can inspire the reader with nothing but disgust. Had the commentator observed, indeed, that the witch or wizard could, according to the vulgar notion-preserve a waxen figure from the effect of heat, he would have been pretty correct in his account, though telling us nothing but what we had learnt from the demonologists of former days.

He is equally at war with nature and with fact in speaking of love, as the ruling passion'-for it is well known that the ruling passion will often be different with different men. Had he called love the universal passion, all would have acknowledged him to be right. B.

Bene. Huddling jest upon jest, with such impossible conveyance, upon me, that I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me.

such impossible conveyance. Dr. Warburton reads, impassable; Sir Thomas Hanmer impetuous, and Dr. Johnson importable, which, says he, is used by Spenser, in a sense very congruous to this passage for insupportable, or not to be sustained. Also by the last translators of the Apocrypha, and therefore such a word as Shakspeare may be supposed to have written. REED.

'Such impossible conveyance.' Impossible,' as Johnson well observes, has in this place no meaning. The impassable of Warburton I must reject; not because there is no authority for the use of it, but by reason that it is no way expressive of parried, or passed off, though he has so conceived of it. The proper word, as it would seem, is imposeable' and in the sense of authoritative. "Huddling jest upou jest, with such imposeable conveyance," i. e. "pouring jest upon jest, with such a powerful, such a commanding delivery." I think the critic has wholly mistaken the signification of importable' in Spenser: it must there mean important, great, as being heavy. "Importable power,"-great, mighty force. It is certain that Im is not here used as in some instances for the privative or negative In. B.

Pedro. I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules' labours; which is to bring Signior Benedick, and the lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with the other.

to bring signior Benedick and the lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection the one with the other. A mountain of affection with one another is a strange expression, yet I know not well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written, to bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mooting of affection; to bring them not to any more mootings of contention, but to a mooting or conversation of love. This reading is confirmed by the preposition with; a mountain with each other, or affection with each other, cannot be used, but a mooting with each other is proper and regular. JoHN. 'To bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with the other.' Johnson's proposed mooting' should not be SHAK,

I.

Q

received, as being unlike both in appearance and sound to the word in the text. Beside, it is never used to signify conversation simply, and as he would understand it. A moot case is a doubtful or disputable case: and to moot is to plead or argue such an affair, by stating a point of law, and in the way of exercise. The passages adduced by the Editors in order to illustrate mountain of affection,' are nothing to the purpose. Mountains of miseries-mountains of promises and mountains of vexation,' are expressions sufficiently clear and easy. But bring into a mountain of affection with each other,' i. e." into a heap, or great deal of affection with," is not only defective in grammar, but meaning.

The Poet, I should imagine, has written mounting (growing, a french sense, montant.) It is not, however, a mounting of affection,' the order will be a mounting affection of,' &c. Read, "I will undertake one of Hercules' labors; which is to bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mounting affection of the one with the other," i. e. I will undertake to bring Benedick and Beatrice into a growing love of each other. If the reader prefers the word mountant, (mountant affection, i. e. rising affection,) there is authority for it. Timon, A. 4. S. 4. B.

Claud.

The music ended,

We'll fit the kid-fox with a penny-worth.

Pedro. See where Benedick hath hid himself?

Claudio. Very well, my lord: the music ended, we'll fit the kid-fox with a penny-worth, i. e. we will be even with the fox now discovered. So the word kid, or kidde, signifies in Chaucer :

"The soothfastness that now is hid,
"Without coverture shall be kid

"When I undoen have this dreming." Romaunt of the Rose.

2171, &c.

GREY.

'We'll fit the kid-fox,' &c. The sense of kid' is here mistaken by the Commentators. A'kid-fox' is a cunning, artful, knowing fox. See Spenser.

The lines from Chaucer show that it has with him the same meaning.

Thus, a kid napper, or as it should be written kid-nabber, is not a catcher of kids or children, as is usually imagined, but a cunning, artful, catcher. B.

Pedro. I would have daff'd all other respects, and made her half myself.

-have daff'd] To daff is the same as to doff, to do off, to put aside. So in Macbeth:

-to doff their dire distresses." STEEV. 'Have daff'd,' &c. Daff is not the same as 'doff,' which no doubt means to throw off, to put aside. To daff is to subdue, to repress. B.

Pedro. He hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bowstring, and the little hangman dare not shoot at him.

the little hangman dare not shoot at him. This character of Cupid came from the Arcadia of Sir Philip Sidney:

.

"Millions of yeares this old drivell Cupid lives;

"While still more wretch, more wicked he doth prove:
"Till now at length that Jove him office gives,

"(At Juno's suit who much did Argus love)

"In this our world a hangman for to be

"Of all those fooles that will have all they see."

B. ii. ch. 14. FARM. I would read " twangman," i. e. bowman. Why Cupid should be called hangman, I do not well see. B.

Pedro. She shall be buried with her face upwards. She shall be buried with her face upwards. Thus the whole set of editions: but what is there any way particular in this? Are not all men and women buried so? Sure, the poet means, in opposition to the general rule, and by way of distinction, with her heels upwards, or face downwards. I have chosen the first reading, because I find it the expression in vogue in our author's time. THEOB."

This emendation, which appears to me very specious, is rejected by Dr. Warburton. The meaning seems to be, that she who acted upon principles contrary to others, should be buried with the same contrariety.

STEEV.

She shall be buried with her face upwards.' Warburton is per fectly right in rejecting Theobald's ridiculous change of face upwards, into heels upwards; and the other editors must be exceedingly dull in not perceiving that the text is correct. "She shall be buried with her face upwards." And why is this said? Because having laid aside her affected contempt of man, having shewn that she can feel and conduct herself according to the order of nature," she shall be buried in the usual manner." Thus pleasantly insinuating, that had she remained of her former humor, a different mode of burial would have been proper, and so as to mark an eccentric character. B.

Conr. Is it possible that any villainy should be so dear?

Bora. Thou shouldest rather ask, if it were possible any villainy should be so rich: for when rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones nay make what price they will.

any villainy should be so rich; The sense absolutely requires us to read, villain. WAB.

The old reading may stand. STEEV.

Any villainy should be so rich.' The old reading may not stand; it is nonsense. Villainy may be dear, but it cannot be rich. We must read with Warburton, villain. B.

Bora. Fashioning them like Pharoah's soldiers in the

reechy painting.

-reechy painting; is painting stained by smoke. STEEV. Reechy painting.' Reechy' is, as Reechy' is, as Mr. Steevens observes, stained with smoke. Query, if it should not be rechey, i. e. valuaSee Chaucer. B.

able, of great worth.

Marg. And yet now, in despight of his heart, he eats his meat without grudging.

he eats his meat without grudging. I do not see how this is a proof of Benedick's change of mind. It would afford more proof of amorousness to say, he eats not his meat without grudging; but it is impossible to fix the meaning of proverbial expressions: perhaps, to eat meat without grudging, was the same as to do as others do, and the meaning is, he is content to live by eating like other mortals, and will be content, notwithstanding his boasts, like other mortals, to have a wife. JOHN.

Eats his meat without grudging.' 'Without grudging,' seems to mean in good humor, without moroseness or as it is elsewhere expressed-Love humanizes him.

Dr. Johnson appears to have understood

without grudging' in the sense of not sparingly. But he is evidently wrong. B.

Verg. Yes, I thank God, I am as honest as any man living, that is an old man, and no honester than I.

I am as honest as any man living, that is an old man, and no honester than I. There is much humor, and extreme good sense under the covering of this blundering expression. It is a sly insinuation, that length of years, and the being much hacknied in the ways of men, as Shakspeare expresses it, take off the gloss of virtue, and bring much defilement on the manners. For, as a great wit says, Youth is the season of virtue: corruptions_grow with years, and I believe the oldest rogue in England is the greatest. WARB. Much of this is true, but I believe Shakspeare did not intend to bestow all this reflection on the speaker. JOHN.

'I am as honest,' &c. This remark of Dr. Johnson is extremely absurd it would take from an editor the right of explaining any covert expression which his author might use. Verges may have no particular meaning in what he says: he may be supposed to have unconsciously stumbled on a truth. But when the Poet wishes to insinnate to his audience "more than meets the ear," generally he must have a vehicle by which to convey it. Such objection, then, as that of Dr. Johnson, will not be admitted by the admirers of Shakspeare: nor would it hold in any other case, for he often speaks instead of the character. B.

Claud. Out on thy seeming! I will write against it: You seem to me as Dian in her orb,

"Out on thy seeming! I will write against it:
You seem to me as Dian in her orb.'

-I will write against it. What? a libel? nonsense. We should read, I will rate against it, i. e. rail, revile. WARB.

As to subscribe to any thing is to allow it, so to write against is to disallow or deny. JOHN.

The commentators have wholly mistaken the sense. The passage however is wrong pointed. Claudio in saying, I will write against it,' does not mean that he will write a libel, any more than that he will disallow, deny, or even rate against the seeming' of lero. On the contrary, he would affirm of the lady's seeming,' he would acknowledge that such was really the case. Against it' is overagainst, as is sometimes spoken of setting the hand to, witnessing. We must read,

Hero. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you?

Claud. Out on thy seeming !-I will write against it

[that] You seem to me as Dian in her orb.'

i. e." Away with your seeming! But since you rest upon that, I admit what you say: I am ready to attest in writing that you seem, &c."

The expression is here elliptical, which, with wrong pointing, occasions frequent obscurity in Shakspeare. B.

-Leon.

Griev'd I, I had but one?

Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?
O, one too much by thee!

-Griev'd I, I had but one?

Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?
I've one too much by thee!

The meaning of the second line, according to the present reading is this, Chid I at frugal nature that she sent me a girl and not a boy? But this is not what he chid nature for; if he himself may be believed, it was because she had given him but one; and in that he owns he did foolishly, for he now finds he had one too much. He called her frugal, therefore, in giving him but one child. (For to call her so, because she chose to send a girl rather than a boy,would be ridiculous.) So that we must certainly read:

Chid I for this at frugal nature's 'fraine ?

i. e. refraine, or keeping back her further favors, stopping her hand, as we say, when she had given him one. But the Oxford editor has, in his usual way, improved this amendment by substituting hand for 'fraine. WARB.

Though frame be not a word which appears to a reader of the present time most proper to exhibit the poet's sentiment, yet it may as well be used to shew that he had one child, and no more, as that he had a girl, not a boy, and as it may easily signify the system of things, or universal scheme, the whole order of beings is comprehended; there arises no difficulty from it which requires to be removed by so violent an effort as the introduction of a new word offensively mutilated. JOHN.

⚫ Chid I for this at frugal Nature's frame?' Johnson's interpretation is unsatisfactory: at any rate it is made by too violent an effort. Thus to wrest the sense of frame' to his purpose, is merely to save himself from the trouble of search. That the expression comes not from the pen of Shakspeare there is every reason to believe the 'fraine of Warburton, however, is harsh, while it gives,