259. After Steevens's first note.] Thefe knights will VOL. I. back (that is, become cheap and vulgar) and therefore M. W. of The advifes her friend not to fully her gentry by becoming WINDSOR one. The whole of this difcourfe about knighthood is added fince the first edition of this play; and therefore I fufpect this is an oblique reflection on the prodigality of James I. in beftowing thefe honours, and erecting in 1611, a new order of knighthood, called Baronets; which few of the ancient gentry would condefcend to accept. See Sir Hugh Spelman's epigram on them, Gloff. p. 76, which ends thus: ' -dum cauponare recufant "Ex vera geniti nobilitate viri; "Interea e caulis hic prorepit, ille tabernis, "Et modo fit dominus, qui modo fervus erat.' See another stroke at them in Othello, vol. X. p. 553. To hick and to back, in Mrs. Quickly's language, fignifies to flammer or befitate, as boys do in faying their leffons. 262. He loves thy gallymaufry ] The folio reads: -E. He loves the gallymaufry —— which may be right. He loves a medley; all forts of women, high and low, &c. Ford's reply-love my wife-may refer to what Pistol had faid before: " Sir John affects thy wife." MALONE. 267. I would have nothing lie on my head.] Here feems to be an allufion to Shakspeare's favourite topick, the cuckold's horns. MALONE. 269. Have with you mine hoft.] This fpeech is given in all the editions to Shallow; but it belongs, I think, to Ford, to whom the hoft addreffes himself when he fays: "Will you go and hear us?" It is not likely he should address himself to Shallow, becaufe Shallow and he had already concerted the fcheme, and agreed to go together; and accordingly, Shallow fays, a little before, to Page, "Will you go with as to behold it?" The former fpeech of Ford-None I proteft &c. is given in like manner, in the first folio, to Shallow, instead of Ford. The editors corrected the one, but over-looked the other. MALONE. 271. —his wife's frailty] His wife's frailty is the fame as his frail wife. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, we meet death and honour, for an honourable death. MALONE. 285.-10 VOL: I. M. W. OF 285. to lay an amiable fiege.] i. e. a fiege of love. Ibid. She's too bright to be look'd against.] "Nimium lubricus afpici." Hor. MALONE. MALONE. 306. To follow Mr. Steevens's note.] The ftory of Ben Jonfon and young Raleigh could not have been here alluded to by Shakspeare; for Sir Walter Raleigh's eldest fon was born in 1595, and confequently was not above fix years old when this play was written. This incident is in the first ketch of this comedy, printed in 1602. MALONE. 310. Thou art a traitor to fay fo.] The folio reads: Thou art a tyrant to fay fo. MALONE. Ibid. I fee what thou wert, if Fortune thy foe were not; Nature is thy friend.] The first and fecond folio read :-I fee what thou wert if Fortune thy foe were not Nature thy friend.I understand neither. MALONE. Ibid. like Buckler's bury in fimple time.] (After Mr. Steevens's note.) So, in Decker's Weftward Hoe, a comedy, 1607: "Go into Buckler's bury, and fetch me two ounces of preferved melounes, look there be no tobacco taken in the fhop when he weighs it." Again, in the same play : "Run into Buckler's bury for two ounces of dragon water, fome fpermaceti, and treacle." MALONE. 313. And of the feason too it shall appear.] I would point differently: And of the feafon too ;-it fhall appear. Ford feems to allude to the cuckold's horns. So afterwards: "And fo buffets himself on the forehead, crying, peer out, peer out." MALONE. 318. Add to my note 4] Again, in The First Part of the Eighth liberal Science, entituled, Ars Adulandi &c. devifed and compiled by Ulpian Fulwel, 1676: their very dogs, Rug, Rig, and Rifbie, yea, cut and long-taile they fhall be welcome." STEEVENS. -yea, even 330.he fo takes on] After Dr. Johnfon's note.It is likewife ufed for to rage, by Nafhe, in Pierce Penni Leffe his Supplication, &c. 1592: "Some will take on like a madman, if they see a pig come to table." MALONE. 331. But what make you here?] An obfolete expreffion for what do you here. So, in Othello: "Ancient, what makes he here ?" Again, in Vittoria Corombona, a tragedy, by Webster, 1612: "What make you here, my lord, this dead of night ?" MALONE. Ibid. —an abstract.] i. e. a short note or defcription. VOL. I. So, in Hamlet: "The abstract, and brief chronicle of the times." MALONE. 333. youth in a basket.] Ford imagined that Falstaff was in the basket, who was no youth, but on the contrary, as Mrs. Page defcribes him, falling to pieces with age. I would read: You i' the basket! (come forth! being underftood). MALONE. 342. With fome diffused fong.] (After Mr. Steevens's note.) It is not Edgar, but Kent, that in King Lear talks of borrowing accents that may defuse his fpeech. MALONE. 352. The better to devote her to the doctor.] (After Mr. Steevens's note.) Surely we not only may, but ought, to read-denote. In the folio 1623, the word is exhibited thus:-deuote. It is highly probable that the n was reverfed at the prefs. So, in Much ado about Nothing, we meet: He is turu'd orthographer"-instead of turn'd, Again, in The Winter's Tale: "Louely apart" for "Lonely apart." Again, in Hamlet, quarto, 1605, we meet this very word put by an error of the prefs for denote: 66 Together with all forms, modes, fhapes of grief, "That can deuote me truly." Again, in Othello: "to the contemplation, mark and deuotement of her parts"- -instead of denotement. Again, in All's Well that Ends Well, act I. "the mystery of your louelinefs," instead of loneliness. Again, in K. John: "This expeditious charge," inftead of " This expedition's charge." Again, ib. "involuerable," for-" involnerable." Again, in K. Henry V. act III. fc. vi. "Leuity and cruelty," for "Lenity and cruelty." MALONE. 363. Vile worm-] Add to my note.-Again, in Pafquil's Night-cap, a poem, 1623: 66 -but this is too, too vild "She knows not who is father to her child." MALONE. M. W. OF VOL. II. VOLUME II. MEASURE FOR MEASURÉ. Page 6. -the terms ] Terms mean the technical lan guage of the courts. An old book called Les Termes de la MEASURE Ley, (written in Henry the Eighth's time) was in ShakMEASURE. fpeare's days, and is now, the accidence of young students in the law. FOR E. 16. What has be done.] (Add to my note) "The ftrumpet with the ftranger will not do, Ovid's Elegies, tranflated by Marlowe; printed at Middle- Again, ibid. But when I die, would I might droop with doing." Again, ibid. A white wench thralls me, fo doth golden yellow, "And nut-browne girles in doing have no fellow.” Again, in our author's Winter's Tale: "They "Which should undo more doing." "Do, happy lady. "Amand. All your mind's of doing COLLINS. 17. In a peculiar river.] i. e. a river belonging to an individual; not publick property. MALONE. 19. The words of heaven ;-on whom it will, it will On whom it will not, fo;-yet ftill 'tis juft.] After Mr. Steevens's note.-The very ingenious emendation "He who the fword of heaven will bear, MALONE. 20. Whether FOR 20. Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness;] To VOL. II. follow Dr. Johnson's note.-Fault, I apprehend, does not MEASURE refer to any enormous act done by the deputy, but to newnefs. The fault and glimpfe is the fame as the faulty glimpse. MEASURE. And the meaning feems to be-whether it be the fault of newness, a fault arifing from the mind being dazled by a novel authority, of which the new governour has yet had only a glimpse; has yet only taken a hafly furvey. Shakspeare has many fimilar expreffions. MALONE. 21. But this new governour Awakes me all the enrolled penalties Which have, like unfcour'd armour, hung by the wall, Now puts the drowsy and neglected aɛ Lord Strafford, in the conclufion of his Defence in the Houfe of Lords, had, perhaps, thefe lines in his thoughts: "It is now full two hundred and forty years fince any man was touched for this alledged crime, to this height, before myfelf. Let us reft contented with that which our fathers have left us; and not awake thofe fleeping lions, to our own destruction, by raking up a few mufly records, that bave lain so many ages by the walls, quite forgotten and neglected." MALONE. Ibid. her approbation.] i. e. enter on her probation, or noviciate. So again, in this play: "I, in probation of a fifterhood."Again, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608: "Madam, for a twelvemonth's approbation, "We mean to make the trial of our child." MALONE. 22. A prone and Speechless dialect.] Prone is used here for prompt. So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece, 1594: "O that prone luft should stain fo pure a bed !" MALONE. Ibid, loft at a game of tick-tack.] Tick-tack is a game at tables. Jouer au tric-trac is used in French, in a wanton fenfe. MALONE. 24, Which for these nineteen years we have let fleep.] Add to my note. The two readings which Mr. Theobald has introduced into the text, he might have found in an alteration of this play, published in 1700, by Charles Gildon, under the title of Meafure for Measure, or Beauty the best Advocate: "We |