Ib., "Help, hold his brows!" &c. Speaking of Biron, not of the king. Ib., "Alas, poor Machabæus, how hath he been baited!" Pronounce Machabæus with the a broad, like the ai in baited; for no one who knows Shakespeare can doubt that a quibble is intended. Ib.,-" she's quick; the child brags already; 'tis yours." Point," brags already, 'tis yours." Ib., "I understand you not: my griefs are double. Biron. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief: " &c. 12 Not Malone, but Capell. The Old Corrector reads dull for double; this is certainly nearer to the trace of the letters, but we must not be over scrupulous in dealing with old copies that read deuice for hests. The context seems to me decisive in favour of deafe. To make a dull man understand it is not requisite to pierce his ear, but to sharpen his wit. Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1, "My ears are stopp'd, and cannot hear good news."-Ed. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. i. 1,-I think Shakespeare wrote, "Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung, Ib., "But earthlier-happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Compare Erasmus's Colloquies, Colloq. Proci et Puellæ,— "Ego rosam existimo feliciorem, quæ marcescit in hominis manu, delectans interim et oculos et nares, quam quæ senescit in frutice." I have noticed earthlier-happy, Art iii. Ib., "Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes." Spenser, F. Q., B. ii. C. i. St. lix., -- "But both alike, when death hath both supprest, undoubtedly the same word, though altered for the sake of the rhyme (weene-beene). this sense, see Var. notes. Ib., cr For other instances of beteem in Making it momentany as a sound." (Fol., momentarie.) Compare the old adjective miscellany; e.g., miscellany poems. Donne has momentane; Sermon cxlviii. ed. Alford,- a single, and momentane, and transitory man ;" and elsewhere; so also Stowe, teste Encycl. Metrop. in v. Elsewhere, however, I think Shakespeare uses momentary;1 see Twiss's Index. To Johnson's authorities for momentany, and Dryden cited by Henly (for which see Var. notes in loc. M.N.D.), might be added the English Bible of 1551, 2 Cor. iv. 17, quoted Encycl. Metrop. in v., and Udal, Tim. c. 6, ap. Richardson's Dictionary; also Bishop Hall (momentaniness), Encycl. Metrop. Fr., momentané. ii. 1, near the beginning, "The cowslips tall her pensioners be; In their gold coats spots you see.” The passage in Milton's Penseroso, 1. 6, alludes to the pensioners' dress, gaudy shapes As thick and numberless As the gay motes that people the sunbeams, Or likest hovering dreams, The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train." In those times, pensioners, like pursuivants, progresses, &c., were still things familiar, and naturally suggested themselves as subjects for simile or metaphor. Ib., "She never had so sweet a changëling." Middleton and Rowley, Spanish Gipsy, ii. 1, Old English Plays, vol. iv. p. 138, 1 One of the examples of momentary is in King Richard III., iii. 4, another in Troilus and Cressida, iv. 2; these consequently are supported by quarto authority. In M. N. D., Capell reads momentary, and has not mentioned momentany in his Various Readings.-Ed. "Yes, father, I will play the changeling; Ib., None but myself shall play the changeling." "I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes." This was perhaps a proverbial expression, or something like it. See Steevens's note in Var. Shakespeare. Beaumont and Fletcher, Queen of Corinth, ii. 4, Moxon, vol. ii. p. 32, col. 2, "Why, what a bunch of travel do I embrace now! iii. 1, “I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round," &c. Surely 'bout. Ib., "The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye, And when she weeps, weeps every little flower," &c. Alluding to the supposed origin of dew in the moon. Macbeth, iii. 5, Upon the corner of the moon There hangs a vaporous drop profound." Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, iv. 4, Moxon, vol. i. p. 279, col. 2, "Showers of more price, more orient, and more round 2 A humorous application of the phrase. It is worth observing that in the passage of Shakespeare the Old Corrector replaced round, which is omitted in the folios and in Roberts's quarto, though the sense does not require it, and the metre is obscured in those editions by a bad arrangement.-Ed. 2, "If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, Read with Coleridge,-" knee-deep." knee-deep." Compare Macbeth, I am in blood Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, Heywood, Woman Killed with Kindness, Dodsley, vol. vii. p. 268, Come, come, let's in ; Once o'er [over] shoes, we are straight o'er head in sin.” Qu., is it a proverbial phrase? Ib., "Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you." There is perhaps a line lost after the above. Ib., Therefore, be out of hope, of question, doubt, Be certain, nothing truer," &c. There seems a suspicious awkwardness here. Fol.,—“ of doubt.' "3 Qu., "Therefore, Be out of hope, of question, of doubt," &c. See S. V., Art lii. Ib., "Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red, 3 So all the old copies. Pope expelled the third of, which was brought back by Mr. Knight and Mr. Collier. Mr. Dyce appears from his note to incline to Pope's emendation.-Ed. VOL. III. 4 |