a conundrum be restored, in setting it right, who can help it? There are enough besides in our author, and Ben Jonson, to countenance that current vice of the times when this play appear'd. Nor is Mr. Pope, in the chastity of his taste, to bristle up at me for the revival of this witticism, since I owe the correction to the sagacity of the ingenious Dr. Thirlby. 26 S. Ant. Where France? THEOBALD. S. Dro. In her forehead, arm'd and reverted, making war against her hair.] All the other countries, mentioned in this description, are in Dromio's replies satirically characterized: but here, as the editors have ordered it, no remark is made upon France; nor any reason given, why it should be in her forehead: but only the kitchen-wench's high forehead is rallied, as pushing back her hair. Thus all the modern editions: but the first folio reads-making war against her heir.And I am very apt to think, this last is the true reading; and that an equivoque, as the French call it, a double meaning, is designed in the poet's allusion: and therefore I have replaced it in the text. In 1589, Henry III. of France being stabb'd, and dying of his wound, was succeeded by Henry IV. of Navarre, whom he appointed his successor: but whose claim the states of France resisted, on account of his being a protestant. This, I take it, is what he means, by France making war against her heir. Now as, in 1591; queen Elizabeth sent over 4000 men, under the conduct of the earl of Essex, to the assist ance of this Henry of Navarre; it seems to me very probable, that during this expedition being on foot, this comedy made its appearance. And it was the finest address imaginable in the poet to throw such an oblique sneer at France, for opposing the succes❤ sion of that heir, whose claim his royal mistress, the queen, had sent over a force to establish, and oblige them to acknowledge. THEOBALD. With this correction and explication Dr. Warburton concurs, and sir T. Hanmer thinks an equivocation intended, though he retains hair in the text. Yet surely they have all lost the sense by looking beyond it. Our author, in my opinion, only sports with an allusion, in which he takes too much delight, and means that his mistress had the French disease. The ideas are rather too offensive to be dilated. By a forehead armed, he means covered with incrusted eruptions: by reverted, he means having the hair turning backward. An equivocal word must have senses applicable to both the subjects to which it is applied. Both forehead and France might in some sort make war against their hair, but how did the forehead make war against its heir? The sense which I have given immediately occurred to me, and will, I believe, arise to every reader who is contented with the meaning that lies before him, without sending our conjecture in search of refinements. JOHNSON. 27-if my breast had not been made of faith.] Alluding to the superstition of the common people, that nothing could resist a witch's power, of transform ing men into animals, but a great share of faith: however the Oxford editor thinks a breast made of flint, better security, and has therefore put it in. WARBURTON. 28-at the Porcupine;] It is remarkable, that all over the ancient editions of Shakspeare's plays, (both in the folio and quartos) the word Porpentine is used instead of Porcupine. Perhaps it was so written at that time. STEEVENS, 30 Far from her nest the lapwing-] This expression seems to be proverbial. I have met with it in many of the old comic writers. Greene, in his Second Part of Cony-catching, 1592, says, "But "again to our priggers, who, as before I said cry "with the lapwing farthest from the nest, and from "their place of residence where their most abode is." Nash, speaking of Gabriel Harvey, says" he "withdraweth men, lapwing-like, from his nest, as "much as might be." STEEVENS. 31 A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dryfoot well.] To run counter is to run backward, by mistaking the course of the animal pursued; to draw dry foot is, I believe, to pursue by the track or prick. of the foot; to run counter and draw dry-foot well are, therefore, inconsistent. The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word counter, which means the wrong way in the chase, and a prison in London. The officer that arrested him was a serjeant of the counter. For the congruity of this jest with the scene of action, let our author answer. JOHNSON. Ben Jonson has the same expression; Every Man in his Humour, Act ii. Sc. iv. "Well, the truth is, my old master intends to fol"low my young, dry-foot over Moorfields to Lon"don this morning, &c." To draw dry foot, is when the dog pursues the game by the scent of the foot: for which the bloodhound is famed. GRAY. 32 —was he arrested on a band?] Thus the old copy, and I believe rightly; though the modern editors read bond. A bond, i. e. an obligatory writing to pay a sum of money, was anciently spelt band. A band is likewise a neckcloth. On this circumstance I believe the humour of the passage turns. STEEVENS. 33 What, have you got the picture of old Adam new-apparell'd?] A short word or two must have slipt out here, by some accident in copying, or at press; otherwise I have no conception of the meaning of the passage. The case is this. Dromio's master had been arrested, and sent his servant home for money to redeem him: he running back with the money meets the twin Antipholis, whom he mistakes for his master, and seeing him clear of the officer before the money was come, he cries, in a surprize; What, have you got rid of the picture of old Adam new apparell'd? For so I have ventured to supply, by conjecture. But why is the officer call'd old Adam new apparell'd? The allusion is to Adam in his state of innocence going naked; and immediately after the fall, being cloath'd in a frock of skins. Thus he was new apparell'd: and, in like manner, the serjeants of the counter were formerly clad in buff, or calve's skin, as the author humourously a little lower calls it. THEOBALD. The explanation is very good, but the text does not require to be amended. JOHNSON. 34 he sets up his rest to do more exploits with his mace than a morris-pike.] Sets up his rest, is a phrase taken from military exercise. When gunpowder was first invented, its force was very weak compared to that in present use. This necessarily required fire-arms to be of an extraordinary length. As the artists improved the strength of their powder, the soldiers proportionably shortened their arms and artillery; so that the canon which Froissart tells us was once fifty feet long, was contracted to less than ten. This proportion likewise held in their muskets; so that, till the middle of the last century, the musketeers always supported their pieces when they gave fire, with a rest stuck before them into the ground, which they called setting up their rest, and is here alluded to. There is another quibbling allusion too to the serjeant's office of arresting. But what most wants animadversion is the morris-pike, which is without meaning, impertinent to the sense, and false in the allusion; no pike being used amongst the dancers so called, or at least not fam'd for much execution. In a word, Shakespeare wrote, -a MAURICE-pike, i. e. a pikeman of prince Maurice's army. He was |