said on the subject of this mode of disguising the female face in a remark on The merry wives of Windsor, Activ. Sc. 2.

Sc. 4. p. 271.

JUL.'t was Ariadne, passioning

For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight.

A note is here inserted "not" says its learned and classical author, "on the business of Shakspeare," but to introduce a conjecture relating to one of Guido's paintings commonly supposed to represent Ariadne as deserted by Theseus and courted by Bacchus, but which he conceives to have been intended for Bacchus's desertion of this lady for an Indian captive. An attentive examination of the print from Guido's picture will, it is presumed, incline any one to hesitate much before he shall decide on having discerned any traces of an Indian princess; and this supposed character may rather turn out to be Venus introducing the amorous Deity, attended by his followers, to Ariadne, forlorn and abandoned by Theseus in the isle of Chios, according to Ovid, or Naxos according to Lactantius. Nor is the female who accompanies Bacchus "hanging on his arm" as stated by the critic. It is impossible

likewise to perceive in this figure the modest looks or demeanour of a female captive, or in the supposed Bacchus the character of a lover, insulting, according to Ovid's description, his former mistress by displaying the beauties of another. Boccaccio has very comically accounted for Ariadne's desertion by Theseus, and her subsequent transfer to Bacchus. He supposes the lady to have been too fond of the juice of the grape, and that on her continuing to indulge this propensity; she was therefore called the wife of Bacchus. See Geneal. deor. lib. xi. c. 29.

Sc. 4. p. 274.

JUL. Her eyes are grey as glass.

This was in old times the favourite colour of

the eyes in both sexes:

"His eyen are gray as any glasse.”

Romance of Sir Isenbras.

"Her eyen gray as glas."

Romance of Libeaus desconus.

"Les iex vairs et rians com un faucon."

Roman de Guerin de Montglaive. M.S.

in

And to come nearer to Shakspeare's time:In the interlude of Marie Magdalene, a song praise of her says, "your eyes as gray as glasse

and right amiable." The French term ver or vair has induced some of their antiquaries to suppose that it meant green; but it has been very satisfactorily shown to signify in general the colour still called by heralds vair. It is certain however that the French romances and other authorities allude occasionally to green eyes.

Sc. 4. p. 274.

JUL. My substance should be statue in thy stead.

In confirmation of Mr. M. Mason's note, it may be observed that in the comedy of Cornelianum dolium, Act i. Sc. 5, statua is twice used for a picture. They were synonymous terms, and sometimes a statue was called a picture. Thus Stowe speaking of Elizabeth's funeral, says that when the people beheld "her statue or picture lying upon the coffin" there was a general sighing, &c. Annals p. 815. edit. 1631. In the glossary to Speght's Chaucer 1598, statue is explained picture; and in one of the inventories of King Henry the Eighth's furniture at Greenwich several pictures of earth are mentioned. These were busts in terra cotta like those still remaining in Wolsey's paláce at Hampton Court.

ACT V.

Scene 1. Page 276.

EGL. That Silvia at Patrick's cell should meet me.

The old copy reads "at friar Patrick's cell," which Mr. Steevens calls a redundance, justifying his alteration by a passage in the next scene where "At Patrick's cell" occurs. But the old reading is right, and should not have been disturbed, there being no redundance when it is judiciously read. Silvia is often used as a dissyllable, and must here be read elliptically. Besides, we had "friar Patrick's cell" before in p. 263.

Sc. 4. p. 280.

VAL. And to the nightingale's complaining notes
Tune my distresses, and record my woes.

It has been already observed that this term refers to the singing of birds. It should have been added that it was formed from the recorder, a sort of flute by which they were taught to sing.

Sc. 4. p. 286.

JUL. How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root?

The speech had been begun with a metaphor from archery, and is here continued in the same strain. To cleave the pin, was to break the nail which attached the mark to the butt.

Page 290.

Mr. Ritson's reply to Mr. Tyrwhitt.

However ingenious and even just the system in this reply may be, it is evident that Shakspeare was not governed by it; but, on the contrary, that he has taken the liberties pointed out by Mr. Tyrwhitt. The proof is, 1. from the circumstance that none of Shakspeare's contemporaries have used similar words in such a protracted form. 2. Because he has used other words in the same manner which are not reducible to Mr. Ritson's system; such as country, assembly, &c. He never troubled himself about establishing a canon of which he was, in all likelihood, altogether ignorant; but occasionally took such liberties as his verses required. This is