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Then, my queen, in silence sad,

Trip we after the night's shade.

Mr. Theobald says, why sad? Fairies are pleased to follow night." He will have it fade; and so, to mend the rhyme, spoils both the sense and grammar. But he mistakes the meaning of sad; it signifies only grave, sober; and is opposed to their dances and revels, which were now ended at the singing of the morning lark. So, Winter's Tale, Act iv: "My father and the gentlemen are in sad talk." For grave or serious. WARB.

"Then, my queen, in silence sad." Theobald's correction is a good one. "In silence fade:" i. e. "vanish in silence." We find in Hamlet:

"It faded [vanished] at the crowing of the cock." Warburton censures Theobald as though "fade" were used by him as an adjective, (fade silence) but fade is clearly a verb: go, vanish. B.

Her. Methinks I see these things with parted eye, When every thing seems double.

Hel. So, methinks:

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
Mine own, and not mine own.

And I have found Demetrius like a JEWEL,

Mine own, and not mine own.

Hermia had observed that things appeared double to her. Helena replies, so methinks; and then subjoins, that Demetrius was like a jewel, her own and not her own. He is here, then, compared to something which had the property of appearing to be one thing when it was another. Not the property sure of a jewel: or, if you will, of none but a false We should read:

one.

And I have found Demetrius like a gemell, "Mine own, and not mine own."

From Gemellus, a twin. For Demetrius had that night acted two such different parts, that she could hardly think them both played by one and the same Demetrius; but that there were twin Demetriuses like the two Sosias in the farce. WARB.

This emendation is ingenious enough to deserve to be true. JOHN. "And I have found Demetrius like a jewel." Warburton's reading is ingenious, but I am persuaded that it is not right. I read :

"And I have found Demetrius like a Guille :
"Mine own, and not mine own."

i. e. "All appears to me like deception; or a juggle; now here, now gone." Guille is an old French word for deception, trick. It may be conceived how readily a person unacquainted with the French language, might, in reading Shakspeare, and dictating to a transcriber, make of Guille (supposing it a dissyllable) jewel, the g being sounded by him as j, ju-ill. B.

Bot. But man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had.

Man is but a patch'd fool The quarto, 1600, gives the passage thus: "But man is but patch'd a fool," &c. STEEV.

Patch'd fool. That is, a fool in a particolour'd coat. JOHN.

"A patch'd fool." By a patched fool, I rather think he means a mended fool, i. e. little better than a fool. In other words, "man will not be found without foolishness, however able he may appear to be." B.

Flu. A paramour is, God bless us! a thing of nought.

A thing of nought. This Mr. Theobald changes with great pomp to "a thing of naught;" i. e. a "good for nothing thing." JOHN.

"A thing of nought." Theobald's reading, notwithstanding the - pomp with which he introduces it, is much the best. A paramour cannot be said to be a 66 thing of nothing," but he may be fairly represented as a "good for nothing thing." B.

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And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
Unless you can find sport in their intents,
Extremely stretch'd, and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you service.

Unless you can find sport in their intents. Thus all the copies. But as I know not what it is to stretch and con an intent, I suspect a line to be lost. JOHN.

"Unless you can find sport in their intents." Dr. Johnson has mistaken the sense. It is not the intent which is stretched and conned, but the play, that had already been spoken of. We must read the passage thus:

"It is not for you: I have heard it over,
"And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
"(Unless you can find sport in their intents,)
"Extremely stretch'd, and conn'd with cruel pain,

"To do you service."

The meaning is: "This performance is nothing in the world, (unless, indeed, you shall be pleas'd with the players' endeavours to entertain you,) for with respect to the piece itself, it is unnatural," &c. B.

The. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. Our sports shall be, to take what they mistake;

Our sport shall be, &c. Voltaire says something like this of Louis XIV. who took a pleasure in seeing his courtiers in confusion when they spoke to him. STEEV.

"Our sport shall be to take," &c. Mr. Steevens's remark, respecting Louis XIV. is entirely, foreign to the purpose. Theseus says: "However they may err, however greatly they may

mistake, still we shall gather something from the representation." "To take," is in this place, to conceive, to comprehend. B.

The. What pour duty cannot do,
Noble respect takes it in might, not merit.
And what poor duty cannot do,

Noble respect takes it in might, not merit.

The sense of this passage, as it now stands, if it has any sense, is this: "What the inability of duty cannot perform, regardful generosity receives as an act of ability, though not of merit." The contrary is rather true: "What dutifulness tries to perform without ability, regardful generosity receives as having the merit, though not the power, of complete performance

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We should, therefore, read:

"And what poor duty cannot do,

"Noble respect takes not in might, but merit.”

JOHN.

Might," in this place, is not ability but endeavour; desirous

of doing; assiduous, laboring at.

B.

Prol." And as she fled, her mantle she did fall;
"Which lion vile with bloody mouth did stain:
"Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,

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And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain." And finds his trusty Thisbe's mantle slain. The first folio reads: "And finds his Tnisby's mantle slaine."

The second has :

"And finds his gentle Thishy's mantle slain."

The present reading is that of the quarto. MAL.

"And finds his trusty Thisbe's mantle slain." The editors read, in this place, as if the mantle was killed.

"Slain," should be

printed sleyne, i. e. torn into threads, or to pieces. B.

Puck. Now the hungry lion roars,

And the wolf beholds the moon.

In the old copies: And the wolf beholds the moon. As 'tis the design of these lines to characterise the animals, as they present themselves at the hour of midnight: and as the wolf is not justly characterised by saying he beholds the moon, which other beasts of prey, then awake, do : and as the sounds these animals make at that season, seem also intended to be represented, I make no question but the poet wrote:

"And the wolf behowls the moon.'

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For so the wolf is exactly characterised, it being his peculiar property to howl at the moon. (Behowl, as bemoan, beseem, and an hundred others.) WARB.

The alteration is better than the original reading; but perhaps the author meant only to say, that the wolf gazes at the moon. JOHN. "And the wolf beholds the moon." "Behowls' must be right; and should be restored to the text.

"

"Silence, ye wolves, while Ralph to Cynthia howls." POPE. B.

Ob. Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,
Nor mark prodigious, such as are
Despised in nativity,

Shall upon their children be.

Nor mark prodigious.] Prodigious has here its primitive signification of portentous. So in K. Richard ÏII. :

"If ever he have child, abortive be it,

"Prodigious, and untimely brought to light." STEEV.

"Nor mark prodigious."

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Prodigious" is not portentous. In

this place it stands for uncommon, extraordinary. In Richard it signifies monstrous, contrary to the course of nature. B.

Merchant of Venice.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Sal. Your mind is tossing on the ocean, There, where your argosies with portly sail, Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood, Or as it were the pageants of the sea,

Do over-peer the petty-traffickers.

Argosie, In Ricaut's Maxims of Turkish Polity, ch. xiv. it is said, "Those vast carracks called argosies, which are so much famed for the vastness of their burthen and bulk, were corruptly so denominated from Ragosies," i. e. ships of Ragusa, a city and territory on the gulf of Venice, tributary to the Perte. If my memory does not fail me, the Ragusans lent their last great ship to the King of Spain for the Armada, and it was lost on the coast of Ireland. Shakspeare, as Mr. Heath observes, has given the name of Ragozine to the pirate in Measure for Measure. STEEV. Argosie' would rather seem to come from Argo-the name of Jason's ship. B.

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Anth. Farewell: I'll grow a talker for this gear. Farewell: I'll grow a talker for this gear. Geur appears to me to have no meaning here. I would therefore read,

"I'll grow a talker for this year” —

alluding to what Gratiano has just said:

"Well, keep me company but two years more." MAL. “Gear,” should, in this place, be written gere, i. e. a jest. Antonio says, a good jest; I shall become a talker." B.

Bass. I owe you much; and like a wilful youth, That which I owe is lost.

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