To wail friends loft,

Is not by much fo wholefome, profitable,
As to rejoice at friends but newly found.

Love's Labour Loft, A. 5, S. 2,
Be able for thine enemy

Rather in power, than ufe; and keep thy friend
Under thine own life's key.

All's well that ends well, A. 1, S. 1.

What need we have any friends, if we fhould never have need of them? they were the most needlefs creatures living, fhould we ne'er have use for them: and would moft refemble fweet inftruments hung up in cafes, that keep their founds to themselves.

Timon of Athens, A. 1, S. 2, The 'friends thou haft, and their adoption try'd, Grapple them to thy foul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.

Hamlet, A. 1, S. 3.

-Can'ft thou the confcience lack, To think I fhall lack friends? Secure thy heart; If I would broach the veffels of my love, And try the argument of hearts by borrowing, Men, and men's fortunes, could I frankly use, As I can bid thee fpeak. Timon of Athens, A. 2, S. 2,

The friends thou haft, and their adoption try'd.] I read, "adaption try'd," i. e. their suitableness, their fitness to be made your friends being proved, then, &c.

e

Do not dull thy palm with entertainment

A. B.

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.] The literal fenfe is, Do not make thy palm callous, by baking every man by the band. The figurative meaning may be, Do not, by promiscuous converfation, make thy mind infenfible to the difference of characters. JOHNSON.

"Do not dull thy palm," is, I think, Do not fully thy honour, or the honour of thy houfe, by affociating with thy inferiors, or with people who are little known to thee.

A. B.

What

t

155

What viler thing upon the earth, than friends,
Who can bring nobleft minds to basest ends!
How rarely does it meet with this time's guise,
When man was wish'd to love his enemies :
Grant, I may ever love, and rather woo
Those that would mischief me, than those that do!
Timon of Athens, A. 4, S. 4.

Marry, fir, they praise me, and make an ass of me; now my foes tell me plainly, I am an afs: fo that by my foes, fir, I profit in the knowledge of myself; and by my friends I am abused.

Twelfth Night, A. 5, S. 1.

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all,-to thine ownself be true.

Hamlet, A. 1, S. 3.

Master Shallow, my lord Shallow, be what thou wilt, I am fortune's fteward. Get on thy boots; we'll ride all night :-Oh, fweet Piftol!-Away, Bardolph.Come, Piftol, utter more to me; and, withal, devife fomething to do thyfelf good.-Boot, boot, mafter Shallow; I know, the young king is fick for me. Let us take any man's horfes; the laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends.

Henry IV. P. 2, A. 5, S. 3. Mine honest friend,

Will you take eggs for money?] This feems to be a proverbial expreffion, ufed when a man fees himself wronged, and makes no refiftance. Its original, or precife meaning, I cannot find, but I believe it means, will you be a cuckold for hire? The Buckow is reported to lay her eggs in another bird's neft; he

therefore

A fellow all in buff;

A back-friend, a fhoulder-clapper, one that coun

termands

The paffages of allies, creeks, and narrow lands.

Comedy of Errors, A. 4, S. 2.

G.

GAWD S.

one confent, new-born

Though they are made and moulded of

things paft;

And fhew to duft, that is a little gilt,

More land than gilt o'er dufted.

Troilus and Creffida, A. 3, S. 3,

GENTLEMAN.

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;

therefore that has eggs laid in his neft, is faid to be cucullus, cuck ow'd, or cuckold.

JOHNSON. "Will you take eggs for money?" The meaning is, Will you take ayes (i. e. words) for money? Aie, in old language, is used both for the affirmative yes, and for egg. See Chaucer. Aie, Aye, (Eg, Teut.) an egg.

A. B.

2 A back-friend, a Shoulder-clapper, &c. of allies, creeks, and narrow lands.] It fhould be written, I think, narrow lanes.

GREY. The preceding rhyme forbids us to read lanes. A fhoulderclapper is a bailiff. STEEVENS. What is meant by "countermands the paffages of allies, &c." I cannot poffibly difcover. We may furely read, "A back-friend, a fhoulder-clapper, one who his ftand maintains, I' the paffages of allies, creeks, and narrow lanes." This change will make every thing clear and proper.

A. B.

Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries.
Midfummer Night's Dream, A. 3, S. 1.

If it be ne'er fo falfe, a true gentleman may fwear it, in the behalf of his friend :—And I'll fwear to the prince, thou art a tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know, thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk; but I'll fwear it. Winter's Tale, A. 5, S. 2.

You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born: fee you thefe clothes? fay you fee them not, and think me ftill no gentleman born; you were best say, these robes are not gentleman born. Give me the lie, do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born.

Winter's Tale, A. 5, S. 2.

I was a gentleman born before my father; for the king's fon took me by the hand, and call'd me, brother; and then the two kings call'd my father, brother; and then the prince, my brother, and the princess, my fifter, call'd my father, father; fo we wept and there was the firft gentleman-like tears that ever we shed. Winter's Tale, A. 5, S. 2..

A fweeter and a lovelier gentleman,-
Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,

Young, valiant, wife, and, no doubt, right royal,
The fpacious world cannot again afford.

Richard III. A. 1, S. 2.

The gentleman is learn'd, a moft rare speaker,
To nature none more bound, his training fuch,
That he may furnish and inftruct great teachers,
And never feek for aid out of himself.

Henry VIII. A. 1, S. 2.

You have fed upon my fignories, Difpark'd my parks, and fell'd my forest woods; From mine own windows torn my houfhold coat, Raz'd out my imprefs, leaving me no fign,

Save men's opinions, and my living blood,-
To fhew the world I am a gentleman.

Richard II. A. 3, S. 1.

A rafcally yea-forfooth knave! to bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon fecurity !I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, as offer to ftop it with fecurity. I look'd he fhould have fent me two and twenty yards of fattin, as I am a true knight, and he fends me fecurity.w

Henry IV. P. 2, A. 1, S. 2.

GENTLENESS.

What would you have? Your gentleness shall force, More than your force move us to gentleness.

As you like it, A. 2, S. 7.

GIANT.

The poor beetle, that we tread upon,

In corporal fufferance finds a pang as great

As when a giant dies.

Measure for Meafure, A. 3, S. 1.

At thy birth, dear boy! Nature and fortune join'd to make thee great: Of nature's gifts thou may'ft with lilies boast, And with the half-blown rofe.

King John, A. 3, S. 1. A gift that I have, a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, fhapes, objects, ideas, apprehenfions, motions, revolutions: these are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of piamater, and deliver'd upon the mellowing of occafion. Love's Labour Loft, A. 4, S. 2.

Sit, my preferver, by thy patient's fide;
And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense

Thou