155. muttons.

See As You Like It, iii. 2. 58: Is not the grease

of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of a man?'

Ib. beefs. In I Henry IV. iii. 3. 199, the Prince calls Falstaff 'O, my sweet beef!' Cotgrave explains bœuf to mean 'An Ox; a Beefe; also, beefe.' The plural occurs 2 Henry IV. iii. 2. 353:

'Now has he land and beefs.'

Modern editions change the word to 'beeves.'

156. extend, hold out, proffer. Extend' is used in the literal sense Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 72:

campaign which Solyman the Magnificent undertook against the Persians in 1535.

27. outstare. So the first quarto. The second quarto and folios have 'ore-stare.'

31. Alas the while! a form of exclamation now obsolete, or nearly so. The speaker laments the circumstances in which he is placed at the present time. So Julius Cæsar, i. 3. 82: But, woe the while!' See also Henry V. iv. 7. 78. Perhaps the same meaning lurks in Alack a day!' Compare Ezekiel xxx. 2: Woe worth the day!'

35. page. This is Theobald's certain emendation for 'rage' which is the reading of the older editions. Lichas is mentioned as the page who unconsciously brought Hercules the poisoned shirt in Ovid's Metamorphoses, ix. 155. 'Alcides' occurs in line 217.

42. be advised, be deliberate. See note on i. I. 142.

43. Nor will not. Observe the double negative with a negative sense: 'Nor will I speak to lady,' &c.

44. The temple, where the Prince was to take the oath. The mention of a temple instead of a church seems odd here. Perhaps Portia's Roman name led Shakespeare momentarily to forget that she was a Christian, or the mention of Hercules and Lichas may have given his thoughts a classical turn.

46. blest. The sense required is 'blessed'st,' which is suggested by the following superlative. See iii. 2. 289, and compare Measure for Measure, iv. 6. 13: The generous and gravest citizens.'

Scene II.

Enter Launcelot. The old editions have Enter the Clown alone.'

8. scorn running with thy heels. See Much Ado About Nothing, iii. 4. 51: 'I scorn that with my heels.'

9. via! Italian, meaning away!' See Merry Wives, ii. 2. 159. 10. for the heavens! For heaven's sake.

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15. grow to. A household phrase applied to milk when burnt to the bottom of the saucepan, and thence acquiring an unpleasant taste. 'Grown' in this sense is still used in Lincolnshire. (Brogden's Dict. of Prov. Words, &c.) 20. God bless the mark,' or 'God save the mark,' is used as a parenthetic apology for some profane or vulgar word. So Hotspur, in 1 Henry IV. i. 3. 56, represents the courtier as apologizing thus for mentioning such things as guns and drums and wounds.'

23. incarnal. So the first quarto. The other quartos and the folios have 'incarnation.' Either is meant as a ludicrous mistake for incarnate.'

31. sand-blind. 'Sand' is perhaps a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon sam, equivalent to the Latin semi, half. Cotgrave has, Berluë: f. 'The being sand-blind, or pur-blind.' High-gravel-blind' is of course merely a jest.

39. sonties. Corrupted, according to some, from saintes, 'saints,' according to others, from 'sanctities.'

53. an, for if,' generally spelt 'and' in the old editions. Sometimes it is combined with if,' as in Matt. xxiv. 48: 'But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart.' See note on iv. I. 441.

55. father. As old men were frequently addressed by the young with the respectful title father,' old Gobbo does not recognize his son at once. 61. hovel-post, a prop to support the roof of a shed.

73. Mr. Staunton says: 'Stage-tradition, not improbably from the time of Shakespeare himself, makes Launcelot, at this point, kneel with his back to the sand-blind old father, who, of course, mistakes his long back hair for a beard, of which his face is perfectly innocent.'

86. fill-borse, shaft-horse. The word is 'philhorse' in the second quarto and folios, and 'pilhorse,' a misprint, in the first quarto. Theobald wrote thill-horse.' The fills, or thills, are the shafts of a cart. The former is used by Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2. 48: 'An you draw backward, we'll put you i' the fills.'

95. I have set up my rest. A metaphor from the once fashionable and favourite game of primero; meaning, to stand upon the cards you have in your hand, in hopes they may prove better than those of your adversary. Hence, to make up your mind, to be determined.' (Nares' Glossary.) The phrase occurs in Romeo and Juliet, iv. 5. 6.

99. give me. 'me' is here redundant, as in Julius Caesar, i. 2. 267: 'He plucked me ope his doublet.'

103. I am a Jew. See Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 3. 272: If I do not love her, I am a Jew.'

107. anon, immediately.

110. gramercy, from the French grand merci, much thanks.'

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119. cater-cousins is generally held to mean 'fourth cousins,'' cater' being derived from the French quatre. But no such phrase is, or apparently ever was, known in French as quatre-cousin.' This is the only passage in Shakespeare in which it occurs. Halliwell (Arch. and Prov. Dict.) gives 'caper cousins' as a Lancashire expression for ' great friends.' a corruption of our phrase. The sense required here is terms.' May the word come from quêteur, and mean two friars begging for rival convents ?'

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This is evidently barely on speaking as good friends as

122. frutify. Probably Launcelot means certify.' Mr. Bishop conjectures that in Il. 113, 117, we should read 'spicify' for 'specify.' If so, Launcelot's language is affected by recollections of the pantry, 'spice' and 'fruit.'

'a fellow In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow;' and Much Ado About Nothing, i. 1. 287: The body of your discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly basted on neither.'

145 sqq. Well, if any man, &c. If the text be as Shakespeare wrote it, Launcelot seems to leave the sentence imperfect at ‘table,' with an ellipsis of 'I'll be hanged,' or some such phrase. In the science of chiromancy the palm of the hand was called 'the table.' Nares quotes from Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life:

B. In good earnest 1 do find written here, all my good fortune lies in your hands.

'W. You keep a very bad house then, you may see by the smallness of the table.'

Launcelot, then, looks on his palm and affirms that there is no man in Italy whose 'table' gives more positive assurance of good fortune.

147. From one of the lines on the palm fortune-tellers foretold the course of a man's life, from others the number of his wives. A simple line of life,' i. e. a poor, mean line,' is ironical for the converse.

153. for this gear. See note on i. I. 110.

171. liberal, licentious. See Much Ado About Nothing, iv. 1. 93: 'Most like a liberal villain.'

Ib. take pain. Compare Henry VIII. iii. 2. 72:

"This same Cranmer's

A worthy fellow, and hath ta’en much pain

In the king's business.'

The more modern Took some pains,' is found in the present play, v. I. 182. 173. skipping. See 1 Henry IV. iii. 2. 60:

The skipping king, he ambled up and down.'

Ib. spirit, pronounced as a monosyllable.

174. misconstrued. Printed, as pronounced, 'misconstred' in the quartos, and misconsterd' or 'misconster'd' in the folios.

176. babit, demeanour.

181. civility, civilization, refinement. The word is still used in this sense by our poets. So Patmore, Angel in the House :

The fair sum of six thousand years'
Traditions of civility.'

182. sad ostent, grave appearance.

8. 44: Fair ostents of love,'

The word 'ostent' occurs again, ii.

Scene III.

5. soon at supper. Compare Comedy of Errors, i. 2. 26:

'Soon at five o'clock,

And soon at supper-time I'll visit you.'

In these and similar phrases soon' seems to be used pleonastically, emphasizing the words which follow.

10. exhibit. Launcelot means inhibit.'

Scene IV.

1. Gratiano and his friends arc contriving a masque as a farewell entertainment to Bassanio. So Henry VIII and others disguised themselves as shepherds, and appeared at Cardinal Wolsey's feast. (Henry VIII. i. 4.)

5. spoke us of torchbearers, i.e. bespoken torchbearers, made arrangements about torchbearers. The fourth folio alters us yet' into 'as yet.'

7. quaintly, gracefully, elegantly, in conformity with the derivation of the word from comptus. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 1. 128: The lines are very quaintly writ.'

10. An. See note on ii. 2. 53.

Ib. break up, break open. See Winter's Tale, iii. 2. 132:

'Break up the seals and read.'

23. provided of. So Henry V. iii. 7. 9: 'You are as well provided of both as any prince in the world;' and Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ii. 22. 15: He is invested of a precedent disposition to conform himself thereunto.' 'Of' is frequently used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries where we should use other prepositions, 'with,' 'for,' &c.