i. e. have stretched things to the utmost, took all the vile measures poffible; and all for meer trifles. In Much Adoe about Nothing, A&t IV. "Friar. Being lack'd and loft, "Why then we rack the value." i. e. over-stretch its value. So we fay, to rack a tenant, and rack rent, &c. when it is strain'd to the utmost. In the Tempest, the word has another fignification, Act IV. "The great globe itself "Yea, all which it inhabits shall diffolve "And like this infubftantial pageant 4 faded "Leave not a rack behind." i. e. "of their country." The Oxford Editor feeing nothing "of this reads 66 have fack'd fair Rome." Mr. W. 4 Faded, i. e. vanisbed, à›Lat. vadere. Hamlet A&t. I. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Spencer, B. I. c. 5. ft. 15. He ftands amazed how he thence should fade. 213 i. e. no track, or path. So used in the northern parts; a Graec. Toxia rotae veftigium; item, via femita, unde a track et abjecta lit. t. a rack. The learned gloffary at the end of Douglass's translation of Virgil, has "Kaik, fwift pace, "much way. Thus Scot. we fay, a long raik, "i. e. a great journey: to raik home, i. e. go "home speedily. Kakand, Scot. raking, mak ing much way, going at large: ab as Recth, “incedit, recone, recone, confeftim, cito. To bring it nearer to its original vadere, Spencer fpells it with a v. B. 3. c. 9. ft. 20. "T Their vapour vaded. SECT. IX. IS a common expreffion in the western counties to call an ill-natured, four perfon, VINNID. For vinewed, vinowed, vinny or vinew (the word is variously written) fignifies mouldy. In Troilus and Creffida, A&t II. Ajax fpeaks to Therfites, thou vinnidft leaven, i. e. thou most mouldy four dough. Let this phrase be tranfplanted from the weft into Kent, and they will pronounce it, Whinidst leaven. So I that 1 Mr. Theobald reads, you unwinnow'd'ft leaven. Others, you unfalted leaven. But Vinnidft is the true reading that it seems to me 'twas some Kentish person who occafioned this mistake, either player or transcriber, who could not bring his mouth to pronounce the V confonant; as 'tis remarkable the Kentish men cannot at this day. And this accounts for many of the Latin words, which begin with V, being turned into w, as Vidua widua, Widom; Ventus, wentus, ind; Vallum, Wallum, Wall, Via, Wia, May, &c. In the fame play, Act V. Therfites is called by Achilles, thou crusty batch of nature, i. e. thou crufty batch of bread of nature's baking the very fame ludicrous image, as when elsewhere he is nick-named, from his deformity, Cobloaf. The word Leaven above-mentioned is a fcriptural expreffion. Leaven is four and falted dough, prepared to ferment a whole mass and to give it a relifh and in this fenfe ufed in Measure for Measure, Act I. 2 Ab Anglo-S. fenig, Mucidus. Wachterus" FINNEN fordes, "finnig, mucidus, putridus, finniger Speck, lardum fœti“dum. Idem Anglo Saxonibus fynig apud Somner. et "Benfon. et inde fynigean muceffere. Unde nifi a Gr. "ww's fordes ?" This word I met with in Horman's Vulgaria, printed an. M.D.XIX. fol. 162. This bedde is olde and venped: bic panis cariofa eft vetuftate attaЯus. Which not a little confirms my correction and explication. 2 Mr Theob. fubftitutes, thou crufy botch of nature. Duke Duke. Come no more evafon : We have with a prepared and leavened choice i. e. before hand prepared and rightly feafon'd, as they prepare leaven. But in Scripture 'tis figurately used for the pharifaical doctrines and manners, being like leaven, of a four corrupting and infectious nature: fo the Apostle, a little leaven leaveneth the lump, 1 Cor. v. 6. This explains the paffage above, and another in Cymbeline, A& III. "So thou, Posthumus, "Wilt lay the leaven to all proper men; Goodly and gallant shall be falfe and perjur'd "From thy great fail." i. e. will infect and corrupt their good names, like four dough that leaveneth the whole mass, and will render them fufpected. The last line I would read, "From thy great fall." Because this reading is more poetical and scriptural; and more agreeable to our author's manner. So in a fimilar place. K. Henry V. A& II. "And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot, "To make the full-fraught man, the best, en ❝ dued "With some fufpicion. I will weep for thee: "For this revolt of thine, methinks is like "Another full of man." And in Measure for Measure. A& II. "Aug. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Efcalus, "Another thing to fall." Shakespeare was a great reader of the fcriptnres, and from the bold figures and metaphors he found there enriched his own elsewhere unmatched ideas. If a paffage or two of this fort is pointed out, the hint may easily be improved. In the first part of Henry VI. A& V. 3 The monarch of the North, i. e. Satan. In allufion to Isaiah xiv, 13. I will fit also upon the mount 3 Boggas-τgowixwę xaμ Aιábor. Hefychius. See what this Monarch of the North fays of his power in Ovid. Met. VI, 687, &c. 66 Quid enim mea tela reliqui "Sævitiam, et vires, iramque, animofque minaces, Admovique preces, quarum me dedecet ufus ? "Apta mihi vis eft. 66 Idem ego cum fubii convexa foramina terræ, Sup |