at best, but an imperfect meaning. The Poet's word, as it would seem, is the Saxon freme, which signifies anger, displeasure. Thus the reasoning is sufficiently clear and consistent, and such as Leonato would naturally fall into on the supposed ill-conduct of his daughter. B.

Bene. Two of them have the very bent of honor.

-bent of honor; Bent is used by our author for the utmost degree of any passion, or mental quality. In this play before, Benedick says of Beatrice, her affection has its full bent. The expression is derived from archery; the bow has its bent, when it is drawn as far as it can be. JOHN.

Bent of honor.' We must read bend of honor. The expression is taken from Heraldry. Bend, in the language of the professors of that science, is one of the ten honorable ordinaries.

This is one, among innumerable instances, of the want of care and attention in the editors, and of the errors into which we may be led when an attempt is made at explanation by resting it on the word alone, and without properly considering the thought as it arises from the situation and character of the speaker. Her affection has its full bent' is no doubt taken from archery. B.

That what we have we prize not to the worth,
Whiles we enjoy it;

but being lack'd and lost,

Why, then we rack the value.

-we rack the value;

i. e. We exaggerate the value.

The allusion is to rack-rents. STEEV.
'Rack the value.' It were far better to read

i. e. rate it according to its worth. B.

'reck the value,'

Dogb. Yea, marry, that's the eftest way :-Let the watch come forth.

To Cl. Yea, marry, that's the easiest way: Let the watch come forth: This easiest is a sophistication of our modern editors, who were at a loss to make out the corrupted reading of the old copies. The quarto in 1600, and the first and second editions in folio, all concur in reading: Yea, marry, that's the eftest way, &e. A letter happened to slip out at press in the first edition; and 'twas too hard a task for the subsequent editors to put it in, or guess at the word under this accidental depravation. There is no doubt but the author wrote, as I have restored the text. Yea, marry, that's the deftest way, &c. i. e. the readiest, most commodious way. THEOB.

That's the easiest way.' Eftest' is right. It signifies in old language, speediest, shortest. Deft is neat, spruce, trim. B.

Leon. Bring me a father, that so lov'd his child,
Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine,
And bid him speak of patience :

Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
And let it answer every strain for strain;

As thus for thus, and such a grief for such,
In every lineament, branch, shape, and form :
If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard;
And, sorrow wag! cry; hem, when he should groan:
Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk
With candle-wasters; bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience.

If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard;

And hallow, wag, cry hem, when he should groan :

Mr. Rowe is the first authority that I can find for this reading. But what is the intention, or how can we expound it? "If a man will halloo, and whoop, and fidget, and wriggle about, to shew a pleasure when he should groan," &c. This does not give much decorum to the sentiment. The old quarto, and the first and second folio editions, all read:

And sorrow, wagge, cry hem, &c.

We don't, indeed, get much by this reading; though, I flatter myself, by a slight alteration it has led me to the true one,

And sorrow wage; cry, hem! when he should groan ;

i. e. If such a one will combat with, strive against sorrow, &c. Nor is this word infrequent with our author in these significations. THEOB.

Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, for wag read waive, which is, I suppose, the same as put aside, or shift off. None of these conjectures satisfy me, nor perhaps any other reader. I cannot but think the true meaning nearer than it is imagined. I point thus:

If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard,

And, sorrow wag! cry; hem, when he should groan;

That is, If he will smile, and cry sorrow be gone, and hem instead of groaning. The order in which and and cry are placed, is harsh, and this harshness made the sense mistaken. Range the words in the common order and my reading will be free from all difficulty.

groan. JOHN.

If such a one will smile and stroke his beard, Cry, sorrow, wag! and hem when he should' What will be said of the conceit I shall now offer, I know not; let it, however, take its chance. We might read:

If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard,

And, sorry wag! cry hem! when he should groan.— i.e. unfeeling humourist! to employ a note of festivity, when his sighs ought to express concern. Both the words I would introduce, are used by Shakspeare. Falstaff calls the Prince sweet wag! and the epithet sorry is applied, even at this time, to denote any moderate deviation from propriety or morality; as, for instance, a sorry fellow. Othello speaks of a salt and sorry rheum. The prince, in the First Part of K. Henry IV. act II. sc. iv. says: "they cry, hem! and bid you play it off." This sufficiently proves the exclamation to have been of a comic turn. STEEV.

I take this opportunity to observe, that the various and discordant opinions about this passage, should teach both the present and future race of commentators, to be less dogmatical than we frequently find them on a subject wherein there is so little certainty as that of conjectural criti

cism. REED.

And sorrow wagge,' &c. The reading of the old copies, And sorrow wagge cry hem, &c.' is very nearly right. It is not the substantive wag, which is here to be understood, but the verb to wag, and which is employed in the sense of to move tremulously, to shake.

We must read: "And sorrow-wagg'd [compound word] cry hem, &c." i. e. moved to sorrow, sorrow-shaken. Had Shakspeare written sorrow-shak'd (we should now say shook or shaken,) the expression would have been clear to every one. Sorrow-wagg'd is exactly the same. To us it appears uncouth, but this arises wholly from the modern acceptation of the word. To wag had not in former days the playful meaning which is now annexed to it, as we see by the scripture. "And they that passed by reviled him, wagging, i. e. shaking [as unbelievers."] their heads. The meaning of the whole will be, "If any father, who like myself had thus unhappily lost his child, and who in consequence of it is, and according to the nature of man, particularly affected by it, sorrow-shak'd or shaken, or as the Poet chooses to express it, sorrow-wagg'd; if, I say, in such a case, he will yet put on an air of indifference, &c. bring him to me, and from his example I will gather patience." B.

Leon. For there was never yet philosopher,
That could endure the tooth-ach patiently;
However they have writ the style of gods
And made a pish at chance and sufferance.

However they have writ the style of gods. This alludes to the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their wise men. Sapiens ille cum Diis er pare vivit. Senec. Ep. 59. Jupiter quo antecedit virum bonum? diutius bonus est. Sapiens nihilo se minoris æstimat.-Deus non vincit sapientem felicitate. Ep. 73. WARE.

Shakspeare might have used this expression, without any acquaintance with the hyperboles of stoicism. By the style of gods, he meant an exalted language; such as we may suppose would be written by beings superior to human calamities, and therefore regarding them with neglect aud

coldness. STEEV.

And made a pish at chance and sufferance: Alludes to their former apathy. WARB.

'However they have writ the style of gods.' This line And make a pish at chance and sufferance,' proves that Warburton is right respecting style of gods,' and that the allusion is to the Stoics. B.

Leon Canst thou so daffe me? Thou hast kill'd my

child;

If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.

Canst thou so daffe me ?- ---This is a country word, Mr. Pope tells us, signifying daunt. It may be so; but that is not the exposition here: To daffe and doffe are synonymous terms, that mean, to put off: which is the very sense required here, and what Leonato would reply upon Claudio's saying, he would have nothing to do with him. THEOB.

'Canst thou so daffe me?' Daffe and doffe are by no means synonymous terms. They have, indeed, been confounded by several writers. But daffe has usually the sense of daunt and sometimes that of banter. B.

Ant.

I know them, yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys.

Scambling-i. e. scrambling. The word is more than once used by Shakspeare. See Dr. Percy's note on the first speech of the play of K. Henry V. and likewise the Scots proverb "It is well ken'd your father's son was never a scumbler." A scambler in its literal sense, is one who goes about among his friends to get a dinner, by the Irish called a cosherer. STEEV.

Scambling, &c.' ، Scambling is not scrambling, but roving. rambling, unsettled; and that is evidently the sense required

here. B.

Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience.

we will not wake your patience. This conveys a sentiment that the speaker would by no means have implied. That the patience of the two old men was not exercised, but asleep, which upbraids them for insensibility under their wrong. Shakspeare must have wrote:

-we will not wrack

i. e. destroy your patience by tantalizing you. WARB.

This emendation is very specious, and perhaps is right: yet the present reading may admit a congruous meaning with less difficulty than many other of Shakspeare's expressions.

The old men have been both very angry and outrageous; the prince tells them that he and Claudio will not wake their patience; will not any longer force them to endure the presence of those whom, though they look on them as enemies, they cannot resist. JOHN.

'We will not wake your patience.' 'Wrack' is harsh, and Johnson's explanation is unsatisfactory. I think we should read and point tbus,

'Gentlemen both, we will not wrake your patience.'

i. e. Gentlemen, we will not be moved to anger: we will not become revengeful. Give us your patience." Wrake, the old word for anger, revenge. B.

Bora. Don John your brother incens'd me to slander the lady Hero;

Incens'd me to slander the lady Hero.' Not incensed, or provoked, but put into the sense. It is now said, in familiar language, what could put that into your senses? The word should be written with an S, as well in the second as in the third syllable-insensed. The expression, simply, will be-set me on the business. As the passage stands, it looks as if Borachio were angered; which is wholly contrary to the Poet's meaning. B.

Leon.

This naughty man Shall face to face be brought to Margaret, Who, I believe, was pack'd in all this wrong, Hir'd to it by your brother.

Who, I believe, was pack'd in all this wrong, i. e. combined: an accomplice. So, in lord Bacon's Works, vol. iv. p. 269. edit. 1740. "If the issue shall be this, that whatever shall be done for him, shall be thought to be done by a number of persons that shall be labored and packed. MAL.

So, in King Lear :

"snuffs and packings of the dukes." STEEV.

Was pack'd in all this wrong. To pack, when speaking of sons, is to unite them in any bad design. To pick out people of any particular description, with a view to some particular advantage.

Packings,' here brought by Mr. S. to illustrate, are nothing to the purpose. B.

(Claudio reads.)

Done to death by slanderous tongues

Was the Hero, that here lies:

Done to death

writers. MAL.

-This obsolete phrase occurs frequently in our ancient

'Done to death.' This is according to the French idiom faire

mourir. B.