Line 141. warden-pies;] Wardens are a species of large pears. I believe the name is disused at present. STEEVENS.. with trol-my-dames:] Trou-madame, French. WARBURTON. Line 184. Line 191. abide.] To abide, here, must signify, to sojourn, to live for a time without a settled habitation. JOHNSON. Line 195. -motion of the prodigal son,] i. e. the puppet-shew, then called motions. A term frequently occurring in our author. WARBURTON. Line 222. let me be unrolled, and my name put in the book of virtue] Begging gypsies, in the time of our author, were in gangs and companies, that had something of the shew of an incorporated body. From this noble society he wishes he may be unrolled if he does not so and so. WARBURTON. -hent the stile-a:] Hent is from the verb to hend, to take hold of, to seize. Line 225. ACT IV. SCENE III. Line 236. -your extremes,] That is, your excesses, the extravagance of your praises. JOHNSON. Line 238. The gracious mark o' the land,] The object of all men's notice and expectation. JOHNSON. Line 243. -sworn, I think, To show myself a glass.] i. e. one would think that in putting on this habit of a shepherd, you had sworn to put me out of countenance; for in this, as in a glass, you shew me how much below yourself you must descend before you can get upon a level with me. The sentiment is fine, and expresses all the delicacy, as well as humble modesty of the character. WARB. Line 253. —his work, so noble, Vilely bound up!] It is impossible for any man to rid his mind of his profession. The authorship of Shakspeare has supplied him with a metaphor, which rather than he would lose it, he has put with no great propriety into the mouth of a country maid. Thinking of his own works, his mind passed naturally to the binder. I am glad that he has no hint at an editor. JOHNSON. Line 318. Grace, and remembrance,] Rue was called herb of grace. Rosemary was the emblem of remembrance; I know not why, unless because it was carried at funerals. JOHNSON. Line 373. -violets, dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,] I suspect that our author mistakes Juno for Pallas, who was the goddess of blue eyes. Sweeter than an eye-lid is an odd image: but perhaps he uses sweet in the general sense, for delightful. JOHNSON. It was formerly the fashion to kiss the eyes as a mark of extraordinary tenderness. I have somewhere met with an account of the first reception one of our kings gave to his new queen, where he is said to have kissed her fayre eyes. STEEVENS. Line 399. -Each your doing, &c.] That is, your manner in each act crowns the act. JOHNSON. we stand, &c.] That is, we are now on our beJOHNSON. Line 434. -a worthy feeding :] I conceive feeding to be a pasture, and a worthy feeding to be a tract of pasturage not inconsiderable, not unworthy of my daughter's fortune. JOHNSON. Line 436. He looks like sooth :] Sooth is an obsolete word for truth. Line 427. haviour. Line 462. -fadings:] A dance so called. -471. unbraided wares?] Surely we must read braided, for such are all the wares mentioned in the answer. JOHNSON. caddisses,] I do not exactly know what caddisses are. In Shirley's Witty Fair-one, 1633, one of the characters says, Line 475. "I will have eight velvet pages, and six footmen in cadSTEEVENS. "dis." Line 496. poking-sticks of steel,] The poking-sticks were heated in the fire, and made use of to adjust the plaits of ruffs. STEEVENS. Line 518. clamour your tongues,] The phrase is taken from ringing. When bells are at the height, in order to cease them, the repetition of the strokes becomes much quicker than before; this is called clamouring them. WARBURTON. Line 520. -a pair of sweet gloves.] Sweet or perfumed gloves are frequently mentioned by Shakspeare, and were very fashionable in the age of Elizabeth, and long afterwards. WARB. Line 595. That doth utter all men's ware-a.] To utter. To bring out, or produce. JOHNSON. Line 598. all men of hair ;] Men of hair, are hairy men, or satyrs. A dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages. At a great festival celebrated in France, the king and some of the nobles personated satyrs dressed in close habits, tufted or shagged all over, to imitate hair. They began a wild dance, and in the tumult of their merriment one of them went too near a candle and set fire to his satyr's garb, the flame ran instantly over the loose tufts, and spread itself to the dress of those that were next him; a great number of the dancers were cruelly scorched, being neither able to throw off their coats nor extinguish them. The king had set himself in the lap of the duchess of Burgundy, who threw her robe over him and saved him. JOHNSON. gallimaufry-] i. e. a medley, a hotch-potch. bowling,] Bowling, I believe, is here a term for a dance of smooth motion without great exertion of agility. Line 600. -603. JOHNSON. Line 690. dispute his own estate?] Perhaps for dispute we might read compute; but dispute his estate may be the same with talk over his affairs. JOHNSON. Line 732. far as. calion the common ancestor of all. Far than- -] I think for far than we should read We will not hold thee of our kin even so far off as DeuJOHNSON. Line 793. -and by my fancy:] It must be remembered that fancy in this author very often, as in this place, means love. JOHNSON. Line 863. Ourselves to be the slaves of chance,] As chance has driven me to these extremities, so I commit myself to chance to be conducted through them. JOHNSON. Line 934. -pomander,] A pomander was a little ball made of perfumes, and worn in the pocket, or about the neck, to prevent infection in times of plague. In a tract, intitled, Certain necessary Directions, as well for curing the Plague, as for preventing Infection, printed 1636, there are directions for making two sorts of pomanders, one for the rich, and another for the poor. Dr. GREY. VOL. X. T Line 937. As if my trinkets had been hallowed,] This alludes to beads often sold by the Romanists, as made particularly efficacious by the touch of some relick. JOHNSON. Line 1022. -boot.] That is, something over and above, or, as we now say, something to boot. JOHNSON. Line 1064. --- -pedler's excrement.] Is pedler's beard. JOHNS. -1069.of what having,] i. e. what property. 1077. —therefore they do not give us the lie.] The meaning is, they are paid for lying, therefore they do not give us the lye, they sell it us. JOHNSON. Line 1095. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant,] As he was a suitor from the country, the Clown supposes his father should have brought a present of game, and therefore imagines, when Autolycus asks him what advocate he has, that by the word advo cate he means a pheasant. STEEVENS. Line 1205. a great mun -by the picking on's teeth.] It seems, to pick the teeth was, at this time, a mark of some pretension to greatness or elegance. JOHNSON. Line 1243. the hottest day prognostication proclaims,] That is, the hottest day foretold in the almanack. JOHNSON. Line 1250. being something gently considered,] Means, I having a gentlemanlike consideration given me, i. e. a bribe, will bring you, &c. STEEVENS. ACT V. SCENE I. Line 17. Or, from the all that are, took something good,] This is a favourite thought; it was bestowed on Miranda and Rosalind before. JOHNSON. Line 82. 95. 127. Should rift-] i. e. should split. Affront his eye.] To affront, is to meet. JOHNSON. Have said, and writ so,] The reader must observe, that so relates not to what precedes, but to what follows that, she had not been-equall'd. JOHNSON. Line 198. -whose daughter His tears proclaim'd his parting with her:] This is very ungrammatical and obscure. We may better read, whose daughter His tears proclaim'd her parting with her. The prince first tells that the lady came from Lybia, the king interrupting him, says, from Smalus; from him, says the prince, whose tears, at parting, shewed her to be his daughter. JOHNSON. The obscurity arises from want of a proper punctuation. By placing a comma after his, I think the sense is clear'd. STEEV. Line 264. Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,] Worth signifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high descent. The king means that he is sorry the prince's choice is not in other respects as worthy of him as in beauty. JOHNSON. ACT V. SCENE II. Line 347. with clipping her :] i. e. embracing her. -395. -had he himself eternity,] Eternity means only immortality, or that part of eternity which is to come; so we talk of eternal renown and eternal infamy. Immortality may subsist without divinity, and therefore the meaning only is, that if Julio could always continue his labours, he would mimick nature. JOHNSON. Line 396. of her custom,] That is of her trade,—would draw her customers from her. JOHNSON. Line 407. Who would be thence, that has the benefit of access?] It was, I suppose, only to spare his own labour that the poet put this whole scene into narrative, for though part of the transaction was already known to the audience, and therefore could not properly be shewn again, yet the two kings might have met upon the stage, and after the examination of the old shepherd, the young lady might have been recognised in sight of the spectators. JOHNS. Line 463. -franklins say it,] Franklin is a freeholder, or yeoman, a man above a villain, but not a gentleman. JOHNSON. Line 467. tall fellow of thy hands,] Tall, in that time, was the word used for stout. JOHNSON. 562. ACT V. SCENE III. Line 533. O patience;] That is, stay a while, be not so eager. JOHNSON. The fixure of her eye has motion in't,] The mean |