fused to co-operate or draw together with the Greeks, though at present he is roused from his sullen fit by the loss of a friend.

P. 243, 1. 19.

derer of a boy. P. 244.

STEEVENS.

boy-queller,].i. e. mur

STEEVENS.

1. 15. I will not look upon.]

That is, (as we should now speak,) I will not MALONE.

be a looker-on.

P. 244, 1. 16. you cogging Greeks ;] This epithet has no particular propriety in this place, but the author had heard of Graecia mendax. JOHNSON,

Surely the epithet had propriety in respect of Diomed at least, who had defrauded him of his mistress. Troilus bestows it on both, unius ob culpam. A fraudulent man, as I am told, is still called in the North a gainful Greek. Cicero hears witness to this character of the ancient Greeks: "Testimoniorum religionem et fidem nunquam ista natio coluit, STEEVENS. P. 245, 1. 9. He shall not carry him:] i, e. prevail over him. STEEVENS.

"

P. 245, 1. 15. 16. I like thy armour well; Tll frush it,] The word frush I never found elsewhere, nor understand it. - Sir T. Haumer explains it, to break or bruise.

JOHNSON.

Mr. M. Mason observes, that "Hanmer's explanation appears to be right; and the word frush, in this sense, to be derived from the verb froisser, to bruise, or break to pieces.

"

To frush a chicken, &c. is a term in carving, as ancient as Wynkyn de Worde's book on that

sub

subject, 1508; and was succeeded by another phrase which we may suppose to have been synonymous, viz. to break up a capon;

words that occur in Love's Labour's Lost.

P. 246, 1. 3. To excute their employ them; to put them to use.

MALONE. arms is to M. MASON

P. 246, 1. 19. Bastard, in ancient times, was a reputable appellation. STEEVENS.

3

P. 247, l. 15. Even with the vail and dark'ning of the sun,] The vail is, I think, the sinking of the sun; not veil or cover. JOHNSON.

P. 247, 1. 19. Strike, fellows, strike;] This particular of Achilles overpowering Hector by. numbers, and without armour, is taken from the old story-book. HANMER.

P. 248, first 1. A stickler was one who stood by to part the combatants when victory could be determined without bloodshed. They are often mentioned by Sidney. They were called sticklers, from carrying sticks or staves in their hands, with which they interposed between the duellists. We now call these sticklers ·sidesmen. STEEVENS. Minsheu gives the same etymology, in his DICT. 1617: A stickler betweene two, so called as putting a stick or staffe betweene two fighting or fencing together. ". MALONE.

Sticklers are arbitrators, judges, or, as called in some places, sidesmen. At every wrestling in Cornwall, before the games begin, a certain number of sticklers are chosen, who regulate the proceedings and determine every dispute. nature of the English language, as I conceive, VOL. XIII.

29

The

A

does nots allows the derivation of stickler fram stick, which,^ashảo word yn it has not the remo♣ test connection with. Stickler (stic¬klener ) is immediately from the verb stickle, to interfere, to take part with, to busy one's self in any mate terloRITSON.

-*P. 247, last. 1. and P. 248, 1. 1-5. These four despicable verses, as well as the rhyming fit with which "the blockish Ajax" is afterwards seized, could scarce have fallen from the pen of our author, in his most unlucky moments of composition. STEEVENS.

Whatever may have been the remainder of this speech as it came out of Shakspeare's hands, we may be confident that this bombast stuff made no part of it. Our author's gold was stolen and the thief's brass left in its place. RITSON.

P. 249, 1.9. Sit, gods upon your thrones, and smile at Troy! Mr. Upton thinks that Shakspeare had the Psalmist in view. "He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in derision. Ps. ii, 4. The Lord sball langh him to scorn; for he hath seen that his day is coming, Ps. xxxvii. 13. In the passage before us, (he adds,) "the heavens are the ministers of the Gods to execute their vengeance, and they are bid to frown on; but the Gods themselves smile at Troys they bold Troy in derision, for its day is coming. 5. MALONE. As as

"

be P12497d. 21. Make wells and Niobes of the Danica di s Ladoomaids and wives,] I adopt the conjecture of a deceased friend," who would read - wolland, i. e. weeping Niobes.

The Saxon termination of the participles in and, for ingy is common in our old poets, and often corrupted at the press. WHALLEY. quilósofos te?* There is surely no need of emendation,ibsotani 7242 F STEEVENS.

P. 249, 1. 26. pight •] i es pitched, fixed. The obsolete preterite and participle passive of to pitch. STEEVENS.

7.

19

P. 249 last lines. Strike a free march, to Troy! with comfort go Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe. .] This couplet af fords a full and natural close to the plays a though once thought_differently, I'

and

now

declare my firm belief that Shakspeare designed it should end here, and that what follows is either a subsequent and injudicious restoration from the elder drama mentioned in p. 548. or the nonsense of some wretched buffoon who represented Pandarus. When the hero of the scene was not only alive, but on the stage, our author would scarce have trusted the conclusion of his piece to a subordinate character whom he had uniformly held up to detestation. It is still less probable that he should have wound up his story with a stupid outrage to decency, and a deliberate insult on his audience. But in several other parts of this drama I cannot persuade myself that I have been reading Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

I

P. 250, 1. 4. Ignomy was used in our author's time for ignominy MALONE.

P0250, 1. 18. 19. set this in your painted cloths.] i. e. the painted rooms are hing.

ccanvas with which your

STEVENS.

P. 250, 1, 28. Some galled goose of Winchester] The publick stews were anciently under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester. POPE.

Mr. Pope's explanation may be supported by the following passage in one of the old plays, of which my negligence has lost the title:

Collier! how came the goose to be put upon

?

"I'll tell thee: The term lying at Winchester in Henry the Third's days, and many French women coming out of the Isle of Wight thither, &c. there were many puuks in the town," &c.

A particular symptom in the lues venered was called a Winchester Goose, STEEVENS,

As the public stews were under the control of the Bishop of Winchester, a strumpet was called a Winchester goose, and a galled Winchester goose may mean, either a strumpet that had the venereal disease, or one that felt herself hurt by what Pandarus had said, It is probable that the word was purposely used to express both these senses. It does not appear to me from the passage cited by Steevens, that any symptom of the venereal disease was called a Winchester goose, M. MASON.'

Cole, in his Latin Dict. 1669, renders a Winchester goose by pudendagra, MALONE.

There are more hard, bombastical phrases in the 'serious part of this play, than, I believe, can be picked out of any other six plays of Shakspeare. Take the following specimens: Tortive, - persistive, tive, protractive, importless,