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DRO. S. I found it by the barrennefs; hard, in the palm of the hand.

ANT. S. Where France?

DRO. 8. In her forehead; arm'd and reverted, making war against her hair.'

3 In her forehead; arm'd and reverted, making war against ber hair.] All the other countries, mentioned in this defcription, are in Dromio's replies fatirically characterized but here, as the editors have ordered it, no remark is made upon France; nor any reafon given, why it fhould be in her forehead: but only the kitchen wench's high forehead is rallied, as pufhing back her hair. Thus all the modern editions; but the first folio reads-making war against her heir.And I am very apt to think, this laft is the true reading; and that an equivoque, as the French call it, a double. meaning, is defigned in the poet's allufion: and therefore I have replaced it in the text. In 1589, Henry III. of France being ftabb'd, and dying of his wound, was fucceeded by Henry IV. of Navarre, whom he appointed his fucceffor: but whose claim the ftates of France refifted, on account of his being a proteftant. This, I take it, is what he means, by France making war against her heir. Now, as, in 1591, queen Elizabeth fent over 4000 men, under the conduct of the Earl of Effex, to the affiftance of this Henry of Navarre, it feems to me very probable, that during this expedition being on foot, this comedy made its appearance. And it was the fineft addrefs imaginable in the poet to throw fuch an oblique fneer at France, for oppofing the fucceffion of that heir, whofe claim his royal miftrefs, the queen, had fent over a force to establish, and oblige them to acknowledge. THEOBALD.

With this correction and explication Dr. Warburton concurs, and Sir Thomas Hanmer thinks an equivocation intended, though he retains hair in the text. Yet furely they have all loft the fenfe by looking beyond it. Our authour, in my opinion, only sports with an allufion, in which he takes too much delight, and means that his miftrefs had the French difeafe. The ideas are rather too offenfive to be dilated. By a forehead armed, he means covered with incrufted eruptions: by reverted, he means having the hair turning backward. An equivocal word must have fenfes applicable to both the fubjects to which it is applied. Both forehead and France might in fome fort make war against their hair, but how did the forehead make war against its heir? The fenfe which I have given, immediately occurred to me, and will, I believe, arise to every reader who is contented with the meaning that lies before him, without fending out conjecture in fearch of refinements. JOHNSON.

ANT. S. Where England?

DRO. S. I look'd for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whiteness in them: but I guess, it stood in her chin, by the falt rheum that ran between France and it.

ANT. S. Where Spain?

DRO. S. Faith, I faw it not; but I felt it, hot in her breath.

ANT. S. Where America, the Indies?

DRO. S. O, fir, upon her nofe, all o'er embellish'd with rubies, carbuncles, fapphires, declining their rich aspect to the hot breath of Spain; who sent whole armada's of carracks to be ballast 4 at her nofe.

ANT. S. Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands?

The prefent reading was introduced by the editor of the second folio.

"an

I think with Sir T. Hanmer, that an equivocation may have been intended. It is of little confequence which of the two words is preferved in the text, if the author meant that two fenfes should be couched under the fame term.-Dr. Johnson's objection, that equivocal term must have fenfes applicable to both the fubjects to which it is applied," appears to me not fo well founded as his obfervations in general are; for, though a correct writer would obferve that rule, our author is very feldom fcrupulous in this particular, the terms which he ufes in comparison fcarcely ever anfwering exactly on both fides. However, as hair affords the cleareft and moft obvious fenfe, I have placed it in the text. In K. Henry V. 4to. 1600, we have

"This your heire of France hath blown this vice in me-" instead of air. In Macbeth, folio 1623, heire is printed for hair: "Whofe horrid image doth unfix my heire."

Again, in Cymbeline, folio, 1623.

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His meaneft garment is dearer

"In my respect, than all the heires above thee." MALONE,

to be ballaft] The modern editors read-ballafted; the

old copy ballaft, which is right. Thus in Hamlet:

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to have the engineer

Hoift with his own petar." i. e. boifted.

STEEVENS.

5

DRO. S. O, fir, I did not look fo low. To conclude, this drudge, or diviner, laid claim to me; call'd me Dromio; fwore, I was affur'd to her; told. me what privy marks I had about me, as the mark on my shoulder, the mole in my neck, the great wart on my left arm, that I, amazed, ran from her as a witch: and, I think, if my breast had not been made of faith, and my heart of steel, she had transform'd me to a curtail-dog, and made me turn i'the wheel.

ANT. S. Go, hie thee presently, poft to the road; And if the wind blow any way from shore, I will not harbour in this town to-night. If any bark put forth, come to the mart, Where I will walk, till thou return to me.. If every one know us, and we know none, 'Tis time, I think, to trudge, pack, and be gone. DRO. S. As from a bear a man would run for

life,

So fly I from her that would be my wife. [Exit.

ANT. S. There's none but witches do inhabit

here;

And therefore 'tis high time that I were hence.
She, that doth call me husband, even my foul
Doth for a wife abhor: but her fair fifter,
Poffefs'd with fuch a gentle fovereign grace,
Of fuch enchanting prefence and difcourfe,

5 -afflur'd to her;] i. e. affianced to her. John:

Thus in King

"For fo I did when I was firft affur'd." STEEVENS.

6 And, I think, if my breaft had not been made of faith, &c.] Alluding to the fuperftition of the common people, that nothing could refift a witch's power of transforming men into animals, but a great fhare of faith: however, the Oxford editor thinks a breaft made of flint better fecurity, and has therefore put it in.

Hath almoft made me traitor to myself:
But, left myself be guilty to felf-wrong,
I'll ftop mine ears against the mermaid's fong.

Enter ANGELO.

ANG. Mafter Antipholus?

ANT. S. Ay, that's my name.

ANG. I know it well, fir: Lo, here is the chain; I thought to have ta'en you at the Porcupine: 8 The chain unfinish'd made me ftay thus long.

ANT. S. What is your will, that I fhall do with this?

ANG. What please yourself, fir; I have made it for you.

ANT. S. Made it for me, fir! I bespoke it not. ANG. Not once, nor twice, but twenty times you have:

to felf-wrong,] I have met with other inftances of this kind of phrafeology. So, in The Winter's Tale:

But as the unthought-on accident is guilty "To what we wildly do,"-.

Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors read-of felf-wrong.

MALONE.

8 at the Porcupine:] It is remarkable, that throughout the old editions of Shak fpeare's plays, the word Porpentine is ufed inftead of Porcupine. Perhaps it was fo pronounced at that time.

I have fince obferved the fame spelling in the plays of other aneient authors. Mr. Tollet finds it likewife in p. 66 of Afcham's Works by Bennet, and in Stowe's Chronicle in the years 1117, 1135. STEEVENS.

The word, although written Porpentine in the old editions of Shakspeare, was fcarcely fo pronounced, as Mr. Steevens conjectures, at leaft not generally; for in Eliot's Dictionary, 1545, and Cooper's Dictionary, 1584, it is" Porkepyne:" and in Hulet's Abecedarium, 1552. Porpyn." See a note on The Tempest, .Act 1. fo. ii. Doucs.

Go home with it, and please your wife withal;
And foon at fupper-time I'll vifit you,

And then receive my money for thechain.

ANT. S. I pray you, fir, receithe money now, For fear you ne'er fee chain, nor money, more. ANG. You are a merry man, fit; fare you well. [Exit. ANT. S. What I fhould think of this, I cannot

tell:

But this I think, there's no man is so vain,
That would refuse so fair an offer'd chain.
I fee, a man here needs not live by shifts,
When in the streets he meets fuch golden gifts.
I'll to the mart, and there for Dromio stay;
If any fhip put out, then straight away.

[Exit.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The fame.

Enter a Merchant, ANGELO, and an Officer.

MER. You know, fince pentecoft the fum is due, And fince I have not much impórtun'd you; Nor now I had not, but that I am bound To Perfia, and want gilders' for my voyage: Therefore make prefent fatisfaction,

Or I'll attach you by this officer.

want gilders-] A gilder is a coin valued from one shil

ling and fix-pence, to two fhillings. STEEVENS.

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