In an old translation of the famous Alcoran of the Franciscans: St. Francis observing the holiness of friar Juniper, said to the priors, That I had a wood of such Junipers!" And, in The Two Noble Kinsmen: In thy rumination,

..That I poor man might eftsoons come be

tween!"

And so in other places. This is the construction of the passage in Romeo and Juliet:

..That runaway's eyes may wink!" Which in other respects Mr. Steevens has rightly interpreted. FARMER.

sueaping winds -] Nipping winds.
HOLT WHITE.

P. 95, 1. 19. 20.

to make us say,

This is put forth too truly!] i. e. to make me say, I had too good reason for my fears concerning what might happen in my absence from home. MALONE.

P. 96, 1. 12. 13. All in Bohemia's well: this satis. faction,

The by-gone day proclaim'd;] We had satisfactory accounts yesterday of the state of Bohemia. JOHNSON,

P. 96, 1.23.

should read:

I'll give him my commission] We

I'll give you my commission,

The verb let, or hinder, which follows, shows the necessity of it: for she could not say she would give her husband a commission to let or hinder him. self. The commission is given to Polixenes, to whom she is speaking to let or hinder her husband.

WARBURTON.

..I'll give him my licence of absence, so as to obstruct or retard his departure for a month," etc., To let him, however, may be used as many other

reflective verbs are by Shakspeare, for to let or hin der himself; then the meaning will be, I'll give him my permission to tarry for a month," etc. Dr. Warburton and the subsequent editors read, I think, without necessity, I'll give you my com. mission, etc. MALONE.

P. 96, 1. 21. To let him there a month, behind the gest] Mr. Theobald says he can neither trace, nor understand the phrase, and therefore thinks it should be just: But the word gest is right, and signifies a stage or journey. In the time of royal progresses the King's stages, as we may see by the journals of them in the herald's office, were called his gests; from the old French word giste, diversorium.

WARBURTON. Gests, or rather gists, from the Fr. giste, (which signifies both a bed, and a lodging-place, } were the names of the houses or towns where the King or Prince intended to lie every night during his PROGRESS. They were written in a scroll, and probably each of the royal attendants was furnished with a copy. MALONE.

P. 96, 1. 25. yet, good-deed,] signifies indeed, in very deed, as Shakspeare in another place expresses it. Good deed is used in the same sense by the Earl of Surry, Sir John Hayward, and Gascoigne.

Dr. Warburton would read

-

good heed,

meaning
The second follo reads

take good heed. STEEVENS.

good heed, which, Ι

believe, is right. TYRWHITT.

P. 96, 1. 26. A jar is, I believe, a single repetition of the noise made by the pendulum of a clock; what children call the ticking of it.

STEEVENS.

A

A jar perhaps means a minute, for I do not suppose that the ancient clocks ticked or noticed the seconds. TOLLET.

To jar certainly means to tick, as in T. Heywood's Troia Brittannica, cant. IV. st. 107; edit. 1609. He hears no waking-clocke, nor watch to jarre." HOLT WHITE.

P. 97, l. 16. You were pretty lordings —} This diminutive of lord is often used by Chaucer.

P. 97, 1. 30. 31.

STEEVENS.

the imposition clear'd, Hereditary ours.] i. e. setting aside original sin; bating the imposition from the offence of our first parents, we might have boldly protested our innocence to heaven. WARBURTON.

P. 98, 1. 3-9. Grace to boot!

Of this make no conclusion; etc.] Polixenes had said, that since the time of childhood and innocence, temptations had grown to them; for that, in that interval, the two Queens were be come women. To each part of this observation the Queen answers in order. To that of temptation she replies, Grace to boot! i. e. though temptations have grown up, yet I hope grace too has kept pace with them. Grace to boot, was a proverbial expression on these occasions. To the other part, she replies, as for our tempting you, pray take heed you draw no conclusion from thence, for that would be making your Queen and me devils, etc.

WARBURTON.

This explanation may be right; but I have no great faith in the existence of such a proverbial expression. STEEVENS.

She calls for Heaven's grace, to purify and vin dicate her own character, and that of the wife of Polixenes, which might seem to be sullied by a

VOL.VI.

18

species of argument that made them appear to have led their husbands into temptation. MALONE.

With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal;] Thus this passage has been always printed; whence it appears, that the editors did not take the poet's conceit. They imagined that, But to th' goal, meant, but to come to the purpose; but the sense is dif ferent, and plain enough when the line is pointed thus:

ere

With spur we heat an acre, but to the goal. i. e. good usage will win us to any thing; but, with ill, we stop short, even there where both our interest and our inclination would otherwise have carried us. WARBURTON.

I have followed the old copy, the pointing of which appears to afford as apt a meaning as that produced by the change recommended by Dr. Warburton. STEEVENS.

P. 98, 1. 33. 31. Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,

And clap thyself my love;] She open'd her hand, to clap the palm of it into his, as people do when they confirm a bargain. Hence the phrase to clap up a bargain i. e. make one with no other ceremony than the junction of hands.

STEEVENS. This was a regular part of the ceremony of trothplighting, to which Shakspeare often alludes.

MALONE.

P. 98, last 1. It is Grace, indeed.] Referring to what she had just said O, would her name were Grace!" MALONE.

P. 99, 1. 10.

from bounty, fertile bosom,] I

suppose that a letter dropped out at the press, and would read from bounty's fertile bosom.

MALONE.

By fertile bosom, I suppose, is meant a bosom like that of the earth, which yields a spontaneous produce. STEEVENS.

P. 99, 1. 15. upon the horn

P. 99, 1. 19.

The mort o'the deer;] A lesson at the death of the deer.

THEOBALD.

fecks? A supposed corruption of

in faith. Our present vulgar pronounce it—fegs.

STEEVENS.

P. 99, 1. 20. that's my bawcock.] Perhaps from beau and coq. It is still said in vulgar language that such a one is a jolly cock, a cock of the game.

STEEVENS.

P. 99, 1. 23. We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly,} Leontes, seeing his son's nose smutch'd, cries, we must be neat; then recollecting that neat is the ancient term for horned cattle, he says, not neat, but cleanly. JOHNSON.

P. 99, 1. 25.

Still virginalling] Still playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the virginals. JOHNSON.

A virginal, as I am informed, is a very smalt kind of spinnet. Queen Elizabeth's virginal-book is yet in being, and many of the lessons in it have proved so difficult, as to baffle our most expert, players on the harpsichord. STEEVENS.

A virginal was strung like a spinnet, and shaped like a piano forte. MALONE.

P. 99, 1. 30. Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have,] Pash

Paz. Spanish, i. e.

(says Sir T. Hanmer) is kiss. thou want'st a mouth made rough by a bear'