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If the length of the second line be objected to, the reading of the second folio may be adopted. Mr. Knight prints "sounds that tell;" but the alteration, I think, is hardly ne

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"i. e. says Malone, is as strange as a brooch, which is now no longer worn;' and we have already seen, in All's Well that ends Well,' vol. ii. p. 212, that brooches were out of fashion,—' just like the brooch and tooth-pick, which wear not now.'" COLLIER.

Mr. Knight's note is to the same effect: "love to Richard," it concludes," is, therefore, called a strange brooch, a thing of value out of fashion."

There is, I believe, no allusion here to brooches being "out of fashion." The word "sign" in the preceding line probably suggested the expression " a strange brooch:"it is a sign of love; and love to Richard is, amid so much hatred, a strange feeling for any one to display, -as he would a brooch or ornament.'

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I may add, that "brooch" (about the precise meaning of which Malone squabbled with Mason) was not unfrequently used metaphorically for ornament.' "These sonnes of Mars, who in their times were the glorious Brooches of our Nation, and admirable terrour to our Enemies." The World runnes on Wheeles,-Taylor's Workes, p. 237, ed. 1630.

"Next dy'd old Charles, true honor'd Nottingham,
(The Brooch and honor of his house and name)."

Upon the Death of King James,-Ibid. p. 324.

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FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV.

[Vol. iv. COLLIer; vol. v. Knight.]

ACT I.

SCENE 2.-C. p. 236; K. p. 29.

"for the nonce."

A phrase of perpetual occurrence in the writers of the time; but the word 'nonce' is of disputed etymology. The meaning is, for the occasion, and Gifford (Ben Jonson, iii. 218) tells us that 'for the nonce' is simply for the once, the letter n having been inserted to prevent elision in pronouncing for the once. There is little doubt that he is right, though Tyrwhitt would derive it from nunc. Note on Cant. Tales, v. 381." COLLIER.

The original form was doubtless the Saxon for than anes: see Price's note on Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poet. ii. 496, ed. 1824, and Sir F. Madden's Gloss. to Syr Gawayne, &c.

I may notice here that (in comparatively recent writers) the expression" for the once" is sometimes found: "In Dengy Hundred, neare to Maldon, about the beginning of his Maiesties reigne, there fell out an extraordinary iudgement vpon fiue or sixe that plotted a solemne drinking at one of their houses, laid in Beare for the once, drunke healths in a strange manner, and died therof within a few weekes, some sooner, and some later." Woe to Drunkards (a Sermon by S. Ward),

1622, p. 27.

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SCENE 3.-C. p. 240; K. p. 33.

Shall we buy treason, and indent with fears,

When they have lost and forfeited themselves ?"

"i. e. subscribe an indenture, as if under apprehension. This interpretation accords with what Hotspur afterwards says of the king's 'trembling even at the name of Mortimer.' They,' in the next line, refers to Mortimer, and others taken with him. This passage seems to have puzzled nearly all the commentators; and Warburton, John

son, and Steevens, have given explanations equally wide of the mark." COLLIER.

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There never, surely, was a more violent interpretation than that "indent with fears" means "subscribe an indenture, as if under apprehension !"—an interpretation which (to say nothing of the plural fears) is at once disproved by the earlier part of the line. The king here speaks of " treason AND of "fears," of "buying" the former, and of "indenting with" the latter. That "fears" is equivalent to ' objects of fear,' I have not the smallest doubt: compare Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian;

" "Twas time to look about: if I must perish,

Yet shall my fears [i. e. the objects of my fear] go foremost."

Mr. Knight prints;

Act iv. sc. 1.

"Shall we buy treason? and indent with feres," &c. and "explains his reasons for the change in the 6th Illustration to this act,"- 66 reasons" of enormous length, and about as satisfactory as his "reasons" for printing "stayers of sand" in The Merchant of Venice (see p. 56). Neque in mea potestate est ut temperem a risu, neque in tua ut me prohibeas. Quid audio ex te, Titi [Knighti]?"

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ACT II.

SCENE 1.-C. p. 248.

Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog."

The Rev. Mr. Barry suggests to me, that we should read dock for dog,' the error having easily arisen from the mishearing of the word."

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COLLIER.

An unhappy "suggestion;" for "as wet as a dog" is an expression still in use.

The following passage is recommended to the notice of the Rev. Mr. Barry ;

"But many pretty ridiculous aspersions are cast vpon Dogges, so that it would make a Dogge laugh to heare and vnderstand them: As I haue heard a Man say, I am as hot as a Dogge, or, as cold as a

Dogge; I sweat like a Dogge, (when indeed a Dog never sweates), as drunke as a Dogge, hee swore like a Dogge; and one told a Man once, That his Wife was not to be beleeu'd, for shee would lye like a Dogge," &c. The World runnes on Wheeles, p. 232,-Taylor's Workes, ed. 1630.

SCENE 4.-C. p. 274.

"Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou art accompanied for though the camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, so youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears."

"The folio and the later quartos read yet, and thus spoil in some degree the non-appropriateness of the simile, in which the joke may be said to consist. Malone and the modern editors adopt yet.”

COLLIER.

Few things in Mr. Collier's Shakespeare have struck me with so much astonishment as this.

"Malone and the modern editors" followed the folio and the later quartos, because "though" in the preceding part of the sentence proved that "yet" must be the right reading,because Farmer had shewn that the style immediately ridiculed is that of Lyly in his Euphues, where we find; "THOUGH the Camomill the more it is troden and pressed downe, the more it spreadeth, YET the Violet the oftner it is handled and touched, the sooner it withereth and decayeth" (sig. c 3, ed. n. d.), and because they never imagined that Shakespeare intended the acute Falstaff (even when fooling) to blunder like the addle-pated Dogberry.

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SCENE 4.-C. p. 274; K. p. 67.

Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher, and eat blackberries?"

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The allusion,' says Johnson, is to a truant boy, who, unwilling to go to school, and afraid to go home, lurks in the fields, and picks wild fruits.' COLLIER.

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In a little volume recently published we find; "MOOCHER.

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A truant; a blackberry moucher'-a boy who plays truant to pick blackberries." Akerman's Glossary of Provincial Words and Phrases in use in Wiltshire.

SCENE 4.-C. p. 277.

"Exeunt Hostess, FRANCIS, and Bardolph.”

Earlier in this scene (p. 263) is;

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on which "Exit" Mr. Collier rather unnecessarily observes;

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The modern editors make Francis properly re-enter, but they never inform us at what point he goes out again."

In the present passage Mr. Collier sends Francis off the stage, without having previously marked his entrance.

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ACT III.

SCENE 1.-C. p. 288.

Hot. I had rather hear, lady, my brach, howl in Irish.”

Is it possible that Mr. Collier could suppose that "lady" was an address to Lady Percy? The proper punctuation of the speech is;

I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish,—

"Lady" being the name of the brach.

SCENE 3.-C. p. 299.

"the prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup."

So spelt in the old copies; but it may be doubted whether it be not in fact the same word as 'snick-up,' a mere term of contempt. See 'Twelfth-Night,' Vol. iii. p. 356, note 6.” COLLIER.

Mr. Collier (see the note to which he refers) has been misled by Steevens. The two words are quite distinct: snickup is merely an exclamation, equivalent to be hanged;' sneakcup is plainly one who sneaks from his cup.'

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