Here, says Dr. Warburton, Shakspeare' shows his knowledge in the antique: and so does Taylor the water-poet, who describes Fortune,,, Like a Janus with a double face." FARMER.

P. 106, first 1. Some that will evermore peep through their eyes;] This gives us a very picturesque image of the countenance in laughing, when the eyes appear half shut. WARBURTON.

P. 106, 1. 4. That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile,] Be cause such are apt enough to show their teeth in anger. WARBURTON. P. 106, 1. 25 28. Lor. My Lord Bassa

nio, etc. etc.] This speech [which by Mr. Rowe and subsequent edi tors was allotted to Salanio,] is given to Lorenzo in the old copies; aud Salarino and Salanio make their exit at the close of the preceding speech. Which is certainly right. Lorenzo (who, with Gratiano, had only accompanied Bassanio, till he should find Antonio) prepares now to leave Bassanio to his business; but is detained by Graciano, who enters into a conversation with Antonio. TYRWHITT.

I have availed myself of this judicious correction, by restoring the speech to Lorenzo, and marking the exits of Salarino and Salanio at the end of the preceding speech. STEEVENS.

P. 107, 1. 3. Let me play the Fool: Alluding to the common comparison of human life to a stage play. So that he desires his may be the fool's or buffoon's part, which was a constant character in the old farces; from whence came the phrase, to play the fool. WARBURTON.

P. 107,

*P. 107, 1. 12. 13. There are a sort of men, whose visages

Do cream and mantle, like a standing

pond;] The poet here alludes to the manner in which the film extends itself over milk in scalding; and he had the same appearance in his eye when writing a foregoing

line:

"With mirth and laughter let old wrin kles come."""

So also, the author of Bussy d'Ambois:

„Not any wrinkles creaming 'in' their faces." HENLEY P. 107, 1. 14. a wilful stillnès ' 1 1. e.

an obstinate silence. MALONE.

P. 107, 1. 18. And, when I ope my lips, let not dog bark! This seems to be a proverbial expression. STEEVENS. P. 107, 1. 29. I'll end my exhortation after dinner.] The humour of this consists in its being an allusion to the practice of the puritan preachers of those times; who, being generally very long and tedious, were often forced to put off that part of their sermon called the exhortation, till after dinner.

P. 108, first

WARBURTON.

I'll grow a talker for this gear.] In Act. II. sc. ii. the same phrase occurs again:,,If fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this geer." This is a colloquial expression perhaps of no very determined import. STEEVENS.

P. 108, 1. 6. All the old copies read, is that any thing now? I suppose we should read—is that any thing new? JOHNSON.

The sense of the old reading is, -Does what

he has just said amount to any thing, or mean any thing? STEEVENS.

Surely the reading of the old copies is right. Antonio asks: Is that any thing now? and Bassanio answers, that, Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing-the greatest part of his discourse is not any thing.. TYRWHITT.

P. 109, first 1. This method of finding a lost arrow is prescribed by P. Crescentius in his Treatise de Agricultura, Lib. X. cap. xxviii. and is also mentioned in Howel's Letters, Vol. I. p. 135. edit. 1655. 12mo. DOUCE

like a wilful youth,]

This

P. 109, 1. 7. does not at all agree with what he had before promised, that what followed should be pure in nocence. For wilfulness is not quite so pure. Whe should read witless, i. e. heedless; and this agrees exactly to that to which he compares his case, of a school boy; who, for want of advised watch, lost his first arrow, and sent another after it with more attention. Bus wilful agrees not at all with it WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton confounds the time past and present. He has formerly lost his money like a wilful youth; he now borrows more in pure in nocence, without disguising his former faults or his present designs. JOHNSON.

P. 109, 1. 22. And I am prest unto it:] Prest may not here signify impress'd, as into military service, but ready. Prêt. Fr. STELVENS. P. 109, 1. 25.

sometimes from her eyes I did receive etc.] So all the editions; but it certainly ought to be, sometime, i, e. formerly, some time ago, at a certain time

appears by the subsequent scene,

and it

that Bassanio

was at Belmont with the Marquis de Montferrat, and saw Portia in her father's life time.

THEOBALD.

It is strange, Mr. Theobald did not know, that in old English, sometimes is synonymous with formerly. Nothing is more frequent in title pages, than,,sometimes fellow of such a college."

P. 110, 1. 25. Superfluity sooner acquires white hairs; becomes old, We, still say, How did he come by it? MALONE..

met wine's Essajes,

7

P. 111, 1, 25. The Neapolitans in the time of Shakspeare, were eminently skilled in all that be longs to horsemanship; nor have they, even now, fortcited their title to the same praise. STEEVENS. Though, qur, author, when he composed this play, could not have read the following passage in Florio's translation 1603, he had perhaps met the relation in some other book of that time:,,While I was a young lad, (says old Montaigne,) I saw the princè of Salmona, at Naples, manage a young, a rough, and fierce horse, and show all manner of horse. manship; to hold testons or reals under his hnces and toes, so fast as if they had been nayled there, and all to show his sure, steady, and unmoveable sitting" MALONE.

P. 111, 1. 26. Colt is used for a witless, heady, gay youngster, whence the phrase used of an old man too juvenile, that he still retains his colt's tooth. JOHNSON.

P. 1117 1.31. I am almost inclined to believe,' that Shakspeare has more allusions to particular facts and persons than his readers commonly sup pose. The Count here mentioned was, perhaps, Albertes a Lasco, a Polish Palatine, who visited

2

was eagerly England in our author's life-time, caressed, and splendidly entertained; but running in debt, at last stole away, and endeavoured to repair his fortune by enchantment. JOHNSON.

County and Count in old language were synonymous. The Count Alasco was in London in 1583. MALONE. OVA

P. 112, 1. 12. That the throstle is a distinct bird" from the thrush, may be known from T. Kewton's Herball to the Bible. STEEVENS.

P. 112, 1. 22. - he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian;] A satire on the ignorance of the young English travellers in our author's' time.

to

JASON WARBURTON,

P. 112, 1. 24. Proper is handsome. So, in Othello: This Ludovico is a proper man,« 10 STEEVENS.

"

112, 1. 30. Scottish, which is in the quar , was, omitted in the first folio, for fear of giv ing offence to King James's countrymen.

THEOBALD.

P. 112, last 1. I think, the Frenchman became his surety, and sealed under for another.] Alluding to the constant assistance, or rather con stant promises of assistance, that the French gave the Scots in their quarrels with the English. This alliance is here humorously satirized.

WARBURTON.

P. 113, first 1. the young German, the Duke of Saxony's nephew? In Shakspeare's time the Duke of Bavaria visited London, and was made Knight of the garter.

Perhaps in this enumeration of Portia's suitors, there may be some covert allusion to those of Queen Elizabeth. JOHNSON.As.

F