"For in dumb shews, which were they writ at large "Would ask a long and tedious circumstance, "Their infant fortunes I will soon express," &c. Then follow the dumb shews, which well deserve the character Hamlet has already given of this species of entertainment, as may be seen from the following passage: "Enter Tancred, with Bella Franca richly attired, she somewhat affecteth him, though she makes no show of it." Surely this may be called "an inexplicable dumb shew." STEEVENS. 215. Termagant;-] Termagant is mentioned by Spenser in his Faery Queene, and by Chaucer in The Tale of Sir Topas; and by Beaumont and Fletcher in King or no King, as follows: "This would make a saint swear like a soldier, and a soldier like Termagant." 216. -out-herods Herod :-] The character of Herod in the ancient mysteries was always a violent one: See the Conventriæ Ludus among the Cotton MSS. Vespasian D. VIII. "Now I regne lyk a kyng arayd ful rych, "Rollyd in rynggs and robys of array, "Dukys with dentys I dryve into the dych; "My dedys be ful dowty demyd be day." Again, in the Chester Whitsun Plays, MSS. Harl, 1013: "I kynge of kynges non so keene, "I sovraigne sir as well is seene, “I yrant that maye bouth take and teene "I welde "I welde this worlde withouten were "I beate all those unbuxome beene; "I drive the devills alby dene "For I am kinge of all mankinde, "I byd, I beate, I lose, I bynde, "I master the moone, take this in mynde "I am the greatest above degree "That is, that was, or ever shall be ; "No raine to fall shall now be free,' See the Vintner's Play, p. 67. Chaucer also, describing a parish clerk, in his Miller's Tale, says, "He playith Herode on a skaffold high." The parish clerks and other subordinate ecclesiasticks appear to have been our first actors, and to have represented their characters on distinct pulpits or scaffolds. Thus, in one of the stage-directions to the 27th pageant in the Coventry collection already mentioned; "What tyme that processyon is entered into yt place, and the Herowdys takyn his schaffalde, and Annas and Cayphas their schaffaldys," &c. STEEVENS. 226. -age and body of the time,-] To exhibit the form and pressure of the age of the time, is, to represent the manners of the time suitable to the period that is treated of, according as it may be ancient, or modern. STEEVENS. 227. -pressure-] Resemblance, as in a print. 229. JOHNSON. -the censure of which one, must, in your allowance, overweigh a whole theatre of others.] Ben Jonson seems to have imitated this passage in his Poetaster, 1601: -I will try "If tragedy have a more kind aspect; "A theatre unto me." MALONE. 231.0, there be players,-] I would read thus: There be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly (not to speak profanely), that neither having the accent nor the gait of Christian, Pagan, nor Mussulman, have so strutted and bellowed, that I thought some of nature's journeymen had made the men, and not made them well," &c. FARMER. I have no doubt that our author wrote-" that I thought some of nature's journeymen had made them, and not made them well," &c. Them and men are frequently confounded in the old copies. See the Comedy of Errors, act ii. folio, 1623: "because it is a blessing that he bestows upon beasts, and what he hath scanted them [r. men] in hair, he hath given them in wit." In the present instance the compositor probably caught the word men from the last syllable of journeymen. Shakspere could not mean to assert as a general truth, that nature's journeymen had made men, i. e. all mankind: for, if that were the case, the strutting players would have been on a footing with the rest of the species. A passage in King Lear, in which we meet with the same sentiment, in my opinion, fully supports the emendation now proposed : "Kent. Nature disclaims in THEE, a tailor made THEE. "Corn. A tailor make a man! "Kent. Ay, a tailor, sir; a stone-cutter or a painter [Nature's journeymen] could not have made him so ill, though he had been but two hours at the trade.” MALONE. 233. --not to speak it profanely-] Profanely seems to relate, not to the praise which he has mentioned, but to the censure which he is about to utter. Any gross or indelicate language was called profane. JOHNSON. 242. -speak no more than is set down for them:] So, in The Antipodes, by Brome, 1638: -you, sir, are incorrigible, and "Take licence to yourself to add unto "Your parts, your own free fancy," &c. -"That "That is a way, my lord, has been allow'd &c. Stowe informs us, (p. 697, edit. 1615), that among the twelve players who were sworn the queen's servants in 1583, "were two rare men, viz. Thomas Wilson, for a quicke delicate refined extemporall witte ; and Richard Tarleton, for a wondrous plentifull, pleasant extemporall wilt," &c. Again, in Tarlton's Newes from Purgatory: " -I absented myself from all plaies, as wanting that merrye Roscius of plaiers that famosed all comedies so with his pleasant and extemporall invention." STEEVENS. 266. the pregnant hinges of the knee.] I believe the sense of pregnant in this place is, quick, ready, prompt. JOHNSON. 269. And could of men distinguish her election Hath seal'd thee for herself:] Thus the folio. The quarto thus: And could of men distinguish her election, STEEVENS. Sh' hath seal'd thee, &c. To distinguish her election, is no more than to make her election. Distinguish of men, is exceeding harsh, to say the best of it. REMARKS. 274. Whose blood and judgment—] According to the doctrine of the four humours, desire and confidence were seated in the blood, and judgment in the phlegm, |