Thus every thing in those times being either a faint or a devil, they never wanted for the marvellous. In the old Romance of Lancelot of the Lake, we have the doctrine and difcipline of the church as formally delivered as in Bellarmine himself. "La confeffion (fays the preacher) ne vaut "rien fi le cœur n'eft repentant; & fi tu es moult & eloigné "de l'amour de noftre Seigneur, tu ne peus eftre racordé fi " non par trois chofes premierement par la confeffion "de bouche; fecondement par une contrition de cœur, "tiercement par peine de cœur, & par oeuvre d'aumone & "charité. Telle eft la droite voye d'aimer Dieu. Or va " & fi te confeffe en cette maniere & recois la difcipline "des mains de tes confeffeurs, car c'est le figne de merite. -Or mande le roy fes evefques, dont grande partie "avoit en l'oft, & vinrent tous en fa chapelle. Le roy "vint devant eux tout nud en pleurant, & tenant fon plein "point de menues verges, fi les jetta devant eux, & leur

dit en foupirant, qu'ils priffent de luy vengeance, car je "fuis le plus vil pecheur, &c.-Apres prinft difcipline & ❝ d'eux & moult doucement ia receut." Hence we find the divinity-lectures of Don Quixote and the penance of his fquire, are both of them in the ritual of chivalry. Laftly, we find the knight-errant, after much turmoil to himself, and disturbance to the world, frequently ended his courie like Charles V. of Spain, in a monaftery; or turned hermit, and became a faint in good earnest. And this again will let us into the fpirit of those dialogues between Sancho and his matter, where it is gravely debated whether he should not turn Saint or Archbishop.

There were several caufes of this strange jumble of nonfenfe and religion. As first, the nature of the fubject, which was a religious war or crufade: 2dly, The quality of the first writers, who were religious men: And 3dly, The end in writing many of them, which was to carry on a religious purpose. We learn, that Clement V. interdicted Jufts and Tournaments, because he understood they had much hindered the crufade decreed in the council of Vienna. "Torneamenta ipfa & Haftiludia five Juxtas in regnis "Franciæ, Angliæ, & Almanniæ, & aliis nonnullis pro“ vinciis, in quibus ea confuevere frequentiùs exerceri,

"fpecialiter interdixit." Extra. de Torneamentis C. unic. temp. Ed. I. Religious men, I conceive, therefore, might think to forward the defign of the crufades, by turning the fondness for Tiles and Torneaments into that channel. Hence we see the books of knight-errantry fo full of folemn justs and torneaments held at Trebizonde, Bizance, Tripoly, &c. Which wife project, I apprehend it was Cervantes's intention to ridicule, where he makes his knight propofe it as the beft means of fubduing the Turk, to assemble all the knightserrant together by proclamation. WARB.

L. 17. From tawny Spain, &c.] i. e. he shall relate to us the celebrated ftories recorded in the old romances, and in their very stile. Why he fays from tawny Spain is, because thefe romances being of Spanish original, the heroes and the fcene were generally of that country. Why he fays, left in the world's debate, is, because the subject of thofe romances, were the crufades of the European chriftians against the Saracens of Afia and Africa. So that we see here is meaning in the words. WARB.

Ibid. in the world's debate.] The world feems to be used in the monaftick fenfe by the king now devoted for a time to a monaftick life. In the world, in feculo, in the buitle of human affairs, from which we are now happily fequeftred, in the world, to which the votaries of folitude have no relation. JOHNS.

L. 25. In former editions;

Dull. Which is the Duke's own perfon?] The king of Navarre is in feveral paffages, through all the copies, called the Duke: but as this mult have fprung rather from the inadvertance of the editors, than a forgetfulness in the poet, I have every where, to avoid confufion, restored king to the text.

ven;

THEOB.

P. 10. L. 8. In old editions, A high hope for a low hea;] A low heaven, fure, is a very intricate matter to conceive. I dare warrant, I have retrieved the poet's true reading; and the meaning is this. "Though you hope for 66 high words, and should have them, it will be but a low acquifition at beft." This our poet calls a low having : and it is a fubftantive, which he ufes in feveral other paffages. THEOB.

L. 10. Read --or forbear laughing? Against the old copies. CAPELL. L. 16. taken WITH the manner.] The following question arifing from these words, fhews we fhould read taken IN the manner. And this was the phrafe in ufe to fignify, taken in the fact. So Dr. Donne in his letters, But if I melt into melancholy while I write, I shall be taken in the manner; and I fit by one, too tender to thefe impreffions. WARB.

66

Ibid] On this very expreffion in 1. Henry 4. Dr. W. fays, with the manner," the old reading is right, it is a law phrafe, to fignify taken in the fa&t. Great wits have fhort memories. CANONS OF CRIT.

P. 11. L. 26. hafe minow of thy mirth,] A minow is a little fish which cannot be intended here. We may read, the bafe minion of thy mirth.

JOHNSON.

P. 12. L. 11. Read, with the antient copies veffel.

L. 21.

CAPELL.*

Scene 3.] Here the second scene begins in

CAPELL.

dear imp.] Imp was antiently a term of dignity, lord Cromwel in his last letter to Henry VIII. prays for the imp bis fon. It is now ufed only in contempt or abhorrence; perhaps in our author's time it was ambiguous, in which state it fuits well with this dialogue. JOHNSON.

P. 14. L. 20.- craffes love not bim,] By croffes he means money. So in As you like it, the Clown fays to Celia, if I fhould bear you I should bear no cross. JOHNSON.

Moth. And bow eafy is it to put years to the word three, and ftudy three years in two words, the dancing horfe will tell you.] Banks's borje, which play'd many remarkable pranks. Sir Walter Raleigh, (Hiftory of the world, first part, p. 178.) fays "If Banks had lived in older times, he would have "fhamed all the inchanters in the world: for whofoever "was most famous among them, could never master, or inftruct any beast as he did his horfe." And Sir Kenelm Digby (a Treatife of Bodies, chap. 38. p. 393.) obferves, "That this horfe would reftore a glove to the due owner, after the mafter had whispered the man's name in his ear; would tell the just number of pence in any piece of filver coin, newly fhewed him by his master;

and even obey prefently his command, in discharging "himself of his excrements, whenfoever he bade him.”

Dr. GRAY.

P. 17. L. 2. For rational, irrational is inserted against the old copies by CAFELL. HAN. and WARB.

L. 4. Read, Mafter deferves. Ibid.] The fenfe is much the fame without the addition of the word deferves, which is not in the old editions.

REVISA L.

L. 25. Fair weather after you. Come Jaquenetta, away.] Thus all the printed copies: but the editors have been guilty of much inadvertence. They make Jaquenetta,

and a Maid enter; whereas Jaquenetta is the only maid intended by the poet, and is committed to the cuftody of Dull, to be conveyed by him to the lodge in the park. This being the cafe, it is evident by demonstration, thatFair weather after you- -must be fpoken by Jaquenetta ; and then that Dull fays to her, Come Jaquenetta away, as I have regulated the text.

THEOBALD.

Ibid.] Mr. Theobald has endeavoured here to dignify his own industry by a very flight performance. The folios all read as he reads, except that inflead of naming the perfons they give their characters, enter Clown, Conftable, and winch. JOHNSON.

P. 18. L. 12.] It is not for prifoners to be filent in their words.] I fuppofe we fhould read, it is not for prifoners to be filent in their wards, that is, in cuftody, in the bolds.

JOHNSON.

L. 24. The first and fecond caufe will not serve my turn.] See the last act of As you like it, with the notes. JOHNS. P. 19. L. 11. When he did ftarve the general world befide.] Catullus has a compliment much of this cast, to his Lefbia in his 87th epigram:

-quæ cum pulcherrima tota eft,

Tum manibus una omnes furripuit Veneres. THEOR.* L. 16. Chapman here feems to fignify the feller, not, as now commonly, the buyer. Cheap or cheping was antiently Market, Chapman therefore is Marketman. The meaning is, that the estimation of beauty depinds not on the

uttering or proclamation of the feller, but on the eye of the buyer. JOHNSON. P. 20. L. 21. Well fitted, is well qualified. JOHNSON. L. 25. Matched with, is combined or joined with. JOHNS. P. 21. L. 6, 7. The construction of this paffage, which is very perplexed, is, I fuppofe, thus; "And my report of that good I faw, is much too little, compared to his great worthiness." REVISAL.

P. 22. L. 20. Sir T. Hanmer, reads not fin to break it. I believe erroneoufly. The princefs fhews an inconvenience very frequently attending rash oaths, which whether kept or broken produce guilt. JOHNSON. Ibid.] Against the authority of old copies read, not fin.

P. 23. L. 30. The former editions read,

And not demands

One payment of an hundred thou fand Crowns,

CAPELL.

To bave bis title live in Aquitaine.] I have restored, I believe, the genuine fenfe of the paffage. Aquitaine was pledged, it seems, to Navarre's father, for 200000 Crowns. The French king pretends to have paid one moiety of this debt, (which Navarre knows nothing of,) but demands this moiety back again: inftead whereof (fays Navarre) he fhould rather pay the remaining moiety and demand to have Aquitain re-deliver'd up to him. This is plain and easy reafoning upon the fact fuppos'd; and Navarre declares, he had rather receive the refidue of his debt, than detain the province mortgag'd for fecurity of it. THEOB.

P. 25. Lines 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, rejected by HANMER. L. 29. That is, mayeft thou have fense and seriousness more proportionate to thy beard, the length of which fuits ill with fuch idle catches of wit. JOHNSON.

P. 26. L. 22. My lips are no common though feveral they are.] Several is an inclosed field of a private proprietor, fo Maria fays, her lips are private property. Of a lord that was newly married one obferved that he grew fat; yes, faid Sir Walter Releigh, any beaft will grow fat, if you take him from the common and graze him in the feveral, JOHNSON.