romance much celebrated in our author's time, or a little before it. "When papistry (says Ascham, in his Schoolmaster,) as a standing pool, overflowed all England, few books were read in our tongue, saving certaine books of chivalry, as they said, for pastime and pleasure; which books, as some say, were made in monasteries by idle monks. As one for example La Morte d'Arthure." In this romance Sir Dagonet is King Arthur's fool. Shakspeare would not have shown his justice capable of representing any higher JOHNSON. character. Line 413. -a little quiver fellow,] Quiver means active, nimble. Line 438. - -about Turnbull-street;] Nash, in Pierce Pennieless his Supplication, commends the sisters of Turnbull-street to the patronage of the Devil. STEEVENS. Line 449. -over-scutched-] That is, whipt, carted. POPE. 451. -fancies, or his good-nights.] Fancies and Goodnights were the titles of little poems. One of Gascoigne's Goodnights is published among his Flowers. STEEVENS. Line 452. And now is this Vice's dagger] By Vice here the poet means that droll character in the old plays equipped with asses ears and a wooden dagger. It was very satirical in Falstaff to compare Shallow's activity and impertinence to such a machine as a wooden dagger in the hands and management of a buffoon. Line 458. THEOBALD. -beat his own name :] That is, beat gaunt, a fellow so slender, that his name might have been gaunt. JOHNSON. Line 463.- philosophers two stones-] i. e. "I will make him of twice the value of the philosopher's stone." Line 464. MALONE. -If the young dace-] That is, if the pike may prey upon the dace, if it be the law of nature that the stronger may seize upon the weaker, Falstaff may, with great propriety, devour Shallow. JOHNSON. ACT IV. SCENE I. Line 42. Led on by bloody youth,] Bloody youth is only sanguine youth, or youth full of blood, and of those passions which blood is supposed to incite or nourish. JOHNSON. Line 103. -commotion's bitter edge?] i. e. the edge of bitter strife and commotion; the sword of rebellion. Line 104. My brother general, &c. MALONE. I make my quarrel in particular.] Perhaps the meaning is My brother general, who is joined here with me in command, makes the commonwealth his quarrel, i. e. has taken up arms on account of publick grievances; a particular injury done to my own brother is my ground of quarrel.” MALONE. Line 119. Either from the king, &c.] Whether the faults of government be imputed to the time or the king, it appears not that you have, for your part, been injured either by the king or the time. JOHNSON. Line 183. That is intended in the general's name:] That is, this power is included in the name or office of a general. We wonder that you can ask a question so trifling. Line 191. JOHNSON. substantial form;] That is, by a pardon of due form and legal validity. JOHNSON. Line 194. We come within our awful banks again,] Awful banks are the proper limits of reverence. JOHNSON. Line 209. -consist upon,] Perhaps the meaning is, as our conditions shall stand upon, shall make the foundation of the treaty. A Latin sense. Line 224. MALONE. —wipe his tables clean;] Alluding to a table-book WARBURTON. of slate, ivory, &c. ACT IV. SCENE II. Line 283. You have taken up,] To take up is to levy, to raise in arms. JOHNSON. Line 291. common fence, i. e. drove by self-defence. -in common sense,] I believe Shakspeare wrote WARBURTON. Line 307. And so, success of mischief-] Success for succession. WARBURTON. -351. Therefore be merry, coz ;] That is-Therefore, notwithstanding this sudden impulse to heaviness, be merry, for such sudden dejections forebode good. JOHNSON. Line 366. let our trains &c.] That is, our army on each part, that we may both see those that were to have opposed us. JOHNSON. Exeunt.] It cannot but raise some indignation to find this horrid violation of faith passed over thus slightly by the poet, without any note of censure or detestation. JOHNSON. Shakspeare, here, as in many other places, has merely followed the historians who related this perfidious act without animadversion, and who seem to have adopted the ungenerous sentiment of Chorœbus: -dolus an virtus, quis in hoste requirat ?” But this is certainly no excuse; for it is the duty of a poet always to take the side of virtue. MALONE. ACT IV. SCENE III. Line 410. and the dungeon your place,-a place deep enough; so shall you still be Colevile of the dale.] The sense of dale is included in deep; a dale is a deep place; a dungeon is a deep place; he that is in a dungeon may be therefore said to be in a dale. JOHNSON. Line 427. The heat is past,] That is, the violence of resentment, the eagerness of revenge. Line 488. JOHNSON. -stand my good lord, `pray, in your good report.] To stand in a report, referred to the reporter, is to persist; and Falstaff did not ask the prince to persist in his present opinion. JOHNS. Line 494. -this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh;] Falstaff here speaks like a veteran in life. The young prince did not love him, and he despaired to gain his affection, for he could not make him laugh. Men only become friends by community of pleasures. He who cannot be softened into gaiety, cannot easily be melted into kindness. JOHNSON. Line 504. sherris-sack-] The epithet sherry or sherris, when added to sack, merely denoted the particular part of Spain from whence it came. MALONE. Line 508. imaginative. forgetive,] Forgetive from forge; inventive, JOHNSON. Line 539. I have him already tempering &c.] A very pleasant allusion to the old use of sealing with soft wax. WARBURTON. ACT IV. SCENE IV. Line 585. -humorous as winter,] That is, changeable as the weather of a winter's day. Dryden says of Almanzor, that he is humorous as wind. . JOHNSON. Line 586. congealed in the spring of day.] Alluding to the opinion of some philosophers, that the vapours being congealed in the air by cold, (which is most intense towards the morning,) and being afterwards rarified and let loose by the warmth of the sun, occasion those sudden and impetuous gusts of wind which are called flaws. WARBURTON. Line 597. Mingled with venom of suggestion,] Though their blood be inflamed by the temptations to which youth is peculiarly subject. MALONE. Line 600. rash gunpowder,] Rash is quick, violent, sudden. This representation of the prince is a natural picture of a young man, whose passions are yet too strong for his virtues. Johnson. Line 636. 'Tis seldom, when the bee &c.] As the bee, having once placed her comb in a carcase, stays by her honey, so he that has once taken pleasure in bad company, will continue to associate with those that have the art of pleasing him. JOHNSON. Line 685. Hath wrought the mure, &c.] i. e. the wall. POPE. -687. The people fear me ;] i. e. make me afraid. WARB. -689. Unfather'd heirs,] This is, equivocal births; animals that had no animal progenitors; productions not brought forth according to the stated laws of generation. JOHNSON. Line 706. Unless some dull and favourable hand-] Dull signi fies melancholy, gentle, soothing. JOHNSON. Line 734. -the ports of slumber—] i. e. gates. The word is yet used in this sense in Scotland. MALONE. Line 747. this golden rigol—] Rigol means a circle, and is still used in some counties. Line 803. Yield his engrossments-] His accumulations. JOHNSON. -seal'd up my expectation:] Thou hast confirmed JOHNSON. 830. my opinion. Line 855. England shall double gild his treble guilt;] Evidently the nonsense of some foolish player: for we must make a differ ence between what Shakspeare might be supposed to have written off hand, and what he had corrected. These scenes are of the latter kind; therefore such lines are by no means to be esteemed his. But, except Mr. Pope, (who judiciously threw out this line,) not one of Shakspeare's editors seem ever to have had so reasonable and necessary a rule in their heads, when they set upon correcting this author. WARBURTON. I know not why this commentator should speak with so much confidence what he cannot know, or determine so positively what so capricious a writer as our poet might either deliberately or wantonly produce. This line is, indeed, such as disgraces a few that precede and follow it, but it suits well enough with the daggers hid in thought, and whetted on thy stony heart; and the answer which the Prince makes, and which is applauded [by the King] for wisdom, is not of a strain much higher than this ejected line. JOHNS. Line 875. Which my most true &c.] True is loyal.—This passage is obscure in the construction, though the general meaning is clear enough. The order is, this obedience which is taught this exterior bending by my duteous spirit; or, this obedience which teaches this exterior bending to my inwardly duteous spirit. I know not which is right. JOHNSON. Line 890. in med'cine potable:] There has long prevailed an opinion that a solution of gold has great medicinal virtues, and that the incorruptibility of gold might be communicated to the body impregnated with it. Some have pretended to make potable gold, among other frauds practised on credulity. JOHNSON. Line 924. all these bold fears,] Fear is here used in the active sense, for that which causes fear. JOHNSON. Line 928. for what in me was purchas'd,] Purchased seems to be here used in its legal sense, acquired by a man's own act (perquisitio) as opposed to an acquisition by descent. MALONE. Line 931. successively.] By order of succession. Every usurper snatches a claim of hereditary right as soon as he can. JOHNSON. Line 942. To lead out many to the Holy Land;] The sense is: Of those who assisted my usurpation, some I have cut off, and many I intended to lead abroad. This journey to the Holy Land, of |