We

I am not satisfied with this emendation. may read,,,Such a one I was. This presence, is't not well done?" i. e. this mien, is it not hap pily represented? Similar phraseology occurs in Othello,,This fortification, shall we see it?" STEEVENS.

This passage is nonsense as it stands, and neces sarily requires some amendment. That proposed by Warburton would make sense of it; but then the allusion to a picture would be dropped, which began in the preceding part of the speech, and is carried on through those that follow. If we read presents, instead of present, this allusion will be preserved, and the meaning will be clear. I have no doubt but the line should run thus:

,,Look you, Sir, such as once I was,

this presents.“

Presents means represents. So Hamlet calls the pictures he shews his mother:

,,The counterfeit presentment of two brothers." She had said before ,,But we will draw the curtain, and shew you the picture;" and concludes with asking him, if it was well done. The same idea occurs in Troilus and Cressida, where Pandarus, taking off her veil, says:

,,Come draw this curtain, and let us see your

picture."

M. MASON. I suspect, the author intended that Olivia should again cover her face with her veil, before she speaks these words. MALONE.

P. 18, last 1. 'Tis beauty truly blent, i. e. blended, mixed together. Blent is the ancient participle of the verb to blend. STEEVENS.

P. 19, 1. 11. Were you sent hither to praise me?] i. e. to appraise, or appretiate me. The foregoing words, schedules, and inventoried,

shew, I think, that this is the meaning. So again, in Cymbeline:,,I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration;, though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side, and I to peruse him by items.“ MALONE.

Malone's conjecture is ingenious, and I should have thought it the true reading, if the foregoing words, schedule and inventoried, had been used by Viola: but as it is Olivia herself who makes use of them, I believe the old reading is right, though Steevens has adopted that of Malone. Viola has extolled her beauty so highly, that Oli via asks, whether she was sent there on purpose to praise her. M. MASON.

P. 19, 1. 19. With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire.] This line is worthy of Dryden's Almanzor, and, if not said in mockery of amorous hyperboles, might be regarded as a ridi cule on a passage in Chapman's translation of the first book of Homer, 1598:

,,Joye thunder'd out a sigh;"

STEEVENS.

P. 19. 1. 24. In voices well divulg'd, —] Well spoken of by the world.

P. 19, last but one 1. contemned love,] The

MALONE.

Write loyal cantons of old copy has cantons; which Mr. Capell, who appears to have been entirely unacquainted with our ancient language, has changed into canzons. There is no need of alteration. Canton was used for cantó in our author's time. MALONE.

P. 20, first 1. reverberate

rected, reverberant. THEOBALD.

] I have cor

Mr. Upton well observes, that Shakspeare frequently uses the adjective passive, actively. Theobald's emendation is therefore unnecessary. STEEVENS.

Johnson, in his Dictionary, adopted Theobald's correction. But the following line from T. Heywood's Troja Britannica, 1509, canto 11. st, ix. shows that the original text should be preserved: ,,Give shrill reverberat echoes and rebounds."

P.

HOLT WHITE.

20, 1. 2. And make the babbling gossip of the air] A most beautiful expression for an echo.

DOUCE. P. 20, l. 14. Post, in our author's time, signified a messenger. MALONE.

P. 20, I. 24. Unless the master were the man.] Unless the dignity of the master were added to the merit of the servant, I shall go too far, and disgrace myself. Let me stop in time. MALONE. Perhaps she means to check herself by observing,

This is unbecoming forwardness on my part, unless I were as much in love with the master as I am with the man. STEEVENS.

P. 20, last but one 1. County and count in old language were synonymous. The old copy has countes, which may be right: the Saxon genitive case. MALONE.

P. 21, first 1. Desire him not to flatter with his lord,] This was, the phraseology of the time. So, in King Richard II:

,,Shall dying men flatter with those that live." Many more instances might be added. MALONE.

and fear to find

P. 21, I. 6. 7. Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.] I believe the meaning is; I am not mistress of my own actions; I am afraid that my eyes betray me, and flatter the youth without my consent, with discoveries of love. JOHNSON.

Johnson's explanation of this passage is evidently wrong. It would be strange indeed if Olivia

should say, that she feared her eyes would betray her passion, and flatter the youth, without her consent, with a discovery of her love, after she had actually sent him a ring, discovered her passion more sent for that very purpose.

which must have' strongly, and was The true meaning

appears to me to be thus: She fears that her, eyes had formed so flattering an idea of Cesario, that she should not have strength of mind sufficient to resist the impression. She had just before said:

,,Methinks, I feel this youth's perfections,
,,With an invisible and subtle stealth,
,,To creep in at mine eyes."

which confirms my explanation of this passagė. M. MASON.

I think the meaning is, I fear that my eyes will seduce my understanding; that I am indulg. ing a passion for this beautiful youth, which my reason cannot approve. MALONE.

P. 21, 1. g. Ourselves we do not owe:] i. e. we are not our own masters. We cannot govern ourselves. STEEVENS.

P. 21 last but one 1. to express myself.} That is, to reveal myself. JOHNSON.

P. 22, first 1. of Messaline,] Sir Thomas Hanmer very judiciously offers to read Metelin, an island in the Archipelago; but Shakspeare knew little of geography, and was not at all solicitous aboni orthographical nicety. STEEVENS.

P. 22, 1. 6. what we now call Pericles it is styled

P. 22, 1. Il. These words Dr.

i. e.

the breach of the sea, the breaking of the sea. In ,,the rupture of the sea." STEEVENS. with such estimable wonder,] Warburton calls an interpolation

of the players, but what did the players gain by it? they may be sometimes guilty of a joke withont the concurrence of the poet, but they never lengthen a speech only to make it longer. Shak speare often confounds the active and passive adjectives. Estimable wonder is esteeming wonder, or wonder and esteem. The meaning is, that he could not venture to think so highly as others of his sister. JOHNSON.

Thus Milton uses unexpressive notes, for unexpressible, in his hymn on the Nativity. MALONE. P. 22, l. 14. she is drown'd already, Sir, with salt water,] There is a resemblance between this and another false thought in Hamlet:

,,Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears." STEEVINS. P. 23, 1. 24 her eyes had lost her tongue,] We say a man loses his company when they go one way and he goes another. So Olivia's tougue lost her eyes, her tongue was talking of the Duke, and her eyes gazing on his messenger. JOHNSON.

It rather means that the very fixed and eager view she took of Viola, perverted the use of her tongue, and made her talk, distractedly. This construction of the verb lost, is also much in

Shakspeare's manner. Dovce.

P. 23.1. 32. the pregnant enemy is, I believe, the dexterous fiend, or enemy of mankind.

JOHNSON.

Pregnant is certainly dexterous, or ready. So, in Hamlet:

How pregnant sometimes his replies are!" STEEVENS. P. 23, 1. 33. 34. How easy is it, for the proper-false

In women's waxen hearts to set their forms!]