sighs and gruntings, and other hypocritical marks of devotion. STEEVENS.

P. 8. 1. 24 and fol. Claudio, evading at first a confession of his passion, says; if I had really confided such a secret to him, yet he would have blabbed it in this manner. In his next speech, he thinks proper to avow his love; and when Benedick -aays, God forbid it should be so, i. e. God forbid he should even wish to marry her: Claudio replies, God forbid I should not wish it. STEEVENS.

P. 9, 1. 11. And never could maintain his part, but in the force of his will.] Alluding to the definition of a heretick in the schools.

WARBURTON.

P. 9, 1. 16. A recheate is the sound by which dogs are called back. Shakspeare had no mercy upon the poor cuckold, his horn is an inexhaustible subject of merriment. JOHNSON,

A recheate is a particular lesson upon the horn, to call dogs back from the scent: from the old French word recet, which was used in the same sense as retraite. HANMER.

P. 9, 1. 16. Bugle, i. e. bugle horn, huntinghorn. The meaning seems to be or that I should be compelled to carry a horn on my forehead where there is nothing visible to support it.

It is still said of the mercenary cuckold, that he carries his horns in his pockets. STEEVENS. P. 9, 1. 31. a notable argument. ] An

eniment subject for satire. JоHHSON.

cat,

P. 9, 1. 32. hang me in a bottle like a -] In some counties in England, a cat was formerly closed up with a quantity of soot in a wooden bottle, (such as' that in which shepherds carry their liquor,) and was suspended on a line.

He who beat out the bottom as he ran under it, and was nimble enough to escape its contents, was regarded as the hero of this inhuman diver sion. STEEVENS.

This practice is still kept up at Kelso, in Scotland, where it is called Cat-in-barrel. See a description of the whole ceremony in a little account of the town of Kelso, published in 1789, by one Ebenezer Lazarus, a silly Methodist', who has interlarded his book with scraps of pious and other poetry.

DOUCE.

P. 9, 1. 34. Adam Bel, Clym of the Cloughe, and Wyllyam of Cloudesle, were, says Dr. Percy, three noted outlaws, whose skill in Archery, rendered them formerly as famous in the North of England, as Robin Hood and his fellows were in the midland counties. Their place of residence was in the forest of Englewood, not far from Carlisle. At what time they lived does not appear.. The author of the common ballads on The Pedigree, Education, and Marriage of Robin Hood, makes them contemporary with Robin Hood's father, in order to give him the honour of beat, ing them. See Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 143, where the ballad outlaws is preserved. STEEVENS.

P. 10, .. 11. All modern writers agree in repres senting Venice in the same light as the ancients did Cyprus. And it is this character of the people that is here alluded to. WARBURTON,

P. 10, 1. 27. Guards were ornamental lace on borders. STEEVENS.

--

P. 10, 1. 28. ere you flout old ends any further, examine your conscience;] Before you endeavour to distinguish yourself any more by antiquated allusions, examine whether you can

fairly claim them for your own. This, I think, is the meaning; or it may be understood in auother sense, examine, if your sarcasms touch yourself. JOHNSON.

P. 11, 1. 26. The fairest grant is the necessi ty: i. e. no one can have a better reason for granting a request than the necessity of its being granted. WARBURTON.

Mr. Hayley with great acuteness proposes to read,

The fairest grant is to necessity. STEEVENS. These words cannot imply the sense that Warburton contends for, but if we suppose that grant means concession, the sense is obvious; and that' is no uncommon acceptation of that word.

M. MASON.

P. 12, I. 14. Thick - pleached is thickly inter

Woven.

P. 12, 1. 31. Cousins were anciently enrolled among the dependants, if not the domesticks, of great families, such as that of Leonato. Petruchio, while intent on the subjection of Katharine, calls out, in terms imperative, for his cousin Ferdinand. STEEVENS.

P. 13, 1. 6. What the goujere,] i. e morbus" Gallicus. The old copy corruptly reads,,,good year." The same expression occurs again in K. Lear. Act V. sc. iii. STEEVENS.

P. 13, 1. 18. I cannot hide what I am; etc.] This is one of our author's natural touches. An envious and unsocial mind, too proud to give pleasure, and too sullen to receive it, always endeavours to hide its malignity from the world and from itself, under the plainness of simple honesty, or the diguity of haughty independence.

JOHNSON.

P. 15, 1. 22. To claw is to flatter. So the pope's claw-backs, in Bishop Jewel, are the pope's flatterers. The sense is the same in the proverb, Mulus mulum scabit. JOHNSON.

P. 13, 1. 32. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace;] A canker is the canker rose, dog-rose, cynosbatus, or hip. The sense is, I would rather live in obscurity the wild life of nature, than owe dignity or esti mation to my brother. He still continues his wish of gloomy independence. But what is the

meaning of the expression, a rose in his grace? If he was a rose of himself, his brother's grace or favour could not degrade him. I once read thus: I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his garden: that is, I had rather be what nature makes me, however mean, than owe any exaltation or improvement to my brother's kindness or cultivation. But a less change will be sufficient: I think it should be read, I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose by his grace. JOHNSON.

The canker is a term often substituted for the canker-rose. Heywood, in his Love's Mistress, 1636, calls it the,,canker - flower."

Again, in Shakspeare's 54th Sonnet:

,,The canker blooms have full as deep a die ,,As the perfumed tincture of the rose.“

I think no change is necessary. The sense is, I had rather be a neglected dog-rose in a hedge, than a garden- flower of the same species, if it profited by his culture. STEEVENS.

P. 14, 1. 12. I make all use of it, for I use it only.] i, e. for I make nothing else my counsellor. STEEVENS

P. 14, 1. 33. Sad in this, as in future instances, signifies serious. STEEVENS.

P. 15, 1. 7. on. STEEVENS.

P. 15, 1. 22.

both sure,] i. e. to be depended

The pain commonly called the heart-burn, proceeds from an acid humour in the stomach, and is therefore properly enough imputed to tart looks.

JOHNSON.

P. 16, 1. 22. I had rather lie in the woollen.] I suppose she means between blankets, without sheets. STEEVENS.

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P. 16, 1. 33. and fol. Of the two next speeches Dr. Warburton says, All this impious nonsense thrown to the bottom, is the players', and foisted in without rhyme or reason. He therefore

puts them in the margin. They do not deserve indeed so honourable a place; yet I am afraid they are too much in the manner of our author, who is sometimes trying to purchase merriment at too dear a rate. JOHNSON.

I have restored the lines omitted.

STEEVENS.

P. 17, 1. 26. Important here, and in many other places, is importunate. JOHNSON.

P. 17, 1. 26. A measure in old language, beside its ordinary meaning, signified also a dance. MALONE.

P. 18, 1. 9. Friend, in our author's time, was the common term for a lover. So also in French and Italian. MALONE.

Mr. Malone might have added, that this term was equally applicable to both sexes; for, in Measure for Measure, Lucio tells Isabella that her brother had,,got his friend with child.

STEEVENS.