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on the face of terra, the foil, the land, the earth.

In support of Dr. Farmer's opinion, the following paffage from Orlando Furiofo, 1594, may be brought:

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Knowing him to be a Thrafonical mad cap, they have fent me a Gnathonical companion," &c.

Greene, in the dedication to his Arcadia, has the fame word: as of fome thrafonical huffe-fnuffe,"

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Florio's firft work is registered on the books of the Stationers' Company, under the following title. "Aug. 1578. Florio his firft Frute, being Dialogues in Italian and English, with certen Inftructions, &c. to the learning the Italian Tonge." In 1595, he dedicated his Italian and English dictionary to the earl of SouthampIn the year 1600, he published his tranflation of Montaigne. Florio pointed his ridicule not only at dramatic performances, but, 66 -as even at performers. Thus, in his preface to this work, if an owle fhould reprefent an eagle, or fome tara-rag player fhould act the princely Telephus with a voyce as rag'd as his clothes, a grace as bad as his voyce." STEEVENS.

ton.

8

in fanguis,—blood;] The old copies read-fanguis, in blood. The tranfpofition was propofed by Mr. Steevens, and is, I think, warranted by the following words, which are arranged in the fame manner: " in the ear of calo, the fky," &c. The fame expreffion occurs in K. Henry VI. P. I:

"If we be English deer, be then in blood." MALONE.

9 — ripe as a pomewater,] A fpecies of apple formerly much eft eemed. Malus Corbonaria. See Gerard's Herbal, edit. 1597. P. 1273.

Again, in the old ballad of Blew Cap for Me:

"Whofe cheeks did resemble two rofting pome-waters.” STEEVENS.

In the first act of the Puritan, Pyeboard fays to Nicholas: “ The captain loving you fo dearly, aye as the pome-water of his eye.”— Meaning the pupil, or apple of it, as it is vulgarly called.

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M. MASON.

in the ear of cœlo, &c.] In Florio's Italian Dictionary, Cielo is defined" heaven, the skie, firmament, or welkin;" and terra is explained thus: "The element called earth; anie ground, earth, countrie,-land, foile," &c. If there was any edition of this Dictionary prior to the appearance of Love's Labour's Loft, this might add fome little strength to Dr. Warburton's conjecture, though it would by no means be decifive; but my edition is dated 1598, (pofterior to the exhibition of this play,) and it appears to be the firft. MALONE.

NATH. Truly, mafter Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the leaft: But, fir, I affure ye, it was a buck of the firft head.'

HOL. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

DULL. 'Twas not a baud credo, 'twas a pricket.

HOL. Moft barbarous intimation! yet a kind of infinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, replication, or, rather, oftentare, to fhow, as it were, his inclination,-after his undreffed, unpolifhed, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or, rathereft, unconfirmed fashion,-to infert again my haud credo for a deer.

DULL. I faid, the deer was not a baud credo; 'twas a pricket.

HOL. Twice fod fimplicity, bis coctus!- thou monster ignorance, how deformed doft thou look!

NATH. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not

3 But, fir, I affure ye, it was a buck of the first head

'twas a pricket.] In a play called The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, I find the following account of the different appellations of deer, at their different ages:

"Amoretto. I caufed the keeper to fever the rafcal deer from the bucks of the firft head. Now, fir, a buck is the first year, a fawn; the fecond year, a PRICKET; the third year, a SORRELL; the fourth year, a foare; the fifth, a buck of the FIRST HEAD; the fixth year, a compleat buck. Likewife your hart is the firft year, a calfe; the fecond year, a brocket; the third year, a spade; the fourth year, a flag; the fixth year, a hart. A roe-buck is the firft year, a kid; the fecond year, a gird; the third year, a hemufe; and thefe are your fpecial beafts for chafe."

Again, in A Chriflian turn'd Turk, 1612:—" I am but a pricket, a mere forell; my head's not harden'd yet." STEEVENS.

replenished; he is only an animal, only fenfible in the duller parts;

And fuch barren plants are fet before us, that we thankful fhould be

(Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts that do fructify in us more than he. For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool,

So, were there a patch fet on learning, to fee him in a fchool:"

5 And fuch barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be (Which we of tafte and feeling are) for thofe parts that de fructify in us more than be.] The length of thefe lines was no novelty on the English ftage. The Moralities afford fcenes of the like measure. JOHNSON.

This stubborn piece of nonfenfe, as fomebody has called it, wants only a particle, I think, to make it fenfe. I would read: "And fuch barren plants are set before us, that we thankful

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fhould be,

(Which we of taste and feeling are,) for those parts, that do fructify in us more than he.”

Which in this paffage has the force of as, according to an idiom of our language, not uncommon, though not strictly grammatical. What follows is ftill more irregular; for I am afraid our poet, for the fake of his rhyme, has put he for him, or rather in him. If he had been writing profe, he would have expreffed his meaning, I believe, more clearly thus—that do fructify in us more than in him. TYRWHITT.

The old copies read-" which we taste and feeling-" &c. I have placed Mr. Tyrwhitt's emendation in the text. STFEVENS. Some examples confirming Dr. Johnfon's obfervation may be found at the end of The Comedy of Errors.

Mr. Tyrwhitt's last obfervation is fully fupported by a subsequent paffage :

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- and then we,

"Following the figns, woo'd but the fign of be."

MALONE.

6 For as it would ill become me to be vain, indifcreet, or a fool, So, were there a patch fet on learning, to see him in a school . ] The meaning is, to be in a school would as ill become a patch, or low fellow, as folly would become me. JOHNSON.

But, omne bene, fay I; being of an old father's mind, Many can brook the weather, that love not the wind. DULL. You two are book-men: Can you tell by

your wit,

What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet?

HOL. Dictynna, good man Dull; Dictynna, good man Dull.

DULL. What is Dictynna?

NATH. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon. HOL. The moon was a month old, when Adam

was no more;

And raught not to five weeks, when he came to fivefcore.

The allufion holds in the exchange."

DULL. 'Tis true indeed; the collufion holds in the exchange.

HOL. God comfort thy capacity! I say, the allufion holds in the exchange.

DULL. And I fay the pollufion holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old: and I fay befide, that 'twas a pricket that the princefs kill'd.

7 Dilynna,] Old Copies-Didifima. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

Shak fpeare might have found this uncommon title for Diana, in the fecond book of Golding's tranflation of Ovid's Metamorphofis: Dictynna garded with her traine, and proud of killing deere." STEEVENS.

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-] i. e. reach'd not. So, in The Arraignment of

the fatal fruit

Raught from the golden tree of Proferpine."

STEEVENS.

9 The allufion holds in the exchange.] i. e. the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when you use the name of Čain.

WARBURTON.

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HOL. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour the ignorant, I have call'd the deer the princess kill'd, a pricket.

NATH. Perge, good mafter Holofernes, perge; so it fhall please you to abrogate fcurrility.

HoL. I will fomething affect the letter; for it argues facility.

The praifeful princess✦ pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleafing pricket;

Some fay, a fore; but not a fore, till now made fore with flooting.

The dogs did yell; put I to fore, then forel jumps from thicket;

Or pricket, fore, or else forel; the people fall a boot

ing.

If fore be fore, then L to fore makes fifty fores; O fore LIS

Of one fore I an hundred make, by adding but one more L.

MALONE.

2

I have-] Thefe words were inserted by Mr. Rowe.

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affect the letter;] That is, I will practice alliteration. M. MASON.

To affect is thus ufed by Ben Jonfon in his Difcoveries: "Spenfer in affing the ancients, writ no language; yet I would have him read for his matter, but as Virgil read Ernius." STEEVENS.

4 The praifeful princess-] This emendation was made by the editor of the fecond folio. The quarto, 1598, and folio, 1623, read corruptly-prayful. MALONE.

The ridicule defigned in this paffage may not be unhappily illuf trated by the alliteration in the following lines of Ulpian Fulwell, in his Commemoration of queen Anne Bullayne, which makes part of a collection called The Flower of Fame, printed, 1575:

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"Whofe princely praife hath pearst the pricke,

"And price of endless fame," &c. STEEVENS.

O fore L!] The old copies read-O forell. The neceffary change was made by Dr. Warburton. The allufion (as he obferves) is to L being the numeral for fifty.

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