left out, which are supplied by the old corrector. This is one of them.

ances be "sorrowful affections," as Johnson interprets them, the original passage, though obscure, is not wanting in connection. Silvia has spoken of her "griefs,"-Eglamour pities her "grievances; "the words being interchangeable.

"Ay, sir; the other squirrel was stolen from me by a hangman boy

in the market-place." The first folio reads, "the hangman's boys." "A hangman boy" is a rascally boy-a gallows boy. COLLIER.

"Her eyes are green as grass; and In the first folio, says Mr. Collier, Julia, descanting on Silvia's picture, says, "her eyes are grey as glass," which may be right. The second has "grey as grass." The corrector reads "6. green as grass," and "such, we have good reason to suppose, was the true reading."

(ACT IV. Sc. 4.)

"The hangman's boys" are boys dedicated to the hangman.

so are mine." (ACT IV. Sc. 4.)

Julia was not ridiculing Silvia's picture, nor depreciating her own eyes. "Eyen grey as glass" is Chaucer's praise of the Prioress. The light blue tint, which accompanies the eyes that go with the "auburn" hair of Julia and Silvia, was the colour of the glass of Shakspere's time.

"My shame and desperate guilt al once confound me."

The original has this short line, 'My shame and guilt confound me,"

followed by

"Forgive me, Valentine."

(ACT V. Sc. 4.)

These poor expletives are put in to make what is called a "regular line;" with several other examples of the same kind, in the last scene.

"Our day of marriage shall be yours no less,
One feast, one house, one mutual happiness."

This reading is approved, on the authority of the corrector, that the play may conclude with a couplet.

(ACT V. Sc. 4.)

The couplet is obtained in the feeble no less, by destroying the original sense:

"Come, Proteus, 't is your pe

nance but to hear

The story of your loves dis

covered:

That done, our day of marriage

shall be yours," &o.

GLOSSARY

ALE. Act II., Sc. 5.

"Because thou hast not so much charity in thee as to go to the ale with a Christian."

The ale was a rural festival, sometimes connected with the church holidays, as a Whitsun-ale. Speed is called a Jew if he refuses to go to a Christian church feast.

ANGERLY. Act I., Sc. 2.

"How angerly I taught my brow to frown." Angrily-angerly was the form of spelling the adverb in Shakspere's time.

BASE. Act I., Sc. 2.

"6 'Indeed, I bid the base for Proteus."

An allusion to the country game of prison-base, in which one runs and is pursued by another.

BEADSMAN. Act I., Sc. 1.

"I will be thy beadsman, Valentine."

The name of beadsman is derived from the Anglo-Saxon beade -a prayer, which word became transferred to the string of balls, or beads, used in the Romish church for counting the prayers. The beadsman was an almsman, endowed for the purpose of praying for the welfare of some other person, living or dead. The blue-gown Edie Ochiltree, of Sir Walter Scott's Antiquary,' was a "bedesman," and the charity was existing when he wrote, though the services were dispensed with.

BOOTS. Act I., Sc. 1.

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"Nay, give me not the boots."

The boots were instruments of torture. They were of iron, in which the leg was placed, and wedges were driven in between the leg and the iron with a hammer. They were chiefly used in Scotland, and their latest application was against the Covenanters, under Charles the Second. Sir Walter Scott has described the torture in bis 'Old Mortality.'

BOSOM. Act III., Sc. 1.

"Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love."

In the sixteenth century ladies were accustomed to have a small pocket in the front of their stays, wherein they de

posited letters and other matters considered valuable of private.

CANKER. Act I., Sc. 1.

"In the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells."

He found the

Shakspere has frequently used this figure. canker-worm in the Bible (Joel i. 4). In the Geneva Bible, 1561, we find, "That which is left of the palmer-worm hath the grasshopper eaten, and the residue of the grasshopper hath the canker-worm eaten, and the residue of the cankerworm hath the caterpillar eaten." The canker-worms are the larvæ produced in the leaves of many plants, from which spring the caterpillars called leaf-rollers. The canker-worm of the rose is a small dark-brown caterpillar, with a black head and six feet. The grub is produced from eggs deposited in the previous summer; it makes its appearance with the first opening of the leaves, it weaves them together, and thus stops the growth of the bud which forms its canopy. CIRCUMSTANCE. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Pro. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.

Val. So, by your circumstance, I fear, you 'll prove." The word is here used by Proteus in the sense of circumstantial deduction; and by Valentine in that of position.

CLEFT THE ROOT. Act V., Sc. 4.

"How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root?"

An allusion to cleaving the pin in archery, which was splitting the nail attached to the mark in the butt.

COMPASS.

Act IV., Sc. 2.

"Sil. What's your will?

Pro. That I may compass yours.
Sil. You have your wish."

The word compass is here taken in two senses. Proteus, in
his reply to Silvia, desires that he may have her will within
his power-encompassed. In her reply she takes the word
in its meaning of to perform, and informs him what her
will is.

CONSORT. Act III., Sc. 2.

"Visit by night your lady's chamber window,

With some sweet consort."

Musicians consorted-banded-together, and were called collectively the consort; the music they played was also called a consort, since become modernised into concert.

DESCANT. Act I., Sc. 2.

"Too harsh a descant."

The descant was what we now call a variation: the simple air was called "the plain song," or ground.

DIET. Act II., Sc. I.

"And fast, like one that takes diet."

To take diet is to be dieted-to be put under regimen. DUCAT.

Act I., Sc. 1.

"Not so much as a ducat."

Shakspere makes frequent mention of the ducat-an Italian coin, deriving its name from its being a ducal coin.

DUMP. Act III., Sc. 2.

"To their instruments

Tune a deploring dump."

The word dump was not originally a low or burlesque term. It was used to express deep melancholy or sorrow, and also for a mournful elegy or tune, in which sense it is here used.

EXCHANGE [OF RINGS]. Act II., Sc. 2.

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Why, then, we 'll make exchange."

This was a betrothment, made, in this instance, in private, as afterwards between Valentine and Silvia. In Twelfth Night' (Act V., Sc. 1), the Priest describes a more formal ceremonial.

EXHIBITION. Act I., Sc. 3

"Like exhibition thou shalt have from me."

The term is still in use at our universities for the stipend or allowance of scholars, derived from some special fund.

FEATURE. Act II., Sc. 4.

"He is complete in feature."

Feature (form or fashion) was, in Shakspere's time, applied to the body as well as the face. Gower and Marlowe both use it with this meaning.

GARTER. Act II., Sc. 1.

"He, being in love, could not see to garter his hose." Garters, at one time, were of great magnificence, and were applied round the large slashed hose, both above and below the knee. It was a common trick of a fantastic lover to neglect the gartering of his hose, in order to imply that the distraction of his mind, owing to his passion, prevented his paying attention to his dress.

HALIDOM. Act IV., Sc. 2.

"By my halidom.”

Holiness: holi and dom, as in kingdom. Holidame, the holy virgin, was a corruption of this word.

HOWEVER. Act I., Sc. 1. In whatsoever way.

IMPOSE. Act IV., Sc. 3.

Impose is here used for command. It is the only instance of
Shakspere's using the word as a noun.

INHERIT. Act II., Sc. 2.

"This or else nothing will inherit her."

To inherit is to obtain possession of.

JERKIN. Act II., Sc. 4.

"My jerkin is a doublet."

The jerkin, or jacket, was a sort of short upper coat, either with or without sleeves, generally worn over the doublet, though sometimes the doublet was worn alone, and occa sionally the two were confounded. A "doblet-jacket" of blue velvet, cut upon cloth of gold, embroidered, occurs in an inventory of the wardrobe of Henry VIII. The sleeves were often separate articles of dress, attached to the jerkin or doublet, or even to a woman's gown, by laces or ribbons. LEAVE. Act IV., Sc. 4.

"It seems you loved her not, to leave her token." To leave is to part with-to separate from.

LET. Act III., Sc. 1.

"What lets, but one may enter at her window."

One of the senses of to let is to hinder: it is still so used by lawyers.

LIKES. Act IV., Sc. 2.

"The music likes you not."

The music pleases you not.

MASK. Act I., Sc. 4.

"Sun-expelling mask."

The masks of the ladies of Queen Elizabeth's time are thus described by Stubbes, in his 'Anatomie of Abuses,' 1595: "When they use to ride abroad they have masks and visors made of velvet, wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they look."

MEAN. Act I., Sc. 2.

"There wanteth but a mean to fill your song."

The mean was the tenor in music.

MONTH'S MIND.

Act I., Sc. 2.

"I see you have a month's mind."

Month's mind had reference to the masses and other obsequies performed by the Romish church, during the month which followed interment, for the repose of the souls of the deceased, and which, from the importance attributed to them in Catholic times, may have rendered the phrase equivalent