L. 28. In delay there lies no plenty: This is a proverbial faying corrupted; and fhould be read thus, In DECAY there lies no plenty A reproof of avarice which stores up perishable fruits until they decay. To these fruits the Poet, homourously, compares youth or virginity; which, he says, is a "stuff will not endure." Ibid.] I believe delay is right. WARB JOHNS. L. 29. Then come kifs me, fweet and twenty,] This line is obfcure; we might read, Come, a kifs then, fweet, and twenty. Yet I know not whether the prefent reading be not right, for in fome counties "fweet and twenty," whatever be the meaning, is a phrase of endearment. JOHNS. P. 233, 1. 5. Make the welkin dance.] That is, drink until the fky feems to turn round. JOHNS. L. 6. draw three fouls out of one weaver?] Our author reprefents weavers as much given to harmony in his time. I have fhewn the cause of it elsewhere. This expreffion of the power of mufick, is familiar with our Author. "Much ado about nothing. Now it is foul ravished. Is it not ftrange that Sheep's guts should hale fouls out of men's bodies?"Why, he fays, three feuls, is becaufe he is fpeaking of a catch in three parts. And the peripatetic philofophy, then in vogue, very liberally gave every man three fouls. The vegetative or plaftic, the animal and the rational. To this, too, Jonfon alludes in his Poetafter; "What, will I turn fhark upon my friends? or my friends friends? I fcorn it with my three fouls." By the mention of the fe three, therefore, we may fuppofe it was Shakespeare's purpose, to hint to us thofe furprising effects of mufick, which the antients fpeak of. When they tell us of Amphion, who moved tones and trees; Orpheus and Arion, who tamed favage beafts, and Timotheus, who governed, as he pleafed, the "paffions of his human auditors." So noble an obfervation has our Author conveyed in the ribaldry of this buffoon character. WARB, JOHNS L. 17. This catch is loft. L. 22. Peg-a-Ramsey I do not understand. Tilly valley was an interjection of contempt, which Sir Thomas-More's lady is recorded to have had very often in her mouth, JOHNS. Ibid. Tilley valley is an expreffion of contempt of much the fame import as our modern Fiddle faddle. This, with the word Lady which is three times repeated, and ought to be pronounced with a like fcornful tone, makes no part of the finging, as Mr. Warburton, following the latter editors, by printing them in italics, mifleads the reader to apprehend. P. 234. coziers catches] Cottiers. REV.* Ruftick, clownish. WARB.* Ibid.] Cozier, i. e. cobler, is right. Its etymology is from cordwainer, which was first abbreviated into cordier, and then by degrees, in virtue of the pronounciation in the western part of the kingdom came to be cozier, REVIS. 5. A cozier is a tailor, from coufer, to few. French. JOHNS. P. 235, 1. 3. Rub your chain with crums.] suppose it fhould be read, "rub your ebin with crums," alluding to what had been faid before that. Malvolio was only a fle ward, and confequently dined after his lady. JOHNS. P. 234, 1. Ibid.] The fteward might in thefe days wear a chain as a badge of office, or mark of dignity; and the method of cleaning a chain, or any gilt plate, is by rubbing it with crums. STEEVENS. L. 7. Rule is, method of life, fo mifi ule is tumult and riot. JOHNS. L. 20. Poffefs us.] That is, " inform us, tell us," make us mafters of the matter. JOHNS. L. 28. an affectioned afs.] Affectioned, for full of affec tion. WARB. Ibid.] Affe&ioned would feem from the context to mean, full of affectation. P.237, 1. 14. Recollected, Nudied. ANON.* Ibid. I rather think that recollected fignifies more nearly to its primitive fenfe, recalled, repeated, and alludes to the practice of compofers who often prolong the fong by repetitions. JOHNS. L. 27. in all motions elfe.] The folio reads notions, which is right. Ibid.] Both the folios read motions, P. 238, 1. 3. It gives a very ecto To the feat WARB.* CAN.* Where love is thron'd.] We fhould read, FROM the feat: i. . it reaches the throne of love, and reverberates thence, WARB.* Ibid.] That is, it is fo confonant to the emotions of the heart, that they echo it back again. REV. L. 9. The word favour ambiguously used. JOHNS. L. 19. Loft and worn.] Though loft and worn may mean loft and worn out, yet loft and won being, I think, better, thefe two words coming ufually and naturally together, and the alteration being very flight, I would fo read in this place with Sir Thomas Hanmer. JOHNS. P. 239, 1. 1. Free is, perhaps, vacant, un ngaged, ealy in mind. JOHNS. L. 2. Silly footh.] It is plain, fimple truth. L 3. And dallies with the inno ence of love,] Dallies has no fenfe. We fhould read, TALLIES, i. e. agrees with; is of a piece with. WARB. Ibid.] The Duke is speaking of a fong. It dallies, i, e. it fports and plays innocently with a love fubject, as they did in old times. But Mr. Warburton, who is here out of his element, and on a fubject not dreamed of in his philofophy, would have the Duke speak more like a baker or milkman, than a lover. CAN.* L. 4, The old age is the ages poft, the times city. L. 13. My part of death no ene fo true of fimpliJOHNS Did fhare it.] Though Death is a part in which every one acts his share, yet of all these actors no one is fo true as I. P. 240, 1. 2. a very opal!] A precious stone of almost all colours. JOHNS POPE. L. 3. that their bufin'fs might be every thing, and their intent EVERY where;] Both the preservation of the antithefis, and the recovery of the fenfe, require we should read,"and their intent No where." Because a man who fuffers himself to run with every wind, and so makes his business every where, cannot be laid to have any intent; for that word fignifies a determination of the mind to fomething. Befides, the conclufion of "making a good voyage" out of nothing, directs to this emendation. WARB. Ibid.] The old reading expreffes exactly the fame fenfe as Dr. Warburton's emendation. An intent every where, is just the fame as an intent to where, as it hath no particular place more in view than any other. REV.* L. 13. But 'tis that miracle and queen of gems, That nature pranks her 1N,-] What is "that miracle, and queen of gems?" we are not told in this reading. Befides, what is meant by "nature pranking her in à miracle?-We should read, But 'tis that miracle, and queen of gems, That nature pranks, HER MIND, i, e. what attracts my foul, is not her fortune, but "her mind, that miracle, and queen of gems that nature pranks,” i. e. fets out, adorns. WARB. Ibid.] The "miracle and queen of gems" is her beauty, which the commentator might heve found without fo emphatical an enquiry. As to her mind, he that should be captious would fay, that though it may be formed by nature it must be pranked by education. Shakespeare does not fay that "nature pranks her in a miracle," but "in the miracle of gems," that is, “ in a gem miraculously beautiful. JOHNS. L. 16. IT cannot be so anfwr'd] We should read I; the reply fhews it. P. 241, I. 13. · fhe pin'd in thought; WARB.* And, with a green and yellow melancholy, Smiling at Grief.] This very fine image, which has been fo univerfally applauded, it is not impoffible but our Author might originally have borrowed from CHAUCER in his Affembly of Fooles. And her befidis wonder difcretlie, Dame Pacience fittinge there I fonde If he was indebted, however, for the firtt rude draught, how amply has he repaid that debt in heightning the picture! How much does the green and yellir melancholy transcend the Old Bard's pale face; the monument his kill of fand; and what an additional beauty is, fmiling at grief, for which there are no ground, nor traces, in the original! Our Au thor has given us this fine picture again in another place, but, to fhew the power and extent of his genius, with feas tures and lineaments varied. yet thou Do look like Patience, gazing on Kings graves, And smiling [harsh] extremity out of act. Pericles, Prince of Tire. This abfurd old play, I have elsewhere taken notice, was not entirely of our Author's penning; but he has honoured it with a number of master-touches, fo peculiar to himself, that a knowing reader may with ease and certainty diftinguish the traces of his pencil. THEOB. Το Ibid] Mr. Theobald, I hope, does not imagine Shakefpeare meant to give us a picture of the face of Patience, by his green and yellow melancholy; because, he fays, it tran fcends the pale face of Patience given us by Chaucer. throw Patience into a fit of melancholy, would be indeed very extraordinary. The green and yellow then belonged not to Patience, but to ber who fat like Patience. To give Patience a pale face, was proper; and had Shakespeare defcribed her, he had done it as Chaucer did. But Shakespeare is fpeaking of a marble statue of Patience; Chaucer of Patience herself. And the two reprefentations of her, are in quite different views. Our Poet, fpeaking of a defpairing lover, judiciously compares her to Patience exercised on the death of friends and relations; which affords him the beautiful picture of Patience on a monument. The old Bard fpeaking of Patience herself, directly, and not by comparison, as judiciously draws her in that circumftance where he is moft exercifed, and has occafion for all her virtue: that is to fay, under the inffes of shipwreck. And now we fee why she is reprefented as fitting on an bill of fand, to design the scene to be the fea-fhore. It is finely imagined; and one of the noble fimplicities of that admirable Poet. But the Critick thought, in good earnest, that Chaucer's invention was fo barren, and his imagination fo beggarly, that he was not able to be at the charge of a monument for his goddess, but left her like a ftroller, funning herself upon a heap of WARB. fand. L. 21. I'm all the daughters of my father's boufe, |