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I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven;
The second, and the third, nine, and fome five;"

Hanmer has faid concerning the word lant, is true. I meet with the following inftance in Glapthorne's Wit in a Conftable, 1639: "Your frequent drinking country ale with lant in't." And, in Shakspeare's time, to drink a lady's health in urine appears to have been esteemed an act of gallantry. One inftance (for I could produce many) may fuffice: "Have I not religiously vow'd my heart to you, been drunk for your health, eat glaffes, drank urine, ftabb'd arms, and done all the offices of protefted gallantry for your fake?" Antigonus, on this occafion, may therefore have a dirty meaning. It fhould be semembered, however, that to damn anciently fignified to condemn. So, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578; "Vouchfafe to give my damned husband life." Again, in Julius Cæfar, Act IV. fc. i:

"He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him.”

STEEVENS.

I am perfuaded that this is a corruption, and that either the printer caught the word damn from the preceding line, or the tranfcriber was deceived by fimilitude of founds.-What the poet's word was, cannot now be afcertained; but the fentiment was probably fimilar to that in Othello:

"O heaven, that fuch companions thou'dft unfold," &c. I believe, we should read-land-dam; i. e. kill him; bury him in earth. So, in King John:

"His ears are ftopp'd with duft; he's dead."

Again, ibid:

"And ftop this gap of breath with fulfome dust." Again, in Kendal's Flowers of Epigrams, 1577: "The corps clapt faft in clotter'd claye,

"That here engrav'd doth lie-.”

Again, in Ben Jonfon's Volpone:

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Speak to the knave?

"I'll ha' my mouth first flopp'd with earth." MALONE. After all these aukward ftruggles to obtain a meaning, we might, I think, not unfafely, read

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i. e. poifon him with laudanum. The word is much more ancient than the time of Shakspeare. I owe this remark to Dr. Farmer. STEEVENS.

The fecond and the third, nine, and fome five;] The fecond folio reads-fonnes five. REED.

This line appears obfcure, because the word nine feems to refer to both " the fecond and the third." But it is fufficiently clear, re

If this prove true, they'll pay for't: by mine ho

nour,

I'll geld them all; fourteen they shall not fee,
To bring falfe generations; they are co-heirs;
And I had rather glib myfelf, than they

Should not produce fair iffue.+

Ceafe; no more.

LEON.
You smell this business with a fenfe as cold
As is a dead man's nofe: I fee't, and feel't,'

ferendo fingula fingulis. The fecond is of the age of nine, and the third is fome five years old. The fame expreffion, as Theobald has remarked, is found in K. Lear:

"For that I am, fome twelve or fourteen moonshines,

Lag of a brother.'

The editor of the fecond folio reads-fons five; ftartled probably by the difficulty that arifes from the fubfequent lines, the operation that Antigonus threatens to perform on his children, not being commonly applicable to females. But for this, let our author an. fwer. Bulwer in his Artificial Changeling, 1656, fhows it may be done. Shakspeare undoubtedly wrote fome; for were we, with the ignorant editor above-mentioned, to read-fons five, then the fecond and third daughter would both be of the fame age; which, as we are not told that they are twins, is not very reasonable to fuppofe. Befides; daughters are by the law of England co-heirs, but fons never. MALONE.

4 And I had rather glib myself, &c.] For glib I think we should read lib, which, in the northern language, is the fame with geld. In The Court Beggar, by Mr. Richard Brome, A&t IV. the word lib is used in this fenfe :-" He can fing a charm (he fays) fhall make you feel no pain in your libbing, nor after it: no toothdrawer, or corn-cutter, did ever work with fo little feeling to a patient." GREY.

So, in the comedy of Fancies Chafte and Noble, by Ford, 1638: "What a terrible fight to a lib'd breech, is a fow-gelder?" Though lib may probably be the right word, yet glib is at this time current in many counties, where they fay-to glib a boar, 10 glib a horfe. So, in St. Patrick for Ireland, a play by Shirley, 1640:

5

"If I come back, let me be glib'd." STEEVENS.

·I fee't, and feel't,] The old copy-but I do fee't, and feel't. I have followed Sir T. Hanmer, who omits thefe exple

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As you feel doing thus; and fee withal
The inftruments that feel."

ANT.

If it be fo.

We need no grave to bury honesty;

There's not a grain of it, the face to sweeten
Of the whole dungy earth."

LEON.

What! lack I credit?

tives, which ferve only to derange the metre, without improving the fenfe. STEEVENS.

6 I fee't and feel't,

As

you feel doing thus; and fee withal

The inftruments that feel.] Some ftage direction feems necessary in this place; but what that direction fhould be, it is not easy to decide. Sir T. Hanmer gives-Laying hold of his arm; Dr. Johnfon-ftriking his brows. STEEVENS.

any

As a stage direction is certainly requifite, and as there is none in the old copy, I will venture to propofe a different one from hitherto mentioned. Leontes, perhaps, touches the forehead of Antigonus with his fore and middle fingers forked in imitation of a SNAIL's HORNS; for thefe, or imaginary horns of his own like them, are the inftruments that feel, to which he alluded.-There is a fimilar reference in The Merry Wives of Windfor, from whence the direction of ftriking his brows feems to have been adopted :-" he fo takes on,-fo curfes all Eve's daughters, and fo buffets himself on the forehead, crying, Peer out, peer out!"-The word lunes, it fhould be noted, occurs in the context of both paffages, and in the fame fenfe. HENLEY.

I fee and feel my difgrace, as you, Antigonus, now feel me, on my doing thus to you, and as you now fee the inftruments that feel, i. e. my fingers. So, in Corialanus :

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all the body's members

"Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it :-
"That only like a gulf it did remain, &c.

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where, the other inftruments

"Did fee, hear, devife, inftruct, walk, feel," &c.

Leontes must here be supposed to lay hold of either the beard or arm, or fome other part, of Antigonus. See a fubfequent note in the last scene of this act. MALONE.

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dungy earth.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Feeds beaft as man."

our dungy earth alike

STEEVENS.

1. LORD. I had rather you did lack, than I, my lord,

Upon this ground: and more it would content me To have her honour true, than your fufpicion; Be blam'd for't how you might.

LEON. Why, what need we Commune with you of this? but rather follow Our forceful inftigation? Our prerogative Calls not your counfels; but our natural goodness Imparts this which, if you (or ftupified, Or feeming fo in fkill,) cannot, or will not, Relish as truth,' like us; inform yourselves, We need no more of your advice: the matter, The lofs, the gain, the ordering on't, is all Properly ours.

ANT.

And I wish, my liege,

You had only in your filent judgement tried it,
Without more overture.

LEON.

How could that be?

Either thou art most ignorant by age,

Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight,
Added to their familiarity,

(Which was as grofs as ever touch'd conjecture,

7 which, if you

Relifh as truth,] The old copy reads a truth. Mr. Rowe made the neceffary correction-as. STEEVENS.

Our author is frequently inaccurate in the conftruction of his fentences, and the conclufion of them do not always correfpond with the beginning. So before, in this play:

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who,-if I

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The late editions read-as truth, which is certainly more grammatical; but a wish to reduce our author's phrafeology to the modern ftandard, has been the fource of much errour in the regulation of his text.

MALONI.

That lack'd fight only, nought for approbation, But only feeing, all other circumstances

8

Made up to the deed,) doth pufh on this proceed

ing:

Yet, for a greater confirmation,

(For, in an act of this importance, 'twere
Moft piteous to be wild,) I have defpatch'd in poft,
To facred Delphos, to Apollo's temple,
Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know

Of stuff'd fufficiency: Now, from the oracle
They will bring all; whofe fpiritual counsel had,
Shall ftop, or fpur me.

Have I done well?

1. LORD. Well done, my lord.

LEON. Though I am fatisfied, and need no more Than what I know, yet fhall the oracle

Give reft to the minds of others; fuch as he,
Whofe ignorant credulity will not

Come up to the truth: So have we thought it good,
From our free perfon fhe fhould be confin'd;
Left that the treachery of the two,' fled hence,
Be left her to perform. Come, follow us;
We are to speak in publick: for this business
Will raife us all.

ANT. [Afide.]

To laughter, as I take it, [Exeunt.

If the good truth were known.

nought for approbation,

But only feeing,] Approbation, in this place, is put for proof.

JOHNSON.

• ftuff'd fufficiency:] That is, of abilities more than enough. JOHNSON.

Left that the treachery of the two, &c.] He has before declared, that there is a plot against his life and crown, and that Hermione is federary with Polixenes and Camillo. JOHNSON.

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