1

how you will, he lights upon his legs, founded on a misapprehension

MALONE.

is

P. 183, 1. 32. à quart d'ecu] The fourth part of the smaller French crown'; about eight. pence of our money. MALONE. Y

P. 184, 1. 5. What does he ask him of me?] This is nature. Every man is on such occasions more willing to hear his neighbour's character than his own. JOHNSON.

: P. 184, 1. 19. -to beguile the supposition -] That is, to deceive the opinion, to make the Count think me a man that deserves well.

P. 186, 1. 28. Motipe for assistant.

Rather for mover. MALONE.

JOHNSON.

WARBURRON.

P. 186, last 1. but one. Saucy may very properly signify luxurious, and by consequence lascivious. JOHNSON,

P. 187, 1. 5. death and honesty -} i. é. an' honest death. So in another of our author's plays, we have ,death and honour" for honourable death. STEEVENS.

your impositions,] i. e. your

P. 187, I. 6. commands. MALONE.

An imposition is a task imposed. The term is still current in Universities.

STEEVENS.

P. 187, 1. 811. Hel. Yet, I pray you, —— But with the worth, the time will bring on summer,

WHe briarsalshall have leaves as well as thorns,

And be as sweet as sharp.] With the word, ie. in an instant of time. WARBURTONEN.

#

The meaning of this observation is,... that *as briars have sweetness with their prickles, 80 shall these troubles be recompensed with joy.

I would read:

Yet I fray you

But with the word: the time will bring, etc. And then the sense will be,,,1 only frighten you by mentioning the word suffer; for a short time will bring on the season of happiness and delight." BLACKSTONE.

As the beginning of Helen's reply is evidently á designed aposiopesis, a break out to follow it, thus:

Hel. Yet, I pray you:

The sense appears to be this: Do not think that I would. engage you in..any service that should expose you to such an alternative, or indeed, to any lasting inconvenience; But with the word, i, e.. But on the contrary, you shall no sooner have delivered what you will have, to testify on my account, than the irksomeness of the service will be ov and every pleasant cir from it, will instantaneously

cumstance to

appear. HENLEY,

P. 187, 1. 13. — and time revives us:] The word revives conveys so little sense, that it seems very liable to suspicion.:

i. e. looks us in the face, calls upon us to hasten. WARBURTON.

The present reading is corrupt, and I am afraid the emendation none of the soundest. I never

One

remember to have seen the, word revje, may as well leave blunders as make them. Why may we not read for a shift, without much effort, the time invites us? JOHNSON.

To vye and revye were terms "at several ancient games at cards, but particularly at Gleek.

1

STEEVENS.

Time revives us, seems to refer to the happy and speedy termination of their embarrassments. She had just before said:

With the word, the time will bring on

T

P. 187, 1. 14.

P.

787, 1.26.

with a

f

the fine's —] i. e. the end.

23.

MALONE. your son was misled snipt-taflata fellow there; whose villainous saffron would have made all the unbaked and doughy youth of a nation in his colour:] Parolles is represented as an affected follower of the fashion, and an encourager of his master to run into all the follies of it; where he says, ,,Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble they wear themselves in the cap of time and though the devil lead the measure, such are to be followed.“ Here some particularities of fashionable dress are ridiculed. Snipt taffata 'needs no explanation; but villainous saffron is more obscure. This alludes to a fantastic fashion, then much followed, of using yellow starch for their bands and ruffs. So, Fletcher, in his Queen of Corinth:

Jerds

"

1

Has he familiarly 60 „Dislik'd your yellow starch; or said your doublet S

,, Was not exactly. frenchified?"

And Jonson's Devil's an ass:

,,Carmen and chimney-sweepers‹ are got into the yellow starch.“

This was invented by one Turner, a tire-woman, a court bawd; and, in all respects, of so infam ous a character, that her invention deserved the name of villainous saffron. This woman was, afterwards, amongst the miscreants, concerned in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, for which she was hanged at Tyburn, and would die in a yellow ruff of her own invention: which made yellow starch so odious, that it immediately went

out of fashion. Tis this, the to which Shak

speare alludes: but using word saffron for yellow, a new idea presented itself, and he pursues his thought under a quite different allusion

Whose villainous saffron would have made all the unbaked and doughy youths of a nation in his colour, i. e. of his temper disposition. Here the general custom of that time, of colouring paste with saffron, is alluded to. Winter's Tale':

So, in The

,, I must have saffron to colour the war

den pyes.

WARBURTON.

This play was probably written several years before the death of Sir Thomas Overbury. The plain meaning of the passage seems to be: → Whose evil qualities are of so deep a dye, as to be sufficient to corrupt the most innocent, and to render them of the same disposition with himself." MALONE.

It may be added, that in the year 1446, a par liament was held at Trim in Ireland, by, which

the natives were directed, among other things, not to wear shirts stained with saffron.

་་

STEEVENS.

P. 187, ol. 27. and fol. Count. I would, etc.] This dialogue serves to connect the incidents of Parolies with the main plan of the play.

JOHNSON.

So,

P. 188, 1. 7. herb of grace.] i. e. rue. in Hamleti,,there's rue for you we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays." STEEVENS,

P. 188 1. 21. Part of the funiture of a fool was a bauble, which, though it be generally taken to signify any thing of small value, has a precise and determinable meaning, It is, in short, a kind of truncheon with a head carved on it, which the fool anciently carried in his hand. There is a representation of it in a picture of Watteau, formerly in the collection of Dr. Mead, which is engraved. by Baron, and called Comediens Italiens. A faint resemblance of it may be found in the frontispiece of L. de Guernier to King Lear, in Mr. Pope's edition in duodecimo. SIR J. HAWKINS.

The word bauble is here used in two senses. M. MASON. When Cromwell, 1653, forcibly turned out the rump - parlament, he bid the soldiers,, take away that fool's bauble," pointing to the speakers mace. BLACKSTONE. P. 188, 1. 30. he has an English name;] Maine, or head of hair, agrees better with the context than name. His hair was thick.. 97 HENLEY.

P. 188, 1. 31. but his phisnomy is more hotter in France, than there.] This is intollerable' nonsense..... The stupid editors, because the devil