6. a fashion, which is Euphues, ed. Arber, p. 81: neuer loued for fancie sake.'

changeable and temporary. Compare Lyly's Tush Philautus was liked for fashion sake, but

Ib. a toy in blood, a pastime and fancy, not a deep affection. Compare Othello, i. 3. 269:

'Light-wing'd toys

Of feather'd Cupid.'

For blood,' see iii. 2. 64.

7. primy nature, nature in its spring-time.

8. To make the metre regular, Rowe read 'tho' sweet,' Capell 'sweet but not.' In Shakespeare a pause in sense often supplies the place of a syllable. And as Abbott says, § 484, Monosyllables containing diphthongs and long vowels, since they naturally allow the voice to rest upon them, are often so emphasized as to dispense with an unaccented syllable.' So Macbeth, i. 2. 5: "'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend.'

9. suppliance, means probably, as Mason says, 'an amusement to fill up 2 vacant minute;' what supplies, or fills up, a minute.

12. thews, sinews, as in Julius Cæsar, i. 3. 81, and 2 Henry IV, iii. 2. 277. 12, 13. The mention of this temple,' i. e. the body (see John ii. 21), suggests the word 'service.'

15. cautel, craft, deceit.

The word is only once used elsewhere by

Shakespeare, viz. in A Lover's Complaint, line 303.

crafty, deceitful, in Coriolanus, iv. I. 33:

'Be caught

With cautelous baits and practice.'

15. besmirch. Henry V, iv. 3. 110:

Socautelous' means

'Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd.'

16. The virtue of his will, his virtuous intention.

18. For

birth. This line is omitted in the folios.

6

19. unvalued, of no worth. In Richard III, i. 4. 27, it means invaluable.' 21. safety must be pronounced as a trisyllable. The folios have sanctity.' Hanmer adopted Theobald's conjecture, 'sanity.'

22, 23. The prince's choice of a wife must be limited by the approval and acquiescence of his people.

25, 27. You must believe his promises only so far as his position allows him to fulfil them.

30. credent, believing, credulous. Not used by Shakespeare elsewhere in this sense. It means credible' in Winter's Tale, i. 2. 142.

Ib. list his songs.

So Julius Cæsar, v. 5. 15, 'List a word': and King

Lear, v. 3. 181, 'List a brief tale.'

40. buttons, buds, like 'boutons' in French.

42. blastments does not occur again in Shakespeare. Coleridge uses it in the last scene of Zapolya, p. 265: ‘Shall shoot his blastments on the land.'

44. In the absence of any tempter, youth rebels against itself, i. e. the passions of youth revolt from the power of self-restraint; there is a traitor in the camp.

Ib. though none else near. The substantive verb is similarly omitted in Cymbeline, iv. 4. 23.

46. good my brother. So'good my lord' frequently.

47. ungracious, graceless. So I Henry IV, ii. 4. 490.

49. Whiles like a. The folios have 'Whilst like a.' The quartos have 'Whiles a.' Perhaps we should read 'While as a.’

50. primrose path. Compare Macbeth, ii. 3. 21.

51. recks not his own rede. So Burns, Epistle to a Young Friend: 'And may you better reck the rede

Than ever did the adviser.'

For 'reck' see Cymbeline, iv. 2. 154.

Ib. rede, counsel. Spelt reed' in the quartos, and 'reade' or 'read' in the folios. Not used elsewhere in Shakespeare. See Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 1216: Ther was noon other remedy ne reed.'

Ib. fear me not, fear not for me. Compare iv. 5. 100, and Merchant of Venice, iii. 5. 3, 'I promise ye, I fear you,' and our note on that passage. 56. sits. Compare Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 18:

"Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind.'

And Henry V, ii. 2. 12:

'Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.'

And Richard II, ii. 1. 265:

We see the wind sit sore upon our sails.'

59, &c. Mr. Rushton, Shakespeare's Euphuism, pp. 45, 46, has pointed out many striking resemblances between the precepts of Polonius and the advice of Euphues to Philautus.

59. character, used with the accent either on the first or second syllable. The word as a substantive found with the latter accent in Richard III, iii. 1.81:

'I say without characters fame lives long.'

And the verb in Two Gentleman of Verona, ii. 7. 4:

Who art the table wherein all my thoughts

Are visibly character'd and engraved.'

60. unproportion'd, unsuitable, not in harmony with the occasion. Ib. his, for its.' See note on i. 2. 216.

61. vulgar, common. See Twelfth Night, iii, 1. 135:

'For 'tis a vulgar proof

That very oft we pity enemies ;'

where 'vulgar proof' = common experience; as 'vulgar tongue'=common language.

62. and their adoption tried. The proper construction would be and whose

adoption thou hast tried.' Delius regards it as a participle parenthesis, but 'tried' appears to depend on 'hast.' Compare i. 2. 90.

63. Grapple. Compare Macbeth, iii. 1. 106:

'Grapples you to the heart and love of us.'

Ib. hoops. Pope read 'hooks,' and this makes the figure suggested by 'grapple' the very reverse of what Shakespeare intended; for grappling with hooks is the act of an enemy and not of a friend.

64. do not dull thy palm, that is, as Johnson explains it, do not make thy palm callous by shaking every man by the hand. Compare Cymbeline, 1. 6. 106:

'Join gripes with hands

Made hard with hourly falsehood.'

Ib. entertainment. Compare Timon of Athens, i. 1. 45:

'Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug

With amplest entertainment.'

65. comrade, with the accent on the last syllable, as in 1 Henry IV,

iv. 1. 96:

And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside.'

In King Lear, ii. 4. 213, the accent is on the first:

To be a comrade with the wolf and owl.'

67. opposed, opponent. Changed in the latter quartos to 'opposer." 69. censure, opinion. See i. 4. 35, and iii. 2. 25.

74. There is some corruption in this line, which no proposed emendation has satisfactorily removed. The quarto of 1603 reads

'Are of a most select and generall chiefe in that.'

That of 1604,

The folios,

Rowe,

Or of a most select and generous, chiefe in that.'

'Are of a most select and generous cheff in that.'
'Are most select and generous, chief in that.'

And this reading seems at least as good as any other which has been suggested, unless, as we have conjectured in the preface to the Cambridge Shakespeare, and as Mr. R. G. White reads, the lines should run

And they in France of the best rank and station,
Are most select and generous in that.'

77. husbandry, economy. Compare Macbeth, ii. 1. 4:

81. season, ripen. Compare Merchant of Venice, v. 1. 107: 'How many things by season season'd are

To their right use and true perfection.'

83. tend, attend, wait. See iv. 3. 44.

94. so 'tis put on me, so it has been urged, impressed upon me. A similar use of the phrase 'put upon' occurs in Twelfth Night, v. i. 70:

'But in conclusion put strange speech upon me;'

that is, adressed me in strange terms. Measure for Measure, iv. 2. 120.

See also Macbeth, iv. 3. 239;

IOI. green, immature. See King John, iii. 4. 145:

'How green you are and fresh in this old world!'

102. Unsifted, untried, inexperienced.

Ib. circumstance, a collective word.

107. Tender, regard. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4. 145:

'I thank you, madam, that you tender her.'

And Richard III, ii. 4. 72.

109. Running. This reading, proposed by Collier, was first adopted by Dyce. The quartos have 'Wrong,' the folios, Roaming.' The reading in the text is more in accordance with the figure in the previous line.

112. go to, an exclamation of contempt and impatience. See Macbeth, V. I. 51.

114. almost all the holy. The folios omit the words 'almost' and 'holy,' which have the appearance of being insertions for the sake of the metre.

115. springes, snares. See v. 2. 290. Compare Gosson, Apologie for the Schoole of Abuse, p. 72 (ed. Arber): When Comedie comes vpon the Stage, Cupide sets vpp a Springe for Woodcockes, which are entangled ere they descrie the line, and caught before they mistruste the snare.'

116. prodigal, adjective for adverb. Compare Macbeth, ii. 3. 143: Which the false man does easy.' See Abbott, § I.

117. Pope filled up the line by reading 'Oh, my daughter,' and Capell by 'gentle daughter.'

119. a-making. Compare 'a-killing' in Othello, iv. 1. 188, and see Abbott, § 24 (2).

121. something, somewhat. See Macbeth, iii. 1. 132: 'something from the palace.'

Ib. scanter. 'Scant' only occurs elsewhere as an adjective, in v. 2. 271. 122. entreatments. Not elsewhere found in Shakespeare. Johnson interprets it as company, conversation'; like 'entertainment' in line 64. But 'parley' in the next line seems to point to the sense of preliminary negotiations, and so solicitations.

126. in few, that is, in few words, in short. See Tempest, i. 2. 144: 'In few, they hurried us aboard a bark.'

127. brokers, go-betweens, negotiators. See Lover's Complaint, line 173. 128. that dye. The folios read the eye,' using the word in the same sense in which it occurs in the Tempest, ii. 1. 55: With an eye of green in it'; where it signifies a dash of colour. Ib. investments, vesture. See 2 Henry IV, iv. 1. 45: 'Whose white investments figure innocence.'

129. implorators, solicitors.

130. Breathing, whispering. Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1.239: 'If so, I pray thee, breathe it in mine ear.'

And King John, v. 7. 65:

'You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.'

And Hamlet, ii. 1. 31, 44.

Ib. bawds. Theobald's conjecture. The old reading is 'bonds.' 133. slander, abuse or disgrace.

Ib. moment. So the folios and earlier quartos. The fourth and subsequent quartos read 'moments.' If the reading of the text be correct, 'moment' must be taken as an adjective. This is very common when the first substantive is the name of a place, as 'Lethe wharf,' i. 5. 33.

·

Ways' in this

135. come your ways. See iii. 1. 129, Go thy ways.' phrase, which is still common, is probably a relic of the old genitive.

Scene IV.

1. shrewdly, keenly, piercingly.

2. eager, sharp, from Fr. aigre. See i. 5. 69, and Chapman's Homer, Iliad, xi. 231:

'The eager anguish did approve his princely fortitude.'

3. hour. Here, as often, a dissyllable.

8. wake, feast late. For a night-feast the word is used in Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 318: At wakes and wassails.'

Ib. rouse. See note on i. 2. 127.

9. wassail, revelry; from A. S. was hal, be of health.' Macbeth, i. 7. 64.

See note on

Ib. up-spring, the English rendering of the German Hüpfauf': according to Elze the last and consequently the wildest dance at the old German merry-makings. It occurs in Chapman's Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany, [p. 83. ed. Elze, 1867:]

'We Germans have no changes in our dances,

An Almain and an up-spring, that is all.'

Some interpreters of the present passage takeup-spring' as a substantive in the sense of 'up-start,' which Pope actually substitutes for it.

II. Compare i. 2. 125-127, and v. 2. 258-262. The Danish drinking customs were familiar in England. Douce quotes from Cleveland's Fuscara, or The Bee Errant :

Tuning his draughts with drowsie hums

As Danes carowse by kettle-drums.'

12. triumph. In bitterest irony.

17-38. This heavy-headed revel scandal. Omitted in the folios.

...

17. In Othello, ii. 3. 79, the Dane is mentioned as a deep drinker with the German and the Hollander. In the present passage there is probably an