398. Since you can cog,- -] To cog, signifies to falsify the dice, and to falsify a narrative, or to lye. JOHNSON. 439. Well-liking wits- -] Well-liking is the same as en bon point. So, in Job, ch. xxxix, v. 4. young ones are in good-liking."

454.

"Their

STEEVENS.

"Be

-better wits have worn plain statute-caps.]. This line is not universally understood, because every reader does not know that a statute-cap is part of the academical habit. Lady Rosaline declares that her expectation was disappointed by these courtly students, and that better wits might be found in the common places of education. JOHNSON. Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statute-caps.] Woollen caps were enjoined by act of parliament, in the year 1571, the 13th of queen Elizabeth. sides the bills passed into acts this parliament, there was one which I judge not amiss to be taken notice of -it concerned the queen's care for employment for her poor sort of subjects. It was for continuance of making and wearing woollen caps, in behalf of the trade of cappers; providing, that all above the age of six years (except the nobility and some others) should on sabbath-days and holy days, wear caps of wool, knit, thicked, and drest in England, upon penalty of ten groats." GREY.

This act may account for the distinguishing mark of Mother Red-Cap. I have observed that mention is made of this sign by some of our ancient pamphleteers and play-writers, as far back as the date of the act. Giij referred

74

referred to by Dr. Grey. If that your cap be woolbecame a proverbial saying. So, in Hans Beer-Pot, a comedy, 1618:

"You shall not flinch; if that your cap be wool, "You shall along."

STEEVENS. I think my own interpretation of this passage is right. JOHNSON. Probably the meaning is-better wits may be found among the citizens, who are not, in general, remark. able for sallies of imagination. In Marston's Dutch Courtezan, 1605, Mrs. Mulligrub says," though my husband be a citizen, and his cap's made of wool, yet I have wit." Again, in the Family of Love, 1608: "'Tis a law enacted by the common-council of

statute-caps."

Again, in Newes from Hell, brought by the Devil's Carrier, 1606:

66 -in a bowling alley in a flat cap like a shop

keeper."

STEEVENS.

469. Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud; Dismash'd, their damask sweet commixture shewn, Are angels veiling clouds, or roses blown.]

This strange nonsense, made worse by the jumbling together and transposing the lines, I directed Mr. Theobald to read thus:

Fair ladies masked are roses in their bud:

Or angels veil'd in clouds: are roses blown,

Dismash'd, their damask sweet commixture shewn.

But he, willing to shew how well he could improve a thought, would print it,

Or

Or angel-veiling clouds

i. e. clouds which veil angels: and by this means gave us, as the old proverb says, a cloud for a Juno. It was Shakspere's purpose to compare a fine lady to an angel; it was Mr. Theobald's chance to compare her to a cloud and perhaps the ill-bred reader will say a lucky one. However, I suppose the poet could never be so nonsensical as to compare a masked lady to a cloud, though he might compare her mask to one. The Oxford editor, who had the advantage both of this emendation and criticism, is a great deal more subtle and refined, and says it should not be

but

i. e.

angels veil'd in clouds,

-angels vailing clouds,

capping the sun as they go by him, just as a man vails his bonnet. WARBURTON.

I know not why Sir T. Hanmer's explanation should be treated with so much contempt, or why vailing clouds should be capping the sun. Ladies un

mask'd, says Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting those clouds, which obscured their brightness, sink from before them. What is there in this absurd or contemptible? JOHNSON. Holinshed's History of Scotland, p. 91. says, "The Britons began to avale the hills where they had lodged." i. e. they began to descend the hills, or come down from them to meet their enemies. If Shakspere uses the word vailing in this sense, the meaning is-Angels descending from clouds which

concealed

concealed their beauties; but Dr. Johnson's expo

sition may be better.

TOLLET.

To avale comes from the French aval [Terme de batelier] Down, downward, down the stream. So, in the French Romant de la Rose, 1415:

"Leaue aloit aval enfaisant

"Son melodieux et plaisant."

Again, in Laneham's Narrative of Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kenelworth-Castle, 1575: 66

a sea-shore when the water is avail'd."

as on STEEVENS.

Bishop Warburton's ridicule of Sir Thomas Hanmer might be retorted with seven-fold vengeance upon himself. There is no sense to be made of this passage, consistent with the context, but by taking the word veiling for vailing, which Shakspere has used in several other places. The verb to vail is evidently a derivative from the French avaller. Dr. Johnson's note well explains the import of the participle in the instance before us.

HENLEY.

477.-shapeless gear ;] Shapeless, for uncouth, or what Shakspere elsewhere calls diffused.

"Children pick up words as pigeons peas,

"And utter them again as God shall please.”

See Ray's Collection.

STEEVENS.

492. -wassels- -] Wassels were meetings of

rustick

rustick mirth and intemperance. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

66

-Antony,

"Leave thy lascivious wassels”.

STEEVENS.

497. He can carve too, and lisp :] The character of Boyet, as drawn by Biron, represents an accomplished squire of the days of chivalry, particularly in the instances here noted." Le jeune Ecuyer apprenoit long-temps dans le silence cet art de bien parler, lorsqu'en qualité d'Ecuyer TRANCHANT, il étoit debout dans les repas & dans les festins, occupé à couper les viandes avec la propreté, l'addresse & l'elégance convenables, et à les faire distribuer aux nobles convìves dont il étoit environné. Joinville, dans sa jeunesse, avoit rempli à la cour de Saint Louis cet office, qui, dans les maisons des Souverains, étoit quelquefois exercé par leurs propres enfans." Memoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie, Tom. I. p. 16.

HENLEY.

502. A mean most meanly, &c.] The mean, in musick, is the tenor. So, Bacon, "The treble cutteth the air so sharp, as it returneth too swift to make the sound equal; and therefore a mean or tenor is the sweetest."

Again, in Herod and Antipater, 1622:

"Thus sing we descant on one plain-song, kill, "Four parts in one; the mean excluded quite.”

Again, in Drayton's Barons' Wars, Cant. iii.

"The base and treble married to the mean."

STEEVENS.