'Ib.' sc. 4. Pisanio's speech:-- --For so long As he could make me with _this_ eye or ear Distinguish him from others, &c. But '_this_ eye,' in spite of the supposition of its being used [Greek (transliterated): deiktik_os], is very awkward. I should think that either 'or'--or 'the' was Shakspeare's word;-- As he could make me or with eye or ear. 'Ib.' sc. 7. Iachimo's speech:-- Hath nature given them eyes To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt The fiery orbs above, and the twinn'd stones Upon the number'd beach. I would suggest 'cope' for 'crop.' As to 'twinn'd stones'--may it not be a bold _catachresis_ for muscles, cockles, and other empty shells with hinges, which are truly twinned? I would take Dr. Farmer's 'umber'd,' which I had proposed before I ever heard of its having been already offered by him: but I do not adopt his interpretation of the word, which I think is not derived from _umbra_, a shade, but from _umber_, a dingy yellow-brown soil, which most commonly forms the mass of the sludge on the sea shore, and on the banks of tide-rivers at low water. One other possible interpretation of this sentence has occurred to me, just barely worth mentioning;--that the 'twinn'd stones' are the _augrim_ stones upon the number'd beech, that is, the astronomical tables of beech-wood. Act v. sc. 5. 'Sooth'. When as a lion's whelp, &c. It is not easy to conjecture why Shakspeare should have introduced this ludicrous scroll, which answers no one purpose, either propulsive, or explicatory, unless as a joke on etymology. TITUS ANDRONICUS. Act I. sc. 1. Theobald's note: I never heard it so much as intimated, that he (Shakspeare) had turned his genius to stage-writing, before he associated with the players, and became one of their body. That Shakspeare never 'turned his genius to stage writing,' as Theobald most 'Theobaldice' phrases it, before he became an actor, is an assertion of about as much authority, as the precious story that he left Stratford for deerstealing, and that he lived by holding gentlemen's horses at the doors of the theatre, and other trash of that arch-gossip, old Aubrey. The metre is an argument against Titus Andronicus being Shakspeare's, worth a score such chronological surmises. Yet I incline to think that both in this play and in Jeronymo, Shakspeare wrote some passages, and that they are the earliest of his compositions. Act v. sc. 2. I think it not improbable that the lines from-- I am not mad; I know thee well enough;-- ... So thou destroy Rapine, and Murder there. were written by Shakspeare in his earliest period. But instead of the text-- Revenge, _which makes the foul offender quake. 'Tit.' Art thou_ Revenge? and art thou sent to me?-- the words in italics [between underscores] ought to be omitted. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.