Tune a deploring dump ;3 the night's dead filence

favour this interpretation; but other inftances, that I have fince met with, in books of our author's age, have convinced me that confort was only the old fpelling of concert, and I have accordingly printed the latter word in the text. The epithet sweet annexed to it, feems better adapted to the mufick itself than to the band. Confort, when accented on the first fyllable, (as here) had, I believe, the former meaning; when on the fecond, it fignified a company. So, in the next scene:

"What fay'ft thou? Wilt thou be of our confort ?"

MALONE.

3 Tune a deploring dump ;] A dump was the ancient term for a mournful elegy.

A DOMPE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Will well become fuch fweet complaining grievance. This, or elfe nothing, will inherit her.4

For this curiofity the reader is indebted to STAFFORD SMITH, Efq. of his Majefty's Chapel Royal. STEEVENS.

4 will inherit her.] To inherit, is, by our author, fometimes used, as in this inftance, for to obtain poffeffion of, without any idea of acquiring by inheritance. So, in Titus Andronicus:

"He that had wit, would think that I had none,
"To bury fo much gold under a tree,

"And never after to inherit it."

This fenfe of the word was not wholly difufed in the time of

DUKE. This difcipline shows thou haft been in love.
THU. And thy advice this night I'll put in practice:
Therefore, fweet Proteus, my direction-giver,
Let us into the city presently

To fort 5 fome gentlemen well skill'd in mufick:
I have a fonnet, that will ferve the turn,
To give the onset to thy good advice.

DUKE. About it, gentlemen.

PRO. We'll wait upon your grace till after fupper:
And afterward determine our proceedings.

DUKE. Even now about it; I will pardon you."
[Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

A Foreft, near Mantua.

Enter certain Out-laws.

1 OUT. Fellows, ftand faft; I fee a paffenger.
2 OUT. If there be ten, fhrink not, but down
with 'em.

Enter VALENTINE and SPEED.

3 OUT. Stand, fir, and throw us that you have about you;

Milton, who in his Comus has" disinherit Chaos,"-meaning only, difpoffefs it. STEEVENS.

6

To fort-] i. e. to choose out. So, in K. Richard III:

"Yet I will fort a pitchy hour for thee." STEEVENS.

I will pardon you.] I will excufe you from waiting.

JOHNSON.

If not, we'll make you fit, and rifle you."

SPEED. Sir, we are undone! these are the villains That all the travellers do fear fo much.

VAL. My friends,—

1 OUT. That's not fo, fir; we are your enemies. 2 OUT. Peace; we'll hear him.

3 OUT. Ay, by my beard, will we;

For he's a proper man.8

VAL. Then know, that I have little wealth to lofe; A man I am, crofs'd with adversity :

My riches are these poor habiliments,

Of which if you should here disfurnish me,
You take the fum and substance that I have.

2 OUT. Whither travel

VAL. TO Verona.

you ?

1 OUT. Whence came you ?

VAL. From Milan.

3 OUT. Have you long fojourn'd there?

VAL. Some fixteen months; and longer might have ftaid,

If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

1 OUT. What, were you banish'd thence?

"If not, we'll make you fit, and rifle you.] The old copy reads as I have printed the paffage. Paltry as the oppofition between ftand and fit may be thought, it is Shakspeare's own. My predeceffors read-" we'll make you, fir," &c. STEEVENS.

Sir, is the corrupt reading of the third folio. MALONE.

8

— a proper man.] i. e. a well-looking man; he has the appearance of a gentleman. So, afterwards:

"And partly, feeing you are beautified

"With goodly Shape-." MALONE.

Again, in Othello:

"This Ludovico is a proper man." STEEVENS.

VAL. I was.

2 OUT. For what offence?

VAL. For that which now torments me to rehearse: I kill'd a man, whofe death I much repent; But yet I flew him manfully in fight, Without falfe vantage, or base treachery.

1 OUT. Why ne'er repent it, if it were done fo: But were you banish'd for fo fmall a fault?

VAL. I was, and held me glad of such a doom. 1 OUT. Have you the tongues?

VAL. My youthful travel therein made me happy; Or elfe I often had been miferable.

9

3 OUT. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,9

Robin Hood's fat friar,] Robin Hood was captain of a band of robbers, and was much inclined to rob churchmen.

JOHNSON.

So, in Amery Gefte of Robin Hoode, &c. bl. 1. no date : "Thefe byshoppes and thefe archebyshoppes

"Ye fhall them beate and bynde," &c.

But by Robin Hood's fat friar, I believe, Shakspeare means Friar Tuck, who was confeffor and companion to this noted outlaw. So, in one of the old fongs of Robin Hood:

"And of brave little John,

"Of Friar Tuck and Will Scarlett,
Stokefly and Maid Marian."

Again, in the 26th fong of Drayton's Polyolbion:

"Of Tuck the merry friar which many a fermon made, "In praise of Robin Hoode, his out-lawes, and his trade."

Again, in Skelton's Play of Magnificence, f. 5. 6:

"Another bade fhave halfe my berde,
"And boyes to the pylery gan me plucke,
"And wolde have made me freer Tucke
"To preche oute of the pylery hole."

See figure III, in the plate at the end of the first part of King Henry IV. with Mr. Tollet's obfervations on it. STEEVENS.

Dr. Johnson seems to have misunderstood this paffage. The fpeaker does not fwear by the fcalp of fome churchman who had