The elements

Of whom your fwords are temper'd, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at ftabs
Kill the ftill-clofing waters, as diminish
One dowle that's in my pluine. Tempest, A. 3, S.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts, and hurricanoes, fpout

3.

Till you have drench'd our fteeples, drown'd the

cocks!

You fulphurous and thought-executing fires,

Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunder-bolts,
Singe my white head!

The fouthern wind

Lear, A. 3, S. 2.

Doth play the trumpet to his purposes;
And, by his hollow whiftling in the leaves,
Foretells a tempeft, and a blustering day.

Henry IV. P. 1, A. 5, S. 1.

How like a younker, or a prodigal,
The fkarfed bark puts from her native bay,
Hugg'd and embraced by the ftrumpet wind!
How like a prodigal doth she return;

I.

With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged fails,
Lean, rent, and beggar'd by the ftrumpet wind!
Merchant of Venice, A. 2, S. 6.

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,

And blown with reftlefs violence round about

The pendant world.

Measure for Measure, A. 3, S. t. Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, As in revenge, have fuck'd up from the fea Contagious fogs; which falling in the land, Have every pelting' river made so proud, That they have over-borne their continents.

I

Midfummer Night's Dream, A. 2, S. 2.

WINE.

pelting.] The meaning is plainly defpicable, mean, forry, wretched,

W I N E.

O thou invifible fpirit of wine, if thou haft no name to be known by, let us call thee---devil! O, that men fhould put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, revel, pleasure, and applaufe, transform ourselves into beafts! Othello, A. 2, S. 3.

WISDOM.

Wisdom wishes to appear moft bright,

When it doth tax itself.

Meafure for Measure, A. 2, S. 4.

The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may eafily

untie.

Troilus and Creffida, A. 2, S. 3.

Full oft we fee

Çold wisdom waiting on fuperfluous folly.

All's well that ends well, A. 1, S. 1.

Thus do we of wisdom and of reach,

With windlaces, and with affays of bias,
By indirections find directions out;
So, by my former lecture and advice,

Shall you, my fon: you have me, have you not?

W IT.

Hamlet, A. 2, S. 1.

Sometimes I have no more wit than a Chriftian, or an ordinary man has: but I am a great eater of beef, and, I believe, that does harm to my wit.

Twelfth Night, A. 1, S. 3.

wretched, but as it is a word without any reasonable etymology, 1 fhould be glad to dismiss it for petty; yet it is undoubtedly JOHNSON.

right.

66

Pelting" should be palting. See note on King Lear.

A. B.

Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bankerout the wits.

Love's Labour Loft, A. 1, S. 1.

Gentle, fweet,

Your wit makes wife things foolish: when we greet With eyes beft fecing heaven's fiery eye,

By light we lofe light.

Love's Labour Loft, A. 5, S. 2.
The world's large tongue

Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks;
Full of comparifons, and wounding flouts;
Which you on all eftates will execute,
That lie within the mercy of your wit.

Love's Labour Loft, A. 5, S. 2.

None are fo furely caught, when they are catch'd,
As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd,
Hath wifdom's warrant.

Love's Labour Loft, A. 5, S. 2.

This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons peas;
And utters it again, when Jove doth please:
He is wit's pedlar. Love's Labour Loft, A. 5, S. 2.
Folly in fools bears not fo ftrong a note,
As foolery in the wife, when wit doth dote ;
Since all the power thereof it doth apply,
To prove, by wit, worth, in fimplicity.

Love's Labour Loft, A. 5, S. 2.

You have a nimble wit; I think it was made of Atlanta's heels. Will you fit down with me? we two will rail against our mistress, the world, and all our misery. As you like it, A. 3, S. 2.

A good fherris-fack hath a two-fold operation in it. It afcends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish, and dull, and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehenfive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable fhapes; which

deliver'd

deliver'd o'er to the voice (the tongue), which is the birth, becomes excellent wit.

Henry IV. P. 2, A. 4, S. 3.

A good old man, fir; he will be talking; as they fay, when the age is in, the wit is out.

Much ado about nothing, A. 3, S. 5.

Difdain and fcorn ride fparkling in her eyes,
Mifprifing what they look on; and her wit
Values itself fo highly, that to her

All matter elfe feems weak.

Much ado about nothing, A. 3, S. 1.

That I had no angry wit to be a lord.

Timon of Athens, A. 1, S. 1.

WITCH.

Saint Withold footed thrice the wold;
He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
Bid her alight,

And her troth plight,

And, aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee* !

Gg 2

Lear, A. 3, S. 4.
Aroynt

That I had no angry wit to be a lord.] This reading is abfurd and unintelligible. But as I have restored the text, that I had fo hungry a wit to be a lord, it is fatirical enough of confcience. Viz. I would hate myself, for having no more wit than to covet fo infignificant a title. WARBURTON.

The meaning may be, I should hate myself for patiently enduring to be a lord. This is ill enough expreffed. Perhaps fome happy change may fet it right. I have tried, and can do nothing, yet I cannot heartily concur with Dr. Warburton.

Perhaps we may read,

"So angry wit."

JOHNSON.

Shakespeare may use angry in the fense of perverfe, untoward.

2

line thus:

A. B.

aroyns thee, witch, aroynt thee!] We fhould read the

"Aroynt

2

Aroynt thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon cries.

WOE,

Macbeth, A. 1, S. 3.

WOES.

Now the wafted brands do glow,

Whilst the scritch-owl, fcritching loud,
Puts the wretch, that lies in woe,

In remembrance of a shroud.

Midfummer Night's Dream, A. 5, S. 2.

"Aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee, right."

i. c. depart forthwith.

WARBURTON. "Aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee!" i. e. fcab take thee, witch, fcab take thee! See note on Macbeth.

There is no occafion for Dr. Warburton's reading, 66 aroynt "thee right," or depart forthwith. How aroynt could ever be fuppofed to have the fenfe of depart, I have not been able to dif

cover.

I

Aroynt thee.] Aroint, or avaunt, be gone.

A. B.

POPE.

I had met with the word aroint in no other author, till looking into Heern's Collections, I found it in a very old drawing, that he has published, in which St. Patrick is reprefented vifiting hell, and putting the devils into great confufion by his prefence, of whom one, that is driving the damned before him with a prong, has a label iffuing out of his mouth, with these words, OUT OUT, ARONGT, of which the laft is evidently the fame with aroint, and used in the fame fenfe as in this paffage.

JOHNSON.

The commentators are agreed that aroint is the fame as avaunt ; but they have totally mistaken the meaning of the word. "Royne" is fcab, a term of reproach, and frequently used as fuch by our earlier writers. We must therefore read,

"Aroint the witch!'

i. e. fcab take, or fcab catch the witch. "Aroint" is formed by the fame analogy as aroufe, aright, &c. but improperly. "Out out, arongt," as initanced by Dr. Johnfon, means

out out, fcab!

2

A. B

ronyon cries.] i. e. A fcabby or mangy woman. Fr. Rogneux, royne, fcurf.

STEEVENS.

I do not think Mr. Steevens has rightly explained the word.

Bailey fays, that ronyon means a fat, bulky woman. It seems in

this place, however, to have the fense of fuarler, from Fr. to faarl, to growl, to grumble.

rogonner, A. B.

- I have