AFFLICTION.

Tell my friends,

Tell Athens, in the fequence of degree,.
From high to low throughout, that whofo please
To stop affliction, let him take his haste,
Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe,
And hang himself.

-Had it pleas'd heaven

Timon, A. 5, S. 2.

To try me with affliction; had he rain'd

All kind of fores, and fhames, on my bare head,
Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips;

Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes;
I should have found in fome place of my foul
A drop of patience.

Othello, A. 4, S. 2.

O, you mighty Gods!

This world I do renounce; and, in your fights,
Shake patiently my great affliction off:
If I could bear it longer, and not fall

To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My fnuff, and loathed part of nature, should
Burn itself out.

-Henceforth, I'll bear

Affliction, till it do cry out itself,

Enough, enough, and die.

Lear, A. 4, S. 6.

Lear, A. 4, S. 6.

Winter's Tale, A. 4, S. 3.

Profperity's the very bond of love;

Whose fresh complexion, and whofe heart together,

Affliction alters.

-What's gone, and what's past help,

Should be paft grief: Do not receive affliction

At my petition, I beseech you!

I think, affliction may subdue the check,

Winter's Tale, A. 3, S. 2.

But not take in the mind.

Winter's Tale, A. 4, S. 3.

Nay,

-Nay, forfooth, my friends,

They that must weigh out my afflictions',
They that my truft must grow to, live not here.

King Henry VIII. A. 3, S. 1.

AGE.

The fixth age fhifts

Into the lean and flipper'd pantaloon;
With spectacles on nofe, and pouch on fide;
And his big manly voice,

Turning again towards childish treble, pipes

And whiftles in his found.

As you like it, A. 2, S. 7.

AIR.

When he speaks,

The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To fteal his fweet and honey'd fentences.

5.7.

Henry V. A. 1, S. 1.
Thou art

As glorious to this night, being o'er my head,
As is a winged meffenger of heaven
Unto the white, up-turned wond'ring eyes

I

weigh out my afflictions.] This phrafe is obfcure. To weigh out, is, in modern language, to deliver by weight; but this fenfe cannot be here admitted. To weigh is likewife to deliberate upon, to confider with due attention. This may perhaps be meant. Or the phrafe, to weigh out, may fignify to counterbalance, to counteract with equal force. JOHNSON. STEEVENS.

To weigh out, is the fame as to outweigh.

I understand the paffage thus: The Queen would infinuate that she is the child of affliction, as we would fay; and that such she must be content to remain. She at the same time hints, however, that her friends, who in fuch a cafe would weigh out, or apportion her afflictions, and who would confequently make them as eafy and light as poffible, were abfent; and that she has nothing to hope for from the Cardinals, who would rather endeavour to heap misfortunes on her head.

A. B.

Of

Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him,
When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds,
And fails upon the bofom of the air.

Romeo, A. 2, S. 2.

Look, as I blow this feather from my face,
And as the air blows it to me again,
Obeying with my wind when I do blow,
And yielding to another when it blows,
Commanded always by the greater guft;
Such is the lightness of you common men.

Henry VI. P. 3, A. 3, S. 1.
You leaden meffengers,

That ride upon the violent speed of fire,

Fly with false aim; move the still-piercing air,

That fings with piercing.'

All's well that ends well, A. 3,

All those which were his fellows but of late,
Follow his ftrides, his lobbies fill with tendance,
Rain facrificial whisperings in his ear,

Make facred even his stirrup, and through him
Drink the free air.

I

S. 2.

Timon, A. 1, S. 1.

move the fill-piercing air,

That fings with piercing.]

The words are here oddly fhuffled into nonfenfe. We should read,

pierce the ftill-moving air, "This fings with piercing."

i. e. pierce the air, which is in perpetual motion, and fuffers no injury by piercing. WARBURTON.

Perhaps we might better read, "The ftill-piecing_air," i. e. the air that clofes immediately. STEEVENS.

66

Still-piecing air" is very harth. The old copy reads, "Still peering air. -Peering, I think, may have been printed in miftake for fleering, and the words which immediately follow ("that fings with piercing") fomewhat ftrengthens my conjecture. Pierce," fays Helena, "the air, that regards not your "attack---that fleers, that mocks, that laughs, in fhort, at your 66 power, but do not touch Bertram."

66

A. B.

What,

What, think'ft

That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy fhirt on warm? Will these moist trees,
That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point'ft out? Will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste

To cure thy o'er-night's furfeit? Timon, A. 4, S. 3.
-The bleffed gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilst you

Do climate here!

Winter's Tale, A. 5, S. 1.

The air

Macbeth, A. 1, S. 6.

Nimbly and fweetly recommends itself.

Unto our gentle senses'.

AMBITION.

As Cæfar lov'd me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him but, as he was ambitious, I flew him: There are tears, for his love; joy, for his fortune; honour, for his valour; and death, for his ambition.

Julius Cæfar, A. 3, S. 2. He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

Unto our gentle fenfes] How odd a character is this of the air, that it recommends itfelf to all the fenfes, not excepting the fight and hearing. Without doubt we should read "Unto our general "fenfe," meaning the touch or feeling, which not being confined to one part, like the reft of the fenfes, but extended over the whole body, the poet, by a fine periphrafis, calls the general fenfe. WARBURTON. Gentle fenfe is

Senfes are nothing more than each man's fenfe. very elegant, as it means placid, calm, compofed, and intimates the peaceable delight of a fine day.

JOHNSON. There is no neceffity for Dr. Warburton's alteration. As to Dr. Johnson's explanation of the prefent reading, it is no way fatisfactory. I read,

The air

Nimbly and fweetly recommends itself:--

Gentle unto our fenfe.

i. e. Soft, bland, pleafing to the fenfe.

A. B.

Whofe

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Cæfar feem ambitious?

When that the poor have cry'd, Cæfar hath wept;
Ambition fhould be made of fterner stuff:

Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man!

That lowliness is

I

Julius Cæfar, A. 3, S. 2.

'Tis a common proof, young ambition's ladder,

Whereto the climber upwards turns his face:
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back;
Looks in the clouds, fcorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. Julius Cæfar, A. 2. S. 1.
Ah! gracious lord, thefe days are dangerous!
Virtue is choak'd with foul ambition,

And charity chas'd hence by rancour's hand;
Foul fubornation is predominant,

And equity exil'd your highness' land.

Henry VI. P. 2. A. 3, S. 1.

Fare thee well, great heart!

Ill weay'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk !
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too fmall a bound;
But now, two paces of the vileft earth

Is room enough.

Henry IV. P. 1. A. 5, S. 4.

You all did fee, that, on the lupercal,
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious;
And, fure he is an honourable man.

I fpeak not to difprove what Brutus fpoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.

Julius Cafar, A. 3, S. 2.

1 Common proof.] Common experiment.

JOHNSON.

Rather, continually feen or found. The fubftantive for the verb.

A. B. Urge