has been since called a bye-word, a kind of proverbial reproach. STEEVENS. 230. Possess us,] That is, inform us, tell us, make us masters of the matter. ...241. JOHNSON. an affection'd ass,- -] affection'd means affected. In this sense, I believe, it is used in Hamlet" no matter in it that could indite the author of affection." i. e. affectation. STEEVENS. 263. Sir And. And your horse now, &c.] This conceit, though bad enough, shews too quick an apprehension for Sir Andrew. It should be given, I believe, to Sir Toby; as well as the next short speech: O, 'twill be admirable. Sir Andrew does not usually give his own judgment on any thing, till he has heard that of some other person. TYRWHYTT. -Penthesilea,]i. e. amazon. STEEVENS. call me Cut.] So, in a Woman's a Weathercock, 1612: "If I help you not to that as cheap as any man in England, call me Cut." This contemptu. ous distinction is likewise preserved in the Merry Wives of Windsor: 272. 282. "He will maintain you like a gentlewoman→→→→ "Aye, that I will, come cut and long-tail, under the degree of a 'squire." Again, in the Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599. "I'll meet you there; if I do not, call me Cut." This expression likewise occurs several times in Hey woods If you know not me you know Nobody, 1633, Se cond Part. 292. STEEVENS. -recollected] Studied. WARBURTON. I rather I rather think, that recollected signifies, more nearly to its primitive sense, recalled, repeated, aud alludes to the practice of composers, who often prolong the song by repetitions. JOHNSON. 314. favour.] The word favour ambiguously used.. JOHNSON. 324. -lost and worn,] Though lost and worn may mean lost and worn out; yet lost and won being, I think, better, these two words coming usually and naturally together, and the alteration being very slight, I would so read in this place with Sir T. Hanmer. JOHNSON. 336. free] Is, perhaps, vacant, unengaged, easy in mind. JOHNSON. I rather think that free means here—not having yet surrendered their liberty to man ;—unmarried. MALONE. Is not free, unreserved, uncontroled by the restraints of female delicacy, forward, such as sing plain songs? HENLEY. silly sooth,] It is plain, simple truth. JOHNSON. And dallies with the innocence of love,] To dally is to play harmlessly. So, act iii. "They that dally nicely with words." Again, in Swetnam Arraing'd, 1620: Again, in Sir W. Devenant's Albovine, 1629: dost thou dally thus with feeble motion?” STEEVENS. 339. -old age.] The old age is the ages past, the times of simplicity. 344 Fly away, fly away, JOHNSON. -] The old copy reads MALONE. fe. The emendation is Mr. Rowe's. 848. My part of death no one so true Did share it.] Though death is a part in which every one acts his share, yet of all these actors no one is so true as I. JOHNSON. 356. Sad true love never find my grave,] The old has lover. I would therefore readSad true-lover ne'er find my grave. copy MALONE. 366. —a very opal!] A precious stone of almost all colours. . So Milton, describing the walls of heaven: POPE. With opal tow'rs, and battlements adorn'd.” The opal is a gem which varies its appearance as it is viewed in different lights. So, in the Muse's Elizium, by Drayton : With opals more than any one It doth retain, some colour.” "In the opal (says P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Nat. Hist. b. xxxvii. c. 6) you shall see the burning fire of the carbuncle or rubie, the glorious purple of the amythyst, the green sea of the émeraud, and all glittering together mixed after an incredible manner." STEEVENS. 378. But 'tis that miracle," the queen of gems, That nature pranks her in, 3 -] The miracle and and queen of gems is her beauty. Shakspere does not say that nature pranks her in a miracle, but in the miracle of gems, i. e. in a gem miraculously beautiful. JOHNSON. 381. I cannot be so answer'd.] The folio reads,—It cannot be, &c. The correction by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS. 407. -like a worm the bud,] So, in the 5th sonnet of Shakspere: "Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose, Again, in K. Richard II. "But now will canker sorrow eat my bud, 408. MALONE. -She pin'd in thought;] Thought for merly signified melancholy. So, in Hamlet: "Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." Again, in The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: "The cause of this her death was inward care and thought." 410. She sat like patience on a monument, MALONE. Smiling at grief.] This celebrated image was not improbably first sketched out in the old play of Pericles. I think, Shakspere's hand may be sometimes seen in the latter part of it, and there only :two or three passages, which he was unwilling to lose, he has transplanted, with some alteration, into his own plays. "she "She sat like patience on a monument, In Pericles: "Thou (Mariana) dost look like patience gazing on the king's graves, and smiling extremity out of act." She sat like patience on a monument So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: FARMER. "So mild, that Patience seem'd to scorn his woes." In the passage in the text, our author, I believe, meant to personify Grief as well as Patience; for we can scarcely understand “at grief” to mean "in grief" as no statuary could, I imagine, form a countenance in which smiles and grief should be at once expressed. Perhaps Shakspere borrowed his imagery from some ancient monument, in which these two figures were represented. The following lines in The Winter's Tale seem to add some support to my interpretation: "I doubt not then, but Innocence shall make "False Accusation blush, and Tyranny "Tremble at Patience." In K. Lear, we again meet with the two personages introduced in the text: Patience and Sorrow strove "Who should express her goodliest.” Again, in Cymbeline, the same kind of imagery may traced: -nobly he yokes "A smiling with a sigh. be |