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nished at such a hard censure, and went to Limbo

most willingly,”

194.

STEEVENS.

-a goodly broker !] A broker was used for a match maker, sometimes for a procuress.

JOHNSON.

So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1599: "And flie (oh flie) these bed-brokers unclean, "The monsters of our sex," &c. STEEVENS.

209. say No, to that, &c.] A paraphrase on the old proverb, "Maids say nay, and take it."

224.

STEEVENS.

-stomach on your meat,] Stomach was

used for passion or obstinacy.

240.

JOHNSON.

-Light o' love.] This tune is given in a

note on Much Ado about Nothing, act iii, sc. 4.

253.

STEEVENS.

too harsh a descant:] Descant is a term in musick. See Sir John Hawkins's note on the first speech in King Richard III.

254.

in musick.

STEEVENS.

-but a mean, &c.] The mean is the tenor

So, in the interlude of Mary Magdalen's Repentance, 1569:

"Utilitie can sing the base full cleane,

"And noble honour shall sing the meane." STEEVENS.

256. Indeed, I bid the base for Protheus.] The speaker here turns the allusion (which her mistress employed) from the base in musick to a country exer

cise, Bid the base in which some pursue, and others are made prisoners. So that Lucetta would intend, by this, to say, Indeed I take pains to make you a captive to Protheus's passion.-Shakspere uses the same allusion in his Venus and Adonis :

"To bid the winds a base he now prepares."

And in his Cymbeline he mentions the game:

-Lads more like

"To run the country base."

--

WARBURTON.

276. ——written down :] To write down is still a provincial expression for to write. The editor of this edition should have changed the colon after down to a note of interrogation. HENLEY.

295. I see you have a month's mind to them.] A month's mind was an anniversary in times of Popery; or, as Mr. Ray calls it, a less solemnity directed by the will of the deceased. There was also a year's mind, and a week's mind. See Proverbial Phrases.

This appears from the interrogatories and observations against the clergy, in the year 1552. Inter. 7. “Whether there are any months' minds, and anniversaries?" Strype's Memorials of the Reformation, Vol. II. P. 354.

.

"Was the month's mind of Sir Will. Laxton, who died the last month (July 1556), his hearse burning with wax, and the morrow mass celebrated, and a sermon preached," &c. Strype's Mem. Vol. III. P. 305. GREY.

A month's mind, in the ritual sense, signifies not desire or inclination, but remonstrance; yet I sup

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pose this is the true original of the expression,

JOHNSON.

In Hampshire, and other western counties, for "I can't remember it," they say, "I can't mind it.” BLACKSTONE.

Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, 1589, chap. 24, speaking of Poetical Lamentations, says, they were chiefly used" at the burials of the dead, also at month's minds, and longer times :" and in the churchwarden's accompts of St. Helen's in Abington, Berkshire, 1558, these month's minds, and the expences attending them, are frequently mentioned. Instead of month's minds, they are sometimes called month's monuments, and in the Injunctions of K. Edward VI. memories, Injunct. 21. By memories, says Fuller, we understand the Obsequia for the dead, which some say succeeded in the place of the heathen Parentalia.

If this line was designed for a verse, we should read-monthes mind. So, in the Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Swifter than the moones sphere."

Both these are the Saxon genitive case. STIEVENS. -what sad talk- -] Sad is the same as

299.

grave or serious.
So, in the Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1638:

JOHNSON.

"Marry, sir knight, I saw them in sad talk, "But to say they were directly whispering," &c. Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578: "The king feigneth to talk sadly with some of his counsel,"

STEEVENS.

308. Some, to discover islands far away;] In Shakspere's time, voyages for the discovery of the islands of America were much in vogue. And we find, in the journals of the travellers of that time, that the sons of noblemen, and of others of the best families in England, went very frequently on these adventures. Such as the Fortescucs, Collitons, Thornhills, Farmers, Pickerings, Littletons, Willoughbys, Chesters, Hawleys, Bromleys, and others. To this prevailing fashion our poet frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it. WARBURTON. 314. -great impeachment to his age,] Impeach

ment is hindrance.

"" -but could be glad

"Without impeachment to march on to Calais." STEEVENS.

326. Attends the emperor in his royal court.] Shakspere has been guilty of no mistake in placing the emperor's court at Milan in this play. Several of the first German emperors held their courts there occasionally, it being, at that time, their immediate property, and the chief town of their Italian dominions. Some of them were crowned kings of Italy at Milan, before they received the imperial crown at Rome. Nor has the poet fallen into any contradiction by giving a duke to Milan at the same time that the emperor held his court there. The first dukes of that, and all the other great cities in Italy, were not sovereign princes, as they afterwards became; but were merely governors, or viceroys, under the emperors,

Bij

and

removeable

removeable at their pleasure. Such was the Duke of Milan mentioned in this play.

STEEVENS.

343. -in good time-] In good time was the old expression when something happened which suited the thing in hand, as the French say, à-propos.

So, in King Richard III.

JOHNSON.

"And, in good time, here comes the sweating

lord."

STEEVENS.

368. exhibition- -] i. e. allowance. So, in Othello:

"Due reference of place and exhibition."

STEEVENS:

383. Oh, how this spring of love resembleth.] It was not always the custom among our early writers, to make the first and third lines rhime to each other; and when a word was not long enough to complete the measure, they occasionally extended it. Thus Spenser, in his Faery Queen, B. III. c. 12.

"Formerly grounded, and fast setteled." Again, B. II. c. 12.

"The while sweet Zephirus loud whisteled "His treble, a strange kind of harmony; "Which Guyon's senses softly tickeled," &c. From this practice, I suppose, our author wrote resembeleth, which, though it affords no jingle, completes the verse. Many poems have been written in this measure where the second and fourth lines only rhime. STEEVENS.

ACT

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