Jove knows what man thou might'st have made;

but I,8

Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy!— How found you him?

let him venture

"In some decay'd crare of his own."

A crare, says Mr. Heath, is a small trading vessel, called in the Latin of the middle ages crayera. The same word, though somewhat differently spelt, occurs in Harrington's translation of Ariosto, Book XXXIX. Stanza 28:

"To ships, and barks, with gallies, bulks and crayes," &c. Again, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611:

"Behold a form to make your craers and barks.” Again, in Drayton's Miseries of Queen Margaret: "After a long chase took this little cray,

"Which he suppos'd him safely should convey." Again, in the 22d Song of Drayton's Polyolbion: some shell, or little crea,

66

"Hard labouring for the land on the high working sea." Again, in Amintas for his Phillis, published in England's Helicon, 1600:

passe

"Till thus my soule dooth in Charon's crare.' 99 Mr. Tollet observes that the word often occurs in Holinshed, as twice, p. 906, Vol. II. STEEVENS.

The word is used in the stat. 2 Jac. I. c. 32: ". of every ship, vessel, or crayer." TYRWHITT.

the owner

Perhaps Shakspeare wrote-thou, sluggish crare, might'st, &c. The epithet sluggish is used with equal propriety, a crayer being a very slow-sailing unwieldy vessel. See Florio's Italian Dict. 1598, "Vurchio. A hulke, a crayer, a lyter, a wherrie, or such vessel of burthen." MALONE.

8

but I,] This is the reading of the first folio, which later editors not understanding, have changed into but ah! The meaning of the passage I take to be this:-Jove knows, what man thou might'st have made, but I know, thou died'st, &c.

TYRWHITT.

I believe," but al!" to be the true reading. Ay is through the first folio, and in all books of that time, printed instead of ah! Hence probably I, which was used for the affirmative particle ay, crept into the text here.

Heaven knows (says Belarius) what a man thou wouldst have been, had'st thou lived; but alas! thou diedst of melancholy, while yet only a most accomplished boy. MALONE.