is highly expressive. But what is meant by a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree of heaven, I am yet to learn. We surely need not hesitate in setting down the parenthetical part of the sentence as an interpolation of the players, and read

'As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver,

Should, with a bond of air, knit Greekish ears.'

I find no other difficulty in the passage. B.

Ulys. Success, or loss, what is, or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to maké paradoxes.

To make paradores] Paradores may have a meaning, but it is not clear and distinct. I wish the copies had given;

་

to make parodies. JOHN.

To make paradoxes.'

By to make paradoxes,' he means to make surprising, and perhaps inconsistent, representations. Paradoxes in this place is much superior to parodies, as proposed by Johnson. The meaning of the latter, indeed, would be remarkably poor and feeble here. B.

Nest. Ajax is grown self-will'd; and bears his head
In such a rein, in full as proud a place

As broad Achilles :

'As broad Achilles.'

Broad' may in this place have the sense of large, stout, but I should much rather read braid,' i. e. mocking, deceitful, as agreeing excellently with all that has gone before. We find in our author

-Since Frenchmen are so braid,

Marry them who will, I'll live aud die a maid.' B.

Nest. To weaken and discredit our exposure
How rank soever rounded in with danger.

To weaken and discredit our exposure.'

To weaken' is here improperly used in an active sense. The meaning is, to represent our situation as being particularly weak. B. How rank soever rounded in with danger.] A rank weed is a high weed. The modern editions silently read,

How hard soever--JOHN.

'How rank soever rounded in with danger.'

Rank' is in this place without meaning. We must read and point, 'How ranch soever: rounded in with danger.' Ranch is the old word for strained, and here used in the sense of constrained, straitened, in difficulty. Of ch was made k, as if derived from the Greek. B.

Ene. But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls,

Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's ac· cord,

Nothing so full of heart.

-They have galls,

Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and Jove's accord,
Nothing so full of heart.]

As this passage is printed, I cannot discover any meaning in it. If there be no corruption, the semicolon which is placed after swords, ought rather to be placed after the word accord; of which however the sense is not very clear. I suspect that the transcriber's ear deceived him, and would

read

-They have galls,

Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and Jove's a god
Nothing so full of heart. MAL.

'Accord' is certainly right. 'Jove's accord' is, Jove gives sanction to their proceedings. Jove is their protector. There is here an ellipsis which obscures the meaning-And [having] Jove's sanction, no people can be more full of heart, or stouter, than they are.' B.

Agam. Fair lord Eneas, let me touch your hand;

'Fair lord Æneas, let me touch your hand.'

We should read fayre, i. e. honorable, to distinguish the word from fair, beautiful, handsome. B.

Nest. The purpose is perspicuous, even as substance
Whose grossness little characters sum up:

The purpose is perspicuous even us substance,
Whose grossness little characters sum up :]

That is, the purpose is as plain as body or substance; and though I have collected this purpose from inany minute particulars, as a gross body is made up of small insensible parts, yet the result is as clear and certain as a body thus made up is palpable and visible. This is the thought, though a little obscured in the conciseness of the expression. WARB.

Substance is estate, the value of which is ascertained by the use of small characters, i. e. numerals. The gross sum is a terín used in the Merchant of Venice. Grossness has the same meaning in this instance. STEEV. 'Whose grossness,' &c.

Dr. Warburton has rightly explained the passage. Mr. Steevens's interpretation is highly nonsensical. B.

Although particular,, shall give a scantling
Of good or bad unto the general;

And in such indexes, although small pricks

To their subsequent volumes, there is seen

The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come at large.

Scantling.JThat is, a measure, proportion. The carpenter cuts his wood

to a certain scantling. Joux.

Scantling.'

Scantling' means not only measure, proportion, as Dr. Johnson has interpreted it; but a sample, a pattern. The latter is the sense required here; as the lines immediately following will shew. general' is the whole of us'— our entire number.' B.

Small pricks.] Small points compared with the volumes. JoHN.

'The

Small pricks. Pricks' should be prir (French), worth, value. These indexes, though of little value when compared with the volumes,' &c. B.

Ulyss. And we were better parch in Africk sun,
Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes,
Should he 'scape Hector fair.

Should he 'scape Hector fair,' sounds oddly. The meaning is, should he escape from Hector with honor. It will be better to read, 'scape Hector fairly: or we may print fayre; the old word for honor.

B.

Ajar. Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak:
I will beat thee into handsomeness.

Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak:] The reading obtruded upon us by Mr. Pope, was unsalted leaven, that has no authority or countenance from any of the copies; nor that approaches in any degree to the traces of the old reading, you whinid'st leaven. This, it is true, is corrupted and unintelligible; but the emendation, which I have coined out of it, gives us a sense apt and consonant to what Ajax would say unwinnowd'st leaven. Thou lump of sour dough, kneaded up out of a flower unpurged and unsified, with all the dross and bran in it.”

THEOB.

Speak then, thou whinid'st leaven,] This is the reading of the old copies it should be windyest, i. e. most windy; leaven being made by a great fermentation. This epithet agrees well with Thersites

character. WARB.

Hanmer preserves whinid'st, the reading of the folio; but does not explain it, nor do I understand it. If the folio be followed, I read vinew'd, that is, mouldy leaven. Thou composition of mustiness and sourness.-Theobald's assertion, however confident, is false. Unsalted leaven is in the old quarto. It means sour without salt, malignity without wit. Shakspeare wrote first unsalted; but recollecting that want of sult was no fault in leaven, changed it to vinew'd. JOHN.

Speak then, thou unsalted leaven, speak.' I read and explain the passage as follows,-' whinid'st' as in the old copy, being apparently the poet's word. Leaven' should, I think, be levin, i. e. lightning-here used for quick; or, (more forcibly), quick as lightning.

Speak then, thou whinid'st: levin, speak !'

I will beat thee into handsomeness."

i. e. Speak, then, for thou [whinid'st] hast hitherto done nothing but whine or make a noise, (alluding to his loose, incoherent expression) quick! quick as lightning speak [or] I will beat thee into [handsomeness], proper behaviour. The employing of the substan

five adjectively or adverbially is so common with Shakspeare that it is scarcely necessary to observe on it. Unsalted' is not in the original text. B.

Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach bids me, shall I

- when Achilles' brach bids me,--] The folio and quarto read,Achilles' brooch. Brooch is an appendant ornament. The meaning may be equivalent to one of Achilles' hangers-on. JOHN.

Bruch I believe to be the true reading. He calls Patroclus, in contempt, Achilles' dog. STEEV.

'When Achilles' brach bids me.' The true reading will most likely be brock, i. e. badger. By calling him badger (amphibious animal) he means to say that Patroclus is fitted for either element land or water that he might be compelled to live in this or that at the pleasure of Achilles; in other words that he was his creature. This is more forcible than either brach or brooch, B.

Troi. And buckle-in a waist most fathomless,
With spans and inches so diminutive

As fears and reasons? fie, for godly shame!

Fie for godly shame.' Read goodly (i. e. great, real) shame. B. Troi. You are for dreams and slumbers, brother priest, You fur your gloves with reason.

You for your gloves with reason.' What a blessed reading is here! as Mr. Theobald would say. Seriously, however, do the Editors understand it? I fancy they have never asked themselves the question. I read,

To fur is to clothe, (se fourrer fr.) gloze' is flattery. The meaning is, you dress out your flattery in the garb of reason.

Troi.

Why do you now

The issue of your proper wisdoms rate;

And do a deed that fortune never did,

B.

And do a deed that fortune never did,] If I understand this passage, the meaning is Why do you, by censuring the determination of your own wisdoms, degrade Helen, whom fortune has not yet deprived of her value, or against whom, as the wife of Paris, fortune has not in this war so declared, as to make us value her less?' This is very harsh, and much strained. Jous.

'Fortune never did. For did' I would read bid, i. e. ordered. The sense is then easy. -B..

Par. Else might the world convince of levity
As well my undertakings, as your counsels:

Else might the world convince of levity. This should be, • Conceive of levity

As well my undertakings as your counsels.'

i. e. The world would charge us with levity, with want of thought in our proceedings. The latin sense of convict or prove, is here improper. B.

Patr. Why am I a fool?

Ther. Make that demand of the prover.

of the prover—-] So the quarto. JOHN. The folio profanely reads,-to the creator. STEEV.'

་

-- Of the prover.' The better reading will be of the prover:" the meaning is, ask thyself who canst prove it.' With respect to the expression as found in the folio, the Creator,' it should be the creature, as he had before insinuated of Patroclus on account of his attachment to Achilles-see note, Act 2, Sc. 1. on the word brock. But prover, as I have already said, is the word to be preferred, as being the more sarcastic. The piety of Mr. Steevens, like the virtue of the prude, too readily takes aların. B.

Agam. Here tend the savage strangeness he puts on; Here tend the savage strangeness.' This is not very clear. We may read, Here shend, &c.' i. e. reprove, blame. B.

Agam. A stirring dwarf we do allowance give
Before a sleeping giant:---

-allowance give] Allowance is approbation. So in King Lear:
-if your sweet sway

Allow obedience. STEEV.

Allowance give. Allowance' is permission: the meaning is, a dwarf may be permitted to shrew his feats, to play his anticks, in the presence (if so it may be termed) of a sleeping giant ; who, were he awake, might be justly displeased with them: 'before' is not, as the editor seems to suppose, in preference to. B.

Ulyss.
Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines
Thy spacious and dilated parts:

I will not praise thy wisdom,

--like a bourn,-] A bourn is a boundary, and sometimes a rivulet dividing one place from another. STEEV.

'Like a bourn.' 'Bourn' is properly a river. It should here be written borne, which signifies a limit, a boundary. B.

Serv. With him, the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of beauty, love's invisible soul,

--love's visible soul,-] So Hanmer. The other editions have in