[364] To pash, signifies to crush or dash to pieces.  So in the “Virgin Martyr,” act ii. sc. 2—­

    “With Jove’s artillery, shot down at once,
    To pash your gods in pieces.”

See Mr Gifford’s note upon this passage, and Reed’s note on the same word in “Troilus and Cressida,” act ii. sc. 3.

[365] The 4^o has it—­

    “May an example of it, honest friends;”

but make is certainly the true reading.

[366] Bannings are cursings.  Hundreds of examples might be added to those collected by Steevens in a note to “King Lear,” act ii. sc. 3.  It is a singular coincidence that ban, signifying a curse, and ban, a public notice of marriage, should have the same origin.

[367] The words, at one door, are necessary to make the stage direction intelligible, but they are not found in the original.

[368] [Here used apparently in the unusual sense of scene.]

[369] This line is quoted by Steevens in a note to “Measure for Measure,” act v. sc. 1, to prove that the meaning of refel is refute.

[370] Sir William Blunt’s entrance is not marked in the old copy.

[371] To blin is to cease, and in this sense it is met with in Spenser and other poets.  Mr Todd informs us that it is still in use in the north of England.  Ben Jonson, in his “Sad Shepherd,” converts the verb into a substantive, “withouten blin.”

[372] Powder’d is the old word for salted:  it is in this sense Shakespeare makes Falstaff use it, when he says:  “If you embowel me to-day, I’ll give you leave to powder me and eat me to-morrow.”

[373] i.e., l’ouvert or opening—­

    “Ne lightned was with window nor with lover,
    But with continuall candle-light.”

—­Spenser’s “Faerie Queene,” b. vi. c. x.

[374] The sense is incomplete here:  perhaps a line has been lost, or Leicester suddenly recollects that Bruce has possession of Windsor Castle, and warns him not to relinquish it.

[375] An abridgment of Hubert, apparently for the sake of the metre.

[376] [i.e., Spleen, indignation.]

[377] In this line there is, in the old copy, a curious and obvious misprint:  it stands in the 4^o—­

    “She was indeed of London the honour once.”

Instead of—­

    “She was indeed of love the honour once.”

The king is translating and commenting on the motto on the pendant, as is quite evident from the manner in which he proceeds.  Besides, the measure requires a word of one syllable.

[378] [Old copy, in life.]

[379] The lords again stand in council as before, while the king fills up the interval to the audience.

[380] This is probably addressed to the king, with whom Oxford has been talking.