Which I fo lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, moved therewithal,

Wept

authors draw the very picture, and give us all the circumftances of it, which S. never once aims at; wherefore the paffages can never with any propriety be compared with one another, fo as to fix the fuperiority of either: they are no more than different allufions to the fame ftory; whofe merits may both be great, but diffimilar; as Guido's would have been had he painted the diftreffed king Lear ; and Garrick's, when he reprefents to us thofe diftrelles.

Seward reads the 7th line,

And you fhall find all true-put 'm on th' wild island. "Because," the fays," he tells her maid, You'll find all true except the wild island, and instantly she is upon the island.” The wild ifland, therefore, in our imagination, is as true as the reft. But it is plain by the text, Afpatia wanted no part to be done over again, except that of the lady: fhe tells her maid," he has failed in working Ariadne; that her colours were not dull and pale enough to express that fad lady's mifery; which the bids her do by her mifstress, who was the life of that poor picture, and in whom she would find all the diftreffes of Ariadne exactly true, and most really figured, except that part of it which concerns the wild island, where he was left by Thefeus." Afpatia indeed, was not on fuch an ifland, but all her other diftreffes were like thofe of Ariadne. "Suppose that then," says fhe," imagine me standing on the fea-beach, mine arms extended thus, and my hair blown with the wind, wild as that defart, and all let [loofe] about me, tell [fufficiently and in reality declare] I am forfaken," &c. Theobald alters, Tell I am forfaken, to Be teachers of my flory: let all about me be teachers of my ftory. The reader need not, I suppose, be told, how frequently, let all about fignifies, let loofe, difbeveled, in S. and many other dramatic writers.-Seward propofes to read the last line in the text,

If I in thought feel not her very sorrow ;

which, though an ingenious criticism, I cannot think quite agreeable to the text. Julia obferves, he acted the part fo lively with her tears, that her mistress wept bitterly;

nay,

Wept bitterly; and, would I might be dead,
If I in thought felt not her very forrow!

ACT V.

SCENE III.

Women facred even to Banditti.

Fear not, he bears an honourable mind, And will not use a woman (24) lawlessly.

A Lover

nay, fhre adds, I would I might be dead, If I did not really and truly (and not in diffimulation only) feel all her forrow, and actually then fuffer all her miferies. I cannot think the author would have written-wou'd I might be dead had he written, If I feel not. I hope that gentleman, who fhows fo great candor and good-nature through all his criticisms, will excufe my differing from him, and expreffing my fentiments fo freely; a duty, which I think, his authors demand, truth will justify, and good fenfe approve. Let me conclude this long note with Ariadne's own defcription of herself, in her epiftle to Thefeus;

You cannot fee, yet think you faw me now,
Fix'd to fome rock, as if I there did grow,
And trembling at the waves which roll below.
Look on my torn and my diforder'd hairs,
Look on my robe, wet through with fhow'rs of tears;
With the cold blafts fee my whole body fhakes,
And my numm'd hand unequal letters makes.

Ovid's Epifles.

(24) Will not use a woman, &c.] Valentine makes it one of his terms, on becoming their captain,--that they do no outrages on filly women or poor paffengers. A&t 4. Sc. 1. See the laft paffage in this play,They fay of them. felves,

-Some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
Thruft from the company of lawful men.

A Lover in Solitude.

How ufe doth (25) breed a habit in a man!
This fhadowy defart, unfrequented woods,
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.
Here can I fit alone, unfeen of any,
And to the nightingale's complaining notes
Tune my diftreffes, and record my woes.
O, thou (26) that doft inhabit in my breast,
Leave not the manfion fo long tenantless;
Left, growing ruinous, the building fall,
And leave no memory of what it was..
Repair me with thy prefence, Silvia;
Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn fwain.

Love unreturned.

What (27) dang'rous action, ftood it next to death, Wou'd I not undergo for one calm look ?

Oh, (25) How ufe dath, &c.] See As you like it, A& z. Sc. 1.

Now my co-mates, &c.

(26) O thou, &c.] St. obferves very truly, that it is fcarce poffible to point out four lines in any of our author's plays, more remarkable for ease and elegance than this and the three following.

(27) What, &c.] Ovid tells us, love is ever daring, and bold to undertake any thing.

Et nihil eft quod non effrano captus amore C
Aufit.

What dang'rous action wou'd he not attempt,
Whom love's wild paffion rules?

As does Seneca in his Medea:

Amor timere neminem verus poteft.
True love can never fear.

F

VOL. II

Oh, 'tis the curfe in love, and still approv'd,
When women cannot love when they're belov'd.

Infidelity in a Friend, and Reconciliation on Repentance.

Val.

Treacherous man!

Thou haft beguil'd my hopes; nought but mine eye
Could have perfuaded me; now I dare not fay,
I have one friend alive thou would'ft difprove me.
Who fhould be trufted now, when one's own right

hand

Is perjur'd to the bofom? Protheus,

I am forry, I must never trust thee more,
But count the world a stranger for thy fake.
The private wound is deepest...

Pro. My fhame, and guilt, confounds me:
Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty forrow
Be a fufficient ranfom for offence,
I tender it here; I do as truly fuffer,
As e'er I did commit.

Val. Then I am paid:

And once again I do receive thee honeft. (28) Who by repentance is not fatisfy'd, Is nor of heaven, nor earth.

Inconftancy in Man.

Oh heav'n! were man

But conftant, he were perfect: that one error
Fills him with faults.

A worthy Gentleman.

Now by the honour (29) of my ancestry,

I do

(28) See Measure for Meafure, A&t 2. Sc. 7. (29) Now by the bonour, &c.] What ftrikes me parti

cularly,

I do applaud thy fpirit, Valentine,
And think thee worthy of an emprefs' love.
Know then, I here forget all former griefs,
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again,
Plead a new ftate in thy unrival'd merit,
To which I thus fubfcribe.-Sir Valentine,
Thou art a gentleman, and well deriv'd ;
Take thou thy Sylvia, for thou hast deserv'd her.

Reformed Exiles.

These banished men,

Are men endu'd with worthy qualities
They are reformed, civil, full of good,
And fit for great employment, worthy lord.

cularly, fays Mrs. G., in this fpeech, is the gallant duke's affeveration, in that truly noble expreffion,

Now, by the bonour of my ancestry.

It was this generous, spirited idea that continued down the race of heroes among us, while they did exift; and were the profeffion of heraldry never to be confidered in any other light, than as a record of mens' worth, not titles, it would then both become a political and liberal fcience. Honours, as Selden says, fhould be native only, and not dative: derived from merits, not from gifts. Our author, in the Winter's Tale, has a paffage to this purpose:

As you are certain gentlemen; thereto
Clerk-like, experienc'd, which no less adorns
Our gentry, than our parents noble names,
In whofe fuccefs we are gentle,-I beseech you, &c.

General Obfervation.

Julia's love-adventures being in fome refpects the fame with those of Viola in Twelfth Night, the same novel might give rife to them both; and Valentine's falling amongst out-laws, and becoming their captain, is an incident that has fome refemblance to one in the Arcadia (book 1, chap. 6.) where Pyrocles heads the Helots: all the other F 2 circum