‘This pevysh proud, this prender gest,
When he is well, yet can he not rest.’
Mr Bullock mentions, in support of his conjecture, that ‘pensie’ is still used in some north-country dialects. ‘Primsie’ is also found in Burns’ poems with the signification of ‘demure, precise,’ according to the glossary.
[ Note XVI.]
[III. 1. 118.] Johnson says the most plausible conjecture is ‘benighted.’ It does not appear by whom this conjecture was made.
[ Note XVII.]
[III. 1. 168.] We must suppose that Claudio, as he is going out, stops to speak with his sister at the back of the stage within sight of the audience.
[ Note XVIII.]
[IV. 2. 91.] This is a case in which we have thought it best to make an exception to our usual rule of modernizing the spelling. The metre requires ‘Haply’ to be pronounced as a trisyllable. Perhaps it would be well to retain the spelling of the first two Folios ‘Happely,’ and as a general rule it would be convenient if an obsolete spelling were retained in words used with an obsolete meaning. We have, however, abstained from introducing on our own authority this, or any other innovation in orthography. In [IV. 3. 126], we have retained ‘covent,’ which had grown to be a distinct word from ‘convent,’ and differently pronounced. Shakespeare’s ear would hardly have tolerated the harsh-sounding line
‘One of our cónvent and his cónfessor.’