one whom] the speaker would represent as a boaster or bravado. WARBURTON.

Montanto was one of the ancient terms of the fencing-school. STEEVENS.

P. 3, 1. 12. there was none such in the army of any sort. Not meaning there was none such of any order or degree whatever, but that there was none such of any quality above the common. WARBURTON.

P. 3, 1. 17 He set up his bills etc.] Beatrice means, that Benedick published a general challenge, like a prize- fighter. STEEVENS.

、 P. 3, 1.18. Flight (as Mr. Douce observes to me) does not here mean an arrow, but a sort of shooting called roving, of shooting at long lengths. The arrows used at this sport are called flight arrows, as were those used in battle for great distances. STEEVENS. P. 3, 1. 20. arrow without a point, and spreading at the extremity so much, as to leave a flat surface, about the breadth of a shilling. Such are to this day in use to kill rooks with, and are shot from a cross bow. STEEVENS.

The bird-bolt is a short thick

The meaning of the whole is Benedick, from a vain conceit of his influence over women, challenged Cupid at roving (a particular kind of archery, in which flight arrows are used.) In other words, he challenged him to shoot at hearts. The fool, to ridicule this piece of vanity, in his turn challenged Benedick to shoot at crows with the crossbow and bird - bolt; an inferior, kind of archery used by fools, who, for obvious reasons, were not permitted to shoot with pointed arrows: Whence the proverb A fool's bolt is

shot." DOUCE.

soon

P. 5, 1. 25. he'll be meet with you, -] This is a very common expression in the midland counties, and signifies he'll be your match, he'll be even with you. STEEVENS,

P. 3, last 1. Stuffed, in this first instance, has no ridiculous meaning, Un homme bien étoffé, signifies, in French, a man in good circumsta 4cés. STLEVENS.

P. 4, l. 13. Beatrice starts an idea at the words stuff'd man; and prudently checks herself in the pursuit of it. A stuff'd man was one of the many cant phrases for a cuckold.

FARMER

P. 4, 1. 9. In our author's time wit was the general term for intellectual powers.

The wits seem to have been reckoned five, by analogy to the five senses, or the five inlets of ideas. JORNSON,

P. 4, l. 11. 12. Such a one has wit enough to keep himself warm, is a proverbial expression. To bear any thing for a difference, is a term in heraldry. So, in Hamlet, Ophelia says:

you may wear your rué with a difference.“ STEEVENS.

P. 4, 1. 16.

sworn brother.] i. e. one with whom he hath sworn (as was anciently the custom among adventurers) to share fortunes.

STEEVENS.

P. 4, 1. 18. he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat, etc.] Not religious profession, but profession of friendship; for the speaker gives it as the reason of her asking, who was now his companion? that he had every month a new sworn brother. WARBURTON,

P. 4, 1. 20. A block is the mould on which a hat is formed.

The

The old writers sometimes use the word block, for the hat itself.

P. 4,

21.

STEEVENS.

the gentleman is not in your books.] This is a phrafe used, I believe, by more than understand it. To be in one's books is to be in one's codicils' or will, to be among friends set down for legacies. JOHNSON.

are

I rather think that the books alluded to, memorandum-books, like the visiting books of the present age.

STEEVENS.

This phrase has not been exactly interpreted. To be in a man's books, originally meant to be in the list of his retainers. Sir John Mandeville tells us,,,alle the mynstrelles that comen before the great Chan ben witholden with him, as of his, houshold, and entred in his bookes, as for his own men." FARMER.

A servant and a lover were in Cupid's Vocabulary, synonymous. Hence perhaps the phrase was applied equally to the lover and the menial attendant.

to be in a person's books

MALONE.

P. 4, 1. 25. A squarer I take to be a cholerick, quarrelsome fellow, for in this sense Shakspeare uses the word to square. So the sense may be, Is there no hot-blooded youth that will keep him company through all his mad pranks?

P. 5, 1. 12. You embrace your charge ] That is, your burden, your incumbrance. JOHNSON.

Charge does not mean, as Dr. Johnson explains it, burden, incumbrance, but,,the person committed to your care." So it is used in the relationship between guardian and ward. DOUCE. P. 6, 1. 2. The poet has judiciously marked the gloominess of Don John's character, by

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making him averse to the common forms of civility. SIR J. HAWKINS.

P. 7, 1. 24. Jack, in our author's time, I know not why, was a term of contempt. MALONE.

P. 7, L. 24. 25. to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter?] I know not whether I conceive the jest here intend ed. Claudio hints his love of Hero. Benedick asks, whether he is serious, or whether he only means to jest, and to tell them that Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter. A man praising a pretty lady in jest, may show the quick sight of Cupid, but what has it to do with the carpentry of Vulcan? Perhaps the thought lies no deeper than this, Do you mean to tell us as new what we all know already? JOHNSON

I believe no more is meant by those ludicrous expressions than this. Do you mean, says Benedick, to amuse us with improbable stories? STEEVENS.

I explain the passage thus: Do you scoff and mock in telling us that Cupid, who is blind, is a good hare-finder, which requires a good eyesight; and that Vulcan, a blacksmith, is a rare carpenter? TOLLET.

After such attempts at decent illustration, I am afraid that he who wishes to know why Cupid is a good hare-finder, must discover it by the assistance of many quibbling allusions of the same sort, about hair and hoar, in Mercutio's song in the second Act of Romeo and Juliet. COLLINS.* to go in the song?] i. e. to your song to strike in with

P. 7, 1. 26. join with you in you in the song.

STEEVENS.

P. 8, I. 4. 5. Hath not the world one man, but he will wear his cap with suspicion:] That is, subject his head to the disquiet of jealousy. JOHNSON,

In Painter's Palace of Pleasure, p. 233., we have the following passage:,,All they that weare · hornes be pardoned to weare their cappes upon their heads." HENDERSON.

In our author's time, none but the inferior classes wore caps, and such persons were termed in contempt flat caps. All gentlemen wore hats. Perhaps therefore the meaning is, Is there not

one man in the world prudent enough to keep out of that state where he must live in apprehension that his night-cap will be worn occasionally by another. MALONE.

If this remark on the disuse of caps among people of higher rank be accurate, Sir Christopher Hatton, and other worthies of the Court of Eliza beth, have been injuriously treated; for the painters of their time exhibit several of them with caps on their heads. It should be remembered that there was a material distinction between the plain statute-caps of citizens, and the ornamented ones worn by gentlemen. STEEVENS.

P. 8, 1. 9. sigh away Sundays.] A prover bial expression to signify that a man has no rest at all; when Sunday, a day formerly of ease and diversion, was passed so uncomfortably.

WARBURTON.

I cannot find this proverbial expression in any ancient book whatever. I am apt to believe that the learned commentator has mistaken the drift of it, and that it most probably alludes to the strict manner in which the sabbath was observed by the Puritans, who usually spent that day in