"It is no vicious blot, nor other foulness, The original copies read :— "It is no vicious blot, murther, or foulness, No unchaste action or dishonour'd step." The corrections are in Mr. Collier's folio. Mr. Collier says that " Cordelia could never contemplate that anybody would suspect her of murder." Step, Mr. Collier considers an insignificant word. ACT I., Sc. 1. There is great plausibility in the nor 66 it. "The knave turns fool that runs away, JOHNSON, AND COLLIER'S FOLIO. "The fool turns knave that runs away, There is no doubt that the original does not express the meaning intended. ACT II., Sc. 4. Capell's correction of one line is quite sufficient to retain the true meaning. "Ask her forgiveness? Do you but mark how this becomes the mouth : Dear daughter, I confess that I am old." ACT II., Sc. 4. The original has "becomes the house." Mr. Collier's corrected folio has mouth; and Mr. Collier asks, "What has the house' to do with it? They are talking outside Gloster's castle, and not in, nor referring to, any habitation." VOL. VI. Capell long ago answered the question which Mr. Collier puts in such a prosaic form: "This is one of the lines that mark Shakspere. The house is an expression worthy of his genius. Fathers are not the heads only of a house or family, but its representatives; they are the house." Сс GLOSSARY. ADDITION. Act II., Sc. 2. "If thou deny'st the least syllable of thy addition." Addition, in a legal document, is the particular description of an individual. The attempts of the commentators to explain the addition bestowed by Kent on the Steward are very unsatisfactory, and several, no doubt, are of the kind we now call slang. AROINT. Act III., Sc. 4. "And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!" Aroint is used here, and in 'Macbeth' (Act I., Sc. 3), by Shakspere, and by no other old writer, nor is it found in any dictionary. Much dispute has arisen as to its exact meaning and derivation. The late Mr. Thomas Rodd enabled us to give the following happy explanation of it in the Pictorial Shak pere,' which he there supported by many collateral reasons. He says "it is conjectured that it is a compound of ar yr aer, and hynt: the first a very ancient word, common to the Greek and Gothic languages in the sense of to go; the second derived from the Gothic, and still in common use under the same form, and with the same meaning, hint, behind, &c., in English, and hint or hynt in German." Hence the meaning is clearly, "Go or get behind me," as in the New Testament, "Get thee behind me, Satan." BALLOW. Act IV., Sc. 6. 66 'Whether your costard or my ballow be the harder." Grose in his 'Provincial Glossary' gives ballow as the northcountry word for pole. Edgar is speaking in the Somersetshire dialect. BANS. Act II., Sc. 3. "Sometime with lunatic bans." Bans are curses: to be under the ban of the Church was to be excluded from all religious rites. BEWRAY. Act II., Sc. 1. "He did bewray his practice." Bewray is to reveal, to disclose. BLOCK. Act IV., Sc. 6. "This a good block!" Block, in Shakspere's time, was the term for a hat. Steevens conjectures that Lear takes his hat in his hand when he says, "I will preach to thee;" and, disliking the fashion, exclaims, "This a good block!" and then starts off, from the association, to shoeing the horses with felt. BOURN. Act IV., Sc. 6. "From the dread summit of this chalky bourn." Bourne, from the French borne, is properly a boundary. In a previous passage,— "Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me," it is used for a rivulet, which is also a common meaning, No bourn 'twixt his and mine." BRACH. Act I., Sc. 4. "The lady brach may stand by the fire." And Act III., Sc. 6, Brown bills-bills for bill-men-were a class of infantry. "Lo, with a band of bowmen and of pikes, Brown bills and targetiers." CHARACTER. Act II., Sc. 1. "My very character." Character is handwriting, used thus more than once by Shakspere. In 'As You Like It' (Act III., Sc. 2), we have "My thoughts I'll character." CLOTHIER'S YARD. Act IV., Sc. 6. "Draw me a clothier's yard." Clothier's yard is the arrow of that length, as in 'Chevy "An arrow of a cloth yard long Up to the head drew he." “When he, compact, and flattering his displeasure.” Compact is used in the sense of in agreement with, in confederacy with. CONVEY. Act I., Sc. 2. "Convey the business as I shall find means.” Convey was frequently used in a bad sense; it here means tr manage, to conduct. CROW-KEEPER. Act IV., Sc. 6. 66 That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper." The rustic who kept crows from corn--one unpractised in the right use of the bow-was the crow-keeper. CURIOSITY. Act I., Sc. 1. 66 Curiosity in neither can make choice." Curiosity is used in the sense of curious inquiry, exact scrutiny. In Scene 2, where Edmund speaks of the "curiosity of nations," the meaning is more that of fastidiousness. EACH. Act IV., Sc. 6. "Ten masts at each make not the altitude." Ten masts at each may mean placed at the end of each other, and in this sense Voss and Schlegel translate it. Some, however, think each a typographical error for reach. We can find no other example of a similar use of at each, but the phrase conveys the meaning. "And wav'd like the enridged sea." Enridged, which appears in the quarto, is a more poetical "Till the wild waves will have him seen no more, ESSAY. Act I., Sc. 2. "As an essay or taste of my virtue." Essay, assay, and say, were alike used for such proof as was made by the assayer of coin, or the taster at royal tables. In Act V., Sc. 3, we have say in the same sense :- "And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes." EXHIBITION. Act I., Sc. 2. "Confin'd to exhibition." Exhibition is allowance. See 'Two Gentlemen of Verona FELL. Act V., Sc. 3. "Flesh and fell." Fell is the skin, usually applied to that of the sheep, whence fellmonger. FLAW. Act II., Sc. 4. "Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws." It is suggested by Douce that in Shakspere's time a flaw might signify a fragment as well as a crack; but it may also mean the flaw which is commonly called a star on glass, by which, though it is shivered, it does not immediately fall to pieces. FORE-DONE. Act V., Sc. 3. "Your eldest daughters have fore-done themselves." Fore-done, from the Anglo-Saxon fordon, is destroyed. Fordid has been used previously by Edmund in this scene in the same sense. GALLOW. Act III., Sc. 2. "Gallow the very wanderers." To gallow is to scare, to annoy. GERMENS. Act III., Sc. 1. See 'Macbeth.' "All germens spill at once." GONE. Act IV., Sc. 6. "Gone, sir. Farewell." Gloster has previously said to Edgar, "Go thou further off," and after bidding him farewell, Edgar says, "Gone, sir." Schlegel translates it in this sense, but in most modern editions the reading is-" Gone, sir?" GOOD YEARS. Act V., Sc. 3. "The good years shall devour them." Good years is usually printed goujeers. See 'Much Ado about HALCYON. Act II., Sc. 2. "Turn their halcyon beaks." The halcyon is the kingfisher. It was a popular opinion that the bird, if suspended, would turn its beak towards the point from which the wind blew. Marlowe, in his 'Jew of Malta' (Act I., Sc. 1), has "But how stands the wind? Into what quarter peers my halcyon's bill?" HEFTED. Act II., Sc. 4. "Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give." Hefted, from the Anglo-Saxon to have or to hold, of which the past participle is haefd. The haft of a knife is that part |