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Macbeth. The old copy, however, reads vassailes. STEEVENS

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Vassals is, without question, the true reading. vllow sund nanelogratui ne. HENLEY P.111, 1. 30. the gilded puddle. There is frequently observable on the surface of stagnant pools that have remained long undisturbed reddish gold coloured slime to this appearance the poet here refers. HENLEYd nodom onsd 2 P.112,814:22. I knew it for my bond. That is, to be my bounden duty. M. MASON 7P.12, 1. 30. Mandragora. A plant of which the infusion was supposed to procure sleep ai vitto 10 lfiv 1911s! leuia & to nouibbs 9NSON JOHNSON Gerards in his Herbal, says of the mandrago "Dioscorides doth particularly set downe many faculties hereof, of which notwit ithstanding there be nones proper unto it, save those that de pend upon the drowsie and sleeping power thereof." PERCY. IATORT aised asjas aid -Po 213, 1, GA burgonet is a kind of helmet. MOKнOLONGSTEVENS Praa3, 1.833. Broad-fronted Caesar, M. Seward is of opinion, that the poet, wroter hald fronted Caesar. STEEVENS.

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dear Broads fronted, in allusion to Caesars baldness HENLEY.

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14.1.6.7 that great medicine hath tinct gilded thee. Allading to the philosopher's stone, which, by disorder, converts base metal into gold.The alchemists call the matter, whatever it begobycwhich they perform transmutation, a medicine.

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JOHNSON. 19 And soberly did mount a ter 998 510 to 2000 magant steed, 1 Old

copy

arm - gaunt

i.e. his steed worn lean and thin by much service in war. Sa, Fairfax: "His stall worn steed the champion stout

bestrode."

WARBURTON.

MI On this note Mr. Edwards has been very lavish of his pleasantry, and indeed has justly censured, the misquotation of stall-worn, for stall-worth, which means strong, but makes no attempt to explain the word in the play. Mr. Seward, in his preface to Beaumont and Fletcher, has very ela-. horately endeavoured to prove, that an armgaunt steed is a steed with lean shoulders. Arm is the Teutonic word for want, or poverty. Armbe therefore an old word, signifying,

A

gant, ill-fed. Edwards's observation,

that a worn-out horse is not proper for Atlas to moynt in battle, is impertinent; the horse here mentioned seems to be a post-horse, rather than a war-hotse. Yet as arm-gaunt seems not intended to imply any defect, it perhaps means, a barse so slender that a man might clasp him, and therefore formed for expedition. Hanmer reads: Sun arm-girt steed. JOHNSON, 19 On this passage, which I believe to be corrupt, I have nothing satisfactory to propose. It is clear, that whatever epithet was used, it was intended descriptive of a beautiful horse, such (we may presume) as our author has described in his Venus and Adonis hoe mzeiti

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Dr. Johnson must have look'd into o some early edition of Mr. Edwards's book, for in his seventh edition he has this notes have sometimes thought, that the e meaning may possibly be, thinshoulder'd, by a strange composition of Latin and English; gaunt quoad armos." MALONE.

I suppose there must be some error sage, and should amend it by reading:

with

'the pas

an epi

And soberly did mount a termagant steed, That neigh'd &c. Termagant means furious. So Douglas, in Henry 17. is called the termagant Scot, an thet, that agrees well the steed's weighing so high. Besides, by saying that Antony mounted composedly a horse of such mettle, Alexas presents Cleopatra with a flattering image of her hero, which his mounting slowly a jaded post-horse, would not have done. M. MASON.

When I first met with Mr. Mason's conjecture, I own I was startled at its boldness, but that I have since been reconciled to it, its appareance in the present text of "Shakspeare will sufficiently

prove.

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It ought to be observed, in defence for this emendation, that the word termagaunt (original-TM ly the proper er name of a clamorous Saracenical® deity) did not, without passing through several gradations of meaining, become appropriated (as at present) to a turbulent female.

Let the critick who can furnish a conjecture, neater than termagaunt to the traces of the old

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"arm - gaunt) or can make any change I productive of sense more apposite and commodious, displace Mr. M. Mason's amendment, which, 10s to be numbered among the ! in my opinion, is feliciter audentia of criticism, and meets at least with my own unequivocal approbation. audel 79 dood 27OTSWAN STEEVENS! P. 115, 1. 4 Why do you send so thick?s i. e. in such quick succession. STEEVENS. di adguns P. 115, 1. 1921 My sallad days, biobloode and to Broup Turg- deilga I

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ni To say, as I said then!] Cold in blood, in an upbraiding expostulation to her maid. Those, says she, were my sallad day's, when I was in judgment; but your blood is as cold as my judgment, if you have the same opinion of things now as I had then. WARBURTON.

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if, 115, 1. 22. 23. - he shall have every day. several greeting, or I'll unpeople Egypt]

By sending out messengers. JOHNSON. *P.16,

Whiles we are suitors to their
throne, decays

The thing we sue for.] The meaning is,
We are praying, t
the thing for which we
JOHNSON.

While we

pray is losing

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116, 1. 25. thy wan'd lip!] In the old

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edition n

ed as thy wand lip!

Perhaps, for fond lip, or warm lip, says Dr. Johnson. Wand, if it stand, is either a corrup tion of wan, the adjective, or a contraction of wanned, or made wan, a participle.

to Or perhaps waned lip, i, e. decreased, like the moon in its beauty. STEEVENS.

* 197 HOU Shakspeare's orthography for that of his ignorant publishers] often adds and at the end of a words. Thus, vilo sis (in the old editions) every where speltid. Lound is given instead of lawn: why not therefore wan'd for wan here ?sk

tupthis however should not be accepted, suppose we read with the addition only of an apostrophe, wan'dise. waned declined, gone off from its perfection; comparing Cleopatra's beauty to the noou past the full PERGY, Bas

1. P. 217, 1. 1. 2 since he went from Egypt, 'tis A space for further travel.] i. e. since he quitted! Aegypt, a space of time has elapsed, in which la longer journey might have been performed than from Aegypt to Rome. STEEVENSGE

P. 117, 1. 9. Egypt's widow] Julius Caesar had married her to young Ptolemy, who was afterwards drowned. STEVENS. Í 20 NOK 20 P. 1. 11. & fol, I cannot hope &c. Mr. Tyrwhi the judicious editor of the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer in five vols. 8vo 1775, &c.) serves that to hope on this occasion means to expect. STEEVENS.

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P. 117 1. 1

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STEEVENS

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may be altered at pleasure. I think t

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****P. 117, 1. 25. 26. It only stands HK Our lives upon, to use our strongest hands. bestó exert our utmost force, is the only quential way of securing our lives. STEEVENS. P. 117, 1. 27. This play is not divided into by the author or first editors, and therefore the f division act may be commodiously continued to this place, and the second act opened with the inte interview the chief persons, and a change of the state of action. Yet it must be confessed that it is of small importance, where these unconnected and desultory scenes are interrupted. JOHNSONUT t vi Pe 118,oli 6. 17 Were I the wearer of Anto# TO IPH55 *nius beard, sqa mindy

I would not shav't to-day.] I believe he means, I would meet him undressed, without show of respect. JOHNSON duw bast aw ou Plutarch mentions that Antony "after the overthrow he had at Modena, suffered his beard 10 grow at length, and never clipt it that it was

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