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Perhaps we should read

-master true gait. To

master any thing, is to learn it perfectly. So, in the

First Part of King Henry IV.

"As if he master'd there a double spirit

"Of teaching and of learning”

Again, in K. Henry V.

"Between the promise of his greener days,
"And those he masters now."

In this last instance, however, both the quartos, viz. 1600, and 1608, read musters. STEEVENS.

The obscurity of the passage arises only from the fantastical language of a character like Parolles, whose affectation of wit, urges his imagination from one allusion to another, without allowing time for his judgment to determine their congruity. The cap of time being the first image that occurs, true gait, manner of eating, speaking, &c. are the several ornaments which they muster, place or arrange in time's cap. This is done under the influence of the most received star; that is, the person in highest repute for setting the fashions:—and though the devil were to lead the measure or dance of fashion, such is their implicit submission, that even he must be followed. HENLEY. 69. that has bought his pardon.—] The old

copy reads-brought. STEEVENS. 74 across : -] This word, as has been already observed, is used when any pass of wit miscarries. JOHNSON. Mr. Davies, with some probability, supposes the meaning to be" With all my heart, sir, even though

1

though you had broke

my

head across ;" and supports

his idea by a passage in Twelfth Night," he has broke my head across, and given Sir Toby a bloody coxcomb too." MALONE.

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78. Yes, but you will, my noble grapes; an' iƒ—] These words, my noble grapes, seem to Dr. Warburton and Sir. T. Hanmer to stand so much in the way, that they have silently omitted them. They may be indeed rejected without great loss, but I believe they are Shakspere's words. You will eat, says Lafeu, no grapes. Yes, but you will eat such noble grapes as I bring you, if you could reach them. JOHNSON.

79.

-I have seen a medicin,
That's able to breathe life into a stone;

Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary] Mr. Rich. Broom, in his comedy, entitled, The City Wit, or the Woman wears the breeches, act iv. sc. i. mentions this among other dances: "As for corantoes, levoltos, jigs, measures, pavins, brawls, galliards or canaries; I speak it not swellingly, but I subscribe to no man." GREY.

91. her years, profession,] By profession is meant her declaration of the end and purpose of her coming. WARBURTON.

93. Than I dare blame my weakness;-] This is one of Shakspere's perplexed expressions. To acknowledge how much she has astonished me, would be to acknowledge a weakness; and this I have not the con fidence to do. STEEVENS. That is, I am ashamed to acknowledge how much her intellects and accomplishments transcend my own.

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153. When miracles have by the greatest been deny'd.] I do not see the import or connection of this line. As the next line stands without a correspondent rhyme, I suspect that something has been lost. JOHNSON. I point the passage thus; and then I see no reason to complain of want of connection:

When JUDGES have been babes: GREAT FLOODS

HAVE FLOWN

FROM SIMPLE SOURCES; and GREAT SEAS
HAVE DRY'd,

When miracles have by the GREATEST been deny'd. 2. e. Miracles have continued to happen, while the wisest men have been writing against the possibility of them. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens hath indisputably settled the punctuation of the passage; but as to his WISEST men WRITING against the possibility of miracles, and at the time too they were continuing to happen; it is all gratis dictum, and totally foreign to the subject. Shakspere says nothing of miracles continuing to happen; nor of any one's writing against the possibility of them; but only-after alluding to the production of water from a rock, and the drying up the red-sea-that miracles had been denied by the GREATEST; or in other words, that the ELDERS OF ISRAEL (who just before, in reference to another text, were styled judges) had notwithstanding

standing these miracles, wrought for their own preservation, refused that compliance they ought to have yielded. See the book of Exodus, and particularly ch. xvii. v. 5, 6, &c. HENLEY.

made by Mr. Pope.

156. —and despair most sits,] The old copies read-and despair most shifts. The emendation was MALONE. 168. Myself against the level of mine aim ;] i. e. pretend to greater things than befits the mediocrity of my condition. WARBURTON.

I rather think that she means to say, I am not an impostor that proclaim one thing and design another, that proclaim a cure and aim at a fraud; I think what I speak. JOHNSON. 173. The greatest grace lending grace,] I should have thought the repetition of grace to have been superfluous, if the grace of grace had not occurred in the speech, with which the tragedy of Macbeth con. cludes. STEEVENS. The former grace in this passage, and the latter in Macbeth, evidently signify Divine Grace. HENLEY. -a divulged shame

185.

Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name
Sear'd otherwise; no worse of worst extended,

With vilest torture let my life be ended.] This

passage is apparently corrupt, and how shall it be rectified? I have no great hope of success, but some. thing must be tried. I read the whole thus:

King. What dar'st thou venture?

Hel.

Hel. Tax of impudence,

A strumpet's boldness; a divulged shame,
Traduc'd by odious ballads my maiden name;
Sear'd otherwise, to worst of worst extended;
With vilest torture let my life be ended.

When this alteration first came into my mind, I sup posed Helena to mean thus: First, I venture what is dearest to me, my maiden reputation; but if your distrust extends my character to the worst of the worst, and supposes me seared against the sense of infamy, I will add to the stake of reputation, the stake of life. This certainly is sense, and the language as grammatical as many other passages of Shakspere. Yet we may try another experiment:

Fear otherwise to worst of worst extended;

With vilest torture let my life be ended.

That is, let me act under the greatest terrors possible. Yet, once again, we will try to find the right way by the glimmer of Hanmer's emendation, who reads thus:

-my maiden name

Sear'd; otherwise the worst of worst extended, &c. Perhaps it were better thus:

-my maiden name

Sear'd; otherwise the worst to worst extended; With vilest torture let my life be ended. JOHNSON. Let us try, if possible, to produce sense from this passage without exchanging a syllable. I would bear (says she) the tax of impudence, which is the denotement of a strumpet; would require a shame resulting from my

E

failure

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