"Not having that (the having) which makes them short."

Perhaps," having," in the second instance, is a noun, and the construction this: "not having that (i. e. not being in possession of that) which having (i. e. which state of possession) makes them short: " having," as a noun, occurs in As You Like It:

"Truly your having, in no beard, is a younger brother's revenue."

"Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will."

86

I do not apprehend that by love is meant the god of love; but believe the sense is, simply,Alas! that love, which is supposed to proceed head-long, or at random, should yet be sure to take that melancholy path which it loves to tread.

21. "Why, such is love's transgression.—”

Some word has been lost-perhaps the line

was,

Why, such is, merely, love's trangressión."

"Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes.

66

I believe, with Dr. Johnson, that, for purg'd, we should read urg'd. A similar thought occurs in Julius Cæsar:

"O, Cassius! you are yoked with a lamb,
"That carries anger as the flint bears fire,
"Who, much enforced, shews a hasty spark,
"And straight is cold again.”

expression

I believe "purg'd" is the author's word. The urge the fire" was, perhaps, suggested by Scaliger's reading of a passage of Horace :

- Dum graves Cyclopum "Vulcanus ardens urit officinas,

Lib. 1, Od. 4,

Where, for "urit," Scaliger would read urget. LORD CHEDWORTH.

22. "A choking gall, and a preserving sweet." Antithesis seems here intended, which the words will not support:-I do not know what is meant by a "choking gall," unless it be gall, contrary to the relish, taken into the throat so largely as to choke: but, how is preserving sweet to be understood?-sweetness is no less preservative than

salt.

"But sadly tell me, who."

Some words are missing: perhaps,

"But pr'ythee tell me sadly, who she is." "In strong proof of chastity well arm'd." I suppose Milton remembered this:

""Tis chastity, my brother, chastity;
"She that has that is clad in complete steel."

Comus.

23. "When she dies, with beauty 'dies her

store."

I believe the meaning is, when she dies, beauty herself, with all her store of charms, must die

too-Beauty is thus personified in her. Theobald's conjectural transposition,

I think, ought to be adopted.

"And when she's dead," &c.

Something of the thought appears in Raphael's Epitaph:

24.

" Timuit quo sospite vinci

"Rerum magna parens, et moriente mori.'

Perhaps :

Wisely too fair."

Too wisely fair."

CAPEL LOFFT.

25. "What doth her beauty serve, but as a note?"

"What doth it serve?" cannot stand for "what doth it serve for?" we might read:

"How doth her beauty serve," &c.

Or else:

"What doth her beauty serve for, but a note, "Where I may read?”

"A note," equivocally, for a memento, and a written paper.

"I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.” I owe to you, as a friend, this wholesome conviction; and whilst I live, shall endeavour to impress it. This is not in the first quarto; and it may be observed, that most of the obscure and objectionable passages in this play have been superadditions to that copy.

This should be ejected.

"Let two more summers wither in their pride."

Let them pass into autumn.

"Younger than she are happy mothers made." Capulet's reply to these words,

"And too soon marr'd are those so early made," makes me suspect that we should read, "married mothers;" the jingle is exactly of that kind so prevalent in these works; thus, in As You Like It, when Oliver asks Orlando," What mar you?" which I suppose was pronounced, mar'e, or mar'ye; Orlando replies, Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which heaven made," &c, and in K. Henry VI. Last Part, scene between Gloster and Brakenbury,

Glos. (6

She may, sir, ay, marry may she." Black. "What marry, may she?"

Glos.

Marry with a king !"

27. "The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but

she,

"She is the hopeful lady of my earth.”

I believe the meaning is, all my children, except her, are gone into the grave; and when I die, she only will survive to dispose of my remains, (i. e. my earth.) She," in the first line, should at once be made "her," even were it certain that the mistake was the poet's own, and not that of his transcribers.

27. "The earth, &c.

This line is not in the first copy; and in the quarto, 1609, it runs thus:

"Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she."

The second folio has,

"Earth up hath swallowed," &c.

Perhaps we should read,

"Earth hath up-swallowed," &c.

28.

Earth-treading stars, that make dark heaven light.'

This, I believe, is the true reading-the stars in the heavens commonly illuminate the dark earth, but now these earthly stars are to perform that office for the dark heavens. To support Mr. Monk Mason's emendation, and justify his meaning, "earthly stars that outshine the stars of heaven," it would be necessary that we should read, for "light," lights.

30. May stand in number, though in reckoning none.

I believe a double meaning, here, is assigned to" reckoning," estimation, and the act or condition of being counted.

SCENE III.

37. "What is your will?"

40,

My will would remove this useless hemistic. "It is an honour that I dream not of." "Houre" or "houer," the reading of the folio,