fpeaker; whofe selfishness is seen in concealing the adventure of Perdita; and here fupported, by fhewing no regard for his fon or her, but being taken up entirely with himself, though four fcore three. WARB..

P. 173. 1. 28. It must be remembered that fancy in this author very often, as in this place, means love. JOHNƐ. P. 176. I. 1. As chance has driven me to these extremities, fo I commit myself to chance to be conducted through them. JOHNS. L. 26. Things known betwixt us three I'll write you down, The which fall point you forth at ev'ry fitting, What you must fy] Every fitting, methinks, gives but a very poor idea. Every fitting, as I have ventur'd to correct the text, means, every convenient opportunity: every juncture, when it is fit to speak of fuch, or to such, a point. THEOB. and CAP.

The which fali point you forth at every fitting,] Every fitting, fays Mr. Theobald, methinks, gives us but a very poor idea. But a poor idea is better than none; which it comes to, when he has alter'd it to every fitting. The truth is, the common reading is very expreffive; and means, at every audience you fhall have of the king and council. The council-days being, in our author's time. called, in common speech, the futings. WARD.

P. 178. 1. 8. Pomander.] This was a little ball made of prefumes and worn in the pocket or about the neck to prevent infection in time of a plague. There were two forts of them, one for the rich another for the poor. Dr. GRAY.

L. 11. This alludes to beads often fold by the Romanifts, as made particularly efficacious by the touch of fome relick.

JOHNS.

P. 179. 1. 20. Boot, that is, fomething over and above, or, as we now fay, fomething to boot.

JOHNS.

P. 181. 1. 7. This is the reading of Sir T. Harmer, inftead of if I thought it were a piece of bonefty to acquaint the king withal, I'd not do it,

P. 182. 1. 21.

JOHNS.

therefore they do not give us the lie.] Dele the negative: the fenfe requires it. The joke is this, they have a profit in lying to us, by advancing the price

WARB.

of their commodities; therefore they do lie. Ibid] The meaning is they are paid for lying, therefore they do not give us the lye; they fell it us.

JOHNS. P. 183. 1. 6. Advocate's the court-word for a phrafant ;] This fatire, on the bribery of courts, not unpleafant

WARBURTON.

Ibid.] This fatire or this pleasantry, I confels myself not well to understand. JOHNS. L. 16. A great man by the picking of his teeth.] It feems, that to pick the teeth was, at this time, a mark of fome pretenfion to greatnels or elegance. So the bastard in King John, fpeaking of the traveller, fays,

He and his pick-tooth at my worship's mess.

JOHNS. P. 184. I. 18. the botreft day, &c.] That is, the botteft day foretold in the almanack.

JOHNS. L. 25.gently confider'd] That is, I who am regarded as a gentleman will bring you to the king.

P. 186. 1. 17. In former editions,

D-ftoy'd the fweet'ft companion, that e'er man,

Bred bis hopes cut f, true.

JOHNS.

Paul. To true, my lord] A very flight examination will convince every intelligent reader, that, true, here has jumped out its place in all the editions.

THEOB.

Ibid.] The Ali that are ] This is a favourite thought; it was bestowed on Miranda and Rofalind before.

JOHNS. P. 187. 1. 16. Tran to rejoice, the former queen Is WELL?] The speaker is here giving reafons why the king thould marry again. One reafon is, pity to the ftate; another, regard to the continuance of the royal family; and the third, comfort and confolation to the king's affliction. All hitherto is plain, and becoming a privy counfellor. But now comes in, what he calls, a boly argument for it, and that is a rejoicing that the former queen is well and at reft. To make this argument of force, we must conclude that the speaker went upon this opinion, that a widower can never heartily rejoice that his former wife is at reft, till he has got another. With out doubt Shakespeare wrote,

-What were more boly,

Than to rejoice the former queen? THIS WILL. What, fays the fpeaker, can be a more holy motive to a

new choice than that it will glad the fpirit of the former queen? for he was of fo excellent a difpofition that the happiness of the king and kingdom, to be procured by it, will give her extreme pleasure. The poet goes upon the general opinion, that the fpirits of the happy in the other world are concerned for the condition of their surviving friend's. WARB. and CAP.

Ibid.] This emendation is one of thofe of which many may be made; it is fuch as we may with the authour had chofen, but which we cannot prove that he did chufe; the yeafons for it are plaufible, but not cogent.

P. 188. 1.15. In the old copies,

-would make her fainted fpirit

Again poffefs ber corps, and on this flage

(Where we offenders now appear) foul vext.

JOHNS.

And begin, &c.] "Tis obvious, that the grammar is defective; and the fenfe confequently wants fupporting. The Might change, I have made, cures both and, furely, 'tis an improvement to the fentiment for the king to fay, that Paulina and he offended his dead Wife's ghoft with the fubject of a fecond match; rather than in general terms to call themselves offenders, finners. THEOB. and CAP. Ibid. P. 190. 1. 6.] The grave here means, the beau ties, which are buried in the grave; the continent for the

contents.

L. 7.

-Sir, you your felf

Have faid, and writ fo ;

CANON S.

-] The reader muft observe, that fo relates not to what precedes, but to what follows

that, he bad not been

P. 192. l. 16.

equal'd.

-Whofe daughter

JOHNS.

His tears proclaim'd his parting wirb ber.] This is very ungrammatical and obfcure. We may better read,

-Whofe daughter

His tears proclaim'd her parting with her.

The prince firft tells that the lady came from Lybia, the king interrupting him, fays from Smalus, from kim, fays the prince, whofe tears, at farting, shewed bex to be bis daugh

ter.

JOHNS. P. 194. 1.18. Four choice is not fo rich in WORTH af Bauty.] The poet must have wrote.

Your choice is not fo rich in BIRTH as beauty;

Because Leontes was fo far from difparaging, or thinking meanly of her worth, that, on the contrary, he rather effeems her a treasure; and, in his next speech to the prince, callo her his precious mistress. WARB.

Ibid.] Worth is as proper as birth. Worth fignifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high defcent. The king means that he is forry the prince's choice is not in other refpects as worthy of him as in beauty.

JOHNS. Which angled for mine eyes, [caught the water, tho' not the fifb,] was, &c.] I dare pronounce what is here in hooks, a molt ftupid interpolation of fome player, that angled for a witticism; and therefore have struck it out of the text. WARBURTON.

P. 198. L. 7. That rare Italian master, Giulio Romano;} All the encomiums, put together, that have been conferred on this excellent artift in painting and architecture, do not amount to the fine praise here given him by our author. He was born in the year 1492, liv'd just that circle of years which our Shakespear did, and died eighteen years before the latter was born. Fine and generous, therefore, as this tribute of praife must be own'd, yet it was a strange abfurdity, to thrust it into a tale, the action of which is fuppofed within the period of Heathenifm, and whilft the oracies of Apollo were confulted. This, however, was a known and wilful anachronism; which might have flept in obfcurity, perhaps M... Pope will fay, had I not animadverted on it.

THEOB.

That rare Italian mafter, Julio Romano; &c.] Mr. Theo bald is ever the unluckiest of all criticks when he paffes judg mment on beauties and defects. The paffage happens to be quite unworthy Shakespear. 1. He makes his fpeaker fay, that was Julio Romano the God of Nature, he would outdo Nature. For this is the plain meaning of the words, bad be himself eternity, and could put breath inte bis work, be would beguile nature of her cuftom, 2dly, He makes of this famous painter, a Statuary; I fuppofe confounding him with Michael Angelo; but, what is worst of all, a painter of statues, be Mrs. Salmon of her wax-wotk. WARD.

·Ibid.] Poor Theobald's encomium ofthis passage is not very

happily conceived or expressed, nor is the passage of any emiment excellence; yet a little candour will clear Shakespeare from part of the impropriety imputed to him. By Eternity he means only Immortality, or that part of eternity which is to come; fo we talk of eternal renown and eternal infamy. Immortality may fubfift without divinity, and therefore the meaning only is, that if Julio could always continue his labours, he would mimick nature.

of ber cuftom.] That is, of ber trade,would

draw her customers from her.

JOHNS.

L. 17. It was, I fuppofe, only to fpare his own labour that the poet put this whole fcene into narrative, for though part of the tranfaction was already known to the audience, and therefore could not properly be fhewn again, yet the two kings might have met upon the ftage, and after the exami nation of the old (hepherd, the young lady might have been recognised in fight of the spectators.

JOHNS.

P. 200. 1. 3. -franklin, is a freebolder, or yeoman, a man above a villain, but not a gentleman.

Јони.

L. 14. Tall, in that time, was the word ufed for tout.

Lonely, apart.

The Oxford editor

As if it could be apart without being alone.

WARB. Ibid.] I am yet inclined to lonely, which in the old anguIr writing cannot be diftinguished from lovely. To lay, that I keep it alone, feparate from the reft, is a pleonasm which icarcely any nicety declines. JOHNS. and CAP. P. 202. 1. 12. O patience.] That is, Stay a while, be not fa

eager.

thefes.

JOHNS.

L. 26. Read, for the stone i'th' mine, and remove the parenOBS. and CONJ. L. 32. Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already-] The fentence compleated is,

WARB.

-but that, methinks, already I converse with the dead. But there his paffion made him break off. Ibid.] The fentence compleated is