Brach Merriman,—the poor cur is emboss'd"—
"And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach."
'Brach' cannot be right; for brach was bitch (see [Index] s. v.), and what sportsman would say Bitch Sweet lips, for instance, of one of his hounds? In the usual manner the printer was led away by the 'brach' in the following line. The original word must have been a verb, and, were we not aware of what critics usually are, we might wonder at Johnson's most simple and natural emendation, Bathe not being universally adopted. In his whole speech the lord shows his affection for his hounds; for the charge about coupling Clowder with another hound is evidently owing to his being united to an ill-conditioned dog. Poor Merriman, it is plain, had got a swelling in the leg or elsewhere—for that is the only possible meaning of 'emboss'd' in this place; so when the Prince (1 Hen. IV. iii. 3) calls Falstaff an "embossed rascal," he means swollen up—the proper remedy for which was bathing or fomenting with warm water; and this he directs to be done. But Mr. Collier tells us that "a dog or a deer is said to be embossed when fatigue makes them foam at the mouth;" from which all that can be inferred is that Mr. Collier is no sportsman; for any one who has been out with hounds knows that when fatigued they pant and put out their tongues, but never foam. Shakespeare, who apparently knew something of hunting, has correctly, "Lolling the tongue with slaughtering" (Cymb. v. 3), alluding to hounds. On the other hand, Mr. Dyce most confidently reads Trash, i.e., put a "heavy collar, strap or rope dragging loose on the ground" on him to check his speed. I fear that Mr. Dyce is no sportsman either. At least at the present day hounds do not carry weight; for that, I suppose, is what he means. He probably understood 'emboss'd' in the same sense as Mr. Collier. I adopt Johnson's reading, though aware that in cases of this kind (Introd. p. [65]) we should not look for any similarity of form (Mr. Dyce's ductus literarum) in the word to be substituted. (See on Othel. iii. 3.) Here, for example, we might read Mind, or some other word.
"And when he says what he is say that he dreams."
Sc. 2.
"And not a tinker, nor Christophero Sly."
"Madam wife, they say that I have dreamed here."