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P. 53, 1. 23. My horse, my ox, my ass,] Allud ing to the tenth commandment: .. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, -nor his ox, nor his ass,”

RITSON.

P. 54, 1. 23. - was ever man so ray'd?] That is, was ever man so mark'd with lashes. JOHNSON. It rather means bewray'd, i. e. made dirty.

TOLLET.

P. 54, 1. 25. 26. were not I a little pot, 'and soon hot,] This is a proverbial expression. P. 55, 1. 7. 8. fire, fire; cast on no water. There is an old popular catch of three parts in these words:

--

..Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth.

Fire, fire; - Fire, fire;

Cast on some more water." BLACKSTONE.

P. 55, 1. 11-13. Winter, says Grumio, tames man, woman, and beast; for it has tamed my old master, my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis. Away, you three inch fool, replies Curtis, I am no beast." Why, asks Dr. Warburton, had Grumio called him one? he alters therefore myself to thyself, and all the editors follow him. But there is no necessity; if Grumió calls himself a beast, and Curtis, fellow; surely he calls Curtis a beast, likewise. Malvolio takes this sense of the word, let this fellow be look'd to! - Fellow! not Malvolio, after my degree, but fellow!"

"

In Ben Jonson's Case is Altered, What says my Fellow Onion? quoth Christophero.

house, replies Onion, but not fellows."

All of a

In the old play, called The Return from Parnassus, we have a curious passage, which shows the opinion of contemporaries concerning the learn ing of Shakspeare; this use of the word fellow brings it to my remembrance. Burbage and Kempe

are introduced to teach the university-men the art of acting, and are represented (particularly Kempe) as leaden spouts - very illiterate. Few of the university (says Kempe) pen plays well; they smell too much of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis: why here's our Fellow Shakspeare

puts them all down." FARMER.

The sentence delivered by Grumio, is proverbial: „Wedding, and ill-wintering, tame both man and beast."

Se Ray's Collection. P. 55, 1. 14. you three-inch fool!] i. e. with a skull three inches thick; a phrase taken from the thicker sort of planks. WARBURTON.

This contemptuous expression alludes to Grumio's diminutive size. He has already mentioned it himself: Now, were not I a little pot." His answer likewise, and so long am I, at the least," shows that this is the meaning, and that Dr. Warbuton was mistaken in supposing that these words allude to the thickness of Grumio's skull.

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MALONE. P. 55, 1. 15-16. why, thy horn is a foot; and so long am 1, at the least.] Though all the copies agree in this reading, Mr. Theobald says, yet he cannot find what horn Curtis had; therefore he alters it to my horn. But the common reading is right, and the meaning is, that he had made Curtis a cuckold. WARBURTON.

P. 55, 1. 29. Jack boy! ho boy!] This is the beginning of an old round in three parts.

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SIR J. HAWKINS.

P. 56, first 1. Be the jacks fair within, the jilis fair without,] i. e. are the drinking vessels clean, and the maid servants dress'd? But the Oxfort editor alters it thus:

Are the Jacks fair without, the Jills fair within? What his conceit is in this, I confess I know not. WARBURTON.

..Are

Sir T. Hanmer's meaning seems to be this: the men who are walking without the house to receive my master, dress'd; and the maids: who are waiting within dress'd too?"

I believe the poet meant to play upon the words Jack and Jill, which fignify two drinking mea sures, as well as men and maid servants. The distinction made in the questions concerning them, was owing to this? The Jacks being of leather, could not be made to appear beautiful on the outside, but were very apt to contract foulness within; where as, the Jills, being of metal, were expected to be kept bright externally, and were not liable to dirt on the inside, like the leather. STEEVENS.

P. 56, 1. 2. the carpets laid,] In our author's time it was customary to cover tables with carpets. Floors, as appears from the present passage and others, were strewed with rushes. MALONE.

P. 56, 1. 25. how she was bemoil'd;] i. c. bcdraggled; bemired. STEEVENS.

P. 56, 1. 31. how her bridle was burst;] i. e. broken. So, in the first scene of this play. You will not pay for the glasses you have burst?"

STELVENS.

P. 57, 1. 3. their blue coats brushed,] The dress of servants at the time. So, in Decker's Belman's Night's Walkes: sig. E. 3: „- the other act their parts in blew coates, as they were their serving men, though indeed they be all fellowes." REED. P. 57, 1.4. and their garters of an indifferent knit:] What is the

sense of this I know not, unless it means, that their garters should be fellows: indifferent, or not different, one from the other. JOHNSON.

Perhaps by garters of an indifferent knit," the author meant particoloured garters; garters of a different knit. In Shakspeare's time indifferent was sometimes used for different.

That garters of a different knit were formerly worn, appears from TEXNOTAMIA, or the Marriages of the Arts, by Barton Holyday, 1630, where the following stage direction occurs. Phantastes in a branched velvet jerkin, red silk stockings, and

parti-colour'd garters." MALONE.

P. 57, 1. 28. All things is ready:] Though in general it is proper to correct the false concords that are found in almost every page of the old copy, here it would be improper; because the language suits the character. MALONE.

P. 58, 1. 15. A link is a torch of pitch. Greene, in his Mihil Mumchance, says - This cozenage is used likewise in selling old hats found upon dung-hills, instead of newe, blackt over with the smoak of an old linke." STEEVENS.

life that late I led] Ancient Pistol some

P. 58, 1. 22. Where the A scrap of some old ballad. where quotes the same line. In an old black letter. book intituled. A gorgious Gallery of Gallant Inventions, London: 1579, 4to. is a song to the tune of Where is the life at late I led."

RITSON.

This ballad was peculiarly suited to Petruchio's present situation: for it appears to have been des criptive of the state of a lover who had newly resigned his freedom. MALONE.

P. 53, 1. 24. Soud, soud.] That is, sweet, sweet. Soot, and sometimes sooth, is sweet. So, in Mil. ton, to sing soothly, is to sing sweetly. JOHNSON.

These words seem merely intended to denote the humming of a tune, or some kind of ejaculation, for which it is not necessary to find out a meaning. M. MASON.

This, I believe, is a word coined by our poet, to express the noise made by a person heated and fatigued. MALONE.

P. 58, 1. 28. 29.

It was the friar of orders grey, etc.] Dispersed through Shakspeare's plays are many little fragments of ancient ballads, the entire copies of which cannot now be recovered. Many of these being of the most beauti ful and pathetic simplicity, Dr. Percy has selected some of them, and connected them together with a few supplemental stanzas; a work, which at once demonstrates his own poetical abilities, as well as

his

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