And yet my nature rever, in the sight,

So doing slandered.
And yet my nature never suffer slander by doing any
open acts of severity.

JOHNSON.
The old text stood,

in the sight
To do in slander.
Hanmer's emendation is in my opinion best.
So, in Henry IV. Part I.
“ Do me no slander, Douglas, I dare fight.”

STEEVENS.
The words in the preceding line ambush and strike,
shew that fight is the true reading. MALONE.

334. How I may formally in person bear me) i. e. How I may demean myself, so as to support the character I have assumed.

HENLEY. in person bearm-] Mr. Pope reads,

my person bear.

Perhaps a word was dropped at the end of the line,
which originally stood thus:

How I may formally in person bear me,

Like a true friar.
So, in the Tempest :

-some good instructions give
“ How I may bear me here."
Sir W. Davenant reads, in his alteration of the play,

1
may in person a true friar seem.

STEEVENS.
338. Stards at a guard -] Stands on terms of
defiance.

JOHNSON,

hus

Ande

373

Oxfor

The le

And

to wh

372.

make me not your story.] Do not, by deceiving me, make me a subject for a tale.

JOHNSON. Perhaps only, Do not divert yourself with me, as you would with a story ; do not make me the subject of your drama. Benedict talks of becoming—the argument of his own scorn. Sir W. Davenant reads--scorn, instead of story.

STEEVENS. I have no doubt that we ought to read,

Sir, mock me not :---your story. So, in Macbeth : " Thou com’st to use thy tongue :-thy story

quickly." In King Lear we have—“ Pray do not mock me.”

I beseech you, sir (says Isabel), do not play upon my fears; reserve this idle talk for sonie other uccasion ;-proceed at once to your tale. Lucio's reply, [“ 'Tis true,"—. l. you are right; I thank you for reminding mer] which, as the text has been hitherto printed, had no meaning, is then pertinent and clear.

What Isabella says immediately afterwards, fully supports this emendation :

" You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.” I have observed that almost every passage in our author, in which there is either a broken speech, or a sudden transition without a connecting particle, has been corrupted by the carelessness of either the transcriber or compositor. See a note on Love's Labour's Lost, act ii. sc. 1.

6 A inan

" A man of sovereign, peerless, he's es.

teem’d."
And another on Coriolanus, act i. sc. 4.
“ You shames of Rome! you herd of-Boils

and plagues
“ Plaster you o'er!"

MALONE. 373

-'tis my familiar sin
With maids to seem the lapwing, -

-] The
Oxford editor's note on this passage is in these words :
The lapwings fly, with seeming fright and anxiety, far
from their nests, to deceive those who seek their young.
And do not all other birds do the same? But what
has this to do with the infidelity of a general lover,
to whom this bird is compared ? It is another quality
of the lapwing that is here alluded to, viz. its per-
petually flying so low and so near the passenger, that
he thinks he has it, and then is suddenly gone again.
This made it a proverbial expression to signify a
lover's falsehood : and it seems to be a very old one;
for Chaucer, in his Plowman's Tale, says:
" —And lapwings that well conith lie."

WARBURTON. The modern editors have not taken in the whole similitude here : they have taken notice of the lightness of a spark's behaviour to his mistress, and compared it to the lapuing's lovering and Auttering as it flies. But the chief, of which no notice is taken, is,

-and to jest. (See Ray's Proverbs) “ The lapwing cries, tongue far Cij

from

from heart.”.i. e. most, farthest from the nest, i.e. She is, as Shakspere has it here,

Tongue far

from heart.
66 The farther she is from her nest, where her heart
is with her young ones, she is the louder, or, perhaps,
all tongue."

SMITH.
Shakspere has an expression of the like kind in the
Comedy of Errors, act iv. sc. 3.
“ Adr. Far from her nest the lapwing cries

away,
« My heart prays for him, though my tongue do

In of for

TH quire

after

for at

curse."

whol

We meet with the same thought in John Lilly's comedy, entitled, Campaspe (first published in 1584), act ii. sc. 2. from whence Shakspere might borrow it:

“ Alex. Not with Timoleon you mean, wherein you resemble the lapwing, who crieth most where her nest is not, and so, to lead me from espying your love to Campaspe, you cry Timoclea.”

GREY. 381. Fewness and truth, &c.] i. e. in few words, and those true ones. In few, is many times thus used by Shakspere.

STEEVENS. 389.

-as blossoming time
That from the scedness the bare fallow brings

To teeming foyson ; so -] As the sentence now stands, it is apparently ungrammatical. I read,

At blossoming time, &c. That is, As they that fied grow full, so her womb now, at blossomning time, at that time through which the seed

45 that

4

act

4

time proceeds to the harvest, her womb shows what has been doing. Lucio ludicrously calls pregnancy blossoming time, the time when fruit is promised, though not yet ripe.

JOHNSON. Instead of that, we may read~doth; and, instead of brings, bring.

STEEVENS. I believe the only alteration that this passage requires, is in the punctuation. A mark of suspension after full, will shew that the application of the first simile was suppressed by Lucio, as being too gross for the ears of Isabella. As those that feed grow full :-as blossoming time, &c.

HENLEY. 395. Bore many gentlemen,

In hand and hope of action ; -] To bear in hand is a common phrase for to keep in expectation and dependence ; but we should read, with hope of action.

JO:INSON. 400. —with full line-] With full extent, with the whole length.

JOHNSON. 406. -give fear to usem - To intimidate use, that is, practices long countenanced by custom.

JOHNSON. you

-] That is, the acceptableness, the power of gaining favour. So, when she makes her suit, the provost says,

Heaven give thee moving graces. JOHNSON. 414.

-pith Of business -] The inmost part, the main of my inessage.

JOHNSON. Ciij

417.

41. Unless

have the grace