(i. e. let it be their parts to encircle him,) and fairy-like to pinch him, &c.

"And fairy-like to pinch."

Let them all encircle him, &c. and for the purpose of fairy-like pinching him, &c.

LORD CHEDWORTH.

SCENE V.

184. "I

may not conceal them, Sir."

Falst. "Conceal them, or thou diest."

Mr. Steevens tells us, that, in both these instances, it is Doctor Farmer's opinion that we should read reveal: but is there not more humour in Falstaff's accepting the mistaken word, and repeating it in its perverted sense?

ACT V. SCENE I.

193. Enter Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly.

I would conclude the fourth act with the scene between Falstaff and Ford, as Theobald does, and begin the fifth act with Page, Shallow, and Slender, in the park. In representation, it is, indeed, convenient to begin the fifth act with Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly, because, as the scene between Fenton and the host is omitted, no time would

otherwise be allowed for the conversation which is supposed to pass between Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly, in Falstaff's chamber.

LORD CHEDWORTH.

Since I pluck'd geese."

To pluck living geese, says Mr. Steevens, was, formerly, an act of puerile barbarity. The humane critic might have added a more reproachful extant instance of mature cruelty, deliberately and periodically practiced by the breeders of geese in some counties, of wrenching, twice a year, the feathers from the lacerated and bleeding bodies of those poor animals.

"Pluck'd geese."

I have been informed, that, in the moors of Somersetshire, and in the fens of Lincolnshire, it is customary to pluck geese five times a year.Three times for down, and twice for quills. LORD CHEDWORTH.

212.

66

Do not these fair yokes "Become the forest better than the town?"

It is not easy to assign any satisfactory meaning to this passage. The second folio gives oaks instead of yokes; and possibly Mrs. Page is only alluding to the rural beauty of the scene, and asking if this forest, with its oaks, does not look better, exhibit a more goodly prospect than the

town.

"These fair yokes."

I do not well understand why horns should be called yokes: if they are called yokes in the sense.

of marks of servitude, the expression appears to me very harsh; neither do I see why yokes should become the forest better than the town, though I can conceive why oaks should: for these reasons I am inclined to retain oaks.

LORD CHEDWORTH.

OR

WHAT YOU WILL.

245.

ACT I. SCENE II.

Conceal me what I am.”

Disclose me not; shew me not to be what I am. It is a strange expression.

246. "That will allow me very worth his service."

To allow, says Mr. Steevens, is to approve, but it is rather to rate, to estimate, whether favourably or otherwise. To mark the character or quality, as in Othello

"His bark is stoutly timbered, and his pilot "Of very expert and approv'd allowance." And in Hamlet

"The censure of which one must, in your allow"ance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others."

If Mr. Stevens's explanation of allowance were admitted, the passage from Othello might be read, "Of very expert and approv'd approvance," and that from Hamlet, The censure of which one, must, in your approbation," &c. the absurdity of which would be evident.

"Very worth" is an inaccurate expression: it should be very worthy. "Worth" is not, nor

cannot be, as Dr. Johnson calls it, an adjective. We cannot say a worth man, or a worth house: it has rather the power of a passive participle.

I know not how the meaning of this passage should be dubious-enter at once upon the business with her.Thus Polonius, resolving to accost Hamlet without ceremony, says, 66 I'll board him presently."

252. It is dry."

We may discover what Maria's idea of a dry hand is, by Othello's remark upon a moist one.

"This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart, "There's a young and sweating devil here, "That commonly rebels."

257.

SCENE IV.

I have unclasp'd

"To thee the book, even of my secret soul." Thus in King Henry IV. Part 1 :

"And now I will unclasp a secret book."

258. "Than in a nuncio of more grave aspect." Aspect has invariably this accentuation throughout these works.

268. "I am very comptible."

I believe Dr. Warburton is right, and that comptible means, not submissive, as Mr. Stee