"We are all men ;

In our natures frail and culpable.
Of our flesh few are angels."

The original has "capable."

R. G. WHITE.

We think Mr. White's change is the better.

"Let me ne'er hope to see a queen again,
And that I would not for a crown."

The original has chine and cow. The above is the MS. Corrector's reading.

ACT V., Sc. 3. The original is stark nonsense. Is the correction much better?

GLOSSARY.

ABHOR. Act II., Sc. 4.

"I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul
Refuse you for my judge."

It has been observed by Sir W. Blackstone that abhor and
refuse are technical terms of the canon law-detestor and
recuso used in similar processes. The queen has used
challenge in a technical sense previously.

AGAINST. Act II., Sc. 4.

"Against your sacred person."

This is one of the many elliptical phrases so numerous in this play. The construction requires that aught, used in the preceding sentence, should be understood also before against. ANDREN. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Met in the vale of Andren."

The original folio, as well as the Chroniclers, have Andren, but in most modern editions it is printed Arde. Arde, or Ardres, which is the name of the town, occurs in the following line as Arde; but Andren or Ardren is the name of the village near the place of meeting.

BEHOLDING. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"I should have been beholding to your paper." Beholding is not a corruption, but is more than once used by Shakspere, and constantly by the writers of his time. It occurs in Greene's 'Groat's Worth of Wit.'

BEVY. Act I., Sc. 4.

"In all this noble bevy."

Bevy is a company or assembly of females. Spenser uses it thus in the 'Shepherd's Calendar '—

"A lovely bevy of fair ladies sat."

BORES. Act I., Sc. 1.

"He bores me with some trick."

To bore is to wound, to thrust at. In 'The Winter's Tale' (Act III., Sc. 3), we have-" Now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast."

BROKEN WITH. Act V., Sc. 1.

"Have broken with the king."

Broken with is communicated to; as in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona' (Act I., Sc. 3, and Act III., Sc. 1). The phrase

was a common one.

BUMBARDS. Act V., Sc. 3.

"And here ye lie baiting of bumbards."

Bumbards were vessels or barrels for holding ale or beer. CENSURE. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Durst wag his tongue in censure."

Censure is here not used as dispraise, but as comparative judg

ment.

CHEVERIL. Act II., Sc. 3.

"Of your soft cheveril conscience."

Cheveril was prepared flexible kid-skin, used for gloves; Shakspere uses the word in 'Romeo and Juliet' (Act II., Sc. 4), and Shirley and Chapman, in 'Chabot, Admiral of France,' (Act I., Sc. 1), have

"No tough hides limiting our cheveril minds."

CLINQUANT. Act I., Sc. 1.

"All clinquant, all in gold.”

Clinquant is bright, glittering, with gingling ornaments. It is from the same root as clink.

CONVENTED. Act V., Sc. 1.

"To the council board

He be convented."

Convented is a Latinism for summoned.

ELEMENT. Act I., Sc. 1.

"One, certes, that promises no element."

Element is here used for constituent quality of mind, qualification. Malvolio, in 'Twelfth Night' (Act III., Sc. 4), says,

"You are idle, shallow things: I am not of your element" -I am not constituted like you.

EMPLOYMENT. Act II., Sc. 1.

"The cardinal instantly will find employment."

For is to be understood after employment. There are many similar instances of this construction in Shakspere; in the 'Merchant of Venice' (Act III., Sc. 4) is one

66

How good a gentleman you sent relief” (to).

FIRE-DRAKE. Act V., Sc. 3.

"That fire-drake did I hit three times."

The fire-drake was the ignis fatuus, "sometimes flying in the night like a fiery dragon," says Phillips in his 'World of Words.' The name was also applied to any artificial firework.

FORCE. Act III., Sc. 2.

"And force them with a constancy."

Force is here employed as enforce; as in 'Measure for Measure' (Act III., Sc. 1)

"Has he affections in him,

That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,

When he would force it?"

GAPING. Act V., Sc. 3.

"Ye rude slaves, leave your gaping."

Gaping used for shouting. The "gaping pig" of Shylock probably means the roaring or yelling pig.

KEECH. Act I., Sc. 1.

"That such a keech can with his very bulk."

Keech or ketch, from the French caisse, is a cask. Falstaff is called by Prince Henry in 'Henry IV., Part I.' (Act II., Sc. 4), "a greasy tallow keech;" and in the north a fat man is called a keech-belly.

LEAVE. Act II., Sc. 3.

"The which to leave a thousand-fold more bitter."

The verb is is to be understood after leave.

MERE. Act III., Sc. 2.

"To the mere undoing."

Mere is absolute, utter.

MYSTERIES. Act I., Sc. 3.

"Is 't possible the spells of France should juggle
Men into such strange mysteries?"

Mysteries is used sarcastically for artificial fashions.

ONCE. Act I., Sc. 2.

"By sick interpreters, once weak ones." Once is here used in the sense of sometimes.

PAPERS. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Must fetch him in he papers."

The construction of this passage is somewhat difficult, but the explanation is found in Holinshed, who says that the peers felt aggrieved at being summoned to attend the king without the consent of the council. Thus Wolsey's letter, alone, "must fetch him in (whom) he papers." In the 118th Psalm is an instance of a similar omission of the relative-"the stone the builders refused."

PARTED. Act V., Sc. 2.

They had parted so much honesty among them."

Parted is shared, divided.

PLUCK OFF. Act II., Sc. 3.

"Pluck off a little."

Pluck off a little is to descend, lower your thoughts a little. QUARREL. Act II., Sc. 3.

The quarrel was the square-headed arrow used with the crossbow. The expression is metaphorical.

RAMS. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"Like rams in the old time of war."

Rams are the battering-rams used in ancient warfare.

SPOONS. Act V., Sc. 2.

"You'd spare your spoons."

Spoons, called Apostle spoons, were customarily presented to
a child, on its baptism, by the sponsors.
tain many allusions to the practice.

STRANGER.

The old plays con

That is she is again a foreigner.

TRADE. Act V., Sc. 1.

"Stands in the gap and trade of more preferments." Trade is the trodden path, the habitual course.

II.'

TRIBULATION. Act V., Sc. 3.

See 'Richard

"The tribulation of Tower-hill, or the limbs of Limehouse." These allusions are perhaps now inexplicable. Johnson supposed the Tribulation to have been a puritanical meetinghouse. But why should the "youths that thunder at a

playhouse" be endurable by the frequenters of the Tribula-
tion? Because, says Steevens, such an audience was fami-
liarised to excess of noise by the bellowings of their
preachers. Are not the tribulation of Tower Hill of the
same family as the limbs of Limehouse? those who
trouble-disturb - Tower Hill. some of "your faithful
friends of the suburbs," spoken of by the Chamberlain, and
"the truncheoneers,"
," "the hope of the Strand," also spoken
of previously by the Porter's Man. Tower Hill, down to a
very recent period, was a great resort of vagabonds, who
played pitch and toss and other games there.

Us'D. Act III., Sc. 1.

'If I have us'd myself unmannerly."

Us'd is here deported, conducted.

VOICES. Act II., Sc. 2.

"Have their free voices-Rome, the nurse of judgment."
The verb sent, in the second member of the sentence, applies
also to the first. It is a great freedom of construction, but
was not unusual with our old writers.

WEIGH OUT. Act III., Sc. 1.

"They that must weigh out my afflictions." Weigh out is used in the sense of out-weigh.

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