How to deny them; whom to advance, and whom 4 To trash for over-topping;5 new created whom to advance, and whom-] The old copy has who in both places. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. To trash for over-topping;] To trash, as Dr. Warburton obferves, is to cut away the fuperfluities. This word I have met with in books containing directions for gardeners, published in the time of queen Elizabeth. The prefent explanation may be countenanced by the following paffage in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. X. ch. 57: "Who fuffreth none by might, by wealth or blood to overtopp, "Himself gives all preferment, and whom lifteth him doth lop." Again, in our author's K. Richard II: "Go thou, and, like an executioner, "Cut off the heads of too-faft-growing sprays "That look too lofty in our commonwealth." Mr. Warton's note, however, on" trash for his quick hunting," in the fecond act of Othello, leaves my interpretation of this paffage fomewhat difputable. Mr. M. Mason obferves, that to trash for overtopping, "may mean to lop them, because they did overtop, or in order to prevent them from overtopping. So Lucetta, in the second scene of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, fays: "I was taken up for laying them down, See Mr. M. Mafon's note "Yet here they fhall not lie, for catching cold." That is, left they should catch cold. on this paffage. In another place (a note on Othello) Mr. M. Mason obferves, that Shakspeare had probably in view, when he wrote the paffage before us," the manner in which Tarquin conveyed to Sextus his advice to destroy the principal citizens of Gabii, by striking off, in the presence of his meffengers, the heads of all the talleft poppies, as he walked with them in his garden." STEEVENS. I think this phrafe means "to correct for too much haughtinefs or overbearing." It is used by sportsmen in the North when they correct a dog for misbehaviour in pursuing the game. This explanation is warranted by the following paffage in Othello, A&t II. fc. i: "If this poor trafh of Venice, whom I trash VOL. IV. C The creatures that were mine; I fay, or chang'd them, Or elfe new form'd them: having both the key6 To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was And fuck'd my verdure out on't."-Thou attend'st not: I pray thee, mark me.9 MIRA. O good fir, I do. PRO. I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate' It was not till after I had made this remark, that I saw Mr. Warton's note on the above lines in Othello, which corroborates it. DOUCE. A trash is a term ftill in ufe among hunters, to denote a piece of leather, couples, or any other weight faftened round the neck of a dog, when his fpeed is fuperior to the reft of the pack; i. e. when he over-tops them, when he hunts too quick. C. See Othello, A& II. fc. i. STEEVENS. 6 both the key-] This is meant of a key for tuning the harpsichord, spinnet, or virginal; we call it now a tuning hammer. SIR J. HAWKINS. Of officer and office, fet all hearts-] The old copy reads"all hearts i'th' ftate," but redundantly in regard to metre, and unneceffarily refpecting fenfe; for what hearts, except fuch as were i'th' ftate, could Alonso incline to his purposes? I have followed the advice of Mr. Ritfon, who judiciously proposes to omit the words now ejected from the text. STEEVEN9. And fuck'd my verdure out on't.] So, in Arthur Hall's tranflation of the first book of Homer, 1581, where Achilles fwears by his fceptre : "Who having loft the fapp of wood, eft greeneneffe cannot drawe." STEEVENS. 9 I pray thee, mark me.] In the old copy, thefe words are the beginning of Profpero's next speech; but, for the restoration of metre, I have changed their place. STEEVENS. 11 thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate-] The old copy has dedicated;" but we should read, as in the present text, "dedicate." Thus, in Meafure for Measure: To clofenefs, and the bettering of my mind Like a good parent,2 did beget of him As my truft was; which had, indeed, no limit, To credit his own lie,3-he did believe "Prayers from fafting maids, whofe minds are dedicate "To nothing temporal." RITSON. 2 Like a good parent, &c.] Alluding to the obfervation, that a father above the common rate of men has commonly a fon below it. Heroum filii noxæ: JOHNSON. 3 -like one, Who having, unto truth, by telling of it, Made fuch a finner of his memory, To credit his own lie,] There is, perhaps, no correlative, to which the word it can with grammatical propriety belong. Lie, however, feems to have been the correlative to which the poet meant to refer, however ungrammatically. The old copy reads" into truth." The neceffary correction was made by Dr. Warburton, STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens juftly observes that there is no correlative, &c. This obfervation has induced me to mend the paffage, and to read: Who having unto truth, by telling of t-inftead of, of it. And I am confirmed in this conjecture, by the following paffage quoted by Mr. Malone, &c. M. MASON. There is a very fingular coincidence between this paffage and one in Bacon's Hiftory of King Henry VII. [Perkin Warbeck] "did in all things notably acquit himself; infomuch as it was generally believed, that he was indeed Duke Richard. Nay, himfelf, with long and continual counterfeiting, and with OFT telling a lye, was turned by habit almoft into the thing he seemed to be; and from a liar to be a believer." MALONE. He was the duke; out of the fubftitution, MIRA. Your tale, fir, would cure deafness. PRO. To have no screen between this part he play'd And him he play'd it for, he needs will be MIRA. O the heavens ! PRO. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell me, If this might be a brother. I should fin MIRA. PRO. Now the condition. • He was the duke; out of the fubftitution,] The old copy reads "He was indeed the duke.' I have omitted the word indeed, for the fake of metre. The reader fhould place his emphasis on -was. STEEVENS. 5 (So dry he was for fway)] i. e. So thirsty. The expreffion, I am told, is not uncommon in the midland counties. Thus, in Leicester's Commonwealth: "against the defignments of the hasty Erle who thirfieth a kingdome with great intemperance." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "His ambition is dry." STEEVENS. 6 To think but nobly-] But, in this place, fignifies otherwise than. STEEVENS. This king of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's fuit; Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan, The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness, MIRA. Alack, for pity! I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then, ? - in lieu o' the premises, &c.] In lieu of, means here, in confideration of; an unusual acceptation of the word. So, in Fletcher's Prophetess, the chorus, fpeaking of Drufilla, fays: "But takes their oaths, in lieu of her assistance, "That they fhall not prefume to touch their lives." M. MASON. 8 cried out-] Perhaps we should read-cried on't. STEEVENS. -a hint,] Hint is fuggeftion. So, in the beginning speech of the fecond act : our hint of woe "Is common A fimilar thought occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, A&t V. fc. i: it is a tidings "To wash the eyes of kings." STEEVENS. That wrings mine eyes.] i. e. fqueezes the water out of them. The old copy reads "That wrings mine eyes to't." To what? every reader will afk. I have, therefore, by the advice of Dr. Farmer, omitted thefe words, which are unneceffary to the metre; hear, at the beginning of the next speech, being ufed as a diffyllable. To wring, in the fenfe I contend for, occurs in the Merry |