$3

a nun of winter's sisterhood-] This is finely expressed. But Mr. Theobald says, the words give him no ideas. And 'tis certain, that words will never give men what nature has denied them. However, to mend the matter, he substitutes Winifred's sisterhood. And, after so happy a thought, it was to no purpose to tell him there was no religious order of that denomination. The plain truth is, Shakspeare meant an unfruitful sisterhood, which had devoted itself to chastity. For as those who were of the sisterhood of the spring were the votaries of Venus; those of summer, the votaries of Ceres; those of autumn, of Pomona so these of the sisterhood of winter were the votaries of Diana: called, of winter, because that quarter is not, like the other three, productive of fruit or increase. On this account it is, that when the poet speaks of what is most poor, he instances winter, in these fine lines of Othello,

But riches endless is as poor as winter

To him that ever fears he shall be poor.

The other property of winter that made him term them of its sisterhood, is its coldness. So in Midsummer Night's Dream,

To be a barren sister all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.

WARBURTON,

54 Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops ?] This is spoken of the executioner. He lives indeed by bloody drops, if you will: but how does he die by bloody drops? The poet must certainly have wrote

that deals and lives, &c. i. e. that gets his bread by, and makes a trade of, cutting off heads: but the Oxford editor makes it plainer. He reads,

Than he that lives and thrives by bloody drops.

WARBURTON,

Either Dr. Warburton's emendation, except that the. word deals wants its proper construction, or that of sir T. Hanmer, may serve the purpose; but I believe they have fixed corruption upon the wrong word, and should rather read,

That he that dies his lips by bloody drops?

Will you speak with more sternness than the executioner, whose lips are used to be sprinkled with blood? The mention of drops implies some part that must be sprinkled rather than dipped. JOHNSON.

I am afraid our bard is at his quibbles again. To dye means as well to dip a thing in a colour foreign to its own, as to expire. In this sense, contemptible as it is, the executioner may be said to die as well as live by bloody drops. Shakspeare is fond of opposing these words to each other,

In King John is a play on words not unlike this. ———all with purpled hands

Dy'd in the dying slaughter of their foes.

Camden has preserved an epitaph on a dyer, which has the same play on words:

"He that dyed so oft in sport,

Dyed at last, no colour for't."

So Heywood, in his epigrams, 1562:
"Is thy husband a dyer, woman? alack,

"Had he no colour to dye thee on but black?
"Dieth he oft? yea, too oft when customers call.
"But I would have him one day die once for all.
"Were he gone, dyer never more would I wed,
"Dyers be ever dying, but never dead."

So Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, 1589: "We once sported upon a country fellow, whọ came to run for the best game, and was by his oc"cupation a dyer, and had very big swelling legs. "He is but coarse to run a course,

"Whose shanks are bigger than his thigh;
"Yet is his luck a little worse

"That often dyes before he die.

"Where ye see the words course and dye used in "divers senses, one giving the rebound to the other."

STEEVENS.

55 Of nature's sale-work:] i. e. those works that nature makes up carelessly and without exactness, The allusion is to the practice of mechanicks, whose work bespoke is more elaborate, than that which is made up for chance-customers, or to sell in quantities to retailers, which is called sale-work.

WARBURTON.

56 Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.] The only sense of this is, An ill-favoured person is most illfavoured, when if he be ill-favoured, he is a scoffer. Which is a deal too absurd to come from Shakspeare; who, without question, wrote,

Foul is most foul, being found to be a scoffer:

i. e. where an ill-favoured person ridicules the defects of others, it makes his own appear excessive.

WARBURTON.

The sense of the received reading is not fairly represented; it is, The ugly seem most ugly, when, though ugly, they are scoffers.

57

JOHNSON.

though all the world could see, None could be so abus'd in sight as he.] Though all mankind could look on you, none could be so deceived as to think you beautiful but he.

JOHNSON.

58 -swam in a gondola.] That is, been at Venice, the seat at that time of all licentiousness, where the young English gentlemen wasted their fortunes, debased their morals, and sometimes lost their religion.

The fashion of travelling, which prevailed very much in our author's time, was considered by the wiser men as one of the principal causes of corrupt manners. It was therefore gravely censured by Ascham in his Schoolmaster, and by bishop Hall in his Quo Vadis; and is here, and in other culed by Shakspeare.

very

passages, ridiJOHNSON.

59 I will laugh like a hyen,] The bark of the hyena much resembles a loud laugh. STEEVENS. 60 Make the doors] This is an expression used in several of the midland counties, instead of bar the doors. So in the Comedy of Errors,

"The doors are made against you.”

The modern editors read, "make the doors fast" in

this play, and "the doors are barr'd against you" in the other.

STEEVENS.

61 Wit, whither wilt?] This must be some allusion to a story well known at that time, though now perhaps irretrievable.

JOHNSON.

This was an exclamation much in use, when any one was either talking nonsense, or usurping a greater share in conversation than justly belonged to him. So in Decker's Satiromastix, 1602:

"My sweet, Wit whither wilt thou, my delicate poetical fury, &c.

The same expression occurs more than once in Taylor the water-poet, and seems to have been the title of some ludicrous performance.

STEEVENS.

62 —make her fault her husband's occasion,] That is, represent her fault as occasioned by her husband. Sir T. Hanmer reads, her husband's accusation.

JOHNSON,

63 SCENE III.] The foregoing noisy scene was introduced only to fill up an interval, which is to represent two hours. This contraction of the time we might impute to poor Rosalind's impatience, but that a few minutes after we find Orlando sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of the acts this absurdity can be obviated. JOHNSON. 64 vengeance-] i. e. mischief.

65 -youth and kind] Kind is the old word for nature.

JOHNSON.

66 Within an hour;] We must read, two hours.

JOHNSON.