A N

ENQUIRY

INTO THE

LEARNING

OF

SHAKESPEARE,

WITH

R E M A R K S

ON SEVERAL

* P A S S A G E S of his P L A Y S.

In a CONVERSATION between

E UG E NIUS and NE4 NDER.

}

Ttoftrina Vim promovet in/it am. HOR,

By PETER tFHALLET, A. B.

Fellow of St. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.

LONDON?

Printed for T. WALLER, at the Cr<nun and Mitre oppofitc to Fetter -lane in Fleet -jireet. 1748.

[Price One Shilling and Six-pence.]

PR

[Hi]

THE

PREFACE.

TH E following Obfervations were de- figned at firft, as Matter of Curiofity and Amufement to my felf. In read- ing the Plays of Shakefpeare, I could not help comparing fome Paflages, with fimilar ones in the other Drammatic Writers of the fame and fubfequent Age. I found they mutually bor- rowed, and reflected Light upon each other ; and confpired to fet the Manners of the Times in a clearer View, than either of them could have done alone. It is with the Cuftoms of a Nation, as it is with Drefs : Every Reign al- A 2 moil

iv PREFACE.

moft differs in fomething from that preceding it* And the Habits of our old Englijh Co- medy do not vary more from thofe of the pre- ient, than the Wit and Humour, whieh is al- ways adapted to the Age, is changed from what it was in the Days of our Anceftors.

The Learning of the Poet having been long made, a Queftion, I recolleded many parallel Places, which I had taken notice of in the Study of the Claffics. Upon bringing them together, I perceived a very manifeft Confor- mity between them ; fufficient in fome Mea- fure to perfuade one, that Shakefpeare was more indebted to the Ancients than is com- monly imagined. FavouritePrepoffeffions ufu- ally operate very ftrongly on the Mind $ and Parties of all kinds are feldom fetisfied, with- out pufhing their Sentiments to indefenfible Extremes. This probably may be the real Cafe with regard to the Difpute about our Poet. From being thought to have no Learn- ing, he may be reprefented to have read too much ; or at leaft to have read more than what may be fairly collected from his Plays. Thus his Advocates, through Excefs of Zeal, may deftroy that Caufe they are defirous to fupport. Nothing is advanced in the Quotations I have produced, but what ftruck

me

PREFACE. v

me immediately upon the firft reading. It had been an eafy Matter to have multiplied Citations ; and to have poured in a Profufion of Learning in Defence of the prefent Opi- nion. But I was intirely unwilling to over- charge ; and chofe rather to rely on a few WitnefTes of Credit, than to call in a Multi- tude of fufpedted Teftimonies.

«*

That Shakefpeare was not altogether unac- quainted with the dead Languages, is plain from the Confeflion of his Adverfaries j and from the Authority of Johnfon, who allows him a fmall Portion both of Greek and Latin. We may venture to go fomewhat further; and fay, that he not only underftood thofe Languages, but that he arrived to a Tafte and Elegance of Judgment, particularly in the Latter. Of this the Tragedy of Hamlet is an irrefragable Inftance.

Saxo, the Danifn Hiftorian, from whom hs took the Plot, is remarkable for a Purity of Style, beyond any other Writer of the Times in which he lived. And the Critics are fur- prized to find an Author of fuch Politenefe in fo rude and ignorant an Age. Skdkefpeare muft certainly have read him in the Original ; for no Tranflation hath been ever yet made

into

vi P R E FA C E.

into any modern Language. His rejecting certain marvellous Occurrences, which the Hiflorian has inferted from the Traditions of his Countrymen, fhews that he not only read him for Information, but that he fludied him as a Critic. Though he hath taken from him the Fact of Ham/ef's counterfeited Madnefs, and many other Circumftances of the Play, yet he has varied from the Narration in fe- veral Incidents. The Addition of the Ghoft is probably from his own Imagination ; and the Conclufion of the whole is different from the Relation of Saxo. If I may be permitted, with Submiffion, to declare my Sentiment, the Catafirophe is exceedingly ill managed, and very unequal to the reft of the Play. It, differs as much likewife from the Truth of Hiftory, which informs us, that Hamlet fur- vived the Ufurper, and died a natural Death. But the Departure from an ancient Fact is eafily pardoned, when it occafions a fine Dif- trefs, or any extraordinary Scene of A&ion. Yet neither of thefe, I apprehend, is accom- plifhed by the Death of Hamlet.

Upon reviewing my Remarks, which were wrote at a time when the Amufement of Wit are fuffered to mingle with other Studies, I found that moft of them continued to be

unobferved

PREFACE. vii

unobferved by the Editors of Shakefpeare ; or were not confidered in the fame Light in which I faw them. Hence I imagined they might probably contain fomething, which the Admirers of this Author would not be dif- pleafed to meet with. I have purpofely avoided to make any Alterations in the Text, one or two Inftances excepted : For after all that has been offered orchis Head, I believe it not impoffible to make ftill fome additional Corrections. I would not be underftood to include the laft Edition, which I denied my- felf the Pleafure of perufing. If therefore I have any thing in common with that, it ariies from the fame general Fund of Obfer- vation.

It may be neceflary, perhaps, to apologize to the Reader, for fome Remarks which I have introduced by the way, and for the manner in which this Enquiry is executed ; though I would hope that I have mentioned nothing, but what hath fome Connection with the Point in view. To the Subject it- felf, I believe he will have no Exception ; efpecially if he confiders what hath been lately publiftied of this kind, by feveral Re- verend and learned Gentlemen. Nor indeed can it reafonably be deemed inconfiftent with

any

Vlll

PREFACE.

any Character, to endeavour to illuftrate the Writings of a Genius, who is an Honour to Mankind ; and who does not more contri- bute to improve the Head, than to mead the Heart of every thinking Reader.

ERRATA.

P. 41, Note, for In the frft, read Ifrjt. P. 50, 1 1 3, add te. P. 54, 1. 3, dele not. P. 56, 1. 8, for p*tis9 read p&nis

AN

[9]

A N -

ENQUIRY

INTO THE

" L EARNING

O F

SHAKESPEARE, dec.

EUGE NIU8 and Neander are two Friends no lefs endeared to each other by mutual Offices of Kindnefs, than by an equal In- clination for Learning, and Studies of a politer Tafte. The latter lives chiefly in the Coun-. try, but always fpends fome Months of the Winter in Town, the better to diverfify the Scene, and enjoy more agreeably the Company of Eugenius. Upon corning to his ufual Refidence in London, he haftened the next Morning to the Lodgings .of his Friend : He found him at Breakfalt in his Chamber, with his common Entertainment of a Book before him. As foon as the fir ft Salutations were over, Neander began to enquire about the State of Letters, and what new Performance he Was fo deeply intent upon. It is a Writer, replied B Eugenius

we are neither of us unacquainted witlv yet I feldom take him into my Hand, but I always meet with fomething new. From the Character you give me, returned Neander, I mould do an Injury to the fupreme Genius, if I did not imme- diately conclude it to be a Volume of Shakefpeare. This Author was their common Favourite •, of whom Neander frequently would fay, that he thought him not more the Boaft of his Country in particular, than the Glory of human Nature hi general. Eugenius was going to make Anfwer, when the other interpofed with obferving, that he imagined the Merit of Shakefpeare to be now indifputably owned : And the Fondnefs of the Public for him he thought was pretty evident,, from the various Editions which have been lately publifhed, and the frequent Reprefentations of his Plays upon the Stage. Do you fuppofe then, faid Eugenius^ that the Nation was ever prejudiced againft Shakefpeare^ or had not a proper Relifh of his Merit ? That is my Sentiment, replied Neander ; for it feems, methinks, to have hap- pened to fome great Authors, as to certain Notions and Opinions in Philofophy : They have been en- tertained at their firft Appearance in the World, with a candid and honourable Reception, but through the popular Caprice they would ibon have fallen into Darknefs and Oblivion; if Men of Learning had not arofe to recover their Character, and fixed them in univerfal Credit and Reputation. And this is eafily accounted for' by the Decline or Perverfion of Scnfe and Tafte in one Age, and its Revival Perfection and Improvement in another. Such, in my Apprehenfion, has been the Fate of Shakefpeare^ with Regard to his feveral Contem- poraries,, and his Rivals in Fame and Poetry. The

r n ]

Age wherein he lived hardly allowed him £qual, never a Superior ; but that which imme- •diately fucceeded began to prefer others to him in its Efteem, and let Ben. Jabnfon and Beaumont .and Fletcher far above him •, fo that in Mr. Dryden's Time the Flays of thefe laft became the molt frequent Entertainments of the Stage; two of them being ufually acted throughout the Year, to one of Shakefpeari 's or Johnfcn's. The-'Reafon of that PrepofTeffion, returned Eugenius^ is not difficult to find ; for the Court, which in thefe Cafes, com- monly gives the Law, was funk in Indolence and Pleafure. The Morality of Shakefpeare ap- peared with too fevere a Countenance ; the Form was too folemn and gloomy for the Gaiety of Men of Wit, and was a Kind of Reproof to the Irregularity of their own Conduct. The Convex fation of Gentlemen, the Genteelnefs of their Behaviour and Difcourfe, and the Extravagance of their Gallantries were much better painted by Fletcher^ than by any other Poet who wrote be- fore him. The tender and more pleafing Pafr fions were defcribed in a natural and lively Man- ner i and a certain Eafmefs and Pleafantry reign- ing through the whole, confpired to recommend him to the general Applaufe. However, as you intimated, the Judgment and Inclination of the prefent Age declare univerfally for Sbakefpeare : And this feems to proceed from the Labours of his feveral Editors ; and from that inimitable Pro- priety with which his chief Characters are repre- fented by an incomparable Actor, whofe excellent Exprefiion is an admirable Comment upon the jPlavs of our Author.

B 2 The

[ 12 ]

The Glory of the Englijh Drama, continued us^ appears to have been carried to its laft Perfe&ion by this triumvirate of Bards, You will pardon me, I hope, the Ufe of this Metaphor, as I confider Beaumont and Fletcber but as one Writer. What have we that exceeds their eafy and graceful Manner, and Spright- linefs of Dialogue ? Or does any thing furpafs the Humour, Correctnefs, and Regularity of of Jobnfcn ? What can we conceive more ado- flifrring than the Genius and Imagination of Sbake- ffeare ? Or can we find him wanting in a fmgle Article which is neceffary to compleat the Cha- racter of a Dramatic Poet ? You feem, Eugtniusy interrupted Neander, to forget the Charge which hath been long brought againft him, and your Affection for his Memory will not give you Leave; to confider his Deficiency in a Point which is efteemed very material, and accounted a Quali^ fication eflentially belonging to a Dramatick Wrir ter : I mean that Want of Reading which he con- ftantly betrays, and a total Ignorance of the learned Languages. This, perhaps, returned Eugenius^ might pofTibly proceed from his Concealment of that Excellence, rather than from any real Want of it. Yet I know it hath been mifinterpreted into a Crime, and hath been conftantly oppofed to that Luxuriance of fancy fo evident in the Works of $bakefpeare ; and to that extenfive Comr mand of Nature, whom he alone, of all Mankind, leems to hare had entirely in his own Power. The common Accufation hath been, as you fay, that he wanted Learning: Confining, I prefume, the Meaning of that Word to an Acquaintance and Intimacy with the dead Languages •, yet this is in Effeft but a greater Commendation. Jobnfon^

{ 13 ]

however* it muft be owned, did not think fo; not being To naturally learned* he was willing to derive the greateft Honour from his acquired Riches, and the Spoils which he had obtained from the Greek and Latin Authors : And this was good Policy in him, who, if he wanted not Imagination, was never yet reckoned to have much to fpare. He pbced his chief Perfection in this Article, the Faftuon of the Times concurring tfr approve it > and what by this Means he detracted from the Sum of Shakejpearis Merit, was added to increafe his own : For by induftrioufly fupporting this Opinion, he intended to fecure the Palm to him- felf. I am rather, interpofed Neander^ inclined to believe, that the Partizans of the two Poets began the Oppofition : For confidering the honourable Teftimony which Johnfon hath left of his beloved Sbakefpeare^ and the Favours he had received from him, I can hardly believe he would be guilty of that Ingratitude to diminim the Reputation of his Benefactor. However the Competition began, it certainly divided the Critics of that Age •, and I think that Jobnfon him felf hints at it in this PafTage from one of his own Plays ; " She may cenfurc " Poets, and Authors, and Stiles, and compare " 'em, Daniel with Spenfer, Jobnfon with the " other Youth, and fo forth*." But I have often wondered why Beaumont and Fletcher were never made Parties in this Difpute : For we may per- ceive as little an Appearance of Familiarity with the daffies in their Plays, as in thofc of Sbakef-

peare.

* Siknt Woman* Atl II. St. 2; If this Expreffion is not thought applicable to Shakefpeare, he may probably mean Pecker, between whom and Jvhnfen there was a perfbual

Difference;

[ Hi

peare.-\ As they were Gentlemen of good Fa* milies, their Learning perhaps was preliimed to be inherent in the Blood, or to defcend to them by Inheritance. So obliging a Prefumption, inter- rupted Eugenius, fmiling, would be of infinite Service to many younger Brothers of this Age, who are frequently complimented by the Courtefy of England with fome other Qualities, to which they have as (lender a Right. And yet you cannot but have obferved, that in every Conteft of this kind, our Author never wanted Advocates to maintain his Caufe. Mr. Hales aflerted in his Fa- vour, that there was no Subject which any antient Poet had ever treated, but he would engage to fhew it as well wrote by Sbakefpeare.

If you were at Leifure, I could point out fome pa- rallel Pafiages tending to confirm this Aflertion j and I would make a previous Enquiry into the fevc- ral Sources from which the Poet drew. Materials to adorn his Plays. But fuch a Difquifition, conti- nued EugeniuS) would, I fear, demand more time than you can probably allow me ; for undoubtedly you have many Compliments and Services from the Country to deliver, which the Ceremony of the Town muft be obliged with at your firft Ar- rival. What little Matters of that Kind, replied Neander> I have to do, are difpatching by a Ser- vant •, and I have dealt out my Cards, I hope, with fo much Art, as to fecure me your Company, if

•f Fletcher might have properly been joined with Shakef- jeare, for never blotting out a Line, which we are informed of by good Authority. " Whatever I have feen of Mr. " Fletcher's own Hand, is free from Interlining ; and his Friends " affirm he never writ any one Thing twice. " Mofcffs Pref. to Edit. 1647.

[ '5]

difengaged for the reft of the Day. I have na particular Appointment, returned Engenius, to call me out, and, with your Leave, we may em- ploy the reft of the Morning in our prefent Con- veriation. Neander acknowledging his Inclina- tion, Eugenius proceeded in the following Man- ner.

Sbakejpeare has been defervedly efteemed the Homer, the Father of our Dramatic Poetry, as being the moft irrefiftible Mafter of the Paf- fions ; poffeffed of the fame creative Power of Imagination ; abounding with a vaft AfTemblage of Ideas, and a rich Redundancy of Genius and In- vention. And I think, added Neander ', that he may be confidered to deferve that Title in another Light, as having, like him, furnifhed many Poets and Tragedians of fucceding Times with the no- bleft Images and Thoughts.

-Cujufque ex ore profufos

Omnis pofteritas latiees in Carmina duxit, Amnemque in tenues aufa eft deducere rivos, Unius fcscunda bonis. MANIL.'

However, with all thefe Superiorities, and with a Dignity equal to the divineft of the Ancients, he had the Fortune to refemble them in the leaft de- firable Part of their Circumftances •, as he met with the Fatality, peculiar almoft to diftinguimed. Writers, of being tranfmitted to Pofterity full of Errors and Corruptions. It would appear almoft incredible, that the Writings of an Author of fo late a Date, mould be thus extremely faulty and incorrect •, and that his Works, like the Province of Africa to the ancient Romans, mould yield his

Com-

[ 16 ]

Commentators fuch a continual Harveft of Victory and Triumphs ; but it happens at the fame time, to prevent all Surprize, that we are not only af- fured of the Fact, but in fome meafure likewife both of the Caufe and Manner of it. This then be- ing the Cafe, returntdEugenitts, can it be any longer a Wonder why certain Adventurers in Criticilm have fo ardent an Efteem for Shakefpeare, when he gives them the moil delightful Opportunity of trying their Skill upon his Plays, and of indulg- ing a Difpofition for GuefTes and Conjecture, the darling Paflion of our modern Critics. Befides the Correctnefs of the Text, which is equally necef- fary to the right underflanding him in common with all other Authors -9 it may not be improper to confider a few Particulars, which may pofiibly explain the Singularity of fome Places, and give us a little Infight into the Learning of Shakefpeare.

To begin with his Plots, the Ground-work and Bafis of the whole : Thefe are ufually taken from fome Hiftory or Novel •, he follows the Thread of the Story as it lies before him, and feldom makes any Addition or Improvement to the Incidents arifmg from it : He copies the old Chronicles al- moil: verbatim^ and gives a faithful Relation of the feveral Characters they have left us of our Kings and Princes. It is needlds to remark, how erroneous this mufl render the Plan of his Drama, and what Violation it rnuft neceflarily offer to the Unities, as prefcribed by Ariftotle. Yet it does not in the leaft abate my Veneration for our Poet, that the French Connoiffeurs have fixed on him the Imputation of Ignorance and Barbarifm. It would agree, I believe, as little with their Tem- pers to be freed from a fovereign Authority in

the

E '7 ]

the Empire of Wit and Letters, as in their civil Government. An abfolute Monarch muft prefide over Affairs of Science, as well as over thofe of the Cabinet ; and it is pleafant enough to obferve what Pain they are put to, upon the leaft Appearance of offending againft the Laws of the Stagyrite. But notwithstanding the Imperfedlion, and even the Abfurdity of the Plots of Shakefpeare, he continues unrivaled fqr his maflerly Exprefiion of the Characters and Manners ; and the proper Execution**of thefe is undoubtedly more ufeful, and perhaps more conducive to the Ends of Tragedy, than the Defign and Conduct" of the Plot. A great Part of this unjuftifiable Wildnels of the Fable, muft be placed to the Tafte and Humour of the Times ; the People had been ufed to the Marvellous . and Surprizing in all their Shews and Sports ; they had feen different Kingdoms, in different Quarters of the World, engaged in the fame Scene of Bufmefs, and could not be haftily confined from fo unlimited a Latitude tp a narrower Compafs* I allow their Ap- petites to have been much depraved •, yet pro- bably fome kind of Regimen, not very differ- ent from what they were before accuftomed to, was the propereft Method to bring them to a better. Neverthelefs, were we to make a Dif- fe&ion of his .Plays, we fhould difcov^r more Art and Judgment than we are commonly aware of, both in the Contraft and Confiftency of his principal Characters, and in the different Under-parts, which are all made fubfervient towards carrying on the main Defign -, and we, fhould obferve, that ftill there was' a Simpli- city of Manner, which Nature only can give, C and

as wonderful a Diverfity. Homer is ad- liiired for that Perfection of Beauty which re- prefents Men as they are affe&ed in Life, and thews us in the Perlbns of others, the Oppo- fitio'ns of Inclination, and the Struggles be- tween the Paffions of Self-love, and thofe of ffb'ridur arid VirttieT which we often feel in our own Breafts *. This is that Excellence for which he is deferred ly admired, as much as for the Variety of his Characters. May we not 'apply this Remark with an equal Propriety to Shakefpeare, in whom We find as furpri-zing a Difference,, and as natural and diftin& a Pre- fervation of his Characters ? And is not this agreeable Dilplay of Genius^ interpofed Nenrt- "der, infinitely preferable to that ftudied ^Regu- larity and lifelefs 'Drawing praftifed 'by our latter Poets ? in whom we meet with either a 'conftant Refeniiblance, or Antithefis both of 'Sceries and Perfbns ; the 'natural Refult of -a confined Uhd fcanty Imagination ! I am tempt- ed to compare fuch Performances to that per- petual Samenefs Or Repetition which prevails in our modern Tafte of Gardens : Where,

Grove nods at Grove , each Ally has a Andbalftbe Wat-form jvtft'rtflefts the other f.

Yet I believe, however earneftly we cdtit^nd for Nature, that we. are neither of *ns inclined to exclude the Direction of Art from intefpdfing in! the Drama : It give's a'heightni'ng and 'Relief to Nature* and .at the fame time curbs the ex- travagance -of Fancy, and circumfcribes -it

* -fiee ftutcbffGifs Inquiry, &C. P. 41.

f.1-Mr. Pojfit Epiftlcs to Lord'5«r//^";;, V. 115-

withia.

.within proper Bounds. All I would eftablifh •by this Remark, is the Opinion of Longinus, preferring a Competition with fome Faults of this kind, which is wrote with Genius and Su,b- limity, to one of greater Regularity and Cor- rectnefs, that is not animated with equal Life and Spirit. The Bufinefs and Defign of Art, returned Eiigenius^ is undoubtedly to polifti $nd improve the Beauties of Nature \ and jn fome Cafes, perhaps, it may be a more illuftri- ous Mark of Skill, not to weaken and deftroy a natural Grace, than to introduce an artificial one. Rujes may probably affift and fet off a Ge- nius, tho* they can never give Perfection where that is wanting : But we feem, Neander* to juftify our Principles by our Practice. Jt 4s reasonable we fliould now return to qijr Subject, from which we have been long wan- dering, as I have fomething to obferve which hath a natural Connection 'with the Point we

are difcufling.

*.

You rnuft have remarked, I think, that the Poet himfelf was fenfible of the Im- perfections <pf his Plojts, and of the Folly of the Multitude which he was obliged to comply with againft his Knowledge ; fgr he attempts in ijiany PJaces -to apologize for his Weaknefs, and reflects feverely upon tfie Judgment of his Audience.* Sir Philip Sidney fometime before him had cpndemned the Ig- norance and Faults of many Poets, ancj their notorious Violations of the Unities, in the De-

* Particularly in the Prologue, and Chorufles of Henry the jth, and in {he Prologue to Henry the 8th.

C 2

[ 20]

figH and Management of their Fable. As I have the Book at hand, you will permit me to read the Paflage. " You fhall have Afia^ " fays he, of the one Side, and Afric of the <c other ; and fo many other under King- <c doms, that the Player, when he comes in, <c muft 'ever begin with telling you where he " is, or elfe the Tale will not be conceived. " Now you lhall have three Ladies walk tp " gather Flowers, and then we muft believe " the Stage to be a' Garden. By-and-by we " hear News of a Ship-wreck in the fame " Place, then we " are to blame if we accept " it not for' a Rock.-— Now of Time they •~c are much more 7 liberal j for ordinary it is, cc that two 'young Princes fall in Love ; " after many Traverfes ' fhe is got with Child, " delivered of a fair Boy, he is loft, groweth *6 a Man, falleth in Love, and is ready to get " another Child; and all this in two Hours " fpace, which how abfurd it is in Senfe, even " Senfe may imagine."* If I might fuppofe, added JZugenitis, that Sir Philip ', in: this Cri- ticifm, alluded to any particular Perform- ance, it is pfobable that he hints at Pericles, Prince of tyre, which abounds with many fuch palpable Abfurdities 5 ' and "is in the Number of thofe fpurious Pieces, which are attributed to Sbakefyearp': If this Conjedure be admitted, it may be confidered likewife as a Proof of that Play's being none of his -, but as I lay no great Strefs upon the Thought, I mall not claim your Thanks for the Difco- very.

* Defence ofPoefj, /, 43. 3^ VcL of bis Works.

The

[21 ]

The next Inftance of the Poet's Underftand- ing and Art, is in forming the Characters and Manners. In this Field Sbakefpeare is con- fefledly invincible ; for it is not eafy to frame any Idea of a more comprehenfive Mind, or of an exacter Knowledge of the World, than what he difplays upon this Head. It is his fingular Excellence to mark every Character in the ftrongeft manner, with Sentiments peculi- arly cofrefporident, and to maintain the Pro- priety of each in every Circumllance of Action. Even thofe which appear to be the moft uni- form, and of the fame Complexion, will be found, upon a nearer View, to be totally and formally different. ' The Diverfity of thefe is as great as that of his Comparifons and Simi- lies •, for in fliort 'he has no two alike •, they are as diftihct from each other, as one Man is from a fec6nd in real Life. The Diction alfo is proportionably varied, and adapted to the Rank and Circumftances of the Speaker. He every where difcovers a perfect Intimacy with the antient poetic Story, which he always in- troduceth by the jufteft Application. Nor "does he appear lefs knowing in Philofophy, Hiftory, Mechanics, and many other Branches :of abftf'ufer Learning. He feems, indeed^ in- terrupted Neander with a Smile, to be ac- quainted with the feveral Kinds of Science to lo great a Degree, that were all Arts to be loft, they might be recovered With as little Difficulty from the Plays of Sbakefpeare, as from the Iliad of Homer, or the Gsorgics of VirgiL

Your mentioning thefe antient Authors, re- plied Ettgenius, reminds me of the Refem-

blancc

C w ]

glance which there is between the Playsr of Shakefpeare^ and the Comedians and Satyrifts of Antiquity -, as I apprehend the Difficulty of tmderftanding both, commonly proceeds from the fame Caufes : An Allufion familiar enough to every Body at the time of writing, may be irretrieveably loft \ and what Perplexity this mud necefiarily occafion, is extremely obvious. I am apt to imagine there is a great deal of concealed Satire in the Plays of our Author, and frequently in thofe Places where we leaft expect it. For it is evident, I think, that many Reflections of this kind, on the marvel- lous Performances of the Writers of that Age, and on the Humours and Opinions of the Times, are interfperfed in Numbers of his Scenes. And as thefe have commonly littk or no Connection with the Plot and Incidents, they receive their chief Grace and Beauty from the Characters who fpeak, or the Application they are put to. Hence is it that we often find his Clowns or Fools repeating Paflages from Plays well known to the Audience of that Age, with a View to ridicule and expoie them. And thus, as it were by a kind of Tranfmutation, what was originally Folly and Stupidity, be- comes Wit and Humour by the Parody of Sbakeffeare.

This laft Remark which you have made, returned Neander, confirms a Notion which I have long entertained of Btn Jobnfon^ whom I conceive to be far the moil obfcure of #ny of our Dramatic Poets -, and I dare fay you will hearrtily join with me in a Wifti I have frequently made, that feme Gentleman of

Learning

C 23 ]

Learning would oblige the Public with a cor- rect Edition of his Works, attended with ex- planatory Notes in their proper Places. Abun- dance of Allufidns occur in his Writings, both to the Cuftorns of his own Age, and to thoie of Antiquity -, which being often very remote, darken the Sentiments to fo great a degree, that we have as much Perplexity almolt in leading him, as we meet with in drift opha- ties or -P-lauws. Terence I am fare is infinitely eafier, tho' a Man would -not expect to fee greater Difficulties in an Author of his own Couifcry, Who died but a Century ago, than in another who wrote in a foreign Language, and hath been dead near twenty t-imss as lorng. Thefe Difficulties, replied Eugtniut, are owing •in -a great Meafure to his Learning : He form- ed himfelf upon the antient Models, and hath Copied as well their Manner as Expreflion. We have not, I confefs, an Shakejpvart, fuch direct and vifible Traces of Antiquity ; and for the fame Reafon we are free from that Ob- icuirity, which this extravagant Afte&ation 'hath •created in the other.

We have feen, Neander? he continued, what Methods were taken by the ;Poet to be ijvere x>pon his Adverfaries, or to kfh the prevailing Follies with -an honeft Indignation. And We may further obferve that he m'ade ufe of the fame Ocoafions to pay a Compliment, -or to ingratiate himfelf with more addrds in the'Ba- vour of his Friends and Patrons. It is eafy to >perceive with what a religious 'Veneration he conftantly fpeaks of the -Majs'fty of Kings \ and to what Height he advanceth their Pre- rogative

-...I 24]

. rogati ve and Power. This, I fuppofe, was Ifa fome Meafure the Effect of Complaifance, to inculcate on the People thofe high ftrained Notions of the regal Dignity in which King 'James I. had been educated, and which he endeavoured to perfuade others into a Belief of by his own Writings. I {hall inftance in two PaiTages from Shakefpeare^ which may ferve to confirm the Hint which I have made j the firft of them is to.be found in his Play of Richard II. and runs thus :-

Not all the Water in the rough rude Sea Can wa/h the Balm from an anointed King : 'The Breath of worldly Men cannot depofe \ *£he Deputy elefted by the Lord.

AdIII.Sc. 2.'

The Second which is full to the fame Pur- pofe occurs in Hamlet,

Do not fear our P erf on :

There's fuck DIVINITY doth hedge a King, tfhat Treafon can but peep to what it would?, Acls little of its Will ' Ad IV. Sc. 6.

If we look into other Potts of the fame Age, we mall find the like Sentiments deli- vered in an equal Strain ; and the following PaiTage will evince that Beaumont and Fletcher did not come much fhort of him in idolizing kingly Power :

King. Draw not thy Sword* thou know'Jl I

cannot fear A Subjetts Hand.

Aminton

Amintor. • There is

DIVINITY dboutyou* that ftrikes dead My rifing Paffions.

Maid's Trag, Aft. IIL

This Proceeding however of our Poet, returned Neander, is more eafily excufable in him, if we confider how great a Mark of Efteem and Honour he received .from King James himfelf, who is reported to haye wrote* with his own Hand, an amicable Letter to Mr. Sbakefpeare -, which Letter, tho* now loft, re- mained long in the Pofieffion of Sir William D'avenant. By attending to thefe Circumftan* ces, and others of the fame Kind, purfued Eugenius^ we may be enabled, perhaps, to form a Judgment at what Time feveral of his Plays were wrote. The Date, indeed, of fome is already determined by many external Evidences ; and the internal ones of others may fnpport us in a probable Conjecture of the Time of their firft Appearance on the Stage.

As it is evident from what hath been faid, that Sbakefpeare framed the Sentiments of his Plays in Conformity to the Notions then in vogue, and made his Kings and Counfellors fpeak the Language of the Court ; fo he drew Defcriptions and Images from the Entertain- ments moft in ufe, and borrowed Metaphors from the Diverfions practifed by Men of Birth and Quality. This lets us into the Reafon why we have fuch frequent mention of Hawk- ing, Hunting, Archery, and the like. Fal- cony in particular was a favourite Diverfion of that Age •, and the Poet feems equally fond P to

[ 26 J

to illuflrate his Thoughts by Allufions to that: before the reft. A PafTage m> Othello is com- -pofed of Metaphors, which are all entirely fa many Terms in Hawking :

If I prove her Haggard,

The? tbat for Jeffes were my dear Heart-firing^ rd whifile her off, and let: her down the Wind To prey at Fortune. Aft III. Sc. 6~

He difcovers himfelf in thefe Lines a perfect Mafter of the Sport, as indeed he always does of ,eVery thing which he occasionally introdu* ces in a Play : And every thing,, added Ne- ander^ which he takes upon him to defcribe, appears to receive, in my Judgment, an un- common Luftre and Polifh ; and to be endued with more delicate and fofter Traits of Beauty, than I often find in the Things themfelves. Every Defcription is a capital Piece of Pain- dug •, and fometimes even a fingle Line con- tains aim oft the Beauties of a whole Land- .fcape. Thus you may obferve, refumed Euge- •mus^ that he is- equally excellent in his Imagery of hunting •, for which I might appeal to fo inimitable a Defcriptioa of a Pack of Hounds,, that there is fcarce a Country 'Squire in the Nation,, who hath heard of the Name &f ShakeJ- peare, but can repeat it entirely by Heart, The Place which I refer to, is to be found in- die Midfummer Night's Dream^ Aft IV. Sc. 2V aad we may add to it the following one from rfndronicus*

Tamonr

Taniora. The Birds chaunt Melody on every Bujk9 • The Snake lies rolled in the cb earful Sun, The green Leaves quiver with the cooling Wind9 And make a chequered Shadow on the Ground : Under their fweet Shade, Aaron, let us Jit , And whilft the babbling Echo mocks the Hounds* Replying Jhrilly to tbt well-tun' d Horns ^ As if a double Hunt were beard at once, JLet us fit down^ and mark their yelling Jfoife.

Aft II. Sc. 3,

The Lines which you have quoted, inter- pofed Neander9 are taken, I perceive, from a Performance very unequal in itfelf •, it was de- fpifed by the Con temporaries of the Poet, and is •conceived upon the Whole, not to have been wrote by him. The Abfurdity and Confufion of the Plot, returned Eugenics, together with the Meannefs of many Parts in this Play, and the Contempt which Ben Jobnfon openly exprefied of it, when Shakefpeare was yet living, are good Reafons to fuppofe that all of it did not come from him. Yet the above-mentioned Verfes, which were wrote by the mod lively Imagi- nation, and others which might be eafily pro- duced, are, I think, a fufBcient Evidence that they could ,pofTibly proceed from no other Hand than his. The Vices of the fwelling or low Speeches, are redeemed by the Virtues of thole which are more natural and fimple : It may probably be his firft Performance in the dramatic Way, becaufe we are certain it was in Being when the Poet was arrived but to the 25th Year of his Age. The diftinguifh- ing Parts of the Play are intirely defcriptive; might, perhaps, be the ruder Efiays of D 2 that-

[28]

that amazing Genius which could pervade all Nature With a Glance, and to whom nothing within the Limits of this Univerfe appeared to be unknown : Or if we allow it to be only fitted up for the Stage by him with the Addi- ,- tion;. of tfyefe PaiTages ; I fancy it muft have been prepared fometime at leaft before the Death or Queen Elizabeth. I found my Con-r jefture on thofe Lines of it, which relate to Hunting, as I imagine that Incident might have been introduced for the following Rea- fon. We are informed, that Mr. Richard Erf- wards, who, in the Beginning of that Reign, was one of the Gentlemen of her Majefty's Chapel, had a Comedy called Palamon and Arcite reprefented before her at Oxford •, in which the Cry of a Pack of Hounds was fo naturally imitated, that the Queen and Audi- ence were extremely delighted with it.* This Circumilance might raifethe Emulation of fuc- ceeding Poets, mod of whom wrote only to the Eyes and Ears •, and excite in them a De- fire to obtain the Favour of the Queen by a Repetition or Improvement of the fame agree- able Artifice. You feem, Eugenius^ returned Neander^ to adjudge this Play to Shakefpeare, and fuppofe either the Whole, or the PafTages inferted, to be his firft Compofitions •, becaufe fuch florid and gay Defcriptions are the natural Refult of a youthful and warm Imagination. I might obferve the fame in the moft poetical and lively Parts of Romeo and Juliet^ which was brought upon the Stage when the Poet was about 33 Years old. I cannot omit inti- mating, that the generality of the Verfes in

Athene? Qxonienf.

[ 29 ]

Jiius Andronicus are remarkably eafy and flow-' ing ; and that there are as many Allufions in it to the Cuftoms, Hiftory, and Events of Antiquity, as in any other of his Plays what- fpever. Take it however, relumed Eugenius^ for all in all, I perceive no great Reafon why we Ihould intereft ourfelves in its Defence ; and it may be thought diffidently honoured with the little Share of Reputation ir poffeffeth, from the Suppofition only of its being wrote by Sbakefpeare. ,

The next Particular which demands your Notice, as it was undoubtedly defigned by the Poet, who is followed in it both by Johnfon and Fletcher, is the Cenfure and Ridicule he. hath exprefied on the fenfelefs Cuftom of Duelling. This very much prevailed in thofe Days ; and was reduced to a Science, necef- fary to be underftood, by all Gentlemen of Honour, in the Time of King James I. There is a remarkable Hint of it in Romeo and Juliet, which being one of his firft Plays, it is proba- ble that this Practice was then common, tho' not fo notorious as it grew to be afterwards. For thus Mercutio ridicules it in his Character of Tybalt •, " Oh, he is the couragious Captain " of Compliments ; he fights as you fing " Prick-fongs : Keeps Time, Diftance, and " Proportion ; refts his Minum, one, two, *' and the third in your Bofom. The very " Butcher of a Silk Button, a Duellift, a Du- * ellift, &V.J> And the frivolous Occafion of their Quarrels is defcribed with the fame fati- rical Humour, Mercut. " Nay, an there were *' two luch, we fhould have none fhortly, for

*e one would kill the other : Thou ! wny thou ** wilt quarrel with a Man that hath a Hair *' more, or a Hair lefs in his Beard than thou 46 haft, &V." Ad III. Sc. i. And again, in ^Timon of Athens he thus mews his Indignation againft it.

Tour Words have tookfuch Pains, as if they laboured *To bringMan-Jlaughter int of or m^andfet quarrelling Upon the Head of Valour, which indeed Is Valour mljbegot^ and came into the World When Sefls and FaSions were lut newly born.

Ad III. Sc. 6.

Theie Lines are an open Declaration againft the Humour of Duelling •, and a perfed Image of the Times in which ib barbarous a Pradice had its rife. I muft add to thefe Inftances one more •, it is exprefiive of the whole Form and Ceremony obferved upon fuch Qccafions, and precifely regulates the feveral Degrees and Meafures of a Quarrel. It occurs in the Sixth Scene of the laft Ad of As you Like it \ and makes the Converfation between Jaques and the Clown. The Whole is an admirable Scene of Humour and Satire, but the laft Speech is more particularly diverting. Clown. " O Sir, •*c we quarrel in print by the Book, as you •" have Books for good Manners. I will name '* you the Degrees, &V," And if we look into any of Ben Johnfon's Comedies, we mall be further convinced how prevalent this Hu- mour was, from that Eagernefs which his Cullies difcover to be inftruded in the Art ; and the Precepts which his Bully-Captains lay down in their Leffons to their Pupils. This

is marked with great Perfpicuity iri the Cha- racters of Stephen^ Matthew, and Capt. Boba- dill) in Every Man in bis Humour. And it i& Sogtiardo's Account of his Friend, Cavalier Sbift> " That he manages a Quarrel the beft ** that ever you faw, for Terms and Circum- " fiances."* To the fame Purpofe Subtle^ in the Alcbemift) promifes to give Kaftrill the moil ample Directions in the Science :

*••

F II have you to my Chamber of Demon/rations, Where FUJbew you both the Grammar and Logic? And Ret boric of Quarrelling : My whole Method Drawn out in '•Tables •, and my Inftrument* That hath the fever al Scales upon,'*, Jhall make you Able to quarrel at a Straw's Breadth by Moon-light.

Ad IV. Sc. 2.

And again, in Fletcher's King and no. King* the Ridicule is admirably maintained in the Character of Bejfus •, who being engaged to> two Hundred and twelve, protefled he could not fight above three Combats a Day. And his Obiervations upon the Form of the Chal- lengers are incomparably humourous. " If, " lays he, they would find me Challenges thus cc thick> as long as I lived, I would have no ** other Living : I can make feven Shillings a *c Day of the Paper to the Grocers : Yet I <-c learn nothing by all thele but a little Skill ** in comparing of Stiles. I do find tvidently, *•' that there is fome one Scrivener in this <£ Town that has a great Hand in writing of " Challenges, for they are all of a Cut, and ** fix of them in a Hand ; and they all end,

* £-jerj Man. out of his Huncw\ Aft IV. Sc. 6.

" my Reputation is dear to me, and I muft " require Satisfaction." y&? III. If this lafl Remark, which you have pointed out, inter- pofed Neander^ flood in need of any Confirma- tion, I would beg Leave to corroborate it by a Speech of my Lord Bacon. I obferve you have his Works in your Collection, and I will take the Liberty to read you an Extract or two from it, as it was made exprefly upon this Subject of Duelling. " I thought, 'fays he, " to lofe no Time in a Mifchief that groweth <c every Day ; and befides it paffes not amifs, " fbmetimes in Government, that the greater " Sort be admonilhed by an Example made «* in the Meaner, and the Dog to be beaten " before the Lyon. Nay, I fliould think, my « Lords, that Men of Birth and Quality will « leave the Practice when it begins to be vili- « fied, and come fo low as to Barber-Surgeons, << and Butchers^ and fuch bafe mechanical

<c Perfons. This Offence exprefly gives

<c the Law an Affront, as if there were two <c Laws -, one a kind of Gown Law., and the «c other a Law of Reputation^ as they term it* « So that Paul's and Weflminftery the Pulpit « and the Courts of Juftice, muft give Place «< to the Law, (as the King fpeaketh in his ^ Proclamation) of Ordinary Tables, and fuch *« reverend AfTemblies : The Year-Books and " Statute-Books muft give Place to fome «« French and Italian Pamphlets, which han- « die the Doftrine of Duels ; which if they be « in the Right, tranfeamus ad llla> let us re-» " ceive them, and not keep the People in " Diftraftion between two Laws*."

* Charge againft Duels }n the Star Chamber, 4 Vol. o£ his Works, p. 298.

[33 ]

I find, added Eugenius, that his Lordfhlp and the Poet both concur in affigning the fameCauie for fo unnatural a Cuflom. It proceeded from the Inclination remarkable in the Englijh, to tranfplant the Follies and Vices of thofe Coun- tries they were ufed to vifit for Improvement ; and thefe coming always into a kindly Soil, thrived with a wonderful Increafe. Italy was at this time the School of Gentility and Manners ; and our travelled Sparks continually returned home infected with ftrange Cuftoms, which met with a very quick Reception among the reft of their Countrymen. This is intimated to us by Shakefpeare in feveral Places, who blames their Degeneracy in that refpecl, and their perpetual liftening to

Report of Fajhions in proud Italy ;

Wbofe Manners ftill our tardy apifo Nation*

Limps after in bafe awkard Imitation.

RXCHD. II. AclII. Sc. I.

What Airs they commonly affedted upon finifhing their Tours, we may collect from the Paffage I am now going to mention. " Fare- <c well, Monfieur Traveller •, look you liip, *s and wear ftrange Suits •, difable all the Be.- *c nefits of your own Country •, be out of love <c wit by our Nativity, and almoft chide Gcdfor 4< making you that Countenance you are, or I " will fcarce think you have fwam in a Gon- " dola *." Was I difpofed, replied. Newfar, to refine upon this Quotation, I might venture to affirm, that the Poet was particularly cen- that Libertinifm of Opinion which his

* Jjjeu like it, Ad IV. Scene 2.

E Country-

[34]

Countrymen contra&ed of their Italian Peda- gogues. The Thought is plainly atheiftical* and a kind of Libel againft Providence ; ex- a&ly of the fame Stamp with thofe which Va- mni "expreffes in feveral Places of his Treatife de admirandis Natur<e\ &c. I can give you a very remarkable Example, if my Memory does not refufe me its Afllftance. St. Paul\ he fays, having beftowed on Marriage the Name of a Sacrament, and exhorted ,Hufbands to love their Wives, as Chrift hath loved his Church ; married Pcrfons, in Confequence of this Pre- cept, form too pure and fpiritual an Idea of the Nuptial Bed. That as they acquit themfelves of the Conjugal Duties only from a Principle of Religion, their Children become heavy and itupid, and that by Means of the Imagination of their Parents •, in the fame manner as we fee Infants born with exterior Marks, which are attributed to the Fancy and Imagination of the Mother. He laments it as a Misfortune that he was thelfTue of lawful Wedlock ; fuppofing that his Father did not beget him with that Guft and Ardour which attends an illegitimate Con- currence : Yet he comforts himfelf, that his Mo- ther was in the Bloom and Vigour of her Youth when he was born, tho* his father was feventy Years old. And he imputes to thofe Circum- flances all the good Qualities both of Mind and Body, which his Vanity fuggefted he was Mafter of. " Quod fi excelfus mine mihi eft animus <c grata forma, corpufque paucis obnoxium in- 46 firmitatibus, inde evenitquod Pater meus etfi " fenex, blandus tamen atque hilaris erat ; " ejufque ob fenium frigefcentia membra (irri-

" dent

[ 35 ]

" dent philofophi hasc Chriftianorum con- " nubia) adolefcentula uxor complexu fove- " bat. Quin imo moderate vino concalefac- " tus, ad Veneris comcediam peragendam ie *' accinxit, amasniiTimo illo anni tempore quo x< fe omnes nature vires exerunt V

There is likewife another Folly, returned Eugenius, proceeding from the fame' 'Source ; this is the frequent ufe of many finical and dainty Oaths, which the choice Spirits of that Age diftinguifhed themlelves by, as'thofe of the prefent by their Blafphemy and Prophane- nefs. Shake/peare* I think, inlinuates as much, when Rofalind queftions the Clown, who fwore by his Honour, where lie learned that Oath, who tells her of a certain Knight who uied to fwear fo •, and though he fwore falfely, yet was he not forfworn, Hotfyur indeed, more agree- ably to his Character, would have his Lady, who had protefted in good footh^ to leave thole Terms, and fwear in the true military manner,

- Sware me, Kate, like a Lady as tbou arfy A good Mouth-filling Oath.

Firft Part Hen. IV. Aft III. Sc. 3.

For as a Soldier, he was equally full of flrange Oaths, and fudden and quick in Quarrel. The fame Humour is defcribed with great Life in al- moft every Comedy of Ben John/en's \ and it is his Character of one Perfon, that the Oaths

* Dialog, de dreams Nature, p. 321, 322, Sc 354,

E 2 ' which

[36 J

which he vomits at one Supper, would main- tain a Town of Garrifon in good fwearing a Twelvemonth.

To this we may join that other Privilege of a Traveller, twin-born with fwearing-, which is, a happy Talent of lying •, familiar enough to thole Men of Fire, who looked on every one graver than themfelves, as their Wbetftone, This you may remember is a proverbial Term, denoting an Excitement to lying, or a Subject that gave a Man the Opportunity of breaking a Jeft upon another. And thus Shakefyeare makes C#lia reply to Rofalind upon the Entry of the Clown, " Fortune hath fent this natural *c for our Whet ft one ; for always the Dulnefs « of the Fool is the Whetftone of the Wits." And Johnfon alluding to the fame, when he draws the Character of Amorpbusy fays, " He f< will lie cheaper than any Beggar, and *£ louder than mo ft Clocks -, for which he is *' right properly accommodated to the Whet- « ftone his Page."

I obferved in the Beginning of our Conver- fation, purfued Eugenius^ that many Paffages are difcovered in the Poet to be defigned Yrith a double Intention. They are proper and con- fident, if confidered as natural in the Charac- ter where they are ufed ; and have likewife the Force of a ftrong and well wrote Satire upon particular Affairs or Perfbns remarkable at the time of their Appearance. Of this kind is the counterfeited Madnels of Edgar in the Tragedy of Lear -, whofewild, grotefque, and

incoherent

I 37]

incoherent Sentiments, are intirely fuch as we fhould conceive a Lunatic of that Turn would utter : And they are further defigned to ridi- cule an Impofture difcovered about that time, in which the feveral Fiends mentioned by the Poet were raifed up to carry on the Cheat. And, perhaps, the Character of the Fool is not altogether free from particularSatire andReflecti- on; as where he fays, I will fpeak a Prophecy or two before I go. He may hint at cetltain Forge- ries of that kind which were newly coined by the Papifts •, for the Jefuits of that Age were able Conjurers and Seers, and had Oracles upon every Occafion ready cut and dry, tho* they met with the Fate of their Devils, and became the Sport of the Populace, and Entertainment of the Stage. I have feen a Book relating to this Subject, intitled, Admirable and notable Prophecies uttered by twenty -four Roman Cat ho- lies, by one James Maxwell, printed in 1 6 1 5, the Year before our Poet died f.

More

f It may not be impertinent to obferve, that theConclu- fioti of the fecond Prophecy, is an undoubted Ridicule upon the manner in which thofe Forgeries were uttered ; and, in particular, upon the Prophecies which were put out under the Name of Merlin.

'then Jhall the Realm of Albion Ccme to great Confufion.

" This Prophecy Merlin fhall make ; for I do live be- '< fore his Time." Aft JI. Sc. 3.

Bifhop Hall in his Virgid.emiarum alludes to the fame Practice, and gives us a Prophecy which feems in a great meafure accomplifhed,

[38]

More Examples of the fame nature might be €afily alledged, but I lhall chufe to proceed to thole which are a Sneer upon his Fellow- Writers. In the Midfummer Night's Dream, you may recollect that we are prefented with the lamentable Comedy of Pyramus and T'hijbe ; and though the Fuftian and Blunders of it may feem well enough to agree with the Capacities of the Actors, I rather imagine that many of the Lines are either taken from fome Poets of thofe Days, or wrote in Imitation of their Style. The Produ6tions of the Writers in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth^ were miferably over-run with unnatural and far-fetched Senti- ments, which was owing to a fervile Fondnefs for the Italian Authors, and the foolilh Imi- tation of their Thoughts and Manner-, yet I muft own at the fame time, there flourilhed many excellent Models for a truer and better Tafte in Compofition. What contributed not a little to corrupt the Judgment of the Age, were the Plays and Romances of Lilly. Thefe were a perfect Magazine of Affectation and Conceit. He was at the Head of all the Beaux Efprits, followed by the Gentlemen

Lo the long Date cf thcfe expired Days, Which the infyired Merlin'.? Word for efays ; When Dunghill Peafants/hall be dight as Kings, Then one Confufion another brings.

L. III. Sat. i.

As I lhall have Occafion to mention this very uncom- mon Performance of Biihop Hall in another place, the Keader may expeft to find a more particular Account of it there.

Sonnetteers

[39]

Sonnetteers, and eafy Writers of every Deno- mination. Among the feveral Tricks prac- tifed by the greater Part of thefe Poets we may obferve that a continual Alliteration runs through the Verfes of them all, which was often carried to the higheft Pitch of Affecta- " tion. This is very evident from many of the Tragedies, and Trariflations of the Latin Claflics which were made in thofe Times ;' and Shakef- pcare, together with the reft of the rhore judi- cious Critics, appears to ridicule it by thefe fol^ lowing Lines in the Play laft mentioned.

Whereat with Blade, with Woody blameful Blade He braixly broach* d his boiling bloody Breafl.

I queftion, returned Neander, fmiling, if the great Admirer of the moft excellent Erythraeus,* would eafily forgive fo infolent an Attack up- on, one of his favourite Arts of Verfe •, which he has afferted to compofe in a great meafure the Mufic and Harmony of Poetry. The pro- per and due Ufe of it, replied Eugenius, adds undoubtedly much Delicacy and Sweetnefs to a Poem ; but this perpetual Repetition of the fame Letter, is a fort of childifh Diverfion > and if the Merit of a Piece confided in that alone, many a great Author would be obliged to change Places with his Inferior ; the Plau- dite porcelli porcorum pigra Propago t would

* See Letters on Poetical Tranjlations, and on and VirgilV Arts of Verfe.

f This is the firft Line of a Latin Poem intitled, Porcorum, confifting of about 3 50 Verfes, ev^py Word of which begins with the Letter P.

(land

[40]

ftand a good Chance to be equalled with the ASttoU*.

I could

* If it fhould not be agreed, that Shahe/peare intended to ridicule this affected Alliteration in the.Verfes above cited, it will be readily acknowledged, I believe, that he purpofely defigned it in what follows :

"Hot. Sir Nathaniel y will you hear an extemporal Epi- 4* .taph on the Death of the Deer ? And to humour the Ig " norant, I have called the Deer the Princefs killed, a «' Pricket.

" Natb. Perge, good Mafter Ho/of "ernes, perge ; fo it (hall " pkafe you to abrogate Scurrility.

" HoL I will fornething affefi the Letter, for it arguea •' Facility.'*

" The praifeful Princefs picrM and prickt, " J pretty pleafing Pricket, &c.

Lovers Lab. loft, Aa IV. Sc. 2.

.

This Excefs of Fondnefs for the Italian Poets, is taken notice of by other Writers in the fame Age. Sir Philip Sidney has expofed it with fome Satire, in his Ajlrophd and Stella.

" You that do Diftiwary'ts Method Iring

" Into your Rhymes, running in rattling Rows ; " Tcut that poor Petrareh^Vofrf dcceafcdWocs

" With new-born Sighs, and denizen 4 Wit do fing.

Stanz. XV.

Where we may remark, that this conceited Affe&ation of the Letter is likewife- cenfured by him, not without Reafon \ and Billiop Hall has the following Comparifon, taken from this reigning Practice :

" Or an, Hos Ego, from old PetrarchV Spright

** Unto a Plagiarie Sonnet -wrlght L. IV. Sat. 2,

And

[4" ]

I could never bring myfelf to fubmit to the Drudgery of going through many of our an- cient

And ridiculing a forry Poet, under the Name 6f Labeo, he refers again to the common Cuftom of the Tribe :**

' He fan implore the Heathen Deities, TV guide his bold and bujy Enter prize ; Or filch whole Pages at a Clap for Need From hone/i Petrarch, c lad in Englifti Weed. While big But Oh's each Stanza can begin, WhofeTrunke andTayle Jluttijh, and hartle/e bin.

L. VI. Sat. i.

Having promifed the Reader a more particular Character of thefe Satires above, I take this Opportunity of being as good as my Word with him, and of introducing Him to a more general Acquaintance with one of the moft curi- ous Pieces of our Englijh Poetry. It is intitled, " Virgide- " miarum, Six Bookes. Firft three Bookes of Toothlefs " Satyres,

1. Poetical!.

2. Academicall.

3. Morall.

London, printed by Thomas Creedc, for Robert Dexter, 1 597."

The fecond Part was publi(hed the Year after, with this Title, " Virgidemiarum, The three laft Bookes of by ting Satyres."

Imprinted at London, by Richard Bradocke for Robert Dexter, at the Signc of the brazen Serpent in Paules Church Tarde, 1598.

Biihop Hall was born in 1574, and, publiihing thefc Satires twenty-three Years after, was, as he himfelf afferts, in the Prologue, the firft Satyrift in the Englijh Language :

In thefrjl Adventure with fool- hardy Might To tread the Steps of perilous Defpight ; Ifirji adventure* follow ms who lift, And be the fecond Engliih SatyriJ},,

[42]

cient Plays, or, in all Probability, I might trace in Sbakefpeare feveral Parodies upon

them ;

And if we consider the Difficulty of introducing fo nice a Poem as Satire into a Nation, -we muft allow it required the Aififtance of no common and ordinary Genius. The Italians had their Ariofto, and the French their Regnier, who might have ferved him as Models for Imitation ; but he copies after the Antients, and chiefly Juvenal and Per- Jius-, tho' he wants not many Strokes of Elegance and De- licacy, which mew him perfectly acquainted with the man- ner of Horace. Among the feveral Difcouragements which attended his Attempt in that kind, he mentions one pecu- liar to the Language and Nature of the Englijh Verifica- tion, which would appear in the Tranilation of one ofPer- Jtus\ Satires : " The Difficulty and DiiTonance whereof, " fays he, mall make good my Aflertion ; befides the plain " Experience thereof in the Satires of Ariofto ; fave which, " and one bafe French Satire, I could never attain the " View of any for my Direction." Yet we may pay him almoft the fame Compliment which was given of old to Homer and Arcbilochus : For the Improvements which have been made by fucceeding Poets, bear no manner of Propor- tion to the Diftance of Time between him and them. The Verfes of Bifhop Hall are in general extremely mufical and flowing, and are greatly preferable to Dr. Dowe's, as being of a much fmoother Cadence j neither {hall we find him deficient, if compared with his Succeffor, in Point of Thought and Wit ; and to exceed him with refpect to his Characters, which are more numerous, and wrought up with greater Art and Strength of Colouring. Many of his Lines would do Honour to the nioft ingenious of our mo- dern Poets ; and fome of them have thought it worth their Labour to imitate him, efpecially Mr. Oldham. Bifhop Hall was not only our firil Satirift, but was the firft who brought epiftolary Writing to the View of the Public ; vrhich was common in that Age to other Parts of Europe^ but not praclifed in England^ till he publifhed his own Epiflles ' It may be proper to take Notice, that the Virgi- demianim are not printed with his other Writings ; and that all Account of them is orm'tted by him, thro' his extreme Modefty, in the Specialties of his Life, prefixed to the 3d Vol. of his Works in Folio. I cannot forbear mentioning

a Latin

f 43 ]

them ; fince the Beauty of fome whole Cha- racters is chiefly owing to that Defign. What

can

a Latin Book of his, equally valuable and forgotten, called Mundus alter & idem ; where under a pretended Defcrip- lion of the Terra Auftralis, he gives us a very ingenious Satire on the Vices and Follies of Mankind. To fatisfy the Curiofity of the Reader, I have tranfcribed a Character from the Virgidemiarum, which will give him- a better Idea of the Whole, than any thing I can fay in its Commen- dation. *

But who hath feen the Lambs of Tarentiaet

May guefs what Gallio his Manners been :

All foft as is the falling Thjftle-downe,

Soft as the fumy Ball, or Morrian's Crowne.

Now Gal/io, 'gins thy youthly Heate to reigne

In every vigorous Limme, and fwelling Veine ;

Time bids thee raife thine hedftrong Thoughts on highe-

To Valour, and adventrous Chivalrie ;

Paune thou no Glove for Challenge of the Deed,

Nor make thy Qyintaine other's armed Head ;

T' enrich the waiting Herald with thy Shame,

And make thy Lofle the fcornful Scaffold's Game.

Wars ! God forefend : Nay, God defend from War,

Soon are Sons fpent, that not foon reared are :

Gallio may pull me Rofes 'ere they fall,

Or in his Net entrap the Tennis-ball: Or tend his Spar-hawk mantling in her Mew, Or yelping Beagles bufy Heeles perfue ; Or watch a finking Cork upon the Shore, Or halter Finches thro' a privy Door : Or lift he fpend the Time in fportful Game, Jn daily courting of his lovely Dame : Hang on her Lips, melt in her wanton Eye, Dance in her Hand, joy in her Jollity : Here's little Peril, and much lefler Paine, So timely Hymen doe the reft reftraine ; Hy wanton Gallic, and wed betime, Why (hould'ft thou loofe the Pleafures of thy Prime ? F z

[44]

can be more fatirically contrived, if v/e confider it in this View, than the Character of PiRal ; In whom the Rants and Bombaft, either taken or imitated from other Plays, are extremely natural and proper ? And Ben Johnfon intro- duces in his Poet after fome Speeches exactly of the fame Stamp with many of Piftol's Excla- mations :

Why then lament therefore : Damned be thy Guts Unto King Pluto' s Hell, and princely Erebus.

Act III. Sc. 4.

There is likewife another Wight cafhiered Retinue, the facetious Corporal Nym ^ who recommends himfelf to our Notice by his Familiarity with a fingle Word ; this he brings into play upon every Turn. For that's the HUMOUR of it. The whole Part, I think, feems to be formed with an Intention to expofe the Abufe of the Word Humour j and as John- fon fays,

Could not lut arrive mo ft acceptable Cbiefly to fitch, as had the Happinefs Daily to fee how the poor innocent Word Was racked and tortufd.

Every Man out of his Humour.

See'ft thou the Rofe-leaves fall ungathered ? Then hy thee, wanton Gallic, to wed.

Virg. L. IV. Sat. 4.

I fhould apologize for the Length of this Note, if I did not think the Subjeft a fufficient Recompence for the Trou- ble of reading it.

for

[45]

for he has himfelf remarked upon this un- meaning Difpofition,

When if an Idiot

Had but an apijh or fantaftic Strain

It was his Humour. ibid.

and he has a critical Account both of its pri- mary and metaphorical Acceptation,

*To give thofe ignorant wellfpoken Days,

Some Tafle of their Abufe of this Word Humour.

For even honeft Col, the Water-bearer, was well verfed in the Gallantry of the Times, as he gives us to underftand in the following Speech.

" Cob. Nay, I have my Rheum, and I " can be angry as well as another, Sir.

" Cajh. Thy Rheum Cob ? thy Humour, 44 thy Humour, thou miftak'ft.

44 Cob. Humour ? Mack, I think it be fa 44 indeed, what is that Humour? Some rare 44 thing I warrant.

44 Cajh. Marry, I'll tell thec, Cob, It is a 44 Gentleman-like Monfler, bred in the fpecial 44 Gallantry of our time by Affectation, and " fed by Folly,

" Cob. How, muft it be fed ?

44 Cajh. Oh, ay ; Humour is nothing if it 44 be not fed. Did'ft thou never hear that ? >4 It's a common Phrafe, feed my Humour. Every Man in his Humour. Act III. Sc,4.

As

[46 ]

As we are upon this Head, I mufl take No- tice of a Play, mentioned by both Authors, which wanted not its Favourers among the Ad- mirers of Jingle and Conceit ; and was the common Butt of the more judicious Writers. The Piece I mean is the Spanifh Tragedy -, or Uieronymo is mad again. Iri Ben Jobnfon's Every Man in his Humour, (Act I. Sc. 5.) we have it fneered by a Quotation of fome Lines from it. " What new Book have you there ? fays Boba- " dill to Matthew: What! Go by, Hieronymo ! " Matt. Ay, did you ever fee it acted ? Is it " not well penn'd? Bob. Well penn'd? I *c would fain fee all the Poets of thefe Times *c pen fuch another Play as that was. They'll *c prate and fwagger, and keep a Stir of Art *c and Devices, when, as I am a Gentleman^ *6 read 'em, they are the moft fhallow, pitiful, *< barren Fellows that live upon the Face of *c the Earth." After this, Matthew begins to repeat a Speech of Hieronymo's from the Third Ac\ abounding with the moft jejune and unna- tural Turns upon the Word ; and concludes it at laft, to be excellent, and fimply the beft that ever was heard.* Again, in the Induction to Cynthia 's Rev els , this Account is given of it, * Another, whom it hath pleafed Nature to

" furnifh

* The fame Paflage which John/on ridicules, is parodied in the Comedy of Aibuma %ar> by .this Speech of?rfatajp*$.

O Lips, no Lips, but Leaves befmear'dnvith Me I -dew /

O De<w, no Deewt but Drops of Honey-Combs f

O Combs, no Combs, but Fountains full of Tears /

O Tear Si no Tears, but • .. Aft II, Sc. I .

And

[47]

" furnifti with more Beard than Brain, " prunes his Muftaccio, lifps, and with fome " Score of affedted Oaths, iwears down all " that fits about him, that the old Hieronymo " as it was firft acted, was the only beft and ju- -" didouQy penn'd Play in Europe" Sbakef- $eare in his Indu6tion to the Taming of thi Shrew? puts a Gird at it in the Mouth of the drunken Tinker, who is fquabblmg with his Hoftefs •, Go by? Hieronymo •, go to thy coldBed* and warm thee. To underftand this the better, you fhould be informed that it alludes to two particular Pafiages in the Play : The firft is, where Hieronymo alarmed with the Murder of his Son at Night, which proves at laft the Caufe of his Madnefs, comes upon the Stage in his Shirt, and begins thus:

What Out^cry calls me from my naked Bed? And chills my throbbing Heart with trembling

Fear? Which never Danger yet could daunt before?

Ad II.

The

And the Satire upon Duelling is preferved in the lame Play with great Humour.

Trine. Say, under fianffl tbou well nice Points of Duel ? Art born of gentle Blood, and pure Defcent ? &c.

Ad IV. Scr. 7.

From all this we may collect that the Englijb Drama, at that Time, was a kind of Medium between the antienr and middle Comedy of the Greeks ; and participated in fome meafure of both. And we may obferve the Stage afted'to its proper End, in expofing Folly of all and in the Support of Wit and Virtue.

[43]

The other is, when Hieronymo, going to peti- tion the King for Juftice on the Murderers, and he afking, Who is he that interrupts our Bufmefs ? returns this Anfwer : Not I-9 Hieronomo, be- ware, go by^ go by. It is not eafy to deter- mine, how fo undeferving a Piece could pof- fibly fucceed in the public Favour •, but I am fure, that it richly Merits every Lafh that is bellowed upon it -, for it is little elfe but a con- tinued String of Quibbles and Conceits, even in the molt paffionate and affeding Parts. There are indeed about fix good Lines, def- cribing the time of an Afllgnation appointed by two Lovers, which are tender and natural enough :

Our Hourjhallbe when Vefper 'gins to rife, ¥h at fummons home diftrefied Travellers : There none jh all hear us ^ but the harmless Birds ; Haply the gentle Nightingale V> < v .

Sb all carrol us ajleep e'er we beware, Andfinging with the Prickle at her Breafty Tell cur Delight <> and fportful Dalliance.

Act II.

The Author has had the Happinefs to be at this Time unknown, the Remembrance of him having perifhed with himfelf; yet though his Name is faved, his Work will continue to fuf- fer Life with perpetual Infamy.

This Practice, interpofed Neander, of cen- furing the Compofitions of each other upon the Stage, feems to have been not infrequent among the Poets of thole Days. They are di- rectly

[49 ]

re&ly cenfurcd by a found and fevere Judg- ment, or condemned ironically by the Admi- ration of Clowns and Fools, or the Commen- dation of fuch, whofe Praife is only Scandal in in difguife -, and, if I miftake not, Eugeniu^ Shakefpeare himfelf did not efcape untouched, but was attacked with the fame Weapons he had fuccefsfully made ufe of againft others. Your Obfervation, returned EugeniuSj is not to be denied •, nor will I conceal from" you two Inftances out of Beaumont and Fletcher. In the the Knight of the Burning Peftle^ the Rehearfal of that Age, the Citizen's Wife bids her Pren- tice Ralph fpeak a huffing Part, who imme- diately throws out,

\

By Heav'n methinks it were an eafy Leap ¥0 pluck bright Honour from the pale-fa fd > &c.

which is a Speech of Hotfpur's in the Firft Part of Henry the Fourth \ and fo likewife in the Scornful Lady^ Welford afks Sir Roger the Cu- rate, c< But ftiall we fee thefe Gentlemomen " To-night? Rog. Have Patience, Sir, until our " Fellow Nicholas be deceafed, that is afleep. " For fo the Word is taken •, to deep, to die ; *' to die, to deep •, a very Figure, Sir." And afterwards : " Not till the Man be in his Bed, " his Grave •, his Grave, his Bed : The very " fame again, Sir." This, I perceive, replied Neander, is levelled at the Soliloquy of Hamlet ; .but in order to make the Ridicule more ftrik- ing, he has given the Words a wrong Turn. However, that ringing fuch Changes upon ' G Words

[ 5° ]

Words was not then uncommon, we may ga- ther from a Part of that very Play, where Po- lonius is made to exprefs himfelf in the fame Trope.

Polon. Madam, Ifwear I ufe no Art at all.

That he is mad, 'tis true ^ 'tis true 'tis pity \ And pity 9tis9 'tis true: Afoolifh Figure., But farewell it.

Shakefpeare, we fee then, was fully fenfible, how infipid and foolifh fuch Affe&ation was ; and it is not very likely that after he had de- fervedly laughed at it, he would immediately guilty of it himfelf.

I agree with you, purfued Eugenius, that Fletcher hath mifrepreiented the Sentiment of Shakefpeare •, neither is it very probable that the Poet, who appears from other Paflages to be an admirable Critic both of Propriety of Thought and Style, would commit a Fault in the fame Breath almoft in v/hich he had con- demned it. But thefe Particulars which we have been now inquiring into, Neander, will hardly be allowed, I fear, as competent Evi- dences for the Learning of Shakefpeare^ efpe- cialiy in the Senfe that Word is commonly un- derftood. They may be confide red, I believe, however, as Inilances of his Domeftic Know- ledge, which prove him to have a complete Intelligence of all home Affairs. How exten- five his Foreign Correfpondence was, we fliall proceed to inquire in the next Place ; and very pofifibly in the Courfe of our Remarks, we may

be

[5']

be able to produce fome Paflages that have a manifeft Conformity to others in the ancient CMlcs.

I own indeed that two Writers of Genius and Judgment, may eafily fall into a Same- nefs of thinking upon fimilar Subjects ; and a certain Antient, who is called Aretad$s^ com- pofed a Treatife, which is now loft, intitled, Hjf» ffwtpaflutreus, or on the Coincidence of Senti- ment in different Authors. Mr. Menage like- wife in his Remarks on Malherbe's Paraphrafe of the 1 45th Pfalm, hath put together feveral Paflages from various Writers, in which the fame Thought is obferved to occur, delivered in very near the fame Words : And he adds withal, how little Sufpicion there was of their copying from one another. But Menage wrote that Note, I fancy, chiefly with an Eye to his own Reputation, fmce Inftances of that nature may ferve in fome Meafure to weaken, if they do not intirely deftroy the Reproach of Pla- giarifm •, of which Mr. Menage was frequently accufed, and perhaps not very unjuftly, by fe- veral of his Countrymen *. So that after all, when the Likenefs is very ftriking, an impar- tial Judge may reafonable fufpeclj that they cannot be .both Originals.

Before you enter, interpofed Neander^ upon this Part of your Inquiry, give me leave to propofe to you the Correction of an Error, •which hath continued unmolefted in all the Editions I have yet feen. It is one of . the

* See Ouvrcs tr.elces d-e M. Chevreau, p. 104, &feq.

G z Verfes

Verfes of the Cuckow-Song+ which gave fo much Pleafure to the Town, and was in every Body's Mouth about feven Years ago. The whole of it runs thus,

When Daifies pied^ and Violets blue* And Lady-fmocks all Silver white^

yfWCuckow-buds of yellow hue^

Do paint the Meadows with Delight j

The Cuckow then on every Tree^ &c.

Shakefpeare, we may perceive, intended to diftinguilh each Flower by an Epithet expref- five of its particular Colour •, but in the pre- fent reading of the third Line, there is a plain Miftake -, for the Cuckow -Flower is fo far from being yellow, that it has not the leaft Tincture or Shade inclining to that Hue. If you con- fult any of our Herbalifts, they will give you undeniable Conviction : For one of them in- forms us, that it is whitim in colour, or a little dafhed over with a Bluflr We are told by another, that in fome Counties the Cuckow- flowers are called Lady-fmocks. And from hence it mould feem, that thefe two Terms are but different Names for one and the fame FJower. The Emendation. I would fubftitute in its Room, is Crbcus-buds^ a Word exactly agreeable to the Intention of the Poet> and in the flridleft Senie literally true. It was very eafy for a carelefs Cornpofer for the Prefs, ef- pecially if the Traces of the Letters were not plain, to miftake one for the other j or his Eye through hafte, might cafually drop upon the next Line, but one, when it readily coming to

his

[ 53 ]

his Mind, that there was fuch a Flower, he clapped it down, without confidering whether it was confident with the Epithet or not. One of thefe Caufes, I imagine, gave rife to the prefent reading, and brought this Confufion into the Song •, which the abovementioned ealy Alteration reftores to an uniform Simplicity. Your Correction, returned Eugenius> may, I think, be very naturally admitted ; for how- ever we may difpute the Knowledge of the Poet in Matters of ancient Learning, it would be ridiculous to deny him his Share, in a Cafe where almoft every Peafant is a proper Judge, and every Meadow affords number- lefs Confutations of his Error *. Shakejfeare wrote with greater Exaclnefs than the Genera- lity of his Readers may imagine -, who feldom confider how nice and accurate a Painter he was, as well as the univerfal Mailer of Na- ture •, and that he did not render great Sub- jects more elevated and furprizing by the Magnificence and Sublimity of his Defcrip- tions, than he made common and little ones agreeable by his Likenefs and Propriety.

If all the Inftances, continued Eugemus, which I mall hereafter mention, do not come

* The Authority of Cotvley may perhaps have forae Weight in this Cafe ; the Epithet he gives the Cuckow- flower, is white,

Albaque Cardamine, Sec,

Cardamine flore pleno, & cardamine trifolia recipiantur ctiam in hortos : Ang. Cuckevc-foivers (flos cuculi) Ladies Smocks. ConL Poem. Lat. p. 161. Ed:t. 1678.

fully

[54]

fully up to the Point which we propofe to fettle, yet they will convince us at leaft that Shakefpeare could not think like the Ancients, and exprefs himielf with an equal Simplicity : For I do not pretend to determine, that he had his Eye in every Particular upon fome ancient Author. I have placed here the Volumes all before me, with fome Strictures which I/ have made from Antiquity, and iliall begin with pointing out a Paffage in the Tempeji^ where the Sentiment is full in the Spirit of Homer. It is Profpero's Arifwer to his Daughter.

Be collected:

No more Amazement •, tell your piteous Heart^ There's no Harm done. Act I. Sc. 2.

Would not you think that the Poet was .imitating thofe Places in the other, where his Heroes are rouzing up their Courage to take j-Jeart of Grace, and begin with a jrubG £:rl 'to Vti:flfic/u8 £>nr; :> •

TjT^.a^ k xpa^jj.

We may obferye alfo in the fame Play a re- markable Example of his Knowledge in the ancient Poetic Story -, when Ceres in the Mafque fpeaks thus to Iris upon the Approach of Jum :

High Queen of State,

Great Juno comes j I know her by her Gait.

Here methinks now is no fcnall Mark of the Judgment of our Author, in felec~ting this pe- culiar

r 55]

culiar Circumftance for the Difcovery of Juno. Arid was Virgil himfelf to have deicribed her Motion, he would have done it in the fame manner •, for, probably, the Divum incedo Regina of that Author, might furnifh Shakef- peare with the Hint : And his Decorum of the Character is perfectly confiftent, and her At- tendance upon the Wedding intirely agreeable to her Office.

Let us turn now to the next Play, where a jPaflage flops us at the very Beginning. Tbefeus complains thus of the Tardinefs of Time ;

-O£, metblnkS) how flow

old Moon wanes ! Jhe lingers my Defires Like to a Stepdame^ or a Dowager Long withering out a young Man's Revenue.

Midfummcr-Nights Dream, Act I. Sc. i.

Suppofe we were to put this into a Latin Drefs, could any Words exprefs it more ex- ex&ly, than thefe of Horace*

Ut pgcr Annus

quos dura premit cuftodia matrum* Sic mihi tar da fluunt% ingrataquc temp or a.

L. I. Ep. i. v. 2ij & feq.

Pafs we on from thefe to Me a fur e for Mea- fare, where in the fecond Scene of the third Act, Clodio gives us fuch an Image of the -interme- diate State after Death, as bears a great Re- femblance to the Platonic Purgations defcribed \^ Virgil.

[56]

but to die^ and go we know not where \

-the delighted Spirit

*To bathe injiery Floods ^ or to refide In thrilling Regions of thick-ribbed Ice, To be imprifon'd in the viewlefs Winds , And blown with reftlefs Violence round about <The pendant World^ &c.

Ergo exercentur p<etisy veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt. Alise panduntur inanes Sufpenfe ad ventos : aliis fub gurgite vafto Infeftum eluitur fcelus^ aut exuritur igni.

^neid, L. IV. 739, & feq.

The next Inftance which I have obferved to demand our Notice, occurs in Much ado about Nothing \ where the Thought is very natural and obvious, founded on a Failing common to Human Nature.

What we have we prize not to its worth Whilft we enjoy it -, but being lack'd and lofl^ Why, then we rack the Value ; then we find tfhe Virtue that PoJfeJJion would not Jhew us Whilft it was ours. ' Aft IV. Sc. 2.

You may have feen, perhaps, the fame Senti- ment in many ClafTic Authors 5 but the moft analogous, and which would almoft tempt one to believe the Poet had it directly before him, is the following from Plautus :

[57]

Turn denique homines' noftra intclligimus Cum qua in pot eft ate habuimus, ea ami/imus

Captiv. Aft I. Sc. II. v. 29.

Shakefpeare's Tcanflation of thefe Verfes, if I may take the Liberty to call it fo, tho' fome- thing diffuled and paraphraftical, exceeds, in my humble Opinion, the Original •, for the Pro- pofition being diverfified fo agreeably, makes a deeper Impreflion on the Mind and Me- mory.

If we compare the Defcription of the wound- cxl Stag, in As you like it, with Virgil's Rela- tion of the Death of the fame Creature, we fhall find that Sbakefpeare's is as highly finished and as mafterly as the other :

fbe wretched Animal heav'd forth fuch Groans, 'That their Difcharge did Jlretch his Leathern

Coat

-Almoft to lurfting \ and the big round Tears Cours'd one another down his innocent Cheeks In piteous Chafe. Aft II. Sc. i.

What an exquifite Image this of dumb Diftrefs, and of a wounded Animal languilhing in the Agonies of Pain ! I cannot help thinking that the Lines of Virgil do not reach it altogether fo perfectly.

H Saucius

[ 58]

Saucius nt Qitadrupes not a intra tefta re/ugii, Succeflitque gemensftabulis : Queftuque cruentuSy Atque imfloranti ftmilis teftum oinne replevit.

y L. VII. v. 500 & feq.

. I now turn to the Tragedy of King Lear, where his paffionate Exclamations againft his Daughters, appear to have been copied from the Tbyeftes of Seneca^

I will have fuch Revenges on you both tfhat all the World Jhall— — I will do fuch things-, What they are yet Iknow not \ but they Jh all be The*Terrors of the Earth. Act II. Sc. 2.

- Fac quod nulla pojierltas probet^

Sed nulla taceat : aliqticd audendum eft nefas

Atrox, cruentum : Aft II. v. 192, & feq.

y quid fit i fcio.

Sed grande q,uiddam eft. Ibid, 270.

*

And in the fourth Act we meet with a Paf- fage which deferves our Attention . upon 4 double Account. Clofter lamenting the Abufes which had been put both on himfelf and his Son Edgar i wi flies that he might find him ^ and exprefieth himfelf thus,

• O dear Son, Edgar,

?be Feod of thy abu[ed Father's Wrath ; Might I but live to fee tbee in my Touch I'dfay, I had Eyes again. Act IV, Sc.- i.

To fay nothing of the Octtlaf* Manus of the Comic Poet, you may remark in thefe Lines a Contrariety of Metaphor equally bold and ele- gant >

[59]

gant j of which you may find many Examples in the ancient Tragedians, and particularly in jEfttytttS, the Athenian Shakefpeare. The whole of it has a remarkable Affinity to the Lamentation of CEdipus in his Blindnefs, defiring that his Daughters might- be brought him :

teta-QVj xuTToxhctvo-iurQctt xccxa*

' * %£f<" FavStyuv

Aoxoi p txpy <?$#;, Uff7f^ W e&sTro?. '

Ob, might I once but have them in my Touch* Weep o'er their Sorrows^ and lament our Fate. Wttb either Hand to touch their tender Forms^ Would make me think that I had Eyes, again.

There is another Paffage in King Lear^ which though not taken exprefly from any particular Author, is directly the Language ot the An- cients upon fuch Occafions. They were fre- quently induced by Misfortunes to deny the Juftice and Equity of Heaven ; and when they poured forth their Complaints, we heard of nothing but Superum Crimina^ & Deorum Ini- quitas* Claudian, who w^s fceptically inclined, and queftioned the Knowledge and Wifdom of Providence, at length acquitted the Gods, and was convinced by the Punifhment of Rufinus :

Abftulit lunc tandem Rufini p<ena tumultum* Abiblvitque Deos.

Claudian in Rufin. L; I. fub init. H 2 The

[ 6o]

The Clofe of the Period in Sbakeffeare is ex- actly of the fame kind :

•fake Phyfic, Pomp,

Exfofe thy f elf to feel what Wretches feel^ That thou mayefl jhake the Superflux to them, And fhew the Heavens more juil.

Ad III. Sc. 5.

The Thought in both Poets is evidently falfe, not being founded upon Truth and Reafon, and is parallel to many of the ftoical Extrava- gancies of Luc an.

By continuing our Progrefs, we come to the firft Part of Henry the IV th, where we have an humorous Application of a Greek Proverb : " How long is't ago, Jack, fays Hal to Fal-

" faff 9 ^nce tnou faw'ft thy own Knee ? *c fal. My own Knee ? When I was about *c thy Years, Hal9 I could have crept into any " Alder man9 s Thumb Ring" Creeping through a Ring was a Phrafe ufually applied to fuch as were extremely thin •, for this Reafon the old Woman in Arijlofhanes makes ufe of it in that Senfe :

sv &v efts y out Xf. £t fvyxfu/u o ^«XTfXt

Plut. v. 1067,

You may draw me, fays fhe, very eafily through a Ring. Ay, replies Chremylus, if that Ring was about the Size of a Hoop.'1

From

From this we may proceed to the fecond Part of Henry the IVth, where we meet with a political Obfervation of Warwick 's, who ac- counts for the Difloyalty of Northumberland^ by obferving that he had proved faithlefs to King Richard :

There is a Hiftory in all Metfs Lives* Figuring the Nature of the Times deceafed : $he which obferv'd, a Man may frophefy With a near Aim of the Main Chance of things As yet not come to Life •, which in their Seeds , And weak ^Beginnings lie intreafured,

Aft III. Sc. 2.

,A Section of Antoninus will confirm arid illuf- trate the Remark of Shakefpeare : I will read it to you, as I find it tranflated by Mr. Collier. " By looking back into Hiftory, and confi- " dering the Fate and Revolutions of Govern- " ment, you will be able to form a Gueis, " and almoft prophefy upon the future -, for " things pad, prefent, and to come are ftrange- <c ly uniform and of a Colour, and are com- " monly caft in the fame Mould. So that " upon the Matter, forty Years of Human " Life may ferve for a Sample of ten thou- " fand," Lib. VII. Seff 49. And fuch is the Character which Pliny gives of Mauricus : " Vir erat gravis, prudens, multis experimen- *' tis eruditus, & qui futura poflit ex praete- ** rids praevidere. L. I. Epift. 5.

The next Place remarkable which offers it- felf, is the Parting between Suffolk and Queen

Mary,

[62 ]

Mary* in the 2d Part of Henry VI. Aft III. Sc. 8.

yf Wildernefs is populous enough ,

So Suffolk bad thy heavenly Company ;

For where thou art^ there is the World itfelf*

With every fever al Pleafure in the World \

And where thou art not9 Defolation.

This is the antient Language of Love and Friend fhip, and employed by Tibullus to his own Miftrefs.

Sic Ego fecretis poffum lene vivere Silvisy Qua nulla humanojit via trita pede :

fu mihi curaram requies> tu notte vel atra Lumen, & in folis tu mihi turba locis.

L.IV.E1. 12.

In the third Part of Henry VL Edward^ sSon to the Duke of Tork, replies to his Father, who had urged to him the Oath which he had taken to the King,

But for a Kingdom an Oath may be broken* fd break a thoufand Oaths to reign one Tear.

A# I. Sc, 4.

How exactly C<efar and the young Nobleman could think upon the fame Occafion, will ap-^ pear from a Speech which the firil of them ufed frequently to repeat from the Pheniffte of Euripides ;

Nam

[63 ]

Namji violandum eft Jus, regnandi Gratia Violandum eft 5 aliis rebus pietatem solas.

Tull. Off. L. III.C. 21.

The Character which Gloucefter in Richard III. gives of Haftings, has a vifible Similitude to fome Lines in Horace \ only in this latter the Thought is inverted.

^

I made him my Book, wherein my Soul recorded The Hiftory of all her fecret thoughts.

Ad III. Sc. 6.

Ille velut fdis arcana Sodalibus^ olim

Credebat Libris. L. II. Sat. i. v. 30.

When I read, interrupted Neander, in Henry VIII. Ad III. Sc. i. this Speech of the Queen'? to the two Cardinals j

Would I had never trod this Englifh Earth^ Or felt the Flatteries that grsw upon it : jTe've ANGEL'S Faces, but Heaven knows your Hearts.

I have always imagined that he alluded to the well known Pun of Gregory the Great, upon remarking the Beauty of fame Englifh Youths, who were expofed to Sale at Rome before their Converfion to Chriftianity. It is the fame which was afterwards made ufe of by the Mar- quis of Villa in his Epigram on Milton. * io As

As often as I repeat this Apoftrophe of Antony in Julius C<efar, returned

That I did love theey Caefar, oh 'tis true : If then thy Spirit look upon us now, Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy Death9 ¥0 fee thy Antony making his Peacey &c.

Ad III. Sc. 3.

it always brings to my Memory the following Paflage in Homer :

M>7, [Aoi riarfoxAr, (TXvpctivtiMv, aixt Z»5 a»5o? wsg luv ort Exropa otov iJvvcra

ottutscc. oux.iv ctvoivx, II, 24.

If in that Gloom which never Light mud know, The Deeds of Mortals touch the Ghofts below -y O Friend I forgive me that I thus fulfill^ (Reftoring Hc6tor) Heav'tfs unqueftion'd WilL The Gifts th^ Father gave^ be ever thine v To grace thy Manes ^ and adorn thy Shrine*

POPE,

I cannot pafs over what I have obferved in tfitus Andronuus, tho' there is a Probability it might not come from Shakefpeare. Tamora thus intercedes for the Life of her Son :

Wilt thou draw near the Nature of the Gods ? Draw near them then by being merciful. Aft I.

Which is direclly the Senfe and Words of a PafTage in one of Cicero's fined Orations : Ho-

[65]

mines AD DEOS NULLA RE PROPIUS ACCEDUNT, quam Salutem hominibus dando. Or at. pro Ligar. fub fin. And Portia defcribing the Amiable- nefs of Mercy in the Merchant of Venice^ rea- fons much to the fame Purpofe.

// is an Attribute to God himfelf •,

And earthly Power doth then Jhew likeft God's

When- Mercy feafons Juftice. 'Aft IV.

We have another Paflage in the fame Play, which feems to allude to an Opinion of Anti- quity. It is when the Moor receives his Son which the Nurfe brought him from the Em- prefs, and he thus exults upon the Occafion.

Look how the black Slave fmiles upon his Father •, A,s who Jhould fay, old £,ad, I am thine own,

Aft IV. Sc. 3.

To explain this more fully, we may remember that Opinion of the Antients, which interpreted the Smiles of an Infant upon his Parent, either as the Prefage of his future good Fortune, or as. the Mark whereby he owned and difcovered them. Alluding to this Notion, Virgil addrefTes himfelf to the Son of Pollio in the fame manner.

Jndpe^ parve puer^ rifu cognofcere Matrem.

Eclog. IV. 60.

I might have obfer. ved too,, as an Inftance of. the Poet's reading, that Antony's Defcription of the Nilometer m'jEgypt, and 'the Manner of Sowing upon the Decreafe of the Nile, is* I perfectly

[66 ]

perfectly agreeable to thofe Accounts which are given both by antient and modern Tra- vellers. Anton, and Cleopatra. Act II. Sc. 7.

Heflor in the ninth Scene of the fourth Act of froilus and Creffida defcribes Neoftolemus in this manner •,

On whofe bright Creft Fame with her loud* ft

O yes, Cries, this is He.

which may be confidered as an Improvement of

At Pulchrum eft digit? monftrari, t? dicier 9

hie eft 9

which \ve meet with \nPerfius. And when fherfites in the laft Act, Sc. 13. tells a Baftard Son of Priam i one Bear will not bite another^ and wherefore Jhould one Baftard ? He makes an humorous Allufion to S^evis inter fe convenit TJrfis, an Obfervation of the other Satirifl.

I muft not pafs by Cymbeline, without point- ing out one Scene in which PofthumuSj con- vinced as he thought of the Dilhonefty of his Wife, is moft fatirically fevere on the whole Sex. Euripides, who from his numerous In- vectives of the fame kind, is branded with the Name of Woman-hater, hath nothing more keen and poignant. In one Sentiment they agree entirely ; for thus Pofthumus begins his Soliloquy ;

Is

js there no Way for Men to be, but Women Mufl te 'half Workers ? &c, Aft II. Sc. 7.

And the Greek Tragedian affirms the fame.

Ovlu $* ai ate. w n<kv owtyvirou; xcucov.

Medea, v. 573. & feq.

Milton, who knew how upon Occafion to rail againft the Ladies, has enlarged on thefe VerfeS of Euripides in this manner*

•0 / wby did

Creator wife ! that peopled higheft Heaven With Spirits maftuline, create at laft *This Novelty on Earth, this fair Defect Of Nature ? And not fill the World at ones With Men^ as Angel sy without feminine ? Orfindfome other Way to generate Mankind? This Mif chief had not then befal'H And more that Jhall befal.

Farad. Loft. L. 10. v, 888. & feq.

I carry you from hence to review fome Paf- fa£^s in Hamlet •, in which the Elogy he gives of his deceafed Father, feems to comprehend a, finifhed Character.

He was a Man^ take him for dU and #//,

/ (hall not look upon his like again. Ac"b I. Sc.4- .

This will be thought, perhaps, too much the I 2 Suggeftion

[68]

Suggeftion of Nature, and of the human Heart, to be taken from a Place of Sophocles, to which it has a great Affinity.

Tlatluv aptrov avtyct TUV tm ^Son Krnvaf', OTTOIOV aMov «>t o\J/e» wolf.

Trachin. v. 821. & feq.

In him you killed the left of Men below. And ne'er will look upon his like again.

We come next to that celebrated Soliloquy in the third Act, Sc. 2. which feems fo peculi- arly the Production of Shakefpeare, that you would hardly imagine it can be parallelled in all Antiquity. Yet I will produce fome Examples of the fame kind -, one of which at leaft will Ihew how nearly two great Tragedians could think upon the fame Subject. A learned Gen- tleman has taken Notice of the Conformity which there is between a PafTage in Plato's Apology for Socrates, and the following Lines in this Speech*. The Sentiment of Plato is to this Purpofe -, If, fays he, there be no Senfa- iion after Death, but as when one Jleeps, and fees no Dream, Death were then an ineftimable Gain. And the Verfes of the Poet, are thefe which follow.

-To die! tofleep!

No more - and by a Sleep to fay we end The Heart-ach, &c. -- .

p, 76.

to

(69 ]

•To die! tofleep!

To Jleep ! perchance to dream ! Ay, there's the Rub, &x.

And the whole has a remarkable Similitude with thefe Verfes in the Hippolytus of Euripides.

K'ax cr< now* AXX' o, T» ra

At

K'sx awo^»|»» TW» wwo yataj.

V. 190. &feq,

How full of Sorrow are the Days of Man, Of endlefs Labour and unceafing Woe ! And what fucceeds, our Hopes but ill prefage, For Clouds conceal, and Darknefs refts upon it. Tet ftill wefuffer Light, aver/e to Life: Still bend reluttant to thofe Ills we have, Thro* Dread of others which we know not of* And fearful of that undifcovered Shore.

And in particular,

That undifcover'd Country from whofe Bourn No Traveller returns,

may be very well tranQated by this of the Latin Poet.

Nunc it per Iter tenebricofum, Jlluc, unde negant redire quenquam.

Cat u 11. III. v. IT. L appre-

t 7° 1

I apprehend it was from the Frequency of thefe moral Refk&ions, interpofed Neander^ many of which «were probably put into his Mouth by Socrates^ that Euripides had the Appellation given him of the Dramatic Philofopher. The lame Title may be attributed to Shakefpeare^ if we are determined by the Suffrage of a noble Author •, whofe Opinion will not be haftily dif- puted if we think with his Admirers., that he has reduced Morality to a lefs ungainly Form,) than what me ufually had. His Judgment on this Tragedy would confirm us* which he properly confiders, as a continued Moral ; a Series of deep Reflections proceeding from the Mouth of one Perlbn, on the moft important Subject*. Every Perfon, returned Eugenius^ has thole particular Sentiments which confti- tute the Character : for even Polonius appears furnillied with iuch Obfervations, which long Experience naturally produces. What he ob- ferves of the Partiality of Mothers to their Children in the Commiffion of any Crime, is agreeable to a Remark of T'erettce.

icTis meet that fome more Audience than a Mother (Since Nature makes them partial )Jhou'd o'er-hear Speech, of Vantage. Act III. Sc. 8.

The Comic Poet gives it us in this manner*

-Matres omnes filiis

In Peccato adjutrices> Auxilio in Paterna injuria Solent effc. Heauton. Act V. Sc. 2. v. 38.

ift Vol. p. 275. & feq.

We

[ 7* 3

We are at length, Neandcr^ drawing near to the Conclulion of our Enquiry, for I fhall end with an Inftance from Othello, which is vifibly parallel to a Thought of the like Nature in Terence.

•If / were now to die .

"Twere now to be mo ft happy : For I fear My Soul hath her Content fo abfoltite, 'That not another Comfort like fo this Succeeds in unknown Pate: Aft Jf. Sc. 6,

And thus Chxrea, in- an Extafy of Joy, breaks out' in a like Exclamation.

-Prob Jupiter!

Nunc Tempus prof eft o ejt^ cum perpeti mefojjum

inter fid : NeVita aliqud hoc Gaudium contaminet <egri-

tudine.

Eunuch. Aft HI. Sc. 5..

There is a Paffage, Neander, in this Play, not currently approved of, and expunged, T find, in feveral late Editions. It is part of the Moor's Relation to the Senate, of the Stories which he told Defdemona in his Courtfllip.

And, of the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi : and Men wbofc Heads Do grow beneath fiheir Shoulders.

As repugnant as this feems .to common Senfe, if I might venture to play the Critic, I mould

probably

probably infert it in its Place again. Tho' my Reafons may not be fo convincing to you as they are to me, you will think them, perhaps, not altogether void of Foundation. The Stream of romancing ran high in the Time of Shakefpeare> occafioned by the imperfect Dif- coveries which had been lately made iri the new World. The Reports of Travellers were fel- dom attended to, if they contained only fuch Accidents as might happen to any one without ilirring from his Chimney Corner. On this Account a Portion of the Marvellous was thrown in, to excite Attention -9 and to make themfelves appear as fortunate in feeing ftrange Sights, as others who went in queft of foreign Adventures. Accordingly Othello is made to ufe the Style fo much in Vogue -, and it is. equally Defenftble, whether we confider it as, proper to gain Audience with a Female Ear, or as a Cenfure upon thefe Heroes of their own, Imagination. What would further induce me to continue thefe Yerfes in the Text, is the fol- lowing Satire from the Virgidemiarum ; where mention is made, among many others, of the fame Curiofities which our Poet talks of. You, will remark the great Conformity betwixt them both ^ and of Confequence, how naturally thefe exceptionable Lines of Shakefpeare^ are connec- ted with thofe immediately preceding them.

fbe Brain-fick Touththat feeds his tickled Eare With' fwcet-faufd Lies offome^/alfe Traveller ^ Which hath the Spanifh Decades red a-wbile, Or Whet-pone Leafmgs of dd Maundevile:

Now

[ 73 ]

Now with Difcourfes breaks bis Midnight Sleeff Of his Adventures thro* the Indian Deepe ; Of all their mafTy Heapes of golden Mines, Or of the antique Coombs of Paleftine ; Or <?/Damafcus -magike Wall of Glaffe^ Of Solomon his fweating Piles of Brajfe : Of the Bird Rue that bears an Elephant, Of Mermaids that the Southerne Seas do haunt : Of Headleis Men, of Savage Cannibals The Fajhions of their Lives and Govfrnals, &c. Virgidem.L.IV.Sat.^:

The Defection of Shakefpeare will receive, I hope, no Injury by the Comparifon.

Wherein of Antres vafty and Defarts idle Rough Quarries, Rocks 9 and Hills ivhofe Heads

touch Pleaven,

It was my Hint tofpeak,fttch was the Procefs^ And of the Cannibals that each other eaty The Anthropophagi i and Men whofe Heads Do grow beneath their Shoulders, &c,

Othello. Aft I

I have not chofe to infift upon Shakejpeare'2 particular Acceptation of fome Words, in a

Sen/e

* The Origin of all thefe FaMes is to be found in Sir John Mande<uillet whole Ti avels have proved a very fruit- ful Source of Wonders to fucceeding Writers. The ex- ccfiive Saperftiticn of our Phyfician, led him to believe aU the Wonders which w~e,re impbied upon him : And gave room at the fame time for thofe additional Stories, wjiich were probably forced into his Voyage by other Hands, who were defirous to difplay their Knowledge in Paay, from whom they took their jLiej. — <c Aftreward K " Mea

[ 74']

Senfc in which they are taken by the and not in the common Uie of that Age in which he lived j which amounts to a Proof, that he was a per feel Mafter of the Language, from which he borrowed them. And I might have added fome particular expreflive Meta- phors, which may be parallelled by others in the Antients ; as when the Rabble in Csriolanus

are

" Men gonbe many Yles be See, unto aYle that Men " clepen Milkt : and there is a fulle curfed Peple : for thei 'f. delyten in ne thing more, than for to fighten and to ' fle Men. And thei drynken gladlyeft Mannes Blood, ' the whiche thei clepen Dieu." P. 235. " And in ano- ther Yle, toward the Southe duellen Folk of foule Sta- ture and of curfed kynd, than han no Hedes ; and here Eyen ben in here Scholdres," P. 243. Edit. 1725. Our Countryman delivered nothing in thefe furprizing Relations, but what the reft of Europe was accuftomed to believe and hear. The Spanijb V oyager, Mendex Pinto, had an equal Fertility of Genius, or which amounts to the fame, as large a Meafure of Credulity. The Charafter which is given Sir John Mandeville, in the Epitaph on his Tomb at Liege, reprefents him as a devout and pious Chriftian.

Eft in hac quoque regione Guilielmitarum Caenobium, in quo EpHaphium hoc Johannis a Mandeville excepimus :

HIC IACET VIBL NOBJLIS DNS. TOES DE DEVILLE AL' DCVS AD BARBAM MILES DNS DECAMPDI NATVS DE ANGLIA MEDICINE PRO- FESSOR DEVOTISSIMVS ORATOR ET BONO. RVM LARGISS1MVS PAVPERIBUS EROGATOR QVI TOTO QVASI ORBE LUSTRATO LEODII J)1EM VITE SVE CLAVSIT EX TREMVM ANO. DNL M° CCC?. LXXI°. MENSIS NOVEBRs DIE XVII.

Hxc in Lapide, in quo oelata viri armata Imago, Leonem calcantis, barba bifurcata, ad caput manus benedicens, & vernacula h»c Verba :

vos

[75]

are called, a. Pile ofnoifom* mufty CHAFF, Aft V. which dtifib-pbanct hath employed in a Cafe not very unlike the former :

T»; yap /*£Toix«K A^'Jfae.^uv etrw htyu. AcHAR.

But thefe, with many others, I did not think it material to mention, unwilling to defcend to the Minuti* of Criticifm, and becaufe you muft have remarked the fame in your own reading.

(

Thus, Neander, I have fufficiently exercifed your Patience by this long Detail of unjointed Citations, which would have .created a furBcient Difguft to a more faftidious Critic. Yet as they were taken from Shakefpeare, and from other Authors of the firft Rank, I have the lefs Occafion to trouble you with an Apology for their Number. I do not defire to pre- pofTefs you in our Favour, leaving you at full Liberty to determine, as the Weight pf Evi- dence inclines you.

The Satisfaction you have given me, replied Neander, in thus bringing me acquainted with

VOS KI PASEIS SOR MI POVR LAMOVR DEIX PROIES FOR MI.

Clypeus erat vacuus, in quo olim laminam fuifle djcebant aream, & ejus in ea itidem caelata Infignia, Leonem vide- licet argenteum, cui ad Peftus Lunula rubea in Campo ex- ruleo, quern limbus ambiret denticulatus ex auro. Ejus nobis oftendebant & cultros, Ephippiaque, & calcaria, quibus ufum fuiffe aflerebant in peragrando toto fere terrarum •rbe, ut clarius ejus teftatur Itinerarium.

Ortelii Itinerat. G alb-Brabant, p. 1 29, & feq.

K 2 many

[76 1

many things I was before a ftranger to in Sbakefpeare, can be only equalled by the Wil- lingnefs you have {hewn, and the obliging manner in which you did it : But I will wafte no time, Eugenius, in forming Compliments, which Would not well agree with that Intimacy which fubfifts between us. I muft own that many of the Places you have quoted, are of the fame Gaft with others in the ancient Claflics* But •whether their Similitude is flrong enough to prove them Copies from thofe Originals, I cannot infallibly 'decide. It is very probable that they are ; though the Marks indeed are not fo plain, as in thole Paflages which Ben Johnfon hath tranflated, where almoil every Author may fwear to his own Property. There is one Ancient Book, Eugenius^ you have omitted, in which he appears to have been much converfant, and which feems in various Inftances to have given a very confiderable Elevation to his Style. He has mifapplyed it, I confefs, in forne few Paflages by a little wicked Wit, but what may eafily be pardoned upon the whole. The Book which I am fpeak- ing of, is the BIBLE ; which he and Milton are greatly indebted to both for Sentiment and Diction. The Wits of our Age indeed are commonly as utter Strangers to thefe Writings, as they pretend to be intimate with the others ; or if a PaiTage ihould chance at any time to come athwart their Memory, they teftify their good Will to it by a grofs and intolerable Per- veriion.

There is a Pleafure in tracing out Imitations, or AUufions in one Author to the Works of

another

[77]

another •, which thofe, who are fond of it, may enjoy to a high Degree in the Plays of Ben Jobnfon. You are perpetually making new Difcoveries, and enjoy the fame Satisfadtion in the Purfuit, as a Mathematician would receive in the Inveftigation of a Theorem. For this Reafon, I have thought his Works yield as much entertainment in the Study, as on the Stage •, becaufe, unlefs the Chara&efs are fup- ported wirh much Life, the Spirit evaporates and becomes infipid. All Inftances of the kind which we have mentioned, with every Stroke of the fatirical Humour, is loft in the Reprefentation, efpecially to a common Au- dience- There is a Place in the Alcbymift evidently of this nature ; and as often as this Comedy is acted, I much queftion whether the true Hu- mour of it, ever entered completely into the Thoughts of its intelligent Spedbators. It is Mammon's Account to Surley of the Origin and Antiquity of Alchymy ; which contains an admirable Satire on one of the molt fanciful Authors that ever wrote *.

Mam. ril /hew you a Book, where Mofes and

bis Sifter,

And Solomon have written of the Art :

Ay, and a Ireatife penn'd by Adam, Sur. How ! Mam. Of tbe Pbilofopber* s Stone, and in bigb

Dutch.

* Vtiiverfal HiJIory I ft Vol. Svo. p. 246.

Sur.

Sur. Did Adam write. Sir, in High Dutch ? Mam. He did.

Which prows it was theprimitiveTongue.

Aft II. Sc. i.

Who would have looked in this Scene for fo unexpected a Wipe on Goropius Becanus •, who endeavours, among other Paradoxes, to prove that the Teutonic Language was the primitive Tongue ; and that it was fpoke by Adam, and even by the Deity himfelf in Paradife f.

I believe, continued Neander? that not only the Riches of Shakefpeare's Genius, prevented him from borrowing from the Ancients in many Inftances, but that he was prevented as much from doing fo by his Judgment like- wifo. For marking every Character with Sen- timents which cannot poflibly be applied to any other, he was under the lefs Neceflity of having recpurfe to any common-place Topics ; 3iitl efpecially to that curious Mixture of the fierce and tender ; of ranting againft the Gods, idolizing a Miftrefs, or unnaturally braving ones own Misfortunes -9 than all which nothing can be more dextrous, it being as eafy as lying. Nor was he obliged to call out in the Style of Fatriotifm, on Liberty and Virtue -, Sentiments which have Hood many modern Poets in great ftead i being fuitable to every great Man, and equally proper either in the Mouth of a or Hannibal.

f Sec his Origin,

It

r 79]

It will be alledged, perhaps, that Sbakefpeare took his Hints from the Translations, which were made in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James. Ovid appears to have been a favourite Author with the Poet, whofe Canfe

lie pleads in the following Lines *

i

Let's be no Stoics, nor no Stocks I pray , Orfo devote to Ariftotle'j Checks* As Ovid be an out-caft quite abjured.

Taming of the Shrew, Aft I. Sc. i,

As his own Tranflations from this Poet prove him to be a Mafter of his Works, I think it may be concluded he was a competent Judge of other Authors who wrote in the fame Lan- guage. Thefe are much fuperior to a Tranf- lation of the Metamorphofes by Arthur Golding^ a Perfon of fome Eminence for Learning in thofe Days, who tranflated alfo C<efar's Com- mentaries. My Edition is printed in 1603, on a black Letter, and in the fame Metre with Pbaer's Virgil

That feven-foot Meafure, replied was the common length in all Verfions of the ancient Poets : And the TranQation of Seneca's Tragedies by feveral Hands in 1581, is all in that way, except the ChorufTes, which are in a different Metre, You will give me leave tQ read you Part of one Chorus, which exceeds the ufual Poetry of that Age, and is equal per- haps to any of the Verfions which have been made of it fmce. It is the Conclufion of the iecond Act of the Thyejies, beginning at

[ 8o]

'

Stet quicunque volet pot ens* Aul<£ culmim lubrico.

The whole is tranQated as we find at the Be- ginning of the Tragedy, by Jafper Hey wood Felcw of Alfolne Colledge in Oxenfordc.

Eche Man himfelfthis Kyngdome geeves at band. Let who fo lyft with mighty mace -to raygnc* J« tyckle toppe of Court delight to ftand -9 Let me the fweet and quiet reft obtayne. Sofet in Place obfeure* and lowe Degree , Ofpleafaunt Reft* IJhall the Sweetnefs knoe ; My Life^ unknowne to them that noble bee. Shall in the Steppe of fecrtt Silence goe. ^bus when my Days at length are over p aft And fyme without all troublous 'Tumult ffent ; An aged Man IJhall depart at laft, In mean Eftaie* to dye full well content. But grievous is to him the Death* that when So farre abroade the Bruite of him is blowne, %hat hnowne he is too much to other Men, Departeihyet unto himfelf unknowne*

I have one Obfervation more to detain «you with, Neander^ which relates to Milton's Imi- tation of our Author. He confeffed indeed^ that Spenfer was his poetical Father ; but he feems to have improved the Dignity of his Style, by a familiar Converfation with the Writings of Shakefpeare. And he is no lefs obliged to him for the fofter Beauties of his fmaJJer Compolitions. That very picturefque

Image

f 8r J

Image of Laughter holding both his Sides* in the L* Allegro, feems to have been taken from this Line in the Midfummer Night's Dream ;

And then the whole Quire hold their Hips and loffe. Aft II Sc. i.

As the following in Richard the Second*

Who are the Violets now,

Thatftrew the green Lap of the new come Spring ?

Adb V. Sc. 4.

may have given him the Hint of thefe \

• \ .' ' ' M *r«

The flow* ry May who from her green Lap throws , The yellow C^wjlip9 and the pale Primrofe.

Song on May Morning.

For Shakefpeare could be no lefs the Poet of Nature in drawing rural and defcriptive Scenes, than in painting the Paffions and Manners.

Your mentioning Milton, interpofed Nean- dery inclines me to defire your Opinion upon a Point, which is not very foreign to our prefent Subjed. A learned Gentleman hath taken fome Pains to prove him a notorious Plagiary ; and that his Paradife Loft is little better than a Tranfcript from certain modern Poets, who have wrote upon the Jike Argument. He affirms the fame too of the Paradife Regained, and of his Sampfon Agoniftes. I think, re- turned Eugenius, that the Gentleman would find fome Difficulty in making good his Allegations ; L and

[82]

and that he will never be able to produce 2000 Verfes, which are a direct Tranflation, I do not fay from one Author alone, as he feems to affert, but from his whole Body of Poets put together. It furely does not follow, that be- caufe his Title is a-kin to thofe of others, his whole Work mufl; be taken from them : Or that becaufe he has tranilated three Lines from Grotius, and as many, perhaps, from Ramfay, or Mafeniusy he muft, of Confequence, have adopted the whole Tragedy of another. But allowing the Fact, interpofed Neander^ in what confifts the Crime ? Hath not Virgil done the fame from Homer ? And are not all Authors whatfoever, efpecially of ere in longo, indebted tq fome others for a Sentiment or two ? If he would confult a certain German* I could men- tion, he would receive full Conviction on that Head. Sophs dcs^ and Seneca, and Corneilk have wrote each of them an Oedipus •, but Dryden \vas never yet accuftd of ftealing his from either. The laft great Poet of our Nation made no Scruple to confefs, that he ferved him- felf all he could by his Reading f, which any one may fee, who but dips into a Page of his Works : And he never was charged with Pla- giarifm, but by fuch whofe Character I am as little inclined to fix on Mr. L. as he deferves it. If the Gentleman, replied Eugenius, would fa- vour us with an Edition of thofe Poets who have wrote on facred Subjects, for which he

de Plagio Literario, to which I might add $he Ccnturia Plcgiariorum of Fabricius. •\ Pope's Preface to his Works.

appears

[83]

appears extremely well qualified, he would do a much more acceptable Service to Men of Letters, than by obtruding tortured Tranfla- tions upon Milton, and afterwards reproaching the poor Eyelels Bard with Names of ignominy and Difgrace.

If this Inquiry .into Shakespeare's Learning had fallen into fuch induftrious Hands, you had probably feen more and ftronger Examples than any which I am able to produce •, tho' at the fame time, perhaps, he would have met with more ungentle Treatment. I believe I ought to retract that Opinion ; for there is no one but muft be awed with Admiration in read- ing the Poet, whofe Character is as much beyond Defcription, as he is above all others who have wrote in the fame Art. The Judgment of ^uintilian, with refpeft to Cicero, with a little Alteration, may faintly fhadow out his Excellence ; fmce he feems to have obtained that Honour with Pofterity, that Shakefpeare may be efteemed not fo much the Name of a Man, as of Dramatic Poetry itfelf. And that to have a proper Relifli for his Plays, is a Sign of a true and improved Tafte*. Juft as Euge- nius had pronoun'ced thefe Words, the Clock ftruck Two •, upon which he added, turning to Neander, you can make no Excufe for refuiing

* dpud po/lfros *vero id Confecutus, ut Cicero jam non Jtominisj fed Eloquent i^e nomen habeatur. Hunc igitur Spec • temus: Hoc propojitum nobis Jit Exemplum. Illefc profecij/e fciaty cui Cicero *valelc placebit.

Quintil. Inflit. Orat. L. X. C i.

to

[ 84 ]

to dine with me, as the Time is near at Hand, and you informed me before that you are intire- ly at your own Difpofal. Neander complied with the Invitation, on Condition that his Friend would accompany him to fee the Tragedy of Hamlet, • which was acted in the Evening, to which he readily agreed.

F I N I S.

REMARKS

"/*'' '

O N

THREE PLAYS

O F

BENJAMIN JONSON.

V I Z.

*»

VOL PONE, or The Fox: EPICOENE, or We Silent Woman: and The ALC H i M i ST.

" Then to the well-trod ftage anon,

" If JOHNSON'S learned fock be on,

" Or fweeteft SHAKESPEAR, Fancy's child,

" Warble his native wood-notes wild.

MILT. U Allegro.

LONDON;

Printed for G. HAWKINS, at Milton's Head, be- tween the two Temple-Gates, Fleetftreet.

MDCCXL1X.

PREFACE.

THESE curfory remarks on three of the moft celebrated Poems (as he himfelf is pleafed to namfe them) of our ancient and learned Comedian, which are here offered to the reader's confidera- tion, (to his entertainment, or inftruclion, I dare not fay) were at firft written by me, for the moft part, on the margin of an edition printed in the year 1640.

'Twas no ungrateful amufement (and this induces me to think 'twill be not lefs grateful to the reader) to compare JON SON with the original authors, which he imitat- ed ; and to find, that whenever he confider- ed with himfelf, how HORACE, JUVE- NAL, PL AUT us, or any other of the ancient writers, would have written on fuch a fubject, or exprefled fuch a fentiment, •that then he always excelled himfelf. And this, perhaps, may account for that inequa- lity we find in his compofitions : his good genius feems to have forfaken him, when- A 2 ever

PREFACE.

ever he forfook the guides of antiquity, and trufted to his own natural ftrength.

There is indeed the one thing necejfary in all writings, much wanting in the writ- ings of JON SON, and that is, the power to touch the heart : no fcholarfhip (as the word is vulgarly ufed) can abfolute- ly teach a writer this art ; for this he muft go to his domeftic .and inward mo- nitor, and there fearch for the fecret fprings and motives of adtion ; what is many whereto ferveth he, what is his goody and what is his evil * ? In a word, he muft have the proper feeling, before he can attain to the proper expreffion. Methinks in this fcience his contempora- ry SHAKESPEARE has greatly the pre- eminence; nor is he at all inferior to JON- SON in exhibiting, in ridiculous and vari- ous lights, the various follies of mankind.

But it ought not to be pafled over, with- out fome feverer cenfure, how vainly full, and conceitedly fatisfied with himfelf, we perpetually find our poet; even in fuch a

* Ecclefiafticus xviii,, 9.

manner

P R E F A C E.

manner as to miftake his proper talent. The Comic Mufe (* as he himfelf expreffes it) proving ominous to him, he is refolved to try if the Tragic had a more kind afpetli

c<

Where if I prove the pleafure but of

" So he judicious be; hee fhall b* alone cc A theater unto me : once, Tie 'fay cc To ftrike the eare of time, in thofe

<e frefli (trains, <c As (hall, befide the cunning of their

ct ground, <c Give caufe to fome of wonder, fome

" defpight, " And unto more defpaire to imitate

" their found.

Now the afpeft of the ^Tragic Mufe was fo little favourable to our poet when in bufkins, that even in the choice of his fub- jedl he failed : SE JANUS and CATILINE jare hiftorical characters fo well known,

* In his apohgetical dialogue at the end of tbt Poet after.

3 that

P R E F A C E,

that no diftrefs which befalls them, ean poffibly raife any kind of pity (the chiefeft and nobleft paflion belonging to tragedy) in the breaft of the beholder. All fhew of learning then becomes the worft kind of pedantry, when fubftituted in the room of poetic paffion, fentiment, and decorum : though in common juftice be it fpoken of JONSON, that he as feldom fails in the two latter, as he fhines in the former. Hence comedy was his proper talent ; and his knowledge feems rather to con- fift in being able to expofe thofe follies, and lefler kind of vices, which render men contemptible j than from a well con- ducted diftrefs to fhew the amiablenefs, and dignity of a virtuous character.

Were the tragic and comic mufes thus to preferve their proper rank, and cha- racters, how well are they fitted to an- fwer that great end of profit, and delight ? And how abfurd are all thofe kind of men, who blinded by their puritanical pride, and mifled by ill-natured fpleen, cannot diftinguifli between things rightly ufed,

and

PREFACE.

tnd prepofteroufly abufed? But re- fections of this nature the reader, at his >wnleifure, may indulge. Let us return ;o the fubfequent remarks.

JONSON has few paflages that want'cor- reftion, but many that want explanation : ivhich is, in a great meafure, owing to his illufions, and to his tranflations of ancient mthors. I have not pointed out every fuch allufion, or tranflation ; but only fuch, as feemed not quite fo obvious to every rea- der; or chiefly indeed, fuch, as in tran- fcribing, I could imagine that I added fome- what to the labours of former critics, whe- ther in our modern, or in the more learned languages. This is indeed a province, for which, however mean our education hap- pens to be, yet by the help of a certain kind of reading, and a proper degree of pilfering from the obfervations of other men, we all think ourfelves highly qualifi- ed. Criticifm is now no longer, as former- ly, the finifhed production of experienced learning, but the untimely fruit of a confi- dent brow, and a fplenetic heart. No won- der

PREFACE.

der therefore, if from the number of*bun- gling artifls, the art itfelf ,is brought intc contempt ; and that now at length the fa- tal period of time fhould approach, wher critics themfelves {hould be involved in thai general ridicule, which .long ago has beer the fate of divines, philofophers, and politi- cians.

But whatever becomes of critics or theii

'caufe,. which I fhall not now defend ; witl

refpeft to the following remarks, there i

one thing of neceffity I muft infift on, anc

that is, if they obtain the e ad above menti-

oned, they an fwer the intention of the

.writer, and fhould likewife ,anfwer the ex-

pectations of the candid and ingenuous rea-

der.

K lo.

i^dn

.

R I

• R E M A R K S

0 N

V o L P o N E or the F o x,

PROLOGUE.

T

H I S we were bid to credit, From our " Poet,

" Whofe true fcope, if you would know it, *' In all his Poems, ftill, hathbeene this meafure,

<c To mix PROFIT, with your PLEASURE.

Our learned Comedian takes particular care, in many pafiages throughout his works, to let his audience know, that he ftrictly obferved what his favourite author writes in the art of poetry :

u Omne tulit punftum, qui mifcuit UTILE DULCI, ( >* Leftorem deleft ando> pariterque monendo.

So in the fecond Prologue to the Silent Woman :

<c The ends of all, who for the fcene do

" write,

*' Are or mould be, to PROFIT and DELIGHT. B And

2 REMARKS^

And in his Introduction to Every Man out p/ bis Humour:

" Afp. To pleafe, but wht?m ? attentive audi-

" tors, " Such as will joyne their PROFIT with their

'c PLEASURE.

And in other places. — 'Tis obfervable likewife that JONSON calls himfelf here a poet^ and his. plays, poems-, m akingtife of expreflions import- ing dignity and honour : thus in his Difc9Vtries<> " a poet is that which by the Greeks is called « X*T' igoxiX o nolHTHs, a maker, &c. And this name he gives to himfelf in the Prologue to the Silent Woman.

" Left fo you make the Maker to judge yoij. But of this enough has been faid dfewhere. ,

Ibid.

cc And not AS SOME (whofe throats their envifc

" fayling)

" Cry hoarfely, all he writes is rayling : <c And when his playes come forth, think they

« can flout them, <c With faying, he was a yeere about them.

He means particularly DECKER, the author of SatyromaftiX) or the untruffwg a humorous po- et j which was written as an anfwer to JONSON'S

Poetajier,

V o L t> o N E or the F o x. 3

Po ft after 9 where DECKER is lafhed under the name of CRISPINUS ; who in the fifth aft of the play has a vomit given him, to make him bring up his far-fetched and affcdled words. " What " a tumult he had in his belly ! " fays CAESAR of him, juft as was faid of LEXIPHANES in Lu- CIAN, who was ferved after the fame manner ;

«ro*u£ o j3o£&>£yj/^oj. [Luc. %0flt. 1. p. 836.] At

the end of the Poetafter he has added, what he calls, an apologetic al dialogue -, in which are thefe verfes, alluding to DECKER, and the minute poets of the age.

" Pol. O, but they lay particular imputations— " Aut. As what? Pol That all your writing " is meer railing.

* Aut. Ha* they no other? Pol Yes, they fay

" you are flow, " And fcarce bring forth a play a year.

Ibid,

" Only a little SALT remayneth,

" Wherewith hee'le Ru6 yo\Jf cheecks>

" 'till (red with laughter) <c They fhall look frefh, a weeke after-

This is a latinifm borrowed from HORACE* Lib, i. Sat. 10.

B 2 " — At

4 ^REMARKS ott

*« *^~At idem> quod SALE multo

" Vrhm DEPRICUIT, chart & laudatur eadem.

Ad. I. Sc. I.

VOLPONE, MOSCA.

I *,-»«- ••• - > •• • •* ~ - 1*. I -*V ' -ii •''•"!

ec Good morning to the Day ; and next my Gold. *c Open the Shrine, that I may fee my Saint. " Haile the world's Soule, and mine ! more

" glad than is

<c The teeming Earth to fee the long'd-forSunne " Peepe through the homes of the celeftial Ram, " Am I, to view thy fplendor, darkning his : * ' That lying here amongft my other hoords, ** Shewft like a flame by night ; or like the day cc Struck out of Chaos, when all darknefle fled <e Unto the center. O* thou fonne of SOL ** (But brighter than thy father) let me kiffe, " With adoration, thee and every relique ** Of facred treafure in 'this blefled roome.

The fcenc is a room in VOLPONE'S houfe.— Open the Sbrine—*-He fpeaks to MOSCA* his fer- vant or parafite : who opens a curtain, and dif- covers VOLPONE'S treafure, being chiefly pre- fents from thofe who ftrove to be his heir. The reader cannot but perceive that the diction rifes to a tragic iublimiry: [tollit 'vocem comtedta.]

that

VOL PONE or the Fox. 5

that expreflion, Jhewft like aflame by #*£&/,— is imitated from PINDAR

o£

« i Thou art virtue, fame,

" Honour, and all things elfe ! who can get thee, ** He mall be noble, valiant, honeft, wife - " Mosc. And what he will, Sir.

enm res

<c Virtus^ fama, decus, divina bumanaqus^ pulcbris <c Divitiis parent ; quas qui conftruxerit, ille u Clarus erit, fortis9juftus. Sapienfne? Etiam et

" rex, «« JB/ «/«/W w^r/. Hor. L. II. S. III.

Ibid. cc Mosc. You are not like a threfher, that

" doth ftand

" With a huge flaile, watching a heape of corne, " And hungrie dares not tafte the fmalleft

« grane,

" But feeds on mallowes, and fuch bitter herbs. *c Nor like the merchant, who hath fill'd his

*' vaults

B 3 « With

6 REMARKS era

" With Ramagnia, and rich Candian wines, " Yet drinks the lees of Lombard's vineger.

* * You will not lye in ftraw, whilft moth and

<c worms

" Feed on your fumptuous hangings, and foft " beds.

This too is imitated from his favourite author.

" Si quis ad ingentem frumenti femper acervum

<c POR&E e TU s vigikt cum longo fufte \ neque illinc

<c Audeat efuriens dominus contingere granum 5

c* Ac fotius foliis parcus vefcatur amaris :

" Si pofitis intus Cbii veterifque Falernl

«c Milk cadis * nihil eft, ter centum millibus ; acre

* Potet acetum: agey Jl et ftramentis

w Qttoginta annos natus^ cuiftragula " Bhttarum ac tinearum epulae, putrtfcat in area: <c Nimirum infanus paucis videatur ; eo quod <c Maxima pars hominumworbo jaftatur eodem.

L. II. S. 3.

Dr. BENTLEY fays PORRECTUS flgnifies lying at his eafe, luxurioufly ftretched out : (but that ilgnification entirely depends on thofe words with which it may happen to be joined, (imply of itfelf it flgnifies nothing, butftretcbed, or reacted out :) he fubftitutes therefore PROJE-

CTUS

VOLPONE or the Fox. 7 CTUS in its room, as a word more agreeable to the miferable fituation of this covetous wretch. Why fhould we not admit the inter- pretation of our Conledian ? Stand watching — ftand upright at his full length, like a centinel on duty, watching with a long club? This image is more pi&urefque and humourous •, nor does it at all contradict the original mean- ing of the word. This and the above men- tioned imitations of HORACE arevifible to eve- ry fchole-boy: but I will mention one in Seja+ nus not quite fo obvious.

" Flav. Great mother Fortune, queen of hu-

" man ftate,

" Redtrefs of ACTION, arbitrefs of fate, «< To whom all fway, all power, all empire

" bowes, " Be prefent and propitious to our vows.

Adb.V.

They who know any thing of JON SON'S perpe- tual allufions to ancient authors, will plainly per- ceive he wrote,

« Re&refs of ANTIU.M, &c. From HORACE L. i. Od. 35. O Diva gratum qua regis ANTIUM.

B4 Aft

8 REMARKS m

Aft. I. Sc.IL

NANO, ANDRQGYNQ, CASTRONE, VOLPONE,

MOSCA. " Now roome for frelh gamfters, wbo doe will you

" to know, c< They doe bring you neither play, nor Univerjitit

" Jbow ; *c And therefore do intreat you, that whatsoever

" they reherfe, <c May not fare a whit the worfe, for the falft

4< pace of the verfe. *f If y,°u wonder at this, you will wonder wore ere

" we pafs, «« For know here is inclos'd the foule 0/PyTHA-

4< CORAS,

c c That juggler divine.

This whole fcene is an interlude invented by MOSCA to entertain his patron VOL PONE. The Dwarf gives an account of the various transfor- mations of Androgynos^ the hermaphrodite, — ** For know HERE is inclofed the foul of PVTUA-

*' GORAS,

HERE, Jeixlixwf, pointing to him : And the

•whole is intended as a ridicule on the vulgarly believed doftrines of PYTHAGORAS ; and is chiefly borrowed from one of LUCIAN'S dia- logues,

VOL PONE or the Fox." 9

logues, intitled the Dream, or the Cock. Our poet would not have you underftand, by the falfe pace of the verfe > that he errs againft all laws of metre, but that fometimes the pace of the verfe may offend the too delicate and nice aar, and that the meafure is to be helped a little by the fpeaker ; as it often happens to be the cafe in PLAUTUS and in TERENCE. The meafure is of the anapeftic kind, confifting of Anapefts, Spondees, Daftyls, and fometimes the pes pro- celeufmaticus : \. e. the foot of four fhort fylla- bles j as in this verfe of EURIPIDES :

af o Si\ i z 34

After the fame manner thefe verfes here are to be meafured.

" Now room for \frejh gamften \ tvbo doe will \ you to knout

i a 3 4

" They doe bring you \ neither flay \ nor Uni \ verftiejbvw

? * 3 4

" jtnd therefore \ doe intreat you \ that wbatfo'eer \ they rebtrfe

i a 3 4

*' May not fare a \ tubit the ivorfe \for the falfe face \ of the verfe. i a 34

To this meafure the reader may reduce them

all : a little lower we have,

** Counting \ all old \ doftrine \ Herejie.

And prefently after

io REMARKS on

« -Sy others aprnife9 pure, illuminate brother, « Ofthofe devour fle/b) and fontetimes one another.

In this laft there is plainly a word wanting, that fpoils both the meafure and the fenfe : we Ihould read,

vfi Ci'jSi! 3 J)~*'Ji3fl oo Ol '.; :*'i- . Jii._ ,*^"H^j

" Qftltft that 1 dewurjlejb \ and fometimts \ *ne another. i * 34

Let this fuffice concerning the meafure, let us now confider the meaning. — By Univerfitie /how* he means fuch mafks and plays, as our Univer- fities ufed to exhibit to our Kings and Queens : thefe plays were made, and afted by the Scho- lars in their Halls. — In calling PYTHAGORAS, that Juggler divine, he tranflates Luci AN'S words in the forementioned treatife,

Ibid.

** And was breath* ^ into ^TriALiDES, MERCU*

" RIUS his feme 9 " Where it had the gift to remember all that ever

cc was done. " From thence it fled forth , and made quick tranf-

c« migration " To goldy-lockt EUPHQRBUS, who was kill* d in

" goo

At

VOLPONE or the Fox. 1 1

At tfa fiege of old Troy, by tbe cuckold of " Sparta. This is from APOLLONIVS. Lib. i. #. 640*

fi/w? (T Atfr* ex VMS a£»pje$

TW uT££

STTET^ITTOV

"OS 'QI MNtfSTIN

IT* KUJ/ 73-

Interim proccres e navi dblegant

'Aetbalidem expeditum caduceatorem^ cui nunciati-

ones

Curandas crediderant^ et baculum Mercurii, Qui cum pater ipjl erat^ turn vero omnium donarat

memoriam

Indelebilem^ ut ne quidem abforpto nunc Acherpntis Jndeprecabili ingluvie Letba incurfat animam.

JONSON had his eye on this paflage of APOLLO- NIUS, and has tranflated his very words. Inftead of aVoi^ojtAHva I would read ITO^O^ : for this is the conftrudlion, & tt\ m -sreo %yv [EXI/VH] ot^oju/vy ITT\ J

The Scholiaft will fling a light on our poet.

$ T8TOV rpy Ai'0aA«/^K ol nuGdc^-o^xoi, T»IJ ^"X^ «<pO«l»f, 3t*I« jugu raj Tu'/xv ; evtf ctvaSjiwVfitvlos Eu-

12 REMARKS on

^reila Ix TSTK

} »

TO ovojtxa ayvofiTa;* jw-ca raura au- T»W TOV IluOayo^av. The reader may likewife, if he wants to know more of this matter, confult DIO- GENES LAERTIUS, and LUCIAN. EUPHORBUS is called goldy-lockt, from HOMER, II. g. f. 51.

t7 3"*, o*t ^f u<r« T£

Sanguine ei ngdbantur corn^ gratiis fimiles9 Cincinnique, qul auroque et argento conftri&ierant. Thefe, and the following verfes in HOMER, PYTHAGORAS was fo charmed with, that he fet them to mufick, and Tung them on his lyre.

Ibid.

" Bejides oxe, and affe, camell^ mule, goaf an$ brock^ <e In all which -it hath Jpoke as in the COBLER'S

" COCK.

This COBLE R is MICYLLUS. See Luc JAN'S treatife De Qallo.

Ibid.

" But I come not here to difcourfe of that mat-

" ter, " Or his one, two, or three, or his great oath,

<c by quater,

« His muficks, his trigon, his golden thigh,

" Or

VOL PONE or the Fox. 13

ie Or his telling how elements fhift. or)

'Tis well known how this greateft of all philofb- phers, (always excepting SOCRATES) reafpned by analogy, from numbers and mathematical theories, to the order and ceconomy of the uni- verfe, and to the .al-wife governor of it. His difciples were all initiated into mathematical fci- snces : EUCLID (a Pythagorean) divulged his mathematics, but concealed their application. Dthers, who Were no Pythagoreans, ridiculed his we9 two and three &c. Such asLuciAN in par- icular, whom our poet follows.— His great oath ty quater, is mentioned in the Golden verfes, as :hey are called, written by one of PYTHAGO- IAS'S fcholars :

Sfa) p* TOU »IAITS£» -fyvX* zretfoiJQvl* TETPAKTTN

Per eum certs qui nobis tradidit quatcrnarium, Font em perennis natura.

His golden thigh — This is a fubje<5b of ridicule :requently in LUCIAN: mention too is made of :his ftrange .ftory in LAERTIUS •, [Lib. VIII. \ XL] the original of which 'tis difficult to trace.

Dr bis telling how element s/h if t. - OVID gives

in account of tiu&fhifting of the elements ; and,

2 confider-

14 REMARKS on

confidering him as a wit and unbeliever, repre- fents PYTHAGORAS'S myftefious dodtrines very fairly.

" Rerumque novatrix Ex aliis alias reparat natura figuras. Necperitintzntoqwdquam (mibi credite) mundoj

Sed variat faclemque novat. Met. XV.

. BURMAN'S edition has tanto : feme books read

toto ; which is doubtlefs the true reading ; for OAON and IIAN, are philofophical exprefiions j which OVID here trandates by toto mundo.

Ibid. 46 NAN. O wonderful change ! when Sir Law*

" yer forfook thee, 46 For PYTHAGORAS'S fake, what, body then

" took thee ? |c AN DR. A good dul moyle. NAN. And how !

" by that meanes, " Thou wert brought to allow of the eating of

" beans?

Prom the Lawyer^ he fays, he went into the Lawyer's Mule. The Lawyers ufed formerly, the more dignified among them particularly, to ride to Weftminfter Hall, with great ftate, on their Mules, on folemn and fet days : to this he alludes prefently after, fpeaking of the Lawyer

VOL-

VOL PONE or the Fo*. j §

VOLTORI, with reference to the Englifh man- ners,

" How he ftould worfhip'd be, and reve*

" renc'd,

" Ride with his furres and foot-clothes j wait* <c ed on

I **' By herds of fooles and clients; have cleere

" way " Made for his Mcyle> as letter'd as himfelfe.

And this explains a paflfage in Every Man out efbis Humour 9 Ad IL Sc. III.

" CAR. Well, make much of him; I fee ** he was never borne to ride upon a Moile.

f.'e. To become a Sargeant, or a great Lawyer. And this will fling a light on a paflage in CHAUCER'S character of the Sargeant at Law,

^.T: «Ot "Ol'V't li;

.jr>M ]^& rode te homely in a Medly cote.

But bomefy, confidering the dignity he rode with at other times, on his Moyle with his foot- clothes, and trappings. The mentioning the Lawyer's Mule naturally leads him to ridicule PYTHAGORAS'S interdiction of eating of beans.

Ibid.

" VOLP. Who's that I away, looke MOSCA. Mos. Foole, begone,

2 " 'Tis

j6 REMARKS 07*

** *Tis Signior VOLTORE the advocate

" I know him by his knock.

The interlude is interrupted by a knocking -at the door: VOLPONE expe&ed vifits from thofe who lay in wait for his eftate ; and prepares himfelf to receive them. But there is an error in the printed books^ and we fhould thus di* ftinguifti the fpeakers .

«• VOLP. Who's that? away looke MOSCA. *« Fook^ begone.

" Mosc. 3Tis Signior VOLTORE* VOLPONE bids MOSCA goe and fee who it was that knocked at the door : mean time he bids the Foole^ Dwarf \ &c., begone. MOSCA liften- ing, tells him he knows *twas the advocate VOLTORE by his knock. — The alteration be- fpeaks itfelf. Nor is it an unufual thing for the fpeakers names to be wrongly ordered, through the blunders of printers, or tranfcribers for the prefs. To inftance in a pafTage, or two, of our poet. In Catiline Act 5.

" CICERO. What do you decree to th' AL-

" LOBROGES,

<c That were the lights to this difcovery ? " CRASSUS. A free grant from the ftate of

" all their fuits.

«.

C^SAR.

VOL PONE or the Fox. 17

" CAESAR. And a reward out of the public k

" treafure. " CATO. I, and the title of honeft men to

tc crown 'hem.

" CICERO. What to VOLTURTIUS ? " C/ESAR. Life, and favour's well,*, " VOLTURTIUS. I alke no more. Now 'tis plain the fpeeches fhould thus be di- ftinguifhed :

" CICERO. What to VOLTURTIUS ?

CAESAR. Life and favours.

" VOLTURTIUS. Well, u I a(k no more.

CICERO in L. Catilin. Orat. IV. Poftremo le- ft erno die fr^mta legatis Allobrogum^ Ti 'toque Vul- turcio dediftis amplffima.

And in Sejanus, Acl: III.

" Noble CORDUS,

" I wifh thee good : Be, as thy writings, free, " And honeft: TIB. What is he ? SEJ. For " th* Annals, CAESAR.

It fhould thus be read,

« TIB. What is he for? SEJ. Th' annals, " C^SAR.

;'. e. What is he accufed for ? — But to return. C Ibid.

i 8 REMARKS 0#

Ibid.

44 How now ? the newes ? " Mos. A piece of plate, Sir, VOL. Of

" what bigndTe ? Mosc. Huge, " Mafiie, and antique, with your name in-

44 fcrib'd, 44 And arms ingraven, VOL. Good! and

" not a Fox 44 Stretcht on the Earth, with fine DELUSIVE

44 SLEIGHTS 44 MOCKING A GAPING CROW ?

HORACE has a whole Satyre written to ridi- cule the Heredipctte of the age, the very intent of this play ; in his Satyre he has the feme allu- fion, with our poet, to the jEfofic Fable of the Crow find the Fox.

c c . Pkrumque recoffus

u Scriba ex quinqueviro CORVUM DELUDET

4C HIANTEM.

The fame allufion we meet with in A<5t V. Sc. VIII.

46 VOL P. Me thinks,

44 Yet you, that are fo traded i'the world, " A witty merchant, the fine bird, CORVINO, " That have fuch mortal emblems on your name,

44 Should

VOL PONE or the Fox. 19

c* Should not have fung your fbame •, and dropt

" your cheefe, " To let the FOXE laugh at your emptinefs.

This paffage wants a little correction, for in- ftead of MORTAL emblemes^ we muft reaft, MO- RAL Embkmes. Every Fable has its Moral

Ibid.

" Hood an Afs with reverend purple, *' So you can hide his two ambitious eares, *c And hee mall pafTe for a cathedrall Doctor.

This is true Satyre, and very elegantly exprefled. -^-Ambitious is uied according to its original meaning in the Latin Language.

Aft I. Sc. III.

" Mosc. I doe befeech you, Sir, you will

" vouchfafe ** To write me if your family.

This is a latin manner of cxprefllpn borrowed from HORACE. L. I. Ep. IX.

Scribe tui gregis bunc.

Ibid. " ^Mosc. Your defcrt, Sir ;

20 REMARKS on

" I know no fecond caufe. VOL. Thy mo-

" defty

" Is loth to KNOW it.

i . e. to acknowledge it, to make it known. So in SHAKESPEARE'S Tempe/l, Act I. where PROSPE- RO fpeaks to CALIBAN :

" When thoa didft not, Savage, " KNOW thy own meaning,but would* ft gab-

" ble like " A thing mofl brutifh., 1 endow'd thy pur-

et pofes

" With words to make them known, i. e. didft not make thy own meaning known, . caufe it to be known. The late editors here, not underftanding him, alter SHAKESPEARE'S words.

Ibid:

" Mosc. Keepe you ftill, Sir. 'c Here is CORBACCIO. VOLP. Set the plate

" away, cc The vulture's gone, and the old raven's

^ come ! u Mosc. Betake you to your filence, and

your fleepe : Stand there and multiply.

'•The old raven—rCorlactio^ in Italian, fignifies

an

cc cc

VOL PONE or the Fox. 21

an old raven. There mould be a full ftop after p._ Stand there and multiply — He fpeaks to the plate as he is fetting it away. — In allufion to the name Corbaccio, MOSCA fays, in the next fcene- - Rook go with you, raven, i, e. you raven may you be rooked, cheated.

J»H

Aft I. Sc.IV.

" Mosc. Alas, Sir, I but doe, as I am taught; Ct Follow your grave inftru&ions ; give 'hem

" words; " Powre oyle into their eares : and fend them

" hence.

Give them ^ords — do verba, as in HORACE, Lib. i. S. 3.

" an ut ignotum dare nob is

Pour oilinto their ears, i. e. give them pleafant and foft words, as fmooth as oil ; fallacious and deceitful, rather than what are true and whole - ibme : for truth is grating to the ear, as the Stoic obferves :

" Sed quid opus teneras mordaci radere vero " Auriculas? Perf. I, 107.

Smooth as oil is an exprefllon ufedby PLATO in C 3

22 REMARKS #fto

fbiatetus [p. 144. Edit. Stepb.] oTov 'PEfMA 'A¥0$HTf 'PE'ONTOS, which Serra- nus renders, lanquam Eleii alveus cum facefecun- doqueflumine labens. I cannot help taking notice that the pompous rhetorician^ who to do him juftice is not oftentimes without his elegancies, has, with great beauty and propriety, when fpeaking of PLATO, borrowed this image and the very words from him : an puloi o nxaroju (liwwwpi y*$ rourif T»VI XET'MATI [leg. psu>o3t]

*A^^O>HTIX WnN. [LoNGiNus. Seft. XIIL] The allufion requires 'PET'MATI, and if we have any ears we may plainly perceive how preferable

this reading is.

•^ ' >,"':*•;? i^-%biij ;*4>y -v.,' />

Aai. Sc.v.

" The weeping of an heire fhould ftill be

<e laughter, " Under a vifor.

Hxredis fletus fub ferjona rlfus eft. Aull. Gelli- us, XVII. ,

** And fent home others " Nothing bequeath'd them but to cry, and

w curfe.

This is from HORACE'S Satyre above mention- ed, to which our poet is fo much indebted.

2 " Invt-

VOL PONE or the Fox. 23

•*"** hvenietque " Niljtbi kgatum* prater plorare, fuifque.

Ibid.

*« CORV. Has hee children ? Mos. Ba-

" ftards, ** Some dozen or more, that hee begot on

" beggers " Gypfies and Jewes and black- moores, when

" hee was drunk. cc Knew you not that, Sir ? 'Tis the common

" fable.

" The Dwarf e, the Foole, the Eunuch are ** all his;

** H'lS THE TRUE FATHIR OF HIS FAMILY.

This paffage is clofely imitated from MARTI- AL, L. I. Ep. 85.

" De SfyirinaU.

<c Uxorem habendam non putat QuirinaliS) *c Cum *vult babereflios, et invent t *' Quo poffit iftud more, futuit ancillas, ' " Domumque et agros impkt equitibus vernis. ** PATER FAMILI^ VERUS EST QUIRINALIS.

Ibid.

•' "Would you would once cjofe C4

24 REMARKS on$\r

4< Thofe filthy eyes of yours, that flow with

" flime, " Like two frog-pits ; and thofe fame hang-

" ing cheeks, u Covered with hide inftead of fkin, (nay,

" help, Sir) " That looke like frozen difh-clouts, fet on

" end.

<Tbofe fame hanging cheeks — From JUVENAL, Sat. X. 193.

.. ^.^ . ~o:> Lt .!.. ^ :-r.t ^ n ;t-5 nfti.;- ^'

• - deformem fro cutefellem^ Pendentefque genas.

'Nay* help, Sir. - i. e. help me to rail, and abufe VOL PONE. So the paffage is to be under- ftood in the Akhymift, Aft I. Sc. I. " DOL. Your Sol, and Luna. — HELP ME. And in the Silent Woman* Aft III. Sc. V. " TRU. Eat car-wax, Sir. I'LL HELPE YOU.

Ad II. Sc. I.

" Fellowes of outfide, and meerbark.

LONGINUS Se(^l III. Spumofum

CORTICE PINGUI. PfiRSIUS.

Ibid.

VOL PON E or the Fox. 2 5

Ibid.

" Mosc. Under that windore, there't muft

" be. The fame. " POLL. Fellowes, to mount a banket

Fellows to mount a bank ! plainly alluding to

the etymology of a MOUNTEBANK. ItaL Mon- tar in banco. So prefently after, " I who was " ever wont to fix my BANK in face of the pub-

" lick piazza, &c. This whole Epifode of

Sir POLITIQUE WOULDBEE never did, nor ever can pleafe. He feems to be brought in meerly to lengthen out the play. Perhaps too 'tis par- ticular fatyre.

Ibid.

c< Thefe turdy-facy-nafty-paty-loufi-farcicall " rogues, with one poore groats worth of un- " prepared antimony &c.

VOL PONE perfonates a mountebank, in order to get to the fight and fpeech of CORVINO'S wife •, he accordingly makes an oration in imi- tation of thefe quacks under her window. Our poet has here put into his mouth a long com- pounded word after the manner of ARISTOPHA- NES, who has many of the like kind to banter

the

.

26 REMARKS o#>V

the Dithyrambic poets : HORACE calls, them no-

va verba :

" Sen per audaces NOVA dithyramlos " VE R B A devofoit) mimerifque fertttr Lege folutis.

I believe the learned reader will not be difpleafed, if I here take occafion to fhew an allufion, not obvious at firft perhaps to every kind of reader, to ARISTOPHANES, by our poet The paffage I mean is in Bartholmew Fayre^ Act III. where the hypocrite BUSY is fcenting like a hound af- ter a roafted pig : " Therefore be bold, huh, huh, hu^ follow the fcent." The very fame we may find in the Plutus of ARISTOPHANES, A6b IV. Sc. III. where the fychophant fcents in like manner the good dinner preparing within :

IIoXu %p*)jw,«

v v v v T'? 's*'? vr •»••»•

u u u u uu u u u u uu.

On which paffage Vossius has a very juft re- mark ; which I (hall cite from the late learned editor of DIONYSIUS HALicARNSsEusDtf/m1- tura Oratlonis : in p. 96 he is fpeaking of the found and power of the vowels, *Er»v $1 5Mov T»- T» ro u. " Infimum dignitatis gradum tenet v voca-

« Us:

VOLPONE or the Fo*. 27

" Us : non obfcurum tantum, fed et fedum et im- «' pur urn ut plurimum efficit fonum, cum naribus * c fotius quam ore prof era fur. Lepidt itaqut AR i - " STOPHANES in Pluto inducit Sycophantam olfa~ " cientem facrificiorum nidorem^ qui totttm fcnari- " um naribus abfofoit^

3J, JS.

, ,

notandum priorem cujufque pedisjytta- bamfcribi debere fpiritu tenui, fequenti verb den- fe* ipfd id exigente rei natura. Vossius.

Aft II. Sc. IV. VOLPONE, MOSCA.

" O I am wounded. Mos. Where, Sir? " VOL. Not without ;

<( Thofc blowes were nothing: I could beare

" them ever.

<l But angry Cupid^ bolting from her eyes, " Hath fhot himfelfe into me, like a flame ; " Where now he flings about his burning

" heat,

" As in a fornace, fome ambitious fire, 4< Whofe vent is ftopt. THE FIGHT is ALL

" WITHIN ME.

This paffage is greatly improved from a like

thought

s8 RE MAR K s "en

thought printed among thofe poems which are afcribed to ANACREON. Od. XIV.

sv es jgXt/xvo

$1 Xtt^/t]? |(A

t\v<rs.

MA'XHS "Ein M' '£XOT/SH2 •,

deinde feipfum project f in modum teti : mediufquc cordis mei penetravit et mejohit. Frujlra itaque habeo fcutum j quid enim muniamur extra, bello in- tus me exercente ? SHAKESPEARE has likewife imitated this poem in Troilus and Creffida^ A6t I. Sc. I.

" Call here my varlet ; I'll unarm again. " Why fhould I war without the walls of

" Troy, " That find fuch cruel battle here within ?

The allufion here was not concealed from Mr. THEOBALD : who thus renders it,

Fruftra gero clypeum

Quid enim [ilium] extrinfecus objiciamy

Cumpugna intus omnino ardeat?

And then adds, " The tranflators do not feem

2 «« CO

VOL PONE or the Fox. 29

« to have remember'd, that jSaAXo^at (as its

" Compounds, a/x(p»CaXXojtxat, ETnSaAAojtxat, 7«rf^*-

" GaAAo/xai) may fometimes fignify adively, " /W#0, injiciO) impono. Authorities are fo obvi- " bus, that it is unneceffary to ailed ge any." I have no edition, at prefent, but that by BARNES, who in his note fays " gfaare nee exponi deberc

[paXw^fOa] PETAMUR, aut FERIAMUR, VerUfJt

ARM EMU R ; fiquidcm itafepe afnid poet as fimpli- cia qua vocant, pro compofitis ponantur" Now I will fet SHAKESPEARE'S tranQation againft them all - WHY SHOULD 1 WAR WITHOUT. - Ti' yai% ficihuptQ' i£u - For this is the meaning of the phrafe, quid bcftem petam^ wl quid hoftem ferire aggrediar extrx^ cum hoflis intus eft? I muft beg leave by way of criticifm to* add one thing more, viz. that this ode, tho' feparated from Ode XIII. ought to have been joined to it thus,

x. r. A.

Ibid.

30 REMARKS 0«

Ibid.

•ly.V

" VOLP. I did it well. " Mos. So well, would I could follow you

*' in mine *c With halfe the happinefTe j and, yet, I

66 would " Efcape your Epilogue.

If lunderftand this pafTage right, MOSCA fpeaks afide : meaning, he hopes to impofe on Him, as VOLPONE had impofed on others in perfonating a mountebank. — The audience have hereby (very artfully by the poet) a hint given them of Mosc A'S charadter, and are the better prepared for what follows.

Ad II. Sc. V CORVINO, CELIA, SERVITORE.

" Death of mine honour, with the citie's

" fool ; " A juggling, tooth-drawing, prating moun-

" tebank ? cc And, at a publick windore ? where, whilft

"he, " With his ftrainM a<5lion, and HIS DOLE OF

" FACES,

"To

VOL PONE 0r the Fox. 31

*c To his drug-le&ure drawcs your itching

M eares,

" A crew of old, unmarried, noted lechers, " Stood leering up, like Satyres.

This can hardly be tortured into any kind of meaning. But the poet thus originally gave it,

"Where, whilft he,

" With his ftrain'd a&ion, and HIS DOLE OF " FAECES, &c.

A true picture of a mountebank, with his ftrain'd adion, and his diftributing his FAECES, or phyfical dregs to the multitude Dole, dvo T* foAflV, diftribuere : hence, to fctal cJjarD*.

Ibid.

" Get you a citterne, lady Vanitie^

44 And be a dealer, with the virtuous man.

The mountebanks were attended with rope- dancers, and wenches that plaied on the cittern or guitar v COR VINO bids his wife to follow this mountebank, this virfuofo, in fuch a chara&er. But why does he call her Lady Vanity ? 'This is an allufion to the old plays in which VANITY, the VICE, was perfonalized, and acted a pan. This will appear from the following paflage, in

a play

3 fc REMARKS on

.a play of our author's, which he calls The D/- •uell is an AJJe, PUG afks SAT AN to lend him a VICE.

"SAT.

What kind wouldft th' have it of?

Why, any Fraud ; Or Covet oufneffe ; or lady Vanity ; Or old Iniquity : I'll call him hither. Int. What is he, calls upon me, and would

feeme to lack a Vice ?

This paffage is very wrongly pointed and di- flinguifhed : after this manner we fhould read it.

"SAT.

" What kind wouldft th' have it of? PUG.

" Why any : Fraud^ Ct Or Covet oufnejje ; or Lady VANITY ; " Or old Iniquity. SAT. I'll call him hither.

Enter INIQUITY.

INI. What is he calls upon me, and would feeme to lack a Vice ?

Hence we fee the meaning, [in SHAKESPEARE'S ift part of K. Henry IV.] of Prince HENRY'S calling FALSTAFF, VANITY in years. This

paflage

VOL PONE or the Fox. 33

paflage feems to me not to have been under- flood ; nor that in King Lear, Act II. " KENT. «4 Draw, you rafcal; you come with letters " againft the King ; and take VANITY, the " puppet's part, againft the royalty of her fa- " ther." — But fomething of this has been iaid elfewhere.

Act II. Sc. VI.

" Sweare it was

*" On the firft hearing, as thou maift doe " truely,

" MlNE OWN FREE MOTION.

This Epifode of CORVINO'S offering to profti- tute his wife to VOL PONE, is borrowed from HORACE, L. II. S. V.

«• • — Scortator erit? CAVE TE RQGET j

<6 ULTRO

" Penelopenfacilispotiori trade.

A little before CORVINO, being told that the Phyfician had made an offer of his daughter, calls him Ci wretch! covetous wretch!" How fine- ly is it imagined by our Poet, to make COR- VINO fee the bafely covetous character of the Phyfician, and yet be fo ftrangely ignorant of

D his

34 REMARKS 0#

his own ! this is an inftance of our comedians

great infightxinto the chara&ers of mankind.

* Aft II. Sc. VII.

" Doe not I know, if women have a will, " They'le doe 'gainft all the watches of the " world ?

'fhvfll DOE The word is ufed in an obfcene

fenfe: as FACERE& AGERE, fometimes among the Latins, & •&OK'IV>. among the Greeks. Thus JON SON in his tranflation of fome verfes from PETRONIUS,

" DOING a filthy pleafure is and fhort. " Fee da eft in coitu et brevis voluptas.

Hence we may correct and explain a paffage in SHAKESPEARE'S Taming of the Shrew. A6b II.

" PET. Oh, pardon me, Signior Gremio^ I

Ci would fain be doing. " GREM. I doubt it not, Sir, but you'll

" curfe your wooing.

I could mention other places in our old po- ets, where this word TO DOE is thus ufed: and -many pafTages there are in the Erotic writers of antiquity where FACERE, AGERE, -&OMV, are mifunderflood by the editors of thofe writers.

—But

VOL PONE or the Fox. 35

— But I have faid enough already to my learn- ed readers, and too much to the unlearned.

A<5t III. Sc. I.

" O! your parafite " Is a moil precious thing, DROPT FROM

«' ABOVE.

This is from LUCIAN'S treatife de xj aurrj [viz. •nra£a<n1i>«i ri^vrt] rm potgoi,

Ibid.

« Make their revenue out of legs and faces, " Eccho my Lord, and lick away a moath.

This part of Flattery, <c Eccbo my Lord" he thus dilates on in his Sejanus. Act. I. Sc. I.

<c Laugh when their Patron laughs ; fweat,

" when he fweats ; <c Be hot, and cold with him; change every

" mood,

" Habit and garbe, as often as he varies -, <c Obferve him, as his watch obferves his

" clock ;

«* And true, asturkife in the deare lords ring, " Looke well, or ill with him : ready to

" praife,

D2 "His

3 6 R E M A R K s on

*' His lordfbip, if he fpit, or but pifle faire, *' Have an indifferent ftoole, or break wind

" well ; ** Nothing can fcape their catch.

Which is plainly imitated from the follow- ing verfes of JUVENAL, Sat. Ill, 100.

"— — Rides? majore cachinno " Concutitur : flet, fi lacrymas confpexit

" amici, ** Nee dolet : igniculum brumse fi temporc

" pofces, " Accipit endromedem , fi dixeris, asftuo,

c« fudat. " Non fumus ergo pares *, melior qui femper

" et omni c< Nocte, dieque poteft alienum fumere vul-

" turn,

4< A facie jadtare manus, laudare paratus *' Si bene ru&avit, fi redtum' minxit amicus. This ECCHOING MY- LORD is very prettily ma- naged in SHAKESPEARE'S Hamlet. Act V.

" HAMLET. Your bonnet to his right ufe:

" 'tis for the head.

" OSR. I thank your lordiliip, 'tis very hot, " HAM. No, believe me, V/V very cold; the

** wind is notherly.

<c CSR.

VOL PONE or the Fox. 37

" OSR. It is, indifferent, cold, my lord, in-

" deed. " HAM. But yet, methinks, // is veryfultry,

" and hot for " My complexion. " OSR. Exceedingly, my lord, // is.yeryful-

" try, as 'twere I cannot tell how.

GNATHO in the Eunuch of TERENCE.

<c Quicquid dicunt, kudo : id rurfumji negant,

*' laudo id quoque. <c Negat quis ? nego. ait ? aio.

That other inflance of flattery «' and lick

** away a MOTH." Is an allufion to fuch officious kind of parafites, who are called in Low Dutch plUEme^flTUCfcer, qui plumas pitofque ex vejtibus affentatorie legit. A PLUME STRIKER. In Greek it is called, x£ox^/£nv, OVID advifes the lover to try this piece of flattery towards the woman, he would gain :

Utque ft, in gremiumpulvis Ji forte puetlae

Deciderit, digitis excutiendus erit. Et, Ji nullus erit puhis, tamen excute nullujn* Quaelibet officio caufajit apta tuo.

Mention too is made of this kind of flattery in the characters of THEOPHRASTUS.

D 3 Aft

£g. REMARKS on

Aft III. Sc. IV. LADY, VOLPONE, NANO, WOMEN, 2.

" In good faith, I am dreft c< Moft favorably today, it is no matter, " 'Tis well enough. Look, fee, thefe petu-

" lant things ! " How they have done this ! VOLP. I doe

<c feele the fever

" Entring in at my eares ; O for a charme, " To fright it hence. LAD. Come neerer :

" is this curie " In his right place? or this ? WHY is THIS

** HIGHER

*' THAN ALL THE REST ? You ha'not wafh'd

<e your eyes yet ?

" Or doe they not ftand even in your head ? *' Where's your fellow ? call her. NAN. Now,

" St. Marke

" Deliver us ; anon, fliee'll beat her women " BECAUSE HER NOSE is RED. LAD. I pray

tc*you, view " This tire, forfooth : are all things apt, or

" no ? "WoM. One haire a little, here, flicks out,

« forfooth.

" LAD.

VOL PON E or the Fox. 3 9

"LAD. DoYtfo, forfooth? &c.

Lady Wouldbee vifits the fick VOL PONE (as he pretends to be) in his chamber \ fhe is fetting her drefs in order,

« I am dreft " Moft favorably to day ! It is no matter,

" 'Tis well enough.

• •< So it fhould be (lopped ; fhe fpeaks ironically :

otherwife *tis no better than nonfenfe. Then fhe corrects herfelf and adds " // is no mat- " ter &c.?> Afterwards fhe takes her maids to tafk about her head drefs ; and here our learned poet plainly has JUVENAL in view. Sat. VI, 486.

" Namfi conftttmf, folitoque decent ius opt at " Ornari ; et froperat^ jamque txpeftatur in

«« forth,

c< diitapudlfiacacpotiusfacraria knae\ " Componit crinem laceratis ipfa capillis, " N*da burner os Pfecas infelixy nudifque ma-

<« minis. <c ALTIOR HIC QUARE CINCINNUS ? taur£&

" punit ic Continue flexi crimtn^ facinufaue capillL

D 4 *

40 REMARKS on

<c QuidPfecas admifit? quaenam eft Me culpa "puellae,

^ Si TIBI DI8PLICUIT NASUS TUUS ?

JUVENAL mentions foon after the counfels cak led to confult on the lady's drafting, as if her charafter and foul were concerned in the deter- mination,

" ta*fuu*fam* difcrimen agatur^

fc Ait anim*.

" Call'd you to counfel of fo frequent

*' dreflings, — " (NAN. More carefully, th^nof your fame

" or honour.)

JUVENAL'S thoughts are frequently introdu- ced in our poet's works. And hence I will cor* rec"t a pafTage in Catiline, Aft HI,. ^ .,

" — — Promife 'hem ftates and empires, «c And men, for lovers, made of better clay, " Than ever the old PORTER Titan knew.

The HOURS, not TITAN, were Heaven's POR- TERS : but (without more words) inftead of PORTER we mould read POTTER, as is manifeft from the paffage which JONSON had in view,

** §>uil>us arte bemgna

" E meliore fatofinxit frcscordia Titan. Juy. XJV, 35. Ibid.

VOL PONE or the Fox. 41

Ibid.

*' Ay mce, I have tane a grafle-hopper by 4< the wing.

So again in an apologetical dialogue at the end of his Poetajter:

" And like fo many fcreaming grafie-hoppers, " Held by the wings, fill every eare with " noife.

This was a proverb of the poet ARCHILOCHUS as Luc i AN tells us in the beginning of his Pfeu* dologifta^ TO R TK A^iAop^v UeTvo Ufa o-ot AcTw, CTI rrrltj/a T« TSTTf^S <rui/fiXn^a?, x. T. A. For the

fatter you hold them by the wings, the louder they fcream. — But is this true of grafle-hoppers? Cicada & TrrJtg, is not a grajje-bopper, for the poets defcribe it as fitting and fmging on trees. However the common tranflations mutt excufe our poet.

Ibid.

VOLP. The poet,

" As old in time as PLATO, and as knowing, *' Says that our higheft female grace is (i- " lence.

The

42 R E M A R K S VJI

The poet, viz. SOPHOCLES.

6r EURIPIDES, whom the <?rac7<? pronounced the wifer.

yag engrt, n TO

^i* .; Heraclid. ^ 477. Aft. 'III. Sc. VI.

<c Have patience, Sir ; the fame's your fa- "ther knocks.

trr n. j 'nats'id a We muft read,

" - - The fame's your father's knock.

This knocking you now hear is your father's. Mosc A expe&ed it to be fo, but the fequel will Ihew his miftake.

9*vA>» * rio iiniOfiiV fiiii" Tcltf Tf*) '*"'

Aa m. SC.VIL

•

cc • - Prythee, fweet; cs ( Good faith ) thou fhalt have jewels ,

" gownes, attyres, <c What thou wilt think, and afke. CORVINO, having brought his wife to VOL - PONE, threatens and in treats her ; and tries all his rhetoric to perfuade her to yield : fhe tells him fhe'll eat burning coals frft, like PORCIA :

he

VOL PONE or the Fox. 43

he then threatens her as TARQUIN threatned Lu- CRECE — / will buy fome Jlave whom I will kill% and bind tbee to him alivs. But after all his terrible threatenings and imprecations, he is re- duced to the LAST ARGUMENT, promifes of jewels, and fine gownes ; if thefe cannot pre- vail, nothing can. The lady continuing obfti- nate, he calls her

" An errant locuft, by heaven, a locuft. Whore, *c Crocodile, that haft thy teares prepar'd, " Expeding, how thou'lt bid 'hem flow.

Thefe verfes fhould thus be ordered and printed ,

" An errant Locuft, by heaven a Locuft.

" Whore ! Crocodile ! that haft thy tears

" prepar'd, " Expecting, how thou'lt bid 'hem flow I

Locuft, is not the mifchievous infect fo named ; but, if I underftand our learned poet right, he calls her another Locufta, an infamous woman fkilful in poifoning, who afiifted NERO in de- ftroying BRITANNICUS, and AGRIPPINA in poifoning CLAUDIUS. In the fame fenfe JUVE- NAL I, 71.

" Inftituitque r tides melior LOCUST A fropinquas.

He adds, " that haft thy tears &c." this is" j imitated

44 REMARKS 0#

imitated from the above-mentioned fatyrift IV,

271.

" ^—Plorat

<c Uberibus femper lacrymis^ femper que paratis *c In ftatione fua+ atque cxfpeffantibus illam9 <c Quojubeat manare modo.

SONG.

Cotne> my CELIA &c.] This and the following fong, are both printed in our poet's FORREST; and are imitated from CATULLUS.

Ibid.

" CEL. Someferenc blaft mee, or dire light-

<c ning flrike 46 This my offending face. J^

I found this paflfage thus printed in a modern edition,

"Some Siren blaft me.

And the editor hug'd himfelf with thoughts of this emendation, I dare fay. But the poet al- ludes to a difeafe in the eye called by phyfici- cians, Gutta fercna. Hence M i LT o N is to be explained :

" So thick a dropyfora? hath quench'd their *' orbs,

« Or

VOL PONE or the Fox. 45

" Or dim fuffufion veild. Ibid.

" See, behold,

" What thou art queen of; not in expe&ation, w As 1 feed others : but pofiefs'd and crpwn'd, " See, here, a rope of pearle ; and each, more

" orient " Than that the brave Egyptian queen car-

" rous'd :

" Diffblve and drink 'hem. See, a carbuncle, " May put out both the eyes of our St.

tc Marke : " A diamant, would have brought [r. bought]

<c LOLLIA PAULINA, " When fhee came in, like ftar-light hid

*' with jewels,

" That were the fpoyles of provinces. The flory here alluded to concerning CLEO- PATRA is well known : the other concerning LOLLIA PAULINA is from PLINY : " LOLLIA " PAULINA, qua fuit CAII principis matrona* " ne ferio quidem, aut folemni carimoniarum ali- " quo apparatu^ fed mcdiocrium etia m f port folium ** ccena^ vidi fmaragdis margaritifque opertam, ** alterno tcxtufulgentibus, toto capite, erinibu^ " fpira, auribus^ collo* monilibus, digit ifque : qua I " fa

46 REMARKS 0#

tc fumma quadringenties H- S. colligebat : ipfa " confeftim parata mancupationem tabulis probare. " Nee dona prodigi principis fuerant^ fed twit*

" Opes, PROVING I ARUM SCILICET SPOLIIS PAR-

" TJE" Lib. IX. 3. 58. See likewife TACI- TUS, L. XII. AnnaL and SUETONIUS.

«•»»— '•»•• -»-y- •' •*»»'•*> ? Jl Jfcl JV^ -.'

Adtlll. Sc. VIIL

cc O that his well driv'n. fword «c Had beene io covetous to have cleft me

" downe " Unto the navill.

5^ have cleft me down unto the wvil. — —This was a common manner of expreflion* fomewhat hyperbolical, and poetical, rather than ftriftly true. So in SE JANUS.

* c If I could guefle hee had but fuc'h a thought, <c My fword ihould cleave him downe from 'ii(t; «'c head to heart':

MILTON HIMSELF mates ufe of the exprefllon in one of his LATEST, and by far the beft of his poems, fpeaking of MOLOCH : VL 361. cc" But anon

" DOWN CLOVEN TO THE WASTE, With fliat-

" ter'd arms

u And uncouth pain fled bellowing.

Thus

VOL PONE or the Fox. 47

Thus too SPENCER B. 2. C. 8.

46 Then hurling up his harmefull blade on hy, " Smote him fo hugely on his haughtie creft c< That from his faddle forced him to fly : " Els mote it needes downe to his manly breft. ** Have cleft his head in twaine, and life 41 thence difpofleft.

SHAKESPEARE too thus exprefles himfelf in Coriolaws. Aft II.

" His fword, (death's ftamp) " Where it did mark, IT TOOK FROM FACE " TO FOOT.

And in MACBETH, where the Captain is giving an account of the battle, with a bombafl circum- Jtance horribly fluff with epithets of war,

*6 Who ne'er fhook hands nor bid farewell

*c to him, <l Till he unfeam'd him FROM THE NAVE TO

" TH' CHOPS.

The phrafeology here inclines a little to a figure in rhetoric called ur^ov vforspv : but I'll warrant it for SHAKESPEARE'S. I have not time, nor inclination, to tranfcribe the long note upon this paflageof SHAKESPEARE, printed in alate edi- tion, but refer the reader at his leifure to per- ufe it. Ibid.

48 REMARKS on

Ibid.

" Let's die like Romans, et Since we have liv'd like Grecians.

Pergracari in PL AUT us is to fpend the hours in mirth, wine, and banquets. Hence the pro- verb, As merry as a Greek. In SHAKESPEARE'S Twelfth-Night, Act IV. Sc. I. SEBASTIAN calls the clown " fooli/h Greek," for his unfeafonable mirth. This I mention, reader, left thou again Ihouldft be mifled.

Act IV. Sc. I.

*6 Faith, thefe are politique notes! POL. " Sir, I doe flip

*• No action of my life, thus, but I QUOTE it. NOTE, and QUOTE are fynonymous words. Thus above,

" POL. No, this is my diary ; " Wherein I NOTE my actions of the day.

And before, Act II. Sc. I.

" I do love u To NOTE, and to obferve.

This in the beginning of the fame is thus ex- prefled.

c< But

VOL PONE or the Fox. 49

*c But a peculiar humour of my wife's, <c Laid for the height of Venice, to obferue 4-c To Q^JOTE j to learn the languages, and fo " forth.

Let us now confider a little the original of the word : and SKINNER here will afliftus''" tjttofe. " G. quote. It. cotare, citare feu laudare autho- " rem libro et capite. Quota fmt adnotatis, " q. d. quotarc." And MINSHEU, " to quote, " w^r^,orNOTE,a quotus. Numeris enim fcri- *' bentes fententias fuas notant et diftinguunt." So in SHAKESPEARE'S K. JOHN, Act IV. .

— — " Hadft not thou been by* " A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd, " §)uotedi and fign'd to do a deed of fhame, " This murther had not come into my mind.

HAMLET Ad II.

" POL. I'm forry, that with better fpeed

" and judgment *' I had not quoted him.

The laft editor fays quoted is nonfenfe, and ac- cordingly has altered it intonated.

5°

REMARKS on

Ad IV. Sc. II.

" LADY. Where fhould this loofe knight be,

" trow? fure, he's hous'd. "NAN. Why, then he'sfa/l. LAD. I, he

" playes both with me.

I.e. both faft and loofe. — 7, for yes, imo, ita, etiam; and fo ufed perpetually in JONSON ; and SHAKESPEARE, 'till altered by the laft editors.

Aft. IV. Sc. IV.

" Hang him : we will but ufe his tongue, his

*c noife, " As we doe croaker s^ here.

I read, crackers^ i. e. fquibs.

Ibid. " But you fhail eat it : MUCH !

/. e. Much good may it doe you, Elliptically, and ironically. So the pafTage is to be explained and flopped in Every Man out cf his humour. Ad I. Sc. III.

" Here's a device,

" To charge me bring my graine unto the <c markets :

VoLPONfc Qr the Fox. 51

«* I, MUCHI when I have neither barne nor

*c garner, " Nor earth to hide it in, I'll bring it;

/, much ! i. e. forfooth ! yes, indeed, much good 'twill doe me. — And in the Akhemift^ Act V Sc. IV.

•" Much, nephew, malt thou win : much malt

" thou fpend ; <c Much malt thou give away ; much fhalt

<e thou lend. " SURL. I, much! indeed.

So the place is to be pointed. The fame ellipti- cal manner of expreflion is fome where or other

in SHAKESPEARE, but the pafTage does not oc- cur.

Ibid.

" Mercury fit upon your thundring tongue, " Or the French Hercules.

The Gallic^ or Celtic HERCULES, was the fym- bol of eloquence. LUCIAN has a treatife on this French Hercules^ furnamed OGMIUS : he was pictured old and wrinkled, and dreft in his li- on's ikin ; in his right hand he hel^ his club, in his left his bow : feverai very fmall chains were figured reaching from his tongue to the ears of crowds of men at fome diflance. — If the E 2 reader

5a REMARKS on

reader has any curiofity to know more of this God of Eloquence he may, at his leiiure, confult

LUC JAN.

A6t IV. Sc. VI.

•

ct What horrid ftrange offence " Did he commit 'gainft nature, in his youth, " Worthy this age ?

From JUVENAL, X, 254.

" Cur baec in tern for a durat^ :

Quod f acinus dignum tarn longo admiferit <evo ?

tc

Ad V. Sc. I.

" VOLP. 'Fore God, my left legge 'gan to

<c have the crampe ; ct And I apprehended ftrait fome power had

" ftruck me " With a dead palfy.

VOLPONE, juft efcaped from the utmofl peril, fays, whilft he was in court and apprehenfive of punimment, — my left legge *gan to lavs tie crampe : Alluding to a piece of ancient fuperfli- tion, that all fudden conflernations of mind, and fudden pains of the body, fuch as crampes, pal- pitations of the heart, &c. were ominous, and "i prefages

VOLPONE. or the Fox. 55

prefages of evil, i Hence we may explain a paf- fage in PLAUTUS'S Miles Gloriofus.

Sc H E L . Timeo quod rerwn gefferlm hie, it a dor- fus totus prurit.

And in his Bacchides NICOBULUS fa^s, Cafut frurit, perii.

• Aft V. Sc. II.

" It [£°M\ transformes *c The moft deformed, and reflores 'hem

" lovely <c As 'twere the flrange poetical girdle.

This is literally from LUCIAN'S treatife intitled Gallus. *O^ ois o<ruv «j/a9wv o p^^U(roN? ot?Tio$,t'['yt xj JUE- TaTroter T«? dpoffiolfgvs wcrTreg *O HOIHTIKO2 ixiivos KE2TO2. Fides quantas commoditates pariat au- ruftty fiquidem deformcfijpmos transfigurat^ reddit- que amabilesy non fecus atque CESTUS ilk POETI- cus. HOMER'S defcription of VENUS' girdle is imitated by TASSO in Gierufalemme Uberata. C. XVI. St. 25. SPENCER alludes to it. B. IViC. 5. St. 6.

AclV. Sc.IV.

<4 'Twcre a rare motion to be feen in fleetftrect. E 3 MOTION,

54 REJtfA&tfs on

MOTION,/, e. aw puppet- fhe w : Icuncukrum MQ* TIO : the etymology is apparent. So in the Si* lent Woman* Aft III. Sc. V. " Why did you " think you had married a flatue ? or a motion ? w one of the French puppets, with the eyes ,** turned with a wire ?

This whole fane feems to me impertinent, and to interrupt the ftpry. See above p. 25.

Aft' V. Sc. VI.

" — -— fiefe comes my vulture *c Heaving his beak up in the aireand fnuffing,

This image thus concifely expreffed, MILTON has finely enlarged,

/ o,

" So faying, with delight he/#«/Vthe fmell <c Of mortal change on earth. As when a

" flock <c Of ravenous fow!5 though many a league

46 remote,

" Againil the day of battle, to a field " Where armies lie encamp'd, come flying,

" lur'd

€c With fcent of living carcafles, defign'd *c For death the following day, in bloody

" fight.

5* So fcented the grim feature, and upturn'd

« His

VOL PONE flr the Fox. 55

" His noftrils wide into the murky air, *c Sagacious of his quarry from fo far.

AdtV. Sc. XII.

" VOLP. Firft, I'll be hanged. Mosc. " I know " Your voice is good, cry not fo lowd.

From PLAUTUS' Moflellaria. _

<c TR. Scio. tefana effe vocs% m clama nimis.

E4

REMARKS

56 REMARKS on EPICOENE- or

:.i 'iv/z!: t

REMARKS

O N EPICOENE; or The SILENT WOMAN.

PROLOGUE.

RUTH fayes, of old the art of mak- ing playes " Was to content the people.

From TERENCE in the Prologue to the Andrian%

<e Idfioi negoti credtdit folum dari^

" Populo ut placerent, quasfecijfetfabulas.

lid PROLOGUE.

*c And ftill 'thath beene the praife of all beft

<c times, *' So perfons were not touch'd, to tax the

" crimes.

So in his Apologetlcal dialogue at the end of the Poet after:

SILENT WOMAN. 57

44 My bookes have ftili beene taught

44 To fpare the perfons, and to fpeak the vices.

From MARTIAL,

Huncfervare modum noftrl novere libelliy Parcere per fonts, die ere de vitiis.

Lib. X. Ep. 33.

Ad I. Sc. I.

CLERJMONT is difcovered in his chamber dref- fing himfelf, his boy being prefent. After the

boy has ended his fong, TRUE WIT enters

" Well, Sir gallant, were you ftruck with the " plague this minute ?"

This is fuppofed to be tranfa&ed during the $la$ue at LONDON. So again below, " But now 41 by reafon of the ficknefTe, &c.

Ibid. SONG.

44 Still to be neat, ftill to be dreft,

<c As you were going to a feaft ;

44 Still to bee poudred, ftill perfum'd :

" Lady, it is to be prefum'd,

46 Though art's hid caufes are not found,

f c All is not fweet, all is not found.

44 Give

REMARKS 0«EpicoENE; or

<c Give me a look, give me a face, <e That makes fimplicity a grace ; " Robes loofely flowing, hayre as free: *' Such fweet neglect more taketh me, " Than all th* adulteries of art; " They ftrike mine eyes, but not my heart.

Thisfong is very happily imitated from the fol- lowing poem, which I found printed at the end of an edition of .PETRONIUS: the verfes there printed are known to the learned by the title of Prtapeia carmina.

Semper munditias* femper, BaflUfca9 decores,

Semper compojitas arte decente comas, Et cawptos femper vultus, unguent aque femper^

Omnia follicita campta videre manu* amo. Ncgleftim mihi fe qua emit arnica

St det -, ei ornaiusjimplicitate valet. Vincula ne cures capitis difcujja foluti,

Nee ceram infaciem : mel habet illafuum. Finger e fe femper ', non eft confidere amort :

Quid quod fiepe decor , cumprohtbetur, adefl?

I write thefe remarks without the ufe of a libra- ry to confult proper books ; otherwife the reader fhould have my obfervations on fome of the paflages in this poem, which I think faulty. .,

Ibid.

NT WOMAN. 59

w I love a good drefimg before any beauty o* ** the world : O, a woman is then like a deli- " cate garden,; nor is there one kind of.it : fhee " may vary every hour ; taker! often counfell " of her glaffe, and chufe the bed. If lh.ee have " good eares, mow 'hem; good hayre, lay it "out; good legs, weare Ihort cloathes; a *' good hand, dilcover it often, &c.

This and one or two of the following fpeethes are imitated from OVID [Art. Am. Lib. III.

" Nor is there one kind of it" viz. dreffing.

« Nee genus ornatus unum efl : quod quamque'de- " cebit*

" Eligat ; et fpeculum confulat antefuum. *c Longa probat fades capitis difcriminapuri:

" Sic erat ornatis Laodbmia comis. " Exiguumfumma nodumjibi fronte relinquT9

44 NE pateant aures, or a rotunda iiolwt.

OVID, in his advice to the ladies about drefling, tells them, that a long face looks beft when the hair is properly and diftinctly parted, without any ambitious and fupernumerary ornaments ; which he elegantly calls — capitis difcriminapuri.

i But

60 REMARKS on EPICOENE; or

But round faces require that the hair fhould be crifped, in fmall curls, upon the forehead on^ Jy ; and that the reft of the hair fhould cover the ears. NE pateant aures, is doubtlefs the true reading ; (tho* BURMAN has printed it, UT pateant aures :) for the face looks rounder by the ears appearing.

Ibid.

,.. jcsdiftor <c Many things, that feeme foule i'th* doing*

<e doe pleafe, done." Mult 'ague ', dum funt tur- pia, fatta placent, Ov. Ill, 218.

Ibid.

46 A lady fhould indeed fludy her face, when ^ we think fhe fleeps."

*« Tufaciem cura, dum te dormire putemus. Other editions read,

<c Tu quoque, cum coleris nos te dormire putemus. BITRMAN'S thus,

*' *Tu quoque dum coleris, nos te dormire putemus.

How much more like the Ovidian elegance is the following ?

Te qucque, dum cotitur fades, dormire putemus ; Aptius afummd confpiciare manu.

Ibid.

tc

(C

- ^he SILENT WOMAN. 61

i

Ibid.

C4 You fee guilders will not work but inclof- " ed : they muft not difcover how litde ferves *c with the helpe of art, to adorne a great deale. " How long did the canvas hang afore, Ald- " gate? were the people fuffered to fee the ci- " ties love and chanty, whilft they were rude " ftone, before they were painted and furnifh- " ed ? No : No more fhould fervants approach " their miftrefies, but when they are compleat « and finiflied."

Our poet, with OVID in his eye, alludes to his own times.

" Aurea qu<£ pendent ornatofigna theatro ;

" Injpice^ quam tennis braftea llgna tegat, 4< Sedneque ad ilia licet populo, rii/i/afta, venire :

" Nee nifi fubmotis forma paranda-y/m.

Paranda^ the fimple, inftead of reparanda the compofit; no unufual thing among the beft writers of antiquity. I mention this becaufe the interpreters are in darknefs : this word I would reftore to a paffage above, viz. f. 1 60.

'e 0 quantum indulget veftro nalura decori,

multis damna pianda modis ! But

62 REMARKS oh EPICOENE ; t>r But we fhould read,

Quorum funt multis damna paranda modls I . Ibid.

tc I once followed a rude fellow into a cham- *' her, where the poor madam for hafte, and " troubled, fnatch'd at her perruke, to cover u her baldneflfe , and put it on the wrong way.

" CLE. O prodigie!

"TRUE. And the unconfcionable knave held " "her in complement an houre with that reverft *c face, when I ftill look'd when Ihe Ihould talk f*.frQm the tother fide.

This is improved, with comic humour, from the following,

rt Diftits eram cuidam fubito venifle fuellae^ " furbida ferverfas induit ilia comas.

A& I. Sc. II.

" He thinks I and my company are authors u of all the ridiculous affs and monuments are "told of him."

Perhaps here, but doubtlefs in Every Man out of his humour. Ad III. Sc. VIII. He hints at Fox's book. RUST. 2. " Well, I'll get our

" Clarke

SILENT WOMAN. 63 " Clarke put his converfion in the Afts and Mo- " numents. RUST. Doe, for I warrant him hee's ic a Martyr^— The audience by thefe defcrip- tions of MOROSE are well prepared for him, when he makes his entrance. And as we love to know fomething of a man before we get in- to his company, fo the poet has taken great care to bring us acquainted with his principal characters, before they make their appearance in perfon.

A&I. Sc.IV.

"The doubtfulneffe o'your phrafe, beleeve " it, Sir, would breed you a quarrell, once an " houre, with THE TERRIBLE BOYES, if you " fhould keep 'hem fellowfhip a day

Thefe terrible leys are mentioned below in the Alchemift. Ad III. Sc. III.

" FAC. Itfeemes, Sir, yo' are but young <c About the towne, that can make that a

" queftion. '* KAS. Sir, not fo young, but I have heard

" fome fpeech " Of the angrie boyes, and feene 'hem take

" tabacco.

64 REMARKS on EPICOENE* or

A citation from WILSON'S life of K. James* will make the allufion here ftill more mamfeft. " The king minding his fports, many riotous " demeanours crept into the kingdom — divers " feds of vitious perfons, going under the ti- «' tie of ROARING BOYS, Bravadoes, Royfters^ &c. <c commit many infolencies ; the ftreets fwarm <c night and day with bloody quarrels \ private " duels fomented, &V."

Ibid.

tc LA-FOOL E. I had as faire a gold jerkin on ct that day, as any was worne in the iland- <c voyage, or at Caliz, none difpraifed.'*

In the r^ign of Q^ ELIZABETH the young ad- venturers went abroad with fine furnitures and drefles, feeking their various fortunes. This ifland voyage was undertaken ann. 1585. Sir FRANCIS DRAKE being admiral, with a fleet of one and twenty fail, and with above two thoufand volunteers on board : they went to Eifpamola, and there made themfelves mailers of the town of St4 Domingo. The other ad- venture here mentioned, was undertaken ann. 1596. when the Earl of ESSEX and Sir W AL- TER RAWLEIGH burnt the Indian fleet at Cadiz> confuting of forty fail, and brought home im-

menfe

*The SILENT WOMAN. 6$

menfe tfeafiires. — SHAKESPEARE alludes to this finery of d re fling, when our youth went abroad, IK King John Ad II. Sc. I.

tc Have fold their fortunes at their native

" homes, " Bearing their birthrights proudly on their

" backs, " To make a hazard of new fortunes here.

Adh II. Sc. IL

c; TRU. Marry, your friends doe wonder, " Sir, the 'Thames being fo neere, wherein you *c may droune, fo handfomely •, or London- " bridge^ at a low fall, with a fine leepe, to hur- c< ry you downe the ftreame \ or fuch a delicate " fteeple, i'th' towne, as Bow* to vault from ; " or a braver height, as Paul's ; or if you af- 4t fected to doe it nearer home, and a fhorter <c way, an excellent garret window, into the cc ftreet; or a beame, in the faid garret, with " this halter, which they have fent, and defire, <c that you would fooner commit your grave " head to this knot, than to the wedlocke nooze.

with this halter — mewing him a halter. This whole fcene is imitated from the fixth fatyre of

F JUVE-

66 REMARKS on EPJCOENEJ or

JUVENAL, in which he rails with the moft fcur- rilous acrimony againft women and matrimony,

Ferre potss dominamfafois tot reftibus ullam, Cum pateant alt* caligantefqye fen$r#> Cum tibi vidnum fe prabeat jEmi,Uus peys ?

Juv. S, VI. 30.

Ibid.

tc If you had liv'd in King Etbelred's time, «' Sir, or Edward the Cpnfeffor's, you might, c< perhaps, have found in fome cold countrey " hamlet, then, a dull froftie wfench, would '* have beene contented with one man : now, " they will as (bone be pleas'd with one leg, or « one eye.

Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege

In terris. Juv. S. VI. i-

Quid quod et antiquis uxor de moribus illi Gfu<£ritur ? O medici mediam pertundite ixnam. Delidas hominis ! larfeium limen adora PronuS) et aura t am Junoni c<ede juvencam, Si tibi cmtigerit capitis matrona pudici ; (Pauccc adeo Certrisvittas wntingere dign<e> Quarum non timedt pater ofcula ;) neSe coronam Poftibus^ et denfosper limim te.nde corymbos. i Unus

SILENT WOMAN. 67

Iberin* vir fufficit f ocyus illud Extorqucfas, W k*e ocitlo contentafit uno*

So this paiTage is to be printed. 1 ufe the Van* orum edition, (as 'tis called*) which is faulty here both in its reading and flopping.

Ibid.

" TRU. Then, if you love your wife, or ra- " ther dote on her, Sir •, O how fhee'll torture ** you ! and take pleafure in your torments !

'« Si tibi (Jimplicitas uxoria /) deditus uni *c Eft animus \ fummitte caput cervice par at a <6 Ferre jugwn : nullam internes ^ qu* par cat a*

" manti\

4< Ardeat ipfa licet> tormentis gaudet amantls^ « Etfpoliis. Juv. Sat. VI. 205.

Thus this place is to be pointed ; for the con- ftruftion is' " Si tibi eft animus uni deditus> qu<t «' tuaeft uxoriafimplicitas, &c.

Ibid.

" While fhee feeles not how the land drops cc away, nor the acres melt; nor forefees the <e change, when the mercer has your woods for " her velvets ; never weighs what her pride " cofts, Sir : fo fhe may kiffe a page or a Fa " fmooth

68 REMARKS ^EPICOENE^ or " fmooth chinne, that has the defpair of a beard ; " be a ftatefwoman, know all the newes, what " was done at Salt/bury, what at Bath, what at " court, what in progrefles or, fo. fhe may «* cenfure poets, and authors, and ftiles, and " compare 'hem, DANIEL with SP-ENCER, JON- «* SON with the tother youth, and fo forth ; or "to be thought cunning in controverfies, or " the very knots of divinitie ; and have often " in her mouth, the ftate of the queftion : and " then fkip to the mathematiques, and demon- " ftration and anfwer, in religion, to one •, in " ftate, to another 5 in baud'ry, to a third.

" MOR. O, 6 !

" TRU. All this is very true, Sir. And then c< her going in difguife to that conjurer, and " this cunning woman : where the firft queftion u is, howfoone you fhalldie? next, ifherpre- " fent fervant love her ? &c.

Our poet here has abridged his author. — I will point out the various allufions to the rea- per.

" Mull is res angufta domi : fed nulla pudorem " Paupertatis babet. Juv, Sat VI. 356.

Inftead

I L E N T Wo M A N. 69

Inftead of pudorem I would read pavorent. For women hold; poverty in great difgrace and lhame ; and this reading is quite contrary to JUVENAL'S drift and defign, who tells us, that women have no dread upon them at all of ruin- ing their hufbands : ib that pavorerii feems the. true reading, " Thai has the defpair of a beard" This is literally from Juv. VI. 366. " Defpe- <c ratio barbte" Be aftatefwoman, know all tbc <c newes."

H<sc eadem noviti quM totofat in orbe : Quid Seres, quid Tbraces agant. S. VI. 401.

- — Famam^ rumor efque ilk recent es Excipit ad portas. -f. 407.

" what was done at SALISBURY," viz. at the

time of their horfe- races.

*' what in progrefs" viz. when the King went

his progrefs, as to Scotland dec.

<c She may cenfure poets and authors and (tiles,

** and compare Jem."

«« Ilia tamengravior, qu* cum difcumbere ca?pity cc Laudat VirgiHum, peritur* ignofcit Elif*y <c Committit vates et comparat. S. VI. 433.

" DANIEL with SPENCER, JONSON with the

w tother youth, and fo forth." This is artful ;

F 3 and

70 REMARKS on EPICOENEJ or

and an ingenious ridicule of the bad taft of wo- men \ for DANIEL was no more to be compared' with SPENCER, than DECKER (as our poet thought) was to be brought into a compari- Ibn with himfelf: for 'tis DECKER he hints «c at by tother youth." See above p. 2, and 3, «c Or to be thought cunning in controverfies,

«< &c."

•

" Non loabcat matron^ ttbi qutejunfta recumUt^ «6 Dicenti genus* aut cu&vuMfermone rotato " ^orqueat enthymema> nech$oriasfciatcmnes\ <* Sedquxdamex llbris ET NON ihtetligat.

Juv. S. VI. 47.

Jrlere are two faults in this pafTage, CURVUM. for CURTUM, as has been proved elfewhere.^

and ET NQN for NEC NON, JlJVENAL WOUlcJ

not have his woman abfolutely ignorant of all books and all reading ^ the negative particle is therefore wrong.

<e And thqn.her going in difguife to that con. ^jurer, and this cunning woman.'8 JUVENAL rnentions a Jewijh woman^ whom he calls

-magnajaccrdos.

An BORIS. j. 542.

*^T*1*

•

lift

iltxr WOMAN. 71

i. £. prieftefs of a tree : becaufe their Profeucb* or places of prayer were near groves of trees. This place of JUVENAL is exaftly the fame as in Sat. Ill, #.15.

Qmnis etimptyitk meffed&n fender e jujfi eft ARBOR.

Ibid.

<c And then comes reeking home of vapour " artd iweat, with going a foot, and lies in a " moneth of a new face, all oyle and birdlime ; " and riie&in aflea tfiilk, and ii cleans'd with a, 4 'new fucus,

JSMUmiy }. e. vifcoti^ and glutinous unguent^ aftd catfejplatftos for beautifying the fade.

li tntcrea fxtta ajptfiuy ridendaque mutto «' Pane tumet faties^ aut pitfguia Popp*am " Spirat et bine miferi vifcantur kbra mariti.

<c ^Tandem aperit 'vultumjt teEforiaprima refonit <l Incipit agnofci* atqtte itto ta£fe fovetur " Propter quod fe cum comltes educit a fellas. There is a word loft in the laft verfe but one, and we (hould thus clofe this gaping verfe,

44 Incipit agiofri, atquc ilia mox latfe fivetur.

Sat. VI. 467. F 4 A£t

72 REMARKS ^EPICOENEJ or

Ad II. Sc. III.

" DAW. The dor on PLUTARCH and SENE- " CA, I hate it. Our poet in Cynthia* srevels^ Ad 3. Sc. 3. fays,

" What Ihould I care what every dor doth

" buzze . " In credulous eares ?

The dor is now beft known by the name of the may-bug or chafer : Scarabteus arbor eus : how cru- elly they are ufed to afford fport to fchool-boys is well known. Hence came the phrafe to give a man the dory or, to put the dor upon him. We meet with this phraie below, Aft III. Sc. IIL " She would have appeared, as his friend, <c to have given you the dor." In Every Man in his humour •, A6b IV. Sc. VIII. He turns it into a verb " Oh! that villain dors me." In the Anglo-S. Dcra, is a drone. The word is ftill preferved in the weftern parts of England where the humble bee is called the drumble-dor.

Aft II. Sc. IV.

" TRU. A meere talking mole ! hang him : «< no mufhrome was ever fo frefh."

It

*fhe SILENT ,W OM AN. 7 JL It fhould have been printed moile. That other expreflion, no mujhrome was ever fe fre/be—hz had from PLAUTUS in Baccb. " — Jam nibilfapit, "Necfentit: tanti'ft, quanti eft fungus pu-

" tridus.

•~V '.'-"-

So LAMBIN very rightly, and notputtdus. And. in the fame play,

u Adeov? mefuijje fungum, ut qui illicrederem ? Again,

" Quicunque ubique funf, qui fuere, quique fu- *' turifunt pqftbac,

<c Stultij ftolidi) fatui, fungi, bardi, blenni,

<c buc cones.

Fungi] Fungus, injipidus eft fuapte naturd. Ita- que a cods multo pipere et oleo et vino et fak condiri folet. Hinc fungi dicuntur, qui nibil fapiunt" LAMBINUS.

MuJhroomS) a fpecies at leaft of thefe fungous ex. crefcencies are called puff-balls^ puff-fifts or puck- fifts. a Germ, puffeit, Belg. pofferr, inflare: et Teut. frtft, Belg. t)ecff, crepitus. VISIRE, w- de Gall, veffir to fiefte. A PUCKFIST qua/i, ter- ra flatus. JONSON in the Poetaftery Aft V. Sc. III. " He will fqueeze you, poet puckfift." And in the Alcbimift, Aft I. Sc. II.

« rid

REMARKS vn EpicoEtffe • or

f< fid cnoake, ere I would change ':cc~An article of breath, with fuch a puckffti i. c. with fuch an infipid, infignifkant fellow.

.vV^yVA-AN '«3Si\;~- *'

H ' Aft II. 8c. V.

" MOR. CUTBERD, I give thee the leafe of ^ thy hoiife'fre^r tfeank mcr not but with thy " leg ( - ) I know what thbu wouldft fay, <8 flie'spoore and her friends deceafed -y fhe has ct brought a wealthy dowrie in her fiknce,

"• ClTTfcB R D/ ^\\ \> « t $$

Where this break is (-*•-—) CUTBERD fhakes hk Itead,' • which :^MaRa^ Intetpfet?, / know what &c. This is taken from PLAUTIT^ 'Aulu- ; anfdthe f&flTage there h to be interpreted the

chpio fliam

Vlrginem mibi def fonder L — Verla m facias for or ;

%ttid dtEfottti}'^ txtnc tffi fauferem. b<ec

Where I have made f his break — Ihe flakes her fieadrin figiiof difapprdbation: he prevents her anfwer — Verla tie facias

n^. .

** I muft hatfe mine eares banqueted with plea-

"fant

" fant and wittie conferences, pretty girds, " feoffs, and daliance in herv, that I meane to ** choofe for my bedpheere."

Banqueted with fkafant conftrences-^-vtry elegant- ly from PLATO de