By captious, I believe, Shakspere only meant capable of receiving what is put into it; and by intenible, incapable of holding or retaining it. How frequently he and the other writers of his age confounded the active and passive adjectives, has been already more than once observed. MALONE. 531. And lack not to lose still: -] Perhaps we should read: And lack not to love still. TYRWHITT. I believe lose is right. So afterwards in this speech: 66 -whose state is such, that cannot choose "But lend and give, where she is sure to lose." Helena means, I think, to say, that, like a person who pours water into a vessel full of holes, and still continues his employment, though he finds the water all lost, and the vessel empty, so, though she finds that the waters of her love are still lost,that her affection is thrown away on an object whom she thinks she never can deserve, she yet is not discouraged, but perseveres in her hopeless endeavour to accomplish her wishes.—The poet evidently alludes to the trite story of the daughters of Danaus. MALONE. Though the story alluded to be a trite one, the application of it is not; and the simile which follows, both for novelty and beauty, hath scarcely a superior in the paradise of poetry. HENLEY. *537. Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,] i. e. whose respectable conduct in age shows, or proves, that you were no less virtuous when young. proved by citing witnesses, or examples As a fact is from books, our our author with his usual licence uses to cite in the sense of to prove. MALONE. 539. Wish chastly, and love dearly, that your Dian Was both herself and love.-] i. e. Venus. Helena means to say, if ever you wished that the deity who presides over chastity, and the queen of amorous rites, were one and the same person; or, in other words—if ever you wished for the honest and lawful completion of your chaste desires. MALONE. -notes, whose faculties inclusive--] Receipts in which greater virtues were enclosed than appeared to observation. 555. 572. Embowell'd of their doctrine, JOHNSON. -] i.e. ex hausted of their skill. So, in the old spurious play of King John: "Back warmen, back; embowel not the clime." 587. STEEVENS. -into thy attempt :] So in the old copy. We might better read, according to the third folio→ = unto thy attempt. STEEVENS. Surely the reading of the old copy is by far the betIter, as it implies that the blessing may not only follow, but animate her attempt, and inspire it with an energy that must insure success. HENLEY. ACT II. Line 2. AND you, my lords, farewel :—] "Farewel, young lord; these warlike principles "Do not throw from you; and you, my lord, farewel." What follows, shews this correction to be necessary: "Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all," &c. 13. -let higher Italy TYRWHITT. (Those 'bated, that inherit but the fall Of the last monarchy) see, &c.] The ancient geographers have divided Italy into the Higher and the Lower, the Appenine hills being a kind of natural line of partition; the side next the Adriatick was de nominated the Higher Italy, and the other side the Lower and the two seas followed the same terms of distinction, the Adriatick being called the Upper Sea, and the Tyrrhene or Tuscan the Lower. Now the Sennones, or Senois, with whom the Florentines are here supposed to be at war, inhabited the Higher Italy, their chief town being Arminium, now called Rimini, upon the Adriatick. HANMER. The sense may be this, Let Upper Italy, where you are to exercise your valour, see that you come to gain honour, to the abatement, that is, to the disgrace and depression of those that have now lost their ancient military fame, and inherit but the fall of the last monarchy.-To abate is used by Shakspere in the original sense of abatre, to depress, to sink, to dejećł, to subdue. So, in Coriolanus: 66 -'till ignorance deliver you, "As most abated captives to some nation "That won you without blows." And bated is used in a kindred sense in the Merchant of Venice: "With bated breath and whisp'ring humbleness." The word has still the same meaning in the language of the law. JOHNSON. 22. -Beware of being captives, Before you serve.] The word serve is equivocal; the sense is, Be not captives before you serve in Be not captives before you are soldiers. the war. 35. -and no sword worn, JOHNSON. But one to dance with!] It should be remember'd that in Shakspere's time it was usual for gentlemen to dance with swords on.-Our author, who gave to all countries the manners of his own, has again alluded to this ancient cuftom, in Antony and Cleopatra, act iii. sc. iv. -He, at Philippi, kept "His sword even like a dancer." See Mr. Steevens's note there. MALONE. 40. I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body.] I read thus: Our parting is the parting of a tortured body. Our parting is as the disruption of limbs torn from each other. Repetition of a word is often the cause of mistakes: the eye glances on the wrong word, and the intermediate part of the sentence is omitted. So, in King Henry VIII. act ii. sc. 3. "it is a sufferance, panging "As soul and body's severing." JOHNSON. STEEVENS 58. they wear themselves in the cap of the time, there, do muster true gait, &c.] The main obscurity of this passage arises from the mistake of a single letter. We should read, instead of, do muster, to muster.— To wear themselves in the cap of the time, signifies to be the foremost in the fashion: the figurative allusion is to the gallantry then in vogue, of wearing jewels, flowers, and their mistress's favours in their capsthere to muster true gait, signifies to assemble together in the high road of the fashion. All the rest is intelligible and easy. WARBURTON. I think this emendation cannot be said to give much light to the obscurity of the passage. Perhaps it might be read thus: They do muster with the true gait, that is, they have the true military step. Every man has observed something peculiar in the strut of a soldier. JOHNSON. Perhaps |