The old editions have it courtier's nose; and this undoubtedly is the true reading and for these reasons: First, in the new reading there is a vi cious repetition in this fine speech the same thought having been given in line 25:noncés “O'er \lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees: 1 Nor can it be objected that there will be the same fault if we read courtiers, it having been said before 1.23 ;. On courtiers' knees, that dream on courtsies straight;" because they are shown in two places under different views in the first, their foppery; in the se cond, their rapacity is ridiculed. Secondly, in our author's time, a court-solicitation was called, simply a suit, and a process, a suit at law, to distinguish it from the other. "The King" (says an anonymous contemporary writer of the life of Sir William Cecil) called him [Sir William Cecil and after long talk with him, being much delighted with his answers, willed his father to FIND [i. e. to smell out] A SUIT for him. Whereupon he which the Came SUITER for the reversion of the Custos office in the Common Pleas; willingly granted, it being the first SUIT The had in his life." Indeed our poet has very rarely turned his satire against lawyers and law proceedings, the common topick of later writers for, to observe it to the honour of the English judicatures, they preserved the purity and simplicity of their first institution, long after chicane had over-run all the other laws of Europe. ACCO VIL TOWARBURTON. In these lines Dr. Warburton has very justly restored the old reading, courtier's nose, and bas but explained the passage with his usual learning; I do not think he is so happy in his endeavour to justify Shakspeare from the charge of a vicious repetition in introducing the courtier twice. The second folio, I observe, reads:/ On countries knees which has led me to conjecture, that the line ought to be read thus: On counties knees, that dream on court - Counties I understand to signify noblemen in I think, is general. Paris, who, in one place, County called Earl, is most commonly in this play. The Countie Egmond is so called more than once in Holinshed, p. 1150, and in the Burleigh papers, Vol. I. p. 204. See also The Coun tie Palatine Lowys. However, perhaps, it is as probable that the repetition of the courtier, which offends us in this passage, may be owing (not toss any error of the press, but) to the players having jumbled together the varieties of several editions, as they certainty have done in other parts of the play. T todamay at frest TYRWHITT. P. adoled from the excellence of the To 1.Spanish blades,] A sword is called a 2 letan steel. So Grotius: Gladius Toletanus “Unda Tagi non est uno celebranda metallo; ,,༩! 3ང་ JOHNSON In the passage quoted from Grotius, alio has been constantly printed instead of uno, which makes it nonsense; the whole point of the couplet® depending on 'that word. "I have corrected it from 2911975 P. 112, first 1. Of healths five fathom deep;] So, in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: - troth, Sir, my master and sir Goslin are guzzling; they are dabbling together fathom deep. The knight has drunk so much health to the gentleman yonder, on his knees, that he hath almost lost the use of his legs." MALONE. * P. 1. 6. And bakes the elf-locks &c.] This was a common superstition; and seems to have had its rise from the horrid disease called the Plica Polonica. WARBURTON. So, in Heywood's Iron age, 1632: "And when I shook these locks, now "As bak'd in blood," P. 112, last but one 1. Direct my sail!] I have restored this reading from the elder quarto, as being more congruous to the metaphor in the preceding line. Suit is the reading of the folio. STEEVENS. Suit is the corrupt reading of the quarto 1599, from which it got into all the subsequent copies. MALONE. Direct my suit!] Guide the sequal of the adventure. JOHNSON. 1. 5. -- P. 112, last 1. Strike, drum.] Here the folio adds: They march about the stage, and serving men come forth with their napkins, STEEVENS. he shift a trencher!] Trench were still used by persons of good fashion our author's time. In the houshold book of the Earls of Northumberland, compiled at the begin ning of the same century, it appears that they were common to the tables of the first nobility. PERCY ers in To shift a trencher was technical. So, in The Miseries of Enforst Marriage, 1608, Sig. E 3: - learne more manners, stand at your brothers backe, was to shift a trencher neately," &c. 0G REED They were common even in the time of Charles I. They continued common much longer in mauy public societies, particularly in colleges and iuns of court; and are still retained at Lincoln's-Inn. NICHOLS Item, On the books of the Stationers' Company, in the year 1554, is the following entry: payd for x dosyn of trenchers. xxi d." STEEVENS. MĹ, 113, 1. 10. 41. remove the court-cupboard,] I am not very certain that I know the exact signification of court-cupboard. Perhaps it served the purpose of what we call at present the side-board. It is however frequently mentioned in the old plays: Thus in Chapman's May-day, 1611., "Courtcupboards planted with flaggons, cans, cups, beakers, &c.k Two of these court-cupboards are still in Stationers Hall. STEEVENS. The use which to this day is made of those cupboards is exactly described in the above-quoted line of Chapman; to display at public festivals the flaggons, cans, cups, beakers, and other antique silver vessels of the company, some of which (with the names of the donors inscribed on them) are remarkably large. NICHOLS. Byremove the court-cupboard," the speaker means, I think, remove the flaggons, cups, ewers, 莲 &c. contained in it. A court-cupboard was not strictly what we now call a side-board, but ja recess fitted up with shelves to contain plate, &c. for the use of the table. It was afterwards called a buffet, and continued to be used to the time of Pope: "The rich buffet well colour'd serpents grace, "And gaping Tritons spew to wash your face." The 'side-board was, I apprehend, introduced in 'the present century. MALONE, A court-cupboard was a moveable; a Beufet, a fixture. The former was open, and made of plain oak; the latter had folding doors, and was both painted and gilded on the inside. STEEVENS. · P. 113, 1. 12. —a piece of marchpane; } March pane was a confection made of pistache nuts, almonds, and sugar, &c. and in high esteem in Shakspeare's time; as appears from the account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainment in Cambridge. It is said that the university presented Sir William Cecil, their chancellor, with two pair of gloves, a marchpane, and two sugar-loaves. Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, Vol. II. p. 29. GREY. Marchpane was a kind of sweet bread or biscuit called by some almond-cake. Hermolaus Bar barus terms it mazapanis, vulgarly Martius pa nis. G.marcepain and massepan, It. marzapane, il maçapan. B. marcepeyn, ie, massa-pura But, as few understood the meaning of this term, it began to be generally though corruptly called massepeyn, marcepeyn, martsepeyn; and in consequence of this mistake of theirs, it soon took the name of martius panis, an appellation transferred afterwards into other languages. See Junius. HAWKINS Marchpane was a constant article in the deserts of our |