P. 661, Dedication, 1. 10. - Hopeful expectation] Lord Southampton was but twenty years old when this poem was dedicated to him by Shakspeare, who was then twenty-seven. -MALONE Id. c. 1, l. 8.-The-field's chief flower.] So the quarto of 1593. Modern editions have sweet flower. MALONE.

Id. l. 11. Nature that made thee with herself at strife.] with this contest between art and Nature, &c. I believe every reader will be surfeited before he has gone through the following poems. The lines under the print of Noah Bridges, engraved by Faithorne, have the same thought, "Faithorne, with nature at a noble strife," &c. It occurs likewise in Timon of Athens, STEEVENS. We have in a subsequent passage a contest between art and nature, but here surely there is none. I must also observe that there is scarcely a book of Shakspeare's age, whether in prose or verse, in which this surfecting comparison (as it has been called) may not be found. MALONE.

Id. c. 2, l. 17. - Her 'miss.] That is, her misbehaviour. FARMER. So in Lily's Woman in the Moon, 1597," Pale be my looks, to witness my amiss." The same substantive is used in 35th Sonnet. Again in Hamlet: "each toy seems prologue to some great amiss." MALONE. Id. l. 18.

she murders with a kiss.] Thus the original copy of 1593, and the edition of 1596. So in King Richard III. "Come, cousin, canst thou quake, and change thy colour? "Murder thy breath in middle of a word? The subsequent copies have-smothers. MALONE. Id. 1. 20. Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh, and bone,] To tire is to peck. So. in Decker's Match me in London, a comedy, 1631: "The vulture tires upon the eagle's heart." Id. 1. 25. Forc'd to content] I once thought that

the meaning of the latter words was, to content or satisfy Venus; to endure her kisses. So, in Hamlet: "It doth content me to hear him so inclin'd:" but I now believe that the interpretation given by Mr Steevens is the true one. Content is a substantif and means acquiescence. The modern editions read consent. MALONE.

It is plain that Venus was not so easily contented. Forc'd to content, I believe, means that Adonis was forced to content himself in a situation from which he had no means of escaping. Thus Cassio in Othello: "So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content." STEEVENS. Id. 1.35. to a river that is rank] Full, abounding in the quantity of its waters. So, in Julius

P.

Id.

Id.

Cæsar: "Who else must be let blood, who else is rank?" Again more appositely in King John: "We will untread the steps of damned flight, and, like a 'bated and retired flood, "leaving our rankness and irregular course, 'stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd." MALONE.

แ

662, c. 1, l. 6. Her best is bettered.] This is the reading of the original quarto 1593. That of 1636 and the modern editions, read-breast. MALONE.

1. 68. Mine eyes are grey] What we now call blue eyes were in Shakspeare's time called grey eyes, and were considered as eminently beautiful. MALONE.

c. 2, 1. 22. Things growing to themselves are growth's abuse] alluding to twinn'd cherries, apples, peaches, &c. which accidentally grow into each other. Thus our anthor says, King Henry VIII, and Francis I. embraced "as they grew together." STEEVENS. Shakspeare, I think, meant to say no more than this; "that those things which grow only to (or for) themselves," without producing any fruit, or benefitting mankind, do not answer the purpose for which they were intended. Thus, in a subsequent passage: "So in thyself, thyself art made away." Again, in our author's 95th Sonnet: "The summer's flower is to the summer sweet, though to itself it only live and die." Again, more appositely in the present poem: "Poor flower! quoth she, this was thy father's guise," For every little grief to wet his eyes; To grow unto himself was his desire, and so 'tis thine-. MALONE. Id. 1. 25. Upon the earth's increase] i. e. upon the produce of the earth. MALONE. Id. l. 53. life were done] i. e. expended, consumed. So, in Timon of Athens:" Now Lord Timon's happy hours are done and past." MALONE.

Id. l. 60. unkind] That is, unnatural. Kind and nature were formerly synonymous. MA

P.

LONE.

663, c. 1, l. 6.- her intendments] i. e. intentions. Thus, in Every Man in his Humour"-but I, spying his intendment, discharged my petronel into his bosom." STEEVENS.

Id. l. 56. compass'd crest-] Compass'd is arch'd: "A compass'd ceiling," is a phrase yet in use. MALONE. So, in Troilus and Cressida: "She came to him the other day into the compass'd window," i. e. the bow window. STEEVENS.

P. 663, c. 2, l. 15. To bid the wind a base he now prepares,] To "bid the wind a base" is to 'challenge the wind to contest for superiority.' Base is a rustic game, sometimes called prison base; properly prison bars. It is mentioned by our author in Cymbeline:-"Lads more like to run the country base," &c. Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Indeed I bid the base for Protheus." MALONE. Id. 1.6. And whe'r he run, or fly, they know not whether;] Whe'r for whether. So, in King John: "Now shame upon thee, whe'r he does or no." Again, in a poem in praise of Ladie P, Epitathes, Epigrammes, &c. by G Juberville, 1567: "I doubt where Paris would have chose "Dame Venus for the best." MA

Id. l. 71.

-had his acts-1 His for its. So, in Hamlet: "the dram of base, Doth all the noble substance of worth dout, To his own scandal." MALONE.

P. 664, c. 1, 7. 10. thy heart my wound ;] i. e. thy heart wounded as mine is. MALONE. Id. l. 16-soft sighs can never grave it:]

Engrave it, i. e. make an impression on it.
STEEVENS.

Id. 1. 52. My love to love is love but to disgrace it;] My inclination towards love is only a desire to render it contemptible.-The sense is almost lost in the jingle of words. MALONE. Id. c. 2, l. 24.--foul flaws-] i. e. violent blasts of wind. STEEVENS.

P. 665, c. 1, 1. 3. - their verdure still endure, To drive infection from the dangerous year!] I have somewhere read, that in rooms where plants are kept in a growing state, the air is never unwholesome. STEEVENS The poet evidently alludes to a practice of his own age, when it was customary, in time of the plague, to strew the rooms of every house with rue and other strong smelling herbs, to prevent infection. MALONE.

Id. l. 11. —for fear of slips,] i. e. of counterfeit money. See note on Romeo and Juliet, Act. II. Sc. 4. "What counterfeit did I give you? Mer. The slip, sir, the slip," &c. STEEVENS.

Id. l. 20. Measure my strangeness-] i. e. my bashfulness, my coyness. MALONE.

Id. 1. 25. Look, the world's comforter,] i. e. the

sun. So, in Timon of Athens: "Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!" Again, in a subsequent stanza: "Love comforteth, like sunshine." MALONE.

Id. l. 64. -whose leave-] i. e. whose licentiousness. STEEVENS.

Id. c. 2, 1. 9. Love's master] i. e. the master of Venus, the Queen of love. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink." Again,

"She's love, she loves," &c. MALONE. Id. 1. 28 As those poor birds that helpless berries saw:] Helpless berries are those berries that afford no help, i. e. nourishment. STEEVENS.

I once thought that a different meaning was intended to be conveyed; but now I believe Mr Steevens is right. So, in The Comedy of Errors:-"So thou,

With urging helpless patience would'st relieve me." MALONE.

Id. l. 42. Like to a mortal butcher,] Mortal, for deadly. So, in Othello: "And you, ye mortal engines," &c. MALONE.

P. 666, c. 1, l. 7. bate breeding, &c.] So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Mrs. Quickly observes that John Rugby is "no tell-tale, no breed-bate." Bate is an obsolete word signifying strife, contention. STEEVENS.

Id. l. 8 love's tender spring.] I once thought that love's tender spring meant, printemps d'amour. So, in Tarquin and Lucrece : "Unruly blasts wait on the tender-spring.” Again, in the present poem:

"Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain.'

But I am now of opinion that spring is used here, as in other places, for a young shoot or plant, or rather, the tender bud of growing love. So, in the Comedy of Errors:

"Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot " MALONE.

"This canker that eats up love's tender spring."

So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Full soon the canker death eats up that plant." STEEVENS,

Id. 1. 35. The many musits through the which ke goes, Musits are said by the lexicographers to be the places through which the hare goes for relief. The modera editions read umfits. "Three things." says the author of the choice of Change, 1585, “ are hard to be found;:" A hare without a muse,

"A feune without a sluse, "A whore without a skuse" Coles, in his English Dictionary, 1677, renders, "the muse of a hare" by "Arctus leporis per super transitus; leporis lacuna." So in Ram Alley, 1611:

"We can find

"Yr wildest paths, yr turnings and returns, "Yr traces, squats, the mussers, forms and holes." MALONE.

A muset is a gap in a hedge. See Cotgrave's explanation of the French word Trouée. STEEVENS.

Id. l. 39. keep,] i. e. dwell. This word, which was formerly common in this sense, is now almost obsolete. It is still, however, commonly used at Oxford and Cambridge. MALONE. Id. l. 41. And sometime sorteth with a herd of de er;] Sorteth means accompanies, consorts with. Sort anciently signified a troop, or company. MALONE.

Id. c. 2, 1. 4. Rich preys make true men thieves ;] True men, in the language of Shakspeare's time, meant honest men; and the expression was thus frequently used in opposition to thieves. This passage furnishes a signal proof of what I have had frequent occasion to observe, the great value of first editions, every reimpression producing many corruptions. In the 16mo of 1596, we here find "Rich preys make rich men thieves" a corruption which has beea followed in the subsequent copies. The true reading I have recovered from the original quarto 1593. MALONE.

Id.

1. 6. -die forsworn,] i. e. having broke her oath of virginity. STEEVENS.

Id. l. 20.--and frenzies wood,] Wood, in old language, is frantic. So in King Henry IV. Part I.; "How the young whelp of Talbots, raging wood,

Did flesh his puny sword in Frenchman's blood." MALONE.

Id. l. 29. thaw'd and done.] Done was formerly used in the sense of wasted, consumed, destroyed. So, in King Henry VI. Part 1. “ And now they meet, where both their lives are done."

In the West of England it still retains the same meaning. MALONE. P. 667, c. 1, l. 21. - the dark lawnd-] So the original copy of 1593, and the edition of 1596. Lawnd and lawn were in old language synonymous. The 16mo of 1600 has lawnes, which in the modern editions became lanes. MALONE. Id. c. 2, l. 6. --she coasteth to the cry] i. e. she advanceth. So, in Troilus and Cressida : "O these encounterers, so glib of tongue, That give a coasting welcome, ere it come!" MALONE.