this mean,

From her maternal sap, perforce must wither,
And come to deadly use. Lear, A. 4, S. 2.
Fie on't? O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to feed; things rank and grofs in nature,
Poffess it merely.

Hamlet, A. 1, S. 2.
Nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal.

Hamlet, A. 1, S. 3. What

may That thou, dead corse, again, in coinplete steel, Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous; and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition, With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?

Hamlet, A. 1, S. 4.

'Tis often seen, Adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds A native slip to us from foreign seeds.

All's well that ends well, A. 1, Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots; Within this mile break forth an hundred springs : The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips; The bounteous huswife, nature, on each bush Lays her full mess before you.

Timon of Athens, A. 4, S. 3. Fiery? the fiery duke?-Tell the hot duke, that, No, but not yet :-may be, he is not well : Infirmity doch still neglect all office, Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves, When nature, being oppress’d, commands the mind To suffer with the body.

Lear, A. 2, S. 4. O, reason not the need: our baseft beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous : Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life is cheap as beast's. Lear, A. 2, S. 4.

Nothing

S. 30

Nothing could have subdu'd nature To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters. Is it the fashion, that discarded fathers Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! 'twas this filesh begot Those pelican daughters. Lear, A. 3, S. 4.

Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the something that nature gave me, his countenance seems to take from me: he lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my gentility with my educa

As you like it, A. I, S. I. Julio Romano; who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile nature of her custom", so perfectly he is her ape.

Winter's Tale, A. 5, S. 2.

Nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of her creditor,
Both thanks and use.

Measure for Measure, A. 1, S. 1.

tion.

NE CESSIT Y.

Art cold? I am cold myself.--Where is this straw, my fellow? The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.

Lear, A. 3, S. 2.

His demand
Springs not from Edward's well-meant honest love,

i of her custom.] That is, of her trade, would draw her customers from her.

JOHNSON. “ Her custom” is rather her excellence; her posuers, as usually seen. The meaning is, that he would rival nature. A. B.

But from deceit, bred by neceffity,
For how can tyrants safely govern home,
Unless abroad they purchase great alliance ?

Henry VI. P. 3, A. 3, S. 3.
All places that the eye of heaven visits,
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens;
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
There is no virtue like necessity.
Think not, the king did banish thee;
But thou the king. Richard II. A. I, S. 3.
It follows then, the cat must stay at home:
Yet that is but a curs'd necessity;
Since we have locks to safeguard neceffaries,
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.

Henry V. A. I, S. 2.

Greet him from me; Bid him suppose some good necessity Touches his friend? Tinion of Aibens, A. 2, S. 2.

over.

JOHNSON.

! Yet that is but a curs'd necessity.) So the old quarto. The folios read crusb’d; neither of the words convey any tolerable idea; but give us a counter reasoning, and not at all pertinent. We should read, “scus’d necessity," that is, though there be a seeming necefsity, yet it is one that may be well excused and got

WARBURTON. Neither the old readings, nor the emendation, seem very fatisfactory. A curs'd necessity has no sense ; a 'scus'd necefsity is so harsh, that one would not admit it if any thing else can be found. A crush'd necessity may mean, a necessity which is fubdued and overpowered by contrary reasons. We might read a crude necessity, but it is too harsh.

Mr. Steevens is for adhering to the reading of the quarto, “ curs'd necefsity,” but it is impossible that it should be right. I would read a carv'd necessity, i. c. a necessity cut out for the occafion--a pretended necessity.

2 Bid him fuppose some good necessity

Touches his friend.) Good, as it may afford Ventidius an opportunity of exercising his bounty, and relieving his friend, in return for his former kindness; or some honeft neceffity, not the consequence of a villainous and ignoble bounty. I rather think this latter is the meaning.

MALONE. Good is here used for real, absolute, no way feigned.

NEPTUNE.

A. B.

A. B.

N E P T U N E.
1, like a forester, the groves may tread,
Even till the eastern gate all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his falt-green streams,

Midsummer Night's Dream, A. 3, S. 2.
His mother was a votress of my order ;
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
Full often hath she goffipp'd by my side;
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
Marking the embarked traders on the flood.

Midsummer Night's Dream, A. 2, S. 2.

NE W S. You have heard of the news abroad; I mean, the whisper'd ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments ??

Lear, A. 2, S. 1. The first bringer of unwelcome news Hath but a losing office; and his tongue Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember'd knolling a departed friend.

Henry IV. P. 2, A. 1, S. 1. I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus, The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, With open mouth swallowing a taylor's news; Who, with his shears and measure in his hand, Standing on flippers (which his nimble haste Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet)

1

ear-kissing arguments.] Subjects of discourse, topicks.

JOHNSON. Ear-kissing arguments means, that they are yet in reality only whispered ones,

STEEVENS. “ Ear-kissing arguments" may mean, news that is only talked of -news that is not confirmed. To say that the news is whispered, is saying nothing as to its truth. Beside, he had observed, that the news was whispered immediately before,

A. B.

Told of a thousand warlike French,
That were embattled and rank'd in Kent.

King John, A.4, S. 2:

Some news is come, That turns their countenances.

Coriolaniès, A. 4, S. 6.

N 1 G H Τ. 'Tis now the very witching time of night; When church-yards yawn, and hell itself breathes

out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot

blood,
And do such business as the bitter day
Would quake to look ön. Hamlet, A. 3, S. 2:
Now it is the time of night,
That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his fpright,
In the church-way paths to glide.
Midsummer Night's Dream, A. 5)

S. 2.
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:

This palpable gross play hath well beguild The heavy gait

of night.

Midsummer Night's Dream, A. 52
- Night's fwift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to church-yards.

Midsummer Night's Dream, A. 3, S. 2.

S. 1.

Z

Some news is come,

That turns their countenances.] i. c. That renders their aspect four. This allufion to the aceicence of milk occurs again in Timon of Athens.

MALONE. I cannot think that' turns has, in this place, any thing to do with four. It only means that the news had affected them-that they changed countenance on it.

A. B.

Hie