Critical Notes.

BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ.

I. i. 22. The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat.' No satisfactory explanation of this passage has as yet been offered; various suggestions have been made, e.g. 'salt-fish': the hake borne by the stockfishmongers; same

"'tis ott fish in' (assigned to Evans), etc. May not, however, the whole point of the matter lie in Shallow's use of 'salt' in the sense of saltant,' the heraldic term, used especially for vermin? If so 'saltfish''the leapinglouse,' with a quibble on 'salt' as opposed to 'fresh fish.' There is further allusion to the proverbial predilection of vermin for 'old coats,' used quibblingly in the sense of 'coat-of-arms.' The following passage from Holinshed's continuation of the chronicles of Ireland (quoted by Rushton), seems to

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=

for 'salt';

From the Annalia Dubrensia (1636), a collection of poems laudatory of the Cotswold Games and their patron, Robert Dover.

bear out this explanation:-" Having lent the king his signet to

seal a letter, who having powdered erinuts ingrailed in the seal; why how now Wise (quoth the King), what hast thou lice here? And if it like your Majesty, quoth Sir William, a louse is a rich coat, for by giving the louse I part arms with the French King in that he giveth the flower de lice, whereat the king heartily laughed," etc.

I. i. 46. 'George Page. Ff. Q3. 'Thomas Page,' retained by Camb. Ed. though Master Page is elsewhere called 'George'; the mistake may have been Shakespeare's own,' or Geo.' may

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have been misread as 'Tho.'

I. i. 91. 'outrun on Cotsall,' i.e. on the Cotswold hills (in Gloucestershire); probably an allusion to the famous Cotswold Games, which were revived by Captain Robert Dover at the beginning of the seventeenth century, though evidently instituted earlier; the allusion does not occur in the first and second Quartos.

I. i. 171. 'Scarlet and John'; Robin Hood's boon-companions; an allusion to Bardolph's red face.

I. iii. 28. a minute's rest'; a minim's rest" is the ingenious suggestion of Bennet Langton; cp. Romeo and Juliet, II. iv. 22, 66 rests me his minim rest."

I. iii. 46. 'carves'; probably used here in the sense of 'to show favour by expressive gestures'; cp. "A carver: chironomus one that useth apish motions with his hands."-Littleton's LatinEnglish Dictionary (1675).

I. iii. 51. 'Studied her will'; so Qq 1-2: Ff, 'will' retained by Camb. Ed.

I. iii. 73. 'region of Guiana.' Sir Walter Raleigh returned from his expedition to So. America in 1596, and published his book 'The Discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana' in the same year.

I. iii. 99. By welkin and her star. This is no doubt the correct reading of the line, and there is no need to read stars, as has been suggested; 'star' is obviously used here for 'the sun'; the Quartos read 'fairies.'

I. ii. 109. the revolt of mine,' i.e. my revolt: Camb. Ed. suggest in Note 'mine anger,' but no change seems necessary.

II. i. 5. though Love use Reason for his physician.' The Folios read 'precisian'; the emendation adopted in the text was first suggested by Theobald, and has been generally accepted; cp. Sonnet CXLVII: My reason the physician to my love."

II. i. 220, 223. In the folios the name 'Broome' is given instead