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Sailor. Brother, farewel, &c.

JOHNSON.

3. -long heath, ) This is the common

ne for the erica baccifera.

WARBURTON.

_ long heath] The distinction between the difnt sorts of erica, are either-vulgaris, tenuifolia, or Santica. There is no such plant as erica baccifera.

WARNER.

= An acre of barren ground, long heath, brown ze," &c. Sir T. Hanmer reads ling, heath, broom, ze.-Perhaps rightly, though he has been charged h tautology. I find in Harrison's Description of tain, prefixed to our author's good friend Holingd, p. 91. "Brome, heth, firze, brakes, whinnes, g," &c. FARMER. Mr. Tollet has sufficiently vindicated Sir Thomas Inmer from the charge of tautology, by favouring e with specimens of three different kinds of heath nich grow in his own neighbourhood. I would gladly ve inserted his observations at length; but, to say e truth, our author, like one of Cato's soldiers no was bit by a serpent,

Ipse latet penitus congesto corpore mersus.

STEEVENS.

82.or ere] i. e. before. Of this use, many inances are given hereafter.

STEEVENS.

89. Pro. No harm.] I know not whether Shak Dere did not make Miranda speak thus :

O, woe the day! no harm.

Co which Prospero properly answers:

I have done nothing but in care of thee.

Miranda, Miranda, when she speaks the words, O, woe the day! supposes not that the crew had escaped, but that her father thought differently from her, and counted their destruction no harm. JOHNSON.

93. more better] This ungrammatical expression is very frequent among our oldest writers. So in The History of Helyas Knight of the Swan, bl. let. no ate: imprinted by William Copland. "And also the more sooner to come, without prolixity, to the true

THE TER

queen Elizabeth, when he used to say, Lie there, Lora State, p. 257.

103. -virtue of comp most efficacious part, the like sense we say, The virtu

105. that there is n editions read; but this is a

oreonicles," &c. Again, in the True Tragedies of Rowe, and after him Dr.

Marius and Scilla, 1594:

"To wait a message of more better worth." Again, ibid.

" That hale more greater than Cassandra now."

STEEVENS,

94. -full poor cell,] i. e. a cell in a great degree of poverty. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, act i. -I am fully sorry. STEEVENS.

97. Did never meddle with my thoughts.] To meddle, in this instance, seems to signify to mingle. Hence the substantive medley. To middle for to mix is used at least twenty times in the ancient Book of Hawking, &c. commonly called the Book of St. Alban's, and yet more often by Chaucer. STEEVENS.

it me soul lost, without any Mr. Theobald substitutes

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lows him. To come so miss it, is unlucky: the no stain, no spot: for Not a hair perish'd; On their sustaining garn But fresher than before. And Gonzalo, The rarity keing drench'd in the sea, keep test and glosses. Of this author of notes on The T | could not keep it.

"It should rather mean to interfere, to trouble, to busy itself, as still used in the North, e. g. Don't meddle with me; i. e. Let me alone; Don't molest me."

REMARKS.

101. Lye there my art) Sir W. Cecil, lord Burleigh, lord high treasurer, &c. in the reign of queen

--no soul-] Such in Mon to Shakspere. He sor and before he concludes it Aruction, because another As this change frequently b may be suffered to pass unc ! the stage.

STEEVENS.

een Elizabeth, when he put off his gown at night, ed to say, Lie there, lord treasurer. Fuller's Holy te, p. 257. 103. --virtue of compassion--] Virtue; the st efficacious part, the energetick quality; in a sense we say, The virtue of a plant is in the extract.

JOHNSON.

105. that there is no soul-] Thus the old tions read; but this is apparently defective. Mr. owe, and after him Dr. Warburton, read that there no soul lost, without any notice of the variation. r. Theobald substitutes no foil, and Mr. Pope folvs him. To come so near the right, and yet to ss it, is unlucky: the author probably wrote no ✓, no stain, no spot: for so Ariel tells,

Not a hair perish'd;

On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before.

ad Gonzalo, The rarity of it is, that our garments 'ng drench'd in the sea, keep notwithstanding their freshss and glosses. Of this emendation I find that the thor of notes on The Tempest had a glimpse, but uld not keep it. JOHNSON. --no soul-] Such interruptions are not uncomon to Shakspere. He sometimes begins a sentence; id before he concludes it entirely changes the conruction, because another, more forcible, occurs. s this change frequently happens in conversation, it ay be suffered to pass uncensured in the language of le stage.

STEEVENS.

119. Out three years old.] i. e. Quite three years old, three years old full out, complete. Mr. Pope, without occasion, reads,

FULL three years old. STEEVENS. 130.-abysm of time?] This method of spelling the word is common to other ancient writers. They took it from the French abysme, now written abime. So, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613:

" And chase him from the deep abysms below." STEEVENS.

140.-thou his only heir] Perhaps- and thou his only heir. JOHNSON.

The old copy reads and his only heir,

and princess

Perhaps we should read, and his only heir.
A princess-no worse issued.

Issued is descended. So in Greene's Card of Fancy,
1608:

" For I am by birth a gentleman, and issued of
such parents," &c.
STEEVENS.

149. -teen-] Is sorrow, grief, trouble. So in Romeo and Juliet :

"-to my teen be it spoken." STEEVENS. 167. To trash for over-topping;] To trash, as Dr. Warburton observes, is to cut away the superfluities. This word I have met with in books containing directions for gardeners, published in the time of queen Elizabeth.

The present explanation may be countenanced by the following passage in Warner's Albion's England, 1602. B. X. ch. 57.

THE TEM

"Who suffreth none L

blood to overtopp, "Himself gives all pref him, doth lop." Again, in our author's King "Go thou, and, like a "Cut off the heads of t

"Who

"That look too lofty in Mr. Warton's note, howe his quick hunting," in the s my interpretation of this F table.

169.-both the key] K ignify the key of a musica set Hearts to tune.

This doubtless is meant harpsichord, spinet, or vi tuning hammer, as it is u the iron pins whereon the warn them. As a key, it a

181. Like a good, &c.] tion, that a father above the commonly a son below it.

186. like one, Who having UNTO Made such a sinner

To credit his oωτ reading of the second line

"Who suffreth none by might, by wealth or blood to overtopp,

"Himself gives all preferment, and whom listeth him, doth lop."

gain, in our author's King Richard II.
"Go thou, and, like an executioner,

" Cut off the heads of too-fast-growing sprays "That look too lofty in our commonwealth." Mr. Warton's note, however, on" trash for = quick hunting," in the second act of Othello, leaves interpretation of this passage exceedingly dispu

ble.

STEEVENS.

169.both the key] Key, in this place, seems to gnify the key of a musical instrument, by which he Hearts to tune.

JOHNSON,

This doubtless is meant of a key for tuning the Erpsichord, spinet, or virginal; we call it now a ning hammer, as it is used as well to strike down Le iron pins whereon the strings are wound, as to rn them. As a key, it acts like that of a watch.

Sir J. HAWKINS.

181. Like a good, &c.]

Alluding to the observa,

on, that a father above the

common rate of men has

:

JOHNSON.

ommonly a son below it. Heroum filii noxa.

186.like one,

Who having UNTO truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie, ] The corrupted

eading of the second line has rendered this beautiful similitude

Bij

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