387. "He that conceals him death."

The want of concord, in this hemistic, will suggest the means of repairing the measure: "He that conceals him shall abide the death."

Hemistics, without any cause from the interruptions of passion, are, generally, perhaps always, the marks of mutilation or corruption: that which closes Gloster's speech might thus be corrected:

"All ports I'll bar-where'er the villain is "He shall not scape; the duke must grant me

that;

"Besides, his picture I'll send far and near, "That all the kingdom may have note of him, "And of my land, loyal and natural boy, "I'll work the means to make thee capable."

392. "Your graces are right welcome."

"To my poor house your graces are right wel

395.

come."

SCENE II.

"A base, proud, shallow, beggarly, threesuited, hundred pound, filthy, worstedstocking knave," &c.

i. e. A fellow made up of inconsistencies; as well in his exterior habiliments as in the composition of his mind, he is, at once, proud and beggarly, and even the cloaths he wears are not adapted to each other, but are rather a suit made out of three suits; he is insolent and mean; and, while his vanity displays a silken doublet, his avarice betrays itself in hose of worsted.

Mr. Steevens, when he says, "neat slave means no more than finical rascal, an assemblage of foppery and poverty," ascribes to the expression much more than, I believe, belongs to it; and I don't suppose any one will admit his definition. Dr. Johnson's, I think, is the true explanation, a mere knave; a pure, unmixed one; and this appears to be the sense in the quoted passage from Ben Jonson :

"By thy leave, my neat scoundrel."

"Weapons! arms! outrage! What's the matter here ?"

Corn. "What tumult's this? Keep peace upon your lives."

Some such words as the Italics here supply seem to have been lost: but the whole dialogue is corrupted.

"Nature disclaims in thee."

This phrase occurs in Jonson's Volpone:
My heart

"Abhors his knowledge: I disclaim in him."

400. "Who wears no honesty."

Again the measure wants reformation:

"Who wears no honesty-such smiling rogues "As these, like rats, oft bite the cords atwain, "Too intrinsicate t' unloose, smooth every passion."

"Holy" I consider, with Mr. Malone, an interpolation. "Inloose" is the reading of the quarto, which leads to the correct word, "enloose." To "unloose" should be "to make fast."

403. Glos. "Say that."

Why should Gloster say that? the question, "How fell ye out?" was enough for the sense as well as the metre.

Corn. "

Kent. "Than I and such a knave." Why call'st him knave? "What's his offence?"

Kent. "His countenance likes me not

'Tis some fellow."

"That stretch their manners with their duties nicely".

Corn. "

404.

405.

Corn."

Fetch forth the stocks, ho!"

"But Ajax is their fool."

"Ho" is interpolated, or the ejaculation of some actor without an ear.

Mr. Steevens's former explanation appears to be much nearer to the truth than that which he has adopted from Mr. M. Mason. If Kent's meaning had been according to the notion of the latter gentleman, he would have said at once,

Ajax is a fool to them."

The sense of which could never be mistaken; but there is a material difference between being their fool, and a fool to them, i. e. in comparison with them; and we cannot admit the latter interpretation either with a view to the character of Ajax, or the drift of the sentence: what Mr. Malone has adduced on the same side, is not, I

think, quite in point. The meaning seems to be only this; any rogue or coward, like this fellow, can, by falsehood and cunning, overreach plain honesty, and outwit Ajax; or, as Kent expresses it, make Ajax appear a fool.

407.

If I were your father's dog "You should not use me so."

Reg."

Sir, being his knave, I will."

The exuberance of this latter hemistic seems to suggest a more pointed and correct reading: "his knave" I take to be vocative,-thou, his knave.

If I were your father's dog

"You should not use me so :"

His knave! I will."

"Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the

stocks."

"Come" should be withdrawn.

The king must take it ill,

"That he's so slightly valued in his messenger, "Should have him thus restrained."

What concord is this? We should read, dismissing the contracted "is:"

"That he, so slightly valued in his messenger, "Should have him," &c.

i. e. Should be obliged to endure the indignity of his man's restraint.

This must have been a stage direction: it was useless to the servants, (who could not be ignorant how they were to use the stocks,) and is an awkward encumbrance to the verse.

"For following her affairs.-Come, my good [Ex. Reg. &c.

lord."

"Give you good morrow-never heed for me." Some such supplement as this, I suppose, has been lost.

"Out of God's blessing into the warm sun,' be altered and extended to spoil a line and a

half?

409.

"Nothing almost sees miracles."

The quarto, perhaps more intelligibly,

my wreck," which, by dismissing a word that means nothing (almost) will afford both sense and metre:

66

I may

"Peruse this letter!-nothing sees my wreck, "But misery."

I may proceed in safety, for I am unobserved by all, except such wretches as are too much occupied by their own misery to regard me.

410.

66

And shall find time

"From this enormous state," &c.

The best interpretation that can be given of this obscure passage is, I believe, what Mr. Steevens has offered:

"Approach, thou beacon," &c.

may properly enough be addressed to the luminary present, and mean, only, "quickly impart thy light to the paper I want to read."

412. "This shameful lodging. Fortune, now good night;

"Smile yet once more, and turn thy wheel around!"

Words like these in Italics seem wanting.