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yourself warm enough, I warrant you." To bear any thing for a difference, is a term in heraldry. So, in Hamlet, Ophelia says :

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-you may wear yours with a difference." STEEVENS,

74. -he wears his faith- -] Not religious profession, but profession of friendship; for the speaker gives it as the reason of her asking, who was now his - companion? that he had every month a new sworn brother. WARBURTON.

75.

with the next block] A block is the mould on which a hat is formed. So, in Decker's Satiromastix:

"Of what fashion is this knight's wit? of what block?"

See a note on K. Lear, act iv. sc. 6.

The old writers sometimes use the word block for the hat itself.

77.

STEEVENS.

-the gentleman is not in your books. ] This is a phrase used, I believe, by more than understand it. To be in one's books, is to be in one's codicils or will, to be among friends set down for legacies. JOHNSON.

I rather think that the books alluded to, are memorandum books, like the visiting-books of the present age: so, in Decker's Honest Whore, Part II. 1630:

"I am sure her name was in my Table-Book once."

Or, perhaps, the allusion is to matriculation at the university.

So, in Aristippus, or the Jovial Philosopher, 1630:

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"You must be matriculated, and have your name recorded in Albo Academiæ.".

Again,-"What, have you enrolled him in Albo? Have you fully admitted him into the Society?-to be a member of the body academick ?”

Again, "And if I be not entered, and have my name admitted into some of their books, let," &c.

And yet I think the following passage in the Maid's Revenge, by Shirley, 1639, will sufficiently support my first supposition :

"Pox of your compliment, you were best not write in her Table-Books."

It appears to have been anciently the custom to chronicle the small beer of every occurrence, whether literary or domestick, in these Table-Books.

So, in the play last quoted:

"Devolve itself!-that word is not in my TableBooks."

Hamlet, likewise has," my tables," &c.
Again, in the Whore of Babylon, 1607:

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-Campeius !-Babylon

"His name hath in her Tables."

Again, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540.

66

-We weyl haunse thee, or set thy name into our felowship boke, with clappynge of handes," &c.

I know not exactly to what custom this last quoted passage refers, unless to the album: for just after, the same expression occurs again: that "-from henceforthe thou may'st have a place worthy for thee in our

whyte:

whyte: from hence thou may'st have thy name written in our boke."

It should seem, from the following passage in the Taming of a Shrew, that this phrase might have originated from the Herald's Office:

“A herald, Kate! oh, put me in thy books !” After all, the following note in one of the Harleian MSS. No. 847, may be the best illustration:

"W. C. to Henry Fradsham, Gent. the owner of this book:

"Some write their fantasies in verse

"In theire bookes where they friendshippe shewe, "Wherein oft tymes they doe rehearse

"The great good will that they doe owe," &c. STEEVENS.

The gentleman is not in your books.] This phrase has not been exactly interpreted. To be in a man's books, originally meant to be in the list of his retainers. Sir John Mandevile tells us, "alle the mynstrelles that comen before the great Chan ben witholden with him, as of his houshold, and entred in his bookes, as for his own men." FARMER.

This expression, I make no doubt, took its rise from the custom mentioned by Dr. Farmer, That in all great families, the names of the servants of the household were written in books kept for that purpose, appears from the following passage in A new Trick to cheat the Devil, a comedy, 1639: "See, master Treatwell, that his name be enrolled among my other Biij

servants

servants-Let my steward receive such notice from you."

A servant and a lover were in Cupid's Vocabulary, synonymous. Thus, in Marston's Malecontent, 1634: "Is not Marshal Makeroom, my servant in reversion, a proper gentleman ?”

Hence the phrase—to be in a person's books—was applied equally to the lover and the menial attendant.

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MALONE.

81. young squarer- -] A squarer I take to be a cholerick, quarrelsome fellow, for in this sense Shakspere uses the word to square. So, in the Midsummer Night's Dream, it is said of Oberon and Titania, that they never meet but they square. So the sense may be, Is there no hot-blooded youth that will keep him company through all his mad pranks? JOHNSON. 102. You embrace your charge] That is, your burden, your incumbrance.

121.

JOHNSON.

such food to feed it, as signior Benedick ?] A kindred thought occurs in Coriolanus, act ii.

scene 1.

"Our very priests must become mockers, if they encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are."

STEEVENS.

156. I thank you :- -] The poet has judiciously marked the gloominess of Don John's character, by making him averse to the common forms of civility. SIR J. HAWKINS.

183.

-to tell us, Cupid is a good hare-finder, &c.] I know not whether I conceive the jest here in

tended.

tended. Claudio hints his love of Hero. Benedick asks, whether he is serious, or whether he only means to jest, and tell them that Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter. A man praising a pretty lady in jest, may shew the quick sight of Cupid, but what has it to do with the carpentry of Vulcan ? Perhaps the thought lies no deeper than this, Do you mean to tell us as new what we all know already?

JOHNSON.

I believe no more is meant by those ludicrous expressions than this-Do you mean, says Benedick, to amuse us with improbable stories?

An ingenious correspondent, whose signature is R. W. explains the passage in the same sense, but more amply: "Do you mean to tell us that love is not blind, and that fire will not consume what is combustible?"for both these propositions are implied in making Cupid a good hare-finder, and Vulcan (the God of fire) a good carpenter. In other words, would you convince me, whose opinion on this head is well known, that you can be in love without being blind, and can play with the flame of beauty without being scorched.

STEEVENS.

I explain the passage thus: Do you scoff and mock in telling us that Cupid, who is blind, is a good hare-finder, which requires a quick eye-sight; and that Vulcan, a blacksmith, is a rare carpenter? TOLLET.

185. to go in the song ?] i, e. to join with you in your song—to strike in with you in the song.

STEEVENS.

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