lofe money by him if you fell him for one knave, for he ferves

"for twayne."

This phrafeology is often met with: Arragon fays in the Merchant of Venice,

"With one fool's head I came to woo,
"But I go away with two."

Donne begins one of his fonnets,

"I am two fools, I know,

"For loving and for faying fo," &c.

And when Panurge cheats St. Nicholas of the chapel, which he vowed to him in a ftorm, Rabelais calls him "

" and an half-Le gallant, gallant et demy.”

a rogue-a rogue

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

(P. 193.) The adventures of Falstaff in this play feem to have been taken from the ftory of the Lovers of Pifa, in an old piece, 99 A late editor called "Tarleton's Nerves out of Purgatorie. pretended to much knowledge of this fort; and I am forry that it proved to be only pretention.

Mr. Warton obferves, in a note to the laft Oxford edition, that the play was probably not written, as we now have it, before 1607 at the earliest. I agree with my very ingenious friend in this fuppofition, but yet the argument here produced for it may not be conclufive. Slender cbferves to Master Page, that his greyhound was out-run on Cotfale; [Cotswold-Hills in Gloucefter fhire] and Mr. Warton thinks, that the games eftablished there by Capt. Dover in the beginning of K. James's reign, are alluded to.-But perhaps, though the Captain be celebrated in the Annalia Dubrenfia as the founder of them, he might be the reviver only, or fome way contribute to make them more famous; for in the 2d part of Henry IV. 1600, Juttice Shallow reckons amongst the Swinge-bucklers," Will Squeele, a Cotjole-man."

In the first edition of the imperfect play, Sir Hugh Evans is called on the title-page, the Welch Knight; and yet there are fome perfons who ftill affect to believe, that all our author's plays were originally published by himself.

(P. 194. n. 4)“ Ay, Coufin Slender, and Cuffalorum.”

I think with Dr. Johnson, that this blunder could fcarcely be intended. Shallow, we know, had been bred to the law at Clement's Inn.-But I would rather read cuftos only; then Slender "" He had heard the adds naturally, Ay, and rotulorum too words cuftos rotulorum, and fupp fes them to mean different offices.

(N. 5.) "The luce is the frefli fifh, the falt fifh is an old <coat.

004

I am

I am not fatisfied with any thing that has been offered on this difficult paffage. All that Mr. Smith tells us, is a mere gratis dictum. I cannot find that fält fish were ever really borne in heraldry. I fancy the latter part of the fpeech fhould be given to Sir Hugh, who is at crofs purpofes with the Justice. Shallow had faid just before, the coat is an old one; and now, that it is the luce, the freth fish.-No, replies the parfon, it cannot be old and fresh too—" the falt fish is an old coat." I give this with rather the more confidence, as a fimilar mistake has happened a little lower in the fcene. "Slice, I fay!" cries out Corporal Nym, Pauca, pauca: Slice, that's my humour." There can be no doubt, but pauca, pauca fhould be spoken by Evans. Again, a little before this, the copies give us,

66

Slender. You'll not confefs, you'll not confefs.

Shallow. That he will not-'tis your fault, 'tis fault-'tis a good dog.

Surely it fhould be thus,

Shallow. You'll not confefs, you'll not confess.
Slender. That he will not.

Shallow. 'Tis your fault, 'tis your fault, &c.

(P. 200. n. 6.) "Edward Shovel-boards," were not brafs caftors, but the broad fhillings of Edw. 6.

Taylor the water-poet, in his Travel of Twelve pence, makes him complain

"the unthrift every day

"With my face downwards do at hoave-board play;
"That had I had a beard, you may fuppofe,

They had worne it off, as they have done my nose." And in a note he tells us, " Edw. fhillings for the moft part are "ufed at hoave-board.”

(P. 208. n. 2.) The word is Gongarian in the first edition, and Thould be continued, the better to fix the allufion.

(P. 210. n. 7.) "The anchor is deep." Dr. Johnjon very acutely propofes" the author is deep." But as you have only given the previous text from the later editions, his correction is fcarcely ufed fairly. He reads with the firft copy, "he hath ftudy'd her "well. And from this equivocal word, Nym catches the idea of deepness. But it is almoft impoffible to afcertain the diction of this whimfical character: and I meet with a phrafe in Fenner's Comptor's Commonwealth, 1617, which perhaps may fupport the old reading, "Maiter Dekker's Bellman of London, hath fet forth "the vices of the time fo lively, that it is impoffible the anchor "of any other man's braine can found the fea of a more deepe and "dreadful mifcheefo."

(P. 213. n. 7.) The revolt of mine is dangerous," fays the corporal. This you truly obferve to be the old reading, and it is authority enough for the revolt of mien in modern orthography. Know you that fellow that walketh there? fays Eliot, 1593

"he

"he is an alchymift by his mine, and hath multiplied all to "moonshine".

(P. 219. n. 1.) Though love ufe reafon for his precifian, yet he "admits him not for his counfellor.". Dr. Johnson wishes to read phyfician; and this conjecture becomes almoft a certainty from a line in our author's 147th fonnet,

"My reafon the phyfician to my love, &c."

(P. 232. n. 9.) Dr. Warburton may be right; for I find equipage was one of the cant words of the time. In Davies' Papers Complaint (a poem which has erroneously been afcribed to Donne) we have several of them:

"Embellifh, blandifhment, and equipage."

Which words, he tells us in the margin, overmuch favour of witleffe affectation.

(P. 245. n. 1.) Thou art a Caftilian king, Urinal!" quoth mine hoft to Dr. Caius. I believe this was a popular flur upon the Spaniards, who were held in great contempt after the bufinefs of the Armada. Thus we have " a Treatife Parænetical, "wherein is thewed the right way to refift the Caftilian king :" and a fonnet prefixed to "Lea's Answer to the Untruths publish"ed in Spain, in glorie of their fuppofed Victory atchieved againft our English Navie," begins,

"Thou fond Caftilian king!" and fo in other places.

(P. 252.) "Peace, I fay, Gallia and Gaul, French and Welch.” Sir Thomas Hanmer reads Gallia and Wallia: but it is objected that Wallia is not eafily corrupted into Gaul. Poffibly the word was written Guallia.

(P. 270. n. 1.) Sir Tho. Hanmer reads according to Dr. Johnson's conjecture. This may be right.Or my Dame Quickly may allude to the proverb, a man of forty is either a fool or a phyfician; but the afferts her mafter to be both.

(P. 285. n. 5.) "They must come off, fays mine hoft; I'll fauce "them." This paffage has exercised the critics. It is altered by Dr. Warburton; but there is no corruption, and you have rightly interpreted it. The quotation however from Maflinger, which is referred to likewife by Mr. Edwards in his Canons of Criticism, fcarcely fatisfied Mr. Heath, and ftill lefs the laft editor, who gives us, "They must not come off." It is ftrange that any one converfant in old language, fhould hefitate at this phrafe. Take another quotation or two, that the difficulty may be effectually removed for the future. In John Haywood's play of the 4 P's, the pedlar fays,

"If you be willing to buy

Lay down money, come of quickly”.

In the widow, by Johnson, Fletcher, and Middleton,

if he

"will come off roundly, he'll fet him free too." And again in Fennor's Comptor's Commonwealth,· "except I would come off roundly, I fhould be bar'd of that priviledge," &c. (P.292.) Simple. May I be fo bold to fay fo, Sir?

Falstaf

Falfiaf. Ay, Sir, like who more bold.

In the first edition, the latter fpeech ftands,

"I Tike, who more bolde."— -And fhould plainly be read here, "Ay, Sir Tike," &c.

(P. 297.) "Send me a cool rut-time, Jove; or who can blame. "me to pifs my tallow." This, I find, is technical. In Turberville's Booke of Hunting, 1575. "During the time of their rut, "the harts live with small fuftenance.- -The red mushroome "helpeth well to make them pye their greace, they are then in fo vehement heate," &c.

(P. 308. n. 8.) Ignorance itself, fays Falftaff, is a plummet "o'er me." If any alteration be neceffary, I think, "Ignorance "itfelf is a planet o'er me," would have a chance to be right. Thus Bobadil excuses his cowardice, "Sure I was ftruck with a planet, for I had no power to touch my weapon."

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

(VOL. II. p. 15.)" Shall all our houses of refort in the suburbs "be pull'd down?"-This will be understood from the Scotch law of James's time, concerning huires (whores): " that comoun women be put at the utmost endes of townes, queire least perril "of fire is." Hence Urfula the pig-woman, in Bartholomew Fair, I, I, gamefters, mock a plain, plump, foft wench of the fub“urbs, do!"

(P. 31.) Why doft thou not fpeak, Elboru?" fays Angelo to the conftable." He cannot, Sir, quoth the Clown, he's out at "elbow." I know not whether this quibble be generally obferved: he is out at the word elbow, and out at the elbow of his coat. The conftable in his account of Mafter Froth and the clown, has a ftroke at the puritans, who were very zealous against the stage about this time: "Precife villains they are, that I am fure of; "and void of all profanation in the world, that good Chriftians ought to have."

(P. 49. n. 1.) Dr. Johnson did not know, nor perhaps Dr. Warburton either, that Sir W. Davenant reads flames instead of flaws in his Law against Lovers, a play almost literally taken from Meafure for Meajure, and Much ado about Nothing.

(P. 81. n. 9.) "Is there none of Pigmalion's images newly made woman, to be had now?" If Marston's Metamorphofis of Pigmalion's Image be alluded to I believe, it must be in the argument."The maide (by the power of Venus) was metamorphofed into a living woman." The remainder of Marfan's title is certain fatires, not images, as Ames has mifled you.

(P. 66.

(P. 66. n. 6.) I do not much like mercy fwear, the old reading: or mercy fewerve, Dr. Warburton's correction. I believe it fhould be, this would make mercy fevere.

(P. 96. n. 4.) Dr. Warburton did not do juftice to his own conjecture; and no wonder therefore, that Dr. Johnson has not.Tilth is provincially ufed for land till'd, prepared for fowing. Shakespeare, however, has applied it before in its usual acceptation.

(P. 108. n. 3.) A commodity of brown paper. You fupport this rightly. Fenner afks, in his Comptor's Commonwealth, "fuppofe "the commodities are delivered after Signior Unthrift and Mafter "Broaker have both fealed the bonds, how muft those hobby"horfes, Reams of brown paper, Jewes trumpes and bables, babies and rattles be folde?"

(P. 126. n. 1.)

"Come, Coufin Angelo,
"In this I'll be impartial: be you judge
"Of your own caufe."

Surely, fays Mr. Theobald, this duke had odd notions of impartiality-He reads therefore, "I will be partial," and all the editors follow him: even Mr. Heath declares the obfervation unanfwerable. But fee the uncertainty of criticifm! impartial was fometimes ufed in the fenfe of partial. In the old play of Swetnam the Woman-hater, Atlanta cries out, when the judges decree against the women,

"You are impartial, and we do appeal

"From you to judges more indifferent."

(P. 133. n. 6) The forfeits in a barber's hop are brought forward by Mr. Kenrick with a parade worthy of the fubject.

(P. 135. n. 8.) Show your fheep-biting face, and be hang'd an bour. Dr. Johnson's alteration is wrong. In the Alchemist, we meet with " a man that has been ftrangled an hour."

"What, Piper, ho! be hang'd a-while," is a line of an old madrigal.

COMEDY OF ERRORS.

(P. 161. n. 4.) Fair is frequently ufed fubftantively by the writers of Shakespeare's time. So Marston in one of his fatires, As the greene meads, whofe native outward faire Breathes fweet perfumes into the neighbour air. Hence in the Midfummer Night's Dream,

"Demetrius loves your fair," may be the right, as well as the old reading.

(P. 196. n. 1.) A morris pike is mentioned by the old writers as a formidable weapon; and therefore Dr. Warbur ton's notion is deficient in first principles. " Morespikes (fays

66

Langley