haps, indeed, the commentator might understand calf as the metonymy of an idiot, and consequently be thinking of the old saying, that fools are usually amorous. Pash, however, should probably be bush, that is, in the language of the Hunter, tail. Thou wantest a tail to be as a calf, and horns to be like me. I am much inclined to this reading, as I cannot find any meaning in pash, and as the b when turned at the press becomes a p, it will the more readily perhaps be allowed to be right. B. Leo. false, As dice are to be wish'd, by one that fixes No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true No bourn] Bourn is boundary. So, in Hamlet: -from whose bourn "No traveller returns. STEEV. No Bourn.' Bourn should here be printed Borne. Bourn is a brook or river. B. -welkin eye:- -] Blue-eye; an eye of the same color with the welkin, or sky, JoHN. "A welkin eye" is a rolling eye, or as Leontes would insinuate, a wanton eye, and such as he supposes Hermione's to be. Welkin, comes from pelcan, Saxon, to roll about. B. Leo. Affection! thy intention stabs the center, Instead of this line, which I find in the folio, the modern editors have introduced another of no authority: Imagination! thou dost stab to the center. Mr. Rowe first made the exchange. I am not certain that I understand the reading which I have restored. Affection, however, I believe, signifies imagination. Thus, in the Merchant of Venice: -affections, Masters of passion, sway it, &c. i. e. imaginations govern our passions. Intention is, as Mr. Locke expresses it," when the mind with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea, considers it on every side, and will not be called off by the ordinary solicitation of other ideas." This vehemence of the mind seems to be what affects Leontes so deeply, or, in Shakspeare's language,-stabs him to the center. STEEV. Affection! thy intention,' &c. 'Affection' will scarcely stand for imagination. It should rather be explained by feeling, sensibility. Intention' is not purpose, design, but intenseness, having great strength or force. The meaning of the whole is this" Sensibility! thy force is great; thou stabb'st me to the heart, B. Mine honest friend? Leo. Will you take eggs for money? This seems to be a proverbial expression, used when a man sees himself wronged and makes no resistance. Its original, or precise meaning, I cannot find, but I believe it means, will you be a cuckold for hire. The cuckow is reported to lay her eggs in another bird's nest; he therefore that has eggs laid in his nest is said to be cucullus, cuckow'd, or cuckold. Јони. "Will you take eggs for money ?" The meaning is, Will you take ayes (i. e. words) for money? Will you be imposed on? To this Mamillius replies— 'No-I'll fight.' Ais, in old language, is used both for the affirmative yes, and for egg. See Chaucer. Aie, Aye, (Ep, Teut.) an egg. B. Leo. Lower messes, Perchance, are to this business purblind: say. -lower messes,] I believe, lower messes is only used as an expression to signify the lowest degree about the court. STEEV. Lower messes." 'Messes' is evidently wrong. I think the Poet may have written nesses, i. e. ignorants. (Nescius Lat.) Nescii fari pueri. Hor. We may well suppose from the context that such will be the reading. Nescience is used by our old writers for ignorance. B. Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, I have lov'd thee- Leo. Make that thy question, and go But I cannot, &c.] In former copies, But I cannot Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, So sovereignly being honourable. I have lov'd thee Leo. Make that thy question, and go rot ?] rot! The last hemistich assign'd to Camillo must have been mistakenly placed to him. It is disrespect and insolence in Camillo to his king, to tell him that he has once lov'd him.—I have ventured at a transposition, which seems self-evident. Camillo will not be persuaded into a suspicion of the disloyalty imputed to his mistress. The king, who believes nothing but his jealousy, provoked that Camillo is so obstinately diffident, finely starts into a rage, and cries: I've lov'd thee-Make't thy question, and go rot! ie. I have tendered thee well, Camillo, but I here cancel all former respect at once. If thou any longer make a question of my wife's disloyalty, go from my presence, and perdition overtake thee for thy stubbornness. THEOB. I have admitted this alteration, as Dr. Warburton has done, but am not convinced that it is necessary. Camillo, desirous to defend the queen, and willing to secure credit to his apology, begins, by telling the king that he has loved him, is about to give instances of his love, and to infer from them his present zeal, when he is interrrupted. Joan. I have restored the old reading. Camillo is about to tell Leontes how much he had loved him. The impatience of the king interrupts him by saying: Make that thy question, i. e. make the love of which you boast, the subject of your future conversa.ion, and go to the grave with it. I have lov'd thee STEEV. In the first and second folio, these words are the conclusion of Camillo's speech. The later editors have certainly done right in giving them to Leontes; but I think they would come in better at the end of the line: Make that thy question, and go rot !---I have lov'd thee. TYRWH. I have lov'd thee.' Mr. Steevens informs us that he has restored the old reading: and this, indeed, is his constant practice whenever the reading is wrong. The words in question must be given to Leontes. B. Pol. As you are certainly a gentleman; thereto In whose success we are gentle; I know not whether success here does not mean succession. JOHN. Gentle in the text is evidently opposed to simple; alluding to the distinction between the gentry and yeomanry. STEEV. 'Gentle' should be printed gentile, gentil, French. B. Cam. I am appointed Him to murder you. i. e. am the person appointed to murder you. STEEV. I am appointed him to murder you.' A Grecism. There are other passages in Shakspeare in which the Hellenistic expression is found, and which I have there noticed in proof of his some acquaintance with the learned languages." Small Latin, and less Greek." B. Cam. He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears, As he had seen't, or been an instrument To vice you to't,-that you have touch'd his queen To vice you to't,- i. e. to draw, persuade you. The character called the Vice, in the old plays, was the tempter to evil. WARB. The vice is an instrument well known; its operation is to hold things together. So the bailiff speaking of Falstaff: "If he come but within my vice, &c." A vice, however, in the age of Shakspeare, might mean any kind of clock-work or machinery. It may, indeed, be no more than a corruption of "to advise you." So, in the old metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. 1. no date: "Then said the emperour Ernis, My first attempt at explanation is, I believe, the best. STEEV. 6 To vice you to it. To vice,' or vise, you to it,' i. e. to force you to it. Vis (lat.) force: or it may be formed on the French exSHAK. I. pression. Viser à quelque chose. To drive at a thing; to urge it in a particular manuer, Mr. Steevens, if at any time he may have visited the Delphic temple, has profited little by the inscription there. He certainly does not know himself; for his first attempt at explanation, is as bad as his last. B. Give me thy hand; Be pilot to me, and thy places shall And thy places shall Still neighbour mine :] Perhaps Shakspeare wrote And thy paces shall," &c. Thou shalt be my conductor, and we will both pursue the same path.-The old reading however may mean-wherever thou art, I will still be near thee. MAL. Thy places shall stilt neighbour mine. The present reading is extremely harsh. Shakspeare frequently makes use of Latin, French, and Italian words; anglicising them at his pleasure. I think he has here taken an expression from the latter language-pace [peace, quiet] and of which he has made paces, i. e. comforts. "Give me thy hand," says Polixenes; "Go with me and thy peace and comfort shall always be as mine own." Or he may have employed the English word peace, plurally, for comforts, enjoyments. B. Pol. Good expedition be my friend, and comfort. The gracious queen, part of his theam, but nothing Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! Good expedition be my friend, and comfort The gracious queen, -] But how could this expedition comfort the queen? on the contrary, it would increase her husband's suspicion. We should read, -and comfort The gracious queen's; i. e. be expedition my friend, and be comfort the queen's friend. The Oxford editor has thought fit to paraphrase my correction, and so reads; · ---Heaven comfort The gracious queen; WARB. Dr. Warburton's conjecture is, I think, just; but what shall be done with the following words, of which I can make nothing? Perhaps the line which connected then to the rest is lost. ---and comfort The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Jealousy is a passion compounded of love and suspicion; this passion is the theme or subject of the King's thoughts.-Polixenes, perhaps, wishes the queen, for her comfort, so much of that theme or subject as is good, but deprecates that which causes misery. May part of the king's present sentiments comfort the queen, but away with his suspicion. This is such meaning as can be picked out. JOHN. The obscurity of this passage arises from the wrong pointing. I read, "Good expedition be my friend and comfort, "The gracious queen part of his theme, but nothing The meaning is-may expedition be my friend and comforter; and may the queen again become his [Leontes'] theme, but without suspicion. B. Leo. With violent hefts. -violent hefts :-- -] Hefts are heavings, what is heaved up. So, in Sir Arthur Gorges' Translation of Lucan, 1614: "But if a part of heaven's huge sphere "Thou chuse thy pond'rous heft to beare. STEEV. • Violent hefts.' Heft' is weight. The word, however, has no sense here. We must read: hests, i. e. heats, violent actions. B. Leo. He hath discover'd my design, and I He hath discover'd my design, and I Alluding to the superstition of the vulgar, concerning those who were enchanted, and fastened to the spot by charms superior to their own. WARB. The sense, I think, is, He hath now discovered my design, and I am treated as a mere child's baby, a thing pinched out of clouts, a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please. Dr. Warburton's supposed allusion to enchantments is quite beside the purpose. Rev. This sense is possible, but many other meanings might serve as well. JOHN. "Pinch'd thing" should certainly be pinchin, i. e. one who is to be played upon. The word is used by Chaucer. Pincer, Fr. to jeer, to banter, or we may read "pinc'd thing,"-one who is mocked or made a jest of. B. Leo. Away with her to prison: He, who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty But that he speaks. He who shall speak for her is far off guilty, But that he speaks.] Far off guilty, signifies, guilty in a remote degree. JoHN. I think we should read, "He who shall speak for her afar off, is guilty Meaning, he who barely insinuates that she is innocent, &c. B. Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves: You are abus'd, and by some putter-on, |