"So heavy sad,

As though unthinking on no thought I think."

MS. Corrector.

As though in thinking on no thought I think."

The original has

"As though on thinking," &c.

Mr. Collier says that "in thinking" seems just the opposite of what was intended, and that the Queen was so "unthinking" as not to think.

(ACT II., Sc. 2.) JOHNSON.

It is not necessary to write
"in thinking," for, "on thinking'
means thinking on.
The poor

Queen is not "unthinking," but
thinks too much-her grief made
her think, but she had no defi-
nite thought. A modern French
writer, speaking of the effects of
the English climate, says,
"You
are thoughtful without thinking."
The MS. Corrector had no taste
for metaphysical problems.

"Boys, with women's voices,

Strive to speak big, and clasp their feeble joints
In stiff unwieldy armour 'gainst thy crown."

The Corrector is bold here. The original has clap for clasp, female for feeble, and arms for armour.

(ACT III., Sc. 2.)

Pope substituted clasp without any reason. The boys' joints might be girlish, but not necessarily feeble; and armour is a needless substitute for arms. this very play we have"Thus knightly clad in arms."

"1 LADY. I could weep, madam, would it do you good. QUEEN. And I could weep, would weeping do me good."

In all editions Pope's 66 emendation" was followed, till the editor of the 'Pictorial Shakspere' followed the original

"And I could sing," &c.

In

(ACT III., Sc. 4.) POPE. The Queen has been weeping and when the Lady says, “Madam, I'll sing," the Queen replies, that weeping would please her better. But in her rejoinder, "I could sing," she clearly means, If my griefs could be removed by weeping, I should be ready to sing,

"And never borrow any tear of thee."

Mr. White, in his 'Shakespeare's Scholar,' adopts our read ing.

GLOSSARY.

APRICOCKS. Act III., Sc. 4.

'Go, bind up thou yon dangling apricocks."

Our modern name apricot is from the French abricot, but the name came with the fruit from Persia-bricoc. Florio, in his New World of Words,' has "Berricocoli - Apricock plumbes," and Phillips, in his 'World of Words,' spells it Apricock.

ATONE. Act I., Sc. 1. To cause you to be at one, to be agreed. There are several instances of this use of the word in Shakspere. BAND. Act I., Sc. 1.

66

According to thy oath and band."

Band and bond are each the past participle passive of the verb to bind; hence the substantive band, that by which a thing is confined, and bond, that by which one is constrained, are the same.

BASE-COURT. Act III., Sc. 3.

"My lord, in the base-court he doth attend."

Base-court, from the French bas cour, is the lower court. BOOT. Act I., Sc. 1.

"There is no boot."

Boot is here used as compensation, from the Anglo-Saxon bot, with advantage, something in addition. The phrase means there is no remedy, nothing to be substituted.

BROOCH. Act V., Sc. 5.

"Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world."

The brooch was, it seems, out of fashion as an ornament in Shakspere's time. In 'All's Well that Ends Well,' we have "the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not now." Richard, therefore, likens love to a strange brooch, a thing of value out of fashion.

CAITIFF. Act I., Sc. 2.

"A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford." Caitiff originally meant captive. Wickliffe has "he sithynge on high ledde caityftie caytif (captivity captive). As the captive became formerly a slave, the word acquired a more degraded signification, that of a person in a servile con

dition, a mean creature. The French chetif had anciently the meaning of captif.

CHOPPING. Act V., Sc. 3.

"The chopping French we do not understand."

Chopping is changing, derived from cheaping, trafficking. A
chopping wind is a changeable unsteady wind. We think
Malone mistakes in explaining the word by jabbering. The
Duchess would say we do not understand" the chopping
French, which changes the meaning of words.

COMPASSIONATE. Act I., Sc. 3.

"It boots thee not to be compassionate." Compassionate is here used in the sense of complaining, perhaps the only instance of its being so used.

"Where then, alas! may I complain myself?"

The verb is here used in the sense of the French se plaindre. CONVEYERS. Act IV., Sc. 1.

Conveyer was sometimes used in an ill sense, as a fraudulent appropriation of property. Pistol uses the verb as a polite name for stealing: "Convey the wise it call;" and in Tindall's works we have, "What say you of this crafty conveyer, which feareth not to juggle with the Holy Scripture?" DEAR. Act I., Sc. 3.

"The dateless limit of thy dear exile."

The old English verb to dear is from the Anglo-Saxon der-ian, to hurt, to do mischief; whence dearth, that which hurteth, dereth, or maketh dear; what was spared was thence called dear, precious, costly, greatly coveted. In the expression dear exile, we have the primitive meaning of to dere, while in dear blood, in the previous speech of King Richard we have the secondary meaning.

DESPISED. Act II., Sc. 3.

"And ostentation of despised arms." The ostentation of arms which we despise. DESIGN. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Justice design the victor's chivalry." Design is here used in the sense of designate, point out by a token.

EAR. Act III., Sc. 2.

"To ear the land that have some hope to grow."

To ear the land is to plough it. In Shakspere's dedication of 'Venus and Adonis,' we have, "Never after ear so barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest." Ear is

equivalent to the Latin arare, to plough, to till. Earable is arable.

EARTH. Act III., Sc. 2.

"Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand.”

The repeated use of the word earth in this speech, seems to indicate that Shakspere employs the word in the sense of inheritance, possession, "my kingdom." Mr. Whiter, in his Etymological Dictionary,' has shown that the word heir is derived from earth. "The Latin hæres, hæred-is, or, as it was anciently written, eres, is the person who possesses, or is destined to possess, the certain spot of land, or of earth, hertha, herda, &c." In 'Romeo and Juliet,' when Capulet says

"She is the hopeful lady of my earth,"

there is little doubt that he means that Juliet is his heiress. EXPEDIENT. Act I., Sc. 4.

'Expedient manage must be made."

Prompt, disengaged from entanglement. See 'King John.' FAVOURS. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"The favours of these men."

The features, the countenances. We still use the phrase" an ill-favoured man."

FORFEND. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"O, forfend it, God."

Forfend is equivalent to forbid, which is the word used in the folio; but forfend is the reading of the older quarto, and we adopt the less common word.

FOIL. Act I., Sc. 3.

"A foil, wherein thou art to set."

Foil, or foyl, is the thin plate or leaf of metal used in setting jewellery.

HALLOWMAS. Act V., Sc. 1.

"Sent back like Hallowmas."

Hallowmas is the first of November, contrasted with "sweet
May."

HEAD.

Act III., Sc. 3.

"For taking so the head."

Johnson thinks this means taking undue liberties; Douce believes that it means taking away the sovereign's chief title, to which opinion we incline.

ILL-ERECTED. Act V., Sc. 1.

"To Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower."

A tower erected for ill-for evil-purposes.

IMP. Act II., Sc. 1.

"Imp out our drooping country's broken wing."

To imp is to graft, to insert. To imp a hawk was to supply artistically such wing feathers as were dropped or forced out by accident.

"Or any other ground inhabitable."

Inhabitable is here used for uninhabitable, unhabitable. Jonson and Taylor the Water-poet both use the word in this sense, strictly according to its Latin derivation. Habitable and its converse present no difficulty to a Frenchman, and the Norman origin of much of our language would justify this use of the word.

INHERIT US. Act I., Sc. 1.

"It must be great, that can inherit us."

Inherit us is here used for to cause to receive. Inherit was formerly used in the sense of to receive generally, as well as to inherit as an heir.

INN. Act V., Sc. 1.

"Thou most beauteous inn."

An inn was originally a mansion. We have still the Inns of Court; Audley End, in Essex, the seat of Lord Braybrooke, is properly Audley Inn. We believe, in opposition to Monk Mason, that the Queen does not mean to distinguish between two classes of houses of entertainment, but between a public house and a "beauteous" mansion.

JACK O' THE CLOCK. Act V., Sc. 5.

"While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock." This was an automaton figure which was moved by the clock machinery, the last specimen of which in London was the two figures which struck the bell at St. Dunstan's church, by Temple Bar, one of the objects of wonder to gaping rustics, and which the ruthless hand of improvement swept away several years back.

JAUNCING. Act V., Sc. 5.

JEST.

"Spur-gall'd, and tir'd by jauncing Bolingbroke."

Jauncing, jaunting, or hurriedly moving. It is possible, how-
ever, that jauncing may be a contraction of joyauncing.
Act I., Sc. 3.

"As gentle and as jocund, as to jest."

A jest was sometimes used to signify a mask or pageant; therefore the sense in which Mowbray here uses it is, to play a part in a mask.