but after the first heat they will take eggs for their money." Relations of the most famous Kingdomes and Commonwealths thorowout the World, 4to. 1630, p. 154. EDITOR, 240. happy man be his dole !- -] May his dole or share in life be to be a happy man. JOHNSON. The expression is proverbial. Dole was the term for the allowance of provision given to the poor, in great families. So, in Greene's Tu Quoque, 1599: "Had the women puddings to their dole?" STEEVENS. In Cupid's Revenge, by Beaumont and Fletcher, we meet with a similar expression : "Then happy man be his fortune!" 256. Apparent or the next claimant. MALONE. -] That is, heir apparent, JOHNSON. 263. the neb,- -] This word is commonly pronounced and written nib. It signifies here the mouth. So, in Anne the Queen of Hungarie, being one of the Tales in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, 1566.— "the amorous wormes of love did bitterly gnawe and teare his heart wyth the nebs of their forked heads. STEEVENS. 266. -a fork'd one, -] That is, a horned one; a cuckold. JOHNSON. 295. -it still came home.] This is a sea-faring expression, meaning, the anchor would not take hold. 297. -made STEEVENS. His business more material.] i, e. the more you you requested him to stay, the more urgent he represented that business to be, which summoned him away. STEEVENS. 300. They're here with me already ;- -] Not Polixenes and Hermione, but casual observers, peo, ple accidentally present. THIRLBY. --whispering, rounding :] To round in the ear is to whisper, or to tell secretly. The expression is very copiously explained by M. Casaubon, in his book De Ling. Sax. JOHNSON. The word is frequently used by Chaucer, as well as later writers. So in Lingua, 1607: "I help'd Herodotus to pen some part of his Muses; lent Pliny ink to write his history; and rounded Rabelais in the ear, when he historified Pantagruel." Again, in The Spanish Tragedy: "Forthwith revenge she rounded me i' th' ear." STEEVENS, 302. gust it- -] i. e. taste it. STEEVENS. "Dedecus ille domus sciet ultimus." Juv. Sat. 10. 308. is soaking,] Thy conceit is of an absorbent nature, will draw in more, &c. seems to be the meaning. STEEVENS. 311. -lower messes,] I believe, lower messes is only used as an expression to signify the lowest degree about the court. See Anstis Ord. Gart. i. App. p. 15: "The earl of Surry began the borde in presence: the earl of Arundel washed with him, and sat sat both at the first messe." At every great man's table the visitants were anciently, as at present, placed according to their consequence or dignity, but with additional marks of inferiority, viz. of sitting below the great salt-cellar placed in the centre of the table, and of having coarser provisions set before them. The former custom is mentioned in the Honest Whore, by Decker, 1635: "Plague him; set him beneath the salt, and let him not touch a bit till every one has had his full cut." The latter was as much a subject of complaint in the time of Beaumont and Fletcher, as in that of Juvenal, as the following instance may prove. "Uncut up pies at the nether end, filled with moss and stones, "Partly to make a shew with, "And partly to keep the lower mess from eating." Woman Hater, act i. sc. 2. This passage may be yet somewhat differently explained. It appears from a passage in The merye Jest of a Man called Howleglas, bl. let. no date, that it was anciently the custom in publick houses to keep ordinaries of different prices: "What table will you be at? for at the lordes table thei give me no less than to shylinges, and at the merchaunts tables xvi pence, and at my houshold servantes geve me twelve pence. Inferiority of understanding is, on this occasion, comprehended in the idea of inferiority of rank. STEEVENS. Concerning the different messes in the great families of of our ancient nobility, see The Houshold Book of the 5th Earl of Northumberland, 8vo. 1770. PERCY. 332. -hoxes honesty behind,-] To hox is to ham-string. So, in Knolles' History of the Turks: 66 -alighted, and with his sword hoxed his horse." King James VI. in his 11th parliament, had an act to punish "hochares," or slayers of horse, oxen, &c. STEEVENS. Hoxing is a term still well known to the human brutes in Smithfield-Market. NICHOLS. 349. Whereof the execution did cry out Against the non-performance,-] This means, I think, no more than a thing necessary to be done. 373. -were sin JOHNSON. As deep as that, tho' true.] i. e. your suspicion is as great a sin as would be that (if committed) for which you suspect her. 376. WARBURTON. -meeting noses?] Dr. Thirlby reads, JOHNSON. Disorders in the STEEVENS. meting noses, that is, measuring noses. 382. -the pin and web, eye. 412. See King Lear, act iii. sc. 4. -a lasting wink;] So, in the Tempest : "To the perpetual wink, for aye might put 417. STEEVENS. -But I cannot, &c.] In former copies, -But I cannot Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, I have lov'd thee. Leo. Make that thy question, and go not? Camillo is about to tell Leontes how much he had loved him. The impatience of the king interrupts him by saying, Make that thy question, i. e. make the love of which you boast the subject of your future conversation, and go to the grave with it. Question, in our author, very often has this meaning. So, in Measure for Measure: "But in the loss of question;" i. e. in conversation that is thrown away. Again, in Hamlet:" questionable shape" is a form propitious to conversation. Again, in As You Like It: "an unquestionable spirit" is a spirit unwilling to be conversed with. STEEVENS. 420. I have lov'd thee- -] In the first and se cond folio these words are the conclusion of Camillo's speech. The later editors have certainly done right in giving them to Leontes; but I think they would come in better at the end of the line: Make that thy question, and go rot I—I have lov'd thee. 429. Could man so blench] To blench is to start off, to shrink. So, in Hamlet, p. 68, line 744: "If he but blench, "I know my course.- Leontes means-could any man so start or fly off from propriety of behaviour? STEEVENS. 457. ——If I could find example, &c.] An allusion to the death of the queen of Scots. The play. there. 4 fore 1 |