son explains to mean "dry food for brutes," is immediately from the French provende, having the same signification; but the origin of the French word is not so clear. The Italian, indeed, has provianda, a feminine substantive in the singular; but this signifies victuals in general, or flesh-meat in particular, and is the same word with the French viande and the English viands, which are commonly traced to the Latin vivere (quasi vivenda), an etymology which receives some support from the existence of vivanda in the Italian as apparently only another form of provianda. Another derivation of the French provende brings it from provenire and proventus, in which case it would⚫ signify properly increase, growth, crop; and another would bring it from provideo, making it only a variation or corruption of provision. The parentage of the word, therefore, may be said to be contested between vivo, venio, and video. Possibly vendo might also put in a claim. Webster has :-"It is said that provend, provender, originally signified a vessel containing a measure of corn daily given to a horse or other beast.” By whom this is stated, or in what language the words are said to have this meaning, he does not inform us. He also adduces the Norman provender, a prebendary, and provendre, a prebend, and the Dutch prove, a prebend. The Latin præbenda (from præbeo), the undoubted original of prebend, may have got confounded with provende in the obscurity enveloping the origin and proper meaning of the latter term.

498. And in some taste.—It might seem at first that this phrase, as it may be said to be equivalent in effect to our common "in some sense," so is only another wording of the same conception or figure, what is

called a sense in the one form being called a taste in the other. But, although taste is reckoned one of the senses, this would certainly be a wrong explanation. The expression "in some sense" has nothing to do with the powers of sensation or perception; sense here is signification, meaning, import. Neither does taste stand for the sense of taste in the other expression. The taste which is here referred to is a taste in contradistinction to a more full enjoyment or participation, a taste merely. "In some taste" is another way of saying, not "in some sense," but "in some measure, or degree."

498. On objects, arts, and imitations, etc.-This passage, as it stands in the Folios, with the sentence terminating at "imitations," has much perplexed the commentators, and, indeed, may be said to have proved quite inexplicable, till a comma was substituted for the full point by Mr. Knight, which slight change makes everything plain and easy. Antony's assertion is, that Lepidus feeds, not on objects, arts, and imitations generally, but on such of them as are out of use and staled (or worn out: Vid. 50) by other people, which, notwithstanding, begin his fashion (or with which his following the fashion begins). Theobald reduces the full point to a comma, as other editors do to a colon or a semicolon; but it is evident, nevertheless, from his note that he did not regard the relative clause as a qualification or limitation of what precedes it.

498. Listen great things.-Listen has now ceased to be used as an active verb.

498. Our best friends made, and our best means stretched out.—This is the reading of the Second Folio.

It seems to me, I confess, to be sufficiently in Shakespeare's manner. The First Folio has "Our best Friends made, our meanes stretcht,"—which, at any rate, it is quite impossible to believe to be what he wrote.

498. And let us presently go sit in council, etc.—The more ordinary phraseology would be "Let us sit in consultation how," or "Let us consult how." It may be questioned, notwithstanding the "Councell" of the First Edition, whether we ought not to print "sit in counsel." Vid. 263.

499. And bayed about with many enemies.-Vid. 349 (for bayed), and 363 (for with).

499. Millions of mischiefs.—This is the reading of all the old editions. Mr. Knight has "mischief," no doubt by an error of the

press.

Scene II.-The original heading here is "Drum. Enter Brutus, Lucillius, and the Army. Titinius and Pindarus meete them." The modern editors after the name of Lucilius introduce that of Lucius. See the note on 521.

502. What now, Lucilius, is Cassius near ?—Here the ius is dissyllabic in Lucilius and monosyllabic in Cassius.

503. To do you salutation.-Another of the old applications of do which we have now lost. Vid. 147. The stage direction about the Letter is modern.

504. He greets me well.—The meaning seems to be, He salutes me in a friendly manner. Yet this can hardly be regarded as a legitimate employment of well. For greet see 242.

504. In his own change, etc.—The meaning seems to be, either through a change that has taken place in his own feelings and conduct, or through the misconduct of his officers.

-

504. Some worthy cause: -Some reasonable or sufficient cause, some cause of worth, value, or power to justify the wish. The word worth is the Anglo-Saxon weorth, wurth, or wyrth, connected with which are weorscipe, worship, and weorthian, to hold in esteem or honour. But there may also perhaps be a connexion with weorthan, or wurthan, to become, or to be, the same word with the modern German werden, and still in a single fragment remaining in use among ourselves in the phrase woe worth, that is, woe be. If this be so, either what we call worth is that which anything emphatically is, or, when we say that a thing is, we are only saying that it is worth in a broad or vague sense, according to a common manner of forming a term of general out of one of particular import. In the latter case worth may be connected with vir, and virtus, and vireo. Vid. 209.

506. He is not doubted, etc.-Brutus here, it will be observed, makes two speeches; first he addresses himself to Pindarus, then to Lucilius. Even if the prosody did not admonish us to the same effect, it would, in these circumstances, be better to print the passage as I have given it, with two hemistichs or broken lines. 506. Let me be resolved.-Vid. 339.

507. But not with such familiar instances.—The word still in use that most nearly expresses this obsolete sense of instances is, perhaps, assiduities. As instance should mean standing upon, so assiduity should mean sitting upon. Assiduitas is used by Cicero; instantia, I believe, is not found in the best. age of the Latin tongue. The English word is employed by Shakespeare in other senses besides this that are now obsolete. "To comfort you the more,"

says

the Earl of Warwick to the King, in the Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, iii. 1,

"I have received

A certain instance that Glendower is dead;"

that is, a certain assurance. Again, in King Richard the Third, "Tell him," says Lord Hastings in reply to the message from Lord Stanley, iii. 2,

"Tell him his fears are shallow, without instance ;"

that is, apparently, without any fact to support or justify them. Again, in Hamlet, iii. 2, in the Play acted before the King and Queen we have

"The instances that second marriage move

Are base respects of thrift, but none of love;"

that is, the inducements, as we should now say, are base considerations of thrift, or pecuniary advantage. We now use instance in something like its proper sense only in the phrase "at the instance of," and even there the notion of pressure or urgency is nearly lost; the word is understood as meaning little, if anything, more than merely so much of application, request, or suggestion as the mere mention of what is wanted might carry with it. In another phrase in which it has come to be used," in the first instance," it is not very obvious what its meaning really is, or how, at least, it has got the meaning which it appears to have. Do we, or can we, say "in the second, or third, instance ?" By instance as commonly used, for a particular fact, we ought to understand a fact bearing upon the matter in hand; and this seems to be still always kept in mind in the familiar expression "for instance."

508. Like horses hot at hand.-That is, apparently,