You embrace your charge too willingly.

I think that Douce is wrong, and that Dr. Johnson's explanation of your charge is right.

P. 272.-214.-408.

Bene. Or do you play the flouting Jack; to tell us Cupid
is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter?

I believe Collins is right.

P. 283.-222.-420.

Don John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a
rose in his grace.

I think Malone is right.

P. 289.-226.-428.

Marg. I say my prayers aloud.

Bene. I love you the better; the hearers may cry, amen.

I think it extremely probable that the regulation proposed by Theobald, and the Author of the Revisal, is right. So Malone once thought; but it appears he thinks otherwise now, for he has omitted his own note, as well as that of Theobald for what reason, as he has not informed us, I cannot guess.

P. 291-227.—430.

Beat. Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool;
only his gift is in devising impossible slanders.

Impossible is, I think, clearly right, and rightly explained by Dr. Johnson.

P. 293.-230.-433.

Bene. I am not so reputed: it is the base, the bitter dis-
position of Beatrice, that puts the world into her person,
and so gives me out.

I am not sure that Dr. Johnson's emendation is necessary.

P. 224.-230.-433.

Re-enter Don Pedro, Hero, and Leonato.

I do not think Hero and Leonato should enter here. I think they should enter afterwards with Claudio and Beatrice.

P. 295.-231.-435.

Bene. She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that
I was the prince's jester; that I was duller than a great
thaw; huddling jest upon jest, with such impossible con-
veyance, upon me, that I stood like a man at a mark,
with a whole army shooting at me.

Of the several interpretations given of impossible conveyance, I prefer Malone's; but I have some doubt whether impossible be the right

word.

P. 300.-235.-441.

D. Pedro. I will, in the interim, undertake one of Her-~
cules' labours; which is, to bring signior Benedick, and
the lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, one with
the other.

Mountain of affection is I think rightly explained by Steevens.

Bora.

P. 302.-237.-444.

offer them instances; which shall bear no

less likelihood, than to see me at her chamber-window;
hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me
Claudio.

I incline (as at present advised) to adopt Mr. Theobald's emendation.

P..312.-244.-457.

D. Pedro. She doth well; if she should make tender of
her love, 'tis very possible he'll scorn it; for the man,
as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit.

Dr. Johnson is right.

P. 318.-249-464.

Hero. Why, you speak truth: I never yet saw man,
How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd,
But she would spell him backward: if fair-faced,
She'd swear, the gentleman should be her sister:
If black, why, nature, drawing of an antick,
Made a foul blot: if tall, a lance ill-headed;
If low, an agate very vilely cut.

Malone is right.

P. 323.-253.--470.

D. Pedro. What? sigh for the tooth-ach?
Leon. Where is but a humour, or a worm?

Modern editions have which is but, &c. which I think is right. Sed Q.

P. 324.-254.-473.

Claud. Nay, but I know who loves him.

D. Pedro. That would I know too; I warrant, one that

knows him not.

Claud. Yes, and his ill conditions; and, in despite of all,
dies for him.

D. Pedro. She shall be buried with her face upwards.

Though Theobald's emendation is very plausibly supported by Dr. Johnson, I doubt (with Warburton) whether any change be necessary : Don Pedro may mean no more, than if she dies, as you say, she shall be buried as other people are buried.

Scene II.
P.-256.

This should be Scene III. I note this to show that this edition is not free from errors.

Dogb. Well, masters, good night: an there be any matter
of weight chances, call up me: keep your fellows' counsels
and your own, and good night.

It does not prove it.

I

Bora.

P. 333,4.-261.-483.

like the shaven Hercules in the smirch'd

worm-eaten tapestry, where his codpiece seems as massy
as his club?

agree with Mr. Steevens.

P. 340.-265-491.

Marg. Get you some of this distill'd Carduus Benedic-
tus, and lay it to your heart; it is the only thing for a
qualm.

Hero. There thou prick'st her with a thistle.

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

Marg. Moral? no, by my troth, I have no moral mean-
ing; I meant, plain holy-thistle.

Dr. Johnson's explanation of moral is indubitably the true one. What Steevens means by his note I cannot discover.

Dogb.

P. 342.-267.-494.

as they say, When the age is in, the wit

is out; God help us! it is a world to see! So in the Taming of the Shrew,

Oh, you are novices! 'tis a world to see,
How tame, when men and women are alone,
A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew.

Ibid. 495.

An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind.

"The note on this passage, (Mr. Steevens's,) informing us that Shakespeare may have caught "this idea from the common seal of the Knights "Templars, the device of which was two riding upon one horse, is truly in the spirit of a man,

"who has lost his own ideas in the pursuit of "those of antiquity; for the sentence in the text, "which seems proverbial, must have arisen to the "meanest peasant, from an object almost every "day before his eyes." HERON's Letters of Literature, p. 107.

The justice of this animadversion I think no sane person can deny.

P. 346.-270.-499.

Hero. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you?

Claud. Out on thy seeming! I will write against it:
You seem to me as Dian in her orb.

I think clearly we should read seem'd.

Leon.

P. 349-272-502.

Griev'd I, I had but one?

Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?

O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?

I think Steevens's is the right explanation.

P. 350.-273.-503,

But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd,
And mine that I was proud on.

Dr. Johnson seems clearly right.

P. 351.-505.

Friar. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of? Warburton's note appears to me very just.

That what we have we prize not to the worth,
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack the value; then we find
The virtue, that possession would not show us.

Virtutem incolumen odimus;

Sublatam ex oculis quærimus invidi.- Hox.