these lines was no novelty on the English stage. The moralities afford scenes of the like measure. JOHNSON. Line 229. For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool; So, were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school.] The meaning is, to be in a school would as ill become a patch, or low fellow, as folly would beJOHNSON. come me. Line 247. The allusion holds in the exchange.] i. e. The riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when you use the name of Cain. WARBURTON. Line 277. If a talent be a claw, &c.] A quibble on talon and talent. Line 307. Nath. Fauste, precor, gelida, &c.] Though all the editions concur to give this speech to Sir Nathaniel, yet, as Dr. Thirlby ingeniously observed to me, it is evident, it must belong to Holofernes. The Curate is employed in reading the letter to himself; and while he is doing so, that the stage may not stand still, Holofernes either pulls out a book, or, repeating some verše by heart from Mantuanus, comments upon the character of that THEOBALD. poet. Line 311. Vinegia, vinegia, Chi non te vede, ei non te pregia.] The proverb, as I am informed, is this; He that sees Venice little, values it much; he that sees it much, values it little. JOHNSON. Line 356. the tired horse] i. e. The horse adorned or arrayed with ribbands, &c. Line 370. Trip and go, my sweet;] These words probably composed the burthen of some old popular song. Line 378. colourable colours.] That is, specious, or fair seeming appearances. Line 392. certes,] i. e. For certain. ACT IV. SCENE III. JOHNSON. Line 398. I am toiling in a pitch; Alluding to lady Rosaline's complexion, who is through the whole play represented as a black beauty. JOHNSON. Line 425. The night of dew, that on my cheeks down flows;] He means, the dew that nightly flows down his cheeks. Shakspeare, in one of his other plays, uses night of dew for dewy night. STEEVENS. Line 444. he comes in like a perjure,] The punishment of perjury is to wear on the breast a paper expressing the crime. JOHNSON. Line 459. 0, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose; Disfigure not his slop.] Slops are large and widekneed breeches, the garb in fashion in our author's days, as we may observe from old family pictures; but they are now worn only by boors and sea-faring men. THEOBALD. Line 477. the liver vein,] The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. JOHNSON. Line 493. By earth, she is but corporal; there you lie.] Corporal for corporeal. Line 495. amber coted.] To cote, is to outstrip, to overpass. STEEVENS. Line 526. Air, would I might triumph so!] Perhaps we may better read, Ah! would I might triumph so! JOHNSON. Line 538. my true love's fasting pain.] Fasting is longing, hungry, wanting. Line 582. - teen!] i. e. Grief. JOHNSON. -581. To see a king transformed to a gnat!] Gnat, in the old copy. The modern editors read knot, which is a bird of the snipe kind, known in Lincolnshire, remarkable for its stupidity. Line 588. critick Timon Critick and critical are used by our author in the same sense as cynic and cynical. STEEVENS. Line 599. With moon-like men, of strange inconstancy,] Perhaps the poet may mean, with men like common men. JOHNSON. Line 693. And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well.] Crest is here properly opposed to badge. Black, says the King, is the badge of hell, but that which graces the heaven is the crest of beauty. Black darkens hell, and is therefore hateful: white adorns JOHNSON. heaven, and is therefore lovely. Line 697. and usurping hair,] Alluding to the great quantity of false hair then worn. Line 738. charge, or an evasive answer. Line 741. some quillets,] The word quillet signifies a false WARBURTON. affection's men at arms:] A man at arms, is a soldier armed at all points both offensively and defensively. JOHNSON. Line 764. Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?] i. e. A lady's eyes give a fuller notion of beauty than any author. Line 772. In leaden contemplation, have found out JOHNSON. Such fiery numbers,] Numbers are, in this passage, nothing more than poetical measures. Could you, says Biron, by solitary contemplation, have attained such poetical fire, such sprightly numbers, as have been prompted by the eyes of beauty? JOHNSON. Line 787. the suspicious head of theft is stopt;] i. e. A lover in pursuit of his mistress has the sense of hearing quicker than a thief (who suspects every sound he hears) in pursuit of his prey. WARBURTON. Line 789. cockled] i. e. Shelled. -794. As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;] This expression is extremely beautiful, and highly figurative. Apollo, as the sun, is represented with golden hair; so that a lute strung with his hair, means no more than strung with gilded wire. WARBURTON. Line 795. And, when love speaks, the voice of all the gods Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.] A very ingenious friend observes, that the meaning of the passage is this: That the voice of all the Gods united, could inspire only drowsiness, when compared with the chearful effects of the voice of love. STEEVENS. Line 809. -a word that loves all men ;) We should read, a word all women love. WARBURTON. The antithesis of a word that all men love, and a word which loves all men, though in itself worth little, has much of the spirit of this play. Line 839. JOHNSON. sow'd cockle reap'd no corn;] This proverbial expression intimates, that beginning with perjury, they can expect to reap nothing but falshood. WARBURTON. ACT V. SCENE I. Line 2. Your reasons at dinner have been, &c.] I know not well what degree of respect Shakspeare intends to obtain for this vicar, but he has here put into his mouth a finished respresentation of colloquial excellence. It is very difficult to add any thing to this character of the school-master's table-talk, and perhaps all the precepts of Castiglione will scarcely be found to comprehend a rule for conversation so justly delineated, so widely dilated, and so nicely limited. It may be proper just to note, that reason here, and in many other places, signifies discourse; and that audacious is used in a good sense for spirited, animated, confident. Opinion is the same with obstinacy or opiniatreté. JOHNSON. Line 4. 13. without affection,] i. e. Without affectation. 14. He is too picked,] To have the beard piqued (picked) or shorn so as to end in a point, was, in our author's time, a mark of a traveller affecting foreign fashions. JOHNSON. Line 19. -point-devise) From the French. Means, exact to the utmost pitch. Line 42. Honorificabilitudinitatibus:] This word, whence soever it comes, is often mentioned as the longest word known. JOHNSON. Line 43. --a flap-dragon:] A flap-dragon is the well known game of raisins put into brandy, and burnt. Line 59. -a quick venew of wit :) Venew or veney is a bout or turn at fencing. Line 82. -the charge-house--) Probably means, a school supported at the public charge, as a charity or free-school. Line 96. 103. — inward) Means, confidential. dally with my excrement,] The author has before called the beard valour's excrement, in The Merchant of Venice. JOHNSON. Line 147. if this fadge not,] i. e. Suit not. STEEVENS. Line 168. ACT V. SCENE II. to make his God-head wax;] To war anciently signified to grow. It is yet said of the moon, that she waxes and STEEVENS. wanes. Line 184. taking it in snuff;] i. e. In dudgeon: but the word here is used equivocally. Line 213. 'Ware pencils!] Rosaline, a black beauty, reproaches the fair Catherine for painting. JOHNSON. Line 216. O, that your face were not so full of O's! A pox of that jest! &c.] Dr. Farmer has judiciously shewn no indecency to be meant in this language, the small-pox only is here alluded to, by the very line preceding. Line 217. in by the week! This I suppose to be an expression taken from hiring servants or artificers; meaning, I wish I was as sure of his service for any time limited, as if I had hired him. STEEVENS. Line 245. So portent-like, &c.] i. e. I would be his fate or destiny, and, like a portent, hang over, and influence his fortunes. For portents were not only thought to forebode, but to influence. WARBURTON. Line 247. None are so, &c.] These are observations worthy of a man who has surveyed human nature with the closest attention. JOHNSON. Line 269. Saint Dennis, to Saint Cupid! The Princess of France invokes, with too much levity, the patron of her country, to oppose his power to that of Cupid. JOHNSON. Line 301. -spleen ridiculous-] Is, a ridiculous fit. JOHNS. -305. Like Muscovites, or Russians: as I guess.] The settling commerce in Russia was, at that time, a matter that much ingrossed the concern and conversation of the publick. There had been several embassies employed thither on that occasion; and several tracts of the manners and state of that nation written: so that a mask of Muscovites was as good an entertainment to the audience of that time, as a coronation has been since. WARBURTON. Line 347. Beauties, no richer than rich taffata.] i. e. The taffata masks they wore to conceal themselves. THEOBALD. |