Chapter LXIII: Act II: SCENE 1. Page 228

DRO. E. Will you come _home_? quoth I; my gold, quoth he.

The word _home_, which the metre requires, is said to have been suggested by Capell, but it had been already adopted by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

SCENE 2. Page 234.

ANT. S. If you will jest with me, know my _aspéct_.

Mr. Steevens explains this, _study my countenance_. It seems rather to be an astrological phrase, and to mean, _ascertain whether my aspect be malignant or benign_. He had just before mentioned the sun. Thus in _1 Henry IV._ Act I. Scene 1, "Malevolent to you in all _aspécts_."

SCENE 2. Page 241.

ADR. Thou art an _elm_ my husband, I a _vine_;
If aught possess thee from me, it is dross,
Usurping Ivy, briar or idle moss.

So in _A midsummer night's dream_, Act IV. Scene 1, "The female _ivy_ so enrings the barky fingers of the _elm_." There is something extremely beautiful in making the vine the lawful spouse of the elm, and the _parasite_ plants here named its _concubines_.

ACT III.

SCENE 1. Page 248.

DRO. S. _Mome_, malthorse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!

Sir J. Hawkins would derive _mome_ from the French _momon_, the challenge at dice made by a mummer or silent person disguised in masquerade. It more probably came to us from one of those similar words that are found in many languages signifying something foolish. _Momar_ is used by Plautus for a fool, whence the French _mommeur_. The Greeks too had μομος and μορμος in the same sense.

SCENE 2. Page 257.

ANT. S. Less in your knowledge and your grace, you show not,
Than _our earth's wonder, more than earth divine_.

This play abounds so much in anachronisms, that there will be no impropriety in supposing the above simile to have been designed as a compliment to the reigning sovereign. Pronounced with emphasis, it would not fail to make a due impression on the audience.

ACT IV.

SCENE 3. Page 280.

DRO. S. What, have you got _the picture of old Adam new apparell'd_?

Here seems to be an allusion to some well-known contemporary painting, perhaps of a sign. "Adam whom God dyd fyrst create, made the fyrst _lether coates_ for himself and his wyfe Eve our old mother, leavyng thereby a patron to al his posterite of that crafte." Polydore Vergil _de rer. invent._ translated by Langley, fo. lxix. Similar instances had before occurred in _the picture of we three_, and _Mistress Mall_.

MACBETH.