and exposes him as naked, as being in the doublet and hose without a cloak. WARBURTON.

214. But, soft you, let be;- -] The first folio reads:

But soft you; let me be; pluck, &c. The second folio reads:

But soft you let me see; pluck up, &c.

which is, I believe, the true reading.

MALONE. Let be, is the true reading.. It means, let things remain as they are. I have heard the phrase used by

Dr. Johnson himself.

STEEVENS.

The same expression occurs in Matt. xxvii. 49.

So, in Henry VIII. act i. sc. 1.
Again, Winter's Tale, act v. sc. 3.

HENLEY.

REED.

235. -one meaning well suited.] That is, one meaning is put into many different dresses; the prince having asked the same question in four modes of speech. JOHNSON.

301. And she alone is heir to both of us;] Shakspere seems to have forgot what he had made Leonato say, in the fifth scene of the first act to Antonio, How now, brother; where is my cousin your son? hath he provided the musick? ANONYMOUS.

311. Who, I believe, was pack'd in all this wrong,] ¿. e. combined; an accomplice. So, in lord Bacon's Works, Vol. iv. p. 269. edit. 1740. "If the issue shall be this, that whatever shall be done for him, shall be thought to be done by a number of persons that shall be laboured and packed—.” MALONE. So,

Gij

So, in King Lear:

"-snuffs and packings of the dukes."

STEEVENS.

355. To have no man come over me? why, shall I always keep below stairs?] So, in Marston's Insatiate Countess, 1603:

"Alas! when we are once o'th falling hand,
"A man may easily come over us."

COLLINS.

363. I give thee the bucklers.] I suppose that to give the bucklers is, to yield, or to lay by all thoughts of defence, so clypeum abjicere. The rest deserves no comJOHNSON.

ment.

Greene, in his Second Part of Coney Catching, 1592, uses the same expression :-" At this his master laught, and was glad, for further advantage, to yield the bucklers to his prentise."

Again, in A Woman never Vex'd, a comedy by Rowley, 1632:

-into whose hands she thrusts the weapons first,

let him take up the bucklers.”

Again, in Decker's Satiromastix:

"Charge one of them to take up the bucklers
"Against that hair-monger Horace."

Again, in Chapman's May-Day, 1611:

"And now I lay the bucklers at your feet."

Again, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609 :

"if you lay down the bucklers, you lose the

victory."

Again, in P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Nat. Hist. B. X. c. 21. "-it goeth against his stomach

(the

(the cock's) to yeeld the gantlet and give the bucklers." STEEVENS.

422. -in the time of good neighbours:] i. e. When men were not envious, but every one gave another his due. The reply is extremely humorous. WARBURTON.

427. Question?-Why, an hour, &c.] i. e. What a question's there, or what a foolish question do you ask? WARBURTON. The phrase occurs frequently in Shakspere, and means no more than-you ask a question, or that is the question.

451. Done to death

REMARKS.

-] This obsolete phrase occurs frequently in our ancient writers.--Thus, in Marlow's Lust's Dominions, 1657:

"His mother's hand shall stop thy breath,
"Thinking her own son is done to death."

MALONE.

461. Those that slew thy virgin knight;] Knight, in its original signification, means follower or pupil, and in this sense may be feminine. Helena, in All's Well that Ends Well, uses knight in the same signification. JOHNSON.

Virgin knight is virgin hero. In the times of chivalry, a virgin knight was one who had as yet achieved no adventure. Hero had as yet achieved no matrimonial one. It may be added, that a virgin knight wore no device on his shield, having no right to any till he had deserved it.

So,

So, in the History of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. 1599:

"Then as thou seem'st in thy attire a virgin knight

to be,

"Take thou this shield likewise of white," &c. It appears, however, from several passages in Spenser's Faery Queen, B. I. c. 7. that an ideal order of this name was supposed, as a compliment to queen Elizabeth's virginity:

"Of doughtie knights whom faery land did raise "That noble order hight of maidenhead."

Again, B. II. c. 2.

"Order of maidenhead the most renown'd.” Again, B. II. c. 9.

"And numbred be mongst knights of maidenhead." On the books of the Stationers-Company, in the year 1594, is entered, "Pheander the mayden knight."

STEEVENS.

608. -no staff more reverend than one tipt with horn.] This passage may admit of some explanation that I am unable to furnish. By accident I lost several instances I had collected for the purpose of throwing light on it. The following, however, may assist the future commentator.

MS. Sloan, 1691,

"That a fellon may wage battaile, with th' order thereof."

(6 -by order of the lawe both the parties must at theire own charge be armed withoute any yron or long armoure, and theire heades bare and bare-headed and

bare

bare-footed, every one of them having a baston horned at ech ende of one length," &c. STEEVENS.

So, in Britton, Pleas of the Crown. c. xxii. s. 18."Next let them go to combat armed without iron and without linen armour, their heads uncovered and their hands naked and on foot, with two bastons tipped with horn of equal length, and each of them a target of four corners, without any other armour, whereby any of them may annoy the other; and if either of them have any other weapon concealed about him, and therewith annoy his adversary, let it be done as shall be mentioned amongst combats in a plea of land."

REED.

THE END.