"Untread the road-way of rebellion."

That is, says Mr. Collier, return by the road you took when you rebelled against John. "To misprint untread the road-way, 'unthread the rude eye,' seems an excess of carelessness which we cannot in any way explain."

"

(ACT V., Sc. 4.)

So we must give up, as "an excess of carelessness," the metaphor which has passed into a household word, to accept this "right butter. woman's rank to market" upon the plain road way! It is fortunate that the corrector has left us in 'Coriolanus,' "they would not thread the gates;" and in 'Lear,' "threading dark-eyed night." Mr. Collier thinks that when Salisbury afterwards says, "we will untread the steps," that is a confirmation of the first untread. We think with Capell, that the necessary repetition of the general idea caused the choice of the first metaphor, with intent to vary the phrase.

"For I do see the cruel pangs of death
Bright in thine eye."

Right is the original reading. 'Bright appears, from the old corrector's insertion of the necessary letter in the margin, to be the word, in reference to the remarkable brilliancy of the eyes of many persons just before death."

COLLIER.

(ACT V., Sc. 4.)

This substitution of bright for right is, we venture to say, the one grain of wheat in the long catalogue of manuscript corrections of King John, and ought to be introduced in every edition. But it might be

"Light in thine eye."

GLOSSARY

ABSEY-BOOK. Act I., Sc. 1.

"And then comes answer like an Absey book."

Absey-book was the common name for the first or A. B. C. book. This generally included also the catechism, and thus the reference to the "question" and "answer."

ALCIDES' SHOES. Act II., Sc. 1.

"As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass."

The old poets were as frequent in their allusions to the "shoes of Hercules," as the learned have been to ex pede Herculem. Act IV., Sc. 2.

AS BID.

"As bid me tell my tale."

As bid me is used elliptically for as to bid me. AWLESS. Act I., Sc. 1.

"The awless lion."

Awless is the opposite of awful, somewhat that does not inspire awe or fear. The passage alludes to the legend of Richard having torn out the heart of a lion by thrusting his arm down its throat.

BASILISCO. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Basilisco-like."

Basilisco is a character in a play of Shakspere's time, 'Soliman and Perseda.' The oaths of Basilisco became proverbial.

BANK'D. Act V., Sc. 2.

"As I have bank'd their towns."

Bank'd their towns is, probably, sailed along their banks. BEHAVIOUR. Act I., Sc. 1.

"In my behaviour.”

Behaviour is the manner of having, the conduct.

BRAVE. Act V., Sc. 2.

Brave is bravado.

BUT. Act III., Sc. 1.

"There end thy brave."

"But on this day let seamen fear no wrack." Except on. Horne Tooke has shown that the word but has been derived from two sources, with different meanings; one from the Anglo-Saxon bot, to boot, something in addi

tion; the other from the Anglo-Saxon butan, or be-utan, to be out, without. In Scotland the but and ben, be-out and be-in is still used for the outer and inner rooms of a house.

CALL. Act III., Sc. 4.

They would be as a call

To train ten thousand English to their side."

Caged birds, termed call-birds, are used by fowlers to lure or train others to the nets; but the allusion is more probably to the call of the falconer to the hawk to come to the lure. COLBRAND. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Colbrand the giant."

Colbrand was a giant who was conquered by Guy of Warwick.
The legend is related by Drayton in his 'Polyolbion.'

COMMODITY. Act II., Sc. 2.

"That smooth-fac'd gentleman, tickling commodity."

Commodity is interest.

CONTRARY FEET. Act IV., Sc. 2. See note on Shoe in The Two Gentlemen of Verona,' Act II., Sc. 3.

CONVERSION. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Too sociable

For your conversion."

Conversion is a change of condition. Faulconbridge would
say that to remember men's names is too sociable, too re-
spective, for a man of his newly-attained rank.
altered the word to conversing, a needless change.

CONVERTITE. Act V., Sc. 1.

"Since you are a gentle convertite."

Pope

A convertite is here one reclaimed to the authority of the church; a convert.

CONVICTED. Act III., Sc. 4.

"A whole armado of convicted sail."

Convicted is overpowered, from the Latin con, and vinco. COUNTIES. Act V., Sc. 1.

"Our discontented counties do revolt."

Counties are nobles, the degree of a count. The County Paris will be remembered in 'Romeo and Juliet,' and County Guy in Sir Walter Scott's ballad in 'Quentin Durward.'

CRY AIM. Act II., Sc. 1. See 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona.' EXPEDIENT. Act II., Sc. 1.

"His marches are expedient to this town."

Expedient properly signifies disengaged from all entanglements. Exped-ire is to set at liberty the foot which was

held fast. Shakspere generally used words which may be termed learned in strict accordance with their derivation.

FIRST ASSUR'D. Act II., Sc. 2.

"When I was first assur'd."

Assured is affianced.

FORWEARIED. Act II., Sc. 1.

"Forwearied in this action of swift speed."

Forwearied is the same as wearied; and may be used, not as a participle requiring an auxiliary verb, but as a verb neuter. "Our spirits, wearied in this action," even in modern construction, would be correct.

GOOD-DEN. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Good-den, sir Richard."

Good-den is a corruption of good-e'en. It occurs also in 'Romeo and Juliet.'

GUARD. Act IV., Sc. 2.

"To guard a title that was rich before."

To guard was to border or ornament a garment; thence used metaphorically to express the uselessness of enriching that which "was rich before."

HALF-FACED. Act I., Sc. 1.

"A half-faced groat."

The half-face is the profile, and the coins bore the half-face of the sovereign. The expression seems to have been proverbial, as it occurs also in the play of the 'Downfal of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon,' published in 1601.

HAND-KERCHER. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"I knit my hand-kercher about your brows." This word was used indifferently in Shakspere's times with handkerchief for the same object.

HEAT. Act IV., Sc. 1.

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Though heat red-hot."

Heat is here used as a participle. In the older translations of the Bible, Daniel iii. 19, we have "he charged and commanded that they should heat the furnace at once seven times more than it was wont to be heat."

HIS HORSEBACK. Act II., Sc. 1.

"Sits on his horseback."

This is an old idiom. In North's Plutarch, one of Shakspere's favourite books, we have "he himself took his horseback." IMPORTANCE. Act II., Sc. 1.

"At our importance hither he is come."

Importance is importunity.

INDIGEST Act V., Sc. 7.

"To set a form upon that indigest."

Indigest is here used for "disordered, indigested, state of affairs."

MANAGE. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Which now the manage of two kingdoms."

Shakspere has more than once used the word manage in the sense of management. Prospero, in 'The Tempest,' speaks of the "manage of my state."

MEASURES. Act III., Sc. 1.

"Be measures to our pomp."

Measures were dances of a serious character.

NOB. Act I., Sc. 1.

"It would not be sir Nob."

Nob in Shakspere's time, as well as now, was a cant word for the head.

OWES. Act II., Sc. 1.

"To him that owes it."

Owes was frequently used formerly, as here, in the sense of

owns.

PASSIONATE. Act II., Sc. 2.

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She is sad and passionate."

Passionate is given up to grief.

PEISED. Act II., Sc. 2.

"The world, who of itself is peised well."

Peised is poised, balanced.

PHILIP?-SPARROW! Act I., Sc. 1.

The sparrow was called Philip, perhaps from his note. Skelton wrote a long poem, entitled Phylyppe Sparow'-on the death of a lady's sparrow.

PICKED. Act I., Sc. 1.

"My picked man of countries."

To pick is the same as to trim, a metaphor, says Steevens, derived from the action of birds in picking their feathers. "He is too picked, too spruce," occurs in 'Love's Labour's Lost,' Act V., Sc. 1.

PRESENCE. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Lord of thy presence."

Presence probably here means priority of place, from the French préséance. Warburton, however, thought it meant master of thyself.