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Ib. 1. 24. I think the honey, &c. I am aware that the honey is guarded with a sting. MALONE.

My imagination already forms the honey guarded with a sting. EDITOR.

Ib. 1. 28. On what he looks; i. e. on what he looks on. Many instances of this inaccuracy are found in our anthor's plays. MALONE.

He is gazing on beauty, and doats on what he sees. I look on; i. e. think, or consider this as no inaccuracy. EDITOR.

P. 75, 1. 10. Coucheth the fowl below with his wing shade.

Read--wings'.

I am not certain but that we should read--cov'reth. To couch, the fowl may, however, mean to make it couch; as, to brave a man, in our author's language, signifies either to insult him, or to make him brave; i. e. fine. STEEVENS.

Ib. 1. 25.

With nameless bastardy. The poet calls bastardy nameless, because an illegitimate child has no name by inheritance, being considered by the law as nullius filius. MALONE.

P. 76, 1. 6. In purest compounds. The first edition reads---In a pure compound.

Ib. 1. 9.

suit.

Tender my suit; i. e. cherish, regard my

MALONE.

Ib. 1. 12. Worse than a slavish wipe. More disgraceful than the brand with which slaves were marked. MALONE.

Ib. ib. Or birth-hour's blot. It appears in Shakespeare's time the arms of bastards were distinguished by some kind of blots. But in the passage now before

us, those corporal blemishes with which children are sometimes born, seem alone to have been in our author's contemplation. MALONE.

Ib. 1. 14. Are natural faults. Read---Nature's faults. Ib. 1. 18. Beneath a gripe's sharp claws. The quarto edition, 1594, has--under the gripe's sharp claws. The gryphon was meant, which, in our author's time, was usually written grype, or gripe. MALONE.

The gripe is properly the griffin.---As griffe is the French word for a claw, perhaps anciently those birds which are remarkable for griping their prey in their talons, were occasionally called gripes. STEEVENS.

Ib. 1. 21. Nor nought. Read---aught.

Ib. 1. 22. As when, &c. The quarto, 1593, reads--But when, &c.

But was evidently a misprint, there being no opposition whatsoever between this and the preceding passage. MALONE.

Other copies read according to our's: and the-- As when, &c. we find answered in the same stanza by---So his unhallowed haste, &c. Mr. Malone's emendation is---Look, when &c.

P. 77, 1. 3. His vulture folly. Folly is used here as in the Sacred Writings--for depravity of mind. MA

LONE.

Ib. 1. 7.

Wears with raining. Read--Wear.

Ib. 1. 9. In the remorseless; i. e. pitiless.

Ib. 1. 23. Thou hast pretended; i. e. proposed to thyself. STEEVENS.

Ib. 1. 26. End thy ill aim before thy shoot be ended. It is manifest, from the context, that the author intend

ed the word shoot to be taken in a double sense, suit and shoot being in his time pronounced alike. MA

LONE.

I adhere to the old reading, nor apprehend the least equivoque. A sentiment nearly parallel occurs in Macbeth:

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"The murd'rous shaft that's shot

"Has not yet lighted."

"He is no woodman that doth bend his bow."

very strongly supports my opinion. STEEVENS.

There is no doubt that shoot was one of the ideas inIt is, in any apprehension,

tended to be conveyed.

equally clear, that the suit, or solicitation of a lover, was also in our author's thoughts. Shoot (the pronunciation of the two words being granted to be the same) suggests both ideas. The passage quoted from Macbeth, in the preceding note, does not, as I conceive, prove any thing. The word shot has there its usual signification, and no double meaning could have been intended. MALONE.

Notwithstanding Shakespeare was, like his contemporaries, noted for playing upon words, yet it would be doing him great injustice here to suppose that he meant shoot to be taken in a double sense :---no, it would be quite derogatory to his heroine's character, to give Tarquin's foul desire, black payment, shame, vice, outrage, dishonor, lust, trespass, &c. such a tender name as suit: the poet, throughout her language, has admirably made her address the seducer as a villain, not as a lover. EDITOR.

P. 78. Soft pity enters at an iron gate. Meaning, I suppose, the gates of a prison. STEEVENS.

I look upon this as a figurative description of pity, expressive of its entrance into an obdurate heart.

TOR.

EDI

Ib. 1. 17. I complain me. I address my complaint. EDITOR.

Ib. 1. 28. Then king's misdeeds cannot be hid in clay. The memory of the ill actions of kings will remain even after their death. MALONE.

P. 79, 1. 7. Do learn to reud, to look. Read---dolearn, do read, do look.

Ib. I. 13. Long living laud. Read---long-lived.
Ib. 1. 15. Commanded. Read---Command.

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Ib. 1. 20. Pattern'd by thy fault. Taking thy fault for a pattern, or example. MALONE.

P. 80, 1. 2. Not to seducing lust's outrageous fire. The first copy has it :-

That of 1616

Not to seducing lust, thy rash relier. reads unintelligibly--thy rash reply. The above is an emendation by Dr. Sewell; but many must prefer the reading of the first edition, as written by the author. EDITOR.

Ib. 1. 3. For exil'd majesty's repeal.

of exiled majesty. MALONE.

For the recal

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Ib. 1. 14.

By this let. By this opposition.

Add to his flow, but alter not the taste.

Read---his taste, according to the first edition. That of

1616 reads--

"Add to this flow, but alter not the taste."

Ib. 1. 16. There falls, &c.

EDITOR.

Ib. 1. 19. Should change, &c. shall change, &c.

We should read-fall.

Other copies read--

Ib. 1. 20. Thy sea within a puddle womb is burst. This is an alteration by Dr. Sewell. The first edition reads-.." Within a puddle's womb is hersed." The octavo, 1616, has it--" Within a puddle womb is hersed."

P. 81, l. 4. Love's coy touch; i. e. The delicate, the respectful approach of love. STEEVENS.

Ib. 1. 15. For with the nightly linen that she wears. Thus the first quarto. The octavo, 1616, reads unin

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For with the mighty linen, &c. MALONE.

Ib. 1. 19. O that foul lust. The first quarto has it prone lust; i. e. headstrong, forward, prompt, as explained by Mr. Malone. The edition of 1600 reads--proud lust. That of 1616, and the subsequent editions, as above.

P. 82, 1. 5. Fears this night. Read---fures.

Ib. 1. 25. Length of time.

times.

P. 83, l. 12.

cretia.

Other copies have it-

Leaving his spoil; i. e. leaving Lu

Night-scapes; i. e. Night-disasters.

Ib. 1. 22. Convertite; i. e. Convert.
Ib. 1. 26.

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