Page 33, line 6. I should be now devising sentences Sentences are sententious maxims, and caveats are cautions to posterity against running into debt, or becoming surety; such as imprisoned debtors scribble on their walls. Page 34, line 6. At length impal'd Love with a laurel-wreath.] And at page 69, line 1, "Till some fair saint impale him with a crown." And so 3 King Henry VI., iii., 2.— "Until my misshap'd trunk, that bears this head, Be round impaled with a glorious crown." Page 36, line 9. "far off, and ne'er the near."] The proverb is Early up, and never the nearer; but in old plays it is generally printed, "ne'er the near," whether for verse or for prose. Our forefathers often slurred the letter r. They called it the dog's letter. "Ne'er the near made a better jingle: for I have no doubt that both words were then pronounced exactly alike. See King Richard 11., act v., sc. I., var. edd:— "Better far off, than, near, be near the near[er]." It was to avoid the r that more was called mo. Page 37, line 15. Will I write down in bloody characters.] That is, in letters written with his own blood, as extravagant lovers used to do. Page 40, line 6. Ask for a burthen.] An employment, a task. Page 45, line 26. Marry, gip, minx!] Marry is a corruption of Mary; and gip, Mr. Nares thinks, of go-up; and he quotes 2 Kings, ii., 23. Our comedies still say, Marry, come up! Page 48, line 9. Which to approve, follow me but in all.] Which to prove, follow me only in all things. Page 50, line 10. In the next room, with a calves head and brimstone.] "In the next room," means in the next place, or seat. A calves head and brimstone is a dish I am unacquainted with. Page 50, line 18. And more by much more than the most of them.] This line sounds very like nonsense. Page 50, line 27. Th' occurrents of this practice, as they grow.) The occurrences of this trick, as they arise. Page 53, line 17. And the short and the long boy is, &c.] The word Η boy is not printed as a vocative case, and if it be used so, it would seem to be a strange familiarity. Page 53, line 28. I will intimate her mother.] This is a very unusual sense of the word to intimate; but it is countenanced by the following passage from the Faerie Queene, book vi., canto 3, stanza 12— "So both conspiring gan to intimate Each other's griefe with zeale affectionate." Page 57.] With the exception of "Feed thou on me, and I will feed on thee, And Love shall feed us both," all these quotations are from Shakespeare's exquisite young man's poem, Venus and Adonis. They show how popular it was. Page 58, line 18. I'll bear the bucklers hence away.] Clypeum abjicere was the Roman phrase for to yield. "A most manly wit, Margaret, it will not hurt a woman; and so I pray thee call Beatrice: I give thee the bucklers."—Much Ado, v. 2. To bear them away is therefore to conquer. "Play an honest part, and bear away the bucklers." Ben Jonson, Case is alter'd, ii., 4. Mr. Gifford has no note on this passage. An Page 60, line 1. 'Tis most tolerable and not to be endured.] obvious plagiarism from Shakespeare's Dogberry. Fiddle "has two gowns and every thing handsome about him," with many other points of resemblance to Dogberry. The edition of 1637 corrects this happy slip-slop to intolerable. This echo proves the long popularity of Much ado about Nothing; which was first published seven years before our play. "I am horribly in love with her," Bowdler's speech just before, is the same as Benedick's in Shakespeare's same comedy. Both were newly-converted lovers, from having been scorners of the fair sex. Page 63, line 12. Rise.] Meaning "kneel no longer." In these days, all children, on entering their parents' presence, knelt down for their blessing. Page 64, line 21. His virtue mends that miss.] Miss for amiss. So in Venus and Adonis, where Heywood had just been: "He saith she is immodest, blames her 'miss; What follows more she murders with a kiss." Page 66, line 16. Two hours' expiration have taken final end.] This is something like dear Roberts's "forgery of a groundless fiction."—See Lord Byron's Works. Page 71, line 10. Here's two Knights to a dish.] Both the original copies have Snights, an obvious misprint. But I have never met with this proverbial phrase before. Two knights on one horse we have heard of. Page 74, line 35. For all thou hast borne Bowdler still in hand.] "Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, In hand, with hope of action." Measure for Measure, i., 5. "Whereat grieved That so his sickness, age, and impotence, Was falsely borne in hand." Hamlet, ii., 2. In Dr. Walter Pope's Life of Bishop Seth Ward, 1697, p. 104, is the following passage: "My lord, I might bear you in hand, a western phrase, signifying to delay or keep in expectation, and feed you with promises, or at least hopes," &c. Page 86, line 22. not altered this line, Nor thee nor him shall ever this repent.] I have since it may be grammatically construed "This shall never repent either thee or him." Page 87, line 12, What, do you mean to spoil my daughter?] Id est, to make her the spoil of a fight. Bandied old Flower to such an exigent.] There is a quibble in the word bandied; and an exigent is an extremity. "These eyes, like lamps whose wasting oil is spent, Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent." I. Hen. VI., ii., 5. THE END. ERRATA. Page 25, line 5, for "night" read "right." Page 59, line 2, for "bonos" read "buenas." Page 66, line 8, for "in the reservation" read "is the reservation." Page 68, line 14, for "Tho' I thus doat" read "Tho' thus I doat." Page 69, line 20, for "undeserv'd love" read "undeserved love." Page 92, line 21, for "wires" read "wives." |