Each putter-out on five for one," will bring us ALON. 7 Each putter-out &c.] The ancient custom here alluded to was this. In this age of travelling, it was a practice with those who engaged in long and hazardous expeditions, to place out a fum of money on condition of receiving great intereft for it at their return home. So, Puntarvolo, (it is Theobald's quotation,) in Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour: "I do intend, this year of jubilee coming on, to travel; and (because I will not altogether go upon expence) I am determined to put fome five thoufand pound, to be paid me five for one, upon the return of my wife, myself, and my dog, from the Turk's court in Conftantinople." To this inftance I may add another from The Ball, a comedy, by Chapman and Shirley, 1639: "I did moft politickly disburse my fums "To have five for one at my return from Venice." Again, in Amends for Ladies, 1639: "I would I had put out fomething upon my return; -on five for one" means on the terms of five for one. So, in Barnaby Riche's Faults, and nothing but Faults, 1607: "-those whipsters, that having fpent the greatest part of their patrimony in prodigality, will give out the reft of their stocke, to be paid two or three for one, upon their return from Rome," &c. &c. STEEVENS. Each putter-out on five for one,] The old copy has : of five for one." I believe the words are only transposed, and that the author wrote: "Each putter-out of one for five." So, in The Scourge of Folly, by J. Davies of Hereford, printed about the year 1611: "Sir Solus ftraight will travel, as they fay, "And gives out one for three, when home comes he." It appears from Moryfon's ITINERARY, 1617, Part I. p. 198, that "this cuftom of giving out money upon these adventures was first used in court, and among noblemen;" and that some years before his book was published, "bankerouts, stage-players, and men of base condition had drawn it into contempt," by undertaking journeys merely for gain upon their return. MALONE. The best is paft :-Brother, my lord the duke, Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL like a harpy ;' claps his wings upon the table, and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes.' ARI. You are three men of fin, whom destiny I will ftand to, and feed, Although my laft: no matter, fince I feel The beft is paft] I cannot but think that this paffage was intended to be in a rhyme, and fhould be printed thus: "I will ftand to and feed; although my last, "No matter, fince I feel the beft is paft." M. MASON. 9 Enter Ariel like a harpy; &c.] This circumftance is taken from the third book of the Eneid as tranflated by Phaer, bl. 1. 4to. 1558: "But fodenly from down the hills with grifly fall to fyght, "The harpies come, and beating wings with great noys out thei fhright, "And at our meate they fnach; and with their clawes," &c. Milton, Parad. Reg. B. II. has adopted the fame imagery: I "Both table and provifions vanish'd quite, "With found of harpies' wings, and talons heard." STEEVENS. and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes.] Though I will not undertake to prove that all the culinary pantomimes exhibited in France and Italy were known and imitated in this kingdom, I may observe that flying, rifing, and defcending fervices were to be found at entertainments given by the Duke of Burgundy, &c. in 1453, and by the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1600, &c. See M. Le Grand D'Auffi's Hiftoire de la vie privée des François, Vol. III. p. 294, &c. Examples, therefore, of machinery fimilar to that of Shakspeare in the prefent inftance, were to be met with, and perhaps had been adopted on the stage, as well as at public festivals here in England. See my note on The Merry Wives of Windfor, A&t. V. fc. v. from 2 (That hath to inftrument this lower world, [Seeing ALON. SEB. &c. draw their fwords. And even with fuch like valour, men hang and drown Their proper felves. You fools! I and my fellows Are minifters of fate; the elements Of whom your fwords are temper'd, may as well Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at ftabs Kill the still-clofing waters, as diminish One dowle that's in my plume ;3 my fellow-minifters whence it appears that a striking conceit in an entertainment given by the Vidame of Chartres, had been transferred to another feaft prepared in England as a compliment to Prince Alafco, 1583. STEEVENS. 2 That hath to inftrument this lower world, &c.] i. e. that makes use of this world, and every thing in it, as its inftruments to bring about its ends. STEEVENS. 3 One dowle that's in my plume;] The old copy exhibits the paffage thus: "One dowle that's in my plumbe." Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Bailey, in his Dictionary, fays, that dowle is a feather, or rather the fingle particles of the down. Since the first appearance of this edition, my very induftrious and learned correfpondent, Mr. Tollet, of Betley, in StaffordShire, has enabled me to retract a too hasty cenfure on Bailey, to whom we were long indebted for our only English Dictionary. In a small book, entitled Humane Induftry: or, A Hiftory of moft Manual Arts, printed in 1661, page 93, is the following paffage: "The wool-bearing trees in Ethiopia, which Virgil fpeaks of, and the Eriophori Arbores in Theophraftus, are not fuch trees as have a certain wool or DOWL upon the outside of them, as the small cotton; but short trees that bear a ball upon the top, pregnant with wool, which the Syrians call Cott, the Græcians Goffypium, the Italians Bombagio, and we Bombafe." "There is a certain fhell-fish in the fea, called Pinna, that Are like invulnerable:4 if you could hurt, (Which here, in this moft defolate ifle, elfe falls bears a moffy DOWL, or wool, whereof cloth was fpun and made.”—Again p. 95: "Trichitis, or the hayrie ftone, by fome Greek authors, and Alumen plumaceum, or downy alum, by the Latinifts this hair or DowL is fpun into thread, and weaved into cloth." I have fince difcovered the fame word in The Ploughman's Tale, erroneously attributed to Chaucer, v. 3202: : "And fwore by cock 'is herte and blode, "He would tere him every doule." STEEVENS. Cole in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, interprets " young dowle," by lanugo. MALONE. the elements Of whom your fwords are temper'd, may as well One dowle that's in my plume; my fellow minifters Are like invulnerable:] So, in Phaer's Virgil, 1573: Their fwords by them they laid "And on the filthy birds they beat "But fethers none do from them fal, nor wound for ftrok doth bleed, "Nor force of weapons hurt them can." RITSON. Upon your heads,) is nothing, but heart's forrow, And a clear life 5 enfuing." He vanishes in thunder: then, to foft mufick, enter the Shapes again, and dance with mops and mowes? and carry out the table. PRO. [Afide.] Bravely the figure of this harpy haft thou Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring: clear life-] Pure, blamelefs, innocent. JOHNSON. So, in Timon: " -roots you clear heavens." STEEVENS. is nothing, but heart's forrow, 6 And a clear life enfuing.] The meaning, which is fomewhat obfcured by the expreflion, is,-a miferable fate, which nothing but contrition and amendment of life can avert. MALONE. 7 with mops and mowes-] So, in K. Lear: "and Flibbertigibbet of mopping and mowing." STEEVENS. The old copy, by a manifeft error of the prefs, reads-with mocks. So afterwards: "Will be here with mop and mowe." MALONE. To mock and to mowe, feem to have had a meaning fomewhat fimilar; i. e. to infult, by making mouths, or wry faces. STEEVENS. —with good life,] With good life may mean, with exact prefentation of their feveral characters, with obfervation ftrange of their particular and diftinct parts. So we fay, he acted to the life. JOHNSON. Thus in the 6th Canto of the Barons' Wars, by Drayton : "Done for the last with fuch exceeding life, "As art therein with nature feem'd at ftrife." Again, in our author's King Henry VIII. A&t I. fc. i : - the tract of every thing "Would by a good discourfer lose some life, |