And all the brothers too] This was the moft artful answer that could be given. The question was of fuch a nature, that to have declined the appearance of a direct answer, must have raised fufpicion. This has the appearance of a direct anfwer, "that the fifter died of her love," the (who paffed for a man) faying, fhe was all the daughters of her father's houfe. But the Oxford editor, a great enemy, as it should feem, to all equivocation, obliges her to answer thus, She's all the daughters of my father's house, And I am all the fons But if it should be afked now, how the Duke came to take this for an answer to his question, to be sure the editor can tell us. WARB. JOHNS. P. 242, 1. 9. Nettle of India mean's, I believe, nothing more than preticus nettle. Ibid.] -bot now my nettle of India?] The poet must here mean a plant called the utica marina, abounding in the Indian feas. "Quæ tacta totius corporis pruritum quendam excitat, unde nomen urticæ est sortita. Wolfgan, Hift, Animal. "Urtica marinæ omnes pruritum quendam movent, & acrimoniâ fuâ nerem extinctam, & fopitam excitant." Johnston's H. Nat. de Exang. Aquat. p. 56. STEEVENS. P. 243,14 Strachy] This is a word mistaken in the copying or printing; but it is not easy to conjecture what the word fhould be: perhaps Stratarch, which (as well as Strataque) fignifics a general of an army, a commander in chief. HANM.* Ibid.] We fhould read Trachy, i. e. Thrace; for fo the old English writers called it. Mandeville fays, As Trachye and Macedoigne of the which Alifandre was Kyng. It was common to use the article the before names of places: and this was no improper inftance, where the fcene was in Illyria. WARB. Ibid.] What we fhould read is hard to fay. Here is an allufion to fome old ftory which I have not yet discovered. JOHNS. trachy married the yeoman of the Torriano's and Altieri's Italian Ibid. The lady of the wardrobe.] Stracchio (fee Dictionaries, under the letters TIKA,) fignifies rags, clouts and tatters. And Torriano, in the grammar at the end of his dictionary, fays, that firaccio was pronounced Aratchy. So that it is probable, that Shakespeare's meaning was this, that the chief lady of the queen's wardrobe had married a yeoman of the king's, who was vaftly inferior to her. SMITH. P. 243, 1. 11. Stone-bow] That is, a cross-bow, a bow which fhoots ftones. JOHNS. L. 23. Wind up my watch.] In our author's time watches were very uncommon. When Guy Faux was taken, it was urged as a circumftance of suspicion that a watch was found upon him. JOHNS. L. 27. The' our filence be drawn from us with cares.] i. e. Though it is the greatest pain to us to keep filence. Yet the Oxford editor has altered it to Tho' our filence be drawn from us by th' ears. There is fome conceit, I fuppofe, in this, as in many other of his alterations, yet it oft lies fo deep that the reader has reason to wish he could have explained his own meaning. WARB. Ibid.] I believe the true reading is, "Though our filence be drawn from us with carts, yet peace." In the Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the Clowns fays, I have a miftrefs, but who that is, a team of horses fhall not draw from me. So in this play, "Oxen and wain ropes will not bring them together. JOHNS. Ibid.] Read, drawn from us with cables. OBSER. and CONJ.* P. 244, 1. 12. What employment bave we bere ?] A phrase of that time, equivalent to our common speech of What's to do bere. The Oxford editor, not attending to this, alters it to What implement have we here? By which happy emendation, he makes Malvolio to be in the plot against himself; or how could he know that this letter was an implement made use of to catch him? WARB. P. 245. 1. 8. Stannyel, the name of a kind of hawk, is VOL. IL PART I. G very judiciously put here for Stallion, by Sir Thomas Hanmer. JOHNS. WARB. L. 11. Formal capacity.] Formal, for common. it be as rank. Јониз. L. 23. And 0 shall end I hope.] By O is here meant what we now call a bempen collar. Јония. L. 28. This fimulation,] Simulation, for refemblance. WARB. P. 246. 1. 14. With thee, The fortunate and bappy day-light and champian difcover no more:] Wrong pointed: We should read,with thee, the fortunate and bappy. Day-light and champ an discover no more: i. e. Broad day and an open country cannot make things plainer. WARB. Tray-trip,] I am almost certain that tray-trip was a game then in fashion, as I have somewhere read among the commendations of a young nobleman, that he was good at the Same of try-trip, or tray.trip. JOHNS. P. 247. 1. 17. Aqua vita is the old name of strong waters. Mr. STEVENS, P. 248. I. 11. A sentence is but a chev'ril glove to a good wit;] Mr. Pope, in his first edition of Shakespeare, inform'd us in a glofs that cheveril meant tender from cheverillus, a young cock, a chick. But I never heard yet of any glove or leather made of a cockrel's skin; and I believe, it will hardly come into experiment in Mr. Pope's or my time. The etymology is therefore to be difputed. I fhew'd in my SHAKESPEARE reflor'd, that cheveril leather is made of the fkin of a kid, or goat: which was called by the LATINES, Caprillus; by the ITALIANS, Ciaverello; and by the FRENCH, Chevereul: from which laft, our word cheveril is immediately deduced. Mr. Ppe in his laft edition has fuffer'd himself to be inform'd; and embraced these derivations. THEOB. P. 249. 1. 23. Lord Pandarus.] See our authour's play of Troilus and Creffida. JOHNS. L. 27. Creffida was a beggar.] The poet in this circumftance undoubtedly had his eye on CHAUCER's Teftament of Crefeide, Cupid, to revenge her prophanation against his deity, calls in the planetary gods to affift him in his vengeance. They inftantly turn her mirth into melancholy, her health into fickness, her beauty into deformity, and in the end pronounce this fentence upon her; Thus fhalt thou go begging fro hous to hous, THEOB. P. 250. 1. 7. But wife men's folly fall'n.] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, folly fhewn. L. 8. In former editions. Sir To. Save you, gentleman. Vio. And you, Sir. Sir And. Dieu vous guarde, Monfieur. Vio. Et vous auffi; votre Serviteur. JOHNS. Sir And. I bope, Sir, you are; and I am yours.] I have ventured to make the two knights change fpeeches in this dialogue with Viola; and, I think, not without good reafon. It were a prepofterous forgetfulness in the poet, and out of all probability, to make Sir Andrew not only speak French, but understand what is faid to him in it, who in the first act did not know the English of Pourquoi. THEOB. L. 16. The lift is the bound, limit, farthest point. JOHNS. L. 27. Moft pregnant and vouchsafed ear.] Pregnant, for ready. WARB. P. 251. 1. 23. After the last enchantment, you did hear.] Nonfenfe. Read and point it thus, After the laft enchantment you did here, i. e. after the enchantment, your prefence worked in my affections. WARB. Ibid.] The prefent reading is no more nonsense than the emendation. JOHNS. P. 252. 1. 1. Te one of your receiving.] .e. to one of your ready apprehenfion. She confiders him as an arch page. WARB. JOHNS. L. 2. A cyprus is a transparent ftuff. L. 6. A grice is a step, fometimes written greefe from degres, French. JOHNS. P. 253.. 9. And that no woman bas.] And that heart and bofom I have never yielded to any woman. JOHNS L. 10. Save I alone.] Thefe three words Sir Thomas Hanmer gives to Olivia probably enough. JOHNS. P. 254. 1. 24. -taunt him with the licence of ink; if thou thou'ft bim fome thrice,] There is no donbt, I think, but this paffage is one of thofe, in which our author intended to fhew his refpect for Sir Walter Raleigh, and a deteftation of the virulence of his profecutors. The words, quoted, feem to me directly levelled at the attorney-general Coke, who, in the trial of Sir Walter, attacked him with all the following indecent expreffions."All that be did was by thy Inftigation, thou viper; for I thou thee, thou traytor (Here, by the way, are the poet's three thous.) You are an odious man.”. "Is be bafe? I return it into thy throat, 66 on his behalf."- "O damnable atheist!". "Thou art a monffer; thou haft an English face, but a Spanish "beart." Thou baft a Spanish beart, and thyself art a “Spider of bell." "Go to, I will lay thee on thy back for "the confident ft traytor that ever came at a bar, &c." Is not here all the licence of tongue, which the poet fatyrically prefcribes to Sir Andrew's ink? And how mean an opipion Shakespeare had of thefe petulant invectives, is pretty evident from his clofe of this fpeech; let there be gall enough in thy ink, tho' thou write it with a goofe-pen, no matter A keener lafh at the attorney for a fool, than all the contumelies the attorney threw at the prisoner, as a fuppos'd THEOB. traytor! P. 255. 1. 13. Look, where the youngest wren of nine comes.] The wren is remarkable for laying many eggs at a time, nine or ten and fometimes more: and as the is the fmallett of birds, the laft of fo fmall a brood may be fuppofed to be fittle indeed, which is the image intended here to be given of Maria. HANMER.* Ibid.] The womens' parts were then acted by boys, fometimes fo low in ftature, that there was occafionto obviate the impropriety by fuch kind of oblique apologies. WARB. P. 256. 1. 15. In former editions, I can no other anfwer make but thanks, And thanks and ever-oft good turns Are fouffled off with fuch uncurrent pay; -] The fecond line is too fhort by a whole foot. Then, who ever heard of |