words introduced by Lilly. So in Two Wise Men and all the Rest Fools, 1619: "that you told me at our last parlè.” STEEVENS. 75. He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.] Pole-ax in the common editions. He speaks of a prince of Poland whom he slew in battle. He uses the word Polack again, act ii. sc. 4. POPE. Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland. Polaque, French. So in Vittoria Corombona, &c. 1612: "I scorn him "Like a shav'd Pollack." JOHNSON. Sledded, from sled, or sledge, a carriage without wheels, made use of in the cold countries. STEEVENS. 77. and just at this dead hour,] The old quarto reads jumpe: but the following editions discarded it for a more fashionable word. WARBURTON. The old reading is,jump at this same hour; same is a kind of correlative to jump; just is in the oldest folio. The correction was probably made by the author. JOHNSON. Jump and just were synonymous in the time of Shakspere. Ben Jonson speaks of verses made on jump names, i. e. names that suit exactly. Nash says -“and jumpe, imitating a verse in As in præsenti.” Again, in M. Kyffin's translation of the Andria of Terence, 1588: "Comes he this day so jump in the very time of this marriage ?" STEEVENS. 79. In what particular thought to work.] i. e. What particular train of thinking to follow. STEEVENS. 80. Gross and scope] General thoughts, and tendency at large. JOHNSON. 85. -daily cast-] The quartos read cost. STEEVENS. 87. Why such impress of ship-wrights,] Judge Barrington, in his Observations on the more ancient Statutes, P. 300, having observed that Shakspere gives English manners to every country where his scene lies, infers from this passage, that in the time of queen Elizabeth, shipwrights as well as seamen were forced to serve. WHALLEY. 99. who by a seal'd compact, Well ratify'd by law and heraldry,] Mr. Upton says, that Shakspere sometimes expresses one thing by two substantives, and that law and heraldry means, by the herald law. So in Antony and Cleopatra, activ. "Where rather I expect victorious life, "Than death and honour," i.e. honourable death. STEEVENS. Puttenham, in his Art of Poesie, speaks of the Figure of Twynnes, "horses and barbes, for barbed horses, venim & Dartes for venimous Dartes," &c. FARMER. 106. -as, by that cov'nant, And carriage of the articles design'd,] The old quarto reads, -as by the same comart ; and this is right. Comart signifies a bargain, and car. rying of the articles, the covenants entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we see the common reading makes a tautology. WARBURTON I can find no such word as comart in any dictionary. STEEVENS. 107. And carriage of the articles design'd,] Carriage is import; design'd is formed, drawn up between them. JOHNSON. 109. Of unimproved-] Unimproved for unrefined. WARBURTON. Full of unimproved mettle, is full of spirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience. 111. JOHNSON. Shark'd up a list, &c.] I believe to shark up means to pick up without distinction, as the shark-fish collects his prey. The quartos read lawless instead of landless. STEEVENS. It appears from what follows, verse 116, that land less is the proper word. 113. HENLEY. That hath a stomach in't;- -] Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for constancy, reso lution. 120. JOHNSON. -romage] Tumultuous hurry. JOHNSON. 121. [I think, &c.] These, and all other lines confined within crotchets throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omissions leave the play sometimes better and sometimes worse, and seem made only for the sake of abbreviation. JOHNSON. It may be worth while to observe, that the titlepages of the first quartos in 1604 and 1605, declare this play to be enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect copy. STEEVENS. 122. Well may it sort,-] The cause and the effect are proportionate and suitable. JOHNSON. 125. A mote it is,-] The first quarto reads, a STEEVENS. moth. 126. palmy state of Rome,] Palmy for victorious; in the other editions, flourishing. POPE. 130. Stars shone with trains of fire; dews of blood fell, &c.] Thus Mr. Rowe altered these lines, which have no immediate connection with the preceding ones. The quartos read (for the passage is not in the folio): As stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun,Perhaps an intermediate line is lost. 131. Disasters veil'd the sun;-] finely used in its original signification tion of stars. STEEVENS. Disasters is here of evil conjunc WARBURTON. Stars shone with trains of fire; dews of blood fell; Disasters veil'd the sun;] The words shone, fell, and veil'd, having been introduced by Mr. Rowe without authority, may be safely rejected. Might we not come nearer the original copy by reading, Astres, with trains of fire and dews of blood, There is, I acknowledge, no authority for the word astres; but our author has coined many words, and in this very speech there are two, gibber and precurse, that are used, I believe, by no other writer. He seems to have laboured here to make his language correspond with the preternatural appearances that he describes. Astres [from astrum] is of exactly the same formation as antres, which he has introduced in Othello, and which is not, I believe, found elsewhere. The word now proposed being uncommon, it is not surprising that the transcriber's ear should have deceived him, and that he should have written, instead of it, two words (As stars) of nearly the same sound. The word star, which occurs in the next line, is thus rendered not so offensive to the ear, as it is as the text now stands. If, however, this be thought too licentious, we might read, with less departure from the old copy than Mr. Rowe's text, His stars, with trains of fire, and dews of blood, i. e. the stars that presided over Cæsar's fortunes. So in our author's 26th Sonnet: "'Till whatsoever star, that guides my moving, "Points on me graciously with fair aspect." Each of the words proposed, and printed above in Italicks, might have been easily confounded by the ear with those that have been substituted in their room. The latter, dimm'd, is fully supported not only by Plutarch's account in the life of Cæsar ["also the brightness of the sunne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rose very pale, and shined no♣ out"], |