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in those times for travellers to put out money, to receive a great fum if they liv'd to return; and, for proof, he referr'd me to Morifon's Itinerary, part I. p. 198, &c. I cannot return my friends better thanks for the light they have given me upon this paffage, than by subjoining a teftimony from a contemporary poet, that will put both their explanation, and my correction of the text, past dispute.

B. Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour, in the character of Puntarvolo.

I do intend, this year, of Jubilee coming on, to travel: And (because I will not altogether go upon expence,) I am determin'd to put forth fome five thousand pound, to be paid me five for one, upon the return of myself, my wife, and my dog, from the Turks's Court in Conftantinople. If all, or either of us mifcarry in the journey, 'tis gone; if we be successful, why, there will be five and twenty thousand pounds to entertain time withal.

If this was to be the return of the Knight's venture; 'tis obvious, he put out his money on five for one. Ben to heighen the ridicule of these projecting voyagers, makes Puntarvolo's wife averfe to accompany him; and fo he is forc'd to put out his venture on the return of himfelf, his dog, and his cat. THEOB.

P. 57. 1. 6.

nocent.

L. 10.

clear life.] Pure, blameless, inJOHNSON.

with good life.] This feems a corruption. I know not in what fenfe life can here be used, unless for alacrity, liveliness, vigour, and in this fenfe the expreffion is harsh. Perhaps we may read,

with good lift,

with good will, with fincere zeal for my service. I fhould have propofed,

with good lief,

in the same sense, but that I cannot find lief to be a sub

ftantive.

WARB.

L. 24. in a rough bafs found. P. 58. 1. 13. -for I Have giv'n you here a third of my own life,] Thus all the impreffions in general; but why is the only a third of his own life? He had no wife living, nor any other child, to rob her of a share in his affection: So that we may reckon

-bafs my trefpafs.] The deep pipe told it me JOHNSON.

her at least half of himself. Nor could he intend, that he lov'd himself twice as much as he did her; for he immediate ly fubjoins, that it was She for whom he liv'd. In Othello, when Iago alarms the Senator with the loss of his daughter, he tells him,

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your foul. And dimidium animæ meæ is the current language on fuch occafions. There is no room for doubt, but I have restor❜d to the Poet his true reading—the thread of life which is a phrase moft frequent with him. So in K. Henry V.

And let not Bardolfe's vital thread be cut
With edge of penny cord.

1 Henry VI.

-

-had not churchmen pray'd

THEOB.

His thread of life had not fo foon decay'd. 2 Henry VI. Ergo, their thread of life is fpun. Othello. I'm glad, thy father's dead; Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief Shore his old thread in twain. Ibid.] In confequence of this ratiocination Mr. Theobald printed the text a thread of my own life. I have restored the antient reading. Profpero in his reafon fubjoined why he calls her the third of his life, seems to allude to fome logical diftinction of causes, making her the final caufe. JOHNS. ftrangely food the teft.] Strangely is ufed by way of commendation, merveilleufement, to a wonder; the fenfe is the fame, in the foregoing scene, with observation Atrange.

L. 17.

L. 24. My gift.] My gueft. First fol.
P. 59. 1. 2. virgin-knot, —
Latin phrafe of zonam folvere.

JOHNSON.
JOHNSON.

-] Alluding to the WARB.* L. 26. The rabble.] The crew of meaner fpirits. JOHNS. P. 60. 1. 23. bring a corollary.] Corollarium fignifies what we call fupernumerary, or, what is more than just fufficient. The word has here a fingular propriety and elegance. For corollaria were, amongst the Romans, the little gifts given to the people when plays were exhibited to them at their public feftivals; and corolla crowns given to those actors who pleased more than ordinary. WARB.* L. 25. No tongue.] Those who are present at incantations are obliged to be ftrictly filent, elfe, as we are afterwards told, the fpell is marred, JOHNSON.

P. 61. 1. 2. Thatch'd with flover.] With thatch'd ftover. Oxford Edit. Stover feems to be hay laid up. JOHNSON.

L. 3. Tulip'd brims.] The old edition reads pionied and trilled brims, which I do not understand. JOHNS. Pioned and tilled brims; i. e. broken up and cultivated. CAPELL.

- Thy pole-clipt vineyard,

L. 7. And thy fea-marge fteril, and rocky hard.] Gildon, who has made what he calls a Gloffary on Shakefpeare, fays pole-clipt in the head. What he had in his head is not worth enquiring. Clipt here fignifies embraced: but pole-clipt is a corrupt reading. It founded well, becaufe vines are fupported by poles, to say pole-clipt vineyard; and found was what the player-editors only attended to. little fenfe might have taught them that vines could not be called pole-clipt, though poles might be called vine-clipt. Shakespeare wrote

Thy pale-clipt vineyard.

But a

i.e. the vineyard inclofed or fenced with pales, in oppofition to the wide and open fea-marge or coaft.-Rocky hard fhould be read with an hyphen. It is one of the epithets to fea-marge

as hard as a rock.

WARB.*

P. 62. 1. 19. Earth's Increase.] All the editions, that I have ever seen, concur in placing this whole fonnet to Juno: but very abfurdly in my opinion. I believe every accurate reader, who is acquainted with poetical hiftory, and the diftinct offices of these two goddeffes, and who then seriously reads over our author's lines will agree with me, that Ceres's name ought to have been placed where I have now prefixed it. THEOB.*

P. 63. L. 2. This is a moft majestick vifion, and

Harmonious charmingly.] What was intended to be here commended was, 1. The vifion of the goddeffes. 2. Their fongs. The vifion is commended in these words, This is a moft majeftic vifion.. But for the fongs-we are put off with this nonfenfe-and barmonious charmingly. To reftore fenfe, and the other parts of the commendation, we muft needs read

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Harmonious charming LAYS.

And then both the vifions and the fongs will have their due praises. The word charming cannot with propriety be ap

plied to any thing but mufic and poetry, because these were fuppofed to operate, as charms. In our Author's time the word was generally fo applied, though it be now used ridiculously on every object of pleasure. WARB. CAN. & REV.*

Read, Charming lay.
P. 64. L. 15.

thefe our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And like the bafelefs fabric of their vifion,
The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The folemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea all which it inherit, fhall diffolve;
And like this unfubftantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind-

- In this reading, all fublunary things, on account of their fleeting existence, are compared to the mask of spirits, which, at the beck of Profper, vanished fuddenly away. But then there is a wretched tautology in the lines,

And like the bafelefs fabric, &c.

And like this unfubftantial pageant, &c.

Not to mention the aukward expreffion of, their vifion, which Mr. Theobald, upon what authority I know not, hath changed into this vifion, I fuppofe to make the expreffion a little more natural. I would read,

And like the bafelefs fabric of th' air vifions.

He had just before faid, that the fpirits were melted into air, into thin air. This furnishes him with the fine fimilitude of air vifions, which generally appearing, as Shakespeare in another place fays, like

A torver'd citadel, a pendant rock,

A forked mountain, or blue promontory,

he very properly calls bafelefs fabrics, which doth not fo well agree with spirits in a human form. By this emendation the tautology, taken notice of above, is avoided: and the poet, with great perfpicuity, and phyfical exactness, compares the globe, and all inanimate things upon it, to air vifions, and men and animals in the words yea all which it inherit to the vision of spirits, which the speaker had just before prefented to them. Further, that the comparison was indeed to air vifions is ftill evident from the words,

leave not a rack behind,

which can refer only to air vifions: for rack is the vestige of an embodied cloud, which hath been broken and diffipated by the winds. But laftly, to put the emendation out of all reasonable question, we have this very fimilitude of air vifions again in Antony and Cleopatra, with this difference only, that it is there applied to the tranfient glory of one man, and bere to that of human things in general.

ANTHONY and CLEOPATRA.

Sometimes we fee a cloud that's dragonish,
A vapour, fometimes like a bear or lien,
A towered citadel, a pendant rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory;
thou ft feen these figns,

They are black veíper's pegeants

That which is now a horfe, even with a thought,
The rack diflimns and makes it indiftinct,

As water is in water- -now thy captain is
Even fuch a body; here I'm Anthony,

Yet cannot hold this vifiule shape, &C.-——

I will only add, that the thoughtThey are black vefper's pageants, is wonderfully beautiful; as it characterizes thefe air vifions, which appear only in the evening, when the fetting fun reflects its light upon the oppofite clouds; and as it gives a vaft force to the fimilitude, whi h infinuates that human glory is as certainly fucceeded by mifery, as these gaudy appearances by a dark cloudy night. It is obfervable, that the time at which Profpero ufes this fimilitude of air vifins is the evening.-Hanmer, not knowing what mariners call the rack of a cloud, namely, the veftige of it, after it has been broken and driven by the wind, alters it to track.

Ibid.] It is ftrange that Mr. Warburton fhould not know that, upon the authority of the first folio, Hanmer reads track. CANONS.

Dr. Warburton's note on this paffage is altogether vifionary. His amendment of, air vifions, is as much tautology as the old reading.

P. 64. 1. 22.

Sir, I am vext,

REVIS.

Bear with my weakness, my old brain is troubled :]

VOL. I.

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