ment, and open papers wearing, that in his time it was less used."

Again, in Leicester's Common-wealth, "—the gentlemen were all taken and cast into prison, and afterwards were sent down to Ludlow, there to wear papers of perjury." STEEVENS.

378. Thou mak'st the triumviry, -] The quarto, 1598, has triumpherie.

MALONE. 399. To lose an oath to win a paradise?] The Passionate Pilgrim, 1598, in which this sonnet is also found, reads to break an oath-But the opposition between lose and win is much in our author's manner. MALONE.

400. the liver vein,- -] The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. JOHNSON. 404. All hid, all hid,--] The children's cry at hide and seek. MUSGRAVE.

413. -amber coted.] To cote is to outstrip, to So, in Hamlet:

overpass.

"We coted on the way."

Again, in Chapman's Homer:

-Words her worth had prov'd with deeds, "Had more ground been allow'd the race, and

coted far his steeds."

STEEVENS.

Quoted (for so I would read) here, I think, signifies marked, written down. So, in All's Well that Ends Well:

"He's quoted for a most perfidious knave." The word in the old copy is-coted; but that (as Dr.

Johnson

Johnson has observed in the last scene of this play) is only the old spelling of quoted, owing to the transcriber's trusting to his ear, and following the pronunciation. To cote, though elsewhere used by our author with the signification of overtake, will, in my opinion, by no means suit here. MALONE.

424.

Reigns in

-but a fever she

my blood, -] So, in Hamlet: "For, like the hectic, in my blood he rages."

STEEVENS.

439. Air, would I might triumph so!] Perhaps we

may better read,

Ah! would I might triumph so!

440.

JOHNSON.

-my hand is sworn,] A copy of this sonnet is printed in England's Helicon, 1614, and reads, "But, alas! my hand hath sworn."

It is likewise printed as Shakspere's, in Jaggard's Collection, 1599. STEEVENS.

446. --even Jove would swear,] The word even has been supplied; and the two preceding lines are wanting in the copy published in England's Helicon, STEEVENS.

1614.

451.

my true love's fasting pain.] Fasting is longing, hungry, wanting. JOHNSON. 471. Her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes :] The first folio reads: On her hairs, &c. The con text, I think, clearly shews that we ought to read,

One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes. i. e, the hairs of one of the ladies were of the colour of gold, and the eyes of the other as clear as crystal. The

king is speaking of the panegyricks pronounced by the two lovers on their mistresses.

One was formerly pronounced on. Hence the mistake. See a note on The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

The same mistake has happened in All's Well that Ends Well (first folio) :·

"A traveller is a good thing after dinner-but on that lies two thirds," &c.

The two words are frequently confounded in our ancient dramas.

Since I wrote the above, I have found my conjecture confirmed by the first quarto edition of this play, 1598, which reads, "One, her hairs," &c.

MALONE.

477. How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it?] To leap is to exult, to skip for joy. JOHNSON. 484. Your eyes do make no coaches ;- -] Alluding

to a passage in the king's sonnet :

"No drop but as a coach doth carry thee."

STEEVENS. 495. To see a king transformed to a knot!] Knot has no sense that can suit this place. We may read sot. The rhimes in this play are such, as that sat and sot may be well enough admitted. JOHNSON. A knot is, I believe, a true lover's knot, meaning

that the king

-lay'd his wreathed arms athwart

His loving bosom so long,

i. e. remained so long in the lover's posture, that he seemed actually transformed into a knot,

The word

sat

sat is in some counties pronounced sot. This may account for the seeming want of exact rhime. In the old comedy of Albumazar the same thought occurs; "Why should I twine my arms to cables ?"

"His arms in this sad knot.”

Again, in Titus Andronicus;

"Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot:
"Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our
hands,

"And cannot passionate our ten-fold grief

"With folded arms."

Again, in the Raging Turk, 1611:

"as he walk'd

"Folding his arms up in a pensive knot."

STEEVENS.

A knot is likewise a Lincolnshire bird of the snipe kind. It is foolish even to a proverb, and it is said to be easily ensnared. Ray, in his Ornithology, observes, that it took its name from Canute, who was particu larly fond of it.

The knot is enumerated among other delicacies by Sir Epicure Mammon, in Ben Jonson's Alchemist;

"My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, &c.

"Knotts, godwits," &c.

Again, in the 25th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion "The knot that called was Canutus' bird of old, Of that great king of Danes his name that still doth hold,`

sought."

"His appetite to please that far and near were COLLINS. The old copy, however, reads a gnat, and Mr. Tollet seems to think it contains an allusion to St. Matthew, ch. xxiii. v. 24. where the metaphorical term of a gnat means a thing of least importance, or what is proverbially small. The smallness of a gnat is likewise mentioned in Cymbeline. STEEVENS.

If instead of the king himself, his arms only had been mentioned, knot (or, as it is pronounced in some parts of the kingdom, knat) might have been admitted; or if the king had been destined to be served up at a feast, we might then read knot, "Canutus' bird;" but, as his majesty of Navarre, who had dovoted himself to a life of study, watching, and fasting, was also a martyr to love, the old reading may be presumed to be the true one, and that he was become as slender as a GNAT. HENLEY.

499. critick Timon-] Critick and critical are used by our author in the same sense as cynick and cynical. Iago, speaking of the fair sex as harshly as is sometimes the practice of Dr. Warburton, declares he is nothing if not critical. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's observation is supported by our author's 112th Sonnet:

"To crytick and to flatterer stopped are."

MALONE.

510. With men-like men, of strange inconstancy]