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So he is. My Lord, that's gone, made himself much sport out of him; by his authority he remains here, which he thinks is a patent for his sauciness; and, indeed, he has no pace, but runs where he will.

Should not we read—no place, that is, no station, or office in the family? A pace is a certain or prescribed walk; so we say of a man meanly obsequious, that he has learned his paces, and of a horse who moves irregularly, that he has no paces. JOHN.

"He has no pace," &c. I think "runs where he will," is not that he goes where he chooses, but that his tongue runs [he thinks he has a patent for his sauciness]. "Pace" appears to be the latin pace; and used by Shakspeare to signify that "the fool, or clown, the Countess's servant, never ceases [he has no pace] from uttering some nonsense; that he is an eternal babbler." The context will warrant this interpretation. B.

Enter a gentle Astringer.

Enter a gentle Astringer.] Perhaps a gentle stranger, i. e. a stranger of gentle condition, a gentleman. The error of this conjecture which I have learn'd (since our edition first made its appearance, from an old book of Falconry, 1633.) should teach diffidence to those who conceive the words, which they do not understand, to be corruptions. An ostringer or astringer is a falconer, and such a character was probably to be met with about a court which was famous for the love of that diversion. So, in Hamlet:

"We'll e'en to it like French Falconers." STEEV.

"A gentle Astringer." This remark respecting Editorship is the best which Mr. Steevens has made in the course of his work.. He has not, however, acted up to it, but supposes almost every expression to be corrupt, when he cannot find a corresponding one in the writers of the time. Nay, even when such expression is found, he frequently errs, and egregiously too, from not knowing the different significations of words. B.

Laf. Sirrah, you last night shall eat.

inquire further after me; I had talk of though you are a fool and a knave, you

You shall eat.] Parolles has many of the lineaments of Falstaff, and seems to be the character which Shakspeare delighted to draw, a fellow that had more wit than virtue. Though justice required that he should be detected and exposed, yet his vices sit so fit in him that he is not at last suffered to starve. JOHN.

"You shall eat." The wit of Parolles is not very evident, unless, indeed, we are to explain the term by what is now called low cunning. Lafeu (who calls him "a fool," and perhaps rightly) does not insinuate that "he shall eat" because his vices sit fit in him, but merely from a principle of humanity. He would not that any one should starve.

B.

King. I am not a day of season,

For thou may'st see a sun-shine and a hail

In me at once.

I am not a day of season. That is of uninterrupted rain. The word is still used in the same sense in Virginia, in which government, and especially on the eastern shore of it, where the descendants of the first settlers have been less mixed with later emigrants, many expressions of Shakspeare's time are still current. HENL

"I am not a day of season." Why must "a day of season" mean a day of uninterrupted rain? It appears to me from the whole of the king's speech that he is wavering and unsettled in his sentiments respecting Bertram. He therefore observes that "he is not a day of season;" that is to say, that he is by no means fixed in his opinions; or, in other words, that he is like one of those days in which there is at once both hail and sunshine, and whose character is consequently indeterminable. B.

Ber. Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me, Which warp'd the line of every other favor; Scorn'd a fair color, or express'd it stol'n.

Scorn'd a fair color, or express'd it stol'n.

Contempt is brought in lending Bertram her perspective glass, which does its office properly by warping the lines of all other faces; by extending or contracting into a hideous object: or by expressing or shewing native red and white as paint. But with what propriety of speech can this glass be said to scorn, which is an affection of the mind? we should read

Scorck'd a fair color, or express'd it stol'n;

i. e. this glass represented the owner as brown or tanned; or, if not so, caused the native colour to appear artificial. WARB.

The passage is corrupt: for, as Dr. Warburton rightly observes, a glass can hardly be made to scorn. But why should it be made to scorch? The poet certainly wrote,

"Scors'd a fair color," &c.

To scoss or scorse, in old language, is to change. B.

Ber.

I stood engag'd.

Noble she was, and thought

Noble she was, and thought

I stood engag'd.

The plain meaning is, when she saw me receive the ring, she thought me engag'd to her. JoHN.

The first folio reads-ingag'd, which perhaps may be intended in the same sense with the reading proposed by Mr. Theobald, i. e. not engaged; as Shakspeare in another place uses gag'd for engaged. Merchant of Venice, Act I. Sc. 1. TYRW.

"Thought I stood engaged." Ingaged can hardly be used for unengaged. Perhaps the poet may have written ungaged. B.

Laf. I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll for this. I'll none of him.

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I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toule for this.
I'll none of him.

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I will buy me a son-in-law in a faire, and toule him for this. I'll none of him.

The reading of the first copy seems to mean this: I'll buy me a new son-in-law, &c. and toll the bell for this; i. e. look upon him as a dead man.-The second reading, as Dr. l'ercy suggests, may imply: I'll buy me a son-in-law as they buy a horse in a fair; toul him, i. e. enter him on the toul or toll-book, to prove I came honestly by him, and ascertain my title to him.

Alluding (as Dr. Grey observes) to the two statutes relating to the sale of horses, 2 and 3 i hil. and Mary, and 31 Eliz. c. 12. and publicly tolling them in fairs, to prevent the sale of such as were stolen, and to preserve the property to the right owner.

If the reading of the second folio be the trae cne, we must alter the punctuation thus:

"I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll him: for this, I'll none of him." STEEV,

The commentators have totally mistaken the meaning of toule, We must read and point thus:

"I'll buy me a son-in-law in a fair: a toule. For this, I'll none

of him."

A toule is a toy. The word is found in Chaucer. Lafeu says, he will go to a fair, and buy a toy, a puppet for a son-in-law; he will have nothing to do with Bertram. B.

King, I wonder, sir, since wives are monsters to you; And that you fly them as you swear them lordship, Yet desire to marry.

you

I wonder, sir.] This passage is thus read in the first folio.
"I wonder, sir, sir, wives are monsters to you,

"And that you fly them, as you swear them lordship,
"Yet you desire to marry."

Which may be corrected thus:

“I wonder, sir, since wives are monsters," &c.

The editors have made it-"wives are so monstrous to you,” and in the pext line-swear to them, instead of swear them lordship. Though the latter phrase be a little obscure, it should not have been turned out of the text without notice. I suppose lordship is put for that protection, which the husband in the marriage-ceremony promises to the wife,

TYRW.

I read with Mr. Tyrwhitt, whose emendation I have placed in the text. STEEV.

"I wonder, Sir." The seeming error in the first folio is nothing more than this sin' i. e. since-imperfectly printed; so that the appeared like r. B.

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That it alone is high-fantastical.

-So full of shapes is fancy,

That it alone is high fantastical.

High fantastical means fantastical to the height!

So, in All's Well that ends Well :

"My high-repented blames,

"Dear sovereign, pardon me."

STEEV.

That it alone is high-fantastical."

Query hight fantastical. Called (par excellence, as the French say) fantastical. B,

Sir To. He's as tall a man as any's in Illyria.
As tall a man.] Tall means stout, courageous. STEEV.

"Tall" does not here mean stout, courageous, but great, of elevated mien, and in the farther sense of perfect, accomplish'd: reλheis [perfectus] whence Casaubon derives tall. This interpretation gives pleasantry to the scene. B.

Sir To. He's a coward, and a coystril, and will not drink to my niece, till his brains turn o'the toe like a

parish-top. What, wench? Castiliano volgo; for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face.

coystril,——-] i. e. a coward cock. It may however be a kestril or a bastard hawk; a kind of stone hawk. STEEV.

A coystril is a paltry groom, one only fit to carry arms, but not to use them. So, in Holished's Description of England, vol. I. p. 162: "Costerels, or bearers of the armes of barons or knights.” Vol. III. p. 248: "So that a knight with his esquire and coistrell with his two horses." P. 272, "women, lackies, and coisterels, are considered as the warlike attendants on an army. So again, in p. 127, and 217 of his History of ScotLand. For its etymology, see Coustille and Coustillier in Cotgrave's Dietionary. TeLLET.

Acoistril" is likewise a lad, a stripling. It seems here to be used for a milk-sop. "A coward and a coystril an he will not drink.”—i. e. A coward and a milk-sop if he will not drink, &c. B. -Castiliano colgo;--] We should read volto. In English, put on your Castilian countenance; that is, your grave, solemn looks. The Oxford editor has taken my emendation: But, by Castilian countenance, he supposes is meant most civil and courtly looks. It is plain, he understands gravity and formality to be civility and courtliness. WARB.

Castiliano colgo; I meet with the word Castilian and Castilians io several of the cid comedies. It is difficult to assign any peculiar propriety to it, unless it was adopted immediately after the defeat of the armada, and became a cant term capriciously expressive of jollity or contempt. The host in the Merry Wives of Windsor, calls Caius a Castilian king Urinal! and in the Mery Devit of Edmonton, one of the characters says; " Ha! my Castilian dialogues!"

Cotgrave, however, informs us, that Castille not only signifies the no-blest part of Spain, but contention, debate, brubling, altercation. Ils sont en Castille. There is a jurre betwixt them; and prendre la Castille pour autruy. To undertake another man's quarrel.

Mr. Malone observes, that Castilian seems likewise to have been a cant term for a finical affected courtier. So, in Marston's Satires, 1599:

Again,

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The absolute Castilio,

"He that can all the points of courtship shew."

"When some slie golden-slop'd Castilio

"Can cut a manor's strings at primero."

These passages, and others from the same writer, Mr. Malone supposes to confirm Dr. Warburton's emendation, and Sir T. Hanmer's comment. Marston, however, seems to allude to the famous Balthasar Castiglioni, whose most celebrated work was Il Cortigiano, or The Courtier. STEEV.

'Castiliano volgo.' Castiliano' is not put for a Castilian. It stands for the figurative expression, Castille, i. e. strife, debale. Volgo,' is vulgar, worthless. Castiliano Volgo.'-"This is all idle or vulgar debate; for here comes Sir Andrew to determine the matter, to prove by his manners that I am right." That this is the proper reading, the context, I think, will shew.

Castilio as used by Marston is evidently the proper name [Castalio] of a man.

B.

Sir To. You mistake, knight: accost, is, front her, board her, woo her, assail her.

Accost, is, front her, board her-

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