pike) for a tailor's needle; but as it did not appear in the index to the Variorum, its meaning could not be discovered! Needles, as well as sword-blades, pike-heads, and other steel" furniture of war," came to us at that period from Spain. Setting aside the "allusion," Mr. Weber seems to know as little of the literal Spanish pike, as of the " metaphorical" one. Assuredly, that weapon was any thing but thin. See Jonson, vol. v., p. 11. G. 387. W.349.-What's he that looks so smirkly? copy reads smickly." "The old And why not? It is an excellent word, and much better adapted to the place than that which Mr. Weber has been pleased, in his ignorance, to substitute for it. This cavalier treatment of our old poets by one who can scarcely write a sentence of common English, is not a little amusing. G. 389. W. 351.-The sword arms me. Read: This sword arms me. Raybright alludes to that particular sword which Humour had just given to him. G.390. W.352.--What can she give thee? Which I for one bubble can add a sea to. "The old copy reads cannot." Always corrupting the text, under the plea of amending it! Read: What can she give thee Which I, for one bubble, cannot add a sea to? The critic never appears to know what his author is saying. G. 391. W. 353.-But. "This word had formerly, besides its usual meaning, that of except"! Happily thought upon; and for the tenth time. G. 391. W. 353.-The Hippocrenian well.] So the old copy. Mr. Weber, however, chooses to let his reading and writing appear, when there is no need of such vanity, and corrects it into the Hypocrenian well. G.392. IV.354.-All lies gallop o'er the world, and not grow old, nor be sick. A lie. The note on this passage does not disgrace the text. The examples given by the fool are formed by quibbling on the word lie." Read: sick? a lie. All lies. Gallop over the world, and not grow old nor Here is no quibbling whatever on the word lie; the examples given by the fool relate to age and sickness. G. 393. W. 355.-Thus ends your strife. Read This ends your strife; alluding to the resolution which Raybright had just taken, and which he now announces. G.397. W.359.-" Coit was antiently one of the methods of spelling quoit, which signified to throw." Very gravely put: and flea, in the same line, I presume, was antiently one of the methods of spelling flay. Mr. Weber will say, that it is Persian;-but let it be changed. G. 397. W.359.-Of the world. Read: In the world. G. 398. IV.359. Read: thy praises? Thou art a common creature. thy praises That art a common creature! G.398. W.360.-Ray. 'Tis a lie. Folly. Squire! Worshipful master Folly. Read: Ray. 'Tis a lie; Be judged by this your Squire, else— Folly. "Squire!" Worshipful master A whole line omitted, though, as the reader sees, the answer of Folly depends upon it. G. 400. W. 362.-Both of you are a concert; and I, your tunes, Lull me asleep. They may lull the critic; but they are scarcely musical enough to compose any one else. Read: Both of you are a concert, and your tunes G. 402. W. 363.-A cobnut of Africa. Read: A cobnut out of Africa. G. 403. W. 364.—In care of. Read: In care for him. G. 405. W. 367. For the refutation of a wanton attack on me in this place, the reader, if he thinks it worth the trouble, may turn to the last edition of Massinger, vol. iii. p. 384. He will there see at how early a period these remarks were collected. In this page, Mr. Weber has taken a speech from Humour, to whom it properly belongs, and given it to Health, who is not only not on the stage, but not in existence, having been dramatically killed off by the author in the preceding act. G. 407. IV. 368.-She points to trees, great with child of fruit, but when delivered, grapes hang in ropes; but no drawing. Read: She points to trees great with child of fruit ; but when delivered? Grapes hang in ropes; but no drawing, not a drop of wine, &c. G. 407. W.₫69.-I have seen Summer go up and down with hot codlings. "Mr. Steevens observes that a codling anciently meant an immature apple, and the present passage plainly supports his assertion, as none but immature apples could be had in summer." Here Mr. Weber, in humble imitation of his predecessor, labours to be indecent. His impure trash may be left. where he found it; but the reader must be told that codlings in" the present passage" are not apples, ripe or unripe, but green pease, which, in the poet's days, and long before and after them, were cried, ready dressed, about the streets.See The Witch of Edmonton. While on the subject, I will take the opportunity of observing, that I cannot discover why Mr. Nares should think my explanation of Doll's term in the Alchemist, p. 23,—a fine young quodling—“ improbable.” The more I consider it, the more I am convinced of its likelihood, nay, of its truth. She means, as is there said, a lawyer's clerk; and takes the appellation from a familiar diminutive of quod, one of those technical repetitions which have given rise to so many other ludicrous terms of kindred import; as quiddits, and quillits, and quodlibets, and I know not what. Mr. Nares is not to be told by me that Jonson was a scholar, affected-some may think, too strongly—to derivative orthography. Why, then, if he meant an apple, should he write it quodling, a word never used for it? The simple fact is, that Upton, who knew little of our old dramatists, first blundered on this explanation in his "Remarks," and was followed by the whole cry of Shakspeare commentators, brought up, much to their credit, by Mr. Weber. Quodling, Upton tells us, (who is quite possessed with his apple,) means, a too soon ripe headed young boy;" and, by the same metaphor, he adds, this too soon ripe headed young boy is called below "a puffin, i. e. mulum pulmoneum !”meaning, I suppose, a rotten apple: but be the sense what it may, the words were assuredly never applied to a puffin before; and,-what bears rather hard upon Upton's accuracythe term is expressly applied by Jonson to the bird of that name, which is described as "being already on the spit." "Were G. 411. W. 371.-All delicates which the wanton sense.] the metre of sufficient consequence to license the introduction of a new word, we might read all delicate cates.'" Delicate cate does not seem to be much in Ford's manner; what, then, if we read, without the introduction of any new words? All delicacies, which the wanton sense. G. 413. W.373.-Costermonger.] "Mr. Steevens observes, in answer to a superficial remark of Dr. Johnson"-this from Mr. Weber!" that a costermonger is a costard monger, a dealer in the apples called by that name, because they are shaped like a costard." Whenever poor Mr. Weber puts himself forward as a partizan, he fares somewhat like the dwarf in Goldsmith, and, whether the knight or the giant prove victorious, seldom Steevens, escapes without the loss of a leg or an arm. whose "observation" is perfectly puerile, no more thought of answering Dr. Johnson, than of leaping over the moon; and Dr. Johnson's "remark," for the shallowness of which Mr. Weber so frankly vouches, is, in truth, an admirable illustration of a point in ethics. The two critics have not a thought in common; one endeavours to explain the word; the other dwells altogether on the sentiment. This will be deemed too serious, perhaps; but the Wise Man tells us, that a fool is not always to be answered according to his folly. To return to Mr. Weber's explanation: had he read to the end of the line, he would have seen that his costards were pippins. A costermonger, in short, was a petty dealer in fruit of any kind; a basket or barrow-man, as we should call him. In Bartholomew Fair, we have," Enter costermonger, with a basket of pears." G. 414. IV. 375.-Would have made. Read: Would make; which is sense-the other not. G. 415. W. 375. Expressing their rich juice.] Expressing for pressing out. The Masque throughout abounds with pedantry, a species of ornament, which, from the patronage of James for pedantry of every kind, was thought peculiarly necessary in masques played at his court." I have already observed, that this drama was written for the theatre in Drury-lane, where it was played. To enter into a dispute with so arrant a driveller as Mr. Weber, would be an act of gratuitous folly; he, poor man, simply adopts the fashionable scurrility of the Shakspeare editors, and knows no more of king James, than of king Cunobeline; otherwise it might be answered, that of all the learned men of his day, this calumniated monarch was perhaps one of the least pedantic. If it be at all expedient to look for pedantry in "a Masque played at court," recourse must be had to Elizabeth, whose court was overrun with euphuism |