Imatges de pàgina
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"fworn brothers in filching, and "in Calais they ftole a fire. "fhovel; I know by that piece "of service the men would carry " coals."

So it is ufed by Skelton, in his poem, intitled, Why come ye not to Court? Works, P. 142.

"Will you bear no coles ?" And by Ben Johnson, Every Man out of his Humour, act v. sc. i. Puntarvolo to the groom.

"See here comes one that "will carry coals; "Ergo, will hold my dog." And again, act v. sc. iii. "Take heed, Sir Puntarvolo, "what you do;

"He'll bear no coals, I can "tell you, (o'my word.") Dr. GRAY.

I therefore retract my note on this paffage.

P. 7. Sam. I will bite my thumb at them, which is a dif. grace to them, if they bear it.] So it fignifies in Randolph's Mufes Looking-Glafs, act iii. sc. ii. p. 43.

Orgylus. "To bite his thumb

66 at me.

Argus." Why fhould not a man

"bite his own thumb? Org. "At me? were I fcorn'd, 66 to fee men bite their "thumbs; "Rapiers and daggers, he's "the fon of a whore."

Dr. GRAY. P. 17. Ben. Take thou fome

new infection to thy eye, And the rank poifon of the old

will die. Romeo. Your plantain leaf is

excellent for that,] Tackius tells us, that a toad, before the

engages with a fpider, will fortify herself with some of the plant; and that if the comes off wounded, the cures herself afterwards with it. Dr. GRAY.

P. 25. Merc. If thou art Dan, we'll draw thee from the mire.] A proverbial faying ufed by Mr. Thomas Heywood, in his play, intitled, The Dutchefs of Suffolk, a&t iii.

"A rope for Bishop Bonner, «Clunce run,

"Call help, a rope, or we are all undone.

66

"Draw Dun out of the ditch.”

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braham Cupid, be that foot So true, When King Cophetua loo'd the beggar maid, I rather think that Shakespeare wrote, "Young Adam Cupid."Alluding to the famous archer Adam Bell.

Dr. GRAY.

P. 37.
fon and heir,
Young Adam Cupid, he that
fhat fo true

(Venus) purblind

When King Cophetua lov'd

the beggar-maid.] As the commentators are agreed that Cupid is here called Adam, in allufion to the famous archer Adam Bell, the hero of many an ancient ballad :- -So I believe, I can refer you to the ballad of King Cephetua, &c. In the first of the 3 vols. 12mo. p. 141. is an old fong of a king's falling in love with a beggar maid, which I take to be the very ballad in question, altho' the name of the king is no longer found in it, which will be no objection, to any one who has compared old

copies

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copies of ballads with those now

extant.

The third ftanza begins thus: "The blinded boy that fhoots fo trim,

P. 68. Spread thy clife cur

tain love-performing night, That Run-aways eyes may wink.] I am no better fatisfied with Dr. Warburton's emendation than the prefent editor, but tho' I have none I have a good opinion of, to propofe in its room, will yet

"Did to his clofet windowsteal,
"And drew a dart and fhot
at him,
"And made him foon his offer at an explanation.
power feel," &c.

I fhould rather read as in
Shakespeare, The purblind boy.
If this is the fong alluded to
by Shakespeare, thefe fhould feem
to be the very lines he had in his
eye; and therefore I should fup-
pofe the lines in Romeo and Juliet,
, were originally.

66

Her purblind fon and

heir, "Young Adam Cupid, he that "fhot fo trim, "When, &c.".

This word trim, the first editors, confulting the general fenfe of the paffage, and not perceiving the allufion, would naturally alter to true yet the former feems the more humourous expreffion, and, on account of its quaintnefs, more likely to have been used by the droll Mercutio. Mr. PERCY.

5.20

P. 50. I Serv. Save me a piece of march-pane.] A confection made of Pistacho nuts, almonds, fugar, &c. and in high efteem in Shakespeare's time; as appears from the account of Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment in Cambridge. "Tis faid that the Univerfity prefented Sir William Cecyl, their Chancellor, with two pair of gloves, a march-pane, and two fugar loaves. Peck's Defiderata Curiofa, vol. 2. p. 29. Dr. GRAY.

VOL. VIII.

Juliet wishes the night may be fo dark, that none of thofe who are obliged to run away in it, on fome account or other, may meet with Romeo, and know his perfon, but that be may

Leap to her arms untalk'd of and unfeen.

The run-away in this place cannot be the fun, who must have been effectually gone before night could spread its curtain, and such a wish must have taken place before the eyes of thefe run-aways could be fuppofed to wink.

The Revijal reads, That Rumour's eyes may wink, and he might have fupported his conjecture from the figure of Fame, i. e. Rumour, as defcribed by Virgil.

Tot vigiles oculi fubter, &c. And yet this is but a conjecture, though a very ingenious one.

Mr. STEEVENS. P. 86. For I madam, read ay madam.

P. 117. N. 6. I am forry to fay that the foregoing note is an inftance of difingenuity, as well as inattention, in Mr. Theobald, who, relying on the fcarcity of the old quartos, very frequently makes them anfwerable for any thing he thinks proper to affert.

The quarto in 1599, was not the first, it was preceded by one in 1597, and though Mr. T. deLI

clares,

clares, be found the passage left out in feveral of the later quarto impreffions, yet in the lift of thofe he pretends to have collated for the ufe of his edition, he mentions but one of a later date, and had never seen either that published in 1609, or another without any date at all; for in the former of these the paffage in question is preferved, (the latter I have no copy of) and he has placed that in 1637, on the fingle faith of which he rejected it, among those only of middling authority: fo that what he fo roundly afferts of feveral, can with juftice be faid of but one, for there are in reality no later quarto editions of this play than I have here enu. merated, and two of thofe (by his own confeffion) he had never met with.

The hemiftich, which Mr. T. pronounces to be of moft profound abfurdity, deferves a much better character; but being misplaced, could not be connected with the part of the fpeech where he found it, but, being introduced a few lines lower, feems to make very good fenfe.

"Come bitter conduct! come
unfav'ry guide!
"Thou defperate pilot, now

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the allufion to the pilot or the tempeft beaten bark. Here's fuccefs, fays he (continuing the allufion) to the vessel wherever it tumbles in, or perhaps, to the pilot who is to conduct, or tumble it in; meaning, I wish it may fucceed in ridding me of life, whatever may betide me after it, or wherever it may carry me. He then drinks to the memory of Juliet's love, adding (as he feels the poifon work) a fhort apoftrophe to the apothecary, the effect of whofe drugs he can doubt no longer, and turning his thoughts back again to the object most beloved, he dies (like Othello) on a kiss.

The other hemistich (not difpofed of) may yet be brought in; how naturally, must be left to the reader to determine. The quarto of 1609, exhibits the paffage thus:

"Ah, dear Juliet! Why art thou yet so fair? "I will believe; "Shall I believe? that unfub

"ftantial death is amorous, "And that the lean, &c." If fuch an idea could have any foundation in nature, or be allowed in poetry, and Romeo in confequence of having raised it to his imagination, was jealous of death, it would follow, that in the first frenzy of it he might addrefs himself to his mistress, and take her in his arms for the greater fecurity. That being granted, with a flight tranfpofition (one verfe already exceeding the measure by two feet) the paffage might be read thus:

"Ah! dear Juliet, Why

Why art thou yet so fair? "Shall I believe? "I will believe (come lie thou

"in my arms) "That unfubftantial death is

amorous,

"And that the lean, &c." The whole paffage may perhaps be fuch as hardly to be worth this toil of tranfpofition, but one critick has just as good a right to offer at the introduction of what he thinks he underftands, as another has to omit it because he can make no ufe of it at all. The whole of the conjecture on both paffages is offered with no degree of confidence, and from no other motive than a defire of preferving every line of Shakespeare, when any reafon, tolerably plausible, can be given in its favour.

Mr. Theobald has not dealt very fairly in his account of this fpeech, as the abfurdity is apparently owing to the repetition of fome of the lines by a blunder of the printer, who had thereby made Romeo confefs the effects of the poison before he had tasted it.

This play was confiderably altered and enlarged by the author, after the first copies had been printed, and great as is the improvement made by the additions, the alterations here and there may be for the worse. To enumerate thefe is now too late, as they are many in number, and happen in almost every speech.

Mr. STEEVENS.

As I could not procure a fight of any of the quartos, 'till I had printed off the whole play, I muft refer the curious reader to the old editions themselves, which will very foon be made publick.

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Or, Doth all the noble fubftance foil with doubt.

The authour would have defpifed them both, had they been another's.

Mr. Holt reads,

Doth all the noble fubftance oft adopt.

I think Theobald's reading may ftand.

P. 164. Doom'd for a certain
time to walk the night,
And for the day confin'd to faft

in fires.] Chaucer has a fimilar paffage, with regard to the punishments of Hell. Parfon's Tale, p. 193. Mr. Urry's edition.

"And moreover, the mifefe

"(uneafinefs) of hell, "Shall be in defaute of mete "and drink."

Dr. GRAY. P. 166. The word here ufed was more probably defigned by a Metathefis, either of a poet, or tranfcriber, for henebon, that is henbane; of which the most common kind (hyoscyamus niger)

is certainly narcotic, and perhaps, if taken in a confiderable quantity, might prove poisonous. Galen calls it cold in the third degree; by which in this, as well as ofium, he feems not to mean an actual coldness, but the power, it has of benumbing the faculties. Diofcorides afcribes to it the property of producing madness, (νοσκύκμος μανιώδης.) The fe qualities have been confirmed by feveral cafes related in modern obfervations. In Wepfer we have a good account of the various effects of this root upon moft of the members of a Convent in Germany, who eat of it for fupper by mistake, mixed with fuccory-heat in the throat, giddinefs, dimness of fight, and deliCicut. Aquatic. c. 18.

rium.

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The words of the Rubrick were first inferted by Mr. Rowe, in his edition in 1709, in the room of Pons Chanson, (which is the reading of the first folio) and have been tranfplanted thence by fucceeding editors. The old quarto in 1611, reads pious chanfon, which (I think) gives the fenfe wanted.

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The pious chanfons were a kind of Christmas Carol, containing fome Scripture Hiftory, thrown into loofe rhimes, and fung about the streets by the common people, when they went at that feason to beg alms. Hamlet is here repeating fome fcraps from fongs of this kind, and when Polonius enquires what followed them, he refers him to the first row (i. e. divifion) of one of thefe, to obtain the information he wanted. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 198. •The firft Row of the Rubrick will shew you more. First row of the pons Chanfon, in the first two folio editions of 1623, and 1632. The first row of pont chanfons, Sir Thomas Hanmer. Old ballads fung upon bridges.

But

I cannot guess at Mr. Pope's reafon for the alteration. Mr. Warburton fubjoins," That "the rubrick is equivalent, the "titles of old ballads being "written in red letters." But he does not mention one fingle ballad in proof. There are five large folio volumes of ballads in Mr. Pepy's library, in Magdalen College, Cambridge, fome as ancient as Henry VII. reign, and not one red letter upon any one of the titles, as I am informed.

Dr. GRAY.

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