this goodly double adverb, ever-oft, which feems to have as much propriety as, alway-Jometimes? As I have reftor'd the paffage, it is very much in our author's manner and mode of expreffion. So, in Cymbeline; Since when I bave been debtor to you for courtefies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still. And in all's well, that ends well. And let me buy your friendly help thus far, P. 257. 1. 25. In former editions, THEOB. I bave fent after him; he fays he'll come ;] From whom could my lady have any fuch intelligence? Her fervant, employ'd upon this errand,. was not yet return'd; and, when he does return, he brings word, that the youth would hardly be intreated back. I am perfuaded, fhe was intended rather to be in fufpenfe, and deliberating with herself: putting the fuppofition that he would come; and afking herself, in that cafe, how the should entertain him. THEOB. be fays he'll come ;] i. e. I fuppofe now, or admit now, he fays he'll come; which Mr. Theobald, not underftanding, alters unneceffarily to, fay be will come; in which the Oxford editor has followed him. WARB. P. 259. 1. 18. Midfummer madness.] Hot weather often turns the brain, which is, I fuppofe, alluded to here. JoHNs. P. 260. 1. 7. I bave lim'd her,- I have entangled or caught her, as a bird is caught with birdlime, JOHNS. L. 9. Fellow!] This word which originally fignified companion, was not yet totally degraded to its prefent meaning and Malvolio takes it in the favourable fenfe. JOHNS. P. 262. 1. 8. Finder of madmen.] This is, I think, an allufion to the witchfinders, who were very bufy. JOHNS. -] We P. 263. 1. 2. -be may bave mercy upon mine, may read, He may have mercy upon thine, but my bope is better. Yet the paffage may well enough stand without al teration. It were much to wifhed, that Shakespeare in this and fome other passages, had not ventured so near profanenefs. JOHNS. P. 264. I. 10. Jewel does not properly fignify a fingle gem, but any precious ornament or fuperfluity. JOHNS. L. 25. Thy interpreter.] This word hath no fenfe in this place; the other editions concur in giving us, intercepter, which is undoubtedly right. REVI. P. 265. 1. 8. He is a knight, dubb'd with unback'd rapier, and an carpet confideration;] That is, he is no foldier by profeffion, not a knight banneret, dubbed in the field of battle, but, on carpet confideration, at a festivity, or on some peaceable occafion, when knights receive their dignity kneeling not on the ground, as in war, but on a carpet. This is. I believe, the original of the contemptuous term a carpet knight, who was naturally held in scorn by the men of war. JOHNS. P. 266. l. 14. Virago cannot be properly used here, unless we fuppofe Sir Toby to mean, I never faw one that had fo much the look of woman with the prowess of man. JOHNS. P. 269. 1. 23. So do not I.] This, I believe, means, I do not yet believe myself, when, from this accident, I gather hope of my brother's life. JOHNS. P. 270. 1. 24. I am afraid this great lubber, &c.] That is. affectation and foppery will overfpread the world. JoHNs. 271. 1. 3. I pr'ythee, foolish Greek.] Greek, was as much as to fay bawd or pander. He understood the crown to be acting in that office. A bawdy-houfe was called Corinth, and the frequenters of it Corinthians, which words occur frequently in Shakespeare, especially in Timon of Athens, and Henry IVth. Yet the Oxford editor alters it to Geck. WARB. L. 7. ―get themselves a good report after fourteen years' purcbafe.] This feems to carry a piece of fatire upon Monopolies, the crying grievance of that time. The grants generally were for fourteen years; and the petitions being referred to a committee, it was fufpected that money gained favourable reports from thence. WARB. P. 272. 1. 9. In this uncivil and unjust extent.] Exten! is, in law, a writ of execution, whereby goods are feized for the king. It is therefore taken here for violence in general. JOHNS. L. 12. This ruffian bath botch'd up, i. e. fwelled and inflamed. A botch being a fwelliug or abfcefs. WARB. Ibid.] I fancy it is only a coarfe expreffion for made up, as a bad taylor is called a botcher, and to botch is to make clumfily. JOHNS. L. 15. He started one poor beart of mine in thee.] I know not whether here be not an ambiguity intended between heart and bart. The fenfe however is eafy enough. He that of fends thee, attacks one of my hearts; or, as the antients expreffed it, balf my beart. JOHNS. L. 16. What relifh is in this.] How does this tafte? What judgment am I to make of it. JOHNS. P. 273. 1. 4. As to fay, a CAREFUL man and a great Scholar] This refers to what went before, I am not tall enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought i a good ftudent; it is plain then that Shakespear wrote, as to Jay a GRACEFUL man, i. e. comely. To this the Oxford editor fays, rectè. WARB. L. 8. Very wittily faidthat that is, is:] This is a very humourous banter of the rules established in the schools, that all reasonings are ex præcognitis & præconceffis, which lay the foundation of every science in these maxims, whatfoever is, is; and it is impoffible for the fame thing to be and not to be; with much trifling of the like kind. WARB. P. 274. 1. 11. Conftant question.] A settled, a determinate, a regular queftion. JOHNS. L. 25. Nay, I am for all waters.] A phrase taken from the actor's ability of making the audience cry either with mirth or grief. WARB. Ibid.] I rather think this expreffion borrowed from sportsmen, and relating to the qualifications of a complete spaniel. JOHNS Ibid.] Nay, I am for all mofters.] i. e. a cloak for all kinds of knavery; taken from the Italian proverb, Tu bai mantillo da ogni acqua. JOHNS. P. 275. 1. 21. Propertied me.] They have taken poffeffion of me as of a man unable to look to himself. JOHNS. L. 28. Here the clown in the dark acts two perfons, and counterfeits, hy variation of voice, a dialogue between himfelf and Sir Topas, I will, Sir, I will, is spoken after a paufe, as if, in the mean time, Sir Topas had whispered. JOHNS. P. 276. 1. 11. Tell me, are you not mad, or do you but coun terfeit.] If he was not mad, what did he counterfeit by declaring that he was not mad? The fool, who meant to insult him, I think, afks, are you mad, or do you but counterfeit? That is, you look like a madman, you talk like a madman: Is your madness real, or bave you any fecret defign in it ? This, to a man in poor Malvolio's ftate, was a fevere taunt. JOHNS. L. 19. Vice was the fool of the old moralities. Some traces of this character are still preferved in puppet-fhows, and by country mummers. See the note on this character, in Richard the Third. JOHNS. P. 277.1.2. Yet there be was, and there I found this credit, That he did range, &c.] i. e. I found it justified, credibly vouched. Whether the word credit will eafily carry this meaning, I am doubtful. The expreffion feems obfcure; and tho' I have not disturbed the text, I very much suspect that the poet wrote; and there I found this credent. He uses the same term again in the very fame, fenfe in the Winter's tale. Then 'tis very credent, Thou may'ft enjoin with fome thing, and thou doft, &c. THEOB. -I found this credit.] Credit, for account, information. The Oxford editor roundly alters it to current; as he does almost every word that Shakespear uses in an anomalous fignification. WARB. L. 8, all inftance, all difcourfe] Inftance, for sense; difcourfe, for reafon. WARB. Ibid.] Inflance is example. CANONS. L. 11. To any other trust.] To any other, belief,, or confi dence, to any other fixed opinion. JOHNS. JOHNS. L. 25. Whiles is until. This word is ftill fo ufed in the northern counties. L. 29. Truth is fidelity. P. 278, 1. 19. So that conclufions to be as kiffes.] Though it might be unreasonable to call our Poet's Fools and Knaves every where to account; yet, if we did, for the generality we should find them refponfible. But what monstrous abfurdity have we here? To fuppofe the text genuine, we must acknowledge it too wild to have any known meaning, and what has no known meaning cannot be allowed to have either wit or humour. Besides, the Clown is affecting to argue feriously and in form. I imagine, the Poet wrote; So that conclufion to be afked, is, i.. So that the conclufion I have to demand of you is this, if your four, &. He had in the preceding words been inferring fome premiffes, and now comes to the conclufion very logically, you grant me, fays he, the premiffes; I now afk you to grant the conclufion. WARB. Ibid.] Though I do not difcover much ratiocination in the Clown's difcourfe, yet, methinks, I can find some glimpse of a meaning in his obfervation, that "the conclufion is as kiffes." For, fays he, if four negatives make two affirmatives, the conclusion is as kisses: that is, the conclufion follows by the conjunction of two negatives, which,by kiffing and embracing, coalefce into one, and make an affirmative. What the four negatives are I do not know. I read, "So that conclufions be as kiffes. Јония. P.279, 1. 12. Bells of St. Bennet.] When in this play he mentioned the bed of Ware, he recollected that the fcene was in Illyria, and added in England; but his fenfe of the fame impropriety could not reftrain him from the bells of St. Bennet. JOHNS as FLAT. P. 280, t. 7. Defperate of fhame and ftate.] Unattentive JOHNS. Kill zubat I lovef] In this Simile, a particular ftory is pre-fuppofed; which ought to be known to fhew the juftnefs and propriety of the comparison. It is taken from Heliodorus's Ethiopics, to which our author was indebted for the allufion. This Egyptian Thief was Thyamis, who was a native of Memphis, and at the head of a band of robbers. Theagenes and Chariclea falling into their hands, Thyamis H 1 |