330. on the hip. See note on i. 3. 42.

348. The party. The word 'party' is here used in its proper and legal sense. Sometimes it is used by Shakespeare merely to signify person,' as in Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2. 138: The party writing.'

Ib. contrive, plot. See 1. 356.

353. predicament, originally a term in logic, the Latin equivalent for category. Wilson, Arte of Logike, 1567, in p. 8 has a chapter, Of the Predicaments, called in English the most generall wordes.' The term is used I Henry IV. i. 3. 168:

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To show the line and the predicament

Wherein you range under this subtle king.'

The word must have become very common, as it is put into the mouth of the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, iii. 3. 86:

Piteous predicament!'

'O woful sympathy!

Many other words have been transferred from the schools to the language of common life, as 'category' itself, ' dilemma,' &c.

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358. formerly. Warburton conjectured formally.' But 'formerly' was used in legal documents for above.' as in the following extract from Sir Robert Hitcham's Will: And if the said college shall wilfully refuse to perform this my will: Then, I will, that this my Devise unto them shall be void; and I do Devise the same unto Emanuel College, in Cambridge, in the same manner and form, as it is formerly devised unto Pembroke-Hall, and to the same Uses, Intents, Trusts, and Purposes.' (Loder, Hist. of Framlingham, p. 207.)

387. recant, revoke, recall. Recantation' is one of the words by which Cotgrave translates the French révocation.

395. ten more, to make up the twelve jurymen. Jonson, The Devil is an Ass: (act. v. sc. 3)

'I will leave you

To your godfathers in law.

Steevens quotes Ben

Let twelve men work.'

In the next line bring' is used in a double sense. The sentence of a jury brought a man to the gallows; the godfathers brought, i. e. accompanied, a convert to the font. For the second sense, see Richard II. i. 4. 2:

'How far brought you high Hereford on his way?'

398. desire your grace of pardon. See As You Like It, v. 4. 56, ‘I desire you of the like;' and Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 1. 185, ‘I shall desire you of more acquaintance.'

401. serves you not, is not at your disposal, at your command. So Much Ado About Nothing, iii. 2. 84: If your leisure served, I would speak with you.'

402. gratify, recompense. See Coriolanus, ii. 2. 44:

To gratify his noble service.'

408. cope, requite, give an equivalent for. Cope' is translated 'troquer' by Cotgrave.

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'Withal' is generally spelt withall' in the old copies, and such is its derivation. It may be compared with the French preposition now obsolete, 'atout,' meaning 'with,' 'together with.' In meaningwithal' is generally equivalent to the simple with,' but always follows the case which it governs. Sometimes it includes the pronoun governed, as iii. 4. 72, I could not do withal.' In this and similar cases it may be regarded rather as an adverb than a preposition. The Anglo-Saxon mid eaile,' 'mid eallum,' is always used adverbially to emphasize the preceding substantive, which itself is governed by the preposition 'mid.' Then the preposition being omitted, the adverb came to be used with the force of a preposition. See Mätzner, Englische Grammatik, ii. 1. p. 422.

414. more mercenary, anxious for any more reward than the satisfaction of having done a good deed.

417. of force, of necessity. Cotgrave translates nécessairement by both these phrases. We have the former in Love's Labour 's Lost, i. I. 148: 'We must of force dispense with this decree.'

Ib. attempt. See Measure for Measure, iv. 2. 205: Neither my coat, integrity, nor persuasion can with ease attempt you.'

422, 423. We have inserted the stage directions, To Ant.,' To Bass.' It seems natural that as Antonio had been requested to 'gratify' his deliverer, Portia should take something from him as well as from Bassanio,

whose obligation was less; and if she had already taken Bassanio's gloves there would have been less reason for asking the ring. The emphatic 'you,' closing 1. 423, seems also to bear out our interpretation.

427. shame myself to give, disgrace myself by giving.

440. 'scuse, for excuse,' only occurs in one other passage of Shakespeare, Othello, iv. 1. 80:

And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy.'

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441. An if. And if' in the old copies. An' meaning 'if' is almost always spelt and' in the old editions of the English Bible and Bacon as well as those of Shakespeare, but modern editors of Shakespeare have adopted 'an.' It probably comes from the Anglo-Saxon annan to grant,' as gif, i. e. if,' from gifan. An if' is a pleonasm like 'or ere.' For an alone see ii. 4. 10: An it shall please you.' Doubtless and' is used

with this meaning in the rustic proverb:

If ifs' and 'ands' were pots and pans,

There would be no work for tinkers.'

443. bold out enemy. Monck Mason proposed to read 'hold out enmity,' but the phrase is analogous to the following in Much Ado About Nothing, i. 1. 91: 'I will hold friends with you, lady."'

447. 'gainst. So the quartos. The folio substituted against,' probably because the pronunciation of commandment' as a quadrisyllable was growing obsolete at the time when it was published (1623).

Ib. commandment. Spelt in the old copies 'commandement,' and pronounced as a quadrisyllable. The second quarto writes commaundement.' So the word must be pronounced in 1 Henry VI. i. 3. 20:

From him I have express commandement.'

It is thus spelt in the folio. In 2 Henry VI. i. 3. 145 (according to the quarto, the earliest text) the word is pronounced as a trisyllable: 'I'ld set my ten commandments in your face."

So Troilus and Cressida, i. 3.93:

'And posts like the commandment of a king.

So also Winter's Tale, ii. 2.8:

'To the contrary I have express commandment.'

In King John, i. I. 20, we have the word 'controlement' first as a trisyllable, then a quadrisyllable, in the same line:

Controlement for controlement: so answer France.'

ACT V.

Scene I.

1. The moon shines bright. This calm and quiet scene, with its moonlight and music and lovers' talk, is a charming contrast to the crowd and pomp and high-wrought, almost tragic, interest of the former Act.

4. Troilus, a son of Priam. The story of Troilus and Cressida was probably already familiar to an English audience through a play on the subject, which Shakespeare afterwards took for the groundwork of his drama. Guido da Colonna, about 1260, worked up the old Latin tales, professedly translations of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis, but really late forgeries, into his romance called Historia de Bello Trojano, which became immensely popular, and was the basis of Chaucer's poem Troilus and Cresseide, from which, as Steevens has remarked, Shakespeare borrowed this allusion:

Upon the wallis fast eke would he walke.' (Bk. v. 666.)

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Ib. Troyan. Troyan' or 'Troian' in the old copies; modern editors write 'Trojan.'

7. Thisbe. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses, iv. 55-166. Shakespeare may have read either the original or Golding's translation, first published 1564. In 'the dew' is perhaps a reference to 1.82:

'Solque pruinosas radiis siccaverat herbas.'

The lion's shadow ere himself' is a refinement on

Quam procul ad lunae radios . . . . vidit' (1.99). As Mr. Hunter says, Shakespeare's immediate authority was Chaucer, in whose Legend of Good Women (which in the folio edition comes immediately after Troilus and Cressida) Thisbe, Dido, and Medea are introduced one after another. But Shakespeare evidently blends his recollections of Chaucer and of Ovid.

16. unthrift. Here an adjective. 3. 122:

It is a substantive in Richard II. ii. • Given away

To upstart unthrifts.'

17-20. The second folio reads, And in such a night,' for the sake of the metre, doubtless. But when a line is divided between two speakers, the metre is frequently faulty either by defect or excess. For the latter, see 11. 12, 14.

28. Both here and in 1. 51 the accent is on the second syllable of Stephano. Shakespeare had learnt the true pronunciation when he wrote the Tempest, V. I. 277:

Is not this Stéphano, my drunken butler?'

35. nor we have not. See iii. 4. II.

41. Master Lorenzo? Master Lorenzo. The first quarto has M. Lorenzo, M. Lorenzo,' the second quarto and first folio M. Lorenzo, & M. Lorenzo,' whence the later folios made M. Lorenzo, and Mrs. Lorenza.' In l. 46, Launcelot says 'Tell him,' not 'Tell them.'

46. a post. See note on ii. 9. 100.

59. patines. The first quarto has 'pattents,' the second quarto and first folio pattens,' the second folio 'patterns,' which most editors have adopted. The 'patine' is a plate used in the Eucharist, and the image is thus much finer and more suitable to the floor of heaven' than the commonplace 'patterns.'