an old man makes love to a girl, attended by a fool and death, to show, in the first instance, the folly of the thing, and in the next, its consequences. It is unnecessary to pursue the argument, as every print of the above kind that may in future occur, will itself speak much more forcibly than any thing which can here be added.

ACT IV.

Scene 3. Page 539.

The two last lines in the quotation from The wife for a month should be printed thus,

Hung up my picture in a market place,

And sold me to vile bawds.

BAWD.

Sc. 3. p. 540.

to scatter his crowns in the sun.

"There is here," says Mr. Malone, “perhaps, some allusion to the lues venerea, though the words French crowns in their literal acceptation were certainly also in Boult's thoughts." Mr. Mason sees no allusion whatever to the above disease. That a French crown did signify the

lues venerea cannot be doubted; but Mr. Mason's difference of opinion might he further supported by reflecting that if the Frenchman came to renovate* his malady, he could not well be said to scatter it. It must therefore be inferred that he was to scatter nothing but his money. As Mr. Mason has not favoured us with an explanation of the coins in question, it is necessary to state that they were crowns of the sun, specifically so called, écus du soleil; and in this instance, for the sake of antithesis, térmed crowns in the sun. They were of gold, originally coined by Louis XI. Their name was derived from the mint mark of a sun; and they were current in this kingdom by weight, in the same manner as certain English coins were in France.

BOULT.

Sc. 3. p. 541.

we should lodge them with this sign.

This sign is properly referred by Mr. Malone to the person of Marina, and cannot, for the reasons in the last note, allude to the sun, according

*It is necessary that the reader should review Mr. Malone's preceding and satisfactory note.

to Mr. Mason's second explanation. Nor is this gentleman's argument supported by the instance adduced of the sun having been used as the sign of a brothel. It was by no means exclusively, or even particularly so. The following passage from Dekker's Villanies discovered, or the belman's night walks, may throw some light on the subject before us. "He saw the doores of notorious carted bawdes (like hell gates) stand night and day wide open, with a a paire of harlots in taffata gownes (like two painted posts) garnishing out those doores, being better to the house then a double signe."

Sc. 6. p. 567.

MAR. Thou'rt the damn'd door-keeper to every coystrel That hither comes enquiring for his tib.

In

Mr. Malone thinks Tib a contraction of Tabitha; but quære if not of Isabel? In all events it was a name given to any lewd woman. Pasquil's mad cappe, 1626, 4to, an excellent satire, mention is made of a tinker and his tibbe. Why this name was exclusively applied to a loose woman, or how it got into the game of gleek, does not appear.

ACT V.

Scene 3. Page 607.

PER. Heav'ns make a star of him!

So in 1 Henry VI. Act i.

"A far more glorious star thy soul will make

Than Julius Cæsar-"

This notion is borrowed from the ancients, who expressed their mode of conferring divine honours and immortality on men, by placing them among the stars. the stars. Thus on a medal of Hadrian the adopted son of Trajan and Plotina, the divinity of his parents is expressed by placing a star over their heads; and in like manner the consecration medals of Faustina the elder exhibit her on an eagle, her head surrounded with stars. Other similar medals have the moon and stars; and some of Faustina the younger the inscription SIDERIBVS RECEPTA.

THE CLOWN.

Although Boult, the servant to the pandar and his wife, is not termed a clown in the dra

matis personæ, it should seem that he has an equal claim to the appellation with several other low characters that have been introduced into plays for the purpose of amusing the audience. He bears some affinity to the tapster in Measure for measure; but there is nothing that immediately constitutes him the jester to a brothel. See what has been said on such a character in the

article relating to the clown in Measure for mea

sure.

ON THE STORY OF PERICLES.

As the very great popularity of this play in former times may be supposed to have originated rather from the interest which the story, replete with incident, must have excited, than from any intrinsic merit as a dramatic composition; it may be worth while, and even interesting to many, to give the subject more ample discussion. To trace it beyond the period in which the favourite romance of Apollonius Tyrius was composed, would be a vain attempt. That was the probable original; but of its author nothing decisive has been discovered. The following circumstance,