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compliment. The meaning is: "Nature is thy friend. Yet had it not been so, and even had fortune been thy foe, I can see what thou would'st be thought of-I can discover the consequence thou would'st have in the world, from thy many acquired excellencies." B.

Ford. She works by charms, by spells, by the figure, and such daubery as this is.

Such daubery.] Dauberies are disguises. So, in King Lear, Edgar says: "I cannot duub it further." STEEV.

"Such_daubery." "Daubery" here means foolery. Dauber, fr. to fool, to jeer. It has the same meaning in Lear. B.

Ford. You hag, you baggage, you poulcat, you ronyon! out! out! I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you. Ronyon!] Ronyon, applied to a woman, means, as far as can be traced, much the same with scull or scab spoken of a man. JOHN.

So, in Macbeth:

"Aroint thee witch, the rump-fed ronyon cries." From Rogneux, Fr. So, again : "The roynish clown,” in As you like it.

STEEV.

"Ronyon." See note, on Macbeth. Act I. Sc. 3. B.

Mrs. Ford. Methinks there would be no period to the jest, should he not be publicly sham'd.

No period.] Shakspeare seems, by no period, to mean, no proper catastrophe. Of this, Hanmer was so well persuaded, that he thinks it necessary to read, no right period. STEEV.

"Period to the jest."-She may mean that he would, if not publicly shamed, go on importuning them: that there would be no end to his solicitations for their favors. B.

Simp. I may not conceal them, sir.
Fal. Conceal them, or thou dy'st.

I may not conceal them, sir.
Conceal them, or thou dy'st.]

In both these instances Dr. Farmer thinks we should read, reveal.

STEEY.

I may not conceal them." There is a quibble here. Simple blunders, and uses conceal instead of reveal. Falstaff catches at it, and says; "aye conseil them,” (conseil Fr.) i. e. advise of them, or thou diest. B.

Fent. Fat Sir John Falstaff

IIath a great scene;

Fat Sir John Falstaff.] The words, Sir John, which are not in the first folio, were arbitrarily inserted in the second, to supply the metre. The corresponding passage in the early quarto, "Whereon fat Falstaff hath a

mighty scarre" (a misprint for scene), renders it highly probable that the omitted word was that above printed in Italics. I would therefore read, Without the show of both; wherein fat Falstaff

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Hath a great scene; the image of the jest
I'll show you at large.

A similar allusion to a custom still in use of hanging out painted representations of shows, occurs in Bussy d'Ambois :

"The witch policy makes him like a monster
"Kept only to show men for goddesse money:
"That false hagge often paints him in her cloth

"Ten times more monstrous than he is in troth." HEY.

"Fat Sir John Falstaff." "Scene" is very awkward here. "Scarre," with the earlier writers, is interest, share, or concern in. "Wherein fat Falstaff hath a mighty scarre," i. e. a business in which Falstaff is deeply concerned. B.

Fent. He shall likewise shuffle her away, While other sports are tasking of their minds, Tasking of their minds.] So, in another play of our author: some things of weight

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"That task our thoughts concerning us and France." STEEV. "Tasking their minds." Tasking here means engaging, taking up the whole of their attention. In the line,.

"That task our thoughts concerning us and France,"

task has its ordinary sense of something imposed, something which must be done. B.

Fent. Quaint in green, she shall be loose enrob'd, With ribbands pendant, flaring 'bout her head;

Quaint in green,] may mean fantastically drest in green. So, in Milton's Masque at Ludlow Castle:

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lest the place,

"And this quaint habit, breed astonishment."

Quaintness, however, was anciently used to signify gracefulness. In the
Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iii. sc. 1. quaintly is used for ingeniously:
ladder quaintly made of cords." STEEV.
In Daniel's Sonnets, 1594, it is used for fantastic.

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Prayers prevail not with a quaint disdayne. MAL. "Quaint in green." "Quaint" in this place is nicely, neatly. Coint, old French. B.

Fal. Away, I say; time wears: hold up your head, and mince.

Hold up your head, and mince.] To mince is to walk with affected deTicacy. So, in the Merchant of Venice: turn two mincing steps “Into a manly stride." STEEV.

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"Hold up your head and mince."

"Mince" must here mean

soften, palliate the matter, should it get wind. What has Falstaff to

do with her manner of walking? We now say mince the matter. B.

Quick. Fairies use flowers for their charactery. Charactery.] For the matter with which they make letters. JoHN. So, in another of our author's plays:

"All the charactery of my sad brows."

i. e. all that seems to be written on them. STEEV.

"

Charactery." Rather, their distinguishing marks, their insig

nia. B.

Fal. Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me; use me as you will.

Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me.] Though this be perhaps not unintelligible, yet it is an odd way of confessing his dejection, I should wish to read:

- ignorance itself has a plume o' me:

That is, I am so depressed, that ignorance itself plucks me, and decks itself with the spoils of my weakness. Of the present reading, which is probably right, the meaning may be, I am so enfeebled, that ignorance itself weighs me down and oppresses me. JoHN.

"Ignorance itself," says Falstaff, "is a plummet o'er me." If any alteration be necessary, I think, "Ignorance itself is a planet o'er me," would have a chance to be right. Thus Bobadil excuses his cowardice. "Sure I was struck with a planet, for I had no power to touch my weapon." FARM.

Perhaps Falstaff's meaning may be this: "Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me," i. e. above me; Ignorance itself is not so low as 1 am, by the length of a plummet line. TYRW.

If plume be the true reading, Falstaff, I suppose, meant to say, that even ignorance, however heavy, could soar above him. MAL.

"A plummet over me," is a very leaden reading indeed! Falstaff certainly means, that ignorance triumphs over him. We must therefore read plumet, Fr. a garland. "Ignorance itself is a plumet o'er me," i. e. ignorance wears the garland. B,

Midsummer Night's Dream.

ACT I. SCENE I.

The Palace of Theseus in Athens.

This play was entered at Stationers' Hall, Oct. 8, 1600, by Thomas Fisher. It is probable that the hint for it was received from Chaucer's Knight's Tule. Thence it is, that our author speaks of Theseus as duke of Athens. The tale begins thus:

“Whilom as old stories tellen us,

"There was a Duk that highte Theseus,

"Of Athenes he was lord and governour, &c." Late edit. v. 861. Lidgate too, the monk of Bury, in his translation of the Tragedies of John Bochas, calls him by the same title, chap. xii. l. 21.

"Duke Theseus had the victorye."

Creon, in the tragedy of Jocasta, translated from Euripides in 1566, is called Duke Creon:

So likewise Skelton:

"Not lyke Duke Hamilcar,

"Nor lyke Duke Asdruball."

Stanyhurst, in his translation of Virgil, calls Æneas, Duke Eneas; and in Heywood's Iron Age, 2d Part, 1632, Ajax is styled Duke Ajax, Pala medes, Duke Palamedes, and Nestor, Duke Nestor, &c. STEEV.

"Theseus Duke of Athens." It appears necessary to inform Mr. Steevens, that "Duke," in the several instances which he has quoted, is not the Duke, i.e. one of the order of uobility in England, as he evidently thinks; but the dur of the Latins, which signifies king, or a chief, a commander, whether by land or sea. Duke is therefore every way proper. In the vulgar translation of the Bible, duke is used for the mighty, the powerful man. B.

The. But, oh, methinks, how slow

This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,

Like to a step-dame, or a dowager,

Long withering out a young man's revenue.

Long WITHERING OUT a young man's revenue.] So, in Chapman's translation of the 4th B. of Homer:

"there the goodly plant lies withering out his grace." STEEV. We should read "lithering," i. e. lingering, or lingeringly. Apportioning, or dealing out slowly. The expression is therefore apt and pertinent. That a plant may lie withering, we want not to be told. But wheu Mr. Steevens has discovered that Shakspeare wrote withering (which, by the way, Shakspeare certainly did not,) and has also found out, that the word is made use of by another, he immediately brings it to illustrate his author, and without attending in the least to the sense. Lither is idle, lazy, sluggish. B.

The. Yea, and one

To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure, or disfigure it.

To you your father should be as a god,

One who compos'd your beauties; yea, and one,
To whom you are but as a form in wax,

By him imprinted, and within his power

To LEAVE the figure, or disfigure it.] We should read:
To 'LEVE the figure, &c.

i. e. releve, to heighten or add to the beauty of the figure, which is said to be imprinted by him. 'Tis from the French relever. Thus they say, Tapisseries relevées d'or. In the same sense they use enlever, which Maundeville makes English of in this manner." And all the walles withinne ben covered with gold and sylver, in fyn plates: and in the plates ben stories and batayles of Knightes ENLEVED." p. 228. WARB.

I know not why so harsh a word should be admitted with so little need; a word that, spoken, could not be understood, and of which no example can be shown. The sense is plain, you owe to your father a being which he may at pleasure continue or destroy. JOHN.

Lave" is the proper word. To lave, is a term of art in painting, and signifies to embellish, to beautify. B.

Her. Belike, for want of rain; which I could well Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes.

Beteem them-] Give them, bestow upon them. The word is used by Spenser. JOHN.

To "beteem," is to bring forth, to grow. We should read, "Yet could I well

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"Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes.” i. e. yet could I with my tears cause them to grow or flourish. B.

Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low ! Too high to be enthrall'd to love.] This reading possesses all the editions, but carries no just meaning in it. Nor was Hermia displeased at being in love; but regrets the inconveniences that generally attend the

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