Chapter LV: Act V: SCENE 2. Page 349

PAR. Good Monsieur _Lavatch_.

"This," says Mr Steevens, "is an undoubted and perhaps _irremediable_ corruption of some French word." Yet the name is obviously _La vache_, which, whether really belonging to the clown or not, seems well adapted to such a character.

SCENE 2. Page 351.

CLO. Here is a _pur_ of fortune's sir, or of fortune's cat.

The text is perfectly intelligible, and requires no conjectural amendment. The clown calls Parolles's letter a _pur_; because, like the purring of the sycophant cat, it was calculated to procure favour and protection.

THE CLOWN.

He is a domestic fool of the same kind as Touchstone.

TAMING OF THE SHREW.

INDUCTION.

SCENE 1. Page 386.

SLY. Therefore, _paucas pallabris_.

Perhaps these words are part of an old Spanish proverb, corresponding with the Portuguese, "A o hom entendedor _poucas palavras_," i. e. to an intelligent man, few words. Most of the modern European languages have a proverb like our "word to the wise." In Ben Jonson's _Masque of Augures_, Vangoose is made to exclaim "hochos-pochos, _paucos palabros_."

SCENE 1. Page 394.

LORD. And when he says he is ----, say that he dreams.

Of the various modes of filling up this blank suggested in the notes, that of Dr. Johnson, who would insert _sly_, is the most probable. Mr. Steevens asks, "how should the Lord know the beggar's name to be Sly?" This is very true; yet Shakspeare might as well forget himself in this place as he certainly did a few pages afterwards, where he makes the Lord's servant talk of _Cicely_ Hacket, &c.