He was the duke; out of the fubftitution,4
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative:-Hence his ambition
Growing,-Doft hear?

MIRA.

Your tale, fir, would cure deafnefs. PRO. To have no fcreen between this part he play'd

And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
Abfolute Milan: Me, poor man!—my library
Was dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable: confederates
(So dry he was for fway 5) with the king of Naples,
To give him annual tribute, do him homage;
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend

The dukedom, yet unbow'd, (alas, poor Milan!)
To moft ignoble stooping.

MIRA.

O the heavens !

PRO. Mark his condition, and the event; then

tell me,

If this might be a brother.

MIRA.

I fhould fin

To think but nobly of my grandmother:
Good wombs have borne bad fons.

PRO.

Now the condition.

He was the duke; out of the fubftitution,] The old copy reads "He was indeed the duke." I have omitted the word indeed, for the fake of metre. The reader should place his emphasis on -was. STEEVENS.

5 (So dry he was for fway)] i. e. So thirsty. The expreffion, I am told, is not uncommon in the midland counties. Thus, in Leicefter's Commonwealth: "againft the defignments of the hafty Erle who thirfieth a kingdome with great intemperance." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "His ambition is dry." STEEVENS.

• To think but nolly-] But, in this place, fignifies otherwise than. STEEVENS.

This king of Naples, being an enemy

To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's fuit;
Which was, that he in lieu o' the premises,7-
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute,-
Should prefently extirpate me and mine

Out of the dukedom; and confer fair Milan,
With all the honours, on my brother: Whereon,
A treacherous army levied, one midnight
Fated to the purpofe, did Antonio open

The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness,
The minifters for the purpose hurried thence
Me, and thy crying felf.

MIRA.

Alack, for pity!

I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint,9
That wrings mine eyes.1

7

-in lieu o' the premises, &c.] In lieu of means here, in confideration of; an unusual acceptation of the word. So, in Fletcher's Prophetefs, the chorus, fpeaking of Drufilla, fays: "But takes their oaths, in lieu of her affiftance, "That they fhall not prefume to touch their lives."

M. MASON. cried out―] Perhaps we should read—cried on't. STEEVENS. 9a hint,] Hint is fuggeftion. So, in the beginning speechof the fecond act :

A fimilar thought occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, A& V. fc. i:

it is a tidings

"To wath the eyes of kings." STEEVENS.

That wrings mine eyes.] i. e. fqueezes the water out of them. The old copy reads

"That wrings mine eyes to't."

To what? every reader will atk. I have, therefore, by the advice of Dr. Farmer, omitted these words, which are unneceffary to the metre; hear, at the beginning of the next fpeech, being ufed as a diffyllable.

To wring, in the fenfe I contend for, occurs in the Merry

My tale provokes that queftion. Dear, they durft

not;

(So dear the love my people bore me) nor fet
A mark fo bloody on the bufinefs; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark ;
Bore us fome leagues to fea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcafs of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, fail, nor mast; the very rats
Inftinctively had quit it :3 there they hoift us,
To cry to the fea that roar'd to us ;4 to figh
To the winds, whofe pity, fighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

MIRA.

Was I then to you!

PRO.

Alack! what trouble

O! a cherubim

Thou waft, that did preferve me! Thou didft fmile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

Wives of Windfor, A&t I. fc. ii: "his cook, or his laundry, or his washer, and his wringer." STEEVENS.

2

-of a boat,] The old copy reads-of a butt. HENLEY.

It was corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

3

had quit it :] Old copy-have quit it. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

4 To cry to the fea that roar'd to us ;] This conceit occurs again in the Winter's Tale :-" How the poor fouls roar'd, and the fea mock'd them," &c. STEEVENS.

When I have deck'd the fea 5 with drops full falt; Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me An undergoing ftomach, to bear up

Against what should enfue.

MIRA.

How came we afhore?

PRO. By Providence divine.

Some food we had, and some fresh water, that

S deck'd the fea-] To deck the fea, if explained, to honour, adorn, or dignify, is indeed ridiculous, but the original import of the verb deck, is to cover; fo in fome parts they yet say deck the table. This fenfe may be borne, but perhaps the poet wrote fleck'd, which I think is ftill used in ruftic language of drops falling upon water. Dr. Warburton reads mock'd; the Oxford edition brack'd. JOHNSON.

Verftegan, p. 61. fpeaking of beer, fays " So the overdecking or covering of beer came to be called berham, and afterwards barme." This very well fupports Dr. Johnfon's explanation. The following paffage in Antony and Cleopatra may countenance the verb deck in its common acceptation:

do not please tharp fate

"To grace it with your forrows."

What is this but decking it with tears?

Again, our author's Caliban fays, Act III. fc. ii:

He has brave utenfils,

Which, when he has a house, he'll deck withal."

STEEVENS.

To deck, I am told, fignifies in the North, to Sprinkle. See Ray's DICT. of North Country words, in verb. to deg, and to deck; and his DICT. of South Country words, in verb. dag. The latter fignifies dew upon the grafs ;-hence daggle-tailed. In Cole's Latin Dictionary, 1679, we find,-" To dag, collutulo, irroro." MALONE.

A correfpondent, who figns himself Eboracenfis, proposes that this contefted word fhould be printed degg'd, which, fays he, fignifies Sprinkled, and is in daily ufe in the North of England. When clothes that have been washed are too much dried, it is neceffary to moisten them before they can be ironed, which is always done by Sprinkling; this operation the maidens univerfally call degging. REED.

6 An undergoing ftomach.] Stomach is flubborn refolution. So, Horace:" -gravem Pelidæ ftomachum." STEEVENS,

A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity, (who being then appointed
Master of this defign,) did give us ;7 with

7 Some food we had, and fome fresh water, that A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

Out of his charity, (who being then appointed

Mafter of this defign,) did give us ;] Mr. Steevens has fuggefted, that we might better read-he being then appointed; and fo we should certainly now write: but the reading of the old copy is the true one, that mode of phrafelogy being the idiom of Shakspeare's time. So, in the Winter's Tale:

-This your fon-in-law,

"And fon unto the king, (whom heavens directing,)
"Is troth-plight to your daughter."

Again, in Coriolanus:

waving thy hand,

"Which, often, thus, correcting thy ftout heart,
"Now humble as the ripeft mulberry,

"That will not hold the handling; or, fay to them," &c.

MALONE.

I have left the paffage in question as I found it, though with flender reliance on its integrity.

What Mr. Malone has ftyled "the idiom of Shakspeare's time," can scarce deserve so creditable a distinction. It should be remembered that the instances adduced by him in fupport of his pofition are not from the early quartos which he prefers on the fcore of accuracy, but from the folio 1623, the inaccuracy of which, with equal judgement, he has cenfured.

The genuine idiom of our language, at its different periods, can only be ascertained by reference to contemporary writers whofe works were fkilfully revifed as they paffed through the prefs, and are therefore unfufpected of corruption. A fufficient number of fuch books are before us. If they fupply examples of phrafeology refembling that which Mr. Malone would eftablish, there is an end of controverfy between us: Let, however, the difputed phrafes be brought to their teft before they are admitted; for I utterly refuse to accept the jargon of theatres and the mistakes of printers, as the idiom or grammar of the age in which Shakspeare wrote. Every grofs departure from literary rules may be countenanced, if we are permitted to draw examples from vitiated pages; and our readers, as often as they meet with restorations founded on fuch authorities, may juftly exclaim, with Othello,-" Chaos is come again." STEEVENS.