Act iii. sc. 1. Clown. A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit. (Theobald's note.) Theobald's etymology of 'cheveril' is, of course quite right;-but he is mistaken in supposing that there were no such things as gloves of chicken-skin. They were at one time a main article in chirocosmetics. Act v. sc. 1. Clown's speech : So that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then, the worse for my friends, and the better for. my foes. (Warburton reads 'conclusion to be asked, is.') Surely Warburton could never have wooed by kisses and won, or he would not have flounderflatted so just and humorous, nor less pleasing than humorous, an image into so profound a nihility. In the name of love and wonder, do not four kisses make a double affirmative? The humour lies in the whispered 'No!' and the inviting 'Don't!' with which the maiden's kisses are accompanied, and thence compared to negatives, which by repetition constitute an affirmative. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. ACT I. sc. 1. Count. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal. 120 NOTES ON ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. Bert. Madam, I desire your holy wishes. Bertram and Lafeu, I imagine, both speak together, --Lafeu referring to the Countess's rather obscure remark. Act. ii. sc. 1. (Warburton's note.) King. -let higher Italy (Those 'bated, that inherit but the fall It would be, I own, an audacious and unjustifiable change of the text; but yet, as a mere conjecture, I venture to suggest ‘bastards,' for "'bated.' As it stands, in spite of Warburton's note I can make little or nothing of it. Why should the king except the then most illustrious states, which, as being republics, were the more truly inheritors of the Roman grandeur? -With my conjecture, the sense would be ;'let higher, or the more northern part of Italy -(unless higher' be a corruption for 'hir'd,' -the metre seeming to demand a monosyllable) (those bastards that inherit the infamy only of their fathers) see, &c.' The following 'woo' and wed' are so far confirmative as they indicate Shakspeare's manner of connexion by unmarked influences of association from some preceding metaphor. This it is which makes his style so peculiarly vital and organic. Likewise 'those girls of Italy' strengthen the guess. The absurdity of Warburton's gloss, which represents the king calling Italy superior, and then excepting the only part the lords were going to visit, must strike every one. Ib. sc. 3. Laf. They say, miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons to make modern and familiar, things supernatural and causeless. Shakspeare, inspired, as it might seem, with all knowledge, here uses the word 'causeless' in its strict philosophical sense ;-cause being truly predicable only of phenomena, that is, things natural, and not of noumena, or things supernatural. Act iii. sc. 5. Dia. The Count Rousillon :-know you such a one? His face I know not. Shall we say here, that Shakspeare has unnecessarily made his loveliest character utter a lie? Or shall we dare think that, where to deceive was necessary, he thought a pretended verbal verity a double crime, equally with the other a lie to the hearer, and at the same time an attempt to lie to one's own conscience? MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. ACT I. sc. 1. Shal. The luce is the fresh fish, the salt fish is an old coat. I cannot understand this. Perhaps there is a corruption both of words and speakers. Shallow no sooner corrects one mistake of Sir 6 Hugh's, namely, 'louse' for 'luce,' a pike, but the honest Welchman falls into another, namely, 'cod' (baccalà) Cambrice 'cot' for coat. Shal. The luce is the fresh fish Evans. The salt fish is an old cot. Luce is a fresh fish, and not a louse;' says Shallow. 'Aye, aye,' quoth Sir Hugh; "the fresh fish is the luce; it is an old cod that is the salt fish.' At all events, as the text stands, there is no sense at all in the words. Ib. sc. 3. Fal. Now, the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband's purse; she hath a legion of angels. Pist. As many devils entertain; and To her, boy, say I. Perhaps it is As many devils enter (or enter'd) swine; and to her, boy, say I : a somewhat profane, but not un-Shakspearian, allusion to the 'legion' in St. Luke's 'gospel.' MEASURE FOR MEASURE. THIS play, which is Shakspeare's throughout, is to me the most painful-say rather, the only painful-part of his genuine works. The comic and tragic parts equally border on the μoŋrέov,—the one being disgusting, the other horrible; and the pardon and marriage of Angelo not merely baffles the strong indignant claim of justice-(for cruelty, with lust and damnable baseness, cannot be forgiven, because we cannot conceive them as being morally repented of;) but it is likewise degrading to the character of woman. Beaumont and Fletcher, who can follow Shakspeare in his errors only, have presented a still worse, because more loathsome and contradictory, instance of the same kind in the Night-Walker, in the marriage of Alathe to Algripe. Of the counterbalancing beauties of Measure for Measure, I need say nothing; for I have already remarked that the play is Shakspeare's throughout. Act iii. sc. 1. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where, &c. This natural fear of Claudio, from the antipathy we have to death, seems very little varied from that infamous wish of Mæcenas, recorded in the 101st epistle of Seneca : Debilem facito manu, Debilem pede, coxa, &c. Warburton's note. I cannot but think this rather an heroic resolve, than an infamous wish. It appears to me to be the grandest symptom of an immortal spirit, when even that bedimmed and overwhelmed spirit recked not of its own immortality, still to seek to be,-to be a mind, a will. As fame is to reputation, so heaven is to an estate, or immediate advantage. The difference is, that the self-love of the former cannot exist but by a complete suppression and habitual supplantation of immediate selfishness. In one point of view, the miser is more estimable than the spendthrift ;-only that the |