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P. 179, 1. 31. Should rift -] i. e. split.

STEEVENS.

P. 180, 1. 9. To affront, is to meet. JOHNSON. P. 131, 1. 7. 8. so must thy grave

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Give way to what's seen now. ] Thy grave here means thy beauties, which are buried in the grave; the continent for the contents. EDWARDS. P. 181, 1. 9. and writ so,] The reader must observe, that so relates not to what precedes, but to what follows; that she had not been equall'd. JOHNSON.

P. 181, 1. 9. 10.

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(but your writing now Is colder than that theme,)] i. e. than the lifeless body of Hermione, the theme or subject of writing. MALONE.

P. 183, 1. 11-13.

your

from him, whose daughter

His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her:] This is very ungrammatical and obscure. better read:

whose daughter

We may

His tears proclaim'd her parting with her. The Prince first tells that the lady came from Lybia; the King, interrupting him, says, from Smalus? from him, says the Prince, whose tears, at parting, showed her to be his daughter.

JOHNSON.

The obscurity arises from want of proper punctuation. By placing a comma after his, I think the sense is clear'd. STEEVENS.

P. 183, 1. 25. A graceful gentleman;] i. e. full of grace and virtue. M. MASON.

P. 184, 1. 23. these poor men in question,] i. e. in conversation. STREVENS.

P. 184, 1. 34. The odds for high and low's alike.? A quibble upon the false diçe so called. Douce,

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Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,] Worth signifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high descent. The King means that he is sorry the Prince's choice is not in other respects as worthy of him as in beauty. JOHNSON.

Our author often uses worth for wealth; which may also, together with high birth, be here in contemplation. MALONE.

P. 185, 1. 14. 15. Remember since you ow'd no more

to time

Than I do now:] Recollect the period when

you were of my age. MALONE.

P. 186, 1. 22. if the importance were joy, or sorrow;] Importance here means, the thing im ported. M. MASON.

P. 187, 1. 11. the affection of nobleness,] Affection here perhaps means disposition or quality.

MALONE.

P. 187, 1. 19. -so, and in such manner,] Our author seems to have picked up this little piece of tautology in his clerkship. It is the technical language of conveyancers. RITSON.

P. 187, 1. 24. - not by favour.] i. e. countenance, features. STEEVENS.

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P. 187, 1. 29. her. STEEVENS.

with clipping her:] i. e. embracing

P. 187, 1. 31. like a weather-bitten conduit -] Conduits, representing a human figure, were heretofore not uncommon. One of this kind, a female form, and weather-beaten, still exists at Hoddesdon inerts. HENLEY.

P. 188, 1. 32. Who was most marble there, changed colour;] i. e. most petrified with wonder.

ST EVENS.

It means those who had the hardest hearts.

It

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would not be extraordinary that those persons should change colour who were petrified with wonder, thought it was, that hardened hearts should be moved by a scene of tenderness. M. MASON.

P. 189, 1. 4. 5. perform'd by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano: who, had he himself eternity, etc. This excellent artist was born in the year 1492, and died in 1546. Fine and generous, as this tribute of praise must be owned, yet it was a strange absurdity, sure, to thrust it into a tale, the action of which is supposed within the period. of heathenism, and whilst the oracles of Apollo were consulted. This, however, was a known and wilful anachronism. THEOBALD.

By eternity Shakspeare means only immortality, or that part of eternity which is to come; so we talk of eternal renown and eternal infamy. Immortality may subsist without divinity, and therefore the meaning only is, that if Julio could always continue his labours, he would mimick nature.

JOHNSON.

I wish we could understand this passage, as if Julio Romano had only painted the statue carved by another. Sir Henry Wotton, in his Elements of Architecture, mentions the fashion of colouring even regal statues for the stronger expression of. affection, which he takes leave to call an English barbarism. Such, however, was the practice of the time: and unless the supposed statue of Hermione were painted, there could be no ruddiness upon her lip, nor could the veins verily seem to bear blood, as the poet expresses it afterwards. TOLLET.

Our author expressly says, in a subsequent passage, that was painted; and without doubt meant to attribute only the painting to Julio Romano.

MALONE.

Sir H. Wotton could not possibly know what has been lately proved by Sir William Hamilton in the MS. accounts which accompany several valuable drawings of the discoveries made at Pompeii, and presented by him to our Antiquary Society, viz. that it was usual to colour statues among the ancients. In the chapel of Isis in the place already mentioned, the image of that goddess had been painted over, as her robe is of a purple hue. Mr. Tollet has since informed me, that Junius, on the painting of the ancients, observes from Pausanias, and Herodotus, that sometimes the statues of the ancients were coloured after the manner of pictures. STEEVENS.

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P. 189, 1.6. would beguile nature of her custom,] That is, of her trade, would draw her customers from her. JOHNSON.

P. 189, 1. 17-21. It was, I suppose, only to spare his own labour that the poet put this whole scene into narrative, for though part of the transaction was already known to the audience, and therefore could not properly be shewn again, yet the two Kings might have met upon the stage, and, after the examination of the old shepherd, the young lady might have been recognised in sight of the spectators.

JOHNSON.

P. 191, 1.5. Franklin is a freeholder, or yeoman, a man above a villain, but not a gentleman.

JOHNSON.

P. 191, 1. 9. Tall, in that time, was the word used for stout. JOHNSON.

A tall fellow of thy hands means, a stout fellow of your size. We measure horses by hands, which contain four inches, and from thence the phrase is taken. M. MASON.

I think, in old books it generally means a strong stout fellow. MALONE.

at court.

P. 191, 1. 20. we'll be thy good masters.] The Clown conceits himself already a man of consequence It was the fashion for an inferior, or suit. or, to beg of the great man, after his humble commendations, that he would be good master to him. Many letters written at this period run in this style.

Thus Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, when in pri son', in a letter to Cromwell to relieve his want of clothing: Furthermore, I beseeche you to be gode master unto one in my necessities, for I have neither shirt, nor sute, nor yet other clothes, that are necessary for me to wear." WHALLEY.

P. 192, 1. 14. 15. therefore I keep it
Lonely, apart:] The old copy

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lovely.

STEEVENS.

Lovely, i. e. charily, with more than ordinary regard and tenderness. The Oxford editor reads: Lonely, apart:

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As if it could be apart without being alone.
WARBURTON.

I am yet inclined to lonely, which in the old angular writing cannot be distinguished from lovely. To say, that I keep it alone separate from the rest, is a pleonasm which scarcely any nicety decli nes. JOHNSON.

P. 193, 1. 15. O, patience; That is, Stay a while, be not so eager. JOHNSON.

P. 193, 1. 29.

wrought

i. e. worked, agitated.

STEEVENS.

P. 193, 1. 29. 30. (for the stone is mine,)

I'd not have show'd it.] I do not know whether we should not read, without a parenthesis:

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