"Tells you it is a hot-house, so it may, JOHNSON. 86. Ay, sir, by mistress Over-done's means:—] Here seems to have been some mention made of Froth, who was to be accused, and some words therefore may have been lost, unless the irregularity of the narrative may be better imputed to the ignorance of the constable. JOHNSON. 93. -stew'd prunes ;-] Stewed prunes were to be found in every brothel. See a note on the 3d scene of the 3d act of the First Part of King Henry IV. In the old copy prunes are spelt, according to vulgar pronunciation, prewyns. STEEVENS 178. -Justice or Iniquity?- -] These were, I suppose, two personages well known to the audience by their frequent appearance in the old moralities. The words, therefore, at that time produced a combination of ideas, which they have now lost. JOHNSON. Justice or Iniquity?] i. e. The Constable or the Fool. Escalus calls the latter Iniquity, in allusion to the old Vice, a necessary character, it is said, in the ancient moralities or dumb-shews, and the Harlequin of the modern stage. Justice may have a similar allusion to his supposed antagonist, into whose hands, after a variety of elusions, he was always made to REMARKS. fall. 184. for Cannibal. Hannibal,] Mistaken by the constable JOHNSON. 211. they will draw you, -] Draw has here a cluster of senses. As it refers to the tapster, it signifies to drain, to empty; as it is related to hang, it means to be conveyed to execution on a hurdle. In Froth's answer, it is the same as to bring along by some motive or power. JOHNSON. 223. greatest thing about you.] This fashion, of which, perhaps, some remains were to be found in the age of Shakspere, seems to have prevailed originally in that of Chaucer, who in the Persones Tale speaks of it thus. "Som of hem shewen the bosse and the shape, &c. in the wrapping of her hosen, and eke the buttokes of hem behinde," &c. Greene, in one of his pieces, mentions the great bumme of Paris. STEEVENS. 247. -I'll rent the fairest house in it, after threepence a bay:] A bay of building is, in many parts of England, a common term, of which the best conception that I could ever obtain, is, that it is the space between the main beams of the roof; so that a barn crossed twice with beams is a barn of three bays. "The large-bay'd barn doth fill," &c. JOHNSON. I forgot to take down the title of the work from which this instance is adopted. STEEVENS. 345. To find the faults,- -] The old copy reads -To fine, &c. 362. STEEVENS. touch'd with that remorse] Remorse in this place, as in many others, is pity. So, So, in the fifth act of this play : "My sisterly remorse confutes my honour, Again, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632: "The perfect image of a wretched creature, "His speeches beg remorse." See Othello, act iii. 385. -all the souls that were,divinity. We should read, are. STEEVENS. -] This is false WARBURTON. I fear the Player, in this instance, is a better divine than the Prelate. The souls that WERE evidently refer to Adam and Eve, whose transgression rendered them obnoxious to the penalty of annihilation, but for the remedy which the Author of their being most graciously provided.-The learned bishop, however, is more successful in his next explanation HENLEY. then will breathe within your lips, 390. And mercy Like man new made.] _This is a fine thought, and finely expressed. The meaning is, that mercy will add such a grace to your person, as amiable as a man come fresh out Creator. that you will appear of the hands of his WARBURTON. 406. If the first man, &c.] The word man has been supplied by the modern editors. I would rather read, If he, the first, &c. TYRWHITT. 408. -Like a prophet, Looks in a glass--------- -] This alludes to the fopperies of the beril, much used at that time by cheats and fortune-tellers to predict by. D WARBURTON. The The beril, which is a kind of crystal, hath a weak tincture of red in it. It appears from Aubrey's Miscellanies, that the discovery of past or future events was supposed to be the consequence of looking into it. See Macbeth, act iv. So, again, in Vittoria Corombona, 1612: REED. "How long have I beheld the devil in crystal ?" STEEVENS. 413. But, ere they live, to end.] This is very sagaciously substituted by Sir Thomas Hanmer, for But here they live- -] But here they live to end.] JOHNSON. So the old copy. Is it not probable that the author wrote, But where they live to end. The prophecy is not, that future evils should end ere or before they are born; or in other words, that there should be no more evil in the world (as Sir T. Hanmer, by his alteration, seems to have understood it); but, that they should end where they began; i. e. with the criminal; who being punished for his first offence, could not proceed by successive degrees in wickedness, nor excite others, by his impunity, to vice. So, in the next speech: "And do him right, that answ'ring this foul wrong, Lives not to act another." It is more likely that a letter should have been omitted omitted at the press, than that one should have been added. 414. -shew some pity. MALONE. Ang. I shew it most of all, when I shew jus• tice; For then I pity those I do not know,] This was one of Hale's memorials. When I find myself swayed to mercy, let me remember, that there is a mercy Likewise due to the country. JOHNSON, 428. pelting] i. e. paltry. This word I meet with in Mother Bombie, 1594: -will not shrink the city for a pelting jade." STEEVENS. Again, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, 1634: "Thou bring'st such pelting scurvy news con tinually, "Thou art not worthy life." 432. MALONE. -gnarled oak,] Gnarre is the old Eng lish word for a knot in wood. So, in Antonio's Revenge, 1602: "'Till by degrees the tough and gnarly trunk Again, Chaucer's Knight's Tale, late edit. v. 1979: "With knotty, knarry barrein trees old," 438. As make the angels weep ;· STEEVENS. -] The notion of angels weeping for the sins of men is rabbinical -06 peccatum flentes angelos inducunt Hebræorum magistri. Grotius ad Lucam. Dij WARBURTON. 438. |