Around him all the fanctities of heaven Stood thick as stars. P. 559. 1. 2. To take ap, is to levy, to raise in arms. JOHNS. JOHNS. WARB. L. 10. In common fenfe.] I believe Shakespeare wrote, common fence, i. e. drove by self-defence. Ibid.] Common fenfe is the general sense of general danger. JOHNS. L. 25. And fo fuccefs of mischief] Succefs, for fucceffion. WARB. P. 560. 1. 29. Therefore, be merry, Coz.] That is: therefore, notwithstanding this fudden impulfe to heaviness, be merry, for fuch fudden dejections forebode good. JOHNS. P. 561. 1. 9. Let our trains, &c.] That is, our army on each part, that we may both fee those that were to have oppofed us. JOHNS. P. 562.1. 14.] It cannot but raise fome indignation to find this horrible violation of faith paffed over thus flightly by the poet, without any note of cenfure or deteftation. JOHNS. P. 563. 1. 9. The heat is paft] That is, the violence of refentment, the eagerness of revenge. JOHNS. L. 19. With the very exerem ft inch of poffibility] That is, it was not poffible, in the nature of things, to have got one inch further in the space of time allowed me. WARB.* P. 565. 1. 6. Stand my good lord in your good report.] We muft either read, pray let me ftand, or by a conftruction fomewhat harsh, understand it thus: Give me leave to go-and-ftand. To ftand in a report, referred to the reporter, is perfift, and Falstaff did not ask the prince to perfift in his prefent opinion. JOHNS. L. 7. I, in my condition, Shall better fpeak of you than you deferve] I know not well the meaning of the word condition in this place; I believe it is the fame with temper of mind: I fhall, in my good nature, fpeak better of you than you merit. JOHNS. L. 10. This fame fober-blooded boy doth not love me, nor a man cannot make him laugh] Falstaff speaks here like a veteran in life. The young prince did not love him, and he despaired to gain his affection, for he could not make him laugh. Men only become friends by community of pleafures. He who cannot be foftened into gayety cannot eafily be melted into kindness. JOHNS. L. 21.] Forgetive from forge; inventive, imaginative. JOHNS. P.566. 1. 3. And learning a meer board of gold kept by a de vil, till fack commences it, and fets it in act and ufe] i know no fenfe in which the verb, commences it, can find any pla e here with propriety. I beg leave to conjecture, that our poet might have written, commerces it, that is, introduces it into converfation, and by that means makes it fubfervient to the general entertainment and improvement of mankind. REVIS.* L. 17. I have him already tempering, &c.] A very pleasant allufion to the old use of fealing with foft wax. WARB. P. 567. 1. 28. Humorous as winter] That is changeable as the weather of a winter's day. Dryden fays of Almanzor, that he is bumorous as the wind. JOHNS. L. 29. congeal'd in the fpring of day] Alluding to the opinion of fome philofophers, that the vapours being congealed in the air by cold, (which is most intense towards the morning) and being afterwards rarified and let loose by the warmth of the fun, occafion thofe fudden and impetuous gufts of wind which are called flarus. HANMER. Ibid.] The appearance of philofophical learning here mifled Mr. Warburton to adopt this note of the Oxford editor's, notwithstanding the abfurdity of winds being congealed; which feems borrowed from Sir John Mandeville, who tells us of fighs, oaths, and tunes being frozen up for fome time, and afterwards let loofe by the warmth of the fun but they neither of them understood the meaning of the word in this place; which feems to be the fmali blades of ice which are struck on the edges of the water in winter mornings; and which I have heard called by that name. CAN.* P. 568. 1. 10. Rash gun powder] Dr. Warburton fays rah means dry; but rash is quick, violent, fudden. This reprefentation of the prince, is a natural picture of a young man whose paffions are yet too ftrong for his virtues. JOHNS. bis affection] His paffions; his inordinate de L. 28. fires. JOHNS. P. 569. 1. 10. 'Tis feldom when the bee, &c.] As the bee, having once placed her comb in a carcafe, ftays by her honey, fo he that has once taken pleasure in bad company, will continue to affociate with those that have the art of pleafing him. JOHNS. L. 21. In his particular,] We should read, I think, in this particular; that is, in this detail: in this account which is minute and distinct. JOHNS. P. 570. 1. 24. Hath wrought the mure,-] . e. the wall. POPE. Ibid.] Daniel in his Miseries of the English civil wars, fpeaking of the long decay Henry IV. felt from inward ficknefs, has this very thought. I don't know the date of that poem being wrote, fo cannot fay which poet has copied from the other. And pain and grief, inforcing more and more, Befieg'd the hold that could not long defend; Of thofe provifions nature deign'd to lend, To look out thorough, and his frailty find. Book IV. St. 84. THEOB.* L. 26. The people fear me ;- -] i. e. make me afraid; which fenfe the Oxford Editor not taking, alters it to fear it. WARB. L. 27. Unfather'd heirs,] That is, equivocal births; animals that had no animal progenitors; productions not brought forth according to the stated laws of generation. JOHN. L. 28. The feafons change their manners,- -] This is finely expreffed; alluding to the terms of rough and barsh, and mild and foft, applied to weather. WARB. L. 571. 1. 7. Unless fome dull and favourable band,] Thus the old editions read it. Evidently corrupt. Shakespear feems to have wrote, Unless fome doleing favourable hand. Doleing, i. e. a hand ufing foft melancholy airs. WARB. Ibid.] I rather think that dull fignifies, melancholy, gentle, foothing. Doleing cannot be received without fome example of its ufe, which the commentator has not given, and my memory will not supply. JOHNS. P. 572. 1. 14. That from this golden rigol-] i. e. Ring, or circle. In Macbeth he has exprefs'd it; All that impedes thee from the golden round. But we ønce more meet with the word rigol in our author's works About the mourning and congealed face Of that black blood a watry rigol goes, &c. Tarquin and Lucrece. The word feems of Italian extraction- -Ridda, chorea, cum nexis manibus faltando in orbem vertuntur. A ridda, ridoletto, rigoletto, rigolo.- -So Ferrarius in his Origines Italicæ. Hence a rigolet, or rigol, may, I prefume, ftand in English for a circle, any thing round. THEOB.* P. 574. 1. 2. Yield his engroffments.] His accumulations. JOHNS. L. 26. - feal'd up my expectation ;] Thou haft confirmed my opinion. JOHNS. P. 575. 1. 24. England ball double gild bis treble guilt.] This line is in all the editions in general, but Mr. Pope's ; and he has thought fit to cafhier it. If he imagin'd the conceit too mean, he ought at least to have degraded it to the bottom of his page, not abfolutely ftified it. But mean as the conceit is, our author has repeated it again in his K. Henry V. Have for the gilt of France (O guilt, indeed!) Confirm'd confpiracy with fearful France. THEOB.* Ibid.] Evidently the nonsense of some foolish Player: For we must make a difference between what Shakespear might be fuppos'd to have written off hand, and what he had corrected. Thefe fcenes are of the latter kind: therefore fuch lines by no means to be esteemed his. But except Mr. Pope, (who judiciously threw out this line) not one of Shakespear's editors feem ever to have had fo reasonable and neceffary a rule in their heads, when they set upon correcting this author. WBRB. Ibid.] I know not why this commentator fhould speak with fo much confidence what he cannot know, or detcrmine fo pofitively what fo capricious a writer as our poet might either deliberately or wantonly produce. This line is indeed fuch as difgraces a few that precede and follow it, but it fuits well enough with the "daggers hid in thought, and whetted on the fiinty hearts ;" and the answer which the prince makes, and which is applauded for wisdom, is not of a strain much higher than this ejected line. JOHNS. P. 576. I. 11. Let me no more from this obedience rife.] This is obfcure in the conftruction, though the general meaning is clear enough. The order is, this obedience which is taught this exterior bending by my duteous spirit; or, this obedience which teaches this exterior bending to my inwardly duteous fpirit. I know not which is right. JOHNS. L. 27. In med cine potable.] There has long prevailed an opinion that a folution of gold has great medicinal virtues, and that the incorruptibility of gold might be communicated to the body impregnated with it. Some have pretended to make potable gold among other frauds practifed on credulity. JOHNS. P. 577. 1, 24. Soil is fpot, dirt, turpitude, reproach. JoнN. L. 30. Wounding fuppofed peace-] Suppofed, for under WARB. mined. WARB.* i. e. plots, commotions of confpirators. Ibid.] There is no need of alteration. Fear is here ufed in the active fenfe, for that which caufes fear. JOHNS. P. 578. 1. 3. Changes the mode;] Mode, here, does not fignify fashion, but time and measure in finging, or the pitch in fpeaking: Modus, a word peculiar to the antient drama: For the metaphor is continued from the words immediately preceding, as a Scene, WARB. Acting that ArgumentIbid.] Mode is here in its usual sense, the form or ftate of things. Nothing is more eafy than to make obfcurities and clear them. JOHNS. L. 5. Succeffively.] To order of fucceffion. Every ufurper fnatches a claim of hereditary right as foon as he can. JOHN. L. 14. To lead out many to the holy Land ;] As plaufible as this reading is, it is corrupt. Shakespear, I think, wrote, |