Who is there but will allow greater liberty for altering authors, who wrote before the invention of printing, than fince? Blunders upon blunders

of

Devil's an afs and likewife mention'd in his Epigr. CXV.

Being no vitious perfon, but the Vice

About the town.

Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit

Of miming, gets th' opinion of a wit.

But a paffage cited from his play will make the following obfervations more plain, A&t. I. Pug afks the Devil "to lend him a Vice.

"Satan. What Vice ?

"What kind wouldst thou have it of?

"Pug. Why, any Fraud,

Or Covetousness, or Lady Vanity, "Or old Iniquity: I'll call him hither.

"Enter Iniquity, the Vice.

"Ini. What is he calls upon me, and would seem to lack 66 a Vice?

"Ere his words be half spoken, I am with him in a trice." And in his Staple of News A&t. II. "Mirth. How like 86 you the Vice i' the play? Expectation. Which is he? "Mirth. Three or four, old Covetousness, the fordid Peniboy, "the Money-bawd, who is a flesh-bawd too they say. "Tattle. But here is never a Fiend to carry him away. "Befides, he has never a wooden-dagger! I'd not give a "rush for a VICE, that has not a wooden-dagger to snap "at every body he meets. Mirth. That was the old way, Goffip, when Iniquity came in like hokos pokos,

of transcribers-interpolations-gloffes-omiffions-various readings and what not? But to try these experiments, without great caution, on Milton

in a juglers jerkin, &c." Some places of Shakespeare will from hence appear more eafy as in the 1ft part of Henry IV. Act. II. where Hal, humourously characterizing Falftaff, calls him, That reverend VICE, that grey INIQUITY, that father ruffian, that VANITY in years, in allufion to this buffoon character. In K. Richard III. A& III.

Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity,

I moralize two meanings in one word.

INIQUITY is the formal Vice, Some correct the paffage,

Thus, like the formal wife Antiquity,

I moralize two meanings in one word.

In Hamlet

Which correction is out of all rule of criticism. Act I. there is an allufion, ftill more diftant, to THE VICE; which will not be obvious at firft, and therefore is to be introduced with a fhort explanation. This buffoon character was used to make fun with the Devil; and he had feveral trite expreffions, as, I'll be with you in a trice; Ah, ha, boy, are you there, &c. And this was great entertainment to the audience, to see their old enemy fo belabour'd in effigy. In K. Henry V. A&t IV. a boy characterizing Pistol fays, Bardolph and Nim had ten times more valour, than this roaring Devil i' th' old play; every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger. Now Hamlet, having been inftructed by his father's ghoft, is refolved to break the fubject of the difcourfe to none but Horatio; and to all others his intention is to appear as a fort of madman ;

when

Milton or Shakespeare, tho' it may be sport to you, as the pelted frogs cried out in the fable,

yet,

when therefore the oath of secrefy is given to the centinels, and the Ghoft unfeen calls out fear; Hamlet fpeaks to it as THE VICE does to the Devil. Ah, ha boy, fayft thou fo? Art thou there, trupenny? Hamlet had a mind that the centinels should imagine this was a shape that the Devil had put on; and in Act III. he is fomewhat of this opinion himself,

The Spirit that I have feen

May be the Devil.

This manner of speech therefore to the Devil was what all the audience were well acquainted with; and it takes off in fome measure from the horror of the scene. Perhaps too the poet was willing to inculcate, that good humour is the best weapon to deal with the Devil. True penny is either by way of irony, or literally from the Greek reúnavov, veterator. Which word the Scholiaft on Ariftophanes, Clouds y. 447. explains, τρύμη, ὁ περιλελειμμένος ἐν τοῖς πράγμασιν, ὃν ἡμεῖς ΤΡΥΠΑΝΟΝ καλομεν. Several have tried to find a derivation of THE VICE; if I fhould not hit on the right, I fhall only err with others. THE VICE is either a quality perfonalized as BIH and KAPTOƐ in Hefiod and Aefchylus, SIN and DEATH in Milton; and indeed VICE itself is a perfon. B. XI, 517.

And took His image whom they ferv'd, a brutish VICE.

his image, i. e. a brutish Vice's image: the Vice Gluttony; not without fome allufion to the VICE of the old plays. Cr VICE may be in the abstract, as in Martial,

Now

yet, Gentlemen, 'tis death and destruction to the little taft remaining among us.

Non Vitiofus homo es, Zoile, fed VITIUM.

But rather, I think, 'tis an abbreviation of Vice-Devil, as Vice-roy, Vice-doge &c. and therefore properly called THE VICE. He makes very free with his mafter, like most other Vice-roys, or prime-minifters. So that he is the Devil's Vice, and prime minifter; and 'tis this, that makes him fo fawcy.

The other old droll characters, are the Fool, and the Clown, which we have in Shakespeare's plays. The Ro mans in their Atellan interludes, and Mimes, had their buffoons, called Maccus, Manos, from whence the English word, MOCKER; and Sannio, from whence the Italian Zanni, and ZANY, See Cicer. de Orat. L, 2. c. 61. and Bucco, Quoivados, quod buccas inflaret ad rifum movendum: from whence is derived a BUFFOON

SECT. II.

HAVE often wonder'd with what kind of reasoning any one could be fo far imposed on, as to imagine that Shakespeare had no learning; when it must at the fame time be acknowledged, that without learning, he cannot be red with any degree of understanding, or taft. At this time of day he will hardly be allowed that ' inspiration, which

I one

1 Cicero pro Arch, Poet. A fummis hominibus eruditiffimifque accepimus Poetam naturâ ipfâ valere ·

disvino

which his brother bards formerly claim'd, and which claim, if the pretenfions were any ways answerable, was generally granted them. However we are well affured from the hiftories of his times, that he was early initiated into the facred company of the Mufes, and tho' he might have fmall avocations, yet he foon returned again with greater eagernefs to his beloved ftudies. Hence he was poffeffed of fufficient helps, either from abroad, or at home, to midwife into the world his great and beautiful conceptions, and to give them birth, and being. That a contrary opinion has ever prevailed, is owing partly to 2 Ben Johnfon's jealoufy, and partly to the pride and pertnefs of dunces, who, under the umbrage of fuch a name as Shakespeare's, would gladly fhelter their own idleness and ignorance.

2

divino quodam fpiritu inflari. De Nat. Deor. II. 66. Nemo igitur vir magnus fine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit. In "Plato's Io, there is a great deal to the fame purpose concerning this poetic rapture and enthusiasm; where a certain poet is mention'd, who having made a number of very bad verfes, wrote one poem which he himself said was egnμá vi Mega: the poem happened to be a very extraordinary one; and the people took the poet's word, thinking it im poffible, without infpiration, that fo bad a poet fhould write fuch fine verfes.

2 And though thou hadst fmall Latin and lefs Greek. 'Tis true Johnson fays very handsome things of him prefently after for people will allow others any qualities, but thofe which they highly value themselves for.

He