author. WA RAB.. P. 156, 1. 12. let me be unroll'd, and my name put intotde book of virtues!] Begging gyplies, in the time of our author, were in gangs and companies, that had something of the fhew of an incorporated Body. From this noble fociety he wishes he may be unrolled if he does not fo and fo.. WARB. L. 24. Your extremes.] That is, your exceffes, the extravagance of your praises. JOHN S. L. 26. The gracious mark o' th' land.] The obj⋅ of ali men's notice and expectation. P. 157, 1. 4. fworn I think,. JOHNS. To fhew myself a glass.] i. . one would think that in putting on this habit of a fhepherd, you had fworn to put me out of countenance; for in this, as in a glafs, you fhew me how much below yourfelf you must defcend before you can get upon a level with me. The fentiment is fine, and expreffes all the delicacy, as well as humble modefty of the character. But the Oxford Editor alters it to, Swoon, I think,.. To fhew myself a glass.. What he means I do not know. But Perdita was not fo much given to fwooning, as appears by her behaviour at the King's threats, when the intrigue was difcovered. WARE. Ibid.] Dr. Thirlby inclines rather to Sir T. Hanmer's emendation, which certainly makes an easy fenfe, and is in my opinion, preferable to the prefent reading. But concerning this pallage I know not what to decide. JOHNS. Soon, CAPELL.* L. 14. His work fo noble, &c.] It is impoffible for any man to rid his mind of his profeffion. The authorship of Shakefpeare has fupplied him with a metaphor, which rather than he would lofe it, he has put with no great propriety into the mouth of a country maid. Thinking of his own works, his mind paffed naturally to the Binder. 1 am glad that he has JOHNS. no hint at an Editor. 66 P. 159, 1. 14. Grace and remembrance-] I fuppofe the means, May you, old Gentlemen, be good, and may your memories be honoured. P. 161, 1. 2. JOHNS. violets dim, But fweeter than the lids of Jano's eyes,] I ful pect that our author mistakes Juno for Pallas, who was the Goddefs of blue eyes." Sweeter than an eyelid is an odd image but perhaps he ufes fweer in the general fenfe, for delightful. JOHNS. L. 7. Gold is the reading of Sir T. Hanmer; the former editions, and Capell have bold. L. 27. each your doing,] That is, your manner in each a crowns the act. a thing As little kill to fear,] JOHNS. JOHNS. "To have fkill to do was a phrafe then in ute equivalent to our "to have reafon to do a thing." The Oxford editor, ignorant of this, alters it to, As little skill in fear, which has no kind of fenfe in this place. WARB. Ibid.] Skill feems here to be ufed in a bad fenfe, and the meaning to be, I think you have as little reafon to apprehend any fkill, i. e. cunning and artifice, in me, as I have inclination to tempt you by fuch means. ANON.* L. 10. Per. I'll fwear for 'em.] I fancy this half line is placed to a wrong perfon, and that the king begins his speech afide thus, L. 15. Pol, I'll fwear for 'em, This is the prettieft, &c. JOHNS. That makes her blood look on't:] Thus all the old editions. The meaning must be this: The Prince tells her fomething, "that calls the blood up into her cheeks, and makes her blush." She, but a little before, ufes a like expreffion to defcribe the Prince's fincerity. Your youth And the true blood, which peeps forth fairly through it, JOHNS. L. 27.a worthy FEEDING;] Certainly BREEDING. WARB. Ibid.] I conceive feeding to be a pafture, and a worthy feeding to be a track of pafturage not inconfiderable, not unworthy of my daughter's fortune. JOHNS. P. 163, 1. 30. Unbraided-wares.] Surely we must read braided, for fuch are all the wares mentioned in the answer. JOHNS. P. 164, 1. 6. fleeve band is put very properly by Sir T. Hanmer; it was before fleeve-band. JOHNS. P. 165, l. 12. ————— clamour your tongues,] The phrafe is taken from ringing. When bells are at the height, in order to cease them, the repetition of the ftrokes becomes much quicker than before; this is called clamouring them. The allufion is humourous. WARB. Ibid.] Thus ufed in his play, in "Much ado about Nothing," act v. fc. vii, Benedict. "If a man Do not erect in this age his own tomb e'er he dies, Beatrice. And how long is that think you? Benedict. Queftion; Why an hour of clamour, And a quarter in rheum." But I should rather imagine, he wrote "charm your tongues," as Sir Thomas Hanmer has altered it, as he uses the expreffion, third part of King Henry the Sixth, act v. fc. iv. K. Ed. "Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue." And in Othello, Moor of Venice, act v. fc. viii. lago. "Mift refs, go to, charm your tongue. Emilia. I will not charm my tongue, I am bound to speak; My mistress lies here murdered in her bed." We meet with the like expreffion, and in the fame sense, in Ben. Johnson's Cynthia's Revels, act i. fc. i. Mercurio. "how now my dancing braggart, in decimo fexto; sharm your skipping tongue, or I'll GRAY. P.165, 1. 13. You promised me a tardry lace, and a pair of fweet gloves.] Tawdry lace is thus defcribed in Skinner, by his friend Dr. Henshawe. "Tacudrie lace, aftrigmenta, tim. briæ, feu faciole, emtæ Nurdinis Sæ. Ethelreda celebratis. Ut recte monet Doc. Thomas Henshawe." Etymol. in voce. We find it in Spenfer's Paftoral, April. And gird in your waste, For more fineneffe, with a tawdrie lace. As to the other prefent, promifed by Camillo to Mopfa, of fweet, or perfumed gloves, they are frequently mentioned by Shakespeare, and were very fashionable in the age of Elizabeth, and long afterwards. Thus Autolicus, in the fong juft preceding this paffage, offers to fale, Gloves as fweet as damaík rofes. Stowe's Continuator, Edmund Howes, informs us, that the English could not "make any coftly wash or perfume, until about the fourteenth for fifteenth of the queene [Elizabeth], the right honourable Edward Vere, earle of Oxford came from Italy, and brought with him gloves, and fweet bagges, a perfumed leather jerkin, and other pleasant thinges and that yeare the queene had a payre of perfumed gloves trimmed onlie with foure tuftes, or rofes of cullered filke. The queene tooke fuch pleasure in thefe gloves, that fhee was pictured with thefe gloves upon her hands: and for many yeers after it was called the erle of Oxfordes perfume." Stowe's Annals by Howes, edit. 1614. p. 868, col. 2. In the annual accounts of a college in Oxford, anno 1630, is this article, "folut. pro fumigandis chirotheis." WARTON. P. 167, 1. 26. Mafter there are three Carters, three fhepberds, three neat-herds, and three fwine-berds, —] Thus all the printed copies hitherto. Now, in two fpeeches after this, thefe are called four threes of Herdmen. But could the carters properly be called berdsmen? At least, they have not the final fyllable, berd in their names; which, believe, Shakespeare intended, all the four threes fhould have. I therefore guefs that he wrote; "Mafter, there are three goat-berds, &c." And fo, I think, we take in the four fpecies of cattle ufually tended by bermen. THEOB. and REVI.* and CAPELL. L. 28. all men of hair,] i. e. nimble, that leap as if they rebounded: the phrafe is taken from tennis-balls, which were stuffed with hair. So in Henry V. it is faid of a courfer, WARB. He bounds as if his entrails were hairs. Ibid.] This is a strange interpretation. Errors, fays Dryden, "flow upon the furface," but there are men who will fetch them from the bottom. Men of bair are bairy men. or fatyrs. A dance of fatyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages. At a great festival celebrated in France, the king and fome of his nobles perfonated fatyrs dressed in close habits, tuffted or fhagged all over, to imitate hair. They began a wild dance, and in the tumult of their merriment one of them went too near a candle and fet fire to his fatyr's garb, the flame ran instantly over the loofe tufts and spread itself to the dress of those that were next him; a great number of the dancers were cruelly fcorched, being neither able to throw off their coats nor extinguish them. The king had fet himself in the lap of the dutchess of Burgundy, who threw her robe over him and faved him. Јонив. P. 168, 1. 4, Bozuling, I believe, is here a term for a› dance of smooth motion without great exertion of agility. JOHNS. L. 14. Pol. O, father, you'll know more of that bereafter.]. This is replied by the King in anfwer to the fhepherd's faying, "fince thefe good men are pleafed." Yet the Oxford editor, I cannot tell why, gives this line to Florizel, fince Florizel and the old man were not in conversation. WARB. P. 170. 1. 22. -dispute his own eftate?] Perhaps for difpute we might read compute; but difpute bis eftate may be the fame with talk over bis affairs. Јони. Ibid.] Does not this allude to the next heir fueing for the eftate in cafes of imbecillity, lunacy, &c. Mr. CHAMIER. P. 171. 1. 30. Far than.] I think for far than we should read für as. We will not hold thee of our kin even so far off as Deucalion the common ancestor of all. JOHNS. and CAP. P. 172. 1. 10. I was not much afraid; &c.] The character is here finely fuftained. To have made her quite aftonished on the king's discovery of himself, had not become her birth; and to have given her prefence of mind to have made this reply to the king, had not become her education. WAR B. L. 23. You have undone a man of four feare three, &c.] Thefe fentiments, which the poet has heighten'd by a ftrain of ridicule that runs thro' them, admirably characterize the |