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"Cresseide answerde, nevir the bet for you,
"Foxe that ye ben, God yeve your hertè care
"God helpe me so, ye causid all this fare," &c.
STEEVENS.

115. to do,--] To do is here used in a

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aconitum, or rash gunpowder. STEEVENS.

153. Delivered to us; &c.] So the folio. The quarto thus:

Delivered to him, and forthwith. 163.

JOHNSON.

-the secrets of neighbour Pandar Have not more gift in tacitunity.] If this be a reading ex fide codicum (as Pope professes all his various readings to be) it is founded on the credit of such copies, as it has not been my fortune to meet with. I have ventured to make out the verse thus:

The secret'st things of nature, &c.

i. e. the arcana natura, the mysteries of nature, of occult philosophy, or of religious ceremonies. Our poet has allusions of this sort in several other passages. THEOBALD. Mr. Pope's reading is in the old quarto. So great is the necessity of collation. JOHNSON.

The secrets of nature could hardly have been a corruption of "the secrets of neighbour Pandar." Perhaps the alteration was made by the author, and that he wrote,

Good,

Good, good, my lord; the secretest of nature
Have not more gift in taciturnity.

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202. licism.

-great morning ;—-] Grand jour; a Gal

217. The grief, &c.] The folio reads,

STEEVENS.

The grief is fine, full perfect, that I taste,
And no less in a sense as strong

As that which causeth it.

The quarto otherwise :

The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,
And violenteth in a sense as strong

As that which causeth it..

Violenteth is a word with which I am not acquainted, yet perhaps it may be right. The reading of the text is without authority. JOHNSON. I have followed the quarto. Violenceth is used by Ben Jonson in The Devil is an Ass:

"Nor nature violenceth in both these."

And Mr. Tollet has since furnished me with this verb, as spelt in the play of Shakspere: "His former adversaries violented any thing against him." Fuller's Worthies, in Anglesea.

Dr. Farmer likewise adds the following instance from Latimer, p. 71. “Maister Pole violentes the text

for

for the maintenance of the bishop of Rome.

STEEVENS.

237. strain’d- -] So the quarto. The folio and all the moderns have strange. JOHNSON.

260. With distinct breath, and consign'd kisses to them,] Consign'd means sealed; from consigno, Lat. So, in King Henry V: "It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to.” Our author has the same idea in many other places. for Measure:

"But my kisses bring again

So, in Measure

"Seals of love, but seal'd in vain."

Again, in his Venus and Adonis :

"Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted."

MALONE.

263. Distasted with the salt of broken tears.] Folio, Distasting, &c. MALONE. 265. Hark! you are call'd: Some say, the Genius so Cries, Come! to him that instantly must die.] An obscure poet (Flatman) has borrowed this thought:

"My soul just now about to take her flight,
"Into the regions of eternal night,

"Methinks, I hear some gentle spirit say,
"Be not fearful, come away!"

After whom, Pope:

"Hark! they whisper; angels say,

"Sister spirit, come away."

MALONE.

272. A woeful Cressid 'mongst the merry Greeks !] So, in A mad World my Masters, 1640, a man gives

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the watchmen some money, and when they have received it he says: "the merry Greeks understand me,"

STEEVENS.

279. For I will throw my glove to death- -] That is, I will challenge death himself in defence of thy fidelity. JOHNSON.

292.

-The Grecian youths

Are well compos'd, with gifts of nature flowing,
And swelling o'er with arts and exercise;] The

folio reads,

The Grecian youths are full of qualitie,

Their loving, well compos'd with gifts of nature,
Flowing and swelling o'er, &c.

I suppose the author wrote,

They're loving

The quarto omits the middle line,

The Grecian youths are full of quality,

And swelling o'er with arts and exercise

295.

MALONE.

STEEVENS.

-with person,] Thus the folio. The

quarto reads, with portion.

303. the high lavolt- -] The lavolta was a dance. It is elsewhere mentioned, where several examples are given.

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think, is, while others, by their art,

tion, I, by honesty, obtain a plain

tion.

326.

STEEVENS.

The meaning, I

gain high estima

simple approba JOHNSON.

-the moral of my wit Is-plain and true,] Moral, in this in

stance,

stance, has the same meaning as in Much Ado about

Nothing, act iii. sc. 4.

"Benedictus! why Benedictus? you have some moral in this Benedictus."

Again, in the Taming of a Shrew, act iv. sc. 4.

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-he has left me here behind to expound the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens." TOLLET. 330. At the port,] The port is the gate. STEEVENS.

331.

-possess thee what she is.] I will make thee fully understand. This sense of the word possess is frequent in our author.

JOHNSON.

353. lust:-] That is, inclination, will.

HENLEY.

366. Dio.] These five lines are not in the quarto, being probably added at the revision.

JOHNSON But why should Diomed say, Let us make ready straight? Was he to tend with them on Hector's heels? Certainly not. Dio has therefore crept in by mistake; the line either is part of Paris's speech, or belongs to Deiphobus, who is in company. As to Diomed, he neither goes along with them, nor has any thing to get ready :-he is now walking with Troilus and Cressida towards the gate, on his way to the Grecian camp. REMARKS: 379. -bias cheek] Swelling out like the bias of

a bowl.

JOHNSON. So, in Vittoria Corombona, or the White Devil, 1612:

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