Verona is an in

I believe we are all wrong. land city. Every inconsistency may, however, be avoided, if we read The Veronessa, i. e. the name of the ship is the Veronessa. Verona, however, might be obliged to furnish ships towards the general defence of Italy. STEEVENS.

The emendation proposed by Mr. Steevens is acute; but Shakspeare's acquaintance with the topography of Italy (as appears from The Tempest) was very imperfect. HENLEY.

This ship has been already described as a ship of Venice. It is now called ,, a Veronésé;" that is, a ship belonging to and furnished by the inland city of Verona, for the use of the Venetian state; and newly arrived from Venice. Commonwealth of Venice, 1599. MALONE.

P. 29, 1. 17. Like a full soldier.] Like a complete soldier. MALONE.

P. 29, 1. 52. Of very expert and approv'd allowance:] I read,' Very expert, and of approv'd allowance.

1

JOHNSON. Expert and approv'd allowance is put for allow'd and opprov'd expertness. This mode of expression is not unfrequent in Shakspeare. STEEVENS. P. 29, 1. 33. 34. Therefore my hopes, not sur-, feited to death, Stand in bold cure.] I do not understand these lines. I know not how hope can be surfeited to death, that is, can be increased, till it be destroyed; nor what it is to stand in bold cure; or why hope should be considered as a disease. In the copies there is no variation. Shall we read: Therefore my fears, not surfeited to death, Stand in bold cure?

This is better, but it is not well... Shall we strike a bolder stroke, and read thus?

Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,
Stand bold, not sure. JOHNSON.

Prefumptuous hopes, which have no foundation in probability, may poetically be said to surfeit themselves to death, or forward their own dissolution. To stand in bold cure, is to erect themselves in confidence of being fulfilled.

In bold cure means, in confidence of being cured. STEEVENS.

Dr. Johnson says,,, he knows not why hope

should be considered as a disease." But it is not hope which is here described as a disease; those misgiving apprehensions which diminish hope, are in fact the disease, and hope itself is the patieut.

A surfeit being a disease arising from an excessive overcharge of the stomach, the poet with his usual licence uses it for any species of excess., Therefore, says Cassio, my hopes, which, though faint and sickly with apprehension, are not totally destroyed by an excess of despondency, erect themselves with some degree of confidence that they will be relieved, by the safe arrival of Othello, from those ill-divining fears under which they now languish.

The word surfeit having occurred to Shakspeare, led him to consider such a hope as Cassio entertained, not a sanguine, but a faint and languid hope, (,, sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,") as a disease, and to talk of its cure. MALONE.

I believe that Solomon, upon this occasion, will be found the best interpreter:,,Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." HENLEY.

P. 30, 1. 17-19. One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,

And in the essential vesture of creation, Does bear all excellency.] The author seems to use essential, for existent, real. She excels the praises of invention, says he, and in real qualities, with which creation has invested her, bears all excellency. JOHNSON.

Such is the reading of the quartos; for which the folio has this:

And in the essential vesture of creation
Do's tyre the ingeniuer.

Which I explain thus,

Does tire the ingenious verse.

This is the best reading, and that which the author substituted in his revisal. JOHNSON.

The reading of the quarto is so flat and unpoetical, when compared with that sense which seems meant to have been given in the folio, that I heartily wish some emendation could be hit on, which might entitle it to a place in the text. I believe the word tire was not introduced to signify fatigue, but to attire, to dress. The verb to attire, is often so abbreviated.

-to

The essential vesture of creation tempts me to believe it was so used on the present occasion. I would read something like this:

And in the essential vesture of creation
Does tire the ingenuous virtue.

i. e. invests her artless virtue in the fairest form of earthly substance.

It may, however, be observed, that the word ingener did not anciently signify one who manages the engines or artillery of an army, but any ingenious person, any master of liberal

science. Ingener, therefore may be the true reading of this passage. STEEVENS.

Perhaps the words intended in the folio, were, Does tire the ingene ever.

Ingene is used for ingenium by Puttenham, in his Arte of Poesie, 1589: If tire was used in the sense of weary, then ingener must have been used for the ingenious person who should attempt to enumerate the merits of Desdemona.

MALONE. The reading of the folio, though incorrectly spelled, appears to have been,

Does tire the engineer;

which is preferable to either of the proposed amendments; and the meaning of the passage would then be, One whose real perfections were so excellent, that to blazon them would exceed the abilities of the ablest masters."

The sense attributed to the word tire, according to this reading, is perfectly agreeable to the lauguage of poetry.

The objection to the reading of inginer, is, that although we find the words ingine, inginer, and inginous in Jonson, they are not the language of Shakspeare; and I believe indeed that Jonson is singular in the use of them. M. MASON.

Whoever shall reject uncommon expressions in the writings of Shakspeare, because they differ either from the exact rules of orthography, or from the unsettled mode of spelling them by other wri-' ters, will be found to deprive him no less of his beauties, than that the ornithologist would the peacock, who should cut out every eye of his train because it was either not circular, or else varied from some imaginary standard. Ingenieur is no doubt of the same import with ingener or inge

neer, though perhaps differently written by Shakspeare in the reference to ingenious, and to distinguish it from ingeneer, which he has elsewhere used in a military sense. Mr. M. Mason's objection, that it is not the language of Shakspeare, is more than begging the question; and to affirm that Jonson is singular in the use of ingine, inginer,' and inginous, is as little to the purpose. For we not only have those expressions in other writers, but others from the same root, as ingene, engene, &c. in Holinshed, and Sir T. Moore; and Daniel uses ingeniate. HENLEY.

P. 30, 1. 28. Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel.] Thus the folio and one of the quartos. The first copy reads-enscerped, of which every reader may make what he pleases. Perhaps escerped was an old English word borrowed from the French escarpe, which Shakspeare not finding congruous to the image of clogging the kell, afterwards changed. I once thought that the poet had written Traitors enscarf'd, i. e. muffled in their robes, and this agrees better with the idea of a traitor: yet whatever is gained one way is lost another. Our poet too often adopts circumstances from every image that arose in his mind, and employing them without attention to the propriety of their union, his metaphorical expressions become inextricably Confused. STEEVENS.

REED.

P. 30, 1. 30. Their mortal natures,] i. e. their deadly, destructive natures. P. 31, 1. 3. & fol. Great Jove, &c.] For this absurdity I have not the smallest doubt that the Master of the Revels, and not our poet, is answerable. See The Historical Account of the English Stage. MALONE.