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with those which we feel from our intercourse with men. The former he determines to be the more tolerable, as proceeding from an agent that is invisible, and though rude in his approach, yet personally unknown; whilst the latter results from the slight of our intimates, whom we lately and fondly cherished. Thus Lear, act iii. line 192.

Thou think'st 'tis much, that this contentious storm
Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee;
But where the greater malady is fix'd,
The lesser is scarce felt

- When the mind's free,

The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else,
Save what beats there-Ingratitude !

Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand,
For lifting food to't?

HENLEY.

Because thou art not seen,] So, in the Sonnet introduced into Love's Labour Lost:

"Through the velvet leaves the wind

STEEVENS.

"All unseen 'gan passage find. 542. Though thou the waters warp,] The surface of waters, so long as they remain unfrozen, is apparently a perfect plane; whereas, when they are, this surface deviates from its exact flatness, or warps. This is remarkable in small ponds, the surface of which when frozen, forms a regular concave; the ice on the sides rising higher than that in the middle. KENRICK. The meaning is this: though the very waters, by thy agency, are forced against the law of their nature,

to

to bend from their stated level, yet thy sting occasions less anguish to man, than the ingratitude of those he had befriended. HENLEY.

See Warp, before, in catch-word Alphahet, which comparisons serve to explain.

544. As friend remember'd not.] Remember'd for remembering. So, afterwards, act iii. 1. last: " And now I am remember'd" i. e. and now that I

bethink me, &c...

MALONE.

Act 111.

Line 16. AND let my officers of such a nature

Make an extent upon his house and lands:]

"To make an extent of lands," is a legal phrase, from the words of a writ (extendi facias) whereby the sheriff is directed to cause certain lands to be appraised to their full extended value, before he delivers them to the person entitled under a recognizance, &c. in order that it may be certainly known how soon the debt will be paid. MALONE.

18. Expediently, That is, expeditiously.

JOHNSON.

20. Thrice-crowned queen of night, Alluding to the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some mythologists to the same goddess, and comprised in these memorable lines;

"Terret

"Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana,

"Ima, superna, feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagittis."

28. Unexpressive] for inexpressible.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

Milton in like manner uses unexpressive for inexpressible:

:

"Harping with loud and solemn quire,

"With unexpressive notes to heaven's new-bornheir."

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47. He that hath learned no wit by nature or art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of very dull kindred.]

Common sense requires us to read:

May complain of gross breeding. The Oxford editor has greatly improved this emendation by reading-bad breeding.

WARBURTON.

I am in doubt whether the custom of the language in Shakspere's time did not authorise this mode of speech, and make complain of good breeding, the same with complain of the want of good breeding. In the last Line of The Merchant of Venice, we find that to fear the keeping is to fear the not keeping. JOHNSON.

I think, he means rather may complain of a good education, for having been so inefficient of so little use to him. MALONE.

The context makes it probable, that the poet had the proverb in his mind, of being "better fed than taught."

50. Such a one is a natural philosopher.] The shepherd had said all the philosophy he knew was the property of things, that rain wetted, fire burnt, &c. And the Clown's reply, in a satire on physicks or natural natural philosophy, though introduced with a quibble, is extremely just. For the natural philosopher is indeed as ignorant (notwithstanding all his parade of knowledge) of the efficient cause of things, as the rustick. It appears, from a thousand instances, that our poet was well acquainted with the physicks of his time: and his great penetration enabled him to see this remediless defect of it.

WARBURTON.

Shakspere is responsible for the quibble only, let the commentator answer for the refinement. STEEVENS. 55. like an ill-roasted egg,] Of this jest I do not JOHNSON.

fully comprehend the meaning.

There is a proverb, that a fool is the best roaster of an egg, because he is always turning it. This will explain how an egg may be damn'd, all on one side; but will not sufficiently shew how Touchstone applies his simile with propriety; unless he means that he who has not been at court is but half educated.

STEEVENS.

I believe there was nothing intended in the corresponding part of the simile, to answer to the words"all on one side." Shakspere's similies (as has been already observed) seldom run on four feet. Touchstone, I apprehend, only means to say, that Corin is completely damned; as irretrievably destroyed, as an egg that is utterly spoiled in the roasting, by being done on one side only. MALONE.

58. Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never saw'st good manners; if thou never, &c.] This reasoning is drawn up in imitation of Friar John's to Panurge in Rabelais.

Rabelais. Si tu es Coquu, ergo ta femme sera belle; ergo tu seras bien traité d'elle; ergo tu auras des amis beaucoup; ergo tu seras sauvé. The last inference is pleasantly drawn from the Popish doctrine of the intercession of saints, and, I suppose, our jocular English proverb, concerning this matter, was founded in Friar John's logick.

WARBURTON.

89. Make incision in thee!] To make incision was a proverbial expression then in vogue for, to make to understand. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humourous Lieutenant:

"О еxcellent king,

"Thus he begins, thou life and light of creatures, "Angel-ey'd king, vouchsafe at length thy favour; " And so proceeds to incision.".

i.e. to make him understand what he would be at.

WARBURTON.

Till I read Dr. Warburton's note, I thought the allusion had been to that common expression, of cutting such a one for the simples ; and I must own, after consulting the passage in the Humourous Lieutenant, I have no reason to alter my supposition. The editors of Beaumont and Fletcher declare the phrase to be unintelligible in that as well as in another play where it is introduced.

I find the same expression in Monsieur Thomas : "We'll bear the burthen, proceed to incision, fidler."

STEEVENS.

90.-thou art raw.] i. e. thou art ignorant,

unexperienced,

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