32. varnish'd faces. The maskers painted their faces by way of disguise. Shylock alludes also to Christian duplicity. Compare Timon of Athens, iv. 2. 36:

'But only painted, like his varnish'd friends.'

35. Jacob's staff. See Gen. xxxii. 10, and Heb. xi. 21. It is in this sense, no doubt, that Shakespeare understands the phrase, but it was familiarly used in the sense of a pilgrim's staff, because S. James (or Jacob), the patron of pilgrims, was represented with one in his hand. See Spenser's Faery Queene, i. 6. 35:

And in his hand a Iacobs staffe, to stay

His weary limbs upon.'

36. of feasting, for feasting, as we should say.

42. Jewess'. This is Pope's reading. The quartos and two first folios have Jewes, and the two later folios Jew's. Mr. R. G. White maintains that 'Jewess' is a modern word, but it occurs in the Authorized Version of 1611 (Acts xvi. 1) and in the earlier versions, even in that of Wiclif.

45. patch, a fool, from the patched or motley coat of the professional jester. Hence applied more generally as a term of contempt. See Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 9:

'A crew of patches, rude mechanicals.' Perhaps, however, the word is a corruption of the Italian pazzo. Florio gives 'Pazzo, a foole, a patch, a madman.'

47. The wild cat, which prowls and preys by night, sleeps during the day. 51. Perhaps I will. In modern English we should say 'perhaps I shall.'

53. Bon guet chasse malaventure, Pro. Good watch preuents misfortune; (fast bind fast find, say we).' Cotgrave's Dictionary, s. v. Bon. The same proverb is given in Florio's Second Frutes (1591), p. 15.

Scene VI.

2. This line has a foot too much. Irregularities of defect or excess are particularly frequent when a line is divided between two speakers.

3. out-dwells, out-stays.

5. Venus' pigeons. So Tempest, iv. I. 94:

'I met her deity

Cutting the clouds towards Paphos and her son

Dove-drawn with her.'

7. obliged faith, faith bound by contract.

Compare Merry Wives of

Windsor, i. I. II: 'In any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation;' where 'obligation' is used for the deed by which one binds himself.

9. sits down. We should say 'sits down with.' Soof' is omitted, iv. 1. 385.

10. untread again, tread in reverse order, retrace. So King John, v.

4.52:

'We will untread the steps of damned flight.'

The allusion seems to be to a horse trained to perform various feats, such as we now see only in a circus.

H

14. younker. This, which is Rowe's emendation for younger,' the reading of the quartos and folios, exactly expresses the Greek veavías. Compare 3 Henry VI. ii. 1. 24:

How well resembles it the prime of youth,

Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love.'

15. scarfed, decked with flags. Or is it that a ship in full sail is compared to a woman dressed in scarfs? The former interpretation is confirmed by All's Well that ends Well, ii. 3. 214: The scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burthen.' From this it would seem that a scarf was a decoration of a pleasure vessel.

17. See Luke xv. 11-32. Observe that it is a prodigal' in l. 14, the prodigal' in 1. 17.

18. over-weather'd, injured by storms, weather-beaten. The folios read erroneously over-wither'd.'

21. abode, stay, tarrying.

24. This line as it stands is metrically defective. As then' must be emphatic, Pope's reading 'Come, approach,' for Approach,' does not restore harmony. Ritson's conjecture,

'I'll watch as long for you. Come then, approach,'

is more satisfactory.

30. who, frequently used by Shakespeare for 'whom.' So 'I' for 'me' in iii. 2. 214.

35. exchange, of woman's dress for boy's.

42. good sooth, in good truth. See Macbeth, i. 2. 36: 'If I say sooth.' Ib. too too light. The repetition of 'too' is emphatic. It was common enough to be regarded almost as a compound, and the accent is on the first See Hamlet, i. 2. 129:

'too.'

'O, that this too too solid flesh would melt.' There is an obvious play on the two senses of the word 'light.'

44. There is a play also on the word obscured. Jessica means that she ought to be hidden, Lorenzo that her lustre is dimmed.

47. the close night, the secret night is stealing away. See Macbeth, iii. 5. 7: 'The close contriver of all harms.'

51. by my bood. Malone supposes that the dress in which Bassanio was disguised had a hood, and that the oath is invented for the nonce. It is found nowhere else in Shakespeare.

Ib. Gentile. The second quarto and first folio have gentle. There is no doubt a play upon the two words.

52. Beshrew me, curse me.

See iv. 1. 34.

Chaucer uses shrew' in the sense of 'curse,'

1. discover, disclose. discover a thing to you.'

Scene VII.

See Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. 190: I shall Sometimes it was used in the sense of uncover.' 5. Who is sometimes used when the antecedent is inanimate, as in Pericles, i. I. 46:

For death remember'd should be like a mirror,
Who tells us life's but breath, to trust it error.'

On the other hand which' is frequently used for 'who.'

20. shows, appearances. Compare iii. 2. 73. So Ps. xxxix. 6: 'Surely every man walketh in a vain shew.'

30. disabling. See note on i. I. 123.

40. mortal breathing. In the old editions we find 'mortall breathing.' Some recent editors have hyphened the words, perhaps rightly. A similar double epithet is found in Richard III. iv. 4. 26: 'Poor mortal living ghost.'

41. Hyrcanian deserts. Hyrcania was a name given to a district of indefinite extent south of the Caspian. Shakespeare three times mentions the tigers of Hyrcania: 3 Henry VI. i. 4. 155; Macbeth, iii. 4. 101; Hamlet, ii. 2. 472. In Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, Bk. viii. c. 18, we find: Tygres are bred in Hircania and India.'

Ib. vasty, waste, desolate. See I Henry IV. iii. 1. 52: 'I can call spirits from the vasty deep.' It has almost an active sense in Henry V. ii. 4. 105:

War opens his vasty jaws.'

So 'vastness' is used for desolation' in Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ii. 7. 7: Because their excursions into the limits of physical causes hath bred a vastness and solitude in that tract.'

43. come view. So Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 2. 80: 'We'll come dress you straight.' The same ellipsis is found with 'go :' as Hamlet, ii. I. 101:

'I will go seek the king.'

46. spirits. So King John, ii. 1. 72:

'A braver choice of dauntless spirits,

Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,

Did never float upon the swelling tide.'

50. Lead would be too common a metal to enclose her shroud. For 'rib' see Cymbeline, iii. .1. 19:

'As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in

With rocks unscaleable and roaring waters.'

51. cerecloth. See Cotgrave, Cerat: A Plaister made of Waxe, Gummes, &c., and certaine oyles; Wee also, call it, a cerot or seare-cloth.' Dead bodies were wrapped in such cloths, called 'cerements in Hamlet, i. 4. 48.

53. undervalued. Compare i. 1. 165. In the beginning of Elizabeth's reign gold was to silver in the proportion of II to I: in the forty-third year of her reign (i. e. 1600, the year in which this play was first printed) it was in the proportion of 10 to 1. (Encyc. Brit. Art. Coinage.') The ratio at present is nearly 15 to 1.

57. insculp'd upon, graven on the outside, cut in relief. See 2 Corinthians v. 4: 'Not that we would be unclothed but clothed upon,' i. e. clothed with something in addition to the usual dress. The word is used somewhat similarly in Chaucer, Frere's Tale, 6963:

He had upon a courtepy of greene.'

58. The angel' was worth about ten shillings, and was so called from having on one side a figure of Michael piercing the dragon. It has supplied Shakespeare with many puns. The device was adopted after the fashion of canting heraldry,' from Angelus and Anglus.

63. A carrion Death, a skull from which the flesh had rotted off. Compare King John, iii. 4. 33:

'And be a carrion monster like thyself.'

We find an odd use of carrion' in North's Plutarch, Julius Cæsar, p. 739, ed. 1631: These pale visaged and carion leane people.'

6

69. tombs do. This is the excellent emendation first suggested by Dr. Johnson. The old copies read timber do or timber doe. Pope read wood Mr. Staunton proposes to omit do,' if timber' be retained.

boisterous expedition.' It is found in the same sense as here in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit without Money, i. 2: I am as haste ordained me, a thing slubber'd.' 'Boiffer. To bungle vp, or slubber ouer, things in hast.' (Cotgrave.) 40. riping. See As You Like It, ii. 7. 26:

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe.'

42. Mind of love, your loving mind, your mind which is full of love. See Measure for Measure, ii. 4. 179: 'Such a mind of honour.' Bennet Langton and Capell proposed to put a comma after 'mind,' construing ‘of love' as an adjuration, as in Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. 119: Mistress Page would desire you to send her your little page, of all loves;' but this seems hardly consistent with the rhythm of the verse. Mr. Staunton proposes to read

43. As this seems to be the only instance in which Shakespeare uses 'employ to' for 'employ in,' Mr. Collier adopts apply.'

45. conveniently, fitly, suitably. See Proverbs xxx. 8: 'Feed me with food convenient for me,' and Romans i. 28: Those things which are not convenient.'

48. affection, emotion.

Ib. sensible, sensitive. See Coriolanus, i. 3. 95: ‘I would your cambric were sensible as your finger.'

52. his embraced heaviness, the sadness to which he clings. Compare iii. 2. 109, 'rash-embraced despair.' For heaviness' see 1 Peter i. 6.

Scene IX.

1. straight, straightway, directly. 3. election, choice.

18. bazard is here a substantive. 7. 93, 95, where the word is used in 19. address'd me, prepared myself. See Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 53: ‘Address yourself to entertain them sprightly.' In the quartos and folios there is only a comma after 'me,' which probably suggested to Tyrwhitt the reading and punctuation:

We find 'go to hazard,' Henry V. iii. two senses.

'And so have I.

Address me, Fortune, now

To my heart's hope!'

The meaning of the text is May good fortune second my heart's hope.' Or, supposing the speaker to invoke the goddess, we might point thus :

'Fortune! now

To my heart's hope.'

Now let me try my luck.

25. That 'many' may be intended to refer to the fool multitude. We should rather say 'The fool multitude may be meant by that many.' See North's Plutarch, Brutus, p. 994 (ed. 1631): 'the leane and whitely faced fellowes, meaning that by Brutus and Cassius.'