There can be no doubt but the word approof is frequently used in the sense of approbation, but that is not always the case; and in this place it signifies proof or confirmation. The meaning of the passage appears to be this: ,,The truth of his epitaph is in no way so fully proved, as hy your royal speech." It is needless to remark, that epitaphs generally contain the character and · praises of the deceased. M. MASON. P. 113, 1. 13-15. whose judgements are Who Mere fathers of their garments;] have no other use of their faculties, than to invent new modes of dress. JOHNSON. - I have a suspicion that Shakspeare wrote meer feathers of their garments; i. e. whose judgements are meerly parts (and insignificant parts) of their dress, worn and laid aside, as feathers are, from the meer love of novelty and change. TYRWHITT. P. 114, 1. 3. A Clown in Shakspeare is commonly taken for à licensed jester, or domestick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, since fools were at that time maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's family, by Haus Holbein, the only servant represented is Patison the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wise.. In some plays, a servant, of a rustic, of a remarkable petulance and freedom of speech is likewise called a clown. JOHNSON. Cardinal Wolsey, after his disgrace, wishing to show King Henry VIII. a mark of his respect, sent him his fool Patch, as a present; whom, says Stowe,,,the King received very gladly.“ - MALONE. P. 114, 1. 6. up to your desires. P. 114, 1. 13 17. The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my slowness, that I do not; for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have abiliy enough to make such knaveries yours.]. After premising that the accusative, them, refers to the precedent word, complaints, and that this by a metonymy of the effect for the cause, stands for the freaks which occasioned those complaints, the sense will be extremely clear.,,You are fool enough to commit those irregularities you are charged with, aud yet not so much fool neither, as to discredit the accusation by any defect in your ability. to even your content,] To act JOHNSON. HEATH. It appears to me that the accusative them refers to knaveries, and the natural sense of the passage seems to be this: You have folly enough to desire to commit these kuaveries, and ability enough to accomplish them. M. MASON. " P. 114, 1.22. — many of the rich are damn'd:] See S. Mark, x. 25; S. Luke, xviii. 25. GRET. P. 114, 1. 29. Service is no-heritage:] This is a proverbial expression. Needs must when the devil drives, is another. RITSON. P. 115, 1..17. You are shallow, Madam; e'en great friends;] The meaning [i. e. of the ancient reading mentioned in the subsequent note] seems to be, you are not deeply skilled in the character or offices of great friends. JouNsoN. The old copy reads e'n. ly a mistake for e'en, which was formerly written The two words are so near in sound, that they might easily have been confounded by an inattentive hearer. The same mistake has hap pened in many other places in our author's plays. MALONE, P. 115, 1 ig. To ear is to plough. STEEVENS. See 1 Sam. viii. 12. Isaiah, xxx. 24. Deut. xxi. 4. Gen. xlv. 6. Exod. xxxiv. 21. for the use of this verb. HENLEY. P. 115, last 1. but one. Clow. A prophet I, Madam; and I speak the truth the next way.] It is a superstition, which has run through all ages and people, that natural fools have some thing in them of divinity. On which account they were esteemed sacred: Travellers tell us in what esteem the Turks now hold them; nor had they less honour paid them heretofore in France, as appears from the old word benet, for a natur al fool. Hence it was that Pantagruel, in Rabelais, advised Panurge to go and consult the fool Triboulet as an oracle; which gives occasion to a satirical stroke upon the privy council of Francis the First Par l'avis, conseil, prediction des fols vos scavez quants princes, etc. ont esté conservez, etc. The phrase speak the truth the next way, means directly; as they do who are only the instruments or canals of others s such as inspired persons were supposed to be. See the popular story of Cheshire Prophecy. DOUCE. Next way is nearest way. IV. Part I: WARBURTON. Nixon the Idiot's So, in K. Henry 'Tis 'Tis the next way to turn tailor," etc. STEEVENS. Next way is a phrase still used in Warwickshire, and signifies without circumlocution, or going about. HENLEY. P. 116, 1. 11 and fol. The name of Helen. whom the Countess has just called for, brings an old ballad on the sacking of Troy to the Clown's mind. MALONE. This is a stanza of an old ballad, out of which a word or two are dropt, equally necessary' to make the sense aud alternate rhyme. For it was not Helen, who was King Priam's joy, but Paris. The third line therefore should be read thus: Fond done, fond done, for Paris, he. t WARBURTON. If this be a stanza taken from any ancient ballad, it will probably in time be found entire, and then the restoration may be made with authority. P. 116, 1. 14. Fond P. 116, 1. 20. 21. There's yet one Among hine bad if one be good, good in ten.] This second stanza of the ballad is turned to a joke upon the women: a confession, that there was one good in Countess observed, that he which shows the song said ten. Whereon the corrupted the song; nine good in ten. If one be bad amongst nine good, This relates to the ten sous of Priam, who all behaved themselves well but Paris. For though * VOL. V. 522 he once had fifty, yet at this unfortunate period of his reign he had but ten; Agathon, Antiphon, Deiphobus, Dius, Hector, Helenus, Hippothous, Pammon, Paris, and Polites. WARBURTON. P. 117, 1. I — 5. Clo. That man, etc.] The Clown's answer is obscure. His lady bids him do as he is commanded. He answers with the licentious petulance of his character, that if a man does as a woman commands, it is likely he will do amiss; that he does not amiss, being at he makes the effect, the command of a woman, not of his lady's goodness, but of his own honesty, which, though not very nice or puritanical, will do no hurt; and will not only do uo hurt, but, unlike the puritans, will comply with the injunctions of superiors, and wear the sur plice of humility over the black gown of a big heart; will obey commands, though not much pleased with a state of subjection. Here is an allusion, violently enough forced in, to satirize the obstinacy with which the puritans which refused the use of the ecclesiastical habits, Was, at that time, one principal cause of the breach of the union, and perhaps, to insinuate, that the modest purity of the surplice was some times a cover for pride. JOHNSON. The aversion of the puritans to a surplice is alluded to in many of the old comedies. STEEVENS. I cannot help thinking we should read |