"That my integrity and truth to you,

Might be affronted with the match and weight

Of such a winnowed purity in love."-Act III., Scene 2.

The word "affronted" was formerly used in the sense of "confronted." Dr. Johnson thus explains the passage:-"I wish that my integrity might be met and matched with such equality and force of pure unmingled love."

"I am as true as truth's simplicity,

And simpler than the infancy of truth.-Act III., Scene 2.

This (says Warburton) is fine, and means, "Ere truth, to defend itself against deceit in the commerce of the world, had, out of necessity, learned worldly policy."

"As true as steel, as plantage to the moon."-Act III., Scene 2. "As true as steel" is an ancient proverbial simile. "As plantage to the moon" alludes to the old superstitious notion of the influence of the moon over whatever was planted, sown, or grafted. An extract from Scott's "DISCOVERIE OF WITCHCRAFT" will illustrate the point: The poor husbandman perceiveth that the increase of the moon maketh plants fruitful; so as in the full moon they are in the best strength; decaying in the wane; and in the conjunction do utterly wither and vade."

"Pandare, a morowe which that commen was, Unto his nece, gan her faire to grete,

And saied, All this night so rained it, alas!
That all my drede is, that ye, nece swete,

Have little leisir had to slepe and mete;
All night (quod he) hath rain so do me wake,
That some of us trowe their beddis ake.'
Cresscide answerde, Nevir the bet for you,
Foxe that ye ben, God yeve your herte care;
God helpe me so, ye caused all this fare."

"Alas, poor wretch! a poor capocchia."-Act IV., Scene 2 This is an Italian word, used metaphorically to signify a fool or innocent.

"But the strong base and building of my love

Is as the very centre of the earth.-Act IV., Scene 2. In Shakspeare's 119th Sonnet, we find a similar allusion:"And ruined love, when it is built anew.”

And in "ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA:"

"Let not the piece of virtue which is set
Betwixt us as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it."

"Thou crusty batch of nature, what's the news?"

Act V., Scene 1. A "batch" signifies all that is baked at one time, without heating the oven afresh. In Ben Jonson's "CATILINE," we have,

"Except he were of the same meal and batch."

"One that loves quails.”—Act V., Scene 1.

In old French, "caille" was synonymous to "fille de joie."

"Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve."-Act V., Scene 2.

This sleeve, which had been previously given by Troilus to Cressida, appears (says Malone) to have been an ornamented cuff, such as was worn by some of our young nobility at a tilt in Shakspeare's age. See Spenser's "VIEW OF IRELAND" (p. 43, edit. 1633):-" Also the deep smock sleive, which the Irish women use, they say was old Spanish, and is used yet in Barbary: and yet that should seem to be rather an old English fashion; for in armoury, the fashion of the manche which is given in arms by many, being indeed nothing else but a sleive, is fashioned much like to that slieve."

"Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee;

But with my heart the other eye doth see."-Act V., Scene 2. "One eye," says Cressida, "looks on Troilus; but the other follows Diomed, where my heart is fixed." Steevens observes that the characters of Cressida and Pandarus are more immediately formed from Chaucer than from Lydgate; for though the latter mentions them both characteristically, he does not sufficiently dwell on either to have furnished Shakspeare with many circumstances to be found in this tragedy. Lydgate, speaking of Cressida, says only:

"She gave her heart and love to Diomed, To shew what trust there is in womankind; For she of her new love no sooner sped,

But Troilus was clean out of her mind

As if she never had him known or seen;
Wherein I cannot guess what she did mean."

"Brother, you have a rice of mercy in you,

Which better fits a lion than a man."-Act V., Scene 3.

In Philemon Holland's translation of " PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY" (c. 16), we find, "The lion alone, of all wild beasts, is gentle to them that humble themselves before him, and will not touch any such upon their submission, but spareth what creature soever lieth prostrate before him." "The traditions and stories of the darker ages," says Johnson, "abounded with examples of the lion's generosity. Upon the supposition that these acts of clemency were true, Troilus reasons, that to spare against reason, by mere instinct of pity, became rather a generous beast than a wise man."

"What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match?

Art thou of blood and honor?”"-Act V., Scene 4. This idea is derived from the ancient books of chivalry. A person of superior birth might not be challenged by an inferior; or if challenged, might refuse the combat. In this spirit, Cleopatra says,

"These hands do lack nobility, that they strike

A meaner than themselves."

In " MELVIL'S MEMOIRS," we find it stated (p. 165, ed. 1735), "The laird of Grainge offered to fight Bothwell; who answered, that he was neither earl nor lord, but a baron; and so was not his equal. The like answer made he to Tullibardine. Then my lord Lindsay offered to fight him, which he could not well refuse; but his heart failed him, and he grew cold in the business."

"The dreadful Sagittary

Appals our numbers."-Act V., Scene 5.

In the "THREE DESTRUCTIONS OF TROY" we are told, that "Beyond the royalme of Amasonne came an auncyent Kynge, wyse and dyscreete, named Epystrophus, and brought a M. [thousand] Knyghtes, and a mervayllouse beste that was called Sagittayre, that behynde the myddes was an horse, and tofore a man. This beste was heery like an horse, and had his eyen red as a cole, and shotte well with a bowe. This beste made the Grekes sore aferde, and slewe many of them with his bowe."

"Now, here he fights on Galathe, his horse."-Act V., Scene 5. The name of Hector's' horse is taken from Lydgate or Caxton. In Lydgate (p. 175), we find,

"And sought, by all the means he could, to take
Galathe, Hector's horse."

"And there they fly, or die, like scaled sculls

Before the belching whale."-Act V., Scene 5.

The term "scull" signifies what is now called a shoal of fish. In Knox's" HISTORY OF FISH" (1787), we find this passage: "The cod from the banks of Newfoundland (says a late writer) pursues the whiting, which flies before it even to the southern shores of Spain. The cachalot, a species of whale, is said in the same manner to pursue a shoal of herrings, and to swallow hundreds in a mouthful."

"He is my prize; I will not look upon.”—Act V., Scene 6. Equivalent to saying, "I will not be a looker-on;" as, in "HENRY VI.," Part 3:

"Why stand we here

Wailing our losses

And look upon, as if the tragedy

Were played in jest by counterfeited actors?"

"The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth,

And, stickler like, the army separates."—Act V., Scene 9. The business of a "stickler" was to part the combatants when victory could be determined without bloodshed. They are said to have been called "sticklers" from carrying sticks or staves in their hands, with which they interposed between the duellists. Minshew gives this explanation in his " DICTIONARY" (1617):—“ A stickler between two; so called as putting a stick or staff between two fencing or fighting together."