195

P. ¿4, 1. 31. To daff is the same as to deff or do off, to put aside. STEEVENS.

P. 85, 1. 7. a çontemptible spirit. —] That is, a temper inclined to scorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our author uses his verbal adjectives with great licence. There is therefore no need of changing the word with Sir Thomas Hanmer to contemptuous. JOHNSON.

P. 35, 1. 8. He is a very proper man] i. e. a very handsome one. STEEVENS.

P. 36, 1. 13. The conference was sadly borne. i. e. was seriously carried on. STEEVENS.

P. 38, 1. 6. Proposing is conversing, from the French word propos, discourse, talk.

P. 38, 1. 17. The folio reads

1

STEEVENS.

our propose:] Thus the quarto. our purpose. Propose is right. STEEVENS.

See the preceding note.

Purpose, however, may be equally right. It depends only on the manner of accenting the word, which in Shakspeare's time, was often used in the same sense as propose. REED.

P. 39, 1. 17. 18. her spirits are as coy

and wild

As haggards of the rock.] Turbervile, in his book of Falconry, 1575, tells us, that,,the haggard doth come from foreign parts a stranger and a passenger;" and Latham, who wrote after him, says, that,,,she keeps in subjection the most part of all the fowl that fly, insomuch, that the tassel gentle, her natural and chicfest companion, dares not come near that coast where she useth, nor sit by the place where she standeth. Such is the greatness of her spirit, she will not admit of any society, until such time as nature worketh." "etc.

STEEVENS.

P. 39, 1. 28. To wish him —] i. e. recommend Or desire.

REED.

P. 39, 1. 30 — 32.

Doth not the gentleman

Deserve as full, as fortunate a bed,] Mr. M. Mason very justly observes, that what Ursula means to say is,,,that he is as deserving of complete happiness in the marriage state, as Beatrice herself." STEEVENS.

P. 40, 1. 4. Misprising —] Despising, contemning. JOHNSON.

To misprise is to undervalue, or take in a wrong light. STEEVENS.

P. 50, 1, 16. But she would spell him back. ward:] Alluding to the practice of witches in uttering prayers.

P. 40, 1. 19. The antick was a buffoon character in the old English farces, with a blacked face, and a patchwork habit. What I would observe from hence is, that the name of antick or antique, given to this character, shows that the people had some traditional ideas of its being borrowed from the ancient mimes, who are thus described by Apuleius:,,mimi centunculo, fuligine faciem obducti."

WARBURTON.

I believe what is here said of the old English farces, is said at random, Dr. Warburton was thinking, I imagine, of the modern Harlequin. I have met with no proof that the face of the an tick or Vice of the old English comedy was blackened. By the word black in the text, is only meant, as I conceive, swarthy, or bark brown. MALONE.

A black man means a man with a dark or thick beard, not a swarthy or dark brown complexion, as Mr. Malone conceives, Dovce.

When Hero says, that ,,nature drawing of an antick, made a foul blot," she only alludes to a drop of ink that may casually fall out of a pen, and spoil a grotesque drawing.

P. 40, 1. 21. But why an agate, between a little man

STEEVENS

an agate very vilely cut:] if low? For what likeness and an àgate? The ancients,

indeed, used this stone to cut upon; but very exquisitely. I make no question but the poet

wrote:

- an aglet very vilely cut:

An aglet was a tag of those points, formerly so much in fashion. These tags were either of gold, silver, or brass, according to the quality of the wearer; and were commonly in the shape of littleimages; or at least had a head cut at the extremity. The French call them, aiguillettes. Mezeray, speaking of Henry IIId's sorrow for the death of the Princess of Conti, says, portant meme sur les aiguillettes des petites tetes de -mort." And as a tall man is before compared to a lance ill-headed; so, by the same figure, a little man is very aptly liken'd to an aglet ill cut. WARBURTON.

P. 40, 1. 34. press me to death with wit.] The allusion is an ancient punishment of our law, called peine fort et dure, which was formerly inflicted on those persons, who, being indicted, refused to plead. In consequence of their silence, they were pressed to death by an heavy weight laid upon their stomach. This punishment the good sense and humanity of the legislature have within these few years abolished:

P. 41, 1. 11. Swift means ready.

MALONE.

STEEVENS.

P. 41, 1, 18.

argument] This word seems here to signify discourse, or, the powers of reasoning. JOHNSON.

Argument, in the present instance, certainly means conversation. STEEVENS.

P. 41, 1. 27. She's lim'd] She is ensnared and entangled as a sparrow with birdlime.

JOHNSON.

P. 41, 1. 33. What fire is in mine ears?] Alluding to a proverbial saying of the common people, that their ears burn, when others are talk ing of them. WARBURTON.

The opinion whence this proverbial saying is derived, is of great antiquity, being thus mentioned by Pliny,,Moreover is not this an opinion generally received, That when our ears do glow and tingle, some there be that in our absence doe talke of us?" Philemon Holland's Translation, B. XXVIII. p. 297, and Brown's Vulgar Errors.

P. 42, 1. 4.

REED.

Taming my wild heart to thy. loving hand;] This image is taken from falconry. She had been charged with being as wild as haggards of the rock; she therefore says, that wild as her heart is, she will tame it to the hand. JOHNSON.

P. 42, 1. 24 26.

he hath a heart as sound as a beli and his tongue is the clapper; for what his heart thinks, his tongue speaks.] A covert allusion to the old proverb:

,,As the fool thinketh
,,So the bell clinketh."

STEEVENS.

`P. 43, 1. 10. 11. There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless it be a fancy that he hath to strange disguises;] Here is a play upon the

word fancy, which Shakspeare uses for love as well as for humour, caprice, or affectation.

JOHNSON. --P. 43, l. 15. Slops are large loose breeches, or trowsers, worn only by sailors at present.

STEEVENS.

Hence evidently the term slop-seller, for the venders of ready made cloaths." NICHOLS.

P. 45, 1. 16. no doublet: -] There can be no doubt but we should read, all doublet, which corresponds with the actual dress of the old Spaniards. As the passage now stands, it is a nega tive description, which is in truth no description at all. M. MASON.

P. 44, 1. 4. Love songs in our author's time were generally sung to the musick of the lute.

MALONE. P. 44, 1. 13. She shall be buried with her face upwards. ] The meaning seems to be, that she who acted upon principles contrary to others, should be buried with the same contrariety.

JOHNSON.

P. 46, 1. 17. Enter Dogberry and Verges,] The first of these worthies had his name from the Dog-berry, i. e. the female cornel, a shrub that grows in the hedges in every county of England. Verges is only the provincial promunciation of Verjuice. STEEVENS.

P. 46, 1. 24. To charge his fellows, seems to have been a regular part of the duty of the cou stable of the Watch. MALONE.

P. 47, 1. 28. A bill is still carried by the watchmen at Litchfield. It was the old weapon of English infantry, which, says Temple, gave the most ghastly and deplorable wounds. It may be called securis falcata. JOHNSON.