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Hourly afflict; merely thou art death's fool; 3
For him thou labour'ft by thy flight to shun,
And yet runn'ft tow'rd him ftill. Thou art not noble ;
For all th' accommodations, that thou bear'st,

Are nurs'd by baseness: thou'rt by no means va

liant;

For thou doft fear the foft and tender fork

Of a poor worm. Thy beft of Reft is fleep,'
And that thou oft provok'ft; yet grofly fear'st

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flight to fhun,

And yet runn ft tow'rd him ftill.] In thofe old Farces called MoRALITIES, the Fool of the piece, in order to fhew the inevitable approaches of Death, is made to employ all his ftratagems to ayoid him which, as the matter is ordered, bring the Fool, at every turn, into his very jaws. So that the reprefentations of thefe fcenes would afford a great deal of good mirth and morals mixed together. And from fuch circumstances, in the genius of our ancestors publick diverfions, I fuppofe it was, that the old proverb arofe, of being merry and wife. WARBURTON.

Are nurs'd by bafenefs.] Dr. Warburton is undoubtedly miftaken in fuppofing that by bafe. nefs is meant felf love here affigned as the motive of all human actions. Shakespeare meant only to obferve, that a minute. analyfis of life at once destroys that fplendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatever grandeur can difplay, or luxury enjoy, is procured by bafenefs, by

Thy

offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the fhambles and the dunghill, all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornaments, dug from among the damps and darknefs of the mine.

5the foft and tender fork Of a poor worm.-] Worm is put for any creeping thing or Serpent. Shakespeare fuppofes falfely, but according to the vulgar notion, that a ferpent wounds with his tongue, and that his tongue is forked. He confounds reality and fiction, a ferpent's tongue is foft but not forked nor hurtful. If it could hurt, it could not be foft. In MidsummerNight's Dream he has the fame notion.

With doubler tongue Than thine, Oferpent, never adder ftung. 6thy best of reft is fleep, And that thou oft provok ft; yet grofy fear st

Thy death which is no more.— -] Evidently from the following paffage of Cicero: Habes fomnum imaginem Mortis, eamque quotidie induis, & dubitas quin fenfus in

morte

Thy death, which is no more. 7 Thou'rt not thyfelf;
For thou exift'ft on many a thousand grains,
That iffue out of duft. Happy thou art not;
For what thou haft not, ftill thou ftriv'ft to get;
And what thou haft forget'ft. Thou art not certain;
For thy complexion fhifts to ftrange effects,
After the moon.

8

If thou art rich, thou'rt poor; For, like an afs, whofe back with ingots bows, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloadeth thee. Friend haft thou none; For thy own bowels, which do call thee Sire, The meer effufion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the Gout, Serpigo, and the Rheum,

For ending thee no fooner. Thou haft nor youth,

nor age;

9

But as it were an after-dinner's fleep,

Dreaming on both; for all thy bleffed youth'

morte nullus fit, cum in ejus fimulacro videas effe nullum fenfum. But the Epicurean infinuation is, with great judgment, omitted in the imitation. WARBURTON.

Here Dr. Warburton might have found a fentiment worthy of his animadverfion. I cannot without indignation find ShakeSpear faying, that death is only Sleep, lengthening out his exhortation by a fentence which in the Friar is impious, in the reafoner is foolish, and in the poet trite and vulgar

7-Thourt not thy thyself.] Thou art perpetually repaired and renovated by external affiftance, and thou fubfifteft upon foreign matter, and haft no power of producing or continuing thy own being.

-frange effects.] For effects read affects; that is, affections,

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But as it were an after dinner's
Леер,

Dreaming on both.] This is exquifitely imagined. When we are young we bufy ourselves in forming fchemes for fucceeding time, and mifs the gratifications that are before us; when we are old we amufe the languor of age with the recollection of youthful pleasures or performances; fo that our life, of which no part is filled with the bufinefs of the prefent time, resembles our dreams after dinner, when the events of the morning are mingled with the designs of the evening.

For all thy bleed youth

Becomes

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Of palfied Eld; and when thou'rt old and rich, Thou haft neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty 2

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Thou haft neither heat, &c.-] The drift of this period is to prove, that neither youth nor age can be faid to be really enjoyed, which, in poetical language, is, -We have neither youth nor age. But how is this made out? That Age is not enjoyed he proves, by recapitulating the infirmities of it, which deprive that period of life of all fenfe of pleafure. To prove that Youth is not enjoyed, he uses these words. For all thy bleed youth becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms of palfied Eld. Out of which, he that can deduce the conclufion, has a better knack at logic than I have. I fuppofe the Poet wrote,

- for pall'd, thy blazed youth Becomes affuaged; and doth beg

the alms Of palfied Eld;

i. e. when thy youthful appetite becomes palled, as it will be in the very enjoyment, the blaze of youth is at once affuaged, and thou immediately contracteft the infirmities of old age; as, particularly, the palfie and other nervous diforders, confequent on the inordinate ufe of fenfual pleafures. This is to the purpofe; and proves Youth is not enjoyed by fhewing he fhort duration of it.

WARBURTON.

Το

Here again I think Dr. Warburton totally mistaken. ShakeSpeare declares that Man has neither youth nor age, for in youth, which is the happiest time, or which might be the happiest, he commonly wants means to obtain what he could enjoy; he is dependant on palfied eld; must beg alms from the coffers of hoary avarice; and being very niggardly fupplied becomes as aged, looks, like an old man, on happiness, which is beyond his reach. And when he is old and rich, when he has wealth enough for the purchafe of all that formerly excited his defires, he has no longer the powers of enjoyment.

has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty To make his riches pleafant. according to the prefent reading, I have explained this paffage which may ftand without much inconvenience; yet I am willing to perfuade my reader, becaufe I have almoft perfuaded myself, that our author wrote,

-for all thy blafled youth Becomes as aged

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To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this,
That bears the name of life? yet in this life
Lye hid more than thousand death; 3 yet death we fear,
That makes thefe odds all even.

Claud. I humbly thank you.

To fue to live, I find, I feek to die;

And, seeking death, find life: let it come on.

Enter Ifabella.

Ifab. What, ho? peace here, grace and good company!

Prov. Who's there? come in: the wifh deferves a welcome.

Duke. Dear Sir, ere long I'll vifit you again.
Claud. Moft holy Sir, I thank you.

Ifab. My business is a word, or two, with Claudio.
Prov. And very welcome.
welcome. Look, Signior, here's

your fifter.

Duke. Provost, a word with you.
Prov. As many as you please.
Duke. Bring them to
ceal'd,

Yet hear them.

by others, for thou wanteft bounty. Where the making the want of bounty as infeparable from old age as the want of health, is extremely fatyrical tho' not altoge. ther juft. WARBURTON.

I am inclined to believe that neither man nor woman will have much difficulty to tell how beauty makes riches pleafant. Surely this emendation, though it is elegant and ingenious, is not fuch as that

fpeak where I may be con

[Exeunt Duke and Provost.

an opportunity of inferting it fhould be purchased by declaring ignorance of what every one knows, by confeffing infenfibility of what every one feels.

3 more thousand deaths.] For this Sir T. Hanmer reads, a thousand deaths: the meaning is not only a thousand deaths, but a thousand deaths befides what have been mentioned.

SCENE

SCENE II.

Claud. Now, fifter, what's the comfort?

Ifab. Why, as all comforts are; moft good in
Deed : +

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heav'n,
Intends you for his fwift ambaffador;
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger.
Therefore your best appointment make with speed,
To-morrow you fet on.

Claud. Is there no remedy?

Ifab. None, but fuch remedy, as, to save a head, To cleave a heart in twain.

Claud. But is there any?

Ifab. Yes, brother, you may live:
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,

If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you 'till death.

Claud. Perpetual durance?

Ifab. Ay, juft; perpetual durance; a restraint, Tho' all the world's vaftidity you had,

To a determin'd scope. "

6

Claud. But in what nature?

Ifab. In fuch a one, as you, confenting to't, Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked.

4- as all comforts are; moft good in deed.] it this reading be ight, Isabella muft mean that the brings fomething better than words of comfort, the brings an affurance of deeds. This is harsh and constrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir Tho. Hanmer reads, in speed.

5- an everlasting leiger. Therefore your best appointment.] Leiger is the fame with refident.

Appointment; preparation; act of fitting, or state of being fitted for any thing. So in old books, we have a Knight well appointed; that is, well armed and mounted; or fitted at all points.

6 - a reftraint,

To a determined scope.] A confinement of your mind to one painful idea; to ignominy, of which the remembrance can be neither fuppreffed nor efcaped.

Claud.

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