[as blossoming time That from the seedness the bare fallow brings To teeming foyson, so her plenteous womb Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry] As the sentence now stands, it is apparently ungrammatical. I read, At _blossoming time_, &c. That is, _As they that feed grow full, so her womb now_ at blossoming time, _at that time through which the feed time proceeds to the harvest_, her womb shows what has been doing. Lucio ludicrously calls pregnancy _blossoming time_, the time when fruit is promised, though not yet ripe. I.iv.51 (26,6) [Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, In hand, and hope of action] _To bear in hand_ is a common phrase for _to keep in expectation and dependance_, but we should read, --with _hope of action_. I.iv.56 (26,7) [with full line] With full extent, with the whole length. I.iv.62 (27,8) [give fear to use] To intimidate _use_, that is, practices long countenanced by _custom_. I.iv.69 (27,9) [Unless you have the grace] That is, the acceptableness, the power of gaining favour. So when she makes her suit, the provost says, _Heaven give thee moving_ graces. (1765, I,282,1) I.iv.70 (27,1) [pith Of business] The inmost part, the main of my message. I.iv.86 (28,4) [the mother] The abbess, or prioress. II.i.8 (29,7) [Let but your honour know] To _know_ is here to _examine_, to _take cognisance_. So in _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, _Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires_; Know of _your truth, examine well your blood_. II.i.23 (29,8) ['Tis very pregnant, The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it, Because we see it; but what we do not see, We tread upon, and never think of it] 'Tis _plain_ that we must act with bad as with good; we punish the faults, as we take the advantages, that lie in our way, and what we do not see we cannot note. II.i.28 (30,8) [For I have had such faults] That is, _because, by reason that I_ have had faults. II.i.57 (31,9) [This comes off well] This is nimbly spoken; this is volubly uttered. II.i.63 (32,1) [a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd] This we should now express by saying, _he is_ half-tapster, half-bawd. (1773) II.i.66 (32,2) [she professes a hot-house] A _hot-house_ is an English name for a _bagnio_. _Where lately harbour'd many a famous whore, A purging-bill now fix'd upon the door, Tells you it it a_ hot-house, _so it may. And still be a whore-house_. Ben. Jonson. II.i.85 (32,3) [Ay, sir, by mistress Over-done's means] Here seems to have been some mention made of Froth, who was to be accused, and some words therefore may have been lost, unless the irregularity of the narrative may be better imputed to the ignorance of the constable. II.i.180 (35,4) [Justice or Iniquity?] These were, I suppose, two personages well known to the audience by their frequent appearance in the old moralities. The words, therefore, at that time, produced a combination of ideas, which they have now lost.