1

→ Holinshed, speaking of the death of King John: ,,And when the King suspected them (the pears) to be poisoned indeed, by reason that such precious stones as he had about him cast, forth a certain sweat as it were bewraying the poison," etc. STEEVENS.,

P. 151, 1. 18. And so, though yours, not yours. It may be more grammatically read: And so though yours I'm not yours. JoHNSON. ..P. 151, 1. 14 - 19. but if mine, then yours, And so all yours: etc. etc.] The meaning is,,,If the worst I fear should happen, and it should prove in the event, that I, who am justly yours by the free donation I have made you of myself, should yet not be yours in consequence of an unlucky choice, let fortune go to hell for robbing you of your just due, not I for violating my oath." HEATH.

P.. 151, 1. 20. To peize is from peser, Fr.

,,Lest leaden slumber peize me down to

morrow."

To peize the time, therefore, is to retard it by hanging weights upon it. STEEVENS.

To peize, is to weigh, or balance; and figuratively, to keep in suspence, to delay.

"

So, in Sir P. Sydney's Apology for Poetry: not speaking words as they changeably fall from the mouth, but peyzing each sillable. “ HENLEY.

P. 152, 1. 20. With no less presence,] With the same dignity of mien. JOHNSON.

P. 153, 1. 3. The words, reply, reply, were in all the late editions, except Sir T. Hanmer's, put as verse in the song, but in all the old copies stand as a marginal direction. JOHNSON.

P. 155, l. 10.

Bass... So may the outward shows be least themselves ;]

He begins 'abruptly; the first part of the argu ment has passed in his mind.

P. 153, 1. 14. with a gracious voice,] Pleas ing; winning favour.

JOHNSON.

P. 153, 1. 17. - approve it] i. e. justify it.

P. 153, 1. 25.

-

STEEVENS. valour's excrement,] i. e.

what a little higher is called the beard of Hercu les. So, pedler's excrement," in The Winter's Tale. MALONE.

P. 155, 1. 26. 27.
And you

Look on beauty, shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;] That is, artificial beauty is purchased so; as, false hair, etc.

STREVENS. P. 153, 1. 29. Lightest is here used in a want on sense. So afterwards: t

„Let me be light, but let me not seem

light." MALone.

crisped —] i. e. curled.

STEEVENS. P. 155, last 1. but one. The scull that bred them, in the sepulchre.] See a note on Timon of Athens, Act. IV. sc. iii. Shakspeare has likewise satirized this yet prevail ing fashion in Love's Labour's Lost. STEEVENS.

The prevalence of this fashion in Shakspear's time is evinced by the following passage in an old pamphlet entitled The Honestie of this Age, proving by good circumstance that the world was never honest till now, by Barnabe Rich, quarto, 1615" My lady holdeth on her way, perhaps to the tire-maker's shop, where he sha keth her crownes to bestow upon some new fashioned attire, upon such artificial deformed periwigs, that they were fitter to furnish a theatre, or for

her that in a stage-play should represent some hag of hell, than to be used by a christian woman." Again, ibid:,,These attire-makers within these fortie yeares were not known by that name; and but now very lately they kept their lowzie com. modity of periwigs, and their monstrous attires closed in boxes; and those women that used to weare them would not buy them but in se cret. But now they are not ashamed to set them forth upon their stalls, such monstrous moppowles of haire, so proportioned and deformed, that but within these twenty or thirty yeares would have drawne the passers-by to stand and gaze, and to wonder at them." MALONE. P. 153, last 1. the guiled shore 1 i. c. the treacherous shore. I should not have thought the word 'wanted explanation, but that some of our modern editors have rejected it, and read gilded. Guiled is the reading of all the ancient copies. Shakspeare in this instance, as in many others, confounds the participles. Guiled stands for guiling. STEEVENS.

-

P. 154, 1. 11. Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence,] The old copies read-paleness. STEEVENS.

Bassanio is displeased at the golden casket for its gaudiness, and the silver one for its palèness; but what is he charmed with the leaden one for having the very same quality that displeased him in the silver? The poet certainly wrote:

Thy plainness moves me more than elo

quence;

This characterizes the lead from the silver, which paleness does not, they being both pale. Besides, there is a beauty in the antithesis between plainness and eloquence; between paleness and elo

quence none. So it is said before of the leaden

casket:

1

,,This third, dull lead, with warning

It may be that Dr. wrong word, if any

Warburton has altered the alteration be necessary. I

would rather give the character of silver,

Thou stale, and common drudge

Tween man aid man,"

The paleness of lead is for ever alluded to. ,,Diane declining, pale as any ledde,“ Says Stephen Hawes. In Fairfax's Tasso, we

As to the antithesis.

lead,"

Shakspeare has already made it in A Midsummer Night's Dream: ,,When (says Theseus) I have scen

great clerks look pale, ,,I read as much, as from the rattling

tongue

„Of saucy and audacious eloquence.“

FARMER.

P. 154, 1. 17. In measure rain thy joy,] The first quarto edition reads:

In measure range thy joy. The folio, and one of the quartos: Yuxu S In measure raine thy joy. I once believ'd Shakspeare meant:

In measure rein thy joy.

The words rain and rein were not in these times distinguished by regular orthography. There is no difficulty in the present reading, only where the copies vary, some suspicion or error is always raised. JoHNSON.

I believe Shakspeare alluded to the well-known proverb, It cannot rain, but it pours. STEEVENSHSƏ P. 154, 1. 22. Counterfeit, which is at pre 1. sent used only in a bad sense, anciently signified a likeness, a resemblance, without comprehending any idea of fraud. So, in The Wit of a

Woman, 1604 I will see if I can agree with this stranger, for the drawing of my daughter's counterfeit.".

Again, (as Mr. M. Mason observes) Hamlet calls the pictures he shows to his mother.

The

counterfeit presentment of two brothers." STEEVENS. P. 154, last 1. And leave itself unfurnish'd:] Perhaps it might be:

And leave himself unfurnish'd.

JOHNSON.

If this be the right reading, unfurnished must mean „unfurnished with a companion, or fellow." M. MASON.

Dr. Johnson's emendation would altogether subvert the poet's meaning. If the artist, in painting one of Portia's eyes, should lose both his own, that eye which he had painted, must necessarily be left unfurnished, or destitute of its fellow.

HENLEY..

P. 156, first 1. sum of something; ] We should read-some of something, i. e. only a piece, or part only of an imperfect account; which she explains in the following line. WARBURTON. P. 156, 1. 24. being blent together,] i. e. blended. STEEVENS.

P. 156, last 1. but one. - you can wish none from me: ] That is, none away from me; none that I shall lose, if you gain it. JOHNSON.