II.i.2 (188,1) kiss'd the jack upon an up-cast] He is describing his fate at bowls. The _jack_ is the small bowl at which the others are aimed. He who is nearest to it wins. _To kiss the jack_ is a state of great advantage. (1773) II.i.15 (189,2) 2 _Lord_. No, my lord; nor crop the ears of them. [_Aside_.] This, I believe, should stand thus: 1 _Lord_. No, my lord. 2 _Lord_. Nor crop the ears of them, [_Aside_. II.i.26 (189,3) you crow, cock, with your comb on] The allusion is to a fool's cap, which hath a _comb_ like a cock's. II.i.29 (189,4) every companion] The use of _companion_ was the same as of _fellow_ now. It was a word of contempt. II.ii.12 (191,1) our Tarquin] The speaker is an Italian. II.ii.13 (191,2) Did softly press the rushes] It was the custom in the time of our author to strew chambers with rushes, as we now cover them with carpets. The practice is mentioned in _Caius de Ephemera Britannica_. II.iii.24 (194,2) _His steeds to water at those springs On chalic'd flowers that lies_] Hanmer reads, Each _chalic'd_ flower supplies; to escape a false concord: but correctness must not be obtained by such licentious alterations. It may be noted, that the _cup_ of a flower is called _calix_, whence _chalice_. II.iii.28 (195,3) _With, every thing that pretty bin_] is very properly restored by Hanmer, for _pretty is_; but he too grammatically reads, With _all the things_ that pretty _bin_. II.iii.102 (197,5) one of your great knowing/Should learn, being taught, forbearance] i.e. A man _who is taught forbearance should learn it_. II.iii.111 (198,7) so verbal] Is, so _verbose_, so full of talk. II.iii.118-129 (199,8) The contract you pretend with that base wretch] Here Shakespeare has not preserved, with his common nicety, the uniformity of character. The speech of Cloten is rough and harsh, but certainly not the talk of one, Who can't take two from twenty, for his heart, And leave eighteen.-- His argument is just and well enforced, and its prevalence is allowed throughout all civil nations: as for rudeness, he seems not to be mach undermatched. II.iii.124 (199,9) in self-figur'd knot] [This is nonsense. We should read, --SELF-FINGER'D _knot_; WARBURTON.] But why nonsense? A _self-figured knot_ is a knot formed by yourself. (see 1765, VII, 301, 8) II.iv.71 (204,4) And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for/The press of boats, or pride] [This is an agreeable ridicule on poetical exaggeration, which gives human passions to inanimate things: and particularly, upon what he himself writes in the foregoing play on this very subject: "--And made The water, which they beat, to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes."