With respect to the former line,-" Hides my heart," &c. Mr. Steevens's expedient to supply the defect seems acceptable.

"Hides my poor heart, so let me hear you speak."

"Hides my heart," &c.

The censure above passed on Mr. Malone is just. Mr. Malone has no title to say "Digitis callemus & aure.' LORD CHEDWORTH.

356. "

SCENE III.

If I be laps'd in this place."

If I be found nodding-off my guard, or vigilance. The word, in the same sense, occurs in Hamlet.

"Do you not come your tardy son to chide,

That, lap'st in time and passion, lets go by

"Th' important acting of your dread command?"

SCENE IV.

358. "Why dost thou smile so, and kiss thy hand so oft?"

This fantastical mode of courtesy, as Mr. Reed calls it, was, it seems, very current in our author's time. Iago, watching the looks and gestures of Cassio, addressed to Desdemona, says, "Ay, smile upon her, do-if these tricks strip you out of your lieutenantry, you were better not have kiss'd your three fingers so oft;-again, your fingers to your lips!"

360. "Fellow."

This term, as Dr. Johnson has remarked, signified, formerly, without degradation, companion; and, by a remarkable revolution in the meaning of words, companion, which then signified fellow, in a contemptuous sense, has risen to its present dignity.

371. "Such a Virago."

By Virago, I imagine the poet meant nothing else but what Dr. Johnson has explained;-a delicate and feminine form, with boisterous and swaggering manners.

It is strange to see how the commentators have here mistaken the clown's character, who says to Malvolio, Are you not mad indeed, or do you but counterfeit? They would fain make him talk sense: Shakspeare made him talk nonsense in character. The question means-Are you really in your senses, or do you but act as though you were? As though a mad man could counterfeit a wise man! Absurd! but highly in character! Praises equally applicable to the annotators. This is from Heron's Letters of Literature. LORD CHEDWORTH,

SCENE III.

393. I found this credit."

Perhaps credited, the simple verb for the passive participle, as it is sometimes used. Milton describes Satan" with head uplift above the waves." But it may signify, by a harsh ellipsis, a matter of credit or belief.

395.

"Whiles you are willing."

I have frequently heard while used corruptedly for till, particularly at Harrow, in Middlesex: I find it used in this sense in the trial of Spencer, Cowper, and others, at Hertford, 5 State Trials, 195. Mr. Jones: "My Lord, then we should keep you here while to-morrow morning."While is also used in this sense by Sir John Friend, at his trial, On his applying to the court, to have a witness sent for, who was a prisoner in the Gate-House, the Lord Chief Justice Holt asks, "Sir John, why did you not send, and desire this before?" To which Friend answers, "My Lord, I did not hear of him while last night." So, too, Ben Jonson.

I am born a gentleman,

"A younger brother; but in some disgrace "Now with my friends, and want some little

means

"To keep me upright while things be reconcil'd.". The Devil is an Ass, Act 1, Scene 3. LORD CHEDWORTH.

F 4

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

ACT I. SCENE I.

6. "He hath, indeed, better better'd expectation, than you must expect me to tell you how."

He has exceeded expectation in a greater measure than you must expect, &c. Plain sense, in many of these scenes, must yield to the charm of a jingle.

7. "How much better is it to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping?"

This is a very lame antithesis; for we must change the person, to comprehend the meaning. A man's own joy will sometimes extract tears from him; but nobody's sorrow can, in himself, excite gladness.

17. "A bird of my tongue, is better than a beast of yours."

From the words of Benedick's sarcasm-You are a rare parrot-teacher-I think we should expect, in Beatrice's retort, A bird of my teaching, &c.

18. Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter ?"

Mr. Collins seems to have had the true scent

of this covert joke; it is pity he did not rundown his game. All I can do to come up with it, is this: Do you mean, says Benedick, to amuse us with pleasant paradoxes? to say that a lover is a good sportsman? and a blacksmith an excellent cabinet-maker?

26. "The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it," &c.

Sensible for rational.

29. "The fairest grant is the necessity.”

I believe the meaning is, the fairest acknowledgment you can make is the necessity which rules you; you are in love, and you cannot help it: or, perhaps, grant implies Premiss, Datum ;if so, the sense is clear enough.

44.

ACT II. SCENE I.

"I am sure he is in the fleet."

In the fleet seems to mean, of the

It is an odd expression.

company.

47. "Re-enter Don Pedro, Hero, and Leonato."

I do not think Hero and Leonato should enter here; I think they should enter afterwards, with Claudio and Beatrice. LORD CHEDWORTH, 49. "With such impossible conveyance,"

Means, I believe, (howsoever licentiously expressed) in such a manner as it is impossible to describe or convey to your understanding,