I, that am Deform'd, unfinish'd, fent before my time Richard III. A. 1, S. 1. This is the excellent foppery of the world! that, when we are fick in fortune (after the furfeit of our own behaviour), we make guilty of our difafters, the fun, the moon, and the ftars; as if we were villains by neceffity; fools, by heavenly compulfion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by fpherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an inforc'd obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrufting on. Lear, A. 1, S. 2. Thou art by no means valiant; For thou doft fear the foft and tender fork Of a poor worm'. Meafure for Meafure, A. 3, S. 1.. 1 the foft and tender fork Of a poor worm.] Worm is ufed for any creeping thing or ferpent. Shakespeare fuppofes falfely, but according to the vulgar notion, that a ferpent wounds with his tongue, and that his tongue is forked. He confounds reality and fiction; a ferpent's tongue is foft, but not forked nor hurtful. If it could hurt, it could not be foft. JOHNSON. Shakespeare could never fuppofe that a ferpent wounds with his tongue, or he would not have faid, the "foft and tender "fork." He infinuates that the tongue of the ferpent is exactly the reverse of hurtful; but that men are apt to be frightened by appearance, or alarmed from vulgar prejudice. "Fork" is not forked, but ufed fimply for tongue. A. B. WORT H. -'Twas you incens'd the rabble: Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth, Will not have earth to know. Coriolanus, A. 4, S. 2. That what we have we prize not to the worth, Much ado about nothing, A. 4, S. 1. WRON G. The wrongs I have done thee, ftir Afresh within me: and these thy offices, So rarely kind, are as interpreters Of my behind-hand flacknefs! Winter's Tale, A. 5, S. 1. The wrong I did myfelf: which was fo much, Of stern injuftice and confufed wrong. Do wrong to none. I King John, A. 5, S. 2. Love all, trust a few, All's well that ends well, A. 1, S. 1. we rack the value.] i. e. We exaggerate the value. The allufion is to rack-rents. It were better to read, STEEVENS. A. B. Y. YOUTH. ; W all the youth of England are on fire, And filken dalliance in the wardrobe lies Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought Reigns folely in the breast of every man : They fell the pafture now to buy the horse; Following the mirror of all Chriftian kings, With winged heels, as English mercuries. Henry V. A. 2, Chorus. By his light, Did all the chivalry of England move To do brave acts; he was, indeed, the glafs Henry IV. P. 2, A. 2, S. 3. There is my hand; You fall be as a father to my youth: My voice fhall found as you do prompt mine ear; To your well-practis'd wife directions. Henry IV. P. 2, A. 5, S. 2. Turn two mincing steps Into a manly ftride; and fpeak of frays, Like a fine bragging youth; and tell quaint lies, Which I denying, they fell fick and dy'd. Merchant of Venice, A. 3, S. 4. In In her youth There is a prone and fpeechlefs dialect, Such as moves men. Meafure for Measure, A. 1, S. 3. It is a pretty youth;-not very pretty :— But, fure, he's proud; and yet his pride becomes him: He'll make a proper man. As you like it, A. 3, S. 5. At which time would I, being but a moonifh youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing, and liking; proud, fantastical, apish, shallow, inconftant, full of tears, full of finiles; for every paffion fomething, and for no paffion truly any thing. As you like it, A. 3, S. 2. In my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; Therefore my age is as a lufty winter, Frofty, but kindly. As you like it, A. 2, S. 3. I beseech your majefty to make it Natural rebellion, done i' the blade of youth; O'erbears it, and burns on. All's well that ends well, A. 5, S. 3. Such extenuation let me beg, As in reproof of many tales devis'd,— I By fmiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers, may, for fome things true, wherein my youth Hath faulty wander'd and irregular, Find pardon on my true fubmiffion. Henry IV. P. 1, A. 3, S. 2. O, Harry, thou haft robb'd me of my youth: I better brook the lofs of brittle life, Than thofe proud titles thou haft won of me; They They wound my thoughts, worse than thy fword my flesh, 1 But thought's the flave of life, and life time's fool. Ceafe to perfuade, my loving Protheus; Two Gentlemen of Verona, A. I, S. 1. -If the muft teem, Create her child of fpleen; that it may live, I Lear, A. 1, S. 4. thwart.] Thwart, as a noun adjective, is not frequent in our language; it is however to be found in Promos and Caffandra, 1578, "Sith fortune thwarte doth cross my joys with "care!" HENDERSON. Thwart is an adjective, and is very common with the earlier writers: it is fometimes employed as a fubftantive, "thwart" for an abortion. 2 Turn all her mother's pains, and benefits, as "a A. B. To laughter and contempt.] Her "mother's pains" here fignifies, not bodily fufferings, or the throes of child-birth, but maternal cares; the folicitude of a mother for her child. Mr. Roderic is mistaken in fuppofing that the fex of this child is afcertained by the word her, which clearly relates, not to Goneril's iffue, but to herself. "Her mother's pains" means, the pains fhe takes as a mother. MALONE. Mr. Malone's obfervation is very juft. I would, however, read " "mother-pains"-the fenfe will then be clearer. It is the mark of the genitive cafe which obfcures the meaning. A. B. There |