"I could say more, but verse is tied;

Wild joys in prose are best supplied."

Wrong; wide, I conjecture.

Wild has also usurped the place of vilde (the old spelling of vile), in several places of our old poets. Dyce, too, notices this, Remarks, p. 250, where he observes, that this misprint is "one of the commonest in early books," and subjoins four examples from Beaumont and Fletcher. Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2,

Wild would properly express the feelings of a Miranda, or a Desdemona, under a similar affliction; but, for that very reason, it is out of place here. I find from Dyce (Remarks, p. 249—250) that Steevens proposed vile as a conjecture; Dyce believes it (and rightly) to be indisputable. Voyage of the Wandering Knight, published about the end of the sixteenth century, Retrosp., vol. i. p. 257,-"-a deepe dungeon of darkness, boyling with consuming fire, whence came a wilde vapour and stinking smoake of burning brimstone," &c. Vilde.

3 I have taken the liberty of heading the above note with the passage from Lear as it stands in the quartos (the folios read stick for rash); and placing it here. In Walker's manuscript, the quotation from Chapman is introduced thus,—“ Add on to rash (Dyce, Remarks, p. 229), if not noticed before." Walker's excellent memory deceived him here, as he had not quoted the

(Dyce, Remarks, p. 229). Chapman, Ib., v. p. 63 [old fol.],

first Phegeus threw a javelin swift and large, Whose head the king's left shoulder took, but did no harm

at all:

Then rush'd he out a lance at him, that had no idle fall,
But in his breast stuck 'twixt the paps," &c.

Our means secure us; and our mere defects
Prove our commodities."

(Al.,- -"Our mean secures us.") Palpably wrong. There can be no doubt that Johnson's maims 4 is the right read

passage before, nor had, indeed, written any thing on the subject of the verb to rash.

Mr. Dyce's note consists principally of the following quotation from Gifford; Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 153, note 1,—“ To rash (a verb which we have improvidently suffered to grow obsolete), is to strike obliquely with violence, as a wild boar does with his tusk. It is observable with what accuracy Shakspeare has corrected the old quarto of King Lear, which read,—

nor thy fierce sister

In his anointed flesh rash boarish fangs,'

"Gifford

for which he has properly given, 'stick boarish fangs.' speaks of Shakespeare's correcting the quarto, as if that were an ascertained fact, whereas it is only the doubtful supposition of certain editors. Chapman's rush seems only another form of rash. Both seem applied to the weapon inflicting the injury.—Ed.

4 Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, B. V. Sect. 65,-"If men of so good experience and insight in the maims of our weak flesh, have thought" &c. B. v. Sect. xxiv. 3,—“In a minister ignorance and disability to teach is a maim." Greene, James the Fourth,

Dyce, vol. ii. p. 145,—

"But, sir Divine to you; look on your maims,

Divisions, sects, your simonies and bribes," &c.-Ed.

ing. One of the numberless passages which illustrate the old pronunciation of ea.

iv. 2. Arrange,—

"Yours in the ranks of death.

Gon. My most dear Gloster!-O, the difference

Of man and man!

To thee a woman's services are due;

My fool usurps my bed."

Or, perhaps, according to Steevens's arrangement slightly varied,

My most dear Gloster!

The difference of man and man! to thee
A woman's services are due; my fool
Usurps my bed.

Madam, here comes my lord."

Compare for the language, Sidney, Arcadia, B. iv. p. 397, 1. 18,-"O who would have thought there could have been such difference betwixt women!"

Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, iii. 2, Gifford, vol. ii. p. 120,-" how he wept, if you mark'd it! did you see how the tears trill'd!" Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, B. ii. Song iv. ed. Clarke, p. 285,—

"Hereat his curled hairs on end do rise,

And chilly drops trill o'er his staring eyes."

B. i. Song v. p. 143,—

"If you have seen at foot of some brave hill
Two springs arise, and delicately trill

In gentle chidings through an humble dale," &c.

Hence, perhaps, that sense of the word in which it is still used.

7, near the end,

"Where have I been? Where am I? Fair day-líght!” Cartwright, Ordinary, i. 2, Dodsley, vol. x. p. 181,— "You burn day-light.

With th' ancient men of war, on our proceeding."

Ib.,

Why, fare thee well;

I will o'erlook thy paper."

"And hardly shall I carry out my side,
Her husband being alive."

Nonsense. Suite, I suppose.5

5 If Walker is right, carry out is used almost in the new-fangled sense common of late years. It seems to have nearly the same meaning in the passage quoted by Steevens from The Honest Man's Fortune, iv. 2.-Ed.

Alb.

Where have you hid yourself? how have you known
The miseries of your father?"

Or, rather, perhaps,

Alb.

"I know 't.

Where have you hid yourself? how known" &c.

Ib. Point, rather,

But his flaw'd heart,

Alack, too weak the conflict to support

'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,
Burst smilingly,"

Ib.

which in recounting,

His grief grew puissant," &c.

Possibly piersant. Spenser, F. Q. B. iii. c. ix. St. xxx.,—

That in a cloud their light did long time stay,

Their vapour vaded, shewe their golden gleames,

And through the azure aire shoote forth their persant streames."

(So corrected by Dyce, Remarks, p. 50; vulg. persant aire —-azure streames).

Piersive also occurs somewhere, I think, in our old poets.

i. 1,

OTHELLO.

"For when my outward action doth demonstrate

The native act and figure of my heart

In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at."