not read. To formal directions of two ages ago were often added these words, Humbly Present. JOHNSON. Line 536. 546. -brock!] i. e. Badger. -stannyel-] The name of a kind of hawk, is very judiciously put here for a stallion, by Sir Thomas Hanmer. JOHNSON. Line 550. -formal capacity.] Formal, for common. WARBURTON. So in the Comedy Formal capacity, i. e. any one in his senses. of Errors, "Make of him a formal man again." STEEVENS. Line 558. -as rank as a fox.] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, not as rank. The other editions, though it be as rank. JOHNSON. Line 566. And ○ shall end, I hope.] By O is here meant what we now call a hempen collar. JOHNSON. I believe he means only, it shall end in sighing, in disappointment. So somewhere else, "How can you fall into so deep an Oh?" STEEVENS. Line 587. -—yellow stockings;] Before the civil wars, yellow stockings were much worn. In Davenant's play, called The Wits, Act 4. p. 208. Works folio, 1673: "You said, my girl, Mary Queasie by name, did find your "uncle's yellow stockings in a porringer; nay, and you said she "stole them." Dr. PERCY. So also in Heywood's If you know not me you know nobody. 66 Many of our young married men have ta'en an order to wear "yellow garters, points, and shoe-tyings, and 'tis thought yellow "will grow a custom." STEEVENS. Line 593. -the fortunate-unhappy. Day-light and champian discovers not more:] We should read,-with thee, the fortunate, and happy, day-light and champian discover no more: i. e. broad day and an open country cannot make things plainer. WARBURTON. Line 597. I will be point-de-vice, the very man.] This phrase is of French extraction-a points-devisez. Chaucer uses it in the Romuunt of the Rose,---" Her nose was wrought at point-device." i, e. with the utmost possible exactness. STEEVENS. Line 624. tray-trip,] Tray-trip is mentioned in The City Match by Jasper Maine, 1639, -" while she "Made visits above stairs, would patiently "Find himself business at tray-trip i' the hall. And again in Glapthorne's Wit in a Constable, 1639, "" mean time, you may play at tray-trip or cockall, "for black puddings." STEEVENS. Line 630. -aqua-vitæ -] Is the old name of strong waters. JOHNSON. Line 1. by thy tabor? Clown. No, Sir, I live by the church.] The Clown, I suppose, wilfully mistakes her meaning, and answers, as if he had been asked whether he lived by the sign of the tabor, the ancient designation of a music shop. STEEVENS. a cheveril glove-] i. e. A kid glove. lord Pandarus— -] See our author's play of JOHNSON. Line 12. 55. Troilus and Cressida. ACT III. SCENE I 95. for ready. Line 68. the haggard,] The haggard is the unreclaimed hawk, who flies after every bird without distinction. STEEVENS. The meaning may be, that he must catch every opportunity, as the wild hawk strikes every bird. JOHNSON. Line 72. But wise men, folly fallen,] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, folly shewn, JOHNSON. The sense is, But wise men's folly, when it is once fallen into extravagance, overpowers their discretion. HEATH. I explain it thus: The folly which he shews with proper adaptation to persons and times, is fit, has its propriety, and therefore produces no censure; but the folly of wise men, when it falls or happens, taints their wit, and destroys the reputation of their judgJOHNSON. Line 82. the list] Is the bound, limit, farthest point. JOHNSON. -most pregnant and vouchsafed ear.] Pregnant WARBURTON. ment. Pregnant is a word in this writer of very lax signification. It may here mean liberal. JOHNSON. Line 120. After the last enchantment you did here,] i. e. After the enchantment your presence worked in my affections. WARBURTON. Line 129. To one of your receiving] i. e. To one of your ready apprehension. She considers him as an arch page. Line 131. 135. from degres, French. Line 163. WARBURTON. a cyprus,] Is a transparent stuff. -a grise;] Is a step, sometimes written greese JOHNSON. -maugre- -] i. e. In spite of. 171. And that no woman has;] And that heart and bosom JOHNSON. I have never yielded to any woman. Line 172. -save I alone.] These three words Sir Thomas Hanmer gives to Olivia probably enough. JOHNSON. ACT III. SCENE II. Line 208. -as lief be a Brownist,] The Brownists were a sect who separated themselves from the church of England, and whose tenets were the common topics of public ridicule. The Brownists seem, in the time of our author, to have been the constant objects of popular satire. In the old comedy of Ramalley, 1611, is the following stroke at them: -" of a new sect, and the good professors will, like the "Brownist, frequent gravel-pits shortly, for they use woods and "obscure holes already.” STEEVENS. Line 219. in a martial hand; be curst-] Martial hand, seems to be a careless scrawl, such as shewed the writer to neglect ceremony. Curst, is petulant, crabbed-a curst cur, is a dog that with little provocation snarls and bites. JOHNSON. Line 221. -taunt him with the licence of ink: if thou thou'st him some thrice,] There is no doubt, I think, but this passage is one of those, in which our author intended to shew his respect for Sir Walter Raleigh, and a detestation of the virulence of his prosecutors. The words quoted seem to me directly levelled at the attorney-general Coke, who, in the trial of Sir Walter, attacked 66 him with all the following indecent expressions:-"All that he "did was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I thou thee, thou " traytor!" (Here, by the way, are the poet's three thou's.) "You "are an odious man."—" Is he base? I return it into thy throat, on "his behalf."—"O damnable atheist !"-" Thou art a monster; "thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart.”—“ Thou hast a Spanish heart, and thyself art a spider of hell."—" Go to, I will lay thee on thy back for the confident'st traitor that ever came at a "bar," &c. Is not here all the licence of tongue, which the poet satyrically prescribes to Sir Andrew's ink? And how mean an opinion Shakspeare had of these petulant invectives, is pretty evident from his close of this speech; Let there be gall enough in thy ink; tho' thou write it with a goose pen no matter.—A keener lash at the attorney for a fool, than all the contumelies the attorney threw at the prisoner, as a supposed traitor! THEOBALD. Line 242. And his opposite,] i. e. His antagonist. 244. Look where the youngest wren of nine comes.] The women's parts were then acted by boys, sometimes so low in stature, that there was occasion to obviate the impropriety by such kind of oblique apologies. WARBURTON. The wren generally lays nine or ten eggs at a time, and the last hatch'd of all birds are usually the smallest and weakest of the whole brood. STEEVENS. admit ACT III. SCENE IV. -he sad and civil,] Civil here signifies sedate. See Line 318. now, he Line 323. As you like it, Act 3. Sc. 2. Line 376. JOHNSON. —midsummer madness.] Hot weather often turns the brain, which is, I suppose, alluded to here. Line 391. -let thy tongue tang, &c.] The old copy (i. e. the folio) reads, "let thy tongue langer," &c. says Perhaps the author wrote, Let thy tongue linger, i. e. be slow in descanting on state matters. STEEVENS. Line 395. I have limed her;] I have entangled or caught her, as a bird is caught with birdlime. JOHNSON. Line 398. Fellow!] This word, which originally signified companion, was not yet totally degraded to its present meaning; and Malvolio takes it in the favourable sense. JOHNSON. Line 440. cherry-pit-] Cherry-pit is pitching cherrystones into a little hole. Nash, speaking of the paint on ladies' faces, says "You may play at cherry-pit in their cheeks." So in The Witch of Edmonton, I have lov'd a witch ever since I play'd at cherry-pit." STEEVENS. Line 441. Hang him, foul collier!] Collier was, in our author's time, a term of the highest reproach. So great were the impositions practised by the venders of coals, that R. Greene, at the conclusion of his Notable Discovery of Cozenage, 1592, has published what he calls, A pleasant Discovery of the Cosenage of .Colliers. STEEVENS. says The devil is called Collier for his blackness. Like will to like, the Devil to the Collier. JOHNSON. Line 465. -a finder of madmen:] This is, I think, an allusion to the witch-finders, who were very busy. JOHNSON. Line 488. -He may have mercy upon mine,] We may read, He may have mercy upon thine, but my hope is better. Yet the passage may well enough stand without alteration. It were much to be wished, that Shakspeare, in this and some other passages, had not ventured so near profaneness. JOHNSON. Line 530. -wear this jewel for me,] Jewel does not properly signify a single gem, but any precious ornament or superfluity. JOHNSON. Line 547. thy intercepter,] Thus the old copy. The modern editors read interpreter. STEEVENS. Line 560. He is knight, dubbed with unhacked rapier, and on carpet consideration;] That is, he is no soldier by profession, not a Knight Banneret, dubbed in the field of battle, but, on carpet consideration, at a festivity, or on some peaceable occasion, when knights receive their dignity kneeling, not on the ground, as in |
