from Virg. Aen. II, 40. Magnâ comitante ca

terva.

3

But Shakespeare has fome Greek expreffions. In Coriolanus, A& II.

"It is held

"That valour is the chiefest virtue, and "Moft dignifies the baver.”

i. e. the poffeffor. So having fignifies fortune and riches. Macbeth, Act I.

My noble partner

"You greet with prefent grace and great pre"diction

"Of noble baving.”

Having, Gr. xa. Lat. babentia. In Sophocles, Aj. y. 157. '

Πρὸς γὰρ τὸν ΕΧΟΝΘ' ὁ φθόνον ἕρπει.

Пgo's Ton Exova, i. e. to the HAVER.

Hence Virgil, Geor. II, 499.

"Aut doluit miferans inopem, aut invidit

"HABENTI."

HABENTI, i. e. the HAVER.

In Hamlet, A&t V.

Clown. Ay, tell me that and unyoke."

Y

:

i. e.

i. e. put an end to your labours: alluding to, what the Greeks called by one word, Brλuros, the time for unyoking. Hom. Il. 6. 779.

Ημω δ' ήέλιο μελενείσσαλο βελυζόνδε.

Schol. ἐπὶ τὴν ἑσπέραν· δείλης, καθ ̓ ὃν καιρὸν οἱ βοὲς ἀπολυόναι τῶν ἔργων. From this one word Horace has made a whole ftanza. L. III. Od. 6.

"Sol ubi montium

"Mutaret umbras, et juga demeret
"Bobus fatigatis, amicum

Tempus agens abeunte curru."

Hence too our Milton in his Mask.

"Two fuch I faw, what time the labour'd oxe "In his loofe traces from the furrow came."

Our English word Drphan comes from ePavos, ab igQuós being as it were left in darknefs, left void of their greatest bleffing their parents, the light and guide of their steps. 'OgCaves is fpoken of one in the dark and obfcurity: ὀρφανὸς, ὁ ἄσημος καὶ μηκέτι ἐμφανής, fays an ancient grammarian on the Ajax of Sophocles. Now allowing Shakespeare to use the word orphan, as a Grecian would have used it, how elegantly does he call the fairies, the orphan heirs of

deftiny:

destiny who administer in her works, acting in
darkness and obfcurity? The whole paffage
runs thus In the Merry Wives of Windfor,
A& V.

"Fairies, black, gray, green and white,
"You moon-fhine revellers, and fhades of night,
"You Orphan-heirs of fixed destiny,
"Attend your office and your quality."

Had the poet written ouphen-heirs, he would
have repeated the fame thing. These ouphs I
find in modern editions have routed the owls
out of their old poffeffions: but I fhall beg
leave to reinstate them again, in the Comedy of
Errours, A& II.

"This is " the fairy land: oh fpight of spights!
"Wetalk with goblins, owls and elvish sprights!
"If we obey them not, this will enfue,
"They'll fuck our breath, and pinch us black
" and blue."

These

12 Fairy land.] Plautus lays the fcene at Epidamnum, a town of Macedon, lying upon the Adriatic; whofe unfor tunate found made the Romans change it to Dyrrachium: the Roman comedian has fome allufions and witticisms on the name. Shakespeare removes the scene to Ephesus ; which he calls the land of conjurors and witches. He had his eye chiefly on that paffage in Acts xix, 19. The cafe Y 2 feems

These owls which the Latins called ftriges, according to vulgar fuperftition had power to fuck children's breath and blood. Ovid. Faft. L. VI. 135.

"Nocte volant, puerofque petunt nutricis egentes, "Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta fuis. "Carpere dicuntur lactantia viscera roftris, "Et plenum poto fanguine guttur habent."

Plin.

feems to be this: there were at Ephefus feveral impoftors and jugglers (conjurors the common people called them) who by the affiftance of charms, periapts, amulets, &c. certain magical words, or fuperftitious characters and figures, promised to cure people of their diseases, or to give them fuccefs in any undertaking. Hefychius has preserved fome of this trumpery in V. Εφέσια γράμματα ; and of this kind we have still preserved to this day; fuch as Abracadabra, to cure agues: St. George, St. George, &c. to cure the incubus, or night-mare, mention'd by Scot in his discovery of witchcraft, Book IV. C. II. St. Withold, &c. in K. Lear, Act III. with many others eafily to be picked up.Now thefe, or the like, were the curious arts; [Tà @egiegła, an impertinent prying and inquifitiveness into things which don't belong to us, and are above us: The falfe accufation laid against Socrates was, or wiglegyάila. ;] and 'twas nothing but a parcel of this trumpery of periapts, amulets and charms, together with fome aftrological books, that is mention'd to be burnt at Ephefus.And they counted the price of them, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of filver: not that the books, in which this ridiculous ftuff was writ

ten,

Plin. XI, 39.

"Fabulofum puto de ftrigibus, ubera infan"tium eas labris immulgere."

NOR is Shakespeare's peculiarity in ufing words to be paffed over.

In Richard II. A& II.

"Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs, "Dar'd once to touch a duft of England's "ground ?"

i. e. interdicted. As the pope's legate told K. John, "He [the pope] hath wholly interdicted "and

ten, were really worth fo much, but the fuperftitious people of this and the neighbouring countries bought them up at a high price; and the conjurors had provided a great stock. This fhort account of these Ephefian Letters will give a new light not only to this place of the Acts, but will likewife explain a paffage in Ovid's Met. XIV. 57. where Circe is introduced muttering her unintelligible jargon, like those myftical words mention'd in Hefychius. Ovid calls them Verba nova.

obfcurum VERBORUM ambage NOVOR UM

Ter novies carmen magico demurmurat ore.

Which is expreffed moft elegantly, and agreeably to ancient fuperftition. So too Shakespeare in King Lear, Act II.

MUMBLING of wicked charms.