And how quote you my folly?1

Two Gentlemen of Verona, A. 2, S. 4.

Let thofe, that play your clowns, fpeak no more than is fet down for them: For there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to fet on fome quantity of barren fpectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some neceffary queftion of the play be then to be confidered: that's villainous; and fhews a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.

Hamlet, A. 3, S. 2. Pity, that fools may not fpeak wifely what wife men do foolishly. As you like it, A. 1, S. 2. Sirrah, inquire further after me; I had talk of your laft night: though you are a fool and a knave, you' fhall eat. All's well that ends well, A. 5, S. 2.

Never

on whofe lips he is ftill intent, and dies away while he is search ing for life there. That the thoughts of a father, in the bitterest of all moments, while his favourite child lay dead in his arms, fhould recur to the antic who had formerly diverted him, has fomewhat in it that I cannot reconcile to the idea of genuine forrow and despair.

Befides this, Cordelia was recently hanged; but we know not that the fool had fuffered in the fame manner, nor can imagine why he should. STEEVENS.

I confefs, I am one of those who have thought that Lear means his fool, and not Cordelia. If he means Cordelia, then what I have always confidered as a beauty, is of the fame kind as the accidental ftroke of the pencil that produced the foam. Lear's affectionate remembrance of the fool in this place, I used to think, was one of thofe ftrokes of genius, or of nature, which are fo often found in Shakespeare, and in him only. The words poor fool, are undoubtedly expreffive of endearment; and Shakespeare in another place, fpeaking of a dying animal, calls it poor dappled fool; but it never is, nor never can be ufed with any degree of propriety, but to commiferate fome very inferior object, which may be loved, without much esteem or respect. Sir J. REYNOLDS.

If we read," poor foul," (confidering foul like fool a word of endearment) all difficulty is at once removed. That the "poor fool," or "poor foul," is meant to be applied to Cordelia, there cannot be the smallest doubt; and the words, "no, no, no life," which immediately follow, fufficiently confirm it. A. B. How quote you my folly.] To quote is to observe. STEEVENS.

4

"Quote,"

Never flee and jeft at me;

Ì fpeak not like a dotard, nor a fool;
As under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old. Much ado about nothing, A. 5, S. I

He is the prince's jefter: a very dull fool; only his gift is in devifing impoffible flanders: none but libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy.

Much ado about nothing, A. 2, S. 1.

Hear you me, Jeffica:

Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum,
And the vile fqueaking of the wry-neck'd fife,
Clamber not you up to the cafements then,
Nor thruft your head into the public street,
To gaze on Chriftian fools with varnish'd faces.

Merchant of Venice, A. 2, S. 5.

The fool hath planted in his memory
An army of good words: and I do know
A many fools, that ftand in better place,
Garnifh'd like him,

Defy the matter.

that for a trickfy word
Merchant of Venice, A. 3, S..5.

I

Carded his ftate,

Mingled his royalty with carping fools;

Had

"Quote." This word occurs in many of Shakespeare's playsIt should be printed cote, a French word fignifying mark. Cote is thus explained in the Dictionaries, Marque dont fe fervent les gens de pratique.

A. B.

STEEVENS.

Carded his ftate.] The metaphor feems to be taken from mine gling coarfe wool with fine, and carding them together, whereby the value of the latter is diminished. By carding his ftate, the king means that his predeceffor fet his confequence to hazard, played it away, as a man lofes his fortune at cards. REMARKS.

"Carded his ftate," is harsh. To card, is to mix; and if we acknowledge carded to be right, the fenfe will yet be defective unlefs we are told with what he mixed his ftate. I am therefore inclined to think that Shakespeare wrote gawded his ftate, meaning

that

I

Had his great name profaned with their fcorns;
And gave his countenance, against his name,
To laugh at gybing boys. Henry IV, P. 1, A. 3. S2.
A fool, a fool!-I met a fool i' the foreft,

A motley fool,-a miferable world! 2

As you like it, A. 2. S. 7.

FORTUNE, FORTUNES.

'Tis yet to know,

(Which when I know that boasting is an honour,
I fhall promulgate) I fetch my life and being
From men of royal fiege; and my demerits
May fpeak, unbonnetted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd.

'

Othello. A. 1, S. 2.

If I do prove her haggard, Though that her jeffes were my dear heart-ftrings, I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind,

To prey at fortune.

Othello, A. 3, S. 3.

To be a well-favour'd man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.

Much ado about nothing, A. 3, S. 3.

I count

that he was too fond of Shew and oftentation; and this is the character of Richard. Gawds, in old language are toys, trifles, or

naments.

A. B.

And gave his countenance againft his name.] Made his presence injurious to his reputation. JOHNSON. "Countenance" is fupport. The meaning is, he gave fupport and protection to what could never do him credit.

A. B.

2 A motley fool,-a miferable world!] What! because he met a motley fool, was it therefore a miferable world! This is fadly blundered. We should read-a miserable varlet. WARBURTON. I fee no need of change. A miferable world is a parenthetical exclamation frequent among melancholy men, and natural to Jaques at the fight of a fool, or at the hearing of reflections on the fragility of life. JOHNSON.

Some force may be given to the paffage, by reading
Ö miferable world!

Or

I count myself in nothing else so happy,
As in a foul remembering my good friends:
And, as my fortune ripens with thy love,
It shall be still thy true-love's recompenfe.
Richard II. A. 2, S. 3.

Will fortune never come with both hands full,
But write her fair words ftill in fouleft letters?
She either gives a stomach, and no food,-
Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast,
And takes away the ftomach,-such are the rich,
That have abundance, and enjoy it not.

Henry IV. P. 2, A. 4, S. 4.

If Brutus will vouchfafe, that Antony
May fafely come to him, and be refolv'd
How Cæfar hath deferv'd to lie in death,
Mark Antony fhall not love Cæfar dead
So well as Brutus living; but will follow
The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus,
Thorough the hazards of this untrod ftate,
With all true faith.

Julius Cæfar, A. 3, S. 1,

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,
Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows, and in miseries.

Julius Cæfar, A. 4, S. 3.

If Hercules, and Lichas, play at dice
Which is the better man, the greater throw
May turn by fortune from the weaker hand.

Merchant of Venice, A. 2, S. 1.

So may I, blind fortune leading me,

Mifs that which one unworthier may attain,

And die with grieving. Merchant of Venice, A. 2, S.1.

Or perhaps it will be better to read

O miferable word!

Herein

"A fool! O miferable word!"-That is, O wretched, that I should be under the neceffity of calling any man a fool.

A. B.

Herein fortune fhews herself more kind Than is her cuftoin; it is ftill her use, To let the wretched man out-live his wealth, To view, with hollow eye and wrinkled brow, of poverty. Merchant of Venice, A. 4, S. 1. Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler before her eyes, to fignify to you that Fortune is plind. Henry V. A. 3, S. 6.

An age

With a great heart heave away this ftorm:
Commend these waters to thofe balmy eyes,
That never faw the giant world enrag'd;
Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
Full warm of blood, of mirth, of goffiping.

King John, A. 5, S. 2.

All the unfettled humours of the land,

Rash, inconfiderate, fiery voluntaries,
With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' spleens,
Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,
To make a hazard of new fortunes here.

King John, A. 2, S. 1. You have, by fortune, and his highness' favours, Gone flightly o'er low steps; and now are mounted,

* Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler before her eyes, to fignify to you that Fortune is plind.] Here the fool of a player was for making a joke, as Hamlet fays, not fet down for him, and her ing a moft pitiful ambition to be witty. For Fluellen, though he fpeaks with his country accent, yet is all the way represented as a man of good plain fenfe. Therefore, as it appears he knew the meaning of the term plind, by his ufe of it, he could never have faid that Fortune was painted plind, to fignify he was plind. We fhould, therefore, ftrike out the first plind, and read, "Fortune is painted with a muffler, &c." Dr. Warburton is mistaken. There is here no ambition to be witty. Fluellen says, "Fortune is painted plind;" but recollecting that Pistol might not readily comprehend how Fortune could be reprefented or painted blind, he goes on" that is, "with a muffler before her eyes, to fignify to you that Fortune is plind."

WARBURTON.

A. B.

Where