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Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud;

Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shewn,
Are angels veiling clouds, or roses blown.]

This strange nonsense, made worse by the jumbling together and trans-
posing the lines, I directed Mr. Theobald to read thus:
Fair ladies masked are roses in their bud:

Or angels veil'd in clouds; are roses blown,

Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shewn.

But he, willing to shew how well he could improve a thought, would print it;

Or angel-veiling clouds

i. e. clouds which veil angels; and by this means gave us, as the old proverb says, a cloud for a Juno. It was Shakspeare's purpose to compare a fine lady to an angel; it was Mr. Theobald's chance to compare her to a cloud: and perhaps the ill-bred reader will say a lucky one. However, I supposed the poet could never be so nonsensical as to compare a masked lady to a cloud, though he might compare her mask to one. The Oxford editor, who had the advantage both of this emendation and criticism, is a great deal more subtile and refined, and says it should not be

but

-angels veil'd in clouds,

-—angels vailing clouds,

i. e. capping the sun as they go by him, just as a man vails his bonnet, WARB.

I know not why sir T. Hanmer's explanation should be treated with so much contempt, or why vailing clouds should be capping the sun. Ladies unmasked, says Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting those clouds which obscured their brightness, sink from before them. What is there in this absurd or contemptible? JOHN.

Are angels, veiling clouds,' &c.

Warburton's reading is sufficiently plausible, if we are to understand the veil, or hood, as spoken of, but this I am of opinion is not the case. In that of Hanner, there is a palpable error. 'Unmasked ladies' cannot be said to be like ladies vailing clouds, because vailing is a participle present, and the grammatical construction requires the preterite tense. We must therefore read, if W.'s emendation is rejected, and Hanmer's admitted, angels who have vailed clouds,' and this the measure of the verse will not admit.

We may, however, regulate the passage thus:

Fair ladies mask'd are roses in the bud ;

Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shewn,
Are angels (val'd the clouds): or roses blown.'

I write val'd, (without the i) from the french avaler, to lower, to let down. The editors are mistaken in supposing that veil, or hood is meant. The sense is easy: Ladies, when masked, are roses in the bud: unmask'd, they are as angels who had been hid by clouds."

B.

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Cost. Not so, sir; under correction, sir; I hope it is

not so:

You cannot beg us, sir, I can assure you, sir; we know what we know:

You cannot beg us.] That is, we are not fools; our next relations cannot beg the wardship of our persons and fortunes. One of the legal tests of a natural is to try whether he can number. JOHN.

'You cannot beg us.'

This is very harsh, and the explication is forced. What wardship was to be begged of Costard? We should no doubt read-you cannot bag us;' i. e. you cannot, you must not, scoff at, or disdain us: we know what we know. This is easy and natural, and agrees with the whole of the reasoning.

To bag, or bagge, to disdain, see Chaucer.

In a pamphlet published in Cromwell's time, called, A Man in the Moon, discovering a World of Knavery under the Sun, is the following passage:

The junto will go near to give us the bagge, [scoff or despise us] if a brave Oliver come not suddenly to relieve them.' B.

King. The extreme parts of time extremely forms
All causes to the purpose of his speed;

And often, at his very loose, decides

That which long process could not arbitrate:

And often, at his very loose, decides, &c.] At his very loose, may mean, at the moment of his parting, i. e. of his getting loose, or away from us.

STEEV.

• At his very loose decides.' 'Loose' is here employed in the first instance, in the sense of free, unfettered, and which is certainly characteristic of time. Further, and by a licence of the poet, it signifies loose in opinion, not having come to a resolution in any matter, which matter [that which long process could not arbitrate] is decided by chance. B.

Ros. We did not quote them so.

We did not coat them so.] We should read, quote, esteem, reckon, though our old writers, spelling by the ear, probably wrote cote, as it was pronounced. JOHN.

'We did not coat them so.'

How can quote' stand for esteem, reckon. We must read with the

old copy, cote, i. e. mark. The meaning is, we did not note or mark them as such. See my remark on the word cote, in a former scene.

B.

Ros. You must be purged too, your sins are rank;
You are attaint with fault and perjury;

Are rank.] The folio and 4to, 1631, read-are rack'd. STEEV.
Are rank.'

'Rack'd' should, perhaps, be reck'd, i. e. Cast up, taken account of, valuation made of them.

Ros.

B.

Then, if sickly ears,

Deaf'd with the clamors of their own dear groans,
Will hear your idle scorns,

Dear groans.] Dear should here, as in many other places, be dere, sad, odious. JOHN.

I believe dear, in this place, as in many others, means only immediate, consequential. So, already in this scene:

-full of dear guiltiness. STEEV.

'Dear' should in this place assuredly be dere. We must also read dere guiltiness. B.

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An Answer to a late Book written against the the Plain of Troy,' by Major Rennell.-Conjectuarred and Reverend Dr. Bentley, relating to ral Criticism on Virgil.-Carmen Toghrai.-Genme MS. Notes on Callimachus. Together with ders.- Arabic Proverb.--Biographical Memoir of u Examination of Mr. Bennet's Appendix to S. J. Griesbach, late Professor of Divinity at Jena, e said Book. No. 111.-Biblical Synonyma. No. by Fr. Aug. Kothe.-Manuscripts Classical, Bib1.-Inquiry into the Causes of the Diversity of lical and Biblico-Oriental. No. v.-Conjecture e human Character in various Ages, Nations, and on a Passage in the Cato Major, vindicated.dividuals; by Professor Scott. No. v.-Disser- Notice of C. A. Klotzii Opuscula varii Argumenti. tio T. S. Bayeri de Origine et priscis Scytharum-Bibliography.-Modern Words derived from dibus.-On the Attic Months, &c. &c. &c.- the East.-On the Affinity between the German nswer to Mr. Bellamy's Essay on the Hebrew and English Dialects.-Error in the Translation oints, and on the Integrity of the Hebrew Text. of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, by Dr. Vin -Answer to the ‘Remarks on the Topography of || cent.-Defence of the Common Reading of a

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