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Swift is here used, as in other places, synonymously with witty. I suppose the meaning of Atalanta's better part, in As You Like It, is her wit-the swiftness of her mind. FARMER.

So, in the prologue to Fletcher's Custom of the Country:

-The play

"Is quick and witty; so the poets say."

MALONE. 68. By thy favour, sweet welkin,] Welkin is the sky, to which Armado, with the false dignity of a Spaniard, makes an apology for sighing in its

face.

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JOHNSON. ➡here's a Costard broken] i. e. a head.

So, in Hycke Scorner:

"I wyll rappe you on the costard with my horne." STEEVENS.

73. no l'envoy ;- -] The l'envoy is a term bor rowed from the old French poetry. It appeared always at the head of a few concluding verses to each piece, which either served to convey the moral, or to address the poem to some particular person. It was frequently adopted by the ancient English writers... So, in Monsieur D'Olive, 1606 :

"Well said: now to the L'Envoy."-All the Tragedies of John Bochas, translated by Lidgate, are followed by a L'Envoy.

no salve in the male, sir: -] The old folia reads, no salve in thee male, sir, folio, is, no salve, in the male, sir.

which, in another What it can mean

is not easily discovered: if mail for a packet or bag was a word then in use, no salve in the mail may mean, no salve in the mountebank's budget. Or shall we read, no enigma, no riddle, no l'envoy-in the vale, sirm O, sir, plantain. The matter is not great, but one would wish for some meaning or other.

Male or mail was a word then in use. fox sent Kayward's head in a male.

JOHNSON. Reynard the And so, in

Tamburlane, or the Scythian Shepherd, 1590:

"Open the males, yet guard the treasure, sure." I believe Dr. Johnson's first explanation to be right.

STEEVENS.

The word is also found in Taylor the Water Poet's Works (Character of a Bawd), 1630:-" the cloathebag of the counsel, cap-case, fardle, pack, male, of MALONE. friendly toleration."

I can scarcely think that Shakspere had so far forgotten his little school learning, as to suppose that the Latin verb salve, and the English substantive, salve, had the same pronunciation; and yet without this, the quibble cannot be preserved. FARMER.

The same quibble occurs in Aristippus, or the Jovial Philosopher, 1630:

"Salve, Master Simplicius.

"Salve me; 'tis but a Surgeon's compliment.”

STEEVENS.

No salve in the male, sir, may mean, "I will have none of all the salves you have in the male :” treat

ing them as a mountebank.

MUSGRAVE.

Perhaps

Perhaps we should read—no salve in them all, sir. TYRWHITT.

86. I will example it :] These words, and some others, are neither in the first folio, nor in the 4to. 1631, but in that of 1598. I still believe the whole passage to want some regulation, though it has not sufficient merit to encourage the editor who should attempt it. STEEVENS.

114. And he ended the market.] Alluding to the proverb--Three women and a goose make a market. Tre donne et un occa fan un mercato. Ital. Ray's Proverbs. STEEVENS

115. -how was there a Costard broken in a shin?] Costard is the name of a species of apple. JOHNSON. It has been already observed that the head was an◄ ciently called the costard. So, in King Richard III. "Take him over the costard with the hilt of thy sword." A costard likewise signified a crab-stick. So, in the Loyal Subject of Beaumont and Fletcher:

"I hope they'll crown his service

"With a costard."

STEEVENS.

138. Like the sequel, 1,-] Sequele, in French, signifies a great man's train. The joke is, that a single page was all his train. THEOBALD.

I believe this joke exists only in the apprehension of the commentator. Sequelle, by the French, is never employed but in a derogatory sense. They use it to express the gang of a highwayman, but not the train of a lord; the followers of a rebel, and not the attendants on a general. Thus Holinshed, p. 639.— Ciij

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"to the intent that by the extinction of him and his sequeale, all civil warre and inward division might cease," &c. Moth uses sequel only in the literary acceptation. STEEVENS.

138. my incony Jew 1] Incony or kony in the north signifies, fine, delicate-as a kony thing, a fine thing. It is plain therefore, we should read: WARBURTON,

my incony jewel.

I know not whether it be right, however specious, to change Jew to Jewel. Jew, in our author's time, was, for whatever reason, apparently a word of endearment. So, in the Midsummer Night's Dream;

"Most brisky Juvenile, and eke most lovely Jew.”

JOHNSON. The word is used again in the 4th act of this play: -most incony vulgar wit.”

In the old comedy called Blurt Master Constable, 1602, I meet with it again. A maid is speaking to her mistress about a gown:

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-it makes you have a most inconie body.” Cony and incony have the same meaning.

STEEVENS.

There is no such expression in the North as either kony or incony. The word canny, which the people there use, and from which Dr. Warburton's mistake may have arisen, bears a variety of significations, none of which is fine, delicate, or applicable to a thing of value. Dr. Johnson's quotation by no means Proves Jew to have been a word of endearment.

REMARKS.

176. —in print.-] i. e. exactly, with the ut most nicety. It has been proposed to me to read in point, but I think, without necessity, the former expression being still in use.

So, in Blurt Master Constable:

"Next, your ruff must stand in print.”

STEEVENS.

184. This wimpled,] The wimple was a hood or veil which fell over the face. Had Shakspere been acquainted with the flammeum of the Romans, or the gem which represents the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, his choice of the epithet would have been. much applauded by all the advocates in favour of his learning. In Isaiah, ch. iii. v. 22. we find :-" the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins ;" and, in The Devil's Charter, 1607, to wimple is used as a verb:

"Here, I perceive a little rivalling

"Above my forehead, but I wimple it,
"Either with jewels, or a lock of hair.”

STEEVENS.

. 191. Of trotting paritors,] An apparitor, or paritor, is an officer of the bishop's court, who carries out citations; as citations are most frequently issued for fornication, the paritor is put under Cupid's government. JOHNSON.

192. And I to be a corporal of his field,

And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop !] The conceit seems to be very forced and remote, however it be understood. The notion is not that

the

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