lost, after which it is in vain to go in quest. The sense seems to have been this: The round world should have shook, and this great alteration of the system of things should send lions into streets, and citizens into dens. There is sense still, but it is harsh and violent. JOHNSON. 57pray in aid for kindness,] Praying in aid is a law term, used for a petition made in a court of justice for the calling in of help from another that hath an interest in the cause in question. HANMER. 58 As plates] Plates mean, I believe, silver money. 59 60 STEEVENS. -seel my lips,] Sew up my mouth. -the ashes of my chance:] Or fortune. The meaning is, Begone, or I shall exert that royal spirit which I had in my prosperity, in spite of the imbecility of my present weak condition. This taught the Oxford editor to alter it to mischance. WARBURTON. 61 Make not your thoughts your prisons:] I once wished to read, Make not your thoughts your poison: Do not destroy yourself by musing on your misfortune. Yet I would change nothing, as the old reading presents a very proper sense. Be not a prisoner in imagination, when in reality you are free. JOHNSON. 62 scald rhymers-] Sir T. Hanmer reads, -stall'd rhymers. Scald was a word of contempt, implying poverty, disease, and filth. boy my greatness-] The parts of women were acted on the stage by boys. HANMER. Nash, in Pierce Pennylesse his Supplication, &c. 1595, says, "Our players are not as the players be"yond sea, a sort of squirting bawdy comedians, that "have whores and common tourtesans to play wo "men's parts, &c." 64 STEEVENS. something blown:] The flesh is somewhat puffed, or swollen. |