[whose ceremony
Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
And be perform'd to-night]
This, if it be at all intelligible, is at least obscure and inaccurate.
Perhaps it was written thus,
--what _ceremony
Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief_
Shall _be perform'd to-night; the solemn feast_
_Shall more attend_--
The _brief_ is the _contract of espousal_, or the _licence_
of the church. The King means, What _ceremony_ is necessary to make
this _contract a marriage_, shall be immediately
_performed_; the rest may be delayed.
II.iii.211 (60,2) [I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a
pretty wise fellow] While I sat twice with thee at table.
II.iii.217 (60,3) [yet art then good for nothing but taking up] To
take up, is to _contradict_, to _call to account_, as well as to _pick
off the ground_.
II.iii.242 (60,4) [in the default] That is, _at a need_.
II.iii.246 (61,5) [for doing, I am past; as I will by thee, in what
motion age will give me leave] [Warburton suspected a line lost
after "past"] This suspicion of chasm is groundless. The conceit
which is so thin that it might well escape a hasty reader, is in
the word _past, I am past, as I will be_ past _by thee_.
II.iii.309 (63,9) [To the dark house] The _dark house_ is a house made
gloomy by discontent. Milton says of _death_ and the _king_ of hell
preparing to combat,
_So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell
Grew_ darker _at their frown_.
II.iv.45 (65,1) [Whose want, and whose delay, is strew'd with sweets]
The _sweets_ with which this _want_ are _strewed_, I suppose, are
compliments and professions of kindness.
II.iv.52 (65,2) [probable need] A specious appearance of necessity.
III.i.10 (70,5) [The reasons of our state I cannot yield] I cannot inform
you of the reasons.
III.i.11 (70,6) [an outward man] [W: i.e. one not in the secret of
affairs] So _inward_ is familiar, admitted to secrets. _I was an_
inward _of his_. Measure for Measure.
III.ii.59 (73,1) [_When thou canst get the ring upon my finger_] [W: When
thou canst get the ring, which is on my finger, into thy possession]
I think Dr. Warburton's explanation sufficient, but I once read it
thus, _When thou canst get the ring upon_ thy _finger, which newer
shall come off_ mine.
III.ii.100 (74,3) [Not so, but as we change our courtesies] The gentlemen
declare that they are servants to the Countess, she replies,
No otherwise than as she returns the same offices of civility.
III.iv.4 (77,4) [St. Jaques' pilgrim] I do not remember any place
famous for pilgrimages consecrated in Italy to St. James, but it
is common to visit St. James of Compostella, in Spain. Another
saint might easily have been found, Florence being somewhat out
of the road from Bonsillon to Compostella.
III.iv.13 (77,6) [Juno] Alluding to tho story of Hercules.
III.iv.19 (77,6) [Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much] _Advice_,
is _discretion_ or _thought_.
III.v.21 (79,7) [are not the things they go under] [W: Mr. Theobald
explains these words by, _They are not really so true and sincere
as in appearance they seem to be_.] I think Theobald's interpretation
right; _to go under_ the name of any thing is a known expression.
The meaning is, they are not the things for which their
names would make them pass.
III.v.66 (81,8) [examin'd] That is, _question'd, doubted_.
III.v.74 (81,9) [brokes] Deals as a _broker_.
III.vi.107 (86,6) [we have almost imboss'd him] To imboss a deer is
to inclose him in a wood. Milton uses the same word:
_Like that self-begotten bird
In th' Arabian woods embost.
Which no second knows or third_.
III.vi.III (87,7) [ere we case him] This is, before we strip him
naked. (1773)
III.vii.9 (88,2) [to your sworn council] To your private knowledge,
after having required from you an oath of secrecy.
III.vii.21 (88,9) [Now his important blood will nought deny] _Important_
here, and elsewhere, is _importunate_.
IV.i.16 (90,2) [some band of strangers i' the adversary's entertainment]
That is, _foreign troops in the enemy's pay_.
Iv.i.44 (91,3) [the instance] The _proof_.