IV.iv.330 (346,1) [_That doth utter all mens' wear-a_] To _utter_. To
_bring out_, or _produce_. (1773)
IV.iv.333 (347,3) [all men of hair] [W: i.e. nimble, that leap as if
they rebounded] This is a strange interpretation. _Errors_, says
Dryden, _flow upon the surface_, but there are men who will fetch
them from the bottom. _Men of hair_, are _hairy men_, or _satyrs_. A
dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages.
At a great festival celebrated in France, the king and some of the
nobles personated satyrs dressed in close habits, tufted or
shagged all over, to imitate hair. They began a wild dance, and
in the tumult of their merriment one of them went too near a candle
and set fire to his satyr's garb, the flame ran instantly
over the loose tufts, and spread itself to the dress of those
that were next him; a great number of the dancers were cruelly
scorched, being neither able to throw off their coats nor extinguish
them. The king had set himself in the lap of the dutchess
of Burgundy, who threw her robe over him and saved him.
IV.iv.338 (347,4) [bowling] _Bowling_, I believe, is here a term for a
dance of smooth motion with great exertion of agility.
IV.iv.411 (350,6) [dispute his own estate?] Perhaps for _dispute_ we
might read _compute_; but _dispute his estate_ may be the same with
_talk over his affairs_.
IV.iv.441 (351,7) [Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin, Far
than Deucalion off] I think for _far than_ we should read _far as_.
We will not hold thee of our kin even so far off as Deucalion the
common ancestor of all.
IV.iv.493 (354,2) [and by my fancy] It must be remembered that _fancy_
in this author very often, as in this place, means _love_.
IV.iv.551 (356,3) [Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies]
As _chance_ has driven me to these extremities, so I commit myself
to _chance_ to be conducted through them.
IV.iv.613 (359,6) [as if my trinkets had been hallowed] This alludes
to beads often sold by the Romanists, as made particularly efficacious
by the touch of some relick.
IV.iv.651 (360,7) [boot] that is, _something over and above_, or, as
we now say, _something to boot_.
IV.iv.734 (362,9) [pedler's excrement] Is pedler's beard, (see 1765,
II,323,2)
IV.iv.748 (363,1) [therefore they do not give us the lye] [W: do give]
The meaning is, they are _paid_ for lying, therefore they do not give
us the lye, they _sell_ it us. (1773)
IV.iv.768 (363,2) [Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant] This satire,
or this pleasantry, I confess myself not well to understand.
IV.iv.779 (364,3) [A great man, I'll warrant; I know, by the picking
on's teeth] It seems, that to pick the teeth was, at this time, a
mark of some pretension to greatness or elegance. So the Bastard
in _King John_, speaking of the traveller, says,
_He and_ his pick-tooth _at my worship's mess_.
IV.iv.816 (365,4) [the hottest day prognostication proclaims] That is,
_the hottest day foretold in the almanack_.
V.i.14 (368,7) [Or, from the All that are, took something good] This
is a favourite thought; it was bestowed on Miranda and Rosalind
before.
V.i,19 (368,8) [What were more holy, Than to rejoice, the former
queen is well] [W: rejoice the...queen? This will.] This emendation
is one of those of which many may be made; It is such as we
may wish the authour had chosen, but which we cannot prove that
he did chuse; the reasons for it are plausible, but not cogent.
V.i.58 (370,9) [on this stage, (Where we offend her now)] [The
offenders now appear] The Revisal reads,
_Were we offenders_ now----
very reasonably. (1773)
V.i.74 (371,1) [Affront his eye] _To affront_, is _to meet_.
V.i.98 (372,2) [Sir, you yourself Have said, 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_.
V.i.159 (374, 3) [whose daughter His tears proclaim'd his, parting with
her] This is very ungrammatical and obscure. We aay better read,
----_whose daughter
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, shewed her to be his daughter_.
V.i.214 (376, 4) [Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty]
[W. in birth] _Worth_ is as proper as _birth. 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.
V.ii.105 (380, 5) [that rare Italian meter, Jolio Romano] [Theobald
praised the passage but called it an anachronism] Poor Theobald's
eucomium of this passage is not very happily conceired or expressed, nor
is the passage of any eminent excellence; yet a little candour will
clear Shakespeare from part of the impropriety imputed to him. By
_eternity_ he means only i_mmortality_, 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.
V.ii.107 (381, 6) [would beguile nature of her custom] That is, _of her
trade,_--would draw her customers from her.
V.ii.118 (381, 7) [Who would be thence, that has the benefit of access?]
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.
V.ii.173 (383, 8) [franklins say it] _Franklin_ is a _freeholder_,
or _yeoman_, a man above a _Villain_, but not a _gentleman_.
V.ii.179 (383 ,9) [tall fellow] _Tall_, in that time, was the word used
for _stout_.
V.iii.17 (384,1) [therefore I keep it Lonely, apart] [Hammer: lovely]
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
declines.
V.iii.46 (385,2) [Oh, patience] That is, _Stay a while, be not go eager_.