from proof as strong as my grief, and as certain as I expect my revenge. That part, thou, Pisanio, must act for me, if thy faith be not tainted with the breach of hers. Let thine own hands take away her life: I shall give thee opportunities at Milford Haven: she hath my letter for the purpose; Where, if thou fear to strike, and to make me certain it is done, thou art the pander to her dishonour, and equally to me disloyal. Pis. What shall I need to draw my sword? the Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion; Pis. Were, in his time, thought false: and Sinon's weeping Did scandal many a holy tear: took pity From most true wretchedness: So, thou, humus, Imo. Why, I must die; And if I do not by thy hand, thou art Something's afore't: Soft, soft; we'll no defence; Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor fools And thou, Posthumus, thou that didst set up When I desire it too. Do't, and to bed then. Didst undertake it? Why hast thou abus'd Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men:5 1 It has already been observed that worm was the general name for all the serpent kind. See Antony and Cleopatra, Act v. Sc. 2 2 i. e. persons of the highest rank. 3 Putta, in Italian, signifies both a jay and a whore. We have the word again in The Merry Wives of Windsor-Teach him to know turtles from jays.' Some jay of Italy, whose mother was her painting, i. e. made by art; the creature not of nature, but of painting. In this sense painting may be said to be her mother. Steevens met with a similar phrase in some old play :-'A parcel of conceited feather-caps, whose fathers were their garments.' The elected deer before thee? Steevens above three thousand dresses behind her. once saw one of these repositories at an ancient mansion in Suffolk, which (thanks to a succession of old maids!) had been preserved wish superstitious reverence for ab most a century and a half. 5 Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men.' The leaven is, in Scripture phraseology, the whole wickedness of our sinful nature. See 1 Corinthians, v. 6, 7, 8. Thy failure, Posthumus, will lay falsehood to the charge of men without guile : make all suspected. 6 That makes me afraid to put an end to my own life.' Hamlet exclaims : O, that the everlasting had not fix'd 7 Shakspeare here means Leo..atus's letters, but there 4 That is, to be hung up as useless among the neglect-is an opposition intended between scripture, in its com ed contents of a wardrobe. So in Measure for Mea sure: That have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall. Clothes were not formerly, as at present, made of slight materials, were not kept in drawers, or given away as soon as lapse of time or change of fashion had impaired their value. On the contrary, they were hung up on wooden pegs, in a room appropriated to the sole purpose of receiving them; and though such cast off things as were composed of rich substances were occasionally ripped for domestic uses, articles of inferior quality were suffered to hang by the walls till age and moths had destroyed what pride would not permit to be worn by servants or poor relations : 'Comitem horridulum trita donare lacerna," seems not to have been customary among our ancestors. When Queen Elizabeth died, she was found to have left mon signification, and heresy. 8 Fellows for equals; those of the same princely rank with myself. when thou shalt be disedg'd by her That now thou tir'st on.' 9 It is probable that the first, as well as the last, of these metaphorical expressions is from falconry. A bird of prey may be said to be disedged when the keenness of its appetite is taken away by tiring, or feeding, upon some object given to it for that purpose. Thus in Hamlet :- 'Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. Ham. It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge.' 10 Blind, which is not in the old copy, was supplied by Hanmer. 11 To have thy bow unbent, alluding to a hunter. So |