is thirty days; may it not therefore typify the moon's revolution round the earth? SCENE 2. Page 86. CAL. Nor _scrape-trenchering_, nor wash-dish. _Scraping trenchers_ was likewise a scholastic employment at college, if we may believe the illiterate parson in the pleasant comedy of _Cornelianum dolium_, where speaking of his haughty treatment of the poor scholars whom he had distanced in getting possession of a fat living, he says, "Illi inquam, qui ut mihi narrârunt, quadras adipe illitas deglubere sunt coacti, quamdiu inter academicas ulnas manent, dapsili more à me nutriti sunt, saginati imò &c." It was the office too of apprentices. In _The life of a satirical puppy called Nim_, 1657, 12mo, a citizen describes how long "he bore the water tankard, _scrap't trenchers_, and made clean shoes." ACT III. SCENE 1. Page 91. FER. This wooden slavery, than _I would_ suffer. The old copy reads _than to suffer_, which, however ungrammatical, is justly maintained by Mr. Malone to be Shakspeare's language, and ought therefore to be restored. Mr. Steevens objects on the score of _defective_ metre: but this is not the case; the metre, however rugged, is certainly _perfect_. SCENE 1. Page 92. MIRA. I am your wife, if you will marry me; If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow You may deny me; but I'll be your servant Whether you will or no. Mr. Malone has cited a very apposite passage from Catullus, but Shakspeare had probably on this occasion the pathetic old poem of _The nut-brown maid_ in his recollection. SCENE 2. Page 94. STE. Thy eyes are almost set in thy head. TRIN. Where should they be set else? he were a brave monster indeed, if they were set in his tail. The curious reader may nevertheless be gratified with a ludicrous instance of _eyes set in the tail_, if he can procure a sight of the first cut in Caxton's edition of _Æsop's fables_. In the mean time he is referred to the _genuine_ chap. xx. of Planudes's life of that fabulist, which is generally omitted in the modern editions. SCENE 2. Page 97. CAL. What a py'd ninny's this? thou scurvy patch! Dr. Johnson would transfer this speech to Stephano, on the ground that Caliban could know nothing of the costume of fools. This objection is fairly removed by Mr. Malone; besides which it may be remarked that at the end of the play Caliban specifically calls Trinculo a _fool_. The modern managers will perhaps be inclined for the future to dress this character in the proper habit. SCENE 2. Page 100. CAL. Will you _troll_ the catch----