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said to prune himself, when he clears his feathers from superfluities.

STEEVENS.

274. cloys his beak,] Perhaps we should read, -claws his beak.

TYRWHITT.

A cley is the same with a claw in old language.

FARMER.

So, in Gower, De Confessione Amantis, Lib. IV.

fol. 69.

"And as a catte wold ete fishes

"Without wetynge of his clees." Again, in Ben Jonson's Underwoods; -from the seize

"Of vulture death and those relentless cleys." Barrett, in his Alvearie, 1580, speaks "of a disease in cattell betwixt the clees of their feete." And in the Book of Hawking, &c. bl. let. no date, under the article Pounces, it is said, "The cleis within the fote ye shall call aright her pounces." To claw their beaks, is an accustomed action with hawks and eagles. STEEVENS. -sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are paid too much ;- ]. e. sorry that you have paid too much out of your pocket, and sorry that you are paid, or subdued, too much by the liquor, So Falstaff:

319.

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-seven of the eleven I pay'd." STEEVENS. 322. being drawn of heaviness:] Drawn is embowell'd, exenterated. So, in common language, a fowl is said to be drawn, when its intestines are taken

out.

STEEVENS.

325.

ing book.

-debitor and creditor- -] For an accountJOHNSON.

340.jump the after-inquiry-] That is, venture at it without thought. So, in Macbeth:

"We'd jump the life to come."

JOHNSON. 357. -I never saw one so prone.] i. e. forward. In this sense the word is used in Wilfride Holme's poem, entitled The Fall and evil Success of Rebellion, &c. 1537:

"Thus lay they in Doncaster, with curtal and serpentine,

"With bombard and basilisk, with men prone and vigorous."

Again, in Sir A. Gorges' translation of the sixth book of Lucan:

-Thessalian fierie steeds,

"For use of war so prone and fit." STEEVENS. 365. Scene V.] Let those who talk so confidently about the skill of Shakspere's contemporary, Jonson, point out the conclusion of any one of his plays, which is wrought with more artifice, and yet a less degree of dramatic violence, than this. In the scene before us, all the surviving characters are assembled; and at the expence of whatever incongruity the former events may have been produced, perhaps little can be discovered on this occasion to offend the most scrupulous advocate for regularity: and, I think, as little is found wanting to satisfy the spectator by a catastrophe which is intricate without confusion, and not more rich in ornament than in nature. STEEVENS.

374.

-one that promis'd nought

But beggary and poor looks.] To promise nothing but poor looks, may be, to give no promise of

courageous behaviour.

So, in King Richard II.

JOHNSON.

"To look so poorly, and to speak so fair."

STEEVENS.

389. -knights o' the battle ;—] Thus in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 164, edit. 1615: "Philip of France made Arthur Plantagenet knight of the fielde."

STEEVENS.

464. So feat,- -] So ready; so dextrous in wait

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into dejection. The word is common to maný au

thors.

STEEVENS.

554. --for feature, laming] Feature for proportion of parts.

583.

patra:

WARBURTON.

-a carbuncle] So, in Antony and Cleo

"He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled

"Like Phabus' car."

597.

STEEVENS.

averring notes] Such marks of the

chamber and pictures, as averred or confirmed my

report.

JOHNSON. 609. Some upright justicer!- -] I meet with this antiquated word in The Tragedy of Darius, 1603:

-this day,

"Th' eternal justicer sees through the stars.”

Again, in Law Tricks, &c. 1608:

"No: we must have an upright justicer."

Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, Book X. chap. 54.

"Precelling his progenitors, a justicer upright.” STEEVENS.

Justicer is used by Shakspere thrice in King Lear, and I believe in other plays.

HENLEY. 616. and she herself.] That is, She was not only the temple of virtue, but virtue herself.

JOHNSON. 631. these staggers- -] This wild and delirious perturbation. Staggers is the horse's apoplexy. JOHNSON.

667. Think, that you are upon a rock!] In this speech, or in the answer, there is little meaning. I suppose, she would say, Consider such another act as equally fatal to me with precipitation from a rock, and now let me see whether you will repeat it.

JOHNSON.

Perhaps only a stage direction is wanting to clear this passage from obscurity. Imogen first upbraids her husband for the violent treatment she had just experienced; then, confident of the return of passion which she knew must succeed to the discovery of her innocence, the poet might have meant her to rush into his arms, and while she clung about him fast, to dare him to throw her off a second time, lest that precipitation should prove as fatal to them both, as if the place where they stood had been a rock. To

which he replies, hang there, i. e. round my neck, till the frame that now supports you shall decay. STEEVENS.

Is not the reading in the folios of that line in All's Well that Ends Well :

"I see that men make ropes in such a scarréto be explained in a manner somewhat similar to this? HENLEY.

672. -a dullard-] In this place means a person stupidly unconcern'd. So, in Histriomastix, or the

Player whipt, 1610:

"What, dullard! would'st thou doat in rusty

art ?"

Again, Stanyhurst, in his version of the first book of Virgil, 1582:

"We Moores, lyke dullards, are not so wytles

STEEVENS.

abyding." 727. By tasting of our wrath?- -] The consequence is taken for the whole action; by tasting is by

forcing us to make thee taste. 744. Assum'd this age:

as reach'd or attain'd this age.

JOHNSON.

-] I believe is the same

STEEVENS. ASSUM'D this age, has a reference to the different appearance which Belarius now makes, in comparison with that when Cymbeline last saw him.

763. Your pleasure was my near offence,

this passage may better be read thus:

HENLEY.

-] I think

Your pleasure was my dear offence, my punish

ment

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