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Mr. Weber's attempt at explanation is more obscure than the obscurity which he found, or rather made, in the text. Read: And then to take the wreck of our divisions,

Will sweeten the remembrance of past dan

gers, &c.

And then (i. e. on meeting to part no more) to seize the remnant of time which our separations have left us, will sweeten, &c.

G. 260. W. 233.

Read:

Before we kiss, receive

This caution from thine Auria first, Castanna.

Before we kiss, receive

This caution from thine Auria; first-Castanna,

Let us bid farewell.

He is about to speak when he perceives his sister, whom he desires to remove out of hearing, and accordingly she walks asidé.

G. 260. W. 234. Appear not in a fashion that can prompt
The gazer's eye, or holla to report;

Some widowed neglect of hand, some value. The notes on this passage are not unworthy of the text. "Holla to report.] Holla," as Mr. Malone says, "is a term of horsemanship, and is generally used for stopping the horse. Here it evidently means exactly the reverse, as it stands for urging on"!

"Some widowed neglect of hand, some value.] If a line has not been lost after this, which I strongly suspect, the text must mean -some (men) value a degree of neglect towards their husbands in women who have been left by them alone, or in a state of widowhood."

It is truly vexatious to see a beautiful speech (and this beautiful one) so mangled.

is a very

Read:

Appear not in a fashion that can prompt

The gazer's eye, or holla, to report

Some widowed neglect of handsome value.

Auria is giving his parting advice to his wife for the regulation of her conduct in his absence; and it is every way

worthy of him and of the author. "Do not," he says, "appear abroad so particularly dressed as to invite attention, and prompt the gazer's eye, or voice (clamorous voice, if the reader pleases) to report (to prattle of) a handsome woman apparently neglected by her husband."

G. 261. W.234.

Read:

One of earth's best: I have forgone-
One of earth's best I have forgone.

G. 263. W.237. Whose virtues are her only dower, else

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"As there is no sense which can be extracted from these words, there can be little doubt, that either a violent corruption, or an omission of one or more lines, has taken place, the purport of which is however difficult to conceive." Mr. Weber's perplexity is heart-breaking.

Read:

Whose virtues are her only dower, else [none]
In either kind, &c.

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And the answer is, "Yes, twenty ducats."

G. 267. W. 241. A wanton mistress is a common sewer
Must never project labours in my brain.

This excellent conceit of "labours projected in a man's brain by a common sewer," is wholly due to the brilliant fancy of Mr. Weber, and he accordingly felicitates himself on having "restored some degree of sense,' as he says, to the passage, by inserting must in the place of much, the old reading.

Read:

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A wanton mistress is a common sewer.—
Much newer project labours in my brain.

The first line refers to Levidolche, of whom Adurni speaks, as a strumpet who entertains all comers: he then adverts to the plan mentioned by Futelli, which he treats with contempt as stale, and observes that he has a much

newer one in contemplation. Of all this poor Mr. Weber

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Your Lordship's care shall share in the plot.
Your lordship's ear, &c.

G. 271. W. 244.-But countenance the cause.
Read: But countenance the course.
i. e. the mode of our proceedings.

G. 277. W. 249.

Read:

G. 278. W. 251.

pearls, which the Indian lackies Presented for the ransom of his life.

pearls, which the Indian Cacique

Presented, &c.

she's taken, and will love you now, As well in buff, as your imagined bravery, Your dainty ten-times drest buff: with this language,

Bold man of arms, shalt win upon her, doubt

not.

"The old copy reads "shall win upon her." The slight alteration in the text (thou shalt) was essential in order to restore the sense of the passage."

Yet the sense of the passage, of which, by the way, Mr. Weber does not understand one syllable, is entirely destroyed by his essential alteration.

Read:

she's taken; and will love you now
As well in buff as your imagined bravery.
Your dainty ten-times dress'd buff, with this
language,

Bold man of arms, shall win upon her, doubt not,
Beyond all silken puppetry.

G. 279. W. 251. Pearl-larded caps.

Read: Pearl-larded capes.

There is no excuse for this blunder, as the expression

is a mere repetition of a passage just above.

whose cape, &c."

"Our cloke,

G. 279. W. 252.-Play's play, luck's luck, fortune's I know

his

what

"The old copy reads, Fortune's an I know not what. It was necessary here to make another variation."

The old copy reads no such thing; and Mr. Weber, by necessary variation, has destroyed both sense and metre. Read: Play's play, luck's luck; Fortune's an-I

know what.

G. 281. W. 254.-No might of man, &c.

No man," &c.

"The old copy reads

Why should Mr. Weber say this? The old copy reads distinctly,

G. 284. W. 256.

No might of man.

chouses.] "i. e. Fools, persons easily cheated."

Just the reverse: knaves, persons that cheat every one. Mr. Weber had Massinger before him, (as had Ford when he wrote this passage,) and there he might have found a full explanation of the word.

G. 285. W.257.-Pray let not me be bandied, sir.

"Skinner explains the verb 'to bandy,' totis viribus se opponere"!

G. 285. W. 257.-I will then rip up.

The progress of your infancy.

Read: The progress of your infamy:

And accordingly Martino begins with her marriage.

G. 286. W.258.-A jointure to my over-living niece,

Read:

my over-loving niece.

G. 287. W.258.-Be sued to buy a loving man,-
Read: Be sued to by a loving man,

G. 288. W. 260.-And mumbled the roguy Turks.
This destroys the metre.

Read: And mumbled the rogue Turks.

G. 290. W. 262.-Lose not opportunity for air.

"Air must in this instance signify haughty, an affectation

of virtue,"

With all due deference to Mr. Weber's must, air signifies, in this instance, a mere trifle, such as the speaker insinuates fame, idle report, to be.

G. 295. W. 265.-I need no fellows now.

Read: I need no followers now.

G. 296. W. 266.—"Puffkins was probably a cant word for strumpets at the time. It may have been formed from puffin, a kind of water fowl."

Were they strumpets? But this is the folly of the Shakspeare editors, who had already taught Mr. Weber (lxxxiii.) that gull, the old term for a simpleton, was also taken “from a kind of water-fowl." Puffkin is "formed" from puffe, (a worthless funguous excrescence, a dust-ball,) precisely as whiskin is from whiske, and has degenerated, by a similar process, into a term of low ribaldry. See p. cxlii.

G. 298. W. 268.-Rot in fripperies.] "I suspect we should read riot in fripperies."

This is in direct opposition to the speaker; who alludes to the neglect shewn the poor disbanded soldier on his return from the wars. At home, he says, they are suffered to rot in cast clothes, rags: to riot has seldom been their fate. G. 299. W.268.-This fellow's a shrewd fellow at a pink.

"It is difficult to guess at the precise meaning of this expression. Pink is used in the sense of supremely excellent, but that cannot apply here. For that reason, I strongly suspect we should read punk."

Has the reader enough of this? If he has, let me ask him, if he thinks there is another person in the kingdom who does not know that a pink is a thrust or stab, and that the expression means—a shrewd fellow at his weapon, at a duel, &c.?

G. 302, W. 272.-" Exit Guz. Ful. and Benatzi!"

G. 305. W. 274.-Sure this bulk of mine

'Tails in the size a tympany of greatness.

On this absurd reading, Mr. Weber has a more absurd

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