the people; for none could fill this office but such as were descended from Plebeian ancestors. STEEVENS. 445. his wreaks,] i. c. bis Tevenges.

STEEVENS. 524. -honey-stalks to sheep ;] Horey-stalks are clover-flowers, which contain a sweet juice. It is common for cattle to over-charge themselves with clover and die.

JOHNSON. 545. successfully—] The old copies read :-successantly.

STEEVENS.

ACT V.

Το

Line 21. gaze upon a ruinous monastery ;) Shak. spere has so perpetually offended against chronology in all his plays, that no very conclusive argument can be deduced from the particular absurdity of these anachronisms, relative to the authenticity of Titus An. dronicus. And yet the ruined monastery, the Popish tricks, &c. that Aaron talks of, and especially the French salutation from the mouth of Titus, are al. together so very much out of place, that I cannot persuade myself even our hasty poet could have been guilty of their insertion, or would have permitted them to remain, had he corrected the performance for another.

STEEVENS.

a

8o. - his bauble--] See a note on All's Well that ends Well, act iv.

STEEVENS. . 100. That codding spirit- - ] i.e. that love of bed. sports. Cod is a word still used in Yorkshire for a pillow. See Lloyd's catalogue of local words at the ends of Ray's Proverbs.

COLLINS. 103. As true a dog as ever fought at head.-) An allusion to bull-dogs, whose generosity and courage are always shown by meeting the bull in front, and seizing his nose.

JOHNSON. So in a collection of Epigrams by J. D. and C. M. printed at Middleburgh, no date :

"amongst the dogs and beares he goes;
“ Where, while he skipping cries--To head, to
head," &c.

STEEVENS, 146. Bring down the devil ;-] It appears, from these words, that the audience were entertained with part of the apparatus of an execution, and that Aaron was mounted on a ladder, as ready to be turned off.

STEEVENS, 225. So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there.) I do not know of any instance that can be brought to prove that rape and rapine were ever used as synonymous termis. The word ratine has always been employed for a less fatal kind of plunder, and means the violent act of deprivation of any good, the honour here alluded to being always excepted. I have indeed since discovered that Gower, De Confessione Amantis, lib. v. fol. 116, 1, uses ravine in the same

a

« For if thou be of suche covine,
« To get of love by ravyne
“ Thy lust,” &c.

STEEVENS 355. And of the paste a coffin

-] A coffin is the term of art for the cavity of a raised pye. JOHNSON.

391. -break the parle; ] That is, begin the parley. We yet say, he breaks his mind.

JOHNSON..
434. Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.]
The additions made by Ravenscroft to this scene, are
so much of a piece with it, that I cannot resist the
temptation of shewing the reader how he continues
the speech before us :
“ Thus cramm'd, thou’rt bravely fatten'd up

for hell,
“ And thus to Pluto I do serve thee up :"

[Stabs the empress. And then "A curtain drawn discovers the heads and hands of Demetrius and Chiron hanging up agasint the wall; their bodies in chairs in bloody linen."

STEEVENS. 445. Goth.] This speech and the next, in the quarto 16:1, are given to a Roman lord In the folio they both belong to the Goth. I know not why they are separated. I believe the whole belongs t3 Marcus; who, when Lucius has gone through such a part of the narrative as concerns his own exile, claims his turn to speak again, and recommend Lucius to the empire.

STIEVENS.

519. Thanks, gentle Romans ;~] It should seem from the beginning of this speech of Lucius, that the first and last lines of the preceding one ought to be given to the concourse of Romans who are supposed to be present.

STEEVENS.

THE END.