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"What the good year"-The commentators say that the original form of this exclamation was the gougerei. e. morbus gallicus-which became obscure, and was corrupted into the "good year:" a very opposite form of expression, and used without any such reference.

"I cannot hide what I am"-"This is one of Shakespeare's natural touches. An envious and unsocial mind, too proud to give pleasure, and too sullen to receive it, always endeavours to hide its malignity from the world and from itself, under the plainness of simple honesty, or the dignity of haughty independence." JOHNSON.

"I had rather be a CANKER in a hedge"-The allusion is to the canker-rose-i. e. the dog-rose. The speaker means, he would rather live in obscurity than owe dignity, or estimation, to his hated brother, who, Conrade reminds him, had "taken him into his grace."

"That young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow"-It has already been intimated, (see "Introductory Remarks,") that, in the character of the chief villain of the drama, the Poet has wholly departed from the plot of Bandello's tale, which furnished him with the outline of the story. The novelist had ascribed the base deception, on which his story turns, to the revenge of a rejected lover, who, at the catastrophe, makes some amends for his guilt, by remorse and frank confession. Shakespeare has chosen to pourtray a less common and obvious, but unhappily too true character,one of sullen malignity, to whom the happiness or success of others is sufficient reason for the bitterness of hatred, and cause enough to prompt to injury and crime. This character has much the appearance of being the original conception and rough sketch of that wayward, dark disposition, which the Poet afterwards painted more elaborately, with some variation of circumstances and temperament, in his "honest Iago."

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ACT II.-SCENE I.

"-in earnest of the BEAR-WARD"-Spelled berrord in the old copies-a colloquial corruption of bear-ward, and not bear-herd, as many editors have it. Yet, in the "Induction" to the TAMING OF THE SHREW, we find bear-heard: that, however, was a corruption of "bearward."

"-if the prince be too IMPORTANT"-i. e. Importunate; as in the COMEDY OF ERRORS.

"DANCE out the answer"-The technical meaning of measure, a particular sort of grave measured dance, like the minuet of the last age, is here opposed to its ordinary sense. (See ROMEO AND JULIET, act i.)

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God defend, the lute should be like the case"i. e. God forbid that your face should be like your mask.

"-within the house is Jove"-The line, which is in the rhythm of Chapman's "Homer," and Golding's "Ovid," is an allusion to the story of Baucis and Philemon; and perhaps Shakespeare was thinking of Golding's version of the original. The subsequent speeches of Hero and Don Pedro complete a couplet. The "thatch'd" refers to Ovid's line, as translated by Golding:

The roof thereof was thatched all with straw and fennish reede.

"the Hundred Merry Tales'"-An old jestbook, of which only a fragment remains. Being unknown to the older editors, this was supposed to allude to the "Decameron" until part of the book was found, and it was reprinted in 1835. It was originally printed by Rastell, between 1517 and 1533. No doubt it was a chap-book well known to the audiences of the Globe.

"-like an usurer's chain"-Chains of gold were at this time worn by persons of wealth, as usurers generally were.

"it is the base, THOUGH bitter disposition"-So the quarto and folio. There seems to be no reason whatever for changing "though" into the, as it stands in Malone's SHAKESPEARE, and Singer's useful edition. In the old copies, "though bitter" is in parentheses. Though severe, she is grovelling in mind.

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"with such impossible CONVEYANCE"-i. e. With a rapidity equal to that of jugglers, whose " conveyances," or tricks, appear impossibilities. "Impossible" may, however, be used in the sense of incredible, or inconceivable, both here and in the beginning of the scene, where Beatrice speaks of "impossible slanders."

"— CIVIL as an orange”—A very common play on words, in Old-English literature, upon the Seville orange-the fruit of that kind best known in London.

"thus goes every one to the world but I"-To "go to the world" is again used by Shakespeare in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, act i. scene 3, to signify being married. When Beatrice adds, "I am sun-burned," she means that her beauty is damaged, as the phrase is used in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA-"The Grecian dames were sun-burned." See, also, AS YOU LIKE IT, act v. scene 3, where Audrey desires to be "a woman of the world."

SCENE II.

-hear Margaret term me CLAUDIO"-Theobald altered the name, in this passage, to Borachio, which, as it is supported by plausible reasons, has been followed in most editions, until the later English editors, who restore "Claudio," the original reading. It appears evident that, at the time of speaking, Borachio intended there should be a change of his appellation, as well as in that of Margaret; for where would be the wonder that Claudio should hear him called by his own name? He prevails upon Margaret (whom he expressly states to have no ill intention towards her mistress) to take part in the plot, under the impression that she and Borachio were merely amusing themselves with a masquerade representation of the courtship of her lady and Claudio. It has also been suggested, that Claudio might well be made to believe that the perfidious Hero received a clandestine lover, whom she called Claudio, in order to decieve her attendants, should any be within sight or hearing; and this, of course, in Claudio's estimation, would be a great aggravation of her offence. The reader will find, in the "Variorum" SHAKESPEARE, a large array of argument on both sides of the question.

SCENE III.

"in the ORCHARD"-" Orchard," in Shakespeare's time, signified a garden. So, in ROMEO AND JULIET:The orchard walls are high and hard to climb. This word was first written hort-yard, then, by corruption, hort-chard-and hence orchard.

"-her hair shall be of what colour it please God" -Some of the editors explain this very literally, as meaning, "If I can find all these excellences united, I shall not trouble myself about the colour of the lady's hair"-certainly a reasonable conclusion. But it appears, from many passages, that our author had an especial and somewhat whimsical dislike to all disguises of the head by art. Like his own Biron, (Love's LABOUR'S LOST,) he mourned that—

-painting and usurping hair

Should ravish doters with a false aspect. The fashions of colouring the hair, wearing artificial curls, etc., were as familiar in Elizabeth's reign as in that of Victoria; and were assailed by the wits, as well as more solemnly denounced from the pulpit. He, therefore, makes Benedick the mouth-piece of his own taste in this matter, by summing up his catalogue of all imaginary female perfections,—as wit, virtue, wisdom, riches, mildness, talents for music or discourse,-with insisting, with ludicrous exaggeration, that her hair shall be of the colour that nature made it.

We'll fit the KID-FOX"-"Kid-fox' has been supposed to mean discovered, or detected fox. Kid certainly meant known, or discovered, in Chaucer's time. It may have been a technical term in the game of hidefox: old terms are sometimes longer preserved in jocu

lar sports than in common usage. Some editors have printed it hid-fox; and others explained it young, or cub-fox."-NARES.

The last sense is adopted by Richardson, in his "Dictionary," and is approved by Dyce. It sorts well with the speaker, and with Benedick's character.

"Note notes, forsooth, and NOTHING"-" This is the reading of the old copies, and ought to be preserved in preference to noting, which Theobald substituted, and which has stood in the text ever since. Don Pedro means to play upon the similarity of sound between noting and nothing,' and to indicate his opinion of

the worth of Balthazar's 'crotchets."'"-COLLIER.

"STALK on; the fowl sits"-An allusion to the stalking-horse, by which the fowler anciently sheltered himself from the sight of the game.

"hide HIMSELF in such reverence"-" Himself" has been printed itself, in many editions; but Shakespeare meant to personify knavery; and so it is printed in the older copies.

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In hirre cuppe was no ferthing sene

Of grese, when she dronken had hirre draught.

- DAFF'D all other respects"-To "daff" is to doff; to do off, or put aside.

"-hath a CONTEMPTIBLE spirit"-i. e. Contemptuous. The difference of these two words was not yet accurately settled, even in the next generation. Drayton confounds them; and in the argument to "Darius," a tragedy, by Lord Sterline, (1603,) it is said that Darius wrote to Alexander "in a proud and contemptible man

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"-the conference was SADLY borne"-i. e. Seriously conducted. Sad and " 'sadly" were often used for serious and seriously, grave and gravely.

ACT III.-SCENE I.

"To listen our PROPOSE"-A few lines above we had-"Proposing with the Prince and Claudio." "Propose" is conversation, from the French propos; and so the quarto reads here; for which the folio has purpose. Beatrice was to come to overhear what Hero and Ursula were saying, not what they intended to do. Reed, however, has showed that purpose, when accented like propose, on the last syllable, had the same sense-it being taken in the modern sense when pronounced as it is now always.

"HAGGARDS of the rock"-Wild or untamed hawks, from the mountains. (See cut, p. 42.)

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If black, why, nature, drawing of an ANTICK," etc. The "antick" was the fool, or buffoon, of the old farces. By "black" is meant only (as in the Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA) a man of a dark or swarthy complexion, in which sense it was used as late as the "Spectator;" but Douce says that here it means one with merely a black beard.

" — an AGATE very vilely cut"-Warburton, followed by several editors, substituted aght, a tag of gold or silver, anciently used. But the allusion is to the agate stone worn in rings, and cut into figures-a general fashion of the day; as Queen Mab is said, in ROMEO AND JULIET, to be "no bigger than an agate stone on the fore-finger of an alderman." Falstaff says of his page, "I was never manned with an agate till now."

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"What fire is in mine ears"-The popular opinion here alluded to is as old as Pliny :-" Moreover, is not this an opinion generally received, that when our ears do glow and tingle, some there be that in our absence do talk of us?"-(Holland's " Translation," book xxviii.)

SCENE II.

"to show a child his new coat, and forbid him to wear it"-Shakespeare seldom repeats himself; but, in ROMEO AND JULIET, there is a passage similar to the above:

As is the night before some festival,

To an impatient child that hath new robes
And may not wear them.

"-all SLOPS"-i. e. Large breeches, or trousers. Hence, a slop-seller, for one who furnishes seamen, etc., with clothes.

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his jesting spirit, which is now crept into a lutestring"-i. e. His jocular wit is now employed in the inditing of love-songs, which, in Shakespeare's time, were usually accompanied on the lute. The " stops" are the frets of the lute, and those points on the fingerboard on which the string is pressed, or stopped, by the finger.

"Good DEN, brother"-" Good den" is a colloquial abridgment of good even, but it was also used for good day: and, in act v. scene 1, Don Pedro says, good den, and Claudio, good day.

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SCENE III.

-have a care that your BILLS be not stolen"-The bill" was a formidable weapon in the hands of the old English infantry. "It gave (says Temple) the most ghastly and deplorable wounds." Dr. Johnson states that, when he wrote, the "bill" was still carried by the watchmen of Litchfield, his native town. It was a long weapon, with a point shaped somewhat like an axe.

"If you hear a child cry in the night"-This part of the sapient Dogberry's charge may have been suggested by some of the amusing provisions contained in the "Statutes of the Streets," imprinted by Wolfe, in 1595. For instance-"22. No man shall blow any horne in the night, within the citie, or whistle after the houre of nyne of the clock in the night, under paine of imprisonment.-30. No man shall, after the houre of nyne at night, keep any rule, whereby any such suddaine outcry be made in the still of the night; as making any affray, or beating his wife or servant, or singing or revyling [revelling] in his house, to the disturbance of his neighbours, under paine of iiis. iiiid.,” etc., etc.

"Keep your fellows' counsels and your own""This is part of the oath of a grand juryman; and is one of many proofs of Shakespeare's having been very conversant, at some period of his life, with legal proceedings and courts of justice."-MALONE.

"I know that Deformed"-In the induction to his "Bartholomew Fair," we find Ben Jonson aiming a satirical stroke at this scene:-" And then a substantial watch to have stole in upon 'em, and taken them away, with mistaking words, as the fashion is in the stage practice." Jonson himself, however, in his "Tale of a Tub," makes his wise men of Finsbury blunder in the same manner. Boswell, in his edition of Malone's SHAKESPEARE, points out examples of this sort of humour before Shakespeare's time. Nash, in his "Anatomy of Absurditie," (1589,) speaks of "a misterming clowne in a comedie;" and in "Selimus, Emperor of the Turks," (1594,) this speech is put into the mouth of Bullithrumble, a shepherd:-"Well, if you will keepe my sheepe truly and honestly, keeping your hands from lying and slandering, and your tongue from picking and stealing, you shall be Maister Bullithrumble's servitures,"

"―REECHY painting”—i. e. Painting (says Stevens) discoloured by smoke.

"SMIRCHED, worm-eaten tapestry”—i. e. Soiled,

obscured.

"a' wears a lock"-It was one of the fantastic fashions of Shakespeare's day, for men to cultivate a favourite lock of hair, which was brought before, tied with ribands, and called a love-lock. It was against this practice that Prynne wrote his treatise on the "Unlovelyness of Love-locks." It appears from Manzoni's Italian novel, "I Promessi Sposi," that, in the sixteenth century, wearing a lock was made penal, in Lombardy, as the sign of a lawless life. Italian fashions were so much talked of in England, that the Poet might have known this, and alluded to it.

SCENE IV.

- your other RABATO"-An ornament for the neck, a kind of ruff, such as we often see in the portraits of Queen Elizabeth. Decker calls them "your stiff-necked rebatoes." Menage derives it from rebattre-to put back.

"-set with pearls, down sleeves"-i. e. The pearls are to be set down the sleeves.

"-side sleeves"-Long sleeves, or full sleevesfrom the Anglo-Saxon sid; ample, long. The "deep and broad sleeves" of the time of Henry IV. are thus ridiculed by Hoccleve:

Now hath this land little neede of broomes

To sweepe away the filth out of the streete,
Sen side-sleeves of pennilesse groomes

Will it up licke, be it drie or weete.

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Bea

the letter that begins them all, H"-This conceit, as well as similar jokes in contemporary writers, shows that the word, which we now pronounce ake, was, in Shakespeare's time, pronounced aitch. trice says, she is ill for an H, (aitch,) the letter that begins each of the three words-hawk, horse, and husband. J. P. Kemble had a long contention with the public on this point. When playing Prospero, he always persisted in saying, "Fill all thy bones with aitches;" and the public (particularly those of the upper regions, who are always most intolerant of singularity) as pertinaciously hissed him for presuming to be right, out of

season.

The gods and Cato did in this divide.

W. Scott gives the history of J. P. Kemble's threat-
ening Caliban with aitches, with great humour,
Another authority in the actor's favour is found in
Heywood's "Epigrams," (1566 :)—

His worst among letters in the cross-row;
For if thou find him, either in thine elbow,

In thine arm or leg, in any degree;

In thine head, or teeth, or toe, or knee ;-
Into what place soever H may pike him,

Wherever thou find ache, thou shalt not like him.

"an you be not turned Turk"-This phrase was commonly applied to express a change of condition, or opinion. Hamlet talks of his fortune turning Turk.

"-carduus benedictus"-" Carduus benedictus, or blessed thistle, (says Cogan, in his Haven of Health,' 1589,) so worthily named for the singular virtues that it hath."

SCENE V.

"PALABRAS, neighbour Verges"-How this Spanish word came into our language, and to be in familiar use with the lower orders, it is difficult to ascertain. Sly, in the "Induction" to the TAMING OF THE SHREW, has pocas palabras; and the same words are found in the popular old play, the "Spanish Tragedy," where they are spoken by Hieronimo, act iv. scene 4.

"if I were as tedious as a king, I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worship"-Hazlitt remarks upon the quaint blundering of the inimitable Dogberry and Verges, that they are "a standing record of that formal gravity of pretension, and total want of common understanding, which Shakespeare, no doubt, copied from real life; and which, in the course of two hundred years, appear to have ascended from the lowest to the highest offices of the state." The political sarcasm, as to the inheritance of the wisdom of these functionaries, has, I hope, but little application on our side of the Atlantic; but the desire to bestow all their tediousness upon their friends is, unquestionably, a characteristic in which the public men of America are not a jot behind the municipal dignitaries of the Messina watch.

ACT IV.-SCENE I.

"some be of laughing, as, ha! ha! he!"-Benedick quotes from the "Accidence."

"-word too LARGE"-" So he uses 'large' jests, in this play, for licentious-not restrained within due bounds."-JOHNSON.

"Out on THE seeming"-The original quarto and folio have, "Out on thee seeming," which Collier alone, of modern editors, retains; understanding it that Claudio addresses Hero as the personification of "seeming," or hypocrisy. Pope, followed by many others, altered the phrase to "Out on thy seeming;" which gives a good sense, and is a probable correction. We have, however, preferred that of Knight, as most congruous to the context; and think, with him, that the sense is― "Out on the specious resemblance-I will write against it" that is, against this false representation, along with this deceiving portrait

You seem to me as Dian in her orb, etc.

"True? O God!"-This is Hero's exclamation on John's assertion-" these things are true." It is usually printed as if Hero answered, "True, O God!" to Benedick's observation, "This looks not like a nuptial."

“— a LIBERAL villain"—i. e. Licentiously free; as, in OTHELLO-"Is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor ?"

"Fie, fie! they are not to be nam'd, my lord,

Not to be SPOKEN of," etc.

This is the metrical arrangement of the two original editions, of which, until Collier, all later editors attempted to make what they thought a more regular metre, by printing

Not to be nam'd, my lord, not to be spoke of. The quarto of 1600 has spoke, the folio (1623) spoken; which I mention as indicating the gradual increase of attention to stricter grammatical distinctions.

"The story that is printed in her blood"-" The story that her blushing discovers to be true."-JOHNSON. This explanation has been doubted, but it is confirmed, as the Poet's thought, by the Friar's notice of the "blushing apparitions on her face."

"-frugal nature's FRAME"-i. e. Ordinance, arrangement, or framing of things; as in this play it is said of John

His spirits toil in frame of villainies.

"Who SMIRCHED thus"-The folio substitutes smeared for "smirched" in the quarto. "Smirched" is also found in HAMLET, AS YOU LIKE IT, etc.; but, as Nares (Glossary) informs us, has hitherto been found in no other author. Our Poet was fond of using it. We have "smirched" in this play in the sense of soiled.

"BEAT away those blushes"-We follow Collier in retaining "beat," the reading of the original quarto, (1600;) printed in the folio, and all other editions,

bear.

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"Cry-sorrow wag!"-"And sorrow, wag! cry hem, when he should groan,' is the reading of the old quarto, and of the folios, which may be reconciled to sense, and therefore ought not to be disturbed. The meaning is clear, though not clearly expressed. And, sorrow, wag,' is, and sorrow away! (for which, indeed, it may have been misprinted;) similar to the exclamation, care, away!' The reading substituted by the commentators has usually been

Cry sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should groanwhich has no warrant. Heath's suggestion of- And sorrowing, cry hem, when he should groan,' is the most. plausible emendation."-COLLIER.

Rowe, Theobald, Hanmer, Tyrwhitt, Warton, Stevens, Ritson, and Malone have respectively offered the following emendations:-" And hallow, wag;" "And sorrow wage;" "And sorrow waive;" "And sorrow gag;" "And sorrowing cry;" "And sorry wag;" And sorrow waggery;" "In sorrow wag." The emendation of Dr. Johnson—

Cry, sorrow wag! and hem, when he should groanrequires merely the transposition of cry with and-a correction of a very common sort of error-and the sense is then so clear that it has been generally adopted. Knight, however, adopts Johnson's first suggestion, which gives the same sense, though harshly expressedAnd, sorrow wag! cry hem; when he should groan. "Sorrow go by!" is said to be still a common Scotism. "With CANDLE-WASTERS"-By "candle-wasters" is probably meant drunkards, or midnight revellers. There is, however, a passage in Ben Jonson's "Cynthia's Revels," (act iii. scene 2,) which seems to show that the epithet was applied, in ridicule, to studentsSpoiled by a whoreson book-worm, a candle-waster." Leonato may mean to say, that a misfortune like his is not to be drugged, or made drunk, by the book-philosophy of mere theorists. His whole speech is directed against comforters of this description.

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"-louder than ADVERTISEMENT"-i. e. Than admonition; than moral instruction.

"And made a PUSH"-Pope and others print this, "make a pish"-i. e. treat with contempt; but "push" is the reading of the old copies, that being the old mode of spelling. Collier refers to instances in proof of it, in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Maids' Revenge" in Chapman's "Gentleman Usher;" and repeatedly in Middleton's plays. Boswell would derive the expres sion from fencing, and tells us that, "to make a push at any thing is to contend against it, or defy it." Shakespeare's meaning is evident, taking "push" as an interjection.

"Come, follow me, boy! come, sir boy, come, follow me." "Stevens destroys this most characteristic line-and his reading is that of all popular editions-by his old fashion of metre-mongering. He reads

Come, follow me, boy; come, boy, follow me."

KNIGHT.

"your FOINING fence"-i. e. Thrusting.

"as we do the minstrels"-i. e. As we bid minstrels draw their instruments out of their cases.

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"— he knows how to turn his girdle"-Stevens says that the Irish have an expression corresponding to that quoted:-"If he is angry, let him tie up his brogues." He supposes both phrases merely to mean, that the angry man should employ himself till he is in a better humour. Instances are quoted to show that it was a common expression of defiance. Mr. Holt White plausibly accounts for the origin of the term, by saying that the buckle was usually worn in front of the belt; but, in wrestling, it was turned behind, in order to give the adversary a fairer grasp at the girdle.

"— Shall I not find a woodcock too"-A jesting allusion to the supposed fact that the woodcock has no brains, and is therefore easily caught; alluding to the success of the plot against Benedick. The joke is common in old plays.

"But, soft you; let ME be"-Most modern editions read, "let be," in opposition to the older, which have, "let me be;" meaning merely "let me alone." Let be is, however, good old colloquial English for "Let things be as they are."

"INCENSED me to slander"-i. e. “Incited me. The word is used in the same sense in RICHARD III. and HENRY VIII."-M. MASON.

"Art THOU the slave"-The folio repeats thou-“ Art thou, thou, the slave ?" which Knight retains, as expressive of passion. It may be right, but it rather seems an accidental repetition, such as often occurs. The quarto reading is as in our text, and the metre agrees with it.

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'Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb"-It was the custom to attach, upon the tomb of celebrated persons, a written inscription, either in prose or verse, generally in praise of the deceased. (See Bayle, in "Aretin, [Pierre,"] note H.)

"And she alone is heir to both of us"-This appears to be a lapse of memory in the author, as mention is made, in act i. scene 2, of a son of Antonio.

"was PACKED in all this wrong"-The old copies have packt, which Collier prints pact, and explains bargain, or contract; Margaret, one party to the pact, being spoken of as the contract itself. We read, with all the other editors, "packed," in the sense retained in speaking of a "packed jury," combined, an accomplice,a sense common in SHAKESPEARE; as, "Were he not pack'd with her," (COMEDY OF ERRORS;) "There's packing," etc., (TAMING OF THE SHREW.) Bacon uses it in the same way.

God save the foundation"-This was a customary old phrase with those who received alms at the gates of religious houses.

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"I give thee the bucklers"-To "give the bucklers" was to yield the victory; by which an enemy obtained his adversary's shield, and retained his own. The phrase was proverbial.

"How pitiful I deserve"-The beginning of an old ballad by William Elderton.

"An old, an old instance"-The words "an old" are repeated in the quarto, as well as in the folios, for greater emphasis.

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"HEAVENLY, HEAVENLY"-We have here, with Knight, followed the reading of the folios, in preference to the quarto, which has-"Heavily, heavily." To utter is here to put out-to eject. Death is expelled "heavenly"-by the power of heaven. The passage has evidently reference to the sublime verse in "Corinthians." All the other editors have read, "Heavily, heavily," and understand, with Boswell, "till death be spoken of," or, with Stevens, "till songs of death be uttered;" and then heavily would be appropriate. The folio reading seems to me more poetical and probable, and the sense at least as clear.

"This same is she"-The old copies give this speech to Leonato; but, since Theobald, it has been arbitrarily assigned to Antonio.

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- get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn"-The "staff" is marriage. Benedick supposes it to be a welcome and respectable support to so "giddy a thing as man," although he cannot avoid a final flout at the "horn," which forms the handle of the staff, and an emblem of the destiny which he has all along attributed to married men. Wit ness the "recheat in the forehead," etc. To this day, it is common to see old-fashioned sticks, or canes, surmounted with horn handles. Stevens and Malone will have it, that the allusion is to the baston, or "staff tipped with horn," used by combatants in the wager of battle; but we are not informed how the passage in the text is at all explained by the use of these weapons.

Coleridge has selected this comedy as affording a special example of a pervading characteristic of Shakespeare's dramas, which distinguishes them from those of all other dramatic poets. It is that of the independence of dramatic interest without the plot:

"The interest (says he) in the plot is on account of the characters, not vice versa, as in almost all other writers ; the plot is a mere canvass, and no more. Hence arises the true justification of the same stratagem being used in regard to Benedick and Beatrice-the vanity in each being alike. Take away from MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING all that which is not indispensable to the plot, either as having little to do with it, or, at best, like Dogberry and his comrades, forced into the service, when any other less ingeniously absurd watchmen and nightconstables would have answered the mere necessities of the action; take away Benedick, Beatrice, Dogberry, and the reaction of the former on the character of Heroand what will remain? In other writers the main agent of the plot is always the prominent character; in

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