"Quench," says Mr. Steevens, is grow cold; but this definition, I believe, will hardly be admitted-the sense intended seems to be the ardour or flame of her passion is to be extinguished by her tears. SCENE VII. 443. Imogen. "A father cruel," &c. Mr. Eccles makes this the beginning of the 2d Act; and his reasons, I think, are cogent. "That hath her husband banish'd." I know not whether Imogen, here, reproaches herself as being the cause of her husband's banishment, or that she only means to reflect that she has a husband, who is banished. 444. "Had I been thief-stolen "As my two brothers, happy!" "Thief-stolen" is a strange pleonasm; the ellipsis, too, is hardly warrantable: had I been thief-stolen I should be happy; or, O how happy should I be. 446. "She is alone the Arabian bird.” This is tautology; the phoenix necessarily implies singleness, or what is alone. "She is alone," &c. Perhaps we should point "She is alone; the Arabian bird." B. STRUTT. 449. "Ideots, in this case of favour, would "Be wisely definite." This thought occurs in Hamlet, Act 3: "Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd, "But it reserv'd some quantity of choice "To serve in such a difference." 450. "Desire vomit emptiness." Mr. Capel ingeniously suggested, vomit to emptiness, and so the sense is.-Sluttery, so opposed, would turn desire into disgust, and make the person who cherished it emit or vomit it forth wholly, 451. "He is strange and peevish." "Strange" is unpracticed, not habituated; thus, in Macbeth: My strange, and self-abuse "Is the initiate fear that wants hard use." And again, in Romeo and Juliet: grown more bold, 66 Till strange love 454. "In himself, 'tis much," &c, pas Mr. Malone appears to misconceive this sage: the compound "'tis," I believe, refers to "heaven's bounty," which furnished Posthumus with rare perfections in himself; that bounty is eminently displayed in you, which I call his: it is beyond all former rate of talents, virtues and accomplishments. If this be not the meaning of beyond all talents;" and I am by no means satisfied with the exposition, I must give it up. 455. "What both you spur and stop." This kind of ellipsis, says Mr. Malone, is com mon in these plays; but there is, here, no ellipsis, though somewhat of a transposition from the natural structure of the sentence:-what, at the same time, you urge and restrain; what you seem, at once, desirous and reluctant to reveal. 456. " Not I "Inclin'd to this intelligence, pronounce "The beggary of his change," &c. "I not do" has been noted as vicious, though not uncommon idiom ;-this is still worse, not I pronounce," as admitting a sense different from what is designed-not I, but some other does nounce, &c. 459. "For such an end thou seek'st." pro This is imperfectly expressed; it should be: "For such end as thou seek'st." 461, "To try your taking of a false report; which hath." How Mr. Steevens meant to repair the metre here, we can only guess, for this is his note ;— "Old copy, vulgarly, and unmetrically, "taking of a."-I suppose he designed to eject "of;" but that alone would only make bad much worse. would adopt Mr. Capel's reading: I "To try you by a false report, which hath." Or may we read, "taking off a false report," i. e. confuting the accusation. "In the election of a sir so rare, Which you know, cannot err." i. e. His venturing to try her by a false report hath had the effect of shewing, confirmed, her great judgement, in the election of a sir, &c. which (i. e. who) cannot err. The construction is very perverse. ACT II. SCENE II. 466. "I have read three hours then: mine eyes are weak." "Hours," in this line, may be either a monosyllable or a dissyllable; but I rather think it is the latter: "I have read three howers then: mine eyes are weak." "And whiter than the sheets!" Lee's fancy reversed this image of the white sheets in The Massacre of Paris: "Her bed, her covering, nay, her sarcenet sheets "Were black; and, for the weather's heat, "Were roll'd beneath the beauties of her breast," 468. " White and azure, lac'd "With blue of heaven's own tinct.” White and azure refers to the general complexion of the object-white, with a mixture of azure, white, laced with blue, &c. i. e, But to my design or purpose, the business for which I came hither, namely, to note the particulars of the chamber. 469. " Such "The adornment of her bed:-The arras, figures, "Why, such, and such." This should be the language of a person who was giving directions to another to take notes of what he himself at present could not see.-Iachimo, on the spot, and in the act of noting, would have named the express things. There is here, I think, manifest corruption. 470. 66 This will witness outwardly, As strongly as the conscience does within, "To the madding of her lord.” Conscience, here, implies apprehension, internal persuasion, 472. One, two, three." We must either suppose that Iachimo was four hours in the trunk, or that the clock was wrong, or the maid mistaken, who told her mistress, at the beginning of the scene, that it was not yet midnight. SCENE III, 477. Unpaved eunuch.” This is a very whimsical expression, 479. " His goodness forespent on us "We must extend our notice.' i. e. His goodness, having been forespent or paid of old; he now, indeed, seems as an enemy, |