VARIOUS READINGS.

"The present pleasure,

By repetition souring, does become
The opposite of itself."

The above is the reading of the folio Corrector. The original has, "by revolution lowering."

ACT I., Sc. 2. Taking "revolution" as a change of circumstances or feelings, the pleasure of to-day becomes lowered, and is the opposite of itself—it is pain. We hold to the original.

"The silken tackle

Smell with the touches of those flower-soft hands."

The original has swell. The folio Corrector will have no poetical hyperbole. The tackle must smell of the scented fingers.

ACT II., Sc. 2.

Even the literality of Mr. Collier and the Corrector is a mistake. Cordage does swell when handled. But it swelled with sympathetic pleasure at the touches of the flower-soft hands. How easy it is to destroy a poetical image by a ruthless change of a letter; although such changes are sometimes happy.

"Run one before,

And let the queen know of our gests." ACT IV., Sc. 8.

The original has guests. The Corrector of the folio strikes out

the u.

The

We have no doubt of the propriety of the emendation. gests are the deeds of Antony.

"A grief that smites My very heart at root."

The Corrector gives smites. The original has suites.

ACT V., Sc. 2.

Suites is clearly wrong. The common reading is shoots. We prefer smites, which has only changed a letter.

GLOSSARY.

ARM-GAUNT. Act I., Sc. 5.

"And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed." Arm-gaunt, of which we have no other example, may convey the notion of a steed fierce and terrible in armour.

BLOWS. Act IV., Sc. 6.

"This blows my heart."

Blows in the sense of swells, expands.

BRIZE.

Act III., Sc. 8.

"The brize upon her, like a cow in June."

The brize, from the Anglo-Saxon briose, is the ox-fly, or gad-fly.

BROOCH'D. Act IV., Sc. 13.

"Brooch'd with me."

Brooch'd is adorned, as with a brooch.

BURGONET. Act I., Sc. 5.

"And burgonet of men."

The burgonet was a species of helmet. In 'Henry VI., Part II.' (Act V., Sc. 2), the word occurs several times, and Clifford says to Warwick, alluding to the crest on his helmet"And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear."

The burgonet bore the distinctive sign of chieftainship, and so Antony is the "burgonet of men."

"The greater cantle of the world is lost."

See Henry IV., Part I.'

'Must change his horns with garlands."

Change is to vary, give a different appearance to. Warburton and others proposed to read charge.

CHARES. Act IV., Sc. 13.

"And does the meanest chares."

Chares are single pieces of work, a turn or bout, from the
Anglo-Saxon cerre, a turn, a business, or space of time.
Hence we have charwoman.

COMPOSE. Act II., Sc. 2.

"If we compose well here, to Parthia."

Compose is to agree, come to a composition or an agreement

CONFOUND. Act III., Sc. 2.

"What willingly he did confound he wail'd." Confound is used in the sense of destroyed. DISCANDERING. Act III., Sc. 11.

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By the discandering of this pelleted storm." Discandering is, we have no doubt, disquandering, though the word is usually printed discandying, contrary to the original. For squandering, used in the sense of the passage before us, seeThe Merchant of Venice.'

DISPOS'D. Act IV., Sc. 12.

"She had dispos'd with Cæsar."

Dispos'd with is complied with, made terms with. DISTRACTIONS. Act III., Sc. 7.

"His power went out in such distractions."

Distractions is used for detachments; his power was sent out dispersedly.

EGYPT. Act I., Sc. 3.

"And say the tears

Belong to Egypt."

Egypt is here used for the queen of Egypt.

EXTENDED. Act I., Sc. 2.

"Extended Asia from Euphrates."

Extended is used in its legal sense, seized upon; we now use the noun extent.

FLEET. Act III., Sc. 11.

"Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sealike." Flect, from the Anglo-Saxon fleat, is the old word for float. FOLLOW'D.

Act V., Sc. 1.

"I have follow'd thee to this."

That is, I have pursued thee, driven thee, to this.

"Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars."

For is the Anglo-Saxon privative, of which we have an example in forbid. Forspoke is spoken-decided—against. GARBOILS. Act I., Sc. 3.

"The garboils she awak'd."

Garboils, says Phillips, 'World of Words,' are "tumults, uproar, disorders, troubles." Drayton has used it in hia 'England's Parnassus:'

"Such is the garboile of this conflict."

GAUDY NIGHT.

Act III., Sc. 11.

"Let's have one other gaudy night."

A gaudy night is a night of rejoicing. In the Universities and Inns of Court a gaudy day was a feast day. Gaudies, says Phillips, are "double commons, such as are allowed on gaudy-days."

GRATES. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Grates me :-The sum."

Grates me is offends me, is displeasing, grating, harsh to me. HARRIED. Act III., Sc. 3.

"That so I harried him."

To harry is from the Anglo-Saxon hergian, to ravage, to devastate, as by an army. To harass is from the same root, and harried here means vexed, annoyed.

Ho! Act IV, Sc. 2.

"Ho, ho, ho!"

These interjections have the sense of stop.

HOLDING.

Act II., Sc. 7.

"The holding every man shall bear."

The holding is the burthen of the song.

HOPE. Act II., Sc. 1.

"I cannot hope

Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together."

In this passage hope is used in the sense of expect. Chaucer has used it with the same meaning, but the inaccuracy was shown by Puttenham, in Shakspere's time, by a droll instance from the speech of the Tanner of Tamworth to Edward IV. :-"I hope I shall be hanged to-morrow."

LATED. Act III., Sc. 9.

"I am so lated in the world.”

The Anglo-Saxon læt has the meaning of slow or tardy, of permission, and of obstruction or hindrance, and we have thence both let and late. Lated is here obstructed, and therefore unsuccessful. In 'Macbeth,'

"Now spurs the lated traveller apace,"

we have a similar sense.

LAUREL. Act I., Sc. 3.

"Sit laurel victory, and smooth success.'

The practice of using the substantive as an adjective was a peculiarity of the poets of Shakspere's day, and it has been adopted with advantage in the present age.

LIEUTENANTRY. Act III., Sc. 9.

"Dealt on lieutenantry."

That is, made war by lieutenants, by deputy. Lieutenant is from the French, the holder under another, or tenant of a place.

MERED. Act III., Sc. 11.

"The mered question."

Mere is a boundary, and to mere is to define limits. Spenser used the word both as a substantive and a verb.

MERELY. Act III., Sc. 7.

"The horse were merely lost."

Merely is utterly, entirely.

MODERN. Act V., Sc. 2.

"As we greet modern friends."

Modern, in Shakspere's time, was used to express anything common and ordinary. So in 'As You Like Ît'

"Full of wise saws and modern instances."

MOUNT. Act II., Sc. 4.

"As I conceive the journey, be at the Mount."

The Mount no doubt means Mount Misenum. The original omits the article.

Muss. Act III., Sc. 11.

"Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth."

A muss is a scramble, throwing things into a crowd to be scrambled for.

NURSE Act V., Sc. 2.

"The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's."

The nurse is unquestionably death; not the gross substance which nourishes equally the beggar and Cæsar, as Johnson interprets it.

PLATES. Act V., Sc. 2.

"As plates dropp'd from his pocket.”

Plates were pieces of silver money. In Marlowe's 'Jew of
Malta' (Act II., Sc. 2), we have-

He is worth three hundred plates;"

which a previous line proves to be equal to two hundred

crowns.

PLEACH'D. Act IV., Sc. 12.

"Thy master thus with pleach'd arms."

Pleach'd is intertwined, folded.