenser's Shepherd's calendar, quotes this work; yet he might have used the original. From the same source it was possible for Shakspeare to have acquired the present information, as well as what other mythology he stood in need of. The Latin dictionaries of Eliot and Cooper would likewise supply him with similar materials.

Scene 3. Page 274.

An allusion to the gallows of the time, which was occasionally triangular. Such a one is seen in some of the cuts to the first edition of Holinshed's Chronicle, and in other ancient prints.

Scene 3. Page 276.

This is Theobald's alteration from the old reading, which was, "She is not, Corporal, there you lie," and has been adopted by the modern editors from its apparent ingenuity. A little attention may serve to show that no change was necessary, and that the original text should be restored. Theobald says that Dumain had no post in the army, and asks what wit there is in calling him corporal. The answer is, As much as there had already been in Biron's calling himself a corporal of Cupid's field; a title equally appropriate to Dumain on the present occasion. To render the matter still clearer, it may be observed that Biron does not give the lie to Dumain's assertion that his mistress was a divinity, as presumed by the amended reading, but to that of her being the wonder of a mortal eye. Dumain is answered sentence by sentence.

Scene 3. Page 276.

Mr. Steevens's explanation of coted, and of the whole line, is inadmissible. Foulness or cloudiness is no criterion of the beauty of amber. Mr. Malone has partly explained coted, by marked, but has apparently missed the sense of it here when he adds written down. Mr. Mason has given the true construction of the line, but he mistakes the meaning of coted, which, after all, merely signifies to mark or note. The word is from the French coter, which, in like manner as Mr. Malone has well observed of the English term, is the old orthography of quoter. The grammatical construction is, "her amber hairs have marked or shown that [real] amber is foul in comparison of themselves."

Scene. 3. Page 291.

The objection to Warburton's derivation of quillet from the French is, that there is no such term in the language: nor is it exclusively applicable to law-chicane, though generally so used by Shakspeare. It strictly means a subtilty, and seems to have originated among the schoolmen of the middle ages, by whom it was called a quidlibet. They had likewise their quodlibets and their quiddities. From the schoolmen these terms were properly enough transferred to the lawyers. Hamlet says, "Why may not that be the scull of a lawyer? where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures and his tricks?" The conjectures of Peck, and after him of Dr. Grey in a note to Hudibras, seem to merit but little attention.

Scene 3. Page 294.

An error is here laid to Shakspeare's charge, of which he is not perhaps guilty. The expression trees in the Hesperides must be regarded as elliptical, and signifies trees in the gardens of the Hesperides. Shakspeare is seldom wrong in his mythology, and, if he had doubted on the present occasion, the dictionaries of Eliot or Cooper would have supplied him with the necessary information. The first quotation in the note from Greene, is equally elliptical; for this writer was too good a scholar to have committed the mistake ascribed to Shakspeare: so that the passage, instead of convicting the latter, does in reality support him. As to the other quotation from Orpheus and Eurydice, the learned critic himself lays but little stress on it; or indeed might, on reconsideration, be disposed to think the expression correct. It would not be difficult to trace instances in modern authors of the use of Hesperides for gardens of the Hesperides. See Lempriere's excellent classical dictionary, edit. 1792, 8vo.

Scene 1. Page 302.

Mr Steevens has remarked that Chaucer, Skelton, and Spenser are frequent in their use of this phrase, but he has offered no explanation. It signifies polished language; thus Turbervile, in his translation of Ovid's epistles, makes Phyllis say to her lover—

Scene 1. Page 306.

The cut and thrust notes on this occasion exhibit a complete match between the two great Shakspearean maisters of defence. "A venew," says Mr. Steevens, "is the technical term for a bout (or set-to, as he had before called it in vol. iii. p. 317,) at the fencing school." On the other hand, Mr. Malone maintains that "a venue is not a bout at fencing, but a hit;" and his opponent retorts on the ground of positiveness of denial. As the present writer has himself been an amateur and practitioner of the noble science of defence, he undertakes on this occasion the office of umpire between the sturdy combatants.

The quotations adduced on either side are not calculated to ascertain the clear and genuine sense of the word venew, and it is therefore necessary to seek for more decisive evidence respecting its meaning. Howel in his Lexicon tetraglotton, 1660, mentions "a veny in fencing; venue, touche, toca;" and afterwards more fully in his vocabulary, sect. xxxii. "A foin, veny, or stoccado; la botta; la touche, le coup." In Sir John Harrington's Life of Dr. Still, is the following expression, "he would not sticke to warne them in the arguments to take heede to their answers, like a perfect fencer that will tell afore-hand in which button he will give the venew." Nugæ antiquæ, vol. ii. p. 158, edit. 1804, by Park. In Ben Jonson's Every man in his humour, Act I. Scene 5, Bobadil, in answer to Master Matthew's request for one venue, says, "Venue! fie: most gross denomination as ever I heard; O, the stoccata, while you live, sir, note that." On this passage, Mr. Reed, in a note on the play of The widow's tears, Dodsley's Old plays, vol. vi. 152, observes that "the word appears to have been out of fashion with the fantastic gallants of the time very early." Its occurrence however so late as the time in which Howel's dictionary was published seems to render this ingenious remark very questionable, and suggests another explanation of Bobadil's wish to change the word, namely, his coxcombly preference of the terms of the Spanish and Italian schools of fencing to those used in the English, which, it is presumed, were more immediately borrowed from our Gallic neighbours. That the terms stoccado and imbrocato denoted a hit or thrust, may be collected from many passages in Vincent Saviolo's Use of the rapier and dagger, 1595, 4to; and in Florio's Italian dictionary, 1598, folio, stoccata is rendered, a foyne, a thrust given in fence; and tocco, a venie at fence, a hit. All the above circumstances considered, one should feel inclined to adjudge the palm of victory to Mr. Malone.

It is however remarkable enough that Mr. Steevens is accidentally right in defining a venew a bout, without being aware of the signification of the latter word. Florio renders botta, a blowe, a stroake. In the best of all the ancient French treatises on the art of fencing, entitled Traicté sur l'espée seule, mere de toutes armes, &c., by Henry De Sainct Didier, Paris, 1573, 4to, it is said, "bottes en Napollitain, vaut autant à dire, que coups en François." He then mentions five sorts of bottes, viz. maindrette, renverse, fendante, estoccade, and imbroucade. Nevertheless the word bout had been used in the sense of a set-to in Shakspeare's time. In The first part of King Henry the Sixth, Act I. Scene 5, Talbot says to the Pucelle, "I'll have a bout with thee." It retained, however, its original meaning long afterwards. Howel, and Sherwood likewise in his English dictionary at the end of Cotgrave have "a boute, coup," and so it is defined by Skinner: but the following passage from the account given by Sir Thomas Urquhart in his singular book entitled A discovery of a most exquisite jewel found in the kennel of Worcester streets, &c. 1652, 12mo, of the combat between the admirable Crichton and the celebrated Mantuan duellist, will put the matter beyond all doubt. "Then was it that to vindicate the reputation of the duke's family and to expiate the blood of the three vanquished gentlemen, he alonged a stoccade de pied ferme; then recoyling, he advanced another thrust, and lodged it home; after which retiring again, his right foot did beat the cadence of the blow that pierced the belly of this Italian, whose heart and throat being hit with the two former stroaks, these three franch bouts given in upon the back of other ... by them he was to be made a sacrifice of atonement for the slaughter of the three aforesaid gentlemen who were wounded in the very same parts of their bodies by other such three venees as these." The same mode of expression is also used by the same writer in a subsequent account of a duel between Francis Sinclair, a natural son of the Earl of Caithness, and a German, at Vienna; where it was agreed that he who should give the other the first three bouts, should have a pair of golden spurs, in the event of which combat Sinclair "gave in two venees more than he was obliged to."

On the whole therefore it appears that venew and bout equally denote a hit in fencing; that both Mr. Steevens and Mr. Malone are right in this respect; but that the former gentleman is inaccurate in supposing a venew to mean a set-to, and the latter equally so in asserting that "a venew is not a bout."

Scene 1. Page 311.

This dance was borrowed by us from the French. It is classed among the brawls in Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesographie, already mentioned in page 135.

Scene 2. Page 312.

This description of Cupid is borrowed from some lines in Sidney's Arcadia, B. ii. See them already quoted on another occasion by Dr. Farmer in Much ado about nothing, Act III. Scene 2.

Scene 2. Page 316.

Dr. Warburton's conclusion that fate here signifies death is not satisfactory. Death would be an awkward character for Rosaline to assume, but that of dame fortune infinitely more natural.

It must be owned that destiny and fortune are, strictly speaking, very different characters; yet they have sometimes been confounded. Even Pindar, as Pausanias observes, has made fortune one of the Parcæ. In Julius Cæsar, the expression, "he is but fortune's knave," seems to resemble the present, and to mean, "he is the servant of fortune and bound to obey her." Shakspeare is very fond of alluding to the mockery of fortune. Thus we have

In the last of which passages a pointed allusion is made to the idiot fool. Sir J. Suckling uses the same expression in his play of The goblins; and Hamlet speaks of "the fools of nature," precisely in the same sense.

Scene 2. Page 327.

The word bullets is doubtless an interpolation in the manuscript by some ignorant person who thought it more appropriate than arrows, on account of the substitution of fire-arms for archery. It might very properly be omitted in the text, without any diminution of editorial accuracy.

Scene 2. Page 330.

Of the several explanations here offered of vailing, Dr. Johnson's is the best. The poet compares a lady unmasking to an angel dispelling the clouds in his descent from heaven to earth. The term is from the old French avaler to put or let down; the true etymology of which appears in the phrase à mont et à val, from top to bottom, from mountain to valley, which very often occurs in old romances. In that of the Saint Graal, MS. we have "et avalerent aval le vessel." In Spenser's Shepherd's calendar, under January, "By that the welked Phœbus gan availe."

Scene 2. Page 339.

So in Fennor's Compter's commonwealth, 1617, 4to, p. 14, we have "three pil'd, huge Basilisco oaths, that would have torne a roring-boyes eares in a thousand shatters."

Scene 2. Page 345.

It has been already stated that it was not the next relation only who begged the wardship of idiots in order to obtain possession of their property, but any person who could make interest with the sovereign to whom the legal guardianship belongs. Frequent allusions to this practice occur in the old comedies. In illustration of it, Mr. Ritson has given a curious story, which, as it is mutilated in the authority which he has used, is here subjoined from a more original source, a collection of tales, &c., compiled about the time of Charles the First, preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 6395. "The Lord North begg'd old Bladwell for a foole (though he could never prove him so), and having him in his custodie as a lunaticke, he carried him to a gentleman's house, one day, that was his neighbour. The L. North and the gentleman retir'd awhile to private discourse, and left Bladwell in the dining roome, which was hung with a faire hanging; Bladwell walking up and downe, and viewing the imagerie, spyed a foole at last in the hanging, and without delay drawes his knife, flyes at the foole, cutts him cleane out, and layes him on the floore; my L. and the gentl. coming in againe, and finding the tapestrie thus defac'd, he ask'd Bladwell what he meant by such a rude uncivill act; he answered S^r. be content, I have rather done you a courtesie than a wrong, for if ever my L. N. had seene the foole there, he would have begg'd him, and so you might have lost your whole suite." The same story, but without the parties' names, is related in Fuller's Holy state, p. 182. Powel, in his Attourney's academy, 1630, 4to, says, "I shall neede to give you this monitorie instruction touching an ideot; that you be assured that yourselfe is somewhat the wiser man before you goe about to beg him, or else never meddle with him at all, lest you chance to play at handy-dandy, which is the guardian or which is the foole? and the case alter, è converso, ad conversum." In A treatise of taxes, 1667, 4to, p. 43, there is the following passage: "Now because the world abounds with this kind of fools, (Lottery fools,) it is not fit that every man that will may cheat every man that would be cheated; but it is rather ordained that the sovereign should have the guardianship of these fools, or that some favourite should beg the sovereign's right of taking advantage of such men's folly, even as in the case of lunatics and ideots." To this practice too, Butler alludes, in Hudibras, part iii. canto I, l. 590.

Mr. Justice Blackstone, in treating of idiots, has spoken of it; and adds in a note, that the king's power of delegating the custody of them to some subject who has interest enough on the occasion, has of late been very rarely exerted.

Scene 2. Page 350.

The game of novum or novem, here alluded to, requires further illustration to render the whole of the above passage intelligible. It is therefore necessary to state that it was properly called novum quinque, from the two principal throws of the dice, nine and five; and then Biron's meaning becomes perfectly clear, according to the reading of the old editions. The above game was called in French quinquenove, and is said to have been invented in Flanders.

Scene 2. Page 351.

The genuine worthies were Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, Hector, Alexander, Julius Cæsar, Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bulloigne, or sometimes in his room Guy of Warwick. Why Shakspeare, in the five of them only whom he has introduced by name, has included Hercules and Pompey, remains to be accounted for. It was a great pity to omit, on this occasion, the very curious specimen of an ancient pageant given by Mr. Ritson, who, in stating that nothing of the kind had ever appeared in print, seems to have forgotten the pageants of Dekker, Middleton, and others, a list of which may be found in Baker's Biographia dramatica, vol. ii. 270.

Scene 2. Page 353.

He is addressing, or rather ridiculing Alexander. Plutarch in his life of that hero relates, on the authority of Aristoxenus, that his skin "had a marvellous good savour, and that his breath was very sweet, in so much that his body had so sweet a smell of itselfe that all the apparell he wore next unto his body, tooke thereof a passing delightfull savour, as if it had been perfumed." This Shakspeare had read in Sir Thomas North's translation.

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The clown's Cloacinian allusion to the arms of Alexander is a wilful blunder, for the purpose of introducing his subsequent joke about Ajax. These are the arms themselves copied from the Roman des neuf preux, Abbeville, 1487, folio, showing that the chair is not a chaise-perçée.

The modern patent Bramahs were in Shakspeare's time called Ajaxes. Thus in The hospitall of incurable fooles, 1600, 4to, fo. 7: "Whoever saw so many odd mechanicks as are at this day, who not with a geometricall spirite like Archimedes, but even with arte surpassing the profoundest Cabalistes, who instead of a pigeon loft, place in the garrets of houses, portable and commodious Ajaxes." The marginal explanation comes closer to the point. Again, "the Romans might well be numbered amongst those three-elbowed fooles in adoring Stercutio for a God, shamefully constituting him a patron and protector of Ajax and his commodities," fo. 6.

Scene 2. Page 360.

On this passage Dr. Farmer says, "Vir borealis, a clown, See glossary to Urry's Chaucer." The Doctor's notes are generally clear and instructive, but in this instance he is obscure. It is presumed that he intends to refer the reader to the word borel in Urry's glossary, where it is properly explained a clown. Whether borel be derived from borealis may be questioned; but Shakspeare in all probability was unacquainted with this word and its etymology. Does he not refer to the particular use of the quarter staff in the Northern counties?

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Bombast is from the Italian bombagia, which signifies all sorts of cotton wool. Hence the stuff called bombasine. The cotton put into ink was called bombase. "Need you any inke and bombase?" Hollyband's Italian schole-maister, 1579, 12mo, sign. E. 3.

The clown in this play is a mere country fellow. The term fool applied to him in Act V. Scene 2, means nothing more than a silly fellow. He has not sufficient simplicity for a natural fool, nor wit enough for an artificial one.

It will probably be discovered at some future time that this play was borrowed from a French novel. The dramatis personæ in a great measure demonstrate this, as well as a palpable Gallicism in Act IV. Scene 1, viz. the terming a letter a capon.

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Scene 1. Page 397.

Argosies are properly defined to be "ships of great burthen," and so they are described almost wherever they are mentioned. Mr. Steevens has quoted Rycaut's Maxims of Turkish polity, to show that the term originated in a corruption of Ragosies, i. e. ships of Ragusa. However specious this may appear, it is to be observed that Rycaut, a writer at the end of the seventeenth century, only states it as a matter of report, not as a fact; and he seems to have followed the slight authority of Roberts's Marchant's map of commerce. If any instance shall be produced of the use of such a word as ragosie, the objection must be given up. In the mean time it may be permitted to hazard another opinion, which is, that the word in question derives its origin from the famous ship Argo: and indeed Shakspeare himself appears to have hinted as much; for the story of Jason is twice adverted to in the course of this play. On one of these occasions Gratiano certainly alludes to Antonio's argosie when he says,

Gregory of Tours has more than once made use of Argis to express a ship generally. With respect to Ragozine, it has been contended in a former note, page 89, that this name ought not to have been introduced in the discussion of the present subject.

Mr. Steevens remarks that both ancient and modern editors have hitherto been content to read "burghers on the flood;" and, on the authority of a line in which we have "burghers of a city," he has substituted "burghers of the flood." He might have been less inclined to this new reading, had he recollected that the "signiors and rich burghers on the flood" are the Venetians, who may well be said to live on the sea. It would be difficult to discover who are the signiors and burghers of the flood, unless they be whales and porpoises.

In calling argosies the pageants of the sea, Shakspeare alludes to those enormous machines, in the shapes of castles, dragons, ships, giants, &c., that were drawn about the streets in the ancient shows or pageants, and which often constituted the most important part of them.

Scene 1. Page 399.

Dr. Warburton's note may well be spared in all future editions. If Shakspeare have shown a knowledge of the antique, which he might have obtained from his dictionary at school, the Doctor has, unluckily, on this occasion proved himself less profound in it than Shakspeare, or he would not have ventured to assert that the heads of Janus were those of Pan and Bacchus, Saturn and Apollo, &c. It is presumed that these heads will continue to perplex the learned for many generations.

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Notwithstanding the apparent difference in opinion between Messrs. Steevens and Malone respecting this bird, they are both right. The throstle is only a variety of the thrush, as will be seen by consulting Mr. Pennant's Account of English birds. In The new general history of birds, 1745, 12mo, there is an account of "the song-thrush, or throstle;" and see Randle Holme's Academy of armory, book ii. ch. 12, no. lxxiii.

Scene 3. Page 413.

His stage dress should be a scarlet hat lined with black taffeta. This is the manner in which the Jews of Venice were formerly distinguished. See Saint Didier Histoire de Venise. In the year 1581 they wore red caps for distinction's sake, as appears from Hakluyt's Voyages, p. 179, edit. 1589. Lord Verulam, in his Essay on usury, speaking of the witty invectives that men have made against usury, states one of them to be "that usurers should have orange-tawny bonnets, because they do Judaize."

Scene 3. Page 414.

"It is almost incredyble what gaine the Venetians receive by the usury of the Jewes, both pryvately and in common. For in everye citee the Jewes kepe open shops of usurie, taking gaiges of ordinarie for xv in the hundred by the yere; and if at the yeres ende the gaige be not redemed, it is forfeite, or at the least dooen away to a great disadvantage: by reason whereof the Jewes are out of measure wealthie in those parties."—Thomas's Historye of Italye, 1561, 4to, fo. 77.

Scene 3. Page 416.

Fulsome has, doubtless, the same signification as the preceding epithet rank, the physical reason for its application being very generally known. "Ικτιδος pellis. Proverbium apud Germanos in vilissimum quodque et maxime fœtidum scortum. Nam Ictis, id est sylvestris mustela cum graviter exarserit, male olet." Erasmi Adagia. Spenser makes one of his shepherds speak thus of a kid:

Fulsome is from the Gothic fuls, i. e. foul, fœtid. That it sometimes had another root, viz. full, is manifest from the line in Golding's Ovid, whose expression "fulsome dugs" is in the original "pleno ubere," but is of no service on the present occasion, though quoted by Mr. Steevens.

Scene 3. Page 418.

Mr. Steevens asserts that use and usance anciently signified usury, but both his quotations show the contrary. Mr. Ritson very properly asks whether Mr. Steevens is not mistaken; and Mr. Reed, maintaining that he is right, adduces a passage which proves him to be wrong. A gentleman, says Wylson, borrowed 1000 pounds, running still upon usury and double usury. "The merchants termyng it usance and double usance, by a more clenly name," i. e. interest, till he owed the usurer five thousand pounds, &c. The sense was obscured by the omission of an important comma after the word name. Mr. Malone's note was quite adequate to the purpose of explanation.

Scene 3. Page 421.

Thus in the ballad of Gernutus:

Scene 1. Page 423.

Dr. Johnson's observation that "red blood is a traditionary sign of courage" derives support from our English Pliny, Bartholomew Glantville, who says, after Isidorus, "Reed clothes ben layed upon deed men in remembrance of theyr hardynes and boldnes, whyle they were in theyr bloudde." On which his commentator Batman remarks: "It appereth in the time of the Saxons that the manner over their dead was a red cloath, as we now use black. The red of valiauncie, and that was over kings, lords, knights and valyaunt souldiours."

Scene 2. Page 426.

Mr. Steevens calls this absurdity, and introduces a brother critic, Sir Hugh Evans, who had maintained that "he hears with ears" was affectations: both the parties had forgotten their Bible. As to the proposed alteration "withe thy heels," it might be asked, who ever heard of a person binding his own heels to prevent running? Mr. Malone has well defended the consistency of Launcelot's speech. It may be added that in King Richard II. Act V. Scene 3, we have "kneel upon my knees."

Scene 2. Page 427.

It is not improbable that this curious struggle between Launcelot's conscience and the fiend might have been suggested by some well-known story in Shakspeare's time, grafted on the following Monkish fable. It occurs in a collection of apologues that remain only in manuscript, and have been severally ascribed to Hugo of Saint Victor, and Odo de Sheriton or Shirton, an English Cistercian Monk of the 12th century. "Multi sunt sicut mulier delicata et pigra. Talis vero mulier dum jacet mane in lecto et audit pulsari ad missam, cogitat secum quod vadat ad missam. Et cum caro, quæ pigra est, timet frigus, respondet et dicit, Quare ires ita mane, nonne scis quod clerici pulsant campanas propter oblationes? dormi adhuc; et sic transit pars diei. Postea iterum conscientia pungit eam quod vadat ad missam. Sed caro respondet, et dicit, Quare ires tu tam cito ad ecclesiam? certè tu destrueres corpus tuum si ita manè surrexeris, et hoc Deus non vult ut homo destruat seipsum; ergo quiesce et dormi. Et transit alia pars diei. Iterum conscientia pungit eam quod vadat ad ecclesiam; sed caro dicit, Ut quid ires tam cito? Ego bene scio quod talis vicina tua nondum vadit ad ecclesiam; dormi parum adhuc. Et sic transit alia pars diei. Postea pungit eam conscientia; sed caro dicit, Non oportet quod adhuc vadas, quia sacerdos est curialis et bene expectabit te; attende et dormi. Et sic dormiendo transit tempus. Et tamen ad ultimum verecundia tacita atque coacta, surgit et vadit ad ecclesiam, et invenit portas clausas." Then follows the moral of the fable, in which the church is repentance, the bells the preachers. The lazy flesh prevails over conscience, till, on the approach of death, fear dictates the sending for the priest. An imperfect confession of sins takes place; the party dies, and the miserable soul finds the gates of heaven shut.

Scene 5. Page 443.

It has been supposed that this term originated from the name of a fool belonging to Cardinal Wolsey, and that his parti-coloured dress was given to him in allusion to his name. The objection to this is, that the motley habit worn by fools is much older than the time of Wolsey. Again, it appears that Patch was an appellation given not to one fool only that belonged to Wolsey. There is an epigram by Heywood, entitled A saying of Patch my Lord Cardinal's foole; but in the epigram itself he is twice called Sexten, which was his real name. In a manuscript life of Wolsey, by his gentleman usher Cavendish, there is a story of another fool belonging to the Cardinal, and presented by him to the King. A marginal note states that "this foole was callid Master Williames, owtherwise called Patch."[12] In Heylin's History of the reformation, mention is made of another fool called Patch, belonging to Elizabeth. But the name is even older than Wolsey's time; for in some household accounts of Henry the Seventh, there are payments to a fool who is named Pechie, and Packye. It seems therefore more probable on the whole that fools were nick-named Patch from their dress; unless there happen to be a nearer affinity to the Italian pazzo, a word that has all the appearance of a descent from fatuus. This was the opinion of Mr. Tyrwhitt in a note on A midsummer night's dream, Act III. Scene 2. But although in the above instance, as well as in a multitude of others, a patch denotes a fool or simpleton, and, by corruption, a clown, it seems to have been occasionally used in the sense of any low or mean person. Thus in the passage in A midsummer night's dream just referred to, Puck calls Bottom and his companions a crew of patches, rude mechanicals, certainly not meaning to compare them to pampered and sleek buffoons. Whether in this sense the term have a simple reference to that class of people whose clothes might be pieced or patched with rags; or whether it is derived from the Saxon verb pæcan, to deceive by false appearances, as suggested by the acute and ingenious author of The diversions of Purley, must be left to the reader's own discernment.

Scene 7. Page 450.

To insculp, as Mr. Steevens has observed, means to engrave, but is here put in opposition to it, and simply denotes to carve in relief. The angel on the coin was raised; on the casket indented. The word insculp was however formerly used with great latitude of meaning. Shakspeare might have caught it from the casket story in the Gesta Romanorum, where it is rightly used: "the third vessell was made of lead, and thereupon was insculpt this posey, &c."

Scene 7. Page 450.

The old editions read gilded timber; and however specious the alteration in the text, on the ground of redundancy of measure or defect in grammar, it might have been dispensed with. To infold is to inwrap or contain any thing; and therefore, unless we conclude that do is an error of the press for doth, we must adopt the other sense, however ungrammatically expressed, and suppose the sentiment to be, that timber though fenced or protected with gilding in still liable to the worm's invasion. The lines cited by Mr. Steevens from the Arcadia supports the original reading, as do the following from Silvester's Works, edit. 1633, p. 649:

Scene 8. Page 453.

Dr. Johnson suspects a corruption. Mr. Langton would place a comma after mind. The expression seems equivalent to a loving or affectionate mind, a mind made up of love.

Scene 9. Page 458.

This idea suggests the story of a Jew apothecary, who, to ridicule the Mayersbachs of his time, placed in the front of his shop the figure of a grinning fool holding out an urinal. See Pancirollus De rebus deperditis, lib. ii. tit. 1.

Scene 1. Page 465.

If the reason last assigned in Mr. Steevens's note for the value which Shylock professes for the turquoise be entitled to any preference, the information whereon it rests must be referred to the right owner, who is Anselm de Boot, Nicols being only the translator of his work.

Scene 2. Page 469.

That the swan uttered musical sounds at the approach of death was credited by Plato, Chrysippus, Aristotle, Euripides, Philostratus, Cicero, Seneca, and Martial. Pliny, Ælian, and Athenæus, among the ancients, and Sir Thomas More, among the moderns, treat this opinion as a vulgar error. Luther believed in it. See his Colloquia, par. 2, p. 125, edit. 1571, 8vo. Our countryman Bartholomew Glantville thus mentions the singing of the swan: "And whan she shal dye and that a fether is pyght in the brayn, then she syngethe, as Ambrose sayth," De propr. rer. 1. xii. c. 11. Monsieur Morin has written a dissertation on this subject in vol. v. of the Mem. de l'acad. des inscript. There are likewise some curious remarks on it in Weston's Specimens of the conformity of the European languages with the Oriental, p. 135; in Seelen Miscellanea, tom. i. 298; and in Pinkerton's Recollections of Paris, ii. 336.

Scene 2. Page 472.

The greatest part of the current coin being of silver, this metal is here emphatically called the common drudge in the more frequent transactions among men.

Scene 2. Page 472.

However elegant this emendation by Dr. Warburton, it must yield to the decisive reasoning of Dr. Farmer and Mr. Malone, in favour of paleness, which ought to have been adopted in the text.

Scene 2. Page 474.

A further illustration occurs in the beginning of Lilie's dedication to his Euphues, "Parasius drawing the counterfeit of Hellen, made the attire of her head loose." In Littelton's English and Latin dictionary, we have "A counterfeit of a picture, ectypum."

Scene 2. Page 480.

The meaning is "Antonio with his argosie is not the successful Jason; we are the persons who have won the fleece." See the note in p. 153.

Scene 2. Page 480.

This word occasionally signified grave, as in the present instance. In Withall's Shorte dictionarie, 1599, 4to, fo. 105, we have "sadde, grave, constant,—gravis." So in Twelfth night, when Malvolio is under confinement, he says, "I am no more mad than you are; make the trial of it in any constant question."

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We have here one of the too frequent instances of conjectural readings; but it is to be hoped that all future editors will restore the original woollen, after weighing not only what has been already urged in its support, but the additional and accurate testimony of Dr. Leyden, who in his edition of The complaynt of Scotland, p. 149, informs us that the Lowland bagpipe commonly had the bag or sack covered with woollen cloth of a green colour, a practice which, he adds, prevailed in the northern counties of England.

Scene 1. Page 506.

This incident occurs in the ballad of Gernutus, whence there is reason to suppose it was borrowed. In 1597 was acted at Cambridge a Latin play called Machiavellus, in which there is a Jew, but very unlike Shylock. He is a shrewd intriguing fellow of considerable humour, who, to obtain possession of a girl, puts a number of tricks on the Machiavel of the piece, and generally outwits him. In one scene he overhears his rival despairing of success with the father of his mistress, and expressing a wish that he had some instrument wherewith to put an end to his misery. On this he lays a knife in his way, but first takes care to whet it. To The merchant of Venice or to Gernutus the Latin play was indebted. If to the former, then Shakspeare's play must have been acted before 1597; if to the latter, it strengthens the above conjecture that he borrowed from the ballad. Should Gosson's Jew shown at the Bull ever make its appearance, all would be set right.

Scene 1. Page 507.

Is not this a very common misprint for lay'dst, where the preterite is intended?

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This beautiful sentiment accords very much with the following speech made by Sir James Melvil to the queen of Scots, and printed in his Memoirs, p. 149, edit. 1752, 8vo. These, however, were not published till a considerable time after his death. "For as princes are called divine persons, so no prince can pretend to this title, but he who draws near the nature of God by godliness and good government, being slow to vengeance, and ready to forgive."

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We had already had an English trial by jury at Vienna. See p. 78. Here we have one at Venice.

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On this passage Mr. Steevens founds an argument that Shakspeare was no reader of the classics. It is true that no classical authority for the above circumstance relating to Dido can be found, and that other instances of our poet's errors in classical matters might be adduced; but this will not prove his ignorance of Greek and Roman writers. On the contrary, do not the numerous quotations from them in the notes of his commentators afford sufficient testimony that he had read many ancient authors through the medium of English translations? If this had not been the case, to what end has the useful and interesting list of such translations been drawn up and published by the above learned critic? Wherever Shakspeare met with the image in question, it has reference to the popular superstitions relating to the willow, which will be more fully illustrated in some remarks on a passage in Othello.

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This is spoken of young colts, but the speech is only a poetical amplification of a phrase that seems more properly to belong to deer. In the Noble arte of venerie or hunting, ascribed to Turbervile, the author or translator, speaking of the hart, says, "when he stayeth to looke at any thing, then he standeth at gaze;" and again, "he loveth to hear instruments and assureth himselfe when he heareth a flute or any other sweete noyse. He marvelleth at all things, and taketh pleasure to gaze at them." See likewise Holland's translation of Pliny, tom. i. p. 213.

Scene 1. Page 530.

Had the sentiments in the note on this passage been expressed by Dr. Johnson, disorganized as he was for the enjoyment of music, it would not have been matter to wonder at: but that such a man as Mr. Steevens, whose ordinary speech was melody, and whose correct and elegant ear for poetical concord is so frequently manifested in the course of his Shakspearean labours, should have shown himself a very Timon in music, can only be accounted for by supposing that he regarded the speech in question as a libel on his great colleague's organization. He has here assumed a task, which Dr. Johnson would for obvious reasons have declined; and with the feeble aid of an illiberal passage from Lord Chesterfield's Letters, has most disingenuously endeavoured to cast an odium on a science which from its intimate and natural connexion with poetry and painting, deserves the highest attention and respect. He that is happily qualified to appreciate the better parts of music, will never seek them in the society so emphatically reprobated by the noble lord, nor altogether in the way he recommends. He will not lend an ear to the vulgarity and tumultuous roar of the tavern catch, or the delusive sounds of martial clangour; but he will enjoy this heavenly gift, this exquisite and soul-delighting sensation, in the temples of his God, or in the peaceful circles of domestic happiness: he will pursue the blessings and advantages of it with ardour, and turn aside from its abuses.

The quotation which Mr. Steevens has given from Peacham, is in reality an encomium on music as practised in the time of Shakspeare. It indicates that gentlemen then associated with their equals only in the pursuit of this innocent recreation; and the same writer would have furnished many other observations that tend to place the science of music in an amiable, or at least in a harmless point of view. Mr. Steevens might have also recollected that Cicero has called it "Stabilem thesaurum, qui mores instituit, componitque, ac mollit irarum ardores." It will be readily conceded that Shakspeare has overcharged the speech before us, and that it by no means follows that a man who is unmusical must be a traitor, a Machiavel, a robber; or that he is deserving of no confidence. This, however, is all that should have occupied the commentator's notice; and herein his castigation would have been really meritorious. The Italians too have a proverb that is equally reprehensible: "Whom God loves not, that man loves not music." Let such extravagancies be consigned to the censure they deserve!

Scene 1. Page 542.

This word being nothing more than a contraction of interrogatory, should be elliptically printed, inter'gatory.

There is not a single circumstance through the whole of this play which constitutes Lancelot an allowed fool or jester; and yet there is some reason for supposing that Shakspeare intended him as such, from his being called a patch, a fool of Hagar's offspring, and in one place the fool. It is not reasonable, however, to conclude that a person like Shylock would entertain a domestic of this description; and it is possible that the foregoing terms may be merely designed as synonymous with the appellation of clown, as in Love's labour's lost. On the whole, we have here a proof that Shakspeare has not observed that nice discrimination of character in his clowns for which some have given him credit.

The present subject, notwithstanding it has been already discussed with considerable labour and ingenuity, may still be said to rest in much obscurity. This has partly arisen from some confusion in the mode of stating the information conveyed in the several notes wherein it has been discussed. To render this position the more intelligible, it will be necessary to say a few words on each commentator's opinion: and first on that of Dr. Farmer. He states that the story was taken from an old translation of the Gesta Romanorum, first printed by Wynkyn de Worde; and that Shakspeare has closely copied some of the language. The Doctor's use of the word story is not consistent with his usual accuracy, because, in what follows, he speaks only of the incident of the caskets, which forms in reality but a part of the story. It is much to be wished, for reasons which will hereafter appear, that Dr. Farmer had been more particular in his account of the edition of the Gesta Romanorum which he says was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, none such having, after much inquiry, been discovered; and it is to be feared that he had trusted to a previous statement of his friend the accomplished and elegant historian of English poetry, whose accuracy is unhappily known to have been by no means commensurate with his taste. The Doctor's assertion, that Shakspeare "closely copied some of the language," cannot be maintained until it be first ascertained if any use had been made of the Gesta Romanorum by the author of the old play of the Jew, mentioned by Gosson, and also in what particulars Shakspeare followed him. It is proper to take notice in this place of the mistake that has been committed by those who speak of Shakspeare's imitations of the sources of this play, and who forget that one on the same subject had already appeared, and which might have furnished him with the whole of the plot. It is however probable that he improved it by means of other novels, as will be seen hereafter.

The next critic to be noticed is the truly learned and judicious Mr. Tyrwhitt. He informs us that the two principal incidents of this play occur in the Gesta Romanorum, and produces some extracts from a Latin manuscript of that work in the British museum. Admitting that the incident of the caskets might have been taken from the English Gesta Romanorum, as mentioned by Dr. Farmer, he cautiously gives it as his opinion that both the stories in the Gesta Romanorum quoted by himself are the remote originals of Shakspeare's play; for he had also forgotten the elder drama mentioned by Gosson. He thinks, however, that the bond story might have come to Shakspeare from the Pecorone, but suspects on the whole that he followed some hitherto unknown novelist, who had saved him the trouble of working up the two stories into one. Aware also that Shakspeare's small acquaintance with the Latin language would scarcely enable him to consult the manuscript Gesta Romanorum, he has very properly used the expression remote originals; and the rather, because he had probably examined the printed English editions without finding the story of the bond, which would hardly have escaped the diligent researches of Dr. Farmer, had it really been there. The fact however is, that the bond story did exist in English long before Shakspeare's time, and it is extremely probable that the original author of the Jew used some English Gesta Romanorum for the whole of his plot. There is more stress to be laid on this opinion so far as it regards the original dramatist, because it seems most probable that Shakspeare, on account of the closer resemblance of the story in the Pecorone to his incident of the bond, had, with great advantage, made use of some translation of it now irrecoverably lost. For this reason, with all due respect for Mr. Tyrwhitt's opinion, it is improbable that Shakspeare followed some unknown novelist who had saved him the trouble of working up the two stories into one; unless it be conceded that such person was the author of the elder play.

The last opinion to be noticed is that of Dr. Johnson; and he remarks that the modern translator of the Pecorone thought the incident of the caskets was borrowed from Boccaccio. This shall be examined presently. The Doctor thinks, however, that Shakspeare had some other novel in view, a conjecture which Mr. Malone very properly supports by a reference to Dr. Farmer's note.

In offering some additional observations on the stories that are connected with the Merchant of Venice, it will be necessary, for the purpose of avoiding confusion, to speak separately of the two main incidents on which that play is constructed.

The novel of Boccaccio that has been cited on this occasion, together with some other tales that resemble it, have, it is conceived, no manner of connexion with the play. The curious reader will find one of these stories, and perhaps the most ancient of them, in the lives of Barlaam and Josaphat, as related in the Golden legend, though compiled at a period much anterior to that amusing work. Another is in Gower's Confessio amantis, fo. 96, edit. 1532; and a third in the same work, fo. 96, verso. The latter has been related in a more ample and ingenious manner in the Cento novelle antiche, nov. 65.

In chap. 109 of the Latin printed copy of the Gesta Romanorum, a very different work from that referred to by Dr. Farmer and Mr. Tyrwhitt, there is the following story: A smith had lost a chest of money, which being carried by the sea to the shores of a distant country, was taken up by an inn-keeper, who, not suspecting that it contained any thing, threw it carelessly aside. Having occasion one day for some fuel to warm his guests, he broke up the chest, and finding the money, laid it by safely, till some one should arrive to claim it. The smith soon afterwards appeared; and having publicly declared his loss, the inn-keeper resolved to ascertain if it were the will of Providence that he should make restitution. He therefore caused three pasties to be made; the first he filled with earth, the second with dead men's bones, and the third with money. He then invited the smith to dinner, and gave him the choice of the pasties. The smith fixed on those with the earth and bones, and relinquished the other. The host now concluded that it was not the will of Heaven that he should restore the money; he therefore called in the blind and the lame, opened the other pasty in their presence, and divided the treasure between them.

But the work to which the play stands immediately indebted, is a Gesta Romanorum in English, never printed in Latin, and of which the earliest edition that could be procured on the present occasion was printed by Thomas Est, in 1595, 12mo, and several times afterwards. The latter part only of the 32nd history has been used. This has already been given in English by Dr. Farmer, and in Latin by Mr. Tyrwhitt. It has undoubtedly furnished the author of the play with the incident of the caskets; but he has transposed the mottoes of the gold and silver ones, and substituted another for that of lead.

The character of Leti as an historian warrants an opinion that his story is a mere fabrication, grafted on one of those that he had met with on the same subject. The tale itself is most probably of Eastern origin. Besides that given by Mr. Malone from Ensign Munro's manuscript, a similar one is related in Gladwin's Persian Moonshee, story 13; and another likewise from an oriental source, in the British magazine for 1800, page 159.

In Tyron, Recueil de plusieures plaisantes nouvelles, &c., Anvers, 1590, 18mo, a Christian borrows 500 ducats of a Jew at Constantinople, on condition of paying two ounces of flesh for usury. At the expiration of the term the Christian refuses to pay more than the principal. The matter is brought before the Emperor Solyman, who orders a razor to be brought, and admonishes the Jew not to cut off more or less than the two ounces on pain of death. The Jew gives up the point. The same story occurs in Roger Bontemps en belle humeur; in the Tresor des recreations, Douay, 1625, 18mo, p. 27; in Doctæ nugæ Gaudensij Jocosi, 1713, 12mo, p. 23; in the Courier facetieux, Lyon, 1650, 8vo, p. 109; in the Chasse ennuy, Paris, 1645, 18mo, p. 49; in Corrozet Divers propos memorables, &c., 1557, 12mo, p. 77, of which work there is an English translation under the title of Memorable conceits of divers noble and famous personages of Christendome, &c., 1602, 24mo; in Apophthegmes, ou La recreation de la jeunesse, p. 155. It agrees also with the story related by Gracian in his Hero. See Steevens's Shakspeare, V. 515.

It has been imitated by Antony Munday in his Astræpho, being the third part of Zelauto, or The fountaine of fame, 1580, 4to. This writer had found it in Silvayn's Orator, which, as we have already seen, he translated. Instead of the cutting off a pound of flesh, it is agreed that one of the party's eyes shall be pulled out. Besides the ballad of Gernutus the Jew of Venice, printed in Dr. Percy's Reliques, there is another less ancient, under the title of The cruel Jew's garland, in which the story is varied, and with some ingenuity.

A part of the novel in the Pecorone is most likely of Oriental origin, and might have been transmitted to Ser Giovanni from the same source that supplied Boccaccio and many of the French minstrels with their stories, viz. the crusades.

As the Bond Story in the Gesta Romanorum is not known to exist at present in any printed edition, though it might in Shakspeare's time, and as the Latin original mentioned by Mr. Tyrwhitt has never been printed, it is therefore offered to the reader's notice, and will afford besides an interesting specimen of ancient English. It occurs in a manuscript preserved in the Harleian collection, No. 7333, written in the reign of Henry the Sixth. The language is of the same period.

"Selestinus reignid a wyse emperoure in Rome, and he had a faire dowter; and in his tyme ther was a knyᵹte that lovid this dowter, but he thowte in himselfe that he dud al in veyne, for he thouᵹt as forsothe that the emperoure wolde not late him to have hir, for he was unworthi therto; nevertheles he thought yf he myght be any wey have love of the damiselle it were inowe to me. He yede ofte tyme to the damisell and aspied hir wille; and she said to him ayene that he travaylid al in veyne, for trowist thow, quod she, with thi deseyvable of faire wordes to begile me? Nay sir, be my soule, hit shal not be so. Thenne saide the kniᵹte, What shal I yeve to the and late me lye by the a nyght? Not thowh thou woldest yeve me an C marke of florens, quod she, thou shalt not lye by me a nyght. Then hit shal be as thou wilte, quod he. What dude he but purveyde him of so muche mony, s. an C. marke of floreyns, and yaf hir. Whenne nyght come the kniᵹte enterid into the bed of the mayde, and anoon he was aslepe, and she dude of hir harnes, and come and laye downe by him. So the kniᵹte laye slepynge al the nyght. On the morow she ros, and did on hir clothis, and wishe hir hondes. And the kniᵹte awoke of his slepe, and thenne he said, Come hedir to me that I may do my wille with the. Nay, by the helth of my fadir, that wolle I not, quod she; for frende, I do the no wronge. Thow accordiste with me that I shulde lye with the al nyght, and so it is idon; for I lay by the al nyght, and thou sleptest and preferdest me no solace, and therrfore blame thi selfe, and not me. And the kniᵹte was hevy, and seide, What shal I yeve to the and lete me lygge by the another nyght? As much, quod she, as thou did afor, and no lesse. I assente, seide he. And the kniᵹte yede and solde alle his movable goodes, and made redy an C. marke of floreynse. But se now a marvelouse case; for right as hit was the furste nyght, so hit was in the secounde. Thenne the kniᵹte mervaylid mor thanne man may suppose, and hevy he was, and saide, Allas, for now have I spend al my godes withoute spede; and therfore thow I shulle dye therefor I woll make another ende, how moch shall I yeve the, and late us be togeder the thirde nyght, quod the kniᵹte to the damisell. Sothely, she saide, yf thou have me, as thou paide afore, fiat voluntas tua. I assent, quod he, thou shalte have thin askynge and thi wille. The kniᵹte yede into fer contree, til he come to a grete citee, in the whiche wer many marchaunts and many philesophers, amonge the wiche was master Virgile the philesopher. Then the kniᵹte yede to a grete marchaunt, and saide, I have [nede] of monye, and yf thou wolt lende me an C marke unto a certeyne day, I wolle ley to the al my londes undir this conducion that if I holde not my day thow shalt have my londes for evere. Thenne seyde the marchaunt, Der frend, I sette not so muche be thi londes, but yf thow wolt make this covenaunt, that I shal sey to the, I wolle fulfill thi wille. This saide he I am redy to do thi wille, yf thou wolt do my petucion. Thenne, seide he, when this covenaunt is made that I shalle seye unto the, thenne I shalle fulfille thyne askynge; and the covenaunt shalle be this, that thou make to me a charter of thine owne blood, in conducion that yf thowe kepe not thi day of payment, hit shalle be lefulle to me for to draw awey alle the flesh of thi body froo the bone with a sharp swerde, and yf thow wolt assent herto, I shalle fulfille thi wille. The kniᵹte lovid the damisell so moch that he grauntid al this, and made a charter of his owne bloode, and selid it, and after the selyng this marchaunt toke him the money that he askid. When he had the moneye, he thoute to him selfe, yf I gete my wylle by this moneye, I am but dede; nay, nay, it may not be so. When he harde tell of the grete name of maister Virgile, he yede to him, and seide, Gode sir, I have previ counseill to speke a twene us too, and I beseche yow of your wise counseill in this cas. Sey on, quod Virgile, and I shalle telle the aftir my discrecion. Sir, I love the dowter of the emperoure more than ye wolle trowe, and I accordid with her for a certen sum of money. I have be disceyvid two nyghts in swiche maner; and tolde alle the cas as welle as he coude, and sir nowe I have borowed of a marchaunt so much moneye for the same cas to be fulfillid, and undir this conducion, that yf I holde not my day of payment, hit shalle thenne be lefulle to him to helde of alle the skynne of my body with his swerde, and then I am but dede, and therfor sir, I am com to you to have counsaill and wyt how I may bothe have helpe ayenste swiche a parill, and also to have the love of that lovely lady. Thou hast made a lewde covenaunt, seide Virgile, for as a man bindithe him with his owne wille, right so he shall be servid be lawe of the emperoure; and therefore thou shalt do wysely for to kepe the day of thi payment alle things lefte. And towchinge the damesell I shall yeve the a tale of truthe. Bitwene her shete and her coverlyte of hir bed is a letter of swiche vertu, that whoso ever gothe with hir to bed, he shall anon falle into a dede slepe; and he shalle not wake til time that hit be put awey: and therfor when thou comest to hir bed, seche a twene the shete and the coverlyte, and thow shalt fynde the letter; and when thow hast founde hit caste hit fer from the bedde, and then entre into the bed, for thou shalte not slepe til tyme that thow haste doon thi wille with the damiselle, and that shalle torne to the gret honour and joye. The kniᵹte toke his leve at Virgile, and thonkid him moche of his hie counseill and yede to the damysell, and yafe hir the monye. When nyᵹt come the kniᵹt enterid the chaumber, and preveli putte his honde bitwene the coverlite and the shete, and there he fonde the letter; and whenne he hadde hit he caste hit fer fro the bedde, and lay downe and feynid as he hadde islepte, and thenne the damiselle knowing that he had yslepte as he dude afor, she caste of hir clothis, and went to bedde. Anon the kniᵹte sette hande to hir as is the maner of bed, and she perceyved that, and prayd him of grace, and to save hir maydinhede, and I shall dobble al the monye that thow hast yevin to me and yeve it to the.... And aftur he lovid hir so muche that he drow so moche to hir compane that he forᵹate the marchaunt and the day of payment was passid by the space of xiiii dayes. And as he lay in a certen nyght in his bed, hit come to his mynde the day that he made to the marchaunt, and alle his bowells wer storid therewithe, and thenne said to her, Alas woman that ever I saw the, for I am but dede. I borowed for thi love swiche a some of mony for to pay at a certeyne day bi this conducion, that yf I pay not at my day he shall have full power for to hilde of the fleshe of my body without contradiccion; and now my day is passid fourtenyte ago, so hih I sette myn hert in the. Then seide she, Sorowithe not so moche, gothe to him, and debbelithe the mony to him, and yf he wolle not, aske howe moche he wolle have, and I shalle paye it. Tho was the kniᵹte comfortid. He yede to the citee, and there he mette with the marchaunt in the stret, and lowly he saluid him. Tho saide the marchaunt, So sey I not to the. Thenne seyde the kniᵹte, Sir, for the trespas that I have made ayenste youre convencion I wolle dowble the payment. Naye seide the marchaunt, that spake we not of, I wolle have right as thou dudest bynde the to me. Aske of me, quod the knight, as much mony as thou wolte, and thowe shalt be paide for my trespas. It is veyne that thow spekist, quod the marchaunt, for thowhe thou geve to me al the gode of thi citee, I wolle have the covenaunt I holde, and non othere wolle I have of the than as the charter asselid makith mencioun of; and anon he made the kniᵹt to be itake and lad to the castell, and sette him in a safe ward, abyding the justice. When the juge was come and satte in the dome, the kniᵹt come to barr among other prisoners, and the marchaunt shewid his lettire afor the juge. Anoon as the juge sawe there his owne dede, he said to alle that stode aboute, Sirs, ye know welle it is the law of the emperour that yf enye man bynde him by his owne freewille he shal resseyve as he servithe, and therefore this marchaunt shalle have covenaunt as lawe wolle. Now in al this tyme the damysell his love had sent kniᵹts for to aspie and enquer how the law was pursued ayenst him, and whenne she harde telle that the lawe passid ayenst him, she kytte of al the longe her of hir hede, and cladde hir in precious clothing like to a man, and yede to the palys there as hir lemon was to be demyd, and saluyd the justice, and all they trowid that she had be a kniᵹte; and the juge enquerid of what contree she was, and what she had to do ther. She said, I am a kniᵹte, and come of fer contree, and her tithings that there is a kniᵹte amonge yowe that shuld be demid to dethe for an obligacion that he made to a marchaunt, and therefor I am come to deliver him. Thenne the juge said, It is lawe of the emperoure that who so ever byndethe him with his owne propre wille and consent withoute enye constraynynge he shulde be servid so ayene. When the damisell harde this she turnid to the marchaunt and saide, Der frende, what profite is it to the that this kniᵹte that stondithe her redy to the dome be slayne? it wer [better] to the to have monye than to have him slayne. Thou spekest al in veyne, quod the marchaunt, for withoute doute I wolle have the lawe sithe he bonde him so frely, and therefor he shalle have noon other grace than lawe wolle, for he come to me, and I not to him. I desirid him not thereto ayenste his wille. Thenne saide she, I praye the howe moche shall I yeve to have my petucion? I shalle yeve the thi monye double, and yf that be not plesynge to the, aske of me what thou wolte, and Thou shalt have. Then saide he, thow harde me never seye but that I wolde have my covenaunte kept. Sothely, seyde she, and thou shalt trowe me afor your [you] sir juge, and afor yowe alle, I sey now sir juge ywithe a right wisdome of that that I shal seye to yowe; ye have ihard howe moche I have proferid this marchaunt for the lyf of this kniᵹte, and he forsakithe all, and askithe the lawe, and that likith me moche; and therfore lordinges that beye her, herithe me what I shalle seye. Ye knowithe welle that the kniᵹt bonde him never by letter but that the marchaunt shulde have power to kutte his fleshe fro the boons, but there was no covenaunt made of sheding of blode, thereof was nothing ispoke, and therefor late him set hond on him anoon, and yf he shede ony bloode with his shavinge of the fleshe forsothe then shalle the kynge have goode lawe upon him. And when the marchaunt harde this he said, Yef me my monye, and I foryeve my accion. Fforsothe, quod she, thou shalt not have oo penye, for afor al this companye I proferid to the al that I myght, and thou forsoke hit, and saydist with a lowde wyse, I shalle have my covenaunte; and therfor do thi beste with him, but loke that thow shede no blode I charge the; for it is not thin, ne no covenaunt was thereof. Thenne the marchaunt seynge this yede away confus. And so was the Kniᵹt's lyf savid, and no penye ipayde. And she yede home ayene, and dude of that clothinge, and clothid hit as she was afor like to a woman. And the kniᵹte yede home ayene, and the damisell turnid and met him, and askid howe he had ispedde, as thowhe she had not knowen therof. A, lady, quod he, this day was I in poynt to be dede for thy love, but as I was in point to be dampned, there come in sodeynlye a knite, a fair and well ishape, the whiche I saw never afor, and he delivirid me by his exellent wisdom bothe from dethe and eke from payment of moneye. Thenne were thowhe, quod she, unkynde that woldest nat bidde that kniᵹte to mete, that so faire had savid the. He aunswerde therto, and saide that he come sodeinly and sodenly yede. Thenne seide she, Knowiste thow him if thou seye him? Yee, quod he, right wele. She yede up and cladde hir as she dide afore, and then she yede forthe. And the kniᵹte knew her thenne wele, and for joye fel doune upon hire, and said, Blessid be thow, and the houre in the whiche I fyrste knew the. And he wepte, and aftir he weddid hir and livid and deyde in the service of God, and yelde to God goode sowlis."

On the whole, then, it is conceived that the outline of the bond story is of Oriental origin;[13] that the author of the old play of The Jew, and Shakspeare in his Merchant of Venice, have not confined themselves to one source only in the construction of their plot; but that the Pecorone, the Gesta Romanorum, and perhaps the old Ballad of Gernutus, have been respectively resorted to. It is however most probable that the original play was indebted chiefly, if not altogether, to the Gesta Romanorum, which contained both the main incidents; and that Shakspeare expanded and improved them, partly from his own genius, and partly, as to the bond, from the Pecorone, where the coincidences are too manifest to leave any doubt. Thus, the scene being laid at Venice; the residence of the lady at Belmont; the introduction of a person bound for the principal; the double infraction of the bond, viz., the taking more or less than a pound of flesh and the shedding of blood, together with the after-incident of the ring, are common to the novel and the play. The whetting of the knife might perhaps have been taken from the Ballad of Gernutus. Shakspeare was likewise indebted to an authority that could not have occurred to the original author of the play in an English form; this was, Silvayn's Orator, as translated by Munday. From that work Shylock's reasoning before the senate is evidently borrowed; but at the same time it has been most skilfully improved.

The frequent allusions to the different Gesta Romanorum may have excited a wish to be more familiarly acquainted with that singular and interesting work; but as the discussion of the subject in this place would have augmented the tediousness of the note, it has been thought better to make the attempt in a separate dissertation, where it is hoped that any obscurity in the preceding remarks will be removed.

It is much to be lamented that this exquisitely beautiful drama can neither be read nor performed, without exciting in every humane and liberal mind an abhorrence of its professed design to vilify an ancient and respectable, but persecuted, nation. It should be remembered that contempt and intolerance must naturally excite hatred; that to provoke revenge is, in fact, to become responsible for the crimes it may occasion; that to those who would degrade and oppress us, it is but justice to oppose craft; and that nature has supplied even the brute creation with the means of resisting persecution. It will be readily conceded that there happily exist in the present moment but few remains of the illiberal prejudices complained of, the asperity of which has been greatly mitigated by the laudable and successful exertions of a modern dramatic writer, to whom the Jewish people are under the highest obligations.

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Scene 2. Page 16.

It must be observed that Touchstone is here called a natural merely for the sake of alliteration and a punning jingle of words; for he is undoubtedly an artificial fool.

Scene 2. Page 29.

The old copy had, than I. These grammatical errors in the use of the personal pronoun should either be uniformly corrected or left entirely to themselves. Mr. Steevens in p. 9, note 7, seems to regard them as the anomalies of the play-house editors; but Mr. Malone, probably with more reason, is inclined to place them to the author's own account. If the present correction by Mr. Rowe be retained in future editions, we ought not to find such expressions as "hates nothing more than he," p. 14; "no child but I," p. 15, and who for whom perpetually.

Scene 1. Page 37.

What that stone which many people suppose to come from the head of a toad really was, would be no easy task at present to determine. Various conjectures have made it the bsatrachites, chelonites, brontia, ceraunia, glossopetra, &c. Neither is it certain that the text alludes to a stone; for Gesner informs us that in his time, and in England more particularly, the common people made superstitious uses of a real jewel that always could be found in a toad's head, viz., its forehead bone. To obtain this they severed the animal in two parts, and exposed it to be devoured by ants; by which means it presently became a skeleton. The above author carefully distinguishes this bone from the toadstone, and from Pliny's bone mentioned in Mr. Steevens's note. He has likewise with great industry, as on all occasions, collected much that relates to the subject of the toadstone. See his work De quadrup. ovipar. p. 65. It must be owned that better naturalists than Shakspeare believed in the common accounts of the toadstone. Batman in his edition to the article relating to the botrax or rubeta in Bartholomæus De propr. rerum, informs us that "some toads that breed in Italy and about Naples, have in their heads a stone called a crapo, of bignes like a big peach, but flat, of colour gray, with a browne spot in the midst said to be of vertue. In times past they were much worne, and used in ringes, as the forewarning against venime." Another learned divine who is often very witty, but on this occasion perfectly grave, has told us that "some report that the toad before her death sucks up (if not prevented with sudden surprisal) the precious stone (as yet but a jelly) in her head, grudging mankind the good thereof."—Fuller's Church history, p. 151. In a medical work too we are informed that "in the head of a greate tode there is a stone, which stone being stampt and geven to the pacyent to drinke in warme wine, maketh him to pise the stone out incontinent," &c.—Lloyd's Treasure of helth, pr. by Copland, n. d. 12mo. The notion of jewels in the heads of animals is very widely spread. Mr. Wilkins has informed us that it is a vulgar notion in India that some species of serpents have precious stones in their heads. Hectopades, p. 302. The best account of the different sorts of toadstones, so far as regards the illustration of the above superstitious notions, is in Topsell's History of serpents, 1608, folio, p. 188.

Scene 1. Page 39.

The stag is said to possess a very large secretion of tears. "When the hart is arered, he fleethe to a ryver or ponde, and roreth cryeth and wepeth when he is take."—Bartholomæus De propriet. rerum, 1. xviii. c. 30. Batman, in his commentary on that work, adds, from Gesner, that "when the hart is sick and hath eaten many serpents for his recoverie, he is brought unto so great a heate, that he hasteth to the water, and their covereth his body unto the very eares and eyes, at which time distilleth many teares from which the [Bezoar] stone is gendered," &c. The translator of The noble arte of Venerie makes the hart thus address the hunter:

Compare also Virgil's description of the wounded stag in the seventh book of the Æneid.

Scene 2. Page 43.

"To quail," says Mr. Steevens, "is to faint, to sink into dejection;" and so it certainly is, but not in this instance; for neither search nor inquisition could very well faint or become dejected. They might indeed slacken, relax, or diminish, and such is really the present meaning of the word. Thus "Hunger cureth love, for love quaileth when good cheare faileth."—The choise of change, 1585, 4to, sign. L. i. To quail is also used in the several senses of to sink, abate, deaden, enfeeble, press down, and oppress; all of which might be exemplified from the writings of authors contemporary with Shakspeare, and some of them from his own. It seems to be a modification of to quell, i. e. to destroy altogether, to kill, from the Saxon cƿellan.

Scene 2. Page 54.

Bartholomæus, speaking of apes, says, "some be called cenophe; and be lyke to an hounde in the face, and in the body lyke to an ape."—Lib. xviii. c. 96.

Scene 5. Page 55.

The stanza which the facetious old squire sang before Dr. Farmer has occurred in the following shape; but where is the Œdipus who shall unfold the connexion of either with Jaques's song?

Scene 7. Page 66.

Mr. Steevens refers to the totus mundus exerceat histrioniam of Petronius, with whom probably the sentiment originated; but this author had not been translated in Shakspeare's time. The play of Damon and Pythias, which Mr. Malone has cited, might have furnished the observation. There are likewise two other probable sources that are worthy of notice on this occasion. The first is Withal's Short dictionarie in Latine and English, several times printed in the reign of Elizabeth, where in fo. 69 of the edit. 1599, is the following passage: "This life is a certain enterlude or plaie. The world is a stage full of chang everie way, everie man is a plaier." The other is Pettie's translation of Guazzo's Civile conversation, 1586, 4to, where one of the parties introduces the saying of some philosopher "that this world was a stage, we the players which present the comedie." Shakspeare had himself used nearly the same language in the first act of The merchant of Venice:

A portion of Jaques's speech has been imitated in some lines by Thomas Heywood among the commendatory verses prefixed to his Actors vindication, 1658, 4to:

Scene 7. Page 66.

A print of the seven ages of men like those referred to by Messrs. Henley and Steevens may be seen in Comenius's Orbis pictus, tit. xxxvii., in which are found the infant, the boy, and the decrepid old man: the rest of Shakspeare's characters seem to be of his own invention. There is a division of the seven ages of man in Arnolde's Chronicle, fo. lix. verso, agreeing, except in the arrangement of years, with that given by Mr. Malone from The treasury of ancient and modern times.

Scene 7. Page 69.

Jaq. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.

This word, introduced into our language as early as the time of Chaucer, has sometimes received on the stage a French pronunciation, which in the time of Shakspeare it certainly had not. The old orthography will serve to verify this position:

Scene 2. Page 82.

On this Mr. Steevens observes that Shakspeare had little knowledge of gardening, the medlar being one of the latest fruits, and uneatable till the end of November. But is not the charge, at least in this instance, unfounded; and has not the learned commentator misunderstood the poet's meaning? It is well known that the medlar is only edible when apparently rotten. This is what Shakspeare calls its right virtue. If a fruit be fit to be eaten when rotten and before it be ripe, it may in one sense be termed the earliest. The inaccuracy seems to be in making the medlar rotten before it is ripe, the rottenness being, as it is conceived, the ripeness.

Scene 2. Page 93.

This very much resembles the sed male cum recitas, incipit esse tuum, in one of Martial's epigrams, lib. i. ep. 39, of which the following translation was made by Timothy Kendall, in his Flowers of epigrammes, 1577, 12mo:

Scene 4. Page 111.

Theobald explains cast lips "a pair left off by Diana." It is not easy to conceive how the goddess could leave off her lips; or how, being left off, Orlando could purchase them. Celia seems rather to allude to a statue cast in plaister or metal, the lips of which might well be said to possess the ice of chastity.

As to the "nun of winter's sisterhood," Warburton might have contented himself with censuring the dullness of Theobald. His own sisterhoods of the seasons are by much too refined and pedantic, and in every respect objectionable. Shakspeare poetically feigns a new order of nuns, most appropriate to his subject, and wholly devoid of obscurity.

Scene 5. Page 115.

There is no doubt that the expression to fall the axe may with propriety refer to the usual mode of decapitation; but if it could be shown that in the reign of Elizabeth this punishment was inflicted in England by an instrument resembling the French guillotine, which though merciful in the discharge of its office, has justly excited abhorrence from the number of innocent victims that have suffered by it, the expression would perhaps seem rather more appropriate. Among the cuts to the first edition of Holinshed's chronicle such a machine is twice introduced; and as it does not appear that in either instance there was any cause for the particular use of it, we may reasonably infer that it was at least sometimes adopted. Every one has heard of the Halifax gibbet, which was just such another instrument, and certainly introduced into that town, for reasons that do not appear, long before the time in which Holinshed was printed. It is said that the Earl of Morton, the Scotish regent, saw it at Halifax, and that he introduced it into Scotland, where it was used for a considerable time afterwards.[14] In that country it was called the maiden, and Morton himself actually suffered by it, when condemned as an accomplice in the murder of Lord Darnley. In the best edition of Holinshed, Thynne's continuation of Hector Boethius's history is printed, in which there is an account of the conference between the Earl and the Ministers of Edinburgh, under the title of The examination and answers of the Earl of Morton before his death, but after his condemnation. Thynne seems to say that the above account was delivered over to him, but he has omitted to state the particulars. In a manuscript of this conference, written at the time, and in the possession of the author of these observations, it is called The some of all the conferrence that was betweene the Earle Morton and John Dury and Mr. Walker the same daye that he suffered which was the 2 June 1581, and differs in several places from the other. In both, at the end, there is an account of the Earl's last moments, in which it is stated (the MS. being here quoted) that he "layde his head under the axe, his handes being unbounde, Mr. Walker cried in his eare, Lord Jesus receive thy spirite, he saide Jesus receive my sowle, which wordes he was speaking while the axe fell on his necke." This extract would alone be sufficient to decide on the mode in which Morton was beheaded; but in the MS. there is a neat drawing of the machine itself, resembling the cut in the earliest edition of Holinshed, except that in the latter the axe is suspended to the top of the frame by a string which the executioner cuts with a knife, whilst in the other, a peg, to which the string is attached, is drawn out of one of the sides.

It may be worth adding that in King Henry VI. part 2, Eleanor says to her husband the duke of Gloucester,

Scene 5. Page 118.

The old copy reads no beauty. Mr. Malone substitutes mo, i. e. more, and supports his alteration by making Rosalind allow that Phœbe had more beauty than her lover; but she soon afterwards asserts the contrary in the most positive terms. The omission of the disputed monosyllable, which in the old copy might have caught the compositor's eye in the ensuing line and occasioned the mistake, will certainly correct the present redundancy in the line, and perhaps restore the author's original language. As in the next line appears to have the power of though; a word that could not be used on account of its introduction in the preceding line.

Scene 1. Page 130.

"He commeth to houses by night, and feineth mannes voyce as he maye," &c.—Bartholomæus De propriet. rer. lib. xviii. c. 61. De Hiena.

Scene 3. Page 142.

This property of the lion, whether true or false, was acknowledged by our forefathers. Thus in "The choise of change containing the divinitie, philosophie, and poetrie," &c., 1585, 4to, a work evidently constructed on the model of the Welsh triads, we find the following passage: "three things shew that there is a great clemencie in lions; they will not hurt them that lie groveling," &c. Bartholomæus says, "their mercie is known by many and oft ensamples: for they spare them that lye on the ground." Shakspeare again alludes to the lion's generosity in Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Scene 3:

Scene 2. Page 152.

Of the two constructions of this speech, that by Mr. Steevens seems deserving of the preference; but the grounds on which it stands require examination. A statute against witchcraft was made in the first year of king James. Now if, as Dr. Warburton conceives, it is to this that Rosalind alludes, the play must have been written after 1603. Mr. Malone, whose opinion is supported by very solid reasons, thinks it was written in 1600; and therefore to reconcile the explanation given by Mr. Steevens, we must suppose that the foregoing allusion is to some prior statutes of Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth, which punished those who practised witchcraft with death.

Scene 2. Page 154.

The context seems to require that we should read satisfy; and it was the genius of Shakspeare's age to write so.

Touchstone is the domestic fool of Frederick the duke's brother, and belongs to the class of witty or allowed fools. He is threatened with the whip, a mode of chastisement which was often inflicted on this motley personage. His dress should be a party-coloured garment. He should occasionally carry a bauble in his hand, and wear asses' ears to his hood, which is probably the head dress intended by Shakspeare, there being no allusion whatever to a cock's head or comb. The three-cornered hat which Touchstone is made to wear on the modern stage is an innovation, and totally unconnected with the genuine costume of the domestic fool.

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In the dramatis personæ of this play the "gentle astringer" is omitted, who, though he says but little, has a better claim to be inserted than Violenta, who says nothing. Mr. Steevens remarks that her name was borrowed from an old metrical history entitled Didaco and Violenta; but Shakspeare more probably saw it in the running title of Painter's Palace of pleasure, whence he got his plot of this play, and where the above history occurs in prose. The title is borrowed from a proverbial saying much older than the time of Shakspeare. Knyghton has preserved some of the speeches of Jack Straw and his brother insurgents; and in that of Jack Carter we have this expression: for if the ende be wele than is alle wele. The orations of these heroes were made up of proverbial saws, a proof of the great influence they must have had with the common people. See the Decem scriptores by Twysden, col. 2637.

Scene 1. Page 187.

What Mr. Steevens calls the inelegance of the king's disorder is not to be placed to Shakspeare's account; for it is specifically mentioned both in Painter's story of Giletta, and in Boccaccio himself. It is singular that the learned critic should not have remembered this.

Scene 1. Page 188.

The explanations of this speech appear to be too refined; and Dr. Warburton's, as usual, particularly so. The meaning is simply this:—where strong and useful talents are combined with an evil disposition, we feel regret even in commending them; because, in such a mind, however good in themselves, their use and application are always to be suspected.

Scene 3. Page 217.

A reconsideration of these words have suggested the necessity of cancelling both the notes, for the clown is not a natural, but an artificial fool.

Scene 3. Page 224.

This strange and faulty language deserved notice. It should have been, or were you so to both.

Scene 1. Page 234.

He means that he shall remain at home to lead out ladies in the dance, till honour, &c. In Titus Andronicus, Act II. Scene 1, Demetrius speaks of a dancing rapier. The custom of wearing swords in the dancing schools is exemplified in a curious story related in Newes from the North, 1579, 4to, where "Pierce Plowman sheweth how his neighbour and hee went to the tavern and to the dauncing schoole and what hapned there," in these words: "Now was there one man of our company that was as deaf as a doore naile. When we were come into the schoole; the musitions were playing and one dauncing of a galiard, and even at our entring hee was beginning a trick as I remember of sixteens or seventeens, I doo not very wel remember, but wunderfully hee leaped, flung and took on, which the deaf man beholding, and not hearing any noyse of the musick, thought verily that hee had been stark mad and out of his wit, and of pure pittie and compassion ran to him and caught him in his armes and held him hard and fast. The dauncer not knowing his good meaning, and taking it to the wurst, and having a dagger drew it out, and smot the man a great blowe upon the hed, and brake his hed very sore." Another illustration of the subject is too interesting from the picture of ancient manners which it exhibits to stand in need of any apology for its insertion. It is from Stafforde's Briefe conceipt of English pollicy, 1581, 4to. "I thinke wee were as much dread or more of our enemies, when our gentlemen went simply and our serving men plainely, without cuts or gards, bearing their heavy swordes and buckelers on their thighes insted of cuts and gardes and light daunsing swordes; and when they rode carrying good speares in theyr hands in stede of white rods, which they cary now more like ladies or gentlewomen then men; all which delicacyes maketh our men cleane effeminate and without strength."

Scene 2. Page 249.

The covert allusion mentioned by Mr. Ritson is, in all probability, the right solution of this passage; but the practice of marrying with a rush ring may admit of some additional remarks. Sir John Hawkins had already, in a very curious and interesting note, illustrated the subject; and it must appear very extraordinary that one of the subsequent notes should question the practice of marrying with a rush ring, on the grounds that no authority had been produced in support of it. This must therefore be explained. The fact is, that the author of the doubts had never seen Sir John Hawkins's entire note, which had originally appeared in the edition of 1778, but was injudiciously suppressed in that of 1785. In the edition of 1790 there is only a brief and general statement of Sir John's opinion, and this led to the doubts expressed. In 1793 Mr. Steevens restores a note which he had already cancelled, and with all its authorities before him, permits them to be questioned; but there are many who will comprehend his motive.

The information from Du Breul (not Breval, as misprinted) Theâtre des antiquitez de Paris. 1612. 4to, is worth stating more at large. The author tells us that in the official court of the church of Saint Marinus, those who have lived unchastely are conducted to the church by two officers, in case they refuse to go of their own accord, and there married by the curate with a rush ring. They are likewise enjoined to live in peace and friendship, thereby to preserve the honour of their friends and relations, and their own souls from the danger they had incurred. This is only practised where no other method of saving the honour of the parties and their connexions can be devised. A modern French writer remarks on this ceremony; "pour faire observer, sans doute, au mari, combien etoit fragile la vertu de celle qu'il choisissait."

With respect to the constitutions of the bishop of Salisbury in 1217, which forbid the putting of rush rings on women's fingers, there seems to be an error in the reason for this prohibition as stated by Sir John Hawkins, but for which he is not perhaps responsible. He says it is insinuated by the bishop, "that there were some people weak enough to believe, that what was thus done in jest, was a real marriage." The original words, as in Spelman's councils, are these: "ne dum jocari se putat, honoribus matrimonialibus se abstringat." Now unless we read "adstringat" there is a difficulty in making sense of the passage, which seems to mean, least, whilst he thinks he is only practising a joke, he may be tying himself in the matrimonial noose. It is to be observed that this consequence was not limited to the deception of putting a rush ring only on the woman's finger, but any ring whatever, whether of vile or of precious materials.

In Greene's Menaphon is this passage: "Well, 'twas a good worlde when such simplicitie was used, sayes the old women of our time, when a ring of a rush would tie as much love together as a gimmon of golde." But rush rings were sometimes innocently used. Thus in Spenser's Shepherds calendar, eclog. xi. mention is made of "the knotted rush rings, and gilt rosemaree" of the deceased shepherdess. Again in Fletcher's Two noble kinsmen, Act iv.;

Tib and Tom were names for any low or vulgar persons, and they are usually mentioned together in the same manner as Jack and Gill, &c. In the morality of Like will to like quoth the devil to the collier, Nicholas Newfangle says,

In the old song of The shepheard's holyday, we have,

Thomas Drant in his translation of Horace's Arte of poetrye, 1567, 4to, has Englished fricti ciceris et nucis emptor, by Tom and Tib, &c.; and in A satyr against Satyrs, or St. Peter's vision transubstantiated, 1680, 4to, are these lines:

Scene 3. Page 257.

Mr. Tyrwhitt regards the latter exclamation as ludicrous, in consequence of Helena's limitation of one mistress to each lord, and would therefore give it to Parolles. Mr. Mason, on the contrary, is of opinion that the words but one, mean except one; that the person excepted is Bertram, whose mistress Helena hoped she herself should be; and that she makes the exception out of modesty, as otherwise it would extend to herself. Of these two opinions the first is the most probable, deriving considerable support from the one in the preceding line; for if Shakspeare had meant except one, he would have written "a fair and virtuous mistress." Helena's exception as stated by Mr. Mason might indeed have been made on the score of modesty so far as regarded her beauty; but she could not with propriety admit that she had no virtue.

Scene 3. Page 257.

Mr. Steevens should have added that this was a proper name for a horse, as well as an appellation for a dock'd one. "Their knavery is on this manner; they have always good geldings and trusty, which they can make curtailes when they list, and againe set too large tailes, hanging to the fetlockes at their pleasure."—Martin Marhall's apologie to the belman of London, 1610, sign. G. Curtail is not from cur and tail, as stated in some dictionaries, but from the French tailler court.

Scene 6. Page 298.

The meaning of this phrase has been very well ascertained, but its origin remains to be traced. Is it a metaphor borrowed from the beating of a drum, or does it allude to the drumming a person out of a regiment? There can be no reference to a real person, because in many old writers we find both Jack and Tom Drum.

Scene 3. Page 323.

An allusion to the game of blindman's buff, formerly called hoodman blind.

Scene 3. Page 326.

Mr. Ritson will not admit this to be a fool kept by the sheriff for diversion, but supposes her one of those idiots whose care, as he says, devolved on the sheriff when they had not been begged of the king on account of the value of their lands. Now if this was the law, the sheriff must have usually had more than one idiot in his custody; and had Shakspeare alluded to one of these persons, he would not have chosen so definite an expression as that in question; he would rather have said, "a sheriff's fool." Female idiots were retained in families for diversion as well as male, though not so commonly; and there would be as much reason to expect one of the former in the sheriffs household as in that of any other person. It is not impossible that our author might have in view some real event that had just happened.

Scene 3. Page 327.

In Whitney's Emblems, a book certainly known to Shakspeare, there is a story of three women who threw dice to ascertain which of them should first die. She who lost affected to laugh at the decrees of fate, when a tile suddenly falling, put an end to her existence.

Scene 3. Page 329.

This is an allusion to the story of Andromeda in old prints, where the monster is very frequently represented as a whale.

Scene 3. Page 333.

The quart d'ecu, or as it was sometimes written cardecue, was a French piece of money first coined in the reign of Henry III. It was the fourth part of the gold crown, and worth fifteen sols. It is a fact not generally known, that many foreign coins were current at this time in England; some English coins were likewise circulated on the continent. The French crown and its parts passed by weight only.

Scene 4. Page 339.

In King Henry VI. part 2. Act V. we have "la fin couronne les œuvres." Both phrases are from the Latin finis coronat opus. In this sense we still use the expression to crown, for to finish or make perfect. Coronidem imponere is a metaphor well known to the ancients, and supposed to have originated from the practice of finishing buildings by placing a crown at their top as an ornament; and for this reason the words crown, top and head are become synonymous in most languages.

There is reason for believing that the ancients placed a crescent at the beginning, and a crown, or some ornament that resembled it, at the end of their books. In support of the first usage we have a poem by Ausonius entitled CORONIS which begins in this manner:

And of the other, these lines in Martial, lib. x. ep. 1:

The mark which was used in later times for the coronis has been preserved in the etymologies of Isidore, lib. i. c. 20. It is this, ; and in some manuscripts of that writer and . In other places it has these forms, .

Scene 5. Page 343.

The Devil is often called so by Saint John.

Scene 2. Page 349.

"This," says Mr Steevens, "is an undoubted and perhaps irremediable corruption of some French word." Yet the name is obviously La vache, which, whether really belonging to the clown or not, seems well adapted to such a character.

Scene 2. Page 351.

The text is perfectly intelligible, and requires no conjectural amendment. The clown calls Parolles's letter a pur; because, like the purring of the sycophant cat, it was calculated to procure favour and protection.

He is a domestic fool of the same kind as Touchstone.

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Scene 1. Page 386.

Perhaps these words are part of an old Spanish proverb, corresponding with the Portuguese, "A o hom entendedor poucas palavras," i. e. to an intelligent man, few words. Most of the modern European languages have a proverb like our "word to the wise." In Ben Jonson's Masque of Augures, Vangoose is made to exclaim "hochos-pochos, paucos palabros."

Scene 1. Page 394.

Of the various modes of filling up this blank suggested in the notes, that of Dr. Johnson, who would insert sly, is the most probable. Mr. Steevens asks, "how should the Lord know the beggar's name to be Sly?" This is very true; yet Shakspeare might as well forget himself in this place as he certainly did a few pages afterwards, where he makes the Lord's servant talk of Cicely Hacket, &c.

Scene 1. Page 414.

She means to say, "do you intend to make a strumpet of me among these companions?" but the expression seems to have been suggested by the chess-term of stale mate, which is used when the game is ended by the king being alone and unchecked, and then forced into a situation from which he is unable to move without going into check. This is a dishonourable termination to the adversary, who thereby loses the game. Thus in Lord Verulam's twelfth essay, "They stand still like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir."

Scene 2. Page 427.

Dr. Farmer's note might have been omitted, as it refers to a story which has no manner of connection with that to which Petruchio alludes.

Scene 2. Page 436.

To fear is to frighten. In Mathews's Bible, psalm xci. v. 5, is thus rendered: "Thou shalt not nede to be afraied for any bugs by night." In the Hebrew it is "terror of the night;" a curious passage, evidently alluding to that horrible sensation the night-mare, which in all ages has been regarded as the operation of evil spirits. Thus much seemed necessary in explanation or defence of the above most excellent old translation, which we have retained with very little change in the language; for the expression, from its influence on a modern ear, might have been liable to a very ludicrous construction. The word bug is originally Celtic, bŵg, a ghost or goblin, and hence bug-bear, boggerd, bogle, boggy-bo, and perhaps pug, an old name for the Devil. Boggy-bo seems to signify the spirit Bo, and has been thought, with some probability, to refer to a warrior of that name, the son of Odin, and of great celebrity among the ancient Danes and Norwegians. His name is said to have struck his enemies with terror, and might have been used by the nurses of those times to frighten children, as that of Marlborough was in France on the same occasion. It is remarkable that the Italian women use bau bau, for this purpose, and the French ba-bo. It should seem as if bug had been metaphorically applied to the cimex, that insect being in all respects a terror of the night. Nor was the word used in this sense till late in the seventeenth century, the old names for the house bug being, wall-louse, wig-louse, chinch, punie, and puneez; the two last from the French.

Scene 1. Page 442.

It is perhaps an ill-natured, though a very common, presumption, that the single state of old maids originates either in prudery or in real aversion to the male sex, and that consequently they deserve some kind of punishment in the next world. It is therefore not a matter of wonder that some of our waggish forefathers, impressed with this idea, should have maintained that these obdurate damsels would be condemned to lead apes in the inferior regions, instead, as Mr. Steevens has ingeniously suggested, of children; or perhaps with a view to compel them to bestow such attention on these deformed animals as they had formerly denied to men. So in Rabelais' hell, Alexander the great is condemned, for his ambition, to mend old stockings, and Cleopatra, for her pride, to cry onions.

It is said that homicides and adulterers were in ancient times compelled by way of punishment to lead an ape by the neck, with their mouths affixed in a very unseemly manner to the animal's tail. The fact is mentioned in the early Latin dictionary entitled Vocabularius breviloquus, and in the Catholicon of Johannes Januensis, both printed at the end of the fifteenth century, under the article anulus. It is added, that the above punishment being found too opprobrious was commuted for wearing a ring on the finger, which the higher classes caused to be made of gold or silver; and this is further stated to have been the reason why the general practice of wearing rings declined. After all it may be a mere fabrication for the purpose of introducing an etymology of the word annulus, that cannot here be repeated.

Scene 1. Page 450.

It is the author's desire to withdraw a former note on this passage, which, as well as a few others of a confidential nature, was not intended for publication. To twangle means to make any sharp shrill noise on a stringed instrument, as a bad player would do. A Jack denotes a low or mean person, and is occasionally used as a term of reproach. Thus Horatio is afterwards called "swearing Jack." Twangling Jack may sometimes allude to that little machine in harpsichords and spinnets in which the quill is placed that strikes the wires. The jangling Jack mentioned in Mr. Steevens's note is not connected with the other. He is a mere prating fellow. Thus in Drant's translation of Horace's ninth satire, 1567, 4to:

Scene 1. Page 461.

Whether the purple of Tyre be here alluded to is doubtful. There is a Turkish city of some celebrity in Natolia called Tiria, where, according to the account of Paul Lucas, carpets are manufactured; and in the Comedy of errors, Act IV. Scene 1, mention is made of Turkish tapestry.

Scene 1. Page 470.

Mr. Malone has well explained this word as meaning unless, in which sense it is often used by Shakspeare. It is the Saxon buꞇon, nisi. Sometimes it was used with if, as "I wol breake thy heed but if thou get the hense;" from Terence's "Diminuam ego tibi caput, nisi abis," Udall's Floures from Latine, 1533, 12mo.

Scene 2. Page 487.

So in Tarlton's Jests, "T. having been domineering very late at night with two of his friends." In these instances to domineer is to bluster.

Scene 2. Page 487.

In the anonymous play of A knacke to knowe a knave, 1594, one of the old men says, "My house? why, 'tis my goods, my wyfe, my land, my horse, my ass, or any thing that is his." If Mr. Malone's conjecture respecting the date of The taming of the shrew be well founded, it is difficult to say whether Shakspeare is the borrower, in this instance, or not.

Scene 1. Page 494.

Thus in Nashe's Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriell Harvey's hunt is up, when this foul-mouth'd writer has accused his adversary Harvey of defrauding Wolfe his printer of thirty-six pounds, he adds, that he borrowed of him a blue coat for his man; "and yet Wolfe did not so much as brush it, when he lent it him, or presse out the print where the badge had been." In another place, alluding to the same transaction, he states that Wolfe "lent him one of his prentises for a serving creature to grace him, clapping an old blue coate on his backe, which was one of my Lord of Harford's liveries (he pulling the badge off)."

The practice of giving liveries to menial servants has not originated in modern times. It is mentioned in some of the statutes made in the reign of Richard the Second. In that of Edward the Fourth the terms livery and badge appear to have been synonymous, the former having no doubt been borrowed from the French language, and signifying a thing delivered. The badge consisted of the master's device, crest, or arms, on a separate piece of cloth, or sometimes silver, in the form of a shield, fastened to the left sleeve. Greene, in his Quip for an upstart courtier, speaking of some serving men, says, "their cognizance, as I remember, was a peacocke without a tayle." In queen Elizabeth's time the nobility gave silver badges, as appears from Hentzner's Travels, p. 156, edit. Norimb. 1612, 4to. "Angli magnifici domi forisque magna assectantium famulorum agmini secum trahunt, quibus in sinistro brachio scuta ex argento facta appendunt." But this foolish extravagance was not limited to persons of high rank. Fynes Moryson, speaking of the English apparel, informs us that "the servants of gentlemen were wont to weare blew coates, with their masters badge of silver on the left sleeve, but now they most commonly weare clokes garded with lace, all the servants of one family wearing the same liverie for colour and ornament:" we are therefore to suppose that the sleeve badge was left off in the reign of James I. Yet the badge was at one time so general an accompaniment to a blue coat, that when any thing wanted its usual appendage, it was proverbially said to be like a blue coat without a badge.

The custom of clothing persons in liveries and badges was not confined to menial servants. Another class of men called retainers, who appear to have been of no small importance among our ancestors, were habited in a similar manner. They were a sort of servants, not residing in the master's house like other menial domestics, but attending occasionally for the purpose of ostentation, and retained by the annual donation of a livery consisting of a hat or hood, a badge, and a suit of clothes. As they were frequently kept for the purpose of maintaining quarrels and committing other excesses, it became necessary to impose heavy penalties on the offenders, both masters and retainers. In process of time they were licensed. Strype complains of the too great indulgence of queen Mary in this respect. "She granted," says he, "more by half in her short five years than her sister and successor in thirteen. For in all that time there were but fifteen licenses of retainer granted, whereas queen Mary had granted nine and thirty. She was more liberal also in yielding the number of retainers to each person, which sometimes amounted to two hundred. Whereas Q. Elizabeth never yielded above an hundred to any person of the greatest quality, and that rarely too. But Bishop Gardiner began that ill example, who retained two hundred men: whereas under Q. Elizabeth the Duke of Norfolk retained but an hundred; and Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, but forty." He has added a list of the persons to whom Mary granted licenses, and the number of persons retained. Eccl. memorials, iii. 479.

Nor did these retainers always consist of men of low condition. The entertaining author of a book entitled A health to the gentlemanly profession of serving men, or the serving man's comfort, 1598, 4to, (to whom these notes have occasionally been indebted, and who with good reason is supposed to have been Jervis Markham,) has certainly alluded to them in the following curious passage, wherein he is consoling the objects of his labour: "Amongst what sort of people should then this serving man be sought for? Even the duke's sonne preferred page to the prince, the earles seconde sonne attendant upon the duke, the knights seconde sonne the earles servant, the esquires sonne to weare the knightes lyverie, and the gentlemans sonne the esquiers serving man: Yea I know at this day, gentlemen younger brothers, that weares their elder brothers blew coate and badge, attending him with as reverend regard and duetifull obedience, as if he were their prince or soveraigne." Let us congratulate ourselves that we no longer endure such insolent aggressions, the result of family pride and ignorance, and which had been too often permitted to degrade the natural liberties and independence of mankind. The excellent old ballad of Times alteration, has the following illustrative stanza of the coats and badges in question:

Before we dismiss the present subject, it will be necessary to observe that the badge occurs in all the old representations of posts or messengers. On the latter of these characters it may be seen in the 52nd plate of Mr. Strutt's first volume of The dress and habits of the people of England, where, as in the most ancient instances, the badge is affixed to the girdle; but it is often seen on the shoulder, and even on the hat or cap. These figures extend as far back as the thirteenth century, and many old German engravings exhibit both the characters with a badge that has sometimes the device or arms of the town to which the post belongs. He has generally a spear in his hand, not only for personal security, but for repelling any nuisance that might interrupt his progress. Among ourselves the remains of the ancient badge are still preserved in the dresses of porters, firemen, and watermen, and perhaps in the shoulder-knots of footmen. The blue coat and badge still remain with the parish and hospital boys. The following figure of a person of a higher class with a badge, is copied from the view of Windsor in Braunii civitates orbis terrarum, 1573.

Scene 1. Page 496.

Although door might in the middle of a line be pronounced as a dissyllable, it is submitted that it cannot, with any propriety, at the end. It were better to suppose an omission at the press, and read "at the door."

Scene 2. Page 506.

We have here a very uncommon and perhaps unique expression; but it seems to mean no more than that the tricks were of an extraordinary kind. Eleven and twenty is the same as eleven score, which signified a great length or number as applied to the exertions of a few or even of a single person. Thus in the old ballad of The low country soldier,

Scene 3. Page 513.

This part of the dialogue was in all probability suggested by the following whimsical story in Wits, fittes and fancies, 1595, 4to:—"A clowne having surfeited of beefe, and being therewith extreame sicke, vow'd never whiles he liv'd to eat beefe more, if it pleas'd God he might escape for that once: Shortlie after having his perfect health again, he would needs have eaten beefe, and his sister putting him in mind of his vow, hee answered: True (sister) not without mustard (good L.) not without mustard." This is not the only use that Shakespeare has made of this curious book, which was, in part, translated from a Spanish work, entitled La floresta Spagnola, by Anthony Copley, who was the author of a poem printed at the end, called Love's owle: In dialogue-wise betweene love and an olde man. Of this poem Copley thus speaks in his dedication: "As for my Loves owle, I am content that Momus turne it to a tennis-ball if he can, and bandy it quite away: namelie, I desire M. Daniel, M. Spencer, and other the Prime Poets of our time, to pardon it with as easie a frowne as they please, for that I give them to understand, that an Universitie Muse never pend it, though humbly devoted thereunto."

Scene 3. Page 514.

This is explained by Dr. Johnson, "and all my labour has proved nothing." It rather means, "all my labour is adapted to no approof," or "I have taken all this pains without approbation." Approof is used by Shakspeare in this sense, and should be here printed with an apostrophe, 'proof.

Scene 4. Page 529.

This is not the only instance in which our poet has borrowed his broad metaphors from the typographical art.

In The winter's tale, Act V. Scene 1, we have, "Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; for she did print your royal father off, conceiving you."

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To the stories already mentioned in the notes to this play as resembling that of the induction, the following are to be added:—1. The sleeper awakened, in the Arabian nights. This is probably the original of all the rest. 2. A similar incident in the story of Xailoun in the Continuation of the Arabian nights. 3. In The apophthegms of King James, King Charles, the marquess of Worcester, &c., 1658, 12mo, there is the story of an old bachelor named Thomas Deputy, who at the marriage of Edward Lord Herbert taking a fancy to one of the bride's waiting-maids, was persuaded by the old Marquess of Worcester to marry her at the same time. Thomas, being overpowered on this occasion with the joy he felt from the liberal donations of the noble assistants at the wedding, and also with the good wine that was freely circulated, became altogether incapable of consummating his marriage; and the Marquess, after relating to the company "the story of the begger who was made to believe he did but dream of the happiness that was really acted," determined to make the experiment in the person of old Thomas, and accordingly ordered that he "should be disrobed of his new wedding garment, the rest of his fine cloaths taken from him, and himself carried unto his old lodging in the porter's lodge, and his wife to respite the solemnization of the marriage bed untill his comportment should deserve so fair an admission: which was done accordingly. The next morning made the experiment to answer the height of all their expectations; for news was brought unto the Marquesse, all the rest of the lords and ladies standing by, that Thom. took all yesterdayes work but for a dream, or at least seemed to do so, to humour the fancy." 4. Winstanley, in his Historical rarities, 1684, 8vo, has a story of Aladine the Persian, called the old man of the mountain, who built a magnificent palace near a city called Mulebet, and filled it with every sort of luxury and delight. "Hither he brought all the lusty youths he could light on, casting them into prison, where they endured much sorrow and woe. And when he thought good, he caused a certain drink to be given them, which cast them into a dead sleep: then he caused them to be carried into divers chambers of the said palaces, where they saw the things aforesaid as soon as they awaked; each of them having those damsels to minister meats and excellent drinks, and all varieties of pleasures to them, insomuch, that the fools thought themselves to be in paradise indeed. Having enjoyed this happiness a whole day, they were in a like sleep conveyed to their irons again; after which, he caused them to be brought into his presence, and questioned where they had been; which answered, by your grace, in paradise, and recounted all the particulars before mentioned." Winstanley has also given the story of Philip duke of Burgundy. 5. A similar incident in the penny history of The frolicksome courtier and the jovial tinker.

The author of the story in the Tatler might have used a novel in the Piacevoli notti of Straparola, nott. 8, fab. 2. and the outline of the Taming of the shrew may be found in a Spanish work entitled El conde Lucanor, 1643, 4to, composed by Don Juan Manuel, nephew to Ferdinand the fourth king of Castile.

The character of Petruchio bears some resemblance to that of Pisardo in Straparola's Novels, night 8, fab. 7.

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Scene 2. Page 27.

This is not the only gross and offensive metaphor of the kind that our poet has used. In Measure for measure, we have "groping for trouts in a peculiar river."

Scene 2. Page 30.

So in Macbeth we have,

Scene 2. Page 39.

If, as Mr. Blackstone supposes, this be an allusion to the death of the queen of Scots, it exhibits Shakspeare in the character of a cringing flatterer accommodating himself to existing circumstances, and is moreover an extremely severe one. But the perpetrator of that atrocious murder did flourish many years afterwards. May it not rather be designed as a compliment to King James on his escape from the Gowrie conspiracy, an event often brought to the people's recollection during his reign, from the day on which it happened being made a day of thanksgiving? See Osborne's traditional memoyres, and the almanacks of the time under the 5th of August.

Scene 2. Page 41.

So in Act V. Scene 2, the old shepherd says, "we must be gentle now we are gentlemen." What our ancestors conceived to be the true definition of a gentleman may be seen at large in The booke of honor and armes, 1594, 4to, book iii. In Morgan's Sphere of gentry, the silly author has gravely stated that Jesus Christ was a gentleman and bore arms. Of the latter assertion he has given no proof, though he might have adduced a sort of armorial bearing made up from the implements of the passion, and often exhibited as such in some of the horæ and other service books of the church, before the reformation. Such a coat of arms was likewise used as a stamp on the covers of old books, with the motto REDEMPTORIS MUNDI ARMA. Gentle gentlemen is an alliteration that is very frequent in writers of the age of Shakspeare. In the preface to Gerard Leigh's Accedence of armorie, 1597, 4to, three sorts of ungentiles are described, "the first whereof are gentle ungentle. Such be they as wil rather sweare armes then beare armes. Who of negligence stop mustard pots with their fathers pedegrees, or otherwise abuse them. The second sort are ungentle gentlemen, who being enhaunced to honor by their fathers, on whom (though it were to their owne worship) yet can they not keepe so much money from the dice, as to make worshipful obsequies for their sad fathers with any point of armory. The third sort, and worst of all, are neither gentle ungentle, or ungentle gentile, but verie stubble curs, and be neither doers, sufferers, or wel speakers of honors tokens."

Scene 2. Page 42.

"i. e." says Mr. Steevens, "I am the person appointed to murder you." This is certainly the meaning, but the grammatical construction is, "I am appointed the person to murder you." The lines quoted from King Henry VI. are ungrammatical, and not, as is conceived, an exemplification of the foregoing passage.

Scene 2. Page 42.

Mr. Henderson's conjecture that Judas is here meant is certainly well founded. A clause in the sentence against excommunicated persons was, "let them have part with Judas that betrayed Christ. Amen;" and this is here imitated.

Scene 3. Page 73.

The derivation of lozel cited from Verstegan is arbitrary, and deduced from a mere resemblance of sound. The word has been apparently corrupted from the Saxon lorel, used by Chaucer for a worthless fellow. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's glossary. The corruption may have originated in the similitude of the letters r and z in ancient manuscripts.

Scene 2. Page 82.

Dr. Johnson, not understanding these lines, "with the licence of all editors," pronounces them unintelligible. However strange the language may appear in the mouth of a lady, there is hardly a doubt that it is a metaphor taken from tilting. Hermione means to say, I appeal to your own conscience whether since Polixenes came, I have made any violent or irregular encounter unlike that of a fair courser; or, in plainer terms, whether I have deviated from the paths of honour and forcibly obtruded myself on this tribunal. Those who made an encounter at justs were called runners; and were said, occasionally, to run foul. This may serve to explain what is meant by uncurrent.

Scene 2. Page 107.

Mr. Steevens, to give himself an opportunity of introducing a neat retort on an attack which his favourite author had sustained, has quoted a remark by Dr. Burney that Autolycus "is the true ancient minstrel, as described in the old fabliaux." With great deference to this learned and elegant writer, the observation is inaccurate. Autolycus has nothing in common with the character of a minstrel but the singing of a song or two. He is a mere rogue, assuming various shapes, and is specifically called so in the dramatis personæ; but it will not surely be contended that all rogues were minstrels, because a cruel and illiberal statute has made all minstrels rogues. It is true that Autolycus declares he had been an ape-bearer; but this was no part of the minstrel profession in Shakspeare's time, though it had been so formerly. As this circumstance however has not been noticed, or at least very slightly, by any of the writers on the subject of the ancient minstrels, it may be worth while to exhibit the following curious story from the second book of The dialogues of Saint Gregory, who lived in the sixth century. At the celebration of the feast of Saint Proculus the martyr, a nobleman named Fortunatus having prevailed on Bishop Boniface to eat with him after celebrating the service of the day, it happened that before the holy prelate had pronounced the usual benediction at table, a minstrel leading an ape and playing on a cymbal arrived. This very much discomposed the good bishop, who exclaimed, Alas! alas! the wretched man is dead; behold, I have not yet opened my lips to praise God, and he is here with his ape and playing on his instrument. He then desired the servants to carry some victuals to the unhappy man, which when he had eaten, a stone fell from the house top and killed him.

Scene 2. Page 109.

The tire-lire was not, it seems, peculiar to the lark. In Skelton's Colin Cloute we have,

And in one of the Coventry pageants there is the following old song sung by the shepherds at the birth of Christ, which is further remarkable for its use of the very uncommon word endenes, from the Saxon enꝺenehꞅꞇ, the last.

Scene 2. Page 111.

It is necessary on this occasion to lay before the reader Dr. Warburton's own words. "Mr. Theobald says, the allusion is unquestionably to Ovid. He is mistaken. Not only the allusion, but the whole speech is taken from Lucian, who appears to have been one of our poet's favourite authors, as may be collected from several places of his works. It is from his discourse on judicial astrology, where Autolycus talks much in the same manner, &c."

Now if any one will take the trouble of comparing what Ovid and Lucian have respectively said concerning Autolycus, he will, it is presumed, be altogether disposed to give the preference to Theobald's opinion. Dr. Warburton must have been exclusively fortunate in discovering that the whole speech is taken from Lucian; that he was one of our poet's favourite authors; and that, in the dialogue alluded to, Autolycus talks much in the same manner. He must have used some edition of Lucian's works vastly preferable to those which now remain. The reader will be pleased to consult the eleventh book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the translation (if he have it) by Golding.

Scene 2. Page 113.

"They have also Cornish three-mens songs, cunningly contrived for the ditty, and pleasantly for the note." Carew's Survey of Cornwall, fo. 72.

Scene 2. Page 113.

An allusion to a practice, common at this time among the Puritans, of burlesquing the plein chant of the Papists, by adapting vulgar and ludicrous music to psalms and pious compositions.

Scene 3. Page 123.

The following lines are from a song entitled, A nosegaie alwaies sweet for lovers to send for tokens of love at newyere's tide, or for fairings, as they in their minds shall be disposed to write, printed in Robinson's Handefull of pleasant delites, 1584, 16mo:—

This plant, as being thought to strengthen the memory, was therefore given to friends, as in the present instance. See Parkinson's Flower garden, p. 426. Thus Ophelia says to her brother, "There's rosemary; that's for remembrance, pray you, love, remember." The reason for calling rue herb of grace is best explained in the notes on a subsequent speech of Ophelia. See vol. xv. p. 276.

Scene 3. Page 124.

The solution of the riddle in these lines that has embarrassed Mr. Steevens is probably this: the gilly-flower or carnation is streaked, as every one knows, with white and red. In this respect it is a proper emblem of a painted or immodest woman, and therefore Perdita declines to meddle with it. She connects the gardener's art of varying the colours of the above flowers with the art of painting the face, a fashion very prevalent in Shakspeare's time. This conclusion is justified by what she says in her next speech but one.

Scene 3. Page 126.

"So upon occasions past, David found it true that he should not have bene heretofore at any time, and therefore professeth, that, for the time to come, he would be no marigold-servant of God, to open with the sun, and shut with the dewe."—Prime's Consolations of David applied to Queene Elizabeth: in a sermon preached in Oxford the 17 of November, 1588, 12mo. Lord Howard, in his Defensative against the poyson of supposed prophecies, 1583, 4to, says that "the marie-golde dooth close and open with the sunne, &c."

Scene 3. Page 131.

Dr. Johnson would transfer this speech to the king, and Mr. Ritson would read "swear for one," or at least have some alteration; but in reality no change is necessary. Florizel had just said, "so turtles pair that never mean to part," on which Perdita very naturally observes, "I'll swear for 'em." This is no more than a common phrase of acquiescence, as we likewise say, "I'll warrant you."

Scene 3. Page 137.

To Mr. Steevens's curious note on these implements for stiffening the ruffs formerly worn by persons of both sexes, it may be worth adding that this fashion being carried to a great extremity, became the subject of many satirical prints. One of the oldest was engraved in 1580, by Matthias Quad, and represents the Devil's ruff-shop, he being called the kragen-setzer or ruff-setter. A young gallant has brought his mistress to have her ruff set. The Devil is engaged in this operation whilst an assistant is heating fresh poking-sticks in a brasier. Another print of this sort by Galle, is copied from a design by Martin de Vos, and entitled Diaboli partus superbia. It has this inscription relating to the poking-sticks: "Avec ces fers chauds qu'on vous icy appreste, En enfer puny seras, O layde beste." Other prints represent several monkeys habited in ruffs, and busily employed in poking and starching them, &c.

Scene 3. Page 138.

The word is difficult, and, it is feared, likely to afford nothing but conjecture.

Dr. Warburton asserts that the phrase is from ringing; that to clamour bells is to repeat the stroke quicker than before, previously to ceasing them. On the contrary, Dr. Grey maintains that to clamour bells is a continued ringing, and Mr. Malone, with great probability, suspects that what Warburton has said is gratis dictum. Dr. Johnson says that "to clam a bell is to cover the clapper with felt, which drowns the blow, and hinders the sound;" and Mr. Nicholls, that a good clam is a peal of all the bells at once. According to the treatise on ringing in The school of recreation, 1684, 12mo, "clamming is when each concord strikes together, which being done true, the 8 will strike but as four bells, and make a melodious harmony." The accounts of bell-clamming are therefore so discordant that it seems but fair to give up entirely this sense of the word.

The clown evidently wishes to keep the damsels' tongues from wagging. Now to clam, clem, or cleam are provincial words, signifying to glue together or fasten with glue, and, metonymically, to starve by contraction. Thus,

And we still use clammy, for sticking together. All the Northern languages have an equivalent term. The Germans have klemmen, to tie, and in the old Icelandic we find klæmman in the same sense. Ihre, Lexicon Suio-Goth. In Saxon clam, ligamen, clæmɩnᵹ, a stiffening. Somner Gloss. Littelton has to clamm, or hunger-starve, and Rider to clamme, to stop. The latter is indeed more to the present purpose than any or all of the others: because by supposing, what is extremely probable, an error of the press, all will be set right. On the other hand, clamour is the reverse of what is required. Thus in Macbeth, Act II. Scene 3, we have, "The obscure bird clamour'd the live-long night," and we are not to suppose that Shakspeare could have used the same word in senses so extremely opposite.

Scene 3. Page 148.

In the old collection of songs set by Thomas Ravenscroft and others, already quoted in p. 11, there is one called The satyres daunce. It is for four voices, and as follows:—

Scene 3. Page 154.

i. e. I must be buried as a common malefactor, out of the pale of consecrated ground, and without the usual rites of the dead; a whimsical anachronism, when it is considered that the old shepherd was a Pagan, a worshipper of Jupiter and Apollo. But Shakspeare seldom cares about blending the manners of distant ages.

Dr. Farmer has remarked that the priest's office above mentioned might be remembered in Shakspeare's time, which is very probable: the mention of it here is one of the numerous instances of his intimate acquaintance with the ceremonies of the Romish church. Before the introduction of the new form of burial service by Edward the Sixth, it was the custom for the priest to throw earth on the body in the form of a cross, and then to sprinkle it with holy water; but this was not done in pronouncing the words earth to earth, according to a learned commentator: that part of the ceremony was postponed till after a psalm had been sung, the body being previously covered up. An antiphone next followed; and then the priest said these words: "I commend thy soul to God the father omnipotent: earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," &c.

Scene 1. Page 182.

Perdita is here transformed into a Moor; and although this play among others affords the most unequivocal proofs of Shakspeare's want of skill in the science of geography, it is at least possible that an error of the press has substituted Libya for Lydia or Lycia.

Scene 2. Page 194.

This is a satire on certain ridiculous punctilios very much in use at this time. Thus in The booke of honor and armes, 1590, 4to, "In saying a gentleman borne, we meane he must be descended from three degrees of gentry, both on the mother's and father's side." The same work has many particulars relating to the circumstances in which the giving the lie is to be resented. See likewise Vincent Saviolo On honor and honorable quarrels, book ii.

He is a mere country booby.

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The observation by Dr. Warburton, that The winter's tale with all its absurdities is very entertaining, though stated by Dr. Johnson to be just, must be allowed at the same time to be extremely frigid. In point of fine writing it may be ranked among Shakspeare's best efforts. The absurdities pointed at by Warburton, together with the whimsical anachronisms of Whitson pastorals, Christian burial, an emperor of Russia, and an Italian painter of the fifteenth century, are no real drawbacks on the superlative merits of this charming drama. The character of Perdita will remain for ages unrivalled; for where shall such language be found as she is made to utter?

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Scene 1. Page 228.

The word home, which the metre requires, is said to have been suggested by Capell, but it had been already adopted by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

Scene 2. Page 234.

Mr. Steevens explains this, study my countenance. It seems rather to be an astrological phrase, and to mean, ascertain whether my aspect be malignant or benign. He had just before mentioned the sun. Thus in 1 Henry IV. Act I. Scene 1, "Malevolent to you in all aspécts."

Scene 2. Page 241.

So in A midsummer night's dream, Act IV. Scene 1, "The female ivy so enrings the barky fingers of the elm." There is something extremely beautiful in making the vine the lawful spouse of the elm, and the parasite plants here named its concubines.

Scene 1. Page 248.

Sir J. Hawkins would derive mome from the French momon, the challenge at dice made by a mummer or silent person disguised in masquerade. It more probably came to us from one of those similar words that are found in many languages signifying something foolish. Momar is used by Plautus for a fool, whence the French mommeur. The Greeks too had μομος and μορμος in the same sense.

Scene 2. Page 257.

This play abounds so much in anachronisms, that there will be no impropriety in supposing the above simile to have been designed as a compliment to the reigning sovereign. Pronounced with emphasis, it would not fail to make a due impression on the audience.

Scene 3. Page 280.

Here seems to be an allusion to some well-known contemporary painting, perhaps of a sign. "Adam whom God dyd fyrst create, made the fyrst lether coates for himself and his wyfe Eve our old mother, leavyng thereby a patron to al his posterite of that crafte." Polydore Vergil de rer. invent. translated by Langley, fo. lxix. Similar instances had before occurred in the picture of we three, and Mistress Mall.

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Scene 1. Page 327.

Mr. Steevens has remarked that "in Shakspeare a paddock certainly means a toad." Indeed it properly does everywhere; and when applied to the frog, seems either to have been mistakenly used, or to have signified the rubeta or rana bufo, a frog of a venomous kind. The word comes to us from the Saxon Paꝺa, and a toad is still called by a similar term in most of the Teutonic languages. It may be likewise observed that witches have nothing to do with frogs, an animal always regarded as perfectly harmless, though perhaps not more so in reality than the unjustly persecuted toad.

Scene 2. Page 331.

The old copy has quarry, which Dr. Johnson has changed to quarrel, a reading that had already been adopted by Hanmer. Chance may hereafter determine that quarry was an occasional mode of orthography, euphoniæ gratiâ, as we find perrie for perril. See Howard's Defensative against the poyson of supposed prophesies, 1583, 4to, sig. A iij. The word too which expresses a square-headed arrow and a pane of glass is written both quarry and quarrel.

Scene 2. Page 335.

Mr. Steevens, adverting to the apparent defect of metre in the last line, concludes that some word has been omitted in the old copy; and Hanmer reads, brave Macbeth, &c. No other change is necessary than in orthography; for Shakspeare had, no doubt, written capitaynes, a common mode of spelling the word in his time; and the fault lay either in the printer or transcriber for the press.

Scene 2. Page 339.

Shakspeare is here accused of ignorantly making Bellona wife to the God of war; but, strictly speaking, this is not the case. He has not called Macbeth, to whom he alludes, the God of war; and there seems no great impropriety in poetically supposing that a warlike hero might be newly married to the Goddess of war. Mr. Steevens's objection appears to have been founded on a conclusion that Shakspeare meant to compare Macbeth to Mars, and that of the other learned and ingenious critic, on the impropriety of considering Bellona as a married goddess.

Scene 3. Page 341.

The reference to Hearne's print from an old calendar, in his edition of Fordun, is very appositely introduced by Dr. Johnson in illustration of aroint; but his explanation of the print is in many respects erroneous. He is particularly mistaken in supposing it to represent Saint Patrick visiting hell; for it is manifestly the very trite subject of Christ delivering souls from purgatory, often painted by Albert Durer and other ancient artists. The Doctor neglected to examine not only the inscription on the print, but Hearne's own account of it; and his eye having accidentally caught the name of Saint Patrick, of whom Hearne had been speaking, his imagination suggested the common story of the visit to purgatory (not hell). There is no doubt that aroint signifies away! run! and that it is of Saxon origin. The original Saxon verb has not been preserved in any other way, but the glossaries supply ryne for running; and in the old Islandic, runka signifies to agitate, to move. Mr. Grose is certainly wrong in his explanation of the proverb, "Rynt you witch! quoth Besse Locket to her mother," when he says it means "by your leave, stand handsomely." See his Provincial glossary.

Scene 3. Page 353.

Mr. Steevens conceives that hemlock is the root in question; whilst Mr. Malone, after noticing the trouble which the commentators have given themselves, introduces a quotation from Plutarch's life of Antony, ("which," says he, "our author must have diligently read,") that leads him to conclude the name to have been unknown even to Shakspeare himself. There is however another book which has in the course of these notes been shown to have been also read and even studied by the poet, and wherein, it is presumed, he actually found the name of the above root. This will appear from the following passage: "Henbane ... is called Insana, mad, for the use thereof is perillous; for if it be eate or dronke, it breedeth madnesse, or slow lykenesse of sleepe. Therefore this hearb is called commonly Mirilidium, for it taketh away wit and reason." Batman Uppon Bartholome de propriet. rerum, lib. xvii. ch. 87.

Scene 5. Page 373.

The last lines may appear less difficult, if the reader will suppose that at the moment in which the attendant finishes his speech, the raven's voice is heard on the battlements of the castle; when Lady Macbeth, adverting to the situation in which the messenger had just been described, most naturally exclaims, "the raven himself is hoarse," &c. Entrance must be here pronounced as a trisyllable, which is better than to read Dŭncān.

Scene 5. Page 374.

The second come has been added by Mr. Steevens. On this it may be permitted to remark, that although Shakspeare's versification is unquestionably more smooth and melodious than that of most of his contemporaries, he has on many occasions exhibited more carelessness in this respect than can well be accounted for, unless by supposing the errors to belong to the printers or editors. If the above line was defective, many others of similar construction are still equally so; as for example, this in p. 378,

which Mr. Steevens strangely maintains to be complete, though undoubtedly as discordant to the ear as the other. Both, strictly speaking, have the full number of syllables; a mode of construction which it is to be feared our elder poets regarded as sufficient in general to give perfection to a line.

Scene 6. Page 384.

The duty of the purveyor, an officer belonging to the court, was to make a general provision for the royal household. It was the office also of this person to travel before the king whenever he made his progresses to different parts of the realm, and to see that every thing was duly provided. The right of purveyance and pre-emption having become extremely oppressive to the subject, was included, among other objects of regulation, under the stat. of 12 Car. II.

Scene 7. Page 395.

Mr. Steevens has suggested two metaphors, neither of which seems to advance the explanation. If it could be shown that the stop of a pile-driver, or the bed of a violin peg were ever called sticking-places, one might indeed suspect a miserable pun: but it is submitted that all the metaphor lies in the screwing. Another learned commentator states that Davenant misunderstood the sense when he supposed that stabbing is alluded to; and yet there are grounds for thinking his opinion correct. Lady Macbeth, after remarking that the enterprise would not fail if her husband would but exert his courage to the commission of the murder, proceeds to suggest the particular manner in which it was to be accomplished. In short, if there be a metaphor, abstractedly considered, it signifies nothing; for what would be the use of Macbeth's courage, if, according to Mr. Steevens, it were to remain fast in that sticking-place from which it was not to move? The Scots have a proverb, "Sticking goes not by strength, but by guiding of the gooly," i. e. the knife.

Scene 1. Page 401.

As the last sentence stands, it is at once ungrammatical and obscure; and neither Mr. Steevens's construction of shut up in the sense of to conclude, as referring to the speaker, nor Hanmer's reading and is shut up, as connected with Duncan, will render it intelligible. It should seem as if Banquo meant to say that the king was immured in happiness; but then it is obvious that some preceding words have been lost.

Scene 3. Page 428.

Duff in the Erse language signifies a captain; Macduff, the son of a captain.

Scene 3. Page 433.

This simile has been elsewhere used by Shakspeare. Thus in Cymbeline, he calls sleep the ape of death. In A midsummer night's dream, he has death counterfeiting sleep. It might indeed from its extreme obviousness have occurred to writers of weaker imagination than our poet; yet as he is known to have borrowed so much, it is not impossible that he might in this instance have been indebted to Marlow's translation of a line in Ovid's Elegies, book ii. el. 9:

or to another version of the same line in Cardanus's Comfort:

Whoever will take the trouble of reading over the whole of Cardanus's second book as translated by Bedingfield, and printed by T. Marshe, 1576, 4to, will soon be convinced that it had been perused by Shakspeare.

Scene 3. Page 438.

Mr. Steevens's explanation must be objected to. Finding that the lower end of a cannon is called its breech, he concludes that the hilt or handle of a dagger must be here intended by the like appellation. But is not this literally to mistake the top for the bottom? It is conceived that the present expression, though in itself something unmannerly, simply means covered as with breeches. The idea, uncouth and perhaps inaccurate as it is, might have been suggested from the resemblance of daggers to the legs and thighs of a man. The sentiments of Dr. Farmer on this, as on all occasions, are ingenious, and deserving of the highest respect; but it is hardly possible that Shakspeare could have been deceived in the way he states. To give colour to his opinion, he is obliged in his quotation from Erondell's French garden to print the word master's as a genitive case singular, in order to apply the pronoun their to daggers; but without the aid of the French text, the word their is in the original equally applicable to masters. Indeed the subsequent mention of stockings, hose and garters, would have satisfied a person of much less penetration than Shakspeare, that breeches were there intended as an article of dress.

The above conjecture that the term breech'd might signify cover'd, suggests the mention of a circumstance from which it may on the whole be thought to derive support.

It is well known that some ridicule has been cast on one of our translations of the Bible from the Genevan French edition, on account of the following words, "And they sewed fig-tree leaves together and made themselves breeches," Gen. iii. 7; whence it has been called the Breeches Bible, and sometimes sold for a high price. It is generally conceived that this peculiarity belongs exclusively to the above Bible, but it is a mistake. The Saxon version by Ælfric has ⁊ ꞅɩƿoꝺon ꝼɩcleaꝼ ⁊ ƿoꞃhꞇon hɩm ƿæꝺbꞃec, and sewed fig-leaves and worked them WEED-BREECH, or cloaths for the breech. Wicliffe also translates "and maden hem breechis;" and it is singular that Littelton in his excellent dictionary explains perizomata, the word used in the Vulgate, by breeches. In the manuscript French translation of Petrus Comestor's commentary on the Bible, made by Guiars des Moulins in the thirteenth century, we have "couvertures tout autressint comme unnes petites braies."

Scene 4. Page 476.

i. e. when I have recovered from my fit, and am once more myself. It is an ablative absolute. Ourselves is much more properly used than ourself, the modern language of royalty.

Scene 4. Page 482.

Every partaker of the rational Diversions of Purley will here call to mind what has been advanced on the subject of this difficult and much contested passage; but with all the respect and admiration that are due to their profound and ingenious writer, will he feel himself altogether satisfied? It were to be wished that not only the above grammarian but another gentleman not less eminently qualified to illustrate any subject he undertakes, had favoured us with some example of the neutral use of inhabit in the sense of to house or remain at home. Until this be done, or even then, it may be boldly said, and without much difficulty maintained, that inhibit, in point of meaning, was Shakspeare's word. Nor is it a paradox to affirm that inhabit, the original reading, is also right; because this may be only one of the numerous instances during the former unsettled state of orthography, where the same word has been spelled in different ways. Mr. Malone has already supplied instances of inhabit for inhibit in a passage from All's well that ends well, in all the folios except the first, and another from Stowe's Survey of London. In the edition of the Shepherd's calendar, printed without date by Wynkyn de Worde in 4to, there is this sentence in chap. xxi.: "Correccyon is for to inhabyte & defende by the bridle of reason all errowres," &c. Later editions have inhibit. Are we then to suppose that all these examples are typographical mistakes, rather than a varied orthography?

The difficulty remains to extract a sense from inhibit adapted to the occasion. Mr. Steevens has justly said, "to inhibit is to forbid;" but this cannot be the present signification. A man cannot well be said to forbid another who has challenged him. He might indeed keep back or hesitate in such a case, which is the neutral sense now offered, but it must be confessed with nearly the same diffidence in its accuracy which has been expressed as to that of the others.

With respect to the punctuation, it is conceived, that considering the mode in which these plays were published, the authority of Shakspeare is almost out of the question; and therefore a judicious modern editor is entitled to use a great deal of discretion in corrections of this kind. In the present instance there is no great objection to the old pointing, though the comma should seem better after "inhibit," and may render the line more emphatic. "If trembling, I keep back, then protest me," &c. After all, this is one of the many instances in which the real meaning of the author cannot be satisfactorily obtained.

Scene 5. Page 490.

Mr. Tollett has already vindicated Shakspeare from the supposed impropriety of introducing Hecate among modern witches. The fact seems to be, that acquainted, as he has elsewhere shown himself to have been, with the classical connection which this deity had with witchcraft, but knowing also, as Mr. Tollett's quotation from Scot indicates, that Diana was the name by which she was invoked in modern times, he has preferred the former rather than the latter name of the goddess, for reasons that were best known to himself.

That there existed during the middle ages numerous superstitions relating to a connection that witches were imagined to have had with Diana, it will be no difficult task to prove. From an ecclesiastical statute, promulgated during the reign of Louis II., king of France, it appears that certain mischievous women professed their belief in that goddess, obeying her as their mistress; and that accompanied by her and a great multitude of other females, they travelled over immense spaces of the earth at midnight, mounted upon various animals. Many other ecclesiastical regulations, and some of the councils, notice these superstitions, and denounce very severe vengeance against those persons who were thought to practise them. In one we find the following declaration: "Nulla mulier se nocturnis equitare cum Diana dea Paganorum, vel cum Herodiade seu Benzoria et innumera mulierum multitudine profiteatur; hæc enim dæmoniaca est illusio."—Ducange, Gloss. v. Diana. These witches sometimes assembled at the river Jordan, the favourite spot of Diana or Herodias. The Jesuit Delrio very gravely denies the possibility of the above pranks, remarking that there is in reality no Diana, and that Herodias the dancer, whom he here confounds with her daughter, is at present in hell. Disquisit. magic. lib. ii. quæst. 16. Eccard, in his preface to Leibnitz's Collectanea etymologica, relates that in a journey through Misnia in Saxony, he discovered traces of the German Hecate among the peasants in their frauholde or frau faute, i. e. lady fate. John Herold or Herolt, a German friar of the fifteenth century, in one of his Sermons exclaims against those "qui deam, quam quidam Dianam nominant, in vulgari die fraurve unhold dicunt cum suo exercitu ambulare."—Sermones discipuli, serm. xi. He states this practice to have taken place at Christmas time. See likewise Carpentier Suppl. ad Ducangii glossar. v. holda. His majesty King James the First, author of that most sapient work entitled Dæmonologie, informs his readers that the spirits whom the gentiles called Diana and her wandering court, were known among his countrymen by the name of pharie. Other appellations of this personage are likewise to be met with, as Hera, Nicneven, and Dame Habunde; all as the chief or queen of the witches, whom she generally accompanied in their nocturnal dances and excursions through the air.

For the name of Herodias it is not easy to account. It may not be deemed a very extravagant conjecture, that the common people had converted Herod's wife into a witch from their abhorrence of her cruelty towards Saint John the Baptist; for the old mysteries have preserved to us the indignant manner in which they treated Pontius Pilate. The circumstance too of her daughter's dancing, compared with the predilection of witches for that amusement, might contribute to the idea. The learned Schiller thinks that Herodias was the same as Juno. He founds this opinion on the testimony of Gobelinus Persona, a Monk of Paderborn in the fifteenth century, who in his general history of the world had asserted that the Saxons worshipped Juno under the Greek name of Hera, and that the common people still believed in the flight of the lady Hera through the air about the time of Christmas; a superstition which seems to have been derived from an older notion, that Juno presided over that element. Ducange imagined he had found the name in Hera Diana; but he has not brought forward any instance of the use of such an expression. With respect to Benzoria or Bensozia, very little is known. Carpentier, in his Supplement to Ducange's glossary, conjectures that she was designed for the daughter of Herodias, and to assist in the magic dances. It is not improbable that this character is in some way or other connected with the Irish Banshee or Benshi, a kind of fairy. In these subjects we can perceive many corruptions which it is impossible to account for.

Dr. Leyden, in p. 318 of the glossary to his edition of The complaynt of Scotland, mentions the "gyre carling, the queen of fairies, the great hag Hecate, or mother witch of peasants," and cites Polwart's Flyting of Montgomery for "Nicneven and her nymphs." In the fragment of an old Scotish poem in Lord Hyndford's manuscript, in strict conformity with what has been just advanced concerning Juno, she is termed "quene of Jowis." See Ancient Scot. poems, 1768, p. 231.

As Dame Habunde or Abunde has been classed among the names given to the president of the witches, it becomes necessary to take some further notice of her, though a character of an opposite description to those already mentioned. She appears to have been the genuine queen of fairies, and of a most innocuous and benevolent disposition, bestowing happiness and abundance on all her votaries. In the passage before mentioned in Gobelinus Persona, Hera is spoken of as conferring temporal abundance; and although she is represented as flying through the air, it is not by night, nor accompanied by others. Ducange has therefore improperly assimilated her to Diana and her tribe of mischief, and of course his etymology of Herodias is rendered very improbable. In an ancient fabliau by Haisiau, never entirely printed, Dame Abunde is thus introduced:

She is also mentioned in the works of William Auvergne, bishop of Paris, in the fourteenth century, as a spirit enriching the houses that she visited. Delrio adds, that on her coming with the rest of the good ladies, the superstitious old women used to provide plenty of victuals for them, leaving all the dishes and wine-vessels uncovered to prevent any obstruction to their getting at the food, and expecting on the occasion nothing but plenty and prosperity. See Disquisit. magic. 1. ii. quæst. 27. sect. 2. In the life of Saint Germain, bishop of Auxerre, we find these dames paying their respects to the holy man; and as the story is misrepresented in its most material part by Caxton's translation of the Golden legend, it shall be given from a valuable manuscript of the same work much older than his time. "Narratio. In a tyme he was herboured in a place wher men made redy the borde for to go to dyner aftir he had soupid, and he was gretli merveiled, and asked for whom the borde was sette aᵹen; and thei seide for the good women that walke by nyᵹte; and than Seinte Germayne ordeyned that nyᵹte to be waked. And than at a certeyn hour gret multitude of feendis come to the borde in liknesse of men and of women. And than Germayn comaundid him that thei shold not passe thens, and than he awoke al the meyne, and asked yf thei knewe eny of thoo persones, and they seide that thei wer her neyᵹebores, and than he sente to her housis, and thei wer alle founde in bedde, and than thei alle had gret merveile and thouᵹte wel that thei were feendis that had so longe scorned hem."

The Samogitæ, a people formerly inhabiting the shores of the Baltic, and who remained idolaters so late as the fifteenth century, believed in the existence of a sort of demi-fairies about a palm high, with beards, whom they called Kaukie. To these little beings they made an offering of all kinds of food to avert their displeasure. They likewise invoked a deity called Putscet to send them the Barstuccæ to live with them and make them fortunate. To effect this, they placed every night in the barn a table covered with bread, butter, cheese, and ale; and if these were taken away before morning, they looked for good fortune, but if left, for nothing but ill luck. See Lasicius De diis Samagitarum, 1615, 4to, pp. 51, 55. A similar superstition prevailed in England, and is thus recorded in Browne's Britannia's pastorals, book i. song 2.

Mr. Bell, in his Description of the condition and manners of the Irish peasantry, relates that the fairies or good people were supposed to enter habitations after the family retired to rest, to indulge in sportive gambols, and particularly to wash themselves in clean water; but if there were no water in the house, to play some mischievous tricks in revenge.

Fairies were also, from their supposed place of residence, denominated waternymphs, in the Teutonic languages, wasserfrauwen, wassernixen, nocka, necker, and nicker, terms, excepting the first, manifestly connected with the Scotish nicneven, and most probably with our old nick. Very great confusion seems to have arisen in the change of sex and appellation among these supernatural beings. This may have been occasioned by the numerous Pagan superstitions to which the common people were still attached long after the promulgation of Christianity, as well as from their excessive ignorance and credulity, which led them to convert the deities of the heathens into phantoms of their own creation. Thus Diana and Minerva were degraded into witches, and Mercury became the prince of fairies. Neptune was metamorphosed into a water-fairy, of whom a most curious account is preserved in the Otia imperii of Gervase of Tilbury, published in Leibnitz's Scriptores rerum Brunsvic. p. 980, and partly copied into Mr. Tyrwhitt's edition of Chaucer's Canterbury tales, vol. iv. 268. It seems probable that the name of Neptune is merely disguised in the Scotish Nicneven. Some of the Teutonic glossaries render the word necker by dæmon aquaticus, Neptunus. A further account of him may be found in Wormii Monumenta Danica, p. 17, and in Keysler Antiquitat. select. septentr. p. 261, where the etymology of necker, viz. from the Latin necare, strengthens the preceding conjecture as to that of Nicneven, and resolves it into the destroying or dæmoniacal Neptune. The reader may likewise consult Wachter's German glossary under the word necker, where it would have been of some use to the learned author to have known that this mischievous fairy was remarkable for drowning people, and was called Nocka, the Danish term, as he states on another occasion, for suffocating. Nor would the contrast of character between this being and the beneficent queen of fairy amount to any solid objection against the proposed etymology. Whoever may attempt an investigation of the fairy system will be sure of finding the greatest disorder and confusion; nor is it possible at this time to offer any reason that will be quite satisfactory why different qualities were ascribed to beings of similar names by different people. We must rest contented with possession of the fact. Thus Dame Abunde has been made to preside over the white nymphs, white ladies, or witte wyven, who all appear to have been of a mischievous disposition, committing nocturnal depredations on men and cattle, but more particularly on pregnant women and infants, whom they shut up in their subterraneous abodes, from which groans and lamentations, and occasionally melodious sounds were often heard to issue. See Kempius De orig. Frisiæ, p. 341. Ben Jonson in his Sad shepherd makes the white faies to reside in stocks of trees.

But let us now return from this digression to the subject of Hecate or Diana. Under the reign of Hadrian, Saint Taurinus is said to have converted the inhabitants of Evreux in Normandy to the Christian faith, but this was not accomplished until the Devil had been fairly expelled from Diana's temple in the above city. For this purpose, he was with great solemnity enjoined to appear in the presence of all the people, who, as heathens, were extremely terrified, especially as the evil spirit came forth under the form of an Ethiopian, dark as soot, with a long beard, and fire issuing from his mouth. An angel then tied his hands behind him and led him away. This dæmon is believed still to remain at Evreux, frequently appearing to the inhabitants, but is said to be perfectly harmless. He is called Goblin by the common people, who believe that he is restrained from mischief by the merits of Saint Taurinus. The reason why he was not at once consigned to the infernal regions, is, that at the command of the holy bishop he assisted in destroying the idols of the city; but he is supposed to have received sufficient punishment in beholding those persons in a state of salvation, whom during his power he had insultingly regarded as his victims. See Ordericus Vitalis, p. 555. In England it appears that the common people not only feared Diana as a witch, but that they had on many occasions paid her reverential honours as a goddess. This is confirmed by the remains of such animals as were used in her sacrifices, and also by her own images found on rebuilding Saint Paul's cathedral. These have been particularly described in Dr. Woodward's letter to Sir Christopher Wren in the eighth volume of Leland's Itinerary; from which circumstance the doctor very plausibly inferred that a Roman temple of Diana had been formerly erected on this spot. There is preserved a most curious sermon by Saint Maximus bishop of Turin in the fifth century, replete with the superstitions that existed in his time relating to the worship of Diana; nor can it be controverted that she was equally reverenced in this country long after the introduction of Christianity, when we find from the testimony of Richard Sporling, a Monk of Westminster in 1450, and a diligent collector of ancient materials, that during the persecution of Diocletian the inhabitants of London sacrificed to Diana, whilst those of Thorney, now Westminster, were offering incense to Apollo. Sir William Dugdale records that a commutation grant was made in the reign of Edward I., by Sir William Le Baud, to the dean and canons of Saint Paul, of a doe in winter on the day of the saint's conversion, and of a fat buck in summer on that of his commemoration, to be offered at the high altar, and distributed among the canons. To this ceremony Erasmus has alluded in his book De ratione concionandi, when he describes the custom which the Londoners had of going in procession to St. Paul's cathedral with a deer's head fixed upon a spear, accompanied with men blowing hunting-horns. Mr. Strype likewise, in his Ecclesiastical memorials, vol. iii. p. 378, has preserved a notice of the custom as practised in Queen Mary's time, with this addition, that the priest of every parish in the city arrayed in his cope, and the bishop of London in his mitre, assisted on the occasion. Camden had likewise seen it when a boy, and had heard that the canons of the cathedral attended in their sacred vestments, wearing garlands of flowers on their heads. As to Mr. Selden's witty conceit on the subject, which bishop Gibson inclines to adopt, it is enough to allude to it, being most certainly unworthy of a serious confutation.

Some of the above remarks have been offered as hints only for a more ample investigation of the fairy superstitions of the middle ages, so far as they are connected with the religion of the ancient Romans; a subject of intrinsic curiosity, and well deserving the attention of those who may feel interest in the history of the human mind.

Scene 1. Page 497.

Dr. Warburton has adduced classical authority for the connexion between Hecate and this animal, with a view to trace the reason why it was the agent and favourite of modern witches. It may be added, that among the Egyptians the cat was sacred to Isis or the Moon, their Hecate or Diana, and accordingly worshipped with great honour. Many cat idols are still preserved in the cabinets of the curious, and the sistrum or rattle used by the priests of Isis is generally ornamented with the figure of a cat with a crescent on its head. We know also that the Egyptians typified the Moon by this animal, as the Chinese and some of the people of India do now by the rabbit; but the cause is as likely to remain a mystery as their hieroglyphic mode of writing. Some of the ancients have amused themselves with guessing at the reason. They have supposed that the cat became fat or lean with the increase or wane of the Moon; that it usually brought forth as many young as there are days in a lunar period; and that the pupils of its eyes dilated or contracted according to the changes of the planet.

Scene 1. Page 503.

The reason for introducing this tree is, that it was reckoned poisonous. See Batman Uppon Bartholome, 1. xvii. c. 161.

Scene 1. Page 505.

The influence of witches over the winds had been already discussed by Mr. Steevens in a former note on Act I. Scene 3, and it might be well supposed that their formidable power would be occasionally directed by these mischievous beings against religious edifices. It is therefore by no means improbable that in order to counteract this imaginary danger, the superstitious caution of our ancestors might have planted the yew-tree in their church-yards, preferring this tree not only on account of its vigour as an evergreen, but as independently connected, in some now forgotten manner, with the influence of evil powers. Accordingly in a statute made in the latter part of the reign of Edward I., to prevent rectors from cutting down trees in church-yards, we find the following passage: "verum arbores ipsæ, propter ventorum impetus ne ecclesiis noceant, sæpe plantantur." This is at least sufficient for the purpose of disproving what has been so often asserted respecting the plantation of yews in church-yards for the purpose of making bows; for although these weapons were sometimes made of English yew, the more common materials employed were elm and hazel, either on account of the comparative scarcity of English yew, or more probably from its inadequacy, in point of toughness, for constructing such bows as our robust and skilful archers were famed for using. Indeed modern experience has proved the truth of the latter supposition; and therefore, whenever yew was used for making the best sort of bows, it was of foreign growth: many of our ancient statutes very carefully provide for the importation of that commodity, which appears to have been chiefly Italian, with other merchandise.

Scene 1. Page 506.

Apuleius in describing the process used by the witch, Milo's wife, for transforming herself into a bird, says that "she cut the lumps of flesh of such as were hanged." See Adlington's translation, p. 49, edit. 1596, 4to, a book certainly used by Shakspeare on other occasions.

Scene 3. Page 540.

"Quarry," says Mr. Steevens, "is a term used both in hunting and falconry. In both sports it means the game after it is killed." So far this is just, and serves partly to explain the passage before us, as well as this in Coriolanus, Act I. Scene 1:

What follows respecting the etymology of the word may not appear quite so correct. Mr. Steevens cites the MS. Mayster of game, in which the old English term querre is used for the square spot wherein the dead game was deposited. It is simply the French carré, but not, as Mr. Steevens conceived, the origin of quarry. It is necessary to state that quarry not only signified the game that was killed, but, in falconry, the bird that was pursued or sought after. The same term is used to express the flight of the hawk after its prey. In these senses it is probable that the word has been formed from the French querir, to seek after, and that the game sought after would be called in that language querie, whence our English quarrie, the old and correct orthography. The more modern French term in falconry for pursuing the game is charrier. See René François, Essay des merveilles de nature, 1626, 4to, p. 48.

It is conceived therefore that in both the passages in Shakspeare quarry signifies the spot or square in which the heaps of dead game were placed. Not so in the quotation from Massinger's Guardian; for there quarry is evidently the bird pursued to death.

Scene 5. Page 570.

Perhaps no quotation can be better calculated to show the propriety of this epithet than the following grand lines in The vision of Pierce Plowman, a work which Shakspeare might have seen:

Scriptural language and a passage in the burial service might have likewise suggested the epithet.

---

Scene 1. Page 19.

See former note, p. 139.

Scene 1. Page 26.

This braggadocio character must have been very popular, as his oaths became proverbial. Thus in Fennor's Compter's commonwealth, 1617, 4to, we have, "three-pil'd, huge Basilisco oaths that would have torn a roring-boyes eares in a thousand shatters."

Scene 1. Page 39.

Mr. Ritson proposes to read, whether he does or no! i. e. whether he weeps or not; and he adds that Constance, so far from admitting, expressly denies that she shames him. It may be answered, that this reading is equally objectionable; for Constance admits also that her son wept. In either case there is ambiguity; but the words as they stand are infinitely more natural, and even defensible, according to common usage.

Scene 1. Page 44.

Mr. Steevens thinks this one of the old terms used at chess, but none such occurs in any of the treatises on that game. It is presumed to be simply a military word. Thus the Bastard afterwards asks, "shall a silken wanton brave our fields and find no check?" and we still say, "the enemy has received a check."

Scene 1. Page 47.

An English motto is here improperly put into the mouth of a Frenchman. Richard the First is said to have originally used DIEU ET MON DROIT.

Scene 2. Page 64.

The kiss was a part of the ceremony of affiancing. Thus in Twelfth night:

See the note in page 67.

Scene 4. Page 107.

In former times there was no vulgarity in this word, as the two first quotations by Mr Steevens demonstrate; but he is peculiarly unfortunate in his last example, which may without detriment be omitted in future editions. The singular vulgarity of Stanihurst's language cannot with propriety be used to exemplify the undegraded use of any word whatever.

No further proof of the justice of this remark is necessary than the mention of his "dandiprat cockney Cupido," or the "blubbering Andromache," whom he describes as "stuttering and stammering to fumble out an answer to her sweeting delicat Hector;" and numerous expressions of a similar nature occur in his eccentric translation of the pure and elegant Virgil. To buss is either from the French baiser, or from some radical word common to both languages, and was formerly written bass. Thus Stanihurst, whom it may be allowable to quote on this occasion;

And the duke of Orleans, in one of his love poems written in the time of King Henry the Fifth;

Scene 4. Page 115.

The old copy reads scope of nature. The alteration was made by Pope, and plausibly commented on by Warburton, who seems to have influenced Mr. Malone to adopt it. The speaker's design is to show that all the common effects of nature which he mentions would be perverted by the people; but an escape of nature would be very properly deemed an abortive. The original reading is therefore correct; nor could an apter word have been selected. Thus in King Henry the Fourth, Part I.:

Scene 2. Page 128.

Mr. Steevens would read wrest, which he explains to be violence. But surely "the murmuring lips of discontent" would not insinuate that John was an usurper; because the subsequent words, "in right you hold," would then be contradictory. One could not say, "if, being an usurper, you reign by right." The construction may therefore be more simple: "If the power you now possess in quiet be held by right, why should your fears," &c. The explanation given by Mr. Malone might have sufficed.

Scene 2. Page 137.

Mr. Malone ingeniously conceives this to be a covert apology for Elizabeth's conduct to the queen of Scots; yet it may be doubted whether any such apology would be thought necessary during the life of Elizabeth. May it not rather allude to the death of the earl of Essex? If this conjecture be well founded, it will serve to ascertain the date of the composition of the play, and to show that Meres had mistaken the older piece for Shakspeare's.

Scene 2. Page 139.

And, and or, have been proposed instead of as, but without necessity. The words are elliptical in Shakspeare's manner, and only mean, "or turn'd such an eye of doubt as bid me," &c.

Scene 3. Page 142.

Dr. Percy has judiciously remarked that ever or e'er in this phrase is a useless augmentative, or being of itself equivalent to before. The corruption is not much older than Shakspeare's time. In some of the editions of Cranmer's Bible, Ecclesiastes xii. 6 is rendered, "Or ever the silver lace be taken away, and or ever the golden well be broken." In others the second ever is omitted. Wicliffe's translation, an invaluable monument of our language, has it, "er be to broke the silveren corde," &c. This is pure Saxon æꞃ or eꞃ; and so is our modern ere, often erroneously spelled e'er, as a supposed contraction of ever. Yet in Chaucer's time it had become or;

though some copies, both manuscript and printed, read er in this place as well as in others. Mr. Steevens seems properly to object to the orthography of ore.

Scene 1. Page 155.

Mr. Steevens has noticed Dr. Johnson's misconception of this passage; yet it may be doubted whether he has sufficiently simplified the meaning, which is, "yet I know that our party is fully competent to engage a more valiant foe." Prouder has in this place the signification of the old French word preux.