suggested, the Clown's exclamation of Mercy' is interrupted by Autolycus.

IV. iv. 13. 'swoon,' Hanmer's correction of Folios; 'sworn,' retained in the Cambridge edition.

IV. iv. 160. 'out'; Theobold's emendation for Folio 1, 'on't.' IV. iv. 249. clamour your tongues'; Hanmer's emendation Icharm' has been generally adopted, but 'clamour' is almost certainly correct (Taylor, the Water-Poet, wrote 'Clamour the promulgation of your tongues'); ' clamour' or rather clammer,' is probably radically identical with clamber,' the Scandinavian original of which, 'klambra' = to pinch closely together, to clamp.'

From a tapestry in the Chateau d'Effiat. The original represents a gentleman and lady, who are looking at a gypsy encampment. While the gentleman is directing the lady's

attention to the group, one of the number cuts the string which connects the purse with her girdle.

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IV. iv. 275. another ballad of a fish'; cp. e. g. A strange report of a monstrous fish that appeared in the form of a woman from her waist upward, seen in the sea"; entered in the Stationers' Register in 1604.

IV. iv. 436. 'Farre than Deucalion off'; 'farre'' farther'; the Folios all correctly read 'farre,' i.e. the old form of the comparative of 'far,' unnecessarily substituted by the Cambridge Editors.

IV. iv. 586. 'i' the rear o' her birth'; Folios 1, 2, 3, our birth'; Rowe first emended the line as in the text, though in his second edition he read 'o' our' for 'o' her.

IV. iv. 594. appear,' i.e. appear so (like Bohemia's son).

IV. iv. 621. 'I picked and cut their festival purses.' (Cp. the accompanying drawing.) IV. iv. 721. at palace'; Folio 1, 'at 'Pallace'; probably the apostrophe indicates "the omission of the article or its absorption in rapid pronunciation."

V. ii. 60. 'weather-bitten conduit'; changed to weather-beaten' in Folio 3; but weatherbitten' is undoubtedly the correct form (cp. Skeat's Etymological Dictionary): conduits were frequently in the form of human figures. V. ii. 105. that rare Italian master'; Giulio Pippi, known as 'Giulio Romano,' was born in 1492, and died in 1546; his fame

as a painter was widespread; Shakespeare, taking him as a type of artistic excellence,' makes him a sculptor; it must, however, be remembered that the statue was a 'painted picture.' Much has been made of this reference by the advocates of Shakespeare's alleged Italian journeys (cp. Elze's Essays on Shakespeare).

Explanatory Notes.

The Explanatory Notes in this edition have been specially selected and adapted, with emendations after the latest and best authorities, from the most eminent Shakespearian scholars and commentators, including Johnson, Malone, Steevens, Singer, Dyce, Hudson, White, Furness, Dowden, ar.d others. This method, here introduced for the first time, provides the best annotation of Shakespeare ever embraced in a single edition.

ACT FIRST.
Scene I.

6. to pay Bohemia:-" Corporal Trim's King of Bohemia 'delighted in navigation, and had never a seaport in his dominions,"" says Farmer; " and my Lord Herbert informs us that De Luines, the prime minister of France, when he was ambassador there, demanded whether Bohemia was an inland country, or 'lay upon the sea.' There is a similar mistake in Two Gentlemen of Verona relative to that city [Verona] and Milan."

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Scene II.

20. none, none:-' -"Shakespeare," as Clarke observes, "like a true poet, knew perfectly the potent effect of an iterated word; but, also like a true poet and writer of thorough judgement, used it but sparingly, and of course, on that account, with redoubled force of impression. Here it has the effect of intense earnestness." 53. pay your fees, etc.:-"An allusion," according to Lord Campbell, to a piece of English law procedure, which, although it may have been enforced till very recently, could hardly be known to any except lawyers, or those who had themselves actually been in prison on a criminal charge-that, whether guilty or innocent, the prisoner was liable to pay a fee on his liberation." 121. What, hast smutch'd thy nose?-Upon this Clarke remarks: "It is reserved for such a poet as Shakespeare to fearlessly introduce such natural touches as a flying particle of smut resting upon

a child's nose, and to make it turn to wonderfully effective account in stirring a father's heart, agitating it with wild thoughts, and prompting fierce plays upon words and bitter puns. Every phase that passion takes-writhing silence, tortured utterance, tearful lamentations, muttered jests more heart-withering than cries or complaints-all are known to Shakespeare, and are found in his page as in nature's."

178. We are yours, etc. :-" Shakespeare," White tells us, "had the minute details of the old novel vividly in mind here: 'When Pandosto was busied with such urgent affaires that hee could not bee present with his friend Egistus, Bellaria would walke with him into the garden, where they two in privat and pleasant devises would passe away the time to both their contents.'

217. They're here with me already:-They are already aware of my condition; they referring not to Polixenes and Hermione, but to people about the court.

221-227. That Leontes' fanatical passion should stuff him with the conceit of a finer nature, a sharper insight, and a higher virtue than others had, is shrewdly natural. Such conceit is among the commonest symptoms of fanaticism in all its forms.

345. I am his cupbearer:-In Greene's tale Pandosto contriving "how he might best put away Egistus without suspition of treacherous murder, hee concluded at last to poyson him; and the better to bring the matter to passe he called unto him his [Egistus's] cupbearer." Franion, the cupbearer, endeavours to dissuade Pandosto from his purpose, but, finding it in vain, sented as soon as opportunity would give him leave to dispatch Egistus."

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372. Wafting his eyes, etc.:-This is a fine stroke of nature. Leontes had but a moment before assured Camillo that he would seem friendly to Polixenes, according to his advice; but on meeting him, his jealousy gets the better of his resolution, and he finds it impossible to restrain his hatred.

419. Be yoked with his, etc. :-A clause in the sentence of excommunicated persons was: “Let them have part with Judas that betrayed Christ."

458-460. Good expedition, etc.:-An obscure and difficult passage, whereof various conjectural emendations have been proposed. Malone's suggestion is: “Good expedition befriend me by removing me from a place of danger, and comfort the innocent queen by removing the object of her husband's jealousy; the queen, who is the subject of his conversation, but without reason

the object of his suspicion!" Halliwell understands it thus: "May' expedition be my friend by removing me from this scene of danger, and at the same time may my absence, the object thus accomplished, comfort the beautiful queen, who is, indeed, partly the subject of, but in no degree the reasonable object of, his suspicion."

465. Come, sir away:-Coleridge has this note on the first Act: "Observe the easy style of chit-chat between Camillo and Archidamus as contrasted with the elevated diction on the introduction of the kings and Hermione in the second Scene, and how admirably Polixenes' obstinate refusal to Leontes to stay

'There is no tongue that moves; none, none i' the world
So soon as yours, could win me '-

prepares for the effect produced by his afterwards yielding to Hermione; which is, nevertheless, perfectly natural from mere courtesy of sex, and the exhaustion of the will by former efforts of denial, and well calculated to set in nascent action the jealousy of Leontes. This, when once excited, is unconsciously increased by Hermione:

'Yet, good deed, Leontes,

I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind
What lady she her lord';

accompanied, as a good actress ought to represent it, by an expression and recoil of apprehension that she had gone too far."

ACT SECOND.

Scene I.

90-92. one that knows, etc. :-One that knows what she should be ashamed to know herself, even if the knowledge of it were shared but with her paramour.

104, 105. He who

. speaks:-He who shall speak for her is remotely guilty in merely speaking.

119-124. when you shall know, etc. :-" If it be desired to know the full difference between noble pride and false pride, here is shown the former in perfection," says Clarke. "No one better than Shakespeare knew the true distinction between them; the right time for and due amount of self-assertion, the simplicity and