in composition to express large, as cob-nut, cob-swan, &c. But if Ajax uses it to Thersites, he must mean to imply awkwardness and deformity." Then, after citing the passage as it stands in our text, Nares proceeds; "This is desperately corrupt. Of Mistress Thersites,' I can make nothing [neither could Walker, Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 193]; but the 4to suggests the true reading of the rest, after transposing only one word, by giving the whole to Thersites ;

'Ther. Shouldst thou strike him, Ajax, cobloaf! he would pun thee into shivers,' &c.

6

The commentators, to explain the other reading, say that cob-loaf means a crusty uneven loaf,' that it may suit Thersites; and Mr. Steevens says it is so used in the midland counties; but Mr. Steevens finds an usage where he wants it. Whereas, if Thersites calls Ajax cob-loaf, it then retains its analogous sense, of a large, clumsy loaf,' and the succeeding allusion to a biscuit is natural, and in its place. Though you are like a large loaf, Achilles would pound you like a biscuit.' The passage little deserves the labour of correcting, had not the correction been so obvious." But Nares's so-called "obvious correction" (founded on the error of the quarto) is undoubtedly wrong. Cobloaf" applies well to the personal deformity of Thersites. (“Cob-loaf, a misshapen loaf of bread," &c. Capell's Gloss. “Cobloaf. A crusty uneven loaf, with a round top to it. Loaves called cobbs are still made in Oxfordshire. See Edwards's Old English Customs, p. 25." Halliwell's Dict. of Arch. and Prov. Words, &c.)-I may add that "Thou shouldst strike him" is equivalent to "You had better strike him."

66

Rowe's correction. The old eds. have "brooch."-"Brach' certainly means [here] a bitch, and not a dog, which renders the expression more abusive and offensive. Thersites calls Patroclus Achilles' brach' for the same reason that he afterwards calls him his male harlot [but see note 148] and his masculine whore." MASON.

So the folio. The quarto has "the first houre:" but, as Mr. Collier observes, it would seem by what Thersites says afterwards (p. 60),-"If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven o'clock it will go one way or other,"-that “fifth hour" is right.

P. 31. (48)

"The past-proportion of his infinite ?"

"Thus read both the copies. The meaning is, that greatness to which no measure bears any proportion.' The modern editors silently give 'The vast proportion-.'" JOHNSON.-But see note 37 on The Comedy of Errors for examples of the proneness of printers to blunder in words beginning with the letter v.

"Qy. 'goodly,' with Capell's [conjecture in his] Var. R." W. N. LETTSOM.

P. 32. (50)

"whose youth and freshness

Wrinkles Apollo, and makes stale the morning."

So the folio, except that (like the quarto) it has "Apolloes."-The quarto reads " and makes pale the morning" but the reading of the folio (though Mr. Collier declares that it "can hardly be right") is surely preferable; "stale" is more properly opposed to "freshness" than "pale." Compare

"Pallas for all her painting than,

Her face would seeme but pale;

Then Juno would haue blusht for shame,
And Venus looked stale."

Lyly's Maydes Metamorphosis, 1600, sig. D 2.

"Faire Iris would haue lookt but stale and dimme
In her best colours, had she there appear'd."

Wither's Epithalamia, sig. D 2, ed. 1620.—

Since I wrote what precedes, I find that Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. i. p. 305), speaking of this passage, says, "I follow Dyce in reading with the folio 'stale."

P. 33. (51)

"That we have stol'n what we do fear to keep!"

"Surely, with some editions [Hanmer's],

'What we have stol'n, that we do fear to keep.'"

Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 193.

P. 33. (52)

"wrinkled eld,"

The folio has "wrinkled old;" the quarto, "wrinckled elders."-Corrected by Ritson.

Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "poise;" and rightly perhaps.

The old eds. have "short-armd" and "short-arm'd."-The correction "shortaimed" was made in my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, &c. p. 152. Compare our author's Coriolanus, act i. sc. 2;

"By the discovery

We shall be shorten'd in our aim."

P. 36. (55)

"the bone-ache!"

The quarto has "the Neopolitan bone-ache."

The quarto has "He sate our messengers;" the folio, "He sent our Messengers."—I adopt the emendation of Theobald: the word "shent" is several times used by our author; and Steevens ad l. has aptly cited from the romance of The Sowdon of Babyloyne, "All messengeris he doth shende :" moreover, if the reading of the quarto, "He sate our messengers," be, as I suspect it is, a mistake for " He rates our messengers," Theobald's alteration of the folio's "sent" to "shent" is still further strengthened.-Mr. Collier (at the suggestion of a friend) gave in his ed. of Shakespeare, "We sent our messengers," &c.; and so reads his Ms. Corrector. But "We sent our messengers,"- -a simple declaration that Agamemnon had sent messengers to Achilles, without any mention of the treatment which those messengers had received from the latter,-by no means suits with what immediately follows in the sentence. The objection which Mr. Collier brings against Theobald's emendation, viz. that "Achilles had not rebuked any messengers" (meaning, I presume, that the said rebuking is not previously mentioned in the play), forms really no objection at all; for neither is there previously the slightest hint of messengers having been sent by Agamemnon to Achilles; yet from the present passage (whichever reading be adopted) it is clear that they had been sent; and, as we are expressly told (act i. sc. 3) that Achilles used to take pleasure in seeing Patroclus " pageant" Agamemnon, we surely may suppose that he would treat his messengers with any thing but respect.

P. 39. (58)

"Than in the note of judgment; and worthier than himself" "I suspect that two half-lines have dropt out, to this effect; 'Than in the note of judgment. Tell him this; And add, besides, that worthier than himself,' &c."

P. 39. (59)

Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 182.

"His pettish lunes, his ebbs, his flows,"

The quarto has "His course, and time, his ebbs and flowes;" the folio, "His pettish lines, his ebs, his flowes."

Both the quarto and the folio give these words to Ajax.

P. 42. (61)

"Nest. What a vice were it in Ajax now,—
Ulyss. If he were proud,-"

Mr. W. N. Lettsom would read

"Nest. Why, what a vice were it in Ajax now, If he were proud."

P. 42. (62)

"Thrice-fam'd, beyond all erudition :"

The quarto has "Thrice fam'd beyond all thy erudition;" the folio, "Thrice fam'd beyond, beyond all erudition."

Added by Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 194).

The folio gives these words to Ulysses.-The quarto prefixes to them (and rightly, as the context shows) "Nest.":-yet Mr. Knight says; "Because Nestor was an old man, THE MODERN EDITORS make him reply to the question of Ajax," &c.

P. 43. (65) "Fresh kings are come to Troy: to-morrow"

An imperfect line, which has been variously amended. Mr. W. N. Lettsom proposes to Troy to-day: to-morrow."

Which, says Johnson, "may mean, the soul of love invisible every where else," -was altered by Hanmer to "love's visible soul;" an alteration adopted by Capell, and recommended by Mr. W. N. Lettsom.

P. 45. (67)

"Nay, that shall not serve your turn; that shall it not, in truth, la. Nay, I care not for such words; no, no."

Given to Pandarus in the old eds.; to Helen by Rowe.

P. 45. (68)

"You must not know where he sups."

Given to Helen in the old eds.; to Pandarus by Hanmer.

i.e. she who disposes or inclines me to mirth by her pleasant (and rather free) talk: see note 36 on Love's Labour's lost.—(Of the alterations made and proposed here—“ my dispouser," "my deposer,” and “my dispraiser," it is not easy to say which is the most foolish.)

P. 46. (70)

"Pan. Is this the generation of love," &c.

“However 'Pan.' may have got shuffled to the head of this speech, no more of it, I am confident, than the last five or six words belongs to that character. The rest is clearly Helen's." RITSON.

Here in the old eds. he is called " Troylus Man:" but this is evidently the attendant whom they have previously (see p. 16) designated “ Troilus' Boy.”

So some copies (e.g. the Duke of Devonshire's copy, and my own copy) of the quarto. Other copies of the quarto, and the folio, have "thrice reputed."

The old eds. have "sounding." See note 93 on The Winter's Tale.

Both the quarto and the folio have "worse."-Corrected by Hanmer.

"Read, with the quarto, 'but, till now, not so much'." W. N. LETTSOM.

Pope's correction.-The old eds. have " Comming."

The quarto has "show;" the folio, "shew." (Mr. Grant White prints "shew," considering it erroneously, I believe-as a form of the preterite.)

So Hanmer. The old eds. have "constant;" which the reader will find elaborately defended in the notes of Tyrwhitt, Malone, and Heath.- -" Tyrwhitt would not have contended for the reading of constant' instead of inconstant,' had he considered the passage with his usual accuracy. It is true that, in Shakespeare's time, a Troilus was an expression for a constant lover, and a Cressida for a jilt, because in the conclusion of their amour Troilus continued faithful, and Cressida proved false; but Pandarus supposes in this speech that they should both prove false to each other, and in that case it would have been absurd to say that Troilus should be quoted as