JEW Now could thou and I rob the thieves, and go merrily to London, it would be argument for a week', laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.

Henry IV. P. 1, A. 2, S. 2.

E - W.
You call me-misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.

Merchant of Venice, A. 1, S. 3. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands; organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heald by the same means, warm'd and coold by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is ?

Merchant of Venice, A. 3, S. 1.

JE W E L.
The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it,
Because we see it; but what we do not see,
We tread upon, and never think of it.

Measure for Measure, A. 2, S. I. A diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort ! two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, precious jewels. I would, my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!

Merchant of Venice, A. 3, S. 1.
Good name, in man, and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls;
Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something,

nothing;

Argument for a week.] Argument is subject matter for a drama.

STEEVENS. “This will be argument for a week” must mean, this will furnillo conversation for a week,

A.
P

'Twas

"Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been have to thousands :
But he, that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed. Othello, A. 3, S. 3.

you will

I GNO R'A N C E. Ignorance itfelf is a plummet o'er me?: use me as .

Merry Wives of Windfor, A. 5, S. 5

If he have power, Then 'vail your ignorance?: if none, awake Your dangerous lenity. Coriolanus, A. 3, S. 1.

I L. L.
There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple.

Tempest, A. 1, S. 2.

1

Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me.] Though this be perhaps not unintelligible, yet it is an odd way of confessing his defection. I should wish to read,

"Ignorance itself has a plume o'er me." that is, I am so depressed, that ignorance itself plucks me, and decks itself with the spoils of my weakness.

JOHNSON. If any alteration be neceffary, I think, ignorance itself is a planet o'er me, would have a chance to be right. Thus Bobadil excuses his cowardice; fure I was struck with a planet, for I had no power to touch my weapon.

FARMER. Perhaps Falstaff's meaning may be this, ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me, i. e. above me.---ignorance itself is not fo low as I am by the length of a plummet line.

TYRWHIT Falstaff certainly means, that ignorance triumphs over him. We must therefore read, plumet, Fr. a garland." Ignorance “ itself is a plumet o'er me," i, e. ignorance wears the garland.

A. B. ? Then vail your ignorance.] The sense of the paffage is, If this man has power, let the ignorance that gave it him, vail or bow down before him.

JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson's interpretation seems wrong. To vail

, is here to hide, and ignorance is used for weakness. If this man has really the power he pretends to (says Coriolanus), then hide or conceal your weakness; but if he has, in fact, no authority, then exer,

A. B.

eife yours

IMAGE.

IMAGE. If I had thought, the fight of my poor image Would thus have wrought you, (for the stone is

mine) I'd not have thew'd it'. Winter's Tale, A. 5, S. 3.

IMAGINATION.
When he shall hear she dy'd upon his words,
The idea of her life shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination.

Much ado about nothing, A. 4, S. 1.
Princes have but their titles for their glories,
An outward honour for an inward toil;
And, for unfelt imaginations,
They often feel a world of restless cares,

Richard III. A. 1, S. 4. Alas, poor Yorick !-I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips, that I have kiss'd I know not how oft, Hamlet, A. 5, S. I

1

If I bad thought the fight of my poor image
Would thus have wrought you, (for the stone is mine)

I'd not have thew'd it.] I do not know whether we should not read without a parenthesis,

for the stone i th' mine " I'd not have thew'd it." A mine of stone, or marble, would not, perhaps, at present, be esteemed an accụrate expression, but it may still have been used by Shakespeare, as it has been used by Hollingshed.

TYRWHIT. To change an accurate expression for an expression confeffedly not accurate, has somewhat of retrogradation. Johnson.

“Stone i' th' mine,” is surely the more forcible and elegant reading; but Mr. Tyrwhit explains his reading wrong. “Stone "i'th' mine,” is diamond, not marble.

A. B.

1

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact.

Midsummer Night's Dream, A. 5, S. 1.
The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to hea-

ven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poets pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation, and a name.

Midsummer Night's Dream, A. 5, S. 1.

How this grace ( viewing a pi&ture)
Speaks its own standing ! what a mental

power
This eye shoots forth! how big imagination
Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture
One might interpret". Timon of Athens, A. I, S. 1.

INFANT

How this grace Speaks its own ftanding !) This relates to the attitude of the figure ; and means that it stands judiciously on its own centre. And not only so, but that it has a graceful itanding likewife.

WARBURTON. This sentence seems to me obscure, and however explained, not very forcible. This grace Speaks its own standing, is only, The gracefulness of this figure thews how it stands. I am inclined to think something is corrupted.

Johnson. This passage, to my apprehension at least, Speaks its own meaning; which is, how the graceful attitude of this figure proclaims that it stands firin on its centre, or gives evidence in favour of its own fixuré !

STEEVENS. Nó one, I presume, is ignorant of the meaning of grace ainong painters; nor is he to be informed, that without this very effential requisite, a picture, however finely coloured, would be held, by connoiffeurs, in little esteem. I am therefore inclined 'to explain the passage thus-Here is grace indeed. Here the shews ber sianding-i.e. her rank and importance.

to the dumbness of the gesture One might interpret.] The allufion is to the puppetHows, or motions, as they were termed in our author's time.

The

A. B.

2

1 Ν F Α Ν Τ.

First the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms : And then the whining school-boy, with his fatchel, And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. As you like it, A. 2, S.7. This royal infant, (heaven still inove about her!) Though in her cradle, yet now promises Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, Which time shall bring to ripeness ; she shall be (But few now living can behold that goodness) A pattern to all princes living with her, And all that shall succeed. Henry VIII. A. 5, S. 4.

IN GRATITUDE.

ATIT In common worldly things, 'tis call’d-ungrateful With dull unwillingness to repay a debt, Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent; Much more, to be thus opposite with heaven, For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Richard III. A. 2, S. 2. And do you now put on your best attire? And do you now cull out a holiday? And do you now strew flowers in his way, That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood ? Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,

ter.

The person who spoke for the puppets was called an interpre

MALONE. The sense of the passage is—this is nothing more than a picture ; yet fuch is the liveliness of the representation, that the figure seems almost to speak, and we readily comprehend the painter's meaning. I do not see that this has any reference to puppet-shows, motions, or interpreterso

A. B. Pray

P.3