P. 128, d. 13. 14. - to be in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed-] A cant phrase to signify the danger of marrying. Certain French writer uses the same kind of figu re, mon Ami, j'aimerais mieux être tombée sur la point d'un Oreiller, et m'être rompû le Cou." WARBURTON, P. 129, 1. 7-9. there they show Something too liberal;] Liberal I have already shown to be mean, gross, coarse, licens tious. JoHNSON, So, in Othello: „Is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor? P. 129, 1202) J STEEVENS.. A hood mine eyes] Alluding to the manner of covering a hawk's eyes. P. 129, 1. 94. Like one well studied in a sad ostent] Grave appear. ance; show of staid and serious behaviour. JOHNSON. » Ostent -is a word very commonly used for show among the old dramatik writers. STEEVENS. 1. P. 129, 1. 26. Bearing is carriage, deportment. ASTELVENS. P. 150, 1. 17, If a Christian do not play the knave, and get thee,] I suspect that the wag gish Launcelot designed this for a broken sentence —‹,,and get thee implying, get thee with child. Mr. Malone, however, supposes him to mean only carry thee away from thy father's house. --- STEEVENSA I should not have attempted to explain so easy a passage, if the ignorant editor of the second folio, thinking probably that the word get must necessarily mean beget, had not altered the text, and substituted did in the place of do, the read ding of all the old and authentick editions; "in which he has been copied by every subsequent editor. Launcelot is not talking about Jessica's father, but about her future husband. I am aware that,in a subsequent scene, he says to Jessica, Marry, you may partly hope your father got you not" but he is now on another subject.· MALONE. P. 131, 1. 9. From the general censure expressed in the prced. ing note Lake leave to exempt Mr. Reed; who, by following the first folio was no sharer in the inexpiable guilt of the second. STEEVENS, We have not spoke us yet of torch-bearers. See the note in Romeo and Juliet, Act. 1. sc. iv. have not spoke us yet, etc. i. e. we have yet bespoke us, etc. Thus the old copies. may, however, mean, we have not as yet consult ed on the subject of torch - bearers. Mr. Pope We ot It P. 131, 1.-19. To break up was a term in carving. STEEVENS, P. 133, 1. 42. I am bid forth] I am invited. To bid in old language meant to pray. MALONE. P. 133, l. 15. 16. But yet I'll go in hate, to feed upon The prodigal Christian. —] Shylock forgets his resolution. In a former scene he de clares he will neither eat, drink, nor pray with Christians. Of this circumstance the poet was aware, and meant only to heighten the malignity of the character, by making him depart from his most settled resolve, for the prosecution of his revenge. STEEVENS... P. 155, 1. 26. „Black Monday is Easter-Monday, and was so called on this occasion: in the 34th of Edward III. (1560) the 14th of April, and the morrow after Easter day, King Edward, with his host, lay before the city of Paris; which day was full dark of mist and hail, and so bitter cold, that many men died on their horses backs with the cold. Wherefore, unto this day, it hath been called the Blacke - Monday." Stowe, p. 264 6. GREY. ** It appears from a passage in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592, that some superstitious belief was annexed to the accident of bleeding at the nose:,,As" he' stood gazing, his nose on a sudden bled, which made him conjecture it was some friend of his." STEEVENS. One that was superstitious would count this ominous, when it merely comes by chance.“ P. 154, 1) 11. It's worth a Jew's eye, is a proverbial phrase. WHALLEY. P. 134, 1. 15. The patch] This term should seem to have come into use from the name of a celebrated fool. This I learn from Wilson's Art of Rhetorique, 1555,,A word making, called of the Grecians Onomatopeia, is when we make words of our own mind, such as be derived from the nature of things; as to call one Patche, or Cowlson, whom we see to do a thing foolishly; because these two in their time were notable fools." Probably the dress which the celebrated Patche wore, was, in allusion to his name, patched or parti-coloured. Hence the stage fool has ever since been exhibited in a motley coat. Patche, of whom Wilson speaks, was Cardinal Wolsey's fool. MALONE. P. 155, 1. 4. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons Ay] Lovers have in Vol. IV. 23 poetry been always called Turtles or Doves, which in lower language may be pigeons. JOHNSON. P. 135, 1. 16. The skarfed bark —] i, e. the vessel decorated with flags. STEEVENS. P. 135, 1. 18. How like a prodigal doth she return;] Surely the bark ought to be of the masculine gender, other wise the allusion wants somewhat of propriety. This indiscriminate use of the personal for the neuter, at least obscures the passage, A ship, how ever, is commonly spoken of in the feminine geu der. STEEVENS. P. 135, 1. 29. I'll watch as long for you then. Approach; ] Read, with a slight variation from Sir T. Hanmer; ,,I'll watch as long for you. Come then, approach," RITSON. P. 136, 1. 51. Now, by my hood, a Gentile, and no Jew.] A jest arising from the ambiguity of Gentile, which signifies both a Heathen, and one well barn. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson rightly explains this. There is an old book by one Ellis, entitled,,,The Gentle Sin ner, or England's brave Gentleman." FARMER To. understand Gratiano's oath, it should be recollected that he is in a masqued habit, to which it is probable that formerly, as at present, a large cape or hood was affixed. MALONE. Gratiano alludes to the practice of friars, who frequently swore by this part of their habit. STEEVENS, 1 P. 138, 1. 3. This third, dull lead, with warn ing all as blunt;] That is, as gross as the dull metal. JOHNSON. ribs inclose the viscera. STEEVENS. STEEVENS. The meaning is that the figure of the angel is raised or embossed on the coin, not engraved on it. TUTET. P. 140, 1. 5. Gilded tombs do worms infold,] In all the old editions this line is written thus: Gilded timber do worms infold. From which Mr. Rowe and all the following edi tors have made : Gilded wood may worms infold. A line not bad in itself, but not so applicable to the occasion as that which, I believe, Shakspeare wrote: Gilded tombs do worms infold. A tomb is the proper repository of a death's head. JOHNSON. P. 140, 1. 8. Your answer had not been inscrol'd:] Since there is an answer inscrol'd or written in every casket, I believe for your we should read -this. When the words were written yr and ys, the mistake was easy. JOHNSON. P. 140, 1. 17. The old quarto editions of 1600 have no distribution of acts, but proceed from the beginning to the end in an unbroken tenour. This play, therefore, having been probably divided without authority by the publishers of the first folio, lies open to a new regulation, if any more commodious division can be proposed. The story is itself so wildly incredible, and the changes of the scene so frequent and capricious, that the probability of action does not deserve much care: yet it may be proper to observe, that, by |