"As whence the Sun gives his reflexion, Shipwrecking Storms and direful thunders "break, i. e. As the sky, or the heavens, from which we receive one of the greatest benefits of nature, the light of the Sun, produces likewife in its turn ftorms and thunder, oftentimes to the deftruction of many; fo from that spring, &c. But let our refining Critic and Philofopher take this in band, and you have-what, for my part, I really know not, let the reader try, 66 9 "As whence the fun 'GINS his reflexion.] "Here are two readings in the copies, gives and 'gins, i. e. begins. But the latter I think is "the right, as founded on obfervation, that forms generally come from the east. As from the place (fays be) whence the fun begins his "course, (viz. the east) fhripwrecking storms proceed fo, &c. For the natural and constant "motion of the ocean is from east to west; and "the wind has the fame general direction. Præ 66 cipua & generalis [ventorum] caufa eft ipfe Sol qui aërem rarefacit & attenuat. Aër "enim rarefactus multo majorem locum poftud lat. "lat. Inde fit ut Aër à fole impulfus alium " vicinum aërem magno impetu protrudat; "cumque Sol ab Oriente in occidentem circum"rotetur, præcipuus ab eo aëris impulfus fiet 66 verfus occidentem. Varenii Geogr. l. 1. c. 14. 66 prop. 10. See also Doctor Halley's Account 66 "of the Trade-Winds of the Monfoons. This being fo, it is no wonder that storms should come most frequently from that quarter; or that they fhould be most violent, because there is a concur 66 66 rence of the natural motions of wind and wave. "This proves the true reading is 'gins; the other "reading not fixing it to that quarter. For the "Sun may give its reflexion in any part of its "courfe above the horizon; but it can begin it " only in one. The Oxford Editor, however, "sticks to the other reading, gives and fays, "that, by the Sun's giving his reflexion, is meant the rainbow, the ftrongest and most "remarkable reflexion of any the Sun gives. "He appears by this to have as good a hand at reforming our phyfics as our poetry. This is a difcovery; that shipwrecking ftorms proceed from "the rainbow. But he was misled by his want of fkill in Shakespeare's phrafeology, who, by the "fun's reflexion, means only the Sun's light. "But while he is intent on making his author Speak correctly, he flips himself. The rainbow 2 66 is "is no more a reflexion of the Sun than a tune is a "fiddle. And, though it be the most remarkable "effect of reflected light, yet it is not the strong"eft." Mr. W. "DISCOMFORT well'd.] Shakespeare without queftion wrote DISCOMFIT, i. e. rout, over"throw, from the Latin, DISCONFICTUS. i. e. "difruptus, diffolutus. And that was the cafe, "at the first onfet, 'till Macbeth turned the for"tune of the day." Mr. W. Can the reader find out this learned fyftem of phyfics? and, when he has found it out, apply it to the present purpose ?-Can be tell what is meant by DISCONFICTUS ?-or will be not rather think, after all, that our Editor has " cashiered com"mon sense, to make room for a jargon of "his own?" X. Mr. W. often puts us in mind of his great knowledge in Shakespeare. Thus, for instance, in a note on a paffage in Macbeth, A&t II. "Thou feeft, the heav'ns as troubled with mar's " act, "Threaten this bloody ftage. 1 Wr. W.'s preface, p. xvi. ď 2 "Threaten "ter. "Threaten this bloody ftage:-] One might be "tempted to think the poet wrote STRAGE, laughBUT I, WHO KNOW HIM BETTER, am perfuaded he used stage for act. And becaufe Stage may be figurately used for act, a dramatic "reprefentation; therefore he uses it for act, a "deed done. Threatens a tragedy." Mr. W. One might be tempted to think the poet wrote STRAGE! I know no one, that might be tempted to think fo, but his late editor, who has fo often removed Shakespeare's fenfe to the bottom of the page, to make room for his own barbarism. -But I, who know him better, am perfuaded he used STAGE for ACT! But Shakespeare's reader, I dare fay, is perfuaded, this stage means, metaphorically, this stage of the world: Threaten this bloody ftage, threaten this world, where thefe bloody fcenes are transacting. Was it from this better knowledge of our poet, that Mr. W. has laid forgetfulness and ignorance to his charge? But whether the commentator, or the poet nods I will fubmit to the reader.Hamlet, feeing his uncle, is in fome doubt with himself whether or no he then fhall kill him; and adds, "He took my father grofly, full of bread, "And "And bow his audit ftands, who knows, fave "heaven? "But in our circumftance and course of thought, ""Tis heavy with him. Hamlet, Act III. "From thefe lines, and fome others, it appears that Shakespeare had drawn the first Sketch of this play without his Ghoft; and "when he had added that machinery, he forgot "to strike out thefe lines: For the Ghoft bad "told him, very circumftantially, how his audit ftood: and he was now fatisfied with the reality "of the vifion." Mr. W. But the critic knows not what the poet meant by this expreffion, How his audit ftands. For this the Ghoft could not know, fully, 'till the time for auditing his accounts, THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. All that the Ghoft told Hamlet we have above in AЯt I. "I am thy father's fpirit · Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, "And for the day confin'd to fast in firès; "'Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature, "Are burnt and purg'd away. Confin'd to faft in fires-metaphorically; i, e. to be cleanfed and purged by abftinence and difcipline. So Plato fpeaking of the purgatorial ftate in his Phado, d 3 |