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case at beast, we shall have a clear and easy sense. passage thus:

Some rode beast's this: there does not live a man-
Timon is dead, who hath out-stretch'd his span.'

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Rode (French) roving, wild. What is this?' says the soldier, on discovering the cave of Timon. This is surely the habitation of some wild beast:' [' there']' in such a place no man can live.' Then,` on a nearer approach, and seeing the tomb, he exclaims, Timon is dead.'

B.

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Priam's six-gated city

(Dardan, and Thymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Troyan, And Antenoridas) with massy staples,

And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts,

Sperrs up the sons of Troy.

-fulfilling bolts,] To fulfil in this place means to fill till there be no room for more. STEEV.

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Fulfilling cannot, in this place, have the sense that Mr. Steevens has annexed to it, fulfilling bolts,' must here signify, bolts that answer the end for which they were made: bolts that fit their sockets well; bolts that render us secure.' B.

And hither am I come

A prologue arm'd, but not in confidence
Of author's pen, or actor's voice; but suited
In like conditions as our argument.

To tell you, fair beholders, that our play
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils,

-the vaunt-] i. e. the avant, what went before. STEEV.

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-The vaunt'

Leaps o'er the vaunt' means, I think,-Inquires not particularly into the cause of the contention; the wordy part of the business,' (i. e. the talking, boasting, part) says the prologue,' we pass over prepare at once for blows: and therefore am I armed, &c.'. B.

and

Pan. Will this geer ne'er be mended?

Will this geer ne'er be mended?] There is somewhat proverbial in this question, which I likewise meet with in the Interlude of King Darius,

1565:

Wyll not yet this gere be amended,

'Nor your sinful acts corrected?' STEEV.

Will this

geer, &c.

'Geer,' or rather gere is a prank, a frolic. The meaning of will this geer ne'er be mended?' is nearly the same as the expression now used by us; will kis wild oats never be sown? B.

Sero.

Hector, whose patience

Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was mov'd:

He chid Andromache, and struck his armourer;

-Hector, whose patience,
Is, as a virtue, fix'd,—]

Patience sure was a virtue, and therefore cannot, in propriety of expression, be said to be like one. We should read:

Is as the virtue fix'd,-

i. e. his patience is as fixed as the goddess Patience itself. WARB.

I think the present text may stand. Hector's patience was as a virtue, not variable and accidental, but fixed and constant. If I would alter it, it should be thus:

-Hector, whose patience

Is all a virtue fix'd,

All, in old English, is the intensive or enforcing particle. JoHN.

'Is as a virtue fix'd.' ·

Is as a virtue' means not, as Warburton supposes, like a virtue. The poet would insinuate that Hector's patience (being a virtue) is, as a virtue should be, fixed. There is here an ellipsis, which is very -common with Shakspeare, and which I have noticed elsewhere. B.

Cre. Is he so young a man, and so old a lifter?

-So old a lifter?] The word lifter is used for a thief by Green, in his Art of Coney-catching, printed 1591: on this the humour of the passage may be supposed to turn. We still call a person who plunders shops, a shop-lifter. STEEV.

'So old a lifter? By lifter' we are not here to understand thief. What sort of humour could there be in that? There is a play on the words lift, raise up, and lefte, loving, amorous, as used by Chaucer, Spenser, and other ancient writers. Is he so young a man, and so old a lefeter?' i. e. so old a lover. B.

Pan. When comes Troilus?-I'll shew you Troilus anon; if he see me, you shall see him nod at me Cre. Will he give you the nod?

Pan. You shall see.

Cre. If he do, the rich shall have more.

The rich shall have more.] To give one the nod, was a phrase signifying to give one a mark of folly. The reply turns upon this sense, alluding to the expression give, and should be read thus :

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The mich shall have more

i. e. much. He that has much folly a ready shall then have more. This was a proverbial speech, implying that benefits fall upon the rich. The Oxford editor alters it to,

-The rest shall have none. WALLB,

I wonder why the commentator should think any emendation necessary, since his own sense is fully expressed by the present reading. Hanmer appears not to have un lers ood the passage. That to give the nod signifies to set a mark of folly, I do not know; the allusion is to the word noddy, which, as now, did in our author's time, and long before, signify a silly fellow, and may, by its etymology, signify likewise full of nods. Cressid means, that a noddy shall have more nods. Of such remarks as these is a comment to consist? JOHN.

To give the nod, was, I believe, a term in the game at cards called Noddy. This game is perpetually alluded to in the old comedies. See Vol. I. p. 143. STEEV.

"The rich shall have more,' &c.

Nolly and Noddy! What are the commentators thinking about? Pandarus says, 'when Troilus comes, you shall see him uod at me,' By this he means, that he shall be distinguished by Troilus from among the rest-that Troilus will honor him with a nod. To this Cressid makes answer, if you, [such a fellow as you] are distinguished by Troilus, the rich will be more particularly noticed by him,' thereby hinting at the court so generally paid to the wealthy. B.

Pan Well, well? Why, have you any discretion? have you any eyes?

Why, have you any discretion?'

Discretion' is, in this place, the power of discrimination, A La, tin sense. B.

Cre. Upon my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secresy to defend mine honesty.

Upon my wit, to defend my wiles.] So read both the copies; yet perhaps the author wrote,

Upon my wit to defend my will.

The terms wit and will were, in the language of that time, put often in opposition. JouN.

Upon my wit to defend my wiles'-The reading of the old copies is right. The pleasantry would be lost in the change proposed by Johnson, upon my cunning, to conceal my cunning.' Ars est celare artem, as the commentator might have known. B.

Nest:

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Where's then the saucy boat,

Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rival'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune.

Where's then the saucy boat,

Or made a toast for Neptune.'

It may be presumed that the editors are pleased with the conceit of a boat being made a toast for Neptune, by allowing the expression to stand in the text. To me it appears ridiculous. I therefore alter it to made a tot for Neptune,' i. e. become the property, or right of Neptune. Tot is a word used in the exchequer for marking a debt, or tax-money, due to the king. B.

Ulys. I give to both your speeches, which were such
As Agamemnon and the band of Greece

Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,

Should with a bond of air (strong as the axle-tree
On which heaven rides) knit all the Greekish ears
To his experienced tongue,

-Speeches,-which were such,

As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece
Should hold up high in brass; and such again,
As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,
Should-knit all Greekish ears

To his experienc'd tongue :]

Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before him, and marks the characteristic excellencies of their different eloquence, strength, and sweetness, which he expresses by the different metals on which he recommends them to be engraven for the instruction of posterity. The speech of Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven in brass, and the tablet held up by him on the one side, and Greece on the other, to shew the union of their opinion. And Nestor ought to be exhibited in silver, uniting alt his audience in one mind by his soft and gente elocution. Brass is the common emblem of strength, and silver of gentleness. We call a soft voice a silver voice, and a persuasive tongue a silver tongue. I once read for hand, the band of Greece, but I think the text right. To hatch, is a term of art for a particular method of engraving. Hacher, to cut, Fr. JOHN.

In the description of Agamemnon's speech, there is a plain allusion to the old custom of engraving laws and public records in brass, and hanging up the tables in temples, and other places of general resort. As to what follows, if the reader should have no more conception than I have, of

-a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree

On which the heavens ride;

he will perhaps excuse me for hazarding a conjecture, that the true roading may possibly be:

-a bond of awe.

After all, the construction of this sentence is very harsh and irregular, but with that I meddle not, believing it was left so by the author. TYRW.

'Speeches which were such,

As Agamemnon, &c.'

By a bond of air we must understand persuasive words; a strong, forci ble, or, as it may be called, binding language. In this place, indeed, it

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