The following note in K. Henry V. affords ftrong comparative proof of the importance of the ancient dialect, in afcertaining the fenfe of Shakspeare. For I will fetch thy rym-] We should read: • Or, I will fetch thy ranfom out of thy throat. Warburton. I know not what to do with rym. The meafure gives reason to fuppofe that it ftands for fome monofyllable; and befides, ranfome is a word not likely to have been corrupted. Johnson. This line is wanting in the quartos 1600 and 1608. The folio reads thy rymme. It appears, however, from fir Arthur Gorge's Tranflation of Lucan, 1614, that fome part of the inteftines was anciently called the rimme, Lucan. B. i: "The flender rimme too weake to part "The boyling liver from the heart-" "Parvus limes (fays one of the fcholiafts) præcordia indicat; membrana illa quæ cor et pulmones a jecore et liene dirimit." Í believe it is now called the diaphragm in human creatures, and the fkirt or midriff in beafts; but fill in fome places, the rim. Phil. Holland, in his tranflation of Pliny's Nat Hift. several times mentions the rim of the paunch. See B. XXVIII. ch. ix. P. 321, &c.' Steevens. In the fucceeding note, in the Firft Part of K. Henry VI. a hiftorical inaccuracy is corrected. 6 -at the battle of Poitiers.] The battle of Poitiers was fought in the year 1357, the 31ft of king Edward III. and the fcene now lies in the 7th year of the reign of king Henry VI. viz, 1428. This blunder may be justly imputed to the players or transcribers; nor can we very well juftify ourselves for permitting it to continue fo long, as it was too glaring to have efcaped an attentive reader. The action of which Shakespeare is now fpeaking, happened (according to Holinfhed) "neere unto a village in Beauffe called Pataie," which we should read, inftead of Poitiers "From this battell departed without anie ftroke ftricken, Sir John Faftolfe, the fame yeere by his valiantneffe elected into the order of the garter. But for doubt of mifdealing at this brunt, the duke of Bedford tooke from him the image of St. George and his garter, &c." Holinthed, Vol. II. p. 601. Steevens. The next note we shall extract illuftrates an allufion of the poet, in the Second Part of K. Henry VI. What art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf?] This allufion which has been borrowed by many writers from the Proverbs of Solomon, and Pfal. Iviii. may receive an odd illuftration from the following paffage in Gower de Confeffione Amantis, B. I, fol, x. "A ferpent, which that afpidis " Is cleped, of his kinde hath this, For whiche whan that a man by flight "He leyth downe his one eare all flat « Unta "Unto the grounde, and halt it faft: "And thus his eare is nought deceived." Shakespeare has the fame allufion in Troilus and Creffida: "Have ears more deaf than adders, to the voice of any true decifion." Steevens." In the Third Part of K. Henry VI. we meet with the fol lowing explanation of a wifp of firaw. A wifp of fraw-] I fuppofe for an inftrument of correction that might difgrace but not hurt her. Johnson. I believe that a wisp fignified fome inftrument of correction ufed in the time of Shakespeare. The following inftance feems to favour the fuppofition. See A Woman never Vexed, a comedy by Rowley, 1632: "Nay, worfe; -I'll ftain thy ruff: nay, worse than that, -doft wifp me, thou tatterdemallion ?" Again, in Marfton's Dutch Courtezan, 1604: "Thou little more than a dwarf, and fomething less than a woman! "Crif. A wifpe! a wifpe! a wifpe!" Barrett in his Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, interprets the word wifpe by peniculus or ovyos, which fignify any thing to wipe or cleanfe with; a cook's linen apron, &c. Pewter is ftill fcoured by a wispe of firaw, or hay. Perhaps, Edward means one of thefe wisps, as the denotement of a menial fervant. Barret adds, that like a wafe, it fignifies "a wreath to be laied under the veffel that is borne upon the head, as women ufe." If this be its true fenfe, the prince may think that fuch a wifp would better become the head of Margaret, than a crown. It appears, however, from the following paffage in Thomas Drant's tranflation of the feventh fatire of Horace, 1567, that a wifpe was the punishment of a fcold: "So perfyte and exacte a fcould that women mighte geve place "Whofe tatling tongues had won a wifpe, &c." Steevens.” An allufion to a custom in the time of our author, is illuf trated by the fubfequent note in K. Richard III. -Humphrey Houre,-] This may probably be an allufion to fome affair of gallantry of which the duchefs had been fufpected. I cannot find the name in Holinfhed. Surely the poet's fondnes for a quibble has not induced him at once to perfonify and chriften that hour of the day which fummon'd his mother to breakfast. So, in The Wit of a Woman, 1592: "Gentlemen, time makes us brief: our old miftrefs, Houre is at hand." The common cant phrafe of dining with duke Humphrey, I have never yet heard fatisfactorily explained. It appears, however, from a fatirical pamphlet called the Guls Horn-booke, 1609, written by VOL. XLVII. March, 1779. T. Deckar, N T. Deckar, that in the ancient church of St. Paul, one of the ailes was called Duke Humphrey's Walk; in which thofe who had no means of procuring a dinner, affected to loiter. Deckar concludes his fourth chapter thus: " By this, I imagine you have walked your bellyful, and thereupon being weary, or (which is rather, I beleeve) being moft gentleman-like, hungry, it is fit that as I brought you unto the duke,,fo (because he followes the fashion of great men in keeping no houfe, and that therefore you must go feeke your dinner) fuffer me to take you by the hand and leade you into an ordinary." The title of this chapter is, "How a gallant fhould behave himfelf in Powles Walkes." Hall, in the 7th Satire, B III. feems to confirm this interpre tation: "Tis Ruffio: Trow'st thou where he din'd to-day? Hall's Satires, Edit. 1602, p. 60. See likewife Foure Letters and certain Sonnets, by Gabriel Harvey, 1592: 66 to feek his dinner in Poules with duke Humphrey to licke dishes, to be a beggar." Again, in the Return of the Knight of the Post, &c. by Nash, 16c6in the end comming into Poules, to behold the old duke and his guests, &c.” Again, in A wonderful, ftrange, and miraculous Prognoftication, for this Year, &c. 1591, by Nath: "-fundry fellowes in their fiikes fhall be appointed to keepe duke Humphrye company in Poules, because they know not where to get their dinners abroad." If it be objected that duke Humphrey was buried at St. Albans, let it likewife be remember'd that cenotaphs were not uncommon., Steevens The following are the remarks of three commentators on a paffage in K. Henry VIII. • That fuch a keech-] Ketch, from the Italian caicchio, fignifying a tub, barrel, or hogfhead, Skinner. Pope. The word in the folio is keech, which not being understood, is changed into ketch. A keech is a folid lump or mafs. A cake of wax or tallow formed in a mould is called yet in fome places a keech. Johnson. There may, perhaps, be a fingular propriety in this term of contempt. Wolfey was the fon of a butcher, and in the fecond part of King Henry IV. a butcher's wife is called-Goody Ķeech. Steevens." In the fucceeding note in Coriolanus, the ancient reading is reftored, in oppofition to all the modern editors. their provand] So the old copy, and rightly, though all the modern editors read provender. The following inftances may ferve to establish the ancient reading. Thus, in Stowe's Chronicle, edit. 1615, p. 737: "the provaunte was cut off, and every foldier had half a crowne a weeke." Again: "The horsemenne had foure hillings the weeke loan, to find them and their horfe, which was 6 better better than the provaunt.' Again, in Sir Walter Raleigh's Works, 1751, Vol. II. p. 229. Again, in Hakevil on the Providence of God, p. 118, or Lib. II. c. vii. fect. 1: ---At the fiege of Luxenburge, 1543, the weather was fo cold, that the provant wine, ordained for the army, being frozen, was divided with hatchets, &c.” Again, in Pafquil's Nightcap, &c. 1623: "Sometimes feek change of pasture and provant, "Because her commons be at home fo fcant." The word appears to be derived from the French, provende, provender. Steevens." The following expreffion in Julius Cæfar is thus illuftrated. the elements • So mix'd in him, that Nature might fand up And fay to all the world, This was a man.] "As that it feem'd, when nature him began, This poem was published in the year 1598. The play of our author did not appear before 1623. Steevens.' In Antony and Cleopatra, the fubfequent expreffion is also illuftrated by collateral examples.. • That fucks the nurse afleep?] Before the publication of this piece, The Tragedy of Cleopatra, by Daniel, 1599, had made its appearance; but Dryden is more indebted to it than Shakespeare. Damiel has the following lines: "Better than death death's office thou difchargest, "That with one gentle touch can free our breath; "And in a pleafing fleep our foul enlargest, 66 Making ourselves not privy to our death.--- • Dryden fays on the fame occasion: --Welcome thou kind deceiver ! "Thou best of thieves; who with an eafy key An obfcure paffage in Timon of Athens is thus elucidated by three commentators. • ------ I myself would have no power.] If this be the true reading, the fenfe is, all Athenians are welcome to are my fortune: I would N 2 myfelf myfelf have no exclufive right or power in this house. Perhaps we might read, I myself will have no poor. I would have every Athenian confider himself as joint pofleflor of my fortune. Johnfon. I should think, I myself would have no power, referred to the fubfequent rather than to the preceding words----I claim no extraordinary power in right of my being mafter of the house: I wish not by my commands to impofe filence on any one: but though I myself do not enjoin you to filence, let my meat flop your mouth. Malone. I understand Timon's meaning to be: I myself would have no power to make thee filent, but I with thou would't let my meat make thee filent. Timon, like a polite landlord, difclaims all power over the meanest or most troublesome of his guests. Tyrwhit What follows concludes the observations on Titus Andronicus. It must prove a circumftance of confummate mortification to the living criticks on Shakespeare, as well as a difgrace on the memory of those who have ceafed to comment and collate, when it fhall appear from the fentiments of one of their own fraternity (who cannot well be suspected of afinine taftleffness, or Gothic prepoffeffions) that we have been all mistaken as to the merits and the author of this play. It is fcarce neceffary to obferve that the perfon exempted from thefe fufpicions is Mr. Capell, who delivers his opinion concerning Titus Andronicus in the following words: "To the editor's eye [i.e. his own] Shakespeare flands confefled : the third act in particular may be read with admiration even by the moft delicate; who, if they are not without feelings, may chance to find themfelves touch'd by it with fuch paffions as tragedy fhould excite, that is---terror and pity.It were injuftice not to remark that the grand and pathetic circumftances in this third act, which we are told cannot fail to excite fuch vehement emotions, are as follows. Titus lies down in the dirt-Aaron chops off his hand.— Saturninus fends him the head of his two fons and his own hand again, for a prefent.-His heroic brother Marcus kills a fly. Mr. Capell may likewife claim the honour of having produced the new argument which Dr. Farmer mentions in a preceding note. Malone. The conjecture of the editor in the fubfequent note, on Troilus and Creffida, appears to be well founded. A firanger to thofe most imperial looks] And yet this was the feventh year of the war. Shaketpeare, who fo wonderfully preferves character, ufually confounds the cuftoms of all nations, and probably fuppofed that the ancients (like the heroes of chivalry) fought with beavers to their helmets. So, in the fourth act of this play, Nettor fays to Hector: But this thy countenance, fill lock'd in feel, I never faw till now. Shakespeare might have adopted this error from the illuminators of manufcripts, who never feem to have entertained the leaft idea of habits, manners, or cuftoms more ancient than their own. There are books in the British Mufeum of the age of king Henry VI; and in thefe the heroes of ancient Greece are reprefented in the very dreffes worn at the time when the books received their decorations, Steevens. The |