or braide the hair, à Teut. Breyden, nectere, crifpare capillos. In Troilus and Creffida, Act IV. "Par. You told, how Diomede a whole " week, by days, "Did baunt you in the field." Presently after Diomede fays to Aeneas, By Jove I'll play the hunter for thy life. "Aen. And thou fhalt hunt a 3 lion that " will flie "With his face back." How can we doubt then but Paris fays, Did bunt you in the field? In Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. "Caefar. Unto her 14 "He gave the 'stablishment of Egypt, made "her Of 13 Homer has the fame comparison of Ajax retreating from the Trojans. Il. a. 547. and of Menelaus. Il. g. 109. and Virgil of Turnus, Æn. IX, 792. Ceu faevum turba leonem Cum telis premit infenfis, ac territus ille, Afper, acerba tuens, retro redit ; et neque terga Ira dare aut virtus patitur, &c. 14 He is speaking of Cleopatra, whom presently after he describes (following the historian) dreffed in the habit of "Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia "Abfolute queen. وو Read Libya: as is plain from Plutarch in his life of Antony. Πρώτην μὲν ἀπέφηνε Κλεοπάτραν βασίλισσαν Αἰγύπτε καὶ Κύπρο και ΛΙΒΥΗΣ, και κοίλης Συ glas, x. T. X. Plut. p. 941. B. 'TIS pleafant enough to confider, how the change of one fingle letter has often led learned commentators into mistakes. And a II being accidentally altered into B, in a Greek rhetorician, gave occafion to one of the best pieces of fatyre, that was ever written in the English language. viz. ПEРI BA®OYΣ, a treatise concerning the art of finking in poetry. The blunder of the Aegyptian Goddess Ifis: whose name she took, vía "Iois ixenμários. Plut. in Anton. p. 941. Which is thus rendered, novae Ifidis nomine refponfa dabat populis : it fhould be, Junioris Ifidis nomen fibi acquirebat. The poet has too faithfully followed the translators. "She "In the habiliments of the goddess Ifis "That day appear'd, and oft before gave audience, "As 'tis reported, fo." This circumftance is prettily alluded to by Virgil. Aen. Regina in mediis patrio vocat agmina fiftro. I mean Book II. I mean is in the fecond fection of Longinus, EI ΕΣΤΙΝ ΥΨΟΥΣ ΤΙΣ Η ΒΑΘΟΥΣ ΤΕΧΝΗ, inftead of ΠΑΘΟΥΣ. A moft ridiculous blunder, which has occafion'd as ridiculous criticisms. That the A fhould be written for a II is no wonder, fince Dionyfius in his Roman antiquities, p. 54. has the following remark, Κεῖναι τῶν Τρωικῶν θεῶν εἰκόνες ἅπασιν ὁρᾶν 15 ΔΕΝΑΣ ἐπιγραφὴν ἔχεσαι δηλᾶσαν της ΠΕΝΑΤΑΣ. δοκεῖ γάρ μοι, το Π μήπω γράμματος εὑρημένα τῷ Δ δηλῶν τὴν ἐκείνα δύναμιν τὲς παλαιός. The old Greek word for wine, they wrote ΔΕΛΟΣ, but when the Greek alphabet was compleated, ΠΗΛΟΣ : this word grown antiquated, they ufed ΟΙΝΟΣ. In Theocritus, Id. ί. V. 13. we muft read, Ἐκ πίθω ἀιλεῖς ΠΗΛΟΝ· ἐγὼ δ ̓ ἔχω ἐδ ̓ ἅλις ὄξες. Where thus the fchol. Παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν ἐν περιεσίᾳ ζώνων ὁ γὰρ ΟΙΝΟΥ κεραννύμενον πρὸς ἀφροδίσια ἐκκαίεται, ἅτε αργία συζῶν· ὁ δὲ μηδ' ΟΞΟΥΣ ἔχων πιεῖν καὶ τῷ πόνῳ μαχόμενΘ, ἐκ ἐρᾷ. The copies of Theocritus have ΔΗΛΟΝ, which the editors render fcilicet. But the fcholiaft gives an easy interpretation, and helps forward the correction. 15 The infcription perhaps was thus ΔΕΝΑΣ contrafted, for ΔΕΝΑΤΑΣ : and either Dionyfius or his Subfcribers did not attend to the ftroke over the N, and hence corruptedly it fill remains in the prefent copies ΔΕΝΑΣ. IT feems that fome puns, and quibbling wit, have been changed in our author, thro' fome fuch causes, as mention'd in the beginning of this fection. For inftance, in As you like it, A& II. Rofalind. Well, this is the foreft of Arden. "Clown. Ay; now I am in Arden; the "more fool I: when I was at home, I was in "a better place." The Clown, agreeable to his character, is in a punning vein, and replys thus, "Ay; now I am in a den; the more fool I: "when I was at home, I was in a better place." He is full of this quibbling wit through the whole play. In Act III. he fays, "I am here with thee, and thy goats; as the moft capricious honeft Ovid was among the "Goths. "Jaq. O knowledge ill-inhabited, worse than "Jove in a thatch'd house." Capricious, is not here humourfome, fantastical, &c. but lafcivious: Hor. Epod. 10. Libidinofus immolabitur caper. The Goths, are the Getae: Ovid. Trift. V, 7. The thatch'd house, is that of Baucis and Philemon, Ovid. Met. VIII, 630. Stipulis et canna tecta paluftri. But to explain puns is almoft as unpardonable as to make them: however I will venture to correct one paffage more: which is in Julius Caefar, Act III. "Ant. Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome : "No Rome of fafety for Octavius yet." I make no queftion, but Shakespeare intended it, "No room of fafety for Octavius yet." So in Act I. "Now is it Rome indeed; and room enough "When there is in it but one only man " To play with words which have an allusion to proper names, is common with Shakespeare and the ancients. Ajax in Sophocles, applying his name to his misfortunes, fays, 16 AI, 16 See Ariftot, Rhet. L. z. c. 25. "AMO átò tě ¿vópal@ x. 7. λ. Allufions of this fort are frequent in Shakefpeare. In the Tempeft. Act III. Ferd. Admired Miranda. In the Winter's tale. A& IV. Perdita. Even here undone. |