assumed parts in this kind of amorous interlude, they entertain hopes that we shall be betrayed by our passions to yield to their desires." So in Much Ado about Nothing: "The sport will be, when they hold an opinion of one another's dotage, and no such matter -that's the scene that I would see," &c. A corrupted passage in the first sketch of the Merry Wives of Windsor first suggested this emendation to me. In the fifth act Fenton describes to the host his scheme for marrying Anne Page: "And in a robe of white this night disguis'd "(Wherein fat Falstaff had [r. hath] a mighty scare) "Must Slender take her." It is manifest from the corresponding lines in the first fōlio, that scare was here printed by mistake for scene; for there the passage runs―― "Hath a great scene.” -fat Falstaff MALONE. Mr. Rowe's emendation is not only liable to objection from its dissimilarity to the reading of the four folios, but also from the awkwardness of his language, where the literal resemblance is most, like the words, rejected. In such affairs, is a phrase too vague for Shakspere, when a determined point, to which the preceding conversation had been gradually narrowing, was in question; and to MAKE hopes, is as uncouth an expression as can well be imagined. Nor is Mr. Malone's supposition, of scene for scarre, a whit more in point; for, first, scarre, in every part of Gij England England where rocks abound, is well known to signify the detached protrusion of a large rock; whereas scare is terror, or affright. Nor was scene, in the first folio, a mistake for scare, but an intentional change of ideas; scare implying only Falstaff's terror, but scene including the spectator's entertainment. On the supposal that make hopes is the true reading, in such a scarre, may be taken figuratively for in such an extremity, i. e. in so desperate a situation. HENLEY. 185. -Since Frenchmen are so braid, Braid signifies crafty or deceitful. So, in Greene's Never too Late, 1616: "Dian rose with all her maids, "Blushing thus at love his braids." Again, in Thomas Drant's Translation of Horace's Epistles, where its import is not yery clear: "Professing thee a friend, to plaie the ribbalde at a brade." In the Romaunt of the Rose, 1836, Braid seems to mean forthwith, or, at a jerk. There is nothing to answer it in the Fr. except tantost, STEEVENS. 193. 1 Lord.] The latter editors have with great liberality bestowed lordship upon these interlocutors, who, in the original edition, are called, with more propriety, capt. E. and capt. G. It is true that captain E. in a former scene is called lord E. but the subordination in which they seem to act, and the timorous manner in which they converse, determines them to be only captains. Yet as the latter readers of Shakspere Shakspere have been used to find them lords, I have not thought it worth while to degrade them in the margin. JOHNSON. G. and E. were, I believe, only put to denote the players who performed these characters. In the list of actors prefixed to the first folio, I find the names of Gilburne and Ecclestone, to whom these insignificant parts probably fell. MALONE. 210.till they attain to their abhorr'd ends;——} This may mean-they are perpetually talking about the mischief they intend to do, till they have obtained an opportunity of doing it. STEEVENS. 212. --in his proper stream overflows himself.] This is, betrays his own secrets in his own talk. The reply shews that this is the meaning. JOHNSON. 213. Is it not meant damnable, &c.] Damnable, seems to have been used as an adverb in our author's time. So in The Winter's Tale: "That did but shew thee of a fool, inconstant, "And damnable ungrateful.” Again, in Massinger's Very Woman: "I'll beat ye damnable; yea and nay I'll beat you,” Again, perhaps in Springes for Woodcocks, 8vo. 1613: "For here's the spring, saith he, whence pleasures flow, "And bring them damnable excessive gains." 219. MALONE. -his company,--] i. e. his companion. It is so used in many other places. MALONE. 219. 219. he might take a measure of his own judg ment,-] This is a very just and moral reason. Bertram, by finding how erroneously he has judged, will be less confident, and more easily moved by ad• monition. JOHNSON. 220. - -wherein so curiously he hath set this coun, terfeit.] Parolles is the person whom they are going to anatomize. Counterfeit, besides its ordinary signi❤ fication-[a person pretending to be what he is not] signified also in our author's time a false coin, and a picture. The word set shows that it is here used in the first and the last of these senses. MALONE. 285. —bring forth this counterfeit module ;] Module being the pattern of any thing, may be here used in that sense. Bring forth this fellow, who by coun terfeit virtue pretended to make himself a pattern. vi 324. all's one to him.] JOHNSON. Thus the old copy. all's one to me." But The modern editors read without authority. I believe these words should begin the next speech. They would then appear as a proper remark made by Bertram on the assertion of Parolles. STEEVENS. 338. I con him no thanks for't——] i. e. I shall not thank him in studied language. I meet with the same expression in Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication, &c. "I believe he will con thee little thanks for it." Again, in Wily Beguiled, 1613 con master Churms thanks for this. Again, in Any Thing for a Quiet Life: "He would not trust you with it, I con him thanks for it." To con thanks may, indeed, exactly answer the Freneh scavoir gré. To con is to know. STEEVENS. 346. —if I were to live this present hour, &c.] I do not understand this passage. Perhaps (as an anonymous correspondent observes) we should read: "If I were to live but this present hour." STEEVENS. Perhaps he meant to say- if I were to die this present hour. But fear may be supposed to occasion the mistake, as poor frighted Scrub cries : "Spare all I have, and take my life.” TOLLET. 355 off their cassocks,] Cassock signifies a horseman's loose coat, and is used in that sense by the writers of the age of Shakspere. So, in Every Man in his Humour, Brainworm says,- "He will never come within the sight of a cassock or a musquet rest again." Something of the same kind likewise appears to have been part of the dress of rusticks, in Mucedorus, an anonymous comedy, 1598, attributed by some writers to Shakspere: "Within my closet there does hang a cassock, "Though base the weed is, 'twas a shepherd's." Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578: -I will not stick to wear "A blue cassock.” On this occasion a woman is the speaker. So again, Who would |