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Sander servant to Ferando.

Phylotus, a merchant who personates the Duke.

Kate,

Emelia,

Phylema,

Daughters to Alphonsus.

Tailor, Haberdasher, and servants to Ferando and Alphonsus.

SCENE, Athens; and sometimes Ferando's Coun try House.

Page 3, line 7. To pheese or fease, is to separate a twist into single threads. In the figurative sense it may well enough be taken, like teaze or toze, for to harrass, to plague. Perhaps I'll pheeze you, may be equivalent to I'll comb your head, a phrase vulgarly used by persons of Sly's character on like occasions. The following explanation of the word is given by Sir Thomas Smith, in his book de Sermone Anglico, printed by Robert Stephens, 4to; To feize, means in fila diducere." JOHNSON.

Shakspeare repeats his use of the word in Troilus and Cressida, where Ajax says he will pheese the pride of Achilles: and Lovewit in The Alche mist employs it in the same sense. STEEVENS.

To pheeze a man, is to beat him; to give him a pheeze, is, to give him a knock. M. MasoN.

To touze or to aze had the same signification. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: „Arruffare. To touze, to tug, to bang, or rib-baste one." MALONE. P. 3, l. 9. the Slies are no rogues:] That is, vagrants, no mean fellows, but gentlemen.

JOHNSON,

One William Sly was a performer in the plays of Shakspeare, as appears from the list of comedians prefixed to the folio, 1623. This Sly is likewise mentioned in Heywood's Actor's Vindication, and the Induction to Marston's Malecontent. He was also among those to whom James I. granted a licence to act at the Globe theatre in 1603. STEEVENS.

P. 3, 1. 11. paucas pallabris;] Sly, as an ignorant fellow, is purposely made to aim at lan guages out of his knowledge, and knock the words out of joint. The Spaniards say, pocas palabras, i. e. few words; as they do likewise, Cessa, i. e. be quiet. THEOBALD.

This is a burlesque on Hieronymo, which Theobald speaks of in a following note: ..What new device have they devised now? Pocas pallabras." In the comedy of The Roaring Girl, 1611, a cut purse makes use of the same words. Again, they appear in The Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1638, and in some others, but are always appropriated to the lowest characters. STEEVENS.

P. 3, 1. 12. · let the world slide:] This expres. sion is proverbial. STEEVENS.

P. 3, 1. 14. To burst and to break were anciently synonymus. Falstaff says, that John of Gaunt burst Shallow's head for crowding in among the marshall's men." STEEVENS.

Burst is still used for broke in the North of England. REED.

P. 3, 1. 18.

I must go fetch the thirdborough.]

The old copy reads:

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I must go fetch the headborough.

Sly. Third, or fourth, or fifth borough, etc.
STEFVENS.

This corrupt reading had pass'd down through all the copies, and none of the editors pretended to guess at the poet's conceit. What an insipid, unmeaning reply does Sly make to his Hostess? How do third, or fourth, or fifth borough relate to Headborough? The author intended but a poor witticism, and even that is lost. The Hostess would say, that she'd fetch a constable: and this officer she calls by his other name, a Thirdborough: and upon this term Sly founds the conundrum in his answer to her. Who does not perceive at a single glance, some conceit started by this certain correc tion? There is an attempt at wit, tolerable enough for a tinker, and one drunk too. Third-borough is a Saxon term sufficiently explained by the glossaries: and in our statute-books, no further back than the 28th year of Henry VIII. we find it used to signify a constable. THEOBALD.

In the Personae Dramatis to Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub, the high-constable, the petty-constable, the head-borough, and the third-borough, are enumerat. ed as distinct characters. It is difficult to say precisely what the office of a third-borough was. STEEVENS. The office of thirdborough is known to all acquainted with the civil constitution of this country, to be co-extensive with that of the con stable. SIR J. HAWKINS.

The office of Thirdborough is the same with that of Constable, except in places where there are both, in which case the former is little more than the constable's assistant. The headborough, petty constable

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constable and thirdborough, introduced by Ben Jonson in The Tale of a Tub, being all of different places, are but one and the same officer under so many different names. In a book intitled The Constable's Guide, etc. 1771, it is said that there are in several counties of this realm other officers; that is, by other titles, but not much inferior to our constables; as in Warwickshire a third-borough." The etymology of the word is uncertain. RITSON. P. 4, 1. 5. Brach Merriman, the poor cur is emboss'd,] Here, says Pope, brach signifies a degenerate hound: but Edwards explains it a hound in general.

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That the latter of these criticks is right, will appear from the use of the word brach, in Sir T. More's Comfort against Tribulation, Book III. ch. xxiv: Here it must be known of some men that can skill of hunting, whether that we mistake not our terms, for then are we utterly ashamed as ye wott well. And I am so cunning, that I cannot tell, whether among them a bitche be a bitche or no; but as I remember she is no bitch but a brache."

T. WARTON. Leech Merriman;

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads that is, apply some remedies to Merriman, the poor cur has his joints swell'd. — Perhaps we might read bathe Merriman, which is, I believe, the common practice of huntsmen; but the present reading may stand. JOHNSON.

Emboss'd is a hunting term. When a deer is hard run, and foams at the mouth, he is said to be emboss'd. A dog also when he is strained with hard running (especially upon hard ground) will have his knees swelled, and then he is said to be emboss'd: from the French word bosse, which signifies a tumour. T. WARTON.

VOL. VI.

14

Can any thing be more evident than that imboss'd means swelled in the knees, and that we ought to read bathe? Whath has the imbossing of a deer to do with that of an hound? Imbossed sores" occur in As you like it; and in the first part of King Henry IV, the Prince calls Falstaff imboss'd rascal." RITSON.

P. 5, 1. 23. 24. And, when he says he is —, say, that he dreams,

For he his nothing but a mighty lord.] I rather think (with Sir Thomas Hanmer) that Shakspeare wrote:

And when he says he's poor, say that he dreams. The dignity of a lord is then significantly opposed to the poverty which it would be natural for Sly to acknowledge. STEEVENS.

If any thing should be inserted: it may be done thus:

And when he says he's Sly, say that he dreams. The likeness in writing of Sly and say produced the omission. JOHNSON.

This is hardly right: for how should the Lord know the beggar's name to be Sly? STEEVENS.

Perhaps the sentence ist left imperfect, because he did not know by what name to call him.

T

BLACKSTONE.

I have no doubt that the blank was intended by the author. It it observeable that the metre of the line is perfect, without any supplemental word. In The Tempest a similar blank is found, which Shakspeare there also certainly intended: ...I should know that voice; it should be--; but he is drown'd, and these are devils." MALONE.

P. 5, 1. 25. Kindly, means naturally. M. MASON. P. 5, 1. 27. By modesty is mcant moderation,

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