emmew -And follies doth As faulcon doth the fowl.] Qu. faulconer. Dr. GRAY. P. 328. Lucio. —ha? what Jay ft thou trot?] It should be read, I think, what fay'ft thou to't? the word trot being feldom (if ever) used to a man. Old trot or trat, fignifies a decrepit old woman, or an old drab. In which fense it is used by Gawin Douglas, Virgil's Ænead, book iv. "Out on the old trat, agit wyffe, or dame.” Dr. GRAY. Trot, or as it is now often pronounced boneft trout, is a familiar addrefs to a man among the provincial vulgar. P. 331. Clackdib.] The beggars, two or three centuries ago, ufed to proclaim their want by a wooden dish, with a moveable cover, which they clacked, to fhew that their veffel was empty. This appears in a paffage quoted on another occafion by Dr. Gray. P. 336. The Revifal reads thus, How may fuch likeness trade in crimes, Making practice on the times, To draw with idle Spider's Moft pond'rous and substantial P. 342. Clown. Sir it is a mistery, &c.] If Mr. Warburton had attended to the argument by which Bawd proves his own pro. feffion to be a mistery, he would not have been driven to take refuge in the groundless fuppofition," that part of the dialogue "had been loft or dropped." The argument of the Hangman is exactly fimilar to that of the Bawd. As the latter puts in his claim to the whores, as members of his occupation, and, in virtue of their painting, would enroll his own fraternity in the miftery of painters; fo the former equally lays claim to the thieves, as members of his occupation, and, in their right, endeavours to rank his brethren, the hangmen, under the mistery of fitters of apparel, or taylors. The reading of the old editions is therefore undoubtedly right; except that the laft fpeech, which makes part of the Hangman's argument, is by mistake, as the reader's own fagacity will readily perceive, given to the Clown, or Bawd. I fuppose, therefore, the poet gave us the whole thus: "Whor. Sir, it is a miftery. ** your thief thinks it little enough, fo every true man's apparel fits your thief." 66 I muft do Mr. Warburton the juftice to acknowledge, that he hath rightly apprehended, and explained the force of the Hangman's argument. REVISAL P. 345-that Spirit's poffeft with hafte, That wounds the unfifting portal with thefe ftrokes.] Such is the reading of the original copy, from which later editors have coined unrefifting, and unrefting. I believe that the true word is unliftening, the deaf portal. P. 349. Tie the beard] The Revifal recommends Mr. SimpJon's emendation, die the beard; the prefent reading may well ftand. P. 369. Informal women.] I think, upon further enquiry, that informal fignifies incompetent, not qualified to give teftimony. Of this ufe I think there are precedents to be found, though I cannot now recover them. P. 323. —there is the Count Palatine.] I make no doubt but the Count Palatine was fome character notorious in ShakeJeare's time. When Sir EpiAlchemift, cure Mammon is promifing Face what great things he will do for him, he fays, he shall be a Count, and adds flily, ay, a Count Palatine. The editor of Johnson has taken no notice at all of the paffage, nor obferves that the latter part of the line fhould be fpoken afide, which the character of Sir Epicure would have justified hen in doing. Mr. STEEVENS VOL. VIII. P. 406.-Try conclufions.] Two of the quarto's read confufions, which is certainly right, because the first thing Launce does, is to confufe his father by the directions he gives him. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 408. -Your child that hall be.] Launce, by your child that shall be, means, that his duty to his father fhall, for the future, fhew him to be his child. It was rather become neceffary for him to fay fomething of that fort, after all the tricks he had been playing him. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 416. Laun. Then it was not for nothing that my nose fell a bleeding on Black Monday last.] Black Monday" is a moveable day, it is Eafter Monday, and was fo called on this occafion. "In the 34th of Edward III. "(1360) the 14th of April, "and the morrow after Eafter 66 day, king Edward, with his "hoft, lay before the city of "Paris; which day was full "dark of mift and hail, and fo "bitter cold, that many men "died on their horfes backs "with the cold. Wherefore, "unto this day, it hath been called the Blacke-Monday." Stowe, p. 264-6. Dr. GRAY. P. 424. Your mind of love.] This imaginary corruption is removed by only putting a comma after mind. Mr. LANGTON. P. 446. Whofe Souls do bear an equal yoke of love.]" An egal yoke of love." Fol. 16;2. Egal, I believe, in ShakeSpeare's time, was commonly used for equal. So it was in Chaucer's. I i. "Aye "Aye to compare unto thyne excellence, "I will prefume hym fo to "dignific, "Yet be not egal!" Prologue to the Remedy of Love. So in Gorbodac. "Sith all as one do bear you egall faith." Dr. GRAY. P. 454 Read thus; and Juliet, which, by the date appears to be much older than Shakespeare's time. It is remarkable, that all the particulars in which that play differs from the ftory in Bandello, are found in this ballad. But it may be faid, that he copied this flory as it ftands in Paynter's Pallace of Ple fure, 1567, where cannot contain their urine, there is the fame variation of cirFor affections, Mofers of paffion, fway it to the mood Of what it likes or loaths. As for affection, thofe that know to operate upon the paffions of men, rule it by making it operate in obedience to the notes which pleafe or difguft it. P. 454. Woolen bagpipe.] This palage is clear from all difficulty, if we read foln bagpife; which, that we fhould, I have not the least doubt. Mr. HAWKINS. P. 488. The Merchant of Venice.] The antient ballad, on which the greater part of this play is probably founded, has been mentioned in Obfervations on the Fairy Queen, 1. 129. Shakefpeare's track of reading may be traced in the common books and popular stories of the times, from which he manifeftly derived most of his plots. Hiftorical fongs, then very fashionable, often fuggefled and recommended a fubject. Many of his incidental allufions alfo relate to pieces of this kind; which are now grown valuable on this account only, and would otherwife have been defervedly forgotten. A ballad is ftill remaining on the fubject of Romeo cumstances. This, however, fhews us that Shakespeare did not firft alter the original ftory for the worse, and is at least a prefumptive proof that he never faw the Italian. Shakespeare alludes to the tale of king Cophetua and the beggar, more than once. This was a ballad; the oldeft copy of which, that I have feen, is in "A crown "garland of golden rofes gathered out of England's royall gar"den, 1612." The collector of this mifcellany was Richard Johnson, who compiled, from various romances, THE SEVEN CHAMPIONS. This ftory of Cophetua was in high vogue, as appears from our author's manner of introducing it in Love's Labour loft, Act iv. fc. i. As likewife from John Marston's Satires, called the Scourge of Villanie, printed 1598, viz. Go buy fome ballad of the fairy king, And of the BEGGAR WENCH I read, that once in Africa raine, The prince, or king, falls in love with a female beggar, whom he fees accidentally from the windows of his palace, and afterwards marries her. [Sign. D. 4.] The fong, cited at length by the learned Dr. Gray, on this fubject, is evidently fpurious, and much more modern than Shakespeare's time. The name Cophetua is not once mentioned in it. Notes on Shak. vol. ii. p. 267. However, I fufpect, there is fome more genuine copy than that of 1612, which I before mentioned. But this point may be, perhaps, adjusted by an ingenious enquirer into our old English literature, who is now publishing a curious collection of antient ballads, which will illuftrate many paffages in ShakeSpeare. I doubt not but he received the hint of writing on. king Lear from a Ballad of that fubject. But in moft of his hiftorical plays he copies from Hall, Hollingshead, and Stowe, the reigning historians of that age. And although these chronicles were then univerfally known and read, he did not fcruple to tranfcribe their materials with the most circumftantial minuteness. For this he could not efcape an oblique ftroke of fatire from his envious friend, Ben Johnson, in the comedy called, The Devil's an Ass, A& ii. fc. iv. as "Fitz-dot. Thomas of WoodIftock, I'm fure, was duke: and "he was made away at Calice, duke Humfrey was at Bury. "And Richard the Third, you "know what end he came to. "Meer-er. By my faith, you're "cunning in the Chronicle. "Fitz dot. No. I confefs, I "ha't from the play-books, and "think they're more authen "tick." In Antony Wood's collection of ballads, in the Ashmolean Mufe I find one with the following um, title. 66 "The lamentable and tragical hiftorie of Titus An"dronicus, with the fall of his "five and twenty fons in the wars with the Goths, with the "murder of his daughter La vinia, by the empreffes two fons, through the means of a "bloody Moor taken by the "fword of Titus in the war: his σε revenge upon their cruell and " inhumane acte." "You noble minds, and fa "mous martial wights." The ufe which Shakespeare might make of this piece is obvious. Mr WARTON. NOTES to the P. 62. Unqueflionable Spirit.] May it not mean unwilling to be converfed with ? Mr. CHAMIER P. 72. In the note, for arrow's mark, read hollow mark. SECOND VOLUME. P. 92. The Revisal justly obferves, that the affair of poison ing Overbury did not break out till 1615, long after Shakespeare had left the Stage. P. 93. And you fair fifler.] That is, too much knowledge gives only fame, a name which every Godfather can give likewise. P. 125. Moth. And how eafy is it to put years to the word three, and ftudy three years in two words, the dancing horfe will tell you.] Banks's horse, which plaid many remarkable pranks. Sir Walter Raleigh (Hiftory of the World, first part, p. 178.) fays "If "Banks had lived in older times, "he would have fhamed all the "inchanters in the world: for "whofoever was moft famous among them, could never "mafter, or inftruct any beaft excrements, whenfoever he had "bade him." Dr. GRAY. P. 130. In the note, for chapman he, read chapman here. P. 140. Moth. Mafter will you win your love with a French brawl?] Mafter, not in folio 163z. A brawl, a kind of dance. Dr. GRAY. P. 151. For the King and Beggar, fee Mr. Percy's collection of ballads. P. 157. And fuch barren plants are fet before us, &c.] The length of thefe lines was no novelty on the English ftage. The moralities afford scenes of the like measure. P. 176. Teaches fuch beauty.] The fenfe is plain without correction. A lady's eye gives a fuller notion of beauty than any authour. P. 197. Rof. Well, better wits bave worn plain ftatute caps.] Woollen caps were enjoined by act of parliament, in the year 1571, 13th Queen Elizabeth: "Be"fides the bills paffed into acts "this parliament, there was one "which I judge not amifs to be "taken notice of-it concerned "the Queen's care for employ"ment for her poor sort of sub"jects. It was for continuance " of making and wearing wool len caps, in behalf of the trade "of cappers; providing, that all above the age of fix years, (except the nobility and fome "others) fhould on Sabbath-days, as he did his horfe." And Sir Kenelm Digby (a Treatife of Bodies, chap. 38. p. 393.) ob. ferves, "That this horfe would "reftore a glove to the due 66 owner, after the mafter had "whispered the man's name in "his ear; would tell the juft "number of pence in any piece and holy days, wear caps of "of filver coin, newly thewed "wool, knit, thicked, and dreft " him by his mafter; and even "in England, upon penalty of "obey prefently his command, ten groats." "in difcharging himself of his 66 Dr. GRAY. I think |