head armed, he means covered with incrusted eruptions: by reverted, he means having the hair turning backward. JOHNSON. 271. -to be ballasted] Thus the modern editors. The old copy reads only ballast, which may be right. Thus in Hamlet: 275. -to have the engineer “ Hoits with his own petar.” i. e. hoisted. STEEVENS. assured to her ;] i. e. affianced to her. Thus in K. John: "For so I did when I was first assur'd." STEEVENS. 280. And, I think, if my breast had not been made of faith, &c.] Alluding to the superstition of the common people, that nothing could resist a witch's power of transforming men into animals, but a great share of faith: however the Oxford editor thinks a breast made of flint, better security, and has therefore put if in. WARBURTON. 305. -at the Porpentine:] It is remarkable, that throughout the old editions of Shakspere's plays, the word Porpentine is used instead of Porcupine. Perhaps it was so pronounced at that time. I have since observed the same spelling in the plays of other ancient authors. Mr. Tollet finds it likewise in p. 66. of Ascham's Works, by Bennet, and in Stowe's Chronicle, in the years 1117. 1135. STEEVENS. ACT Line 4. ACT IV. WANT gilders] A gilder is a coin va lued from one shilling and six-pence, to two shillings. STEEVENS. 8. Is growing to me- -] . e. accruing to me. 95 in Cymbeline: STEEVENS. -thou peevish sheep,] Peevish is silly. So "Desire my man's abode where I did leave him: "He's strange and peevish." See catch-word Alphabet. STEEVENS. 112. Where Dowsabel-] This name occurs in one of Drayton's Pastorals : 121. "He had, as antique stories tell, "A daughter cleaped Dowsabel," &c. STEEVENS. meteors tilting in his face?] Alluding to these meteors in the sky, which have the appearance of lines of armies meeting in the shock. WARBURTON. The allusion is more clearly explained by the following comparison in the second book of Paradise Lost: "As when to warn proud cities, war appears spears C "Till "Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms, "From either end of heaven the welkin burns.” 136. sere,] That is, dry, withered. STEEVENS. JOHNSON. 139. Stigmatical in making,] That is, marked or stigmatized by nature with deformity, as a token of his vicious disposition. JOHNSON. So, in The Wonder of a Kingdom, 1636: “If you spy any man that hath a look, "Stigmatically drawn, like to a fury's," &c. STEEVENS. "But 144. Far from her nest the lapwing, &c.] This expression seems to be proverbial. I have met with it in many of the old comic writers. Greene, in his Second Part of Coney-Catching, 1592, says:— again to our priggers, who, as before I said, cry with the lapwing farthest from the nest, and from their place of residence where their most abode is." And several others. See this passage yet more amply explained in a note on Measure for Measure, act i. line 374. STEEVENS. 151. an everlasting garment] Everlasting was in the time of Shakspere, as well as at present, the name of a kind of durable stuff. The quibble intended here, is likewise met with in Beaumont and Fletcher's W.man Hater: -I'll quit this transitory "Trade, and get me an everlasting robe, “Sear up my conscience, and turn serjeant." STREVENS. 153. A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough;] Dromio here bringing word in haste that his master is arrested, describes the bailiff by names proper to raise horror and detestation of such a creature, such as, a devil, a fiend, a wolf, &c. But how does fairy come up to these terrible ideas? we should read, a fiend, a fury, &c. THEOBALD. There were fairies like hobgobblins, pitiless and rough, and described as malevolent and mischievous. JOHNSON. 155. A back friend, a shoulder-clapper, &c. of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands;] It should be written, I think, narrow lanes, as he has the same expression, Richard II. act v. scene 6. "Even such they say as stand in narrow lanes." GREY. Narrow-LANDS is certainly the true reading, as not only the rhime points out, but the sense; for as a creek is a narrow-water, forming an inlet from the main body into the neighbouring shore, so a narrow Land is an outlet or tongue of the shore that runs into the water. Besides, narrow LANES and ALLEYS are HENLEY. synonymous. A shoulder-clapper is a bailiff : 66 -fear none but these same shoulder-clappers." Decker's Satiromastix. STEEVENS. 157. A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dryfoot well;] To run counter is to run backward, by mistaking the course of the animal pursued; to draw dryfoot is, I believe, to pursue by the track or prick of the foot; to run counter and draw dry-foot well, are, there fore, inconsistent. The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word counter, which means the wrong way in the chase, and a prison in London. The officer that arrested him was a serjeant of the counter. For the congruity of this jest, with the scene of action, let our author answer. JOHNSON. Ben Jonson has the same expression; Every Man in his Humour, act ii. sc. 4. "Well, the truth is, my old master intends to follow my young, dry-foot over Moorfields to London this morning," &c. To draw dry-foot, is when the dog pursues the game by the scent of the foot; for which the blood-hound is fam'd. GREY. 158. -poor souls to hell.] Hell was the cant term for on obscure dungeon in any of our prisons. It is mentioned in the Counter-Rat, a poem, 1658: "In Wood-Street's-Hole, or Poultry's Hell." There was likewise a place of this name under the Exchequer-Chamber, where the king's debtors were confined till they had paid the uttermost farthing, 160. STEEVENS. GREY. -on the case.] An action upon the case, is a general action given for the redress of a wrong done any man without force, and not especially provided for by law. 167. was he arrested on a band?] Thus the old copy, and I believe rightly; though the modern editors read bond. A bond, i. e. an obligatory writing to pay a sum of money, was anciently spelt band. A band |