i. e. this old young man. And there is, indeed, afterwards, in this play, a description of Cupid which sorts very aptly with such an emendation:" ,,That was the way to make his godhead

wax,

„For he hath been five thousand years a boy."

The conjecture is exquisitely well imagined, and ought by all means to be embraced, unless there is reason to think, that, in the former reading, there is an allusion to some tale, or character in an old play. I have not, on this account, ventured to disturb the text, because there seems to me some reason to suspect, that our author is here alluding to Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca. In that tragedy there is a character of one Junius, a Roman captain, who falls in love to distraction with one of Bonduca's daughters; and becomes an arrant whining slave to this pas sion. He is afterwards cured of his infirmity, and is as absolute a tyrant against the sex. Now, with regard to these two extremes, Cupid might very probably be styled Junius's giant - dwarf : a giant in his eye, while the dotage was upon him; but shrunk into a dwarf, so soon as he had got the better of it. THEOBALD.

Mr. Upton has made a very ingenious conjecture on this passage. He reads:

,,This signior Julio's giant - dwarf Shakspeare, says he, intended to compliment Julio Romana, who drew Cupid in the character of a giant-dwarf. Dr. Warburton thinks, by Junio is meant youth in general. JOH SON.

that

There is no reason to suppose that Beaumont and Fletcher's Eonduca was written so early as the year 1598, when this play appeared. Even if

it was then published, the supposed allusion to the character of Junius is forced and improbable; and who, in support of Upton's conjecture will ascertain, that Julio Romano ever drew Cupid as a giant-dwarf? Shakspeare, in K. Richard III. Act IV. sc. iv. uses signory for seniority; and Stowe's Chronicle, p. 149. Edit. 1614. speaks of Edward the signior, i. e, the elder. I can therefore suppose that signior here means senior, and not the Italian title of honour. TOLLET.

In the exageration of poetry we might call Cu pid a giant dwarf; but how a giant-dwarf should be represented in painting, I cannot well conceive. M. MASON.

If the old copies had exhibited Junior, I should have had no doubt that the second word in the line was only the old spelling of senior, as in a former passage, [Act I. sc. ii] and in one in The Comedy of Errors quoted by Mr. Tollet; but as the text appears both in the quarto 1598, and the folio, Cupid is not himself called signior, or senior Junio, but a giant-dwarf to [that is, attending upon] signior Junio, and therefore we must endeavour to explain the words as they stand. In both these copies Junio's is printed in Italicks as a proper name.

For the reasons already mentioned, I suppose signior here to have been the Italian title of ho nour, and Cupid to be described as uniting in his person the characters of both a giant, and a dwarf; a giant ou account of his power over mankind, and a dwarf on account of his size; [So afterwards: Of his (Cupid's) almighty, dreadful, little might."] and as attending in this double capacity on youth, (personified under the name of Signior Junio,) the age in which the passion of

of Junio,

love has most dominion over the heart. In chaTacterizing youth by the name our author may be countenanced by Ovid, who ascribes to the month of June a similar etymology:

,,Junius a juvenum nomine dictus adest."

MALONE.

I have not the smallest doubt that senior-junior is the true reading. Love mong our ancient English poets, (at Dr. Farmer has observed on such another occasion,) is always characterized by contrarieties. STEEVENS.

P. 34, 1. 16. A placket is a petticoat.

DOUCE.

P. 34, 1. 18. An apparitor, or paritor, is an officer of the Bishop's court, who carries out citations; as citations are most frequently issued for fornication, the paritor is put under Cupid's government. JOHNSON.

P. 34, I. 19. Corporals of the field are mentioned in Carew's Survey of Cornwall; and Raleigh speaks of them twice, Vol. I. p. 103. Vol. II. p. 367, edit. 1751. TOLLET.

This officer is likewise mentioned in Ben Jonson's New Inn:

"As corporal of the field, maestro del campo." Giles Clayton, in his Martial Discipline, 1591, has a chapter on the office and duty of a corporal of the field. In one of Drake's Voyages, it appears that the captains Morgan and Sampson, by this name,,,had commandement over the rest of the land captaines." Brookesby tells us, that ,,Mr. Dodwell's father was in an office then known by the name of corporal of the field, which he said was equal to that of a captain of horse." FARMER.

It appears from Lord Strafford's Letters, Vol. II. p. 199. that a corporal of the field was employed as an aid de camp is now ,,in taking and carrying to and fro the directions of the general, or other the higher officers of the field."

TYRWHITT.

P. 34, 1. 20. And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!] The conceit seems to be very forced and remote, how ever it be understood. The notion is not that the hoop wears colours, but that the colours are worn as a tumbler carries his hoop, hanging on one shoulder and falling under the opposite arm. JOHNSON.

sance,

Perhaps the tumblers' hoops were adorned with their master's colours, or with ribbands. To wear his colours, means to wear his badge or cogni or to be his servant or retainer. So, in Holinshed's Hist. of Scotland, p. 301:,,The earle of Surrie gave to his servants this cognisance (to wear on their left arm) which was a white lyon etc." Biron banters himself upon being a corporal of Cupid's field, and a servant of that great General and Imperator. TOLLET.

It was once a mark of gallantry to wear a la dy's colours. I am informed by a lady who remembers morris dancing, that the character who tumbled, always carried his hoop dressed out with ribbands, and in the position described by Dr. Johnson. STEEVENS.

P. 34, 1..21. What? I! I love!] A second what had been supplied by the editors. I should What? I! I love!

like better to read

TYRWHITT.

Mr. Tyrwhitt's emendation is supported by the first line of the present speech:

,,And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip

1'1

Sir T. Hanmer supplied the metre by repeating the word What. MALONE.

P. 54, 1. 22. 23. A woman, that is like a Ger man clock,

Still a repairing; -] The same allusion occurs in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: ,,no German Clock, no mathematical engine whatsoever, requires so much repa

ration," etc.

The following extract is taken from a book called The Artificial Clock - Maker, 3d edit. 1714: - ,,Clock making was supposed to have had its beginning in Germany within less than these two hundred years. It is very probable that our balance clocks or watches, and some other automata, might have had their beginning there;" etc. Again, p. 91. ,,Little worth remark is to be found till towards the 16th century; and then clock-work was revived or wholly invented anew in Germany, as is generally thought, because the ancient pieces are of German work."

A skilful watchmaker informs me, that clocks have not been commonly made in England much more than one hundred years backward.

To the inartificial construction of these first pieces of mechanism executed in Germany, we may suppose Shakspeare alludes. The clock at Hampton Court, which was set up in 1540, (as appears from the inscription affixed to it is said to be the first ever fabricated in England. See, however, Letters of The Paston Family, Vol. II. 2d edit p. 31. STEEVENS.

,,In some towns in Germany, (says Dr. Powel in his Human Industry, gvo. 1661,) there are