And often, to our comfort, fhall we find
The fharded beetle in a fafer hold
Than is the full-wing'd eagle. Cymbeline, A.
Most miserable

Is the defire that's glorious: blessed be those,
How mean foe'er, that have their honeft wills,
Which feafons comfort.

i

3,

S. 34

Cymbeline, A. 1, S. 7.

COMMENDATION.

This commendation I can afford her; that were fhe other than he is, the were unhandfome; and being no other but as fhe is, I do not like her.

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

COMPANY, COMPANIONS.

He draweth out the thread of his verbofity finer than the ftaple of his argument. I abhor fuch phanatical phantafms, fuch unfociable and point-devise companions. Love's Labour Loft, A. 5, S. 1.

Proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, That he, which hath no ftomach to this fight, Let him depart; his paffport fhall be made, And crowns for convoy put into his purse: We would not die in that man's company, That fears his fellowship to die with us.

Henry V. A. 4, S. 3.

Reply not to me with a fool-born jest;
Prefume not, that I am the thing I was;
For heaven doth know, fo fhall the world perceive,
That I have turned away my former self;

So will I those that kept me company.

A:

Henry IV. P. 2, A. 5, S. 5.

I have forfworn his company hourly, any time this two and twenty years, and yet I am bewitch'd with the rogue's company. If the rafcal have not given

me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hang'd; it could not be else. Henry IV. P. 1, A. 2, S. 2.

There's but a fhirt and a half in all my company; and the half-fhirt is two napkins, tack'd together, and thrown over the fhoulders like a herald's coat without fleeves; and the fhirt, to fay the truth, ftolen from my hoft of Saint Alban's, or the rednofe inn-keeper of Daintry. But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on every hedge.

Henry IV. P. i, A. 4, S. 2 ̧ Some four or five attend him ;

All, if you will; for I myself am beft,

S.4

When leaft in company. Twelfth Night, A, 1, S. 4,

COMPETENCY.

For aught I fee, they are as fick, that furfeit with too much, as they that ftarve with nothing: it is no mean happiness, therefore, to be feated in the mean; fuperfluity comes fooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.

Merchant of Venice, A. 1, S. 2

COMPLEXIO N.

Call us ten times frail;

For we are as foft as our complexions are,

And credulous to false prints.

Measure for Measure, A. 2, S. 4•

CONFERENCE.

I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the fartheft inch of Afia; bring you the length of Prefter John's foot; fetch you a hair of the great Cham's

I

for I myself am beft, When leaft in company.] Nunquam minus folus quam cum folus.”

A. B.

beard;

beard; do you any embaffage to the Pigmies, rather than hold three words conference with this harpy.

Much ado about nothing, A. 2, S. I.

CONSCIENCE, CONSCIENCES.
Twenty confciences,

That ftand 'twixt me and Milan, candy'd be they,
And melt, ere they molest.

Tempest, A. 2, S. I.

Thus confcience does make cowards of us all ;
And thus the native hue of refolution

Is fickly'd o'er with the pale caft of thought;
And enterprizes of great pith and moment *,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. Hamlet, A. 3, S. 1.
-Confcience is but a word that cowards ufe,
Devis'd at first to keep the ftrong in awe;
Our strong arms be our confcience, fwords our law.
Richard III. A. 5, S. 3..

My confcience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a feveral tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.

Richard III. A. 5, S. 3

What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel juft;
And he but naked, though lock'd up in fteel,
Whose conscience with injuftice is corrupted.

Henry VI, P. 2, A. 3, S. 2. Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnation; and in my confcience, my confcience is but a kind

•great pith and moment.] Thus the folio. The quartos STEEVENS.

read, of great pitch. Pitch feems to be the better reading. The allufion is to the pitching, or throwing the bar; a manly exercise, ufual in country villages.

66

REMARKS.

Enterprizes of great pith and moment," is, enterprizes of great matter and moment, Pith is unquestionably the true read

ing.

A. B.

of hard confcience, to offer to counsel me to stay with

the Jew.

Merchant of Venice, A. 2, S. 2.

CONSIDERATION.

At that very moment,

Confideration like an angel came,

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradife,"

To envelop and contain celestial spirits.

Henry V. A. 1, S. 1.

CONSPIRACY.
O confpiracy!

Sham'ft thou to fhew thy dangerous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then, by day,
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough,

To mask thy monstrous vifage? Seek none con fpiracy;

Hide it in fimiles, and affability;

For if thou path, thy native femblance on,
Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention.

Julius Cæfar, A. 2, S. 1.

CONTEMPLATION.
— When would you, my liege,
In leaden contémplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with?

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

When holy and devout religious men

Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence;

So fweet is zealous contemplation.

Richard III. A. 3, S. 7..

CONTENT.

CONTEN T.

O now, for ever,

Farewel the tranquil mind! farewel content;
Farewel the plumed troop, and the big wars,
That make ambition virtue! Othello, A. 3,
S. 3.
Where zeal ftrives to content, and the contents
Dies in the zeal of that which it presents,
There form confounded makes moft form in mirth
When great things labouring perish in their birth.
Love's Labour Loft, A. 5, S. 2,

If thou, that bidft me be content, wert grim,
Lame, foolish, crooked, fwart, prodigious,
Patch'd with foul moles, and eye-offending marks,
I would not care, I then would be content.

King John, A. 3, S. 1.

Beft ftate, contentless,

Hath a diftracted and moft wretched being,
Worfe than the worst, content.

Timon of Athens, A, 4, S. 3.

This diamond he greets your wife withal,

By the name of moft kind hoftefs; and fhut up

In measureless content.1

Macbeth, A. S. 1.

CONTENTIO N.

Let this world no longer be a stage,

To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one fpirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bofoms, that, each heart being fet
On bloody courfes, the rude fcene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!

Shut up

Henry IV. P. 2. A. 1, S. 1.

In meafureless content.] Mr. Steevens fays, that to but up is to conclude; and then quotes three or four paffages to prove, that fuch is its meaning. Shut up in, however, is given up to-enjoying. "My foul hath her content fo abfolute," &c. Othello.

E 4

A. B..

Every