Line 2. ACT II. VAL. Not mine; my gloves are on. Speed. Why then, this may be your's; for this is but one.] It appears from this passage, that the word one was anciently pronounced as if it were written on. Hence, probably, the mistake in a passage in K. John, where we meet in the old copy, "sound on unto the drowsy," &c. instead of "-sound one," &c. The quibble here is lost by the change of pronunciation; a loss, however, which may be very patiently endured. MALONE. 24. takes diet;- -] To take diet was the phrase for being under a regimen for a disease mentioned in Timon: 66 -bring down the rose-cheek'd youth' STEEVENS. 25. -Hallowmas.- ] This is about the feast of All Saints, when winter begins, and the life of a vagrant becomes less comfortable. JOHNSON. Is it worth remarking that on All-Saints-Day the poor people in Staffordshire, and perhaps in other country places, go from parish to parish a souling, as they call it; i. e, begging and puling (or singing small, as Bailey's Dict. explains. puling) for soul cakes, or any good thing to make them merry? This custom is mentioned by Peck, and seems a remnant of Popish Biij superstition superstition to pray for departed souls, particularly 37. be so simple. TOLLET. None else would JOHNSON. 93. Oh excellent motion! &c.] Motion, in Shakspere's time, signified puppet. In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew-Fair it is frequently used in that sense, or rather perhaps to signify a puppet-show; the master whereof may properly be said to be an interpreter, as being the explainer of the inarticulate language of the actors. The speech of the servant is an allusion to that practice, and he means to say, that Silvia is a puppet, and that Valentine is to interpret to, or rather for her. Sir J. HAWKINS. So, in The City Match, 1630, by Jasper Maine : "Who follows strange sights out of town, and calls her lover servant, and again below her gentle ser vant. This was the language of ladies to their lovers at the time when Shakspere wrote. Sir J. HAWKINS. So, in Marston's What You Will, 1607: "Sweet "Sweet sister, let's sit in judgment a little ; faith upon my servant Monsieur Laverdure. Mel. Troth, well for a servant, but for a husband!" Again, in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour: "Every man was not born with my servant Brisk's features." STEEVENS. 108. -'tis very clerkly done.] i. e. like a scho lar. So, in the Merry Wives of Windsor: STEEVENS. 109. -it came hardly off;] That is, was not written with facility. ** 143. reasoning with yourself?] That is, discoursing, talking. An Italianism. 161. JOHNSON. -and there is an end.] i. e. there is the conclusion of the matter. So, in Macbeth: a time has been "That when the brains were out, the man would die, "And there an end." STEEVENS. 169. All this I speak in print ;- -] In print means with exa&iness. So, in the comedy of All Fooles, 1605: "About his bulk, but it stands in print.” STEEVENS. 219. -I am the dog:-&c.] A similar thought occurs in a play printed earlier than the present. See A Christian turn'd Turk, 1612: 66 -you -you shall stand for the lady, you for her dog, and I the page; you and the dog looking one upon another; the page presents himself." STEEVENS. 220. -I am the dog, &c.] This passage is much confused, and of confusion the present reading makes no end. Sir T. Hanmer reads, I am the dog, no, the dog, himself is and I am me, the dog is the dog, and I am myself. This certainly is more reasonable, but I know not how much reason the author intended to bestow on Launce's soliloquy. JOHNSON. 225. -like a wood woman!] The first folios agree in would-woman: for which, because it was a mystery to Mr. Pope, he has unmeaningly substituted ould woman. But it must be writ, or at least understood, wood woman, i. e. crazy, frantick with grief; or distracted, from any other cause. The word is very frequently used in Chaucer; and sometimes writ wood, sometimes wode. THEOBALD. Print thus: Now come I to my mother (oh, that she could speak now!) like a wood woman : Perhaps the humour would be heightened by reading: (oh, that the shoe could speak now!) BLACKSTONE. Oh that she could speak now like a wood woman!] I am not certain that I understand this passage. Wood, or crazy women, were anciently supposed to be able to tell fortunes. Launce may therefore mean, that as her her gestures are those of frantick persons, so he wishes she was possessed of their other powers, and could predict his fate. Or should we point the line as interrupted? Oh that she could speak now!-like a wood woman! meaning, I wish she could speak-but she behaves as if she were out of her senses!, STEEVENS. Mr. Pope's emendation I believe to be the true one. It is less violent than Theobald's, and less embar rassing. Launce had before substituted a shoe for his mother; the meaning of his wish therefore is: "O that she (that is, the shoe which represents her), could speak, like an old woman!" In the north, she is pronounced like shoe, and to this there seems to have been an allusion. HENLEY. 235. if the ty'd were lost, &c.] This quibble, wretched as it is, might have been borrowed by Shak spere from Lilly's Endymion, 1591: "You know it is said, the tide tarrieth for no man. "True. "A monstrous lye: for I was ty'd two hours, and tarried for one to unlose me." The same occurs in Chapman's Andromeda Liberata, 1614: "And now came roaring to the tied the tide.” 248. Lose the tide, STEEVENS, -] Thus the old copy. The STEEVENS. modern editors read-the flood. |