G. 102. W. 88. Read: herein stands the odds Subjects are men; on earth kings men and gods. herein stand the odds; Subjects are men on earth, kings men and gods. G.105. W.90.-All his party is left to taste King Henry's mercy. This is incorrect, and does not give the speaker's meaning. Read, with the old copy, all his parties, and the construction is-" all his parties (partizans) were left to taste King Henry's mercy." The king speaks of the four culprits then before him. G. 113. W.96.-Under your favours. Read: Under your good favours. G. 118. W. 100.-You will not know me, who I am? Read: You will not know who I am. G. 121. W. 102.-In worst of affliction. This spoils the verse. Read: G. 122. W. 103. Read: Is powerful, but false, and falsehood confident. the enemy of mankind Is powerful, but false; and falsehood's confident. G. 125. W. 105.-We wear a crown of peace. Renew thy age, Most honourable Huntley. "The old copy reads, We are a crown of peace. No doubt this reading was corrupted from that which I have placed in the text." No doubt! and we are blessed in the sagacity which recovered it. But to be serious-for the hopeless imbecility of the critic makes levity almost a crime-At the conclusion of a very beautiful speech, Huntley says to Warbeck, who is on the way to execution, To this Warbeck replies, "We are parted." "We are. A crown of peace renew thy age, This allusion is to the ribbon, or love-lock, worn as an ornament in the ear. G. 140. W. 124.-" Enter Octavio and Nitido." Yet Octavio is expressly said to enter in private. G. 141. W. 125. my thanks, sir, Owes to this just engagement. "As there is no possibility of extracting sense out of the last line, we must conclude that a previous one must have been lost." It had escaped Mr. Weber that our old writers sometimes used thanks (like means, &c.) with a verb singular. The sense is perfectly clear and simple-" My thanks are due, or owing, to this just engagement." G. 142. W. 125.-That pays some shares. In all, a younger brother, May spend what his friend left in expectation, Of being turn'd out of service for attendance. What strange pointing! That pays some shares in all. A younger brother i. e. as the sole reward of his pains. G. 143. W. 126. Read: G. 143. W. 126. Read: I must speak a word For my old bachelor?-Lord, so? Is't not so? For my old bachelor lord? so; is't not so? we shall practise wisely. we will practise wisely. "Ingenious and ingenuous were constantly confounded in old writers, but the exact meaning of neither the one nor the other strictly applies in the text." This is an excellent mode of explaining an author! In conclusion, Mr. Weber thinks that the "word stands for faithful." It stands, however, for ingenious, and means exactly what it stands for. G. 145. W. 128.-Thou'rt a prick-ear'd foist.] "Prick-eared means with ears erect,"-thank you, Mr. Weber-" and the application of the term to a fool" (what fool? where is he?) "is explained by the following passage in Painter- There were newly come to the citie two young men that were Romans, which ranged up and down the streetes with their ears upright.' But these young men were listening to every passing re port. As Mr. Weber proceeds in his explanation, he forgets what he set out with, and, with the assistance of Steevens, ends by proving the fool to be a pickpocket! G. 145. W. 129.-A copper bason. Read: A copper-bason'd suds-monger. G. 146. W. 129.-Mother of the Fancies.] "i. e. Mother of loves." And then we have a note and a song from the Variorum Shakspeare to prove that fancy is sometimes used for love. This unfortunate blunderer could not see that the allusion was to the title of the play, and that the mother of the Fancies was the "guardianess of the young Ladies," the Beauties, as the speaker just after calls them. In what sense could Morosa be called a mother of loves? Had Mr. Weber ever read more of the Variorum than the index, he might have seen that fancy is used by our great poet for a lady-much as it is by Ford. 86 a man that grazed his cattle nigh, G. 146. W. 130.-Enjoy the sweets of our years. Read: Enjoy the sweetness of our years. G. 147. W. 131.—'Tis a gallant life to be an old lord's pimp whiskin. "I do not perfectly understand the particular meaning of the last word"-and then we are informed that Cotgrave " explains singlement, a sayling, or cutting the sea by sayling, also a whisking," &c. This is merely ridiculous. Whiskin (a diminutive of whiske, a hand broom) was used by our old dramatists, as a contemptuous term for a low menial of either sex. By the usual progress of such language, the poor harmless word came at length to denote a ready implement of cor ruption, and to be coupled with the most odious and repulsive epithets. This is the simple history of the expression; which, it should be noted, is commonly applied, as here, to a domestic or dependent. Thus Brome, in The Novella: Again. "This is the proud brache's whiske." "I collect as much by your young whiskin that brought me hither."-City Wit. Again. 66 Stay, stay! here she comes, and the pimp whiskin with her." In all these instances, and in several others, which I at first thought of giving from Shirley, the person spoken of is a servant, and is supposed by the speaker to be a pandar. To such worthless details can the garrulous folly of the commentators compel those to descend who would gladly leave the ribaldry which they cannot suppress, to neglect. G. 150. W. 133.-Sure some dotage lend a cunning, &c. Read: G. 151. W. 134. lends a cunning. I now appear in fashion Unto men, am received. The old copy reads and; but as very little sense can be extracted from it, the alteration seems to be absolutely indispensable.” The old reading certainly contains quite as much sense as the new; and, what is more to the purpose, it is the author's, and was the genuine language of his age. G. 155. W. 137.-Yet if, as it may chance, a neat cloth'd merri ment Pass without blush in tatling to the words, Fall not too broad, &c. Could the editor comprehend one syllable of what is here given to the public? Read: Yet if, as it may chance, a neat cloath'd merriment Pass without blush, in tattling, so the words Fall not too broad, 'tis but a pastime smiled at |