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ABSTINENCE.

E doth with holy abftinence fubdue

HE

That in himself, which he fpurs on his power To qualify in others. Meaf. for Meaf. A. 4, S. 2.

ACQUAINTANCE.

'Talk logick with acquaintance that you have, And practise rhetorick in your common talk.

Taming of the Shrew, A. 1, S. 1.

66

!Talk logick.] The old copies read Balcke logick, &c. MALONE. "Balke logick" is right: Balke, with the writers of Shakefpeare's time is omit. Never regard truth, fays Tranio, in your worldly tranfactions; but be flourishing and rhetorical your ordinary difcourfe." This is the language of a man who knows the world.

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B

A. B.

ACT,

ACT, ACTION, ACTIONS.
Each your doing,

So fingular in each particular,

Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, That all your acts are queens. Wint. Tale, A. 4, S. 3. If powers divine

Behold our human actions (as they do),

I doubt not then, but innocence fhall make
False accufation blush, and tyranny

Tremble at patience. Winter's Tale, A. 3, S. 2.
Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

Hamlet, A. 1, S. 3.

Such an act,

I

That blurs the grace and blufh of modefty;
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rofe
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And fets a blifter there; makes marriage vows
As falfe as dicers' oaths.

Hamlet, A. 3, S. 4.

Her actions fhall be holy, as,

You hear, my fpell is lawful: do not shun her,
Until you fee her die again: for then

You kill her double. Winter's Tale, A. 5, S. 3.
The rarer action is

In virtue than in vengeance. Tempeft, A. 5, S. 1.

Takes off the rofe.] Alluding to the custom of wearing rofes on the fide of the face. WARBURTON.

I believe Dr. Warburton is mistaken; for it must be allowed that there is a material difference between an ornament worn on the forehead, and one exhibited on the fide of the face. STEEVENS. It is not a little extraordinary that the commentators fhould be for confidering literally, expreffions that are purely metaphorical. Rofe is beauty, and blifter is deformity. The meaning plainly is, renders love, which is naturally beautiful, ugly and deformed.

A. B.

-Look

01

Look you, how pale he glares!

His form and caufe conjoin'd, preaching to ftones, Would make them capable,-Do not look upon me, Left with this piteous action, you convert

My ftern effects.

Hamlet, A. 3, S. 4,

Either our hiftory fhall, with full mouth,

Speak freely of our acts; or else our grave,

Like Turkish mute, fhall have a tongueless mouth, Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.

Henry V. A. 1, S. 2.

As many feveral ways meet in one town;
As
many
fresh ftreams run in one felf fea;
As many lines close in the dial's center;
So may a thousand actions, once a-foot,
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat.

Henry V. A. 1, S. 2.

My lord of Hereford, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
And if you crown him, let me prophefy,-
The blood of English fhall manure the ground,

1 With a waxen epitaph.] The quarto, 1608, reads with a paper epitaph.

Either a waxen or paper epitaph, is an epitaph eafily obliterated or destroyed; one which can confer no lasting honour on the dead. STEEVENS.

"Waxen" is hardly right; for to fay that his tomb fhould not have a waxen epitaph, i. e. one that is eafily obliterated, is entirely adverfe to the meaning of Henry. We muft, therefore, read,

"Not worshipp'd with a wissen epitaph."

To wife is to teach, to inftruct.

The meaning is, without an epitaph, to set forth his virtues or his deeds in arms.

After all, however, "a paper epitaph" may be right. But paper epitaph must not be interpreted literally: it means not an epitaph written on paper to be placed on a tomb-but an hiftory, the memoirs of Henry's life. Unless we effect the business in hand (fays the king), we with not to be honoured, or to have our memory respected. Thus the reasoning is just and perti

nent.

.B 2

A. B.

And,

And future ages groan for this foul act.

Richard II. A. 4, S. 1.

There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head but I am thruft upon it: Well, I cannot laft ever but it was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too Henry IV. P. 2, A. 1, S. 2.

common.

Though now we must appear bloody and cruel,
As by our hands, and this our present act,
You fee we do; yet fee you but our hands,
And this the bleeding business they have done;
Our hearts you fee not, they are pitiful.

Julius Cæfar, A. 3, S. 1.
But wherefore do you droop? why look you fad?
Be great in act, as you have been in thought;
Let not the world fee fear, and fad diftrust,
Govern the motion of a kingly eye.

King John, A. 5, S. 1.

If thou didft but confent

To this moft cruel act, do but defpair,

And, if thou want'ft a cord, the smallest thread
That ever fpider twisted from her womb,

Will ferve to ftrangle thee.- K. John, A. 4, S. 3.

I

What we oft do best,

By fick interpreters, once weak ones, is

Not ours, or not allow'd; what worft, as oft,
Hitting a groffer quality, is cry'd up

For our best act.

Henry VIII. A. 1, S. 2.

We must not stint

Our neceffary actions, in the fear

By fick, &c.] The modern editors read, or weak ones; but once is not unfrequently used for fometime, or at one time or other, among our ancient writers. STEEVENS.

The disjunctive particle or is certainly wrong; once is not, in this place, to be taken in the fense which Mr. S. would willingly affix to it. The meaning is, "interpreters who are at once fick "and weak." We may read, perhaps,

"By fick interpreters and weak ones, is"

A. B.

Το

To cope malicious cenfurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a veffel follow
That is new trimm'd.

Henry VIII. A. 1, S. 2.

My lords, I care not, if my actions

Were try'd by every tongue, every eye saw 'em,
Envy and bafe opinion fet against 'em,

I know my life fo even.

Henry VIII. A. 3, S. 1.

I have done as you have done; that's what I can : Induc'd, as you have been; that's for my country : He, that has but effected his good will,

Hath overta'en mine act. Coriolanus, A. 1, S. 9. Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;

And thus far having stretch'd it (here be with them), Thy knee buffing the ftones, for in fuch business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than the ears. Coriolanus, A. 3, S. 2. Why, univerfal plodding prifons up

The nimble fpirits in the arteries;

As motion, and long-during action, tires
The finewy vigour of the traveller.

Love's Labour Loft, A. 4, S. 3.

We are oft to blame in this

'Tis too much prov'd-that, with devotion's visage, And pious action, we do fugar o'er The devil himself.

Hamlet, A. 3, S. 1.

Hear me profess fincerely:-Had I a dozen fons, each in my love alike, and none lefs dear than thine and my good Marcius-I had rather have eleven die nobly for their country, than one voluptuously furfeit out of action. Coriolanus, A. 1, S. 3.

ACTOR.

POL. The actors are come hither, my lord.

HAM. Buz, buz!*

POL. Upon mine honour,

B 3

Hamlet, A. 2, S. 2.
ADVAN-

Buz, buz!] Mere idle talk; the buz of the vulgar. JOHNSON.

Buzzer

1

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