Often, too, he falls into the most outrageous tautology: there are hundreds of passages like the following;

"With publike praier, zeale, and faith deuout,

The aide, assistance, and the helpe obtaine

Of all the blessed of the heau'nly rout,

With whose support you conquest sure may gaine." p. 195.

("Sia dal cielo il principio: invoca innanti,

Nelle preghiere pubbliche e devote,

La milizia degli Angioli e de' Santi,

Che ne impetri vittoria ella che puote.")

"Tomorrow is a day of paines and war,

This of repose, of quiet, peace and rest;

Goe, take your ease this euening and this night," &c. p. 198.

("Quel fia giorno di guerra e di sudore ;

Questo sia d' apparecchio e di quiete :

Dunque ciascun vada al riposo," &c.)

"From their strong foes vpon them following

To [Thou] maist them keepe, preserue, saue and defend." p. 216.

("Se stuol nemico seguitando viene,

Lui risospingi, e lor salva e defendi.")

"This said, he fled through skies, through cloudes, and aire." p. 220. ("Ciò disse; e poi n' andò per l' aria a volo.")

To haste or carelessness perhaps we must attribute such a mistake as this;

"He turnd about, and to good Sigiere spake,

Who bare his greatest sheild and mightie bow,
That sure and trustie target let me take,
Impenetrable is that sheild I know," &c. p. 206.

("Onde rivolto, dice al buon Sigiero,

Che gli portava un altro scudo e l'arco :

Ora mi porgi, o fedel mio scudiero,

Cotesto meno assai gravoso incarco," &c.)

It is by exchanging his large shield for a lesser shield that Godfrey exposes himself to the shafts of Clorinda, who forthwith wounds him.

As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize,
And, with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
Retires to chiding fortune."

The modern editors give (with Pope) "Returns." Hanmer read "Replies ;" and so the Manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632.

Did not Shakespeare write "Retorts to chiding for

tune?"

Act iii. sc. 2.

"The falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i' the river."

Mr. Collier's note on this passage is; "The meaning seems to be, that the 'falcon,' or female hawk, is as good as the 'tercel,' the male hawk."-Tyrwhitt unnecessarily proposed to read "at the tercel."

Monck Mason's explanation, "I will back the falcon against the tiercel-I will wager that the falcon is equal to the tiercel," is proved to be the right one by a passage in Fletcher's Love's Pilgrimage, when Diego and Incubo are parting different ways in search of Leocadia. Mason has cited only a portion of that passage: I subjoin it entire ;

"Inc. Best to divide.

Diego. I'll this way.

Inc. And I this.

Diego. I, as you, find him for a real!

Inc. 'Tis done.

Diego. My course is now directly to some pie-house;

I know the pages' compass.

Inc. I think rather

The hungry haunt, I take him by the teeth now.

Inc. I by the tail; yet I as you.

Diego. No more.

[Exeunt severally."

Act v. sc. 1.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

Act ii. sc. 1.

Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim," &c.

Upton altered" Abraham" to " Adam," understanding the allusion to be to the celebrated archer Adam Bell; and, since Upton's time, the alteration has been adopted by all editors, except Mr. Knight, who retains " Abraham," which he explains to mean "the cheat-the 'Abraham man'-of our old statutes."

That Shakespeare here had an eye to the ballad of King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, is certain;

"The blinded boy that shootes so trim

From heaven down did hie,

He drew a dart, and shot at him

In place where he did lye."

But this stanza contains nothing to countenance in the slightest degree the reading " Adam Cupid."

In Soliman and Perseda, 1599, we find,

"Where is the eldest sonne of Pryam,
That abraham-coloured Troion? dead."

Sig. H 3.

in Middleton's Blurt, Master Constable, 1602,

"A goodlie, long, thicke, Abram-colour'd beard."

Sig. D.

and in our author's Coriolanus, act ii. sc. 3, according to the first three folios, "not that our heads are some browne, some blacke, som Abram," there being hardly any reason to doubt that in these passages "abraham" (or "Abram") is a corruption of "abron," which our early writers frequently employ for "auburn." Is, then, the right reading in the present line,—

"Young abram [or auburn] Cupid," &c.,

Shakespeare having used" abram" for " auburn-haired," as the author of Soliman and Perseda has used "abrahamcolour'd Troion" for "Trojan with auburn-coloured hair?" Every body familiar with the Italian poets knows that they term Cupid, as well as Apollo, "Il bióndo Dio:" and W. Thomas, in his Principal Rules of the Italian Grammer, &c., gives; "Biondo, the aberne [i. e. auburn] colour, that is betwene white and yelow." Sig. E 2, ed. 1567. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iv. sc. 4, "auburn" means yellowish,

"Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow."

Act ii. sc. 2.

"at lovers' perjuries,

They say, Jove laughs."

Malone (who would not allow that Shakespeare could read Ovid) observes that he might "have caught this" from Greene's Metamorphosis. Yes; and he might have found it in Italian;