failure in what I have undertaken, and thence become the subject of odious ballads; let my maiden reputation be otherwise branded; and, no worse of worst extended, i. e. provided nothing worse is offered to me (meaning violation), let my life be ended with the worst of tortures. The poet for the sake of rhime has obscured the sense of the passage. The worst that can befall a woman, being extended to me, seems to be the meaning of the last line. STEEVENS. Tax of impudence, &c.] That is, to be charged with having the boldness of a strumpet- -a divulged shame, i. e. to be traduced by odious ballads :— -my maiden's name seared otherwise, i. e. to be stigmatized as a prostitute:no worse of worse extended, i. e. to be so defamed that nothing severer can be said against those who are most publickly reported to be infamous. Shakspere has used the words sear and extended in The Winter's Tale, both in the same sense as above: -For calumny will sear And, 66 "Virtue itself." The report of her is extended more than can be thought. 189. Methinks, in thee some blessed spirit doth speak, His powerful sound within an organ weak:] The verb, doth speak, in the first line, should be understood to be repeated in the construction of the second, thus: His powerful sound speaks within a weak organ. REVISAL. This, in my opinion, is a very just and happy explanation. STEEVENS. 191. And what impossibility would slay In common sense, sense saves another way.] i. e. And that which, if I trusted to my reason, I should think impossible, I yet, perceiving thee to be actuated by some blessed spirit, think thee capable of effecting. MALONE. 194. in thee hath estimate ;] May be counted among the gifts enjoyed by them. 196. ing of life. JOHNSON. -prime,- -] Youth; the spring or morn JOHNSON. Should not we read-pride? Dr. Johnson explains prime to mean youth; and indeed I do not see any other plausible interpretation that can be given of it. But how does that suit with the context?"You have all that is worth the name of life; youth, beauty, &c. all, that happiness and youth can happy call."– Happiness and pride may signify, I think, the pride of happiness; the proudest state of happiness. So, in the Second Part of Henry IV. act iii the voice and echo, is put for the voice of echo, or the echoing voice. TYRWHITT. Perhaps the words were transposed at the press—I read, That happiness can prime and happy call. MALONE. Mr. Malone's transposition, by turning a substan◄ tive into an adjective, seems to subvert the very sense of the text. Prime is here used by Shakspere, for the acme of perfection. So, in Richard III. act i. line 422. "And will she yet abase her eyes on me, "That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince, "And made her widow to a woful bed?" Helena is represented by the king as being happy, not only in the possession of youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, and virtue, but as possessing them severally, in the highest state of perfection.. HENLEY. 213. With any branch or image of the state;] Shakspere unquestionably wrote impage, grafting. Impe, a graff, or slip, or sucker; by which she means one of the sons of France. Caxton calls our prince Arthur, that noble impe of fame. WARBURTON. Image is surely the true reading, and may mean any representative of thine; i, e. any one who resembles you as being related to your family, or as a prince reflects any part of your state and majesty. There is no such word as impage. STEEVENS. Our author again uses the word image in the same sense as here in his Rape of Lucrece: 66 O, from thy cheeks my image thou hast torn.” MALONE. Branch refers to the collateral descendants of the royal blood, and image to the direct and immediate line. 242. It is like a barber's chair, &c.] sion is proverbial. See Ray's Proverbs. HENLEY. This expres STEEVENS. So, So, in More Fooles yet, by R. S. a collection of Epigrams, 4to. 1610: "Moreover sattin sutes he doth compare STEEVENS. 263. To be young again,] The lady censures her own levity in trifling with her jester, as a ridiculous attempt to return back to youth. JOHNSON. 266. O Lord, sir- -] A ridicule on that foolish expletive of speech then in vogue at court. WARBURTON. Thus Clove and Orange, in Every Man out of his Humour: "You conceive me, sir?—“ O Lord, sir.” Cleiveland, in one of his songs, makes his gentleman, "Answer, O Lord, sir! and talk play-book oaths." 301. of fear. FARMER. unknown fear.] Fear is here the object JOHNSON. 306. Par. So, I say, both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laf. Of all the learned and authentick fellows Shakspere, as I have often observed, never throws out his words at random. Paracelsus, though no better than an ignorant and knavish enthusiast, was at this time in such vogue, even amongst the learned, that he had almost justled Galen and the ancients out of credit. count learned is applied to Galen, and E iij On this ac authentick or fashionable fashionable to Paracelsus. Sancy, in his Confession Catholique, p. 310. Ed. Col. 720, is made to say: "Je trouve la Riviere premier medecin, de meilleure humeur que ces gens là. Il est bon Galeniste, & tres bon Paracelsiste. Il dit que la doctrine de Galien est honorable, & non mesprisable pour la pathologie, & profitable pour les boutiques. L'autre, pourveu, que ce soit de vrais preceptes de Paracelse, est bonne à suivre pour la verité, pour la subtilité, pour l'espargne; en somme pour la Therapeutique." WARBURTON. As the whole merriment of this scene consists in the pretensions of Parolles to knowledge and sentiments which he has not, I believe here are two passages in which the words and sense are bestowed upon him by the copies, which the author gave to Lafeu. I read this passage thus: Laf. To be relinquished of the artists Par. So I say. Laf. Both of Galen and Paracelsus, of all the learned and authentick fellows Par. Right, so I say. JOHNSON. 307.authentick fellows.] The phrase of the diploma is, authenticè licentiatus. MUSGRAVE. 316. Par. It is, indeed; if you will have it in shewing, &c.] We should read, think: "It is, indeed, if you will have it a shewing-you shall read it in what you do call there." TYRWHITT. Does not, if you will have it, IN shewing, signify—IN a demonstration or statement of the case HENLEY. |