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Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck," Clambering the walls to eye him: Stalls, bulks, windows,

Are smother'd up, leads fill'd, and ridges hors'd With variable complexions; all agreeing

In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens1 Do press among the popular throngs, and puff To win a vulgar station: our veil'd dames

Maux, a corruption of malkin, is a low term, still current in several counties, and always indicative of a coarse vulgar wench. STEEVENS.

• Her richest lockram &c.] Lockram was some kind of cheap linen. Greene, in his Vision, describing the dress of a man, says:

"His ruffe was of fine lockeram, stitched very faire with Coventry blue."

Again, in The Spanish Curate of Beaumont and Fletcher, Diego says:

"I give per annum two hundred ells of lockram, "That there be no straight dealings in their linnens." Again, in Glapthorne's Wit in a Constable, 1639:

"Thou thought'st, because I did wear lockram shirts, "I had no wit." STEEVENS.

9 her reechy neck,] Reechy is greasy, sweaty. So, in Hamlet: "" a pair of reechy kisses." Laneham, speaking of "three pretty puzels" in a morris-dance, says they were "az bright az a breast of bacon," that is, bacon hung in the chimney: and hence reechy, which in its primitive signification is smoky, came to imply greasy. RITSON.

1-seld-shown flamens-] i. e. priests who seldom exhibit themselves to publick view. The word is used in Humour out of Breath, a comedy, by John Day, 1607:

The

"O seld-seen metamorphosis."

same adverb likewise occurs in the old play of Hieronimo "Why is not this a strange and seld-seen thing?" Seld is often used by ancient writers for seldom. STEEVENS. -a vulgar station:] A station among the rabble. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

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"A vulgar comment will be made of it." MALONE. A vulgar station, I believe, signifies only a common standingplace, such as is distinguished by no particular convenience.

STEEVENS.

3

Commit the war of white and damask, in
Their nicely-gawded cheeks, to the wanton spoil
Of Phoebus' burning kisses: such a pother,
As if that whatsoever god, who leads him,
Were slily crept into his human powers,

3 Commit the war of white and damask, in

Their nicely-gawded cheeks,] Dr. Warburton, for war, absurdly reads ware. MALONE.

Has the commentator never heard of roses contending with lilies for the empire of a lady's cheek? The opposition of colours, though not the commixture, may be called a war.

So, in Shakspeare's Tarquin and Lucrece:

"The silent war of lilies and of roses,

JOHNSON.

"Which Tarquin view'd in her fair face's field.”

Again, in The Taming of the Shrew:

"Such war of white and red," &c.

Again, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 1040: "For with the rose colour strof hire hewe."

Again, in Damætas Madrigal in Praise of his Daphnis, by John Wootton; published in England's Helicon, 1600: "Amidst her cheekes the rose and lilly strive." Again, in Massinger's Great Duke of Florence:

the lillies

" Contending with the roses in her cheek." STEEVENS. Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis :

"To note the fighting conflict of her hue,

"How white and red each other did destroy."

MALONE.

Cleaveland introduces this, according to his quaint manner:

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her cheeks,

"Where roses mix: no civil war

"Between her York and Lancaster.' Farmer.

As if that whatsoever god,] That is, as if that god who leads him, whatsoever god he be. JOHNSON.

So, in our author's 26th Sonnet:

"Till whatsoever star that guides my moving,
"Points on me graciously with fair aspéct."

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

66

he hath fought to-day,

"As if a god in hate of mankind had
"Destroy'd in such a shape." MALONE.

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SIC. He cannot temperately transport his honours From where he should begin, and end; but will Lose those that he hath won.

BRU.

In that there's comfort.

SIC. Doubt not, the commoners, for whom we

stand,

But they, upon their ancient malice, will

Forget, with the least cause, these his new honours; Which that he'll give them, make as little ques

tion

As he is proud to do't.

BRU.

I heard him swear,

* From where he should begin, and end;]

be read:

Perhaps it should

JOHNSON.

From where he should begin t'an end. Our author means, though he has expressed himself most licentiously, he cannot carry his honours temperately from where he should begin to where he should end. The word transport includes the ending as well as the beginning. He cannot begin to carry his honours, and conclude his journey, from the spot where he should begin, and to the spot where he should end. I have no doubt that the text is right.

The reading of the old copy is supported by a passage in Cymbeline, where we find exactly the same phraseology:

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"That we shall make in time, from our hence going

"AND our return, to excuse.

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where the modern editors read- Till our return. MALONE.

6 As he is proud to do't.] Proud to do, is the same as, proud of doing. JOHNSON.

As means here, as that. MALone.

Were he to stand for consul, never would he
Appear i'the market-place, nor on him put
The napless vesture" of humility;

Nor, showing (as the manner is) his wounds
To the people, beg their stinking breaths.

SIC.

'Tis right.

BRU. It was his word: O, he would miss it,

rather

Than carry it, but by the suit o'the gentry to him, And the desire of the nobles.

SIC.

I wish no better, Than have him hold that purpose, and to put it In execution.

BRU.

'Tis most like, he will.

SIC. It shall be to him then, as our good wills; A sure destruction.8

BRU.

So it must fall out

To him, or our authorities. For an end,

7 The napless vesture-] The players read-the Naples. STEEVENS.

The correction was made by Mr. Rowe. By napless Shakspeare means thread-bare. So, in King Henry VI. P.II: "Geo. I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it. John. So he had need; for 'tis thread-bare."

See

Plutarch's words are "with a poore gowne on their backes.” p. 96, n. 1. MALONE.

• It shall be to him then, as our good wills;

A sure destruction.] This should be written will's, for will is.

TYRWHITT.

It shall be to him of the same nature as our dispositions towards him; deadly. MALONE.

Neither Malone nor Tyrwhitt have justly explained this passage. The word-wills is here a verb; and as our "good wills" means, "as our advantage" requires. M. MASON.

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We must suggest the people," in what hatred
He still hath held them; that, to his power,' he

would

Have made them mules, silenc'd their pleaders, and
Dispropertied their freedoms: holding them,
In human action and capacity,

Of no more soul, nor fitness for the world,
Than camels in their war; who have their provand3

9suggest the people,] i. e. prompt them. So, in King Richard II:

"Suggest his soon-believing adversaries."

The verb to suggest, has, in our author, many different shades of meaning. STEEVENS.

1

to his power,] i. e. as far as his power goes, to the utmost of it. STEEVENS.

2

Of no more soul, nor fitness for the world, Than camels in their war;] In what war? beasts of burthen, and are never used in war. tainly read:

As camels in their way. M. MASON.

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I am far from certain that this amendment is necessary. Brutus means to say that Coriolanus thought the people as useless expletives in the world, as camels would be in the war. I would read the instead of their. Their, however, may stand, and signify the war undertaken for the sake of the people.

Mr. M. Mason, however, is not correct in the assertion with which his note begins; for we are told by Aristotle, that shoes were put upon camels in the time of war. See Hist. Anim. II. 6. p. 165, edit. Scaligeri. STEEVENS.

Their war may certainly mean, the wars in which the Roman people engaged with various nations; but I suspect Shakspeare wrote-in the war. MALONE.

3

their provand-] So the old copy, and rightly, though all the modern editors read provender. The following instances may serve to establish the ancient reading. Thus, in Stowe's Chronicle, edit. 1615, p. 737: " the provaunte was cut off, and every soldier had half a crowne a weeke." Again: "The horsmenne had foure shillings the weeke loane, to find them and their horse, which was better than the provaunt." Again, in Sir Walter Raleigh's Works, 1751, Vol. II. p. 229. Again, in

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