following passage in The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher:

"And lie, and kiss my hand unto my

mistress,

"As often as an ape does for an apple.”

I cannot approve of Dr. Farmer's reading. Had our poet meant to introduce both the ape and the apple, he would, I think, have written not like, but "as an ape an apple." MAlone.

Apple in the quarto is a mere typographical error. RITSON

P. 92, 1. 24. 25. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.] This,, if I mistake not, is a pro

verbial sentence. MALONE.

Since the appearance of our author's play, these words have become proverbial; but no earlier instance of the idea conveyed by them, has occurred within the compass of my reading. STEEVENS.

be,

--

P. 92, 1. 28. 29. The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.] This answer I do not comprehend. Perhaps it should The body is not with the King, for the King is not with the body. JOHNSON. Perhaps it may mean this, The body is in the King's house, (i. e. the present King's, yet the King (i. e. he who should have been King,) is not with the body. Intimating that the usurper is here, the true King in a better place. Or it may mean - the guilt of the murder lies with the King, but the King is not where the body lies. The affected obscurity of Hamlet must exeuse so many attempts to procure something like a meaning. STEEVENS.

P 92, last but one 1. Of nothing:] Should it not be read· Or nothing? When the courtiers remark that Hamlet has contemptuously called the

King a thing, Hamlet defends himself by observing, that the King must be a thing, or nothing. JOHNSON. The text is right. So, in The Spanish Tragedy:

"In troth, my Lord, it is a thing of

nothing."

And, in one of Harvey's letters "a silly bug beare, a sorry pulfe of winde, a thing of nothing?

FARMER.

Mr. Steevens has given [i. e. edit. 1778] many parallelisms: but the origin of all is to be look'd for, I believe, in the 144th Psalm, ver. 5: "Man is like a thing of nought." Mr. Steevens must have observed, that the book of Common Prayer, and the translation of the Bible into English, furnished our old writers with many forms of expression, some of which are still in use. WHALLEY. P. 92, last 1. Hide fox, and all after.] There is a play among children called, Hide fox, and all after. HANMER.

P. 94, 1. 10. 11. Nothing, but to show you how a King may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.] Alluding to the royal journeys of state, always styled progresses; a familiar idea to those who, like our author, lived during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. STEEVENS.

P. 94, 1. 27. The bark is ready', and the wind at help, I suppose it

should be read,

The bark is ready, and the wind at helm. JOHNSON.

at help,] i. e. at hand, ready, -ready to RITSON.

help or assist you. P. 95, 1. 14. 15.

thou may'st not coldly set

Our sovereign process:] Radhere to the reading of the quarto and folio. Mr. M. Mason observes, that " one of the common acceptations of the verb set, is to value or estimate; as we say to set at nought; and in that sense it is used here," : 6. STEEVENS.

Our poet has here, I think, as in many other places, used an elliptical expression: "thou may'st not coldly set by our sovereign process;" thon may'st not set little by it, or estimate it lightly. "To set by." Cole renders in his Dict. 1679, by aestimo. "To set little by," he interprets parvi-facio. See many other instances of similar ellipses, in Vol. XIII. p. 235, n. 5. MALONE. P. 95, 1. 16. By letters conjuring to that effect,] Effect was for merly used for act or deed, simply, and is so used in the line before us. MALONE. P. 95, 1. 20.

理

Howe'er my haps, my joys will

ne'er begin] t. This

being the termination of a scene, should according to our authors's custom, be rhymed. Perhaps he wrote,

a

Howe'er my hopes, my joys are not begun. If haps be retained, the meaning will be, 'till I know 'tis done, I shall be miserable, whatever befal me. JONHSON.

The folio reads, in support of Dr. Johnson's re

Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er

Mr. Heath would read:

begun.

Howe'er 't may hap, my joys will ne'er

begin. STEEVENS.

By his haps, he means his successes. His for→ tune was begun, but his jays were not. M. MASON.

P. 95, 1, 30. We shall express our duty in his eye,] The phrase appears to have been formulary. See The Estab lishment of the Household of Prince Henry, A. D. 1610: Also the gentleman-usher shall be careful to see and informe all such as doe service

in the Prince's eye, that they performe their dutyes" &c. Again, in The Regulations for the Government of the Queen's Household, 1627: 66 all such as doe service in the Queen's eye. STEEVENS.

P. 96, last 1.

What is a man,

If his chief good, and market of his time, Be but to sleep, and feed? If his highest good, and that for which he sells his time, be to sleep and feed. JOHNSON.

Market, I think, here means profit. MAlone, P. 97, 1. 2. 3. with such large discourse,

Looking before, and after,] Such latitude of comprehension, such power of reviewing the past, and anticipating the future. JOHNSON.

P. 97, 1. 6. - some craven. scruple] Some cowardly scruple. MALONE.

P. 97, 1. 21 - 24.

Rightly to be great, Is, not to stir without great argument; But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, When honour's at the stake.] This pass age I have printed according to the copy. Mr. Theobald had regulated it thus:

'Tis not to be great,

Never to stir without great argument;
But greatly, &c.

The sentiment of Shakspeare is partly just, and

partly romantick.

·Rightly to be great,

Is, not to stir without great argument;

is exactly philosophical,

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When honour's at the stake,

is the idea of a modern hero. But then, says he, honour is an argument, or subject of debate, sufficiently great, and when honour is at stake, we must find cause of quarrel in a straws

JOHNSON.

P. 97, 1. 26. Excitements of my reason, and my blood,] Provoca→ tions which excite both my reason and my pas-. sions to vengeance. JOHNSON.

1. 30. a plot] A piece, or portion.

P. 97, 1. 32. - not tomb enough, and continent,] Continent, in our author, means that which comprehends or encloses. STEEVENS.

Again, Lord Bacon on the Advancement of Learning, 4to. 1633, p. 7: if there be no fuluesse, then is the continent greater than the content." REED.

P. 98, 1. 12. Spurns enviously at straws;] Envy is much oftener put by our poet (and those of this time) for direct aversion, than for malignity conceived at the sight of another's excellence or happiness. STEEVENS.

P. 98, 1. 13-15. her speech is nothing,

Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

The hearers to collection;] i. e. to deduce consequences from such premises; or as Mr. M. Mason observes, "endeavour to collect some meaning from them." STEEVENS.

P. 98, I. 19-21.

there might be thought, Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.] i. e. though her meaning cannot be certainly col