Now, if this latter part be true, I fhould be glad to know; how priestly guards fhould come to fignify any thing more than black lace. ₹ EXAMP. XVI. Vol. 2. P. 138. MERCHANT OF -“ a bankrupt, a prodigal] This is Spoke (if he "would write correctly, he fhould fay spoken) of "Antonio. But why prodigal? Baffanio indeed "had been too liberal; and with this name the "Jew honours him, when he is going to fup with "him "Pll go in bafte to feed upon "The prodigal Chriftian "But Antonio was a plain, referved, parfimonious "merchant. Be affured therefore, we fhould read, “A bankrupt FOR a prodigal; i. e. he is become "a bankrupt, by fupplying the extravagances of his "friend Baffanio." WAR B. Surely his lending money without interest, was reafon enough for the Jew to call him prodigal; and this Shylock upbraids him with immediately after: "be WAS WONT (not only he did in this inftance, "but it was his custom) to lend money for a Chri"ftian courtefy." But, in order to fupport this filly alteration, Mr. Warburton falfifies the character of Antonio; who, throughout, is represented not as parfimonious, but as the very perfection of franknefs and generofity. He alfo feems to think it good logic to conclude; that, because the Jew calls. one man a prodigal in one place, it is impoffible he fhould call any body elfe fo in another. EXAMP. XVII. Vol. 2. P. 135. MERCHANT OF VENICE. -"How much honor "Pick'd from the chaff and ruins of the times "To be new varnish'd] This confufion and mix"ture of the metaphors, makes me think; that "Shakespear wrote, "To be new vanned "i. e. winnow'd, purged," &c. WARB. Which is as much as to fay, pick'd from the chaff, to be pick'd from the chaff; for fo his own explanation makes it: "vanned from the French "word vanner, which is derived from the Latin, "vannus, ventilabrum," [mark that, I pray you; for it ferves to fhew his learning in two languages at once] "the fann used for winnowing the chaff from "the corn." Why then might it not have been fanned? This note he concludes with pronouncing, that "This alteration reftores the metaphor to its integrity;" and, by way of confirming his amendment, adds; that our poet frequently uses the fame thought." He does fo; but not fo profufely as our critic would have him, twice in the fame fentence. If Mr Warburton thus puts into the text of Shakespear, without any authority, whatever he thinks he wrote; he will abundantly convince the world of the propriety of that expreffion, *of the laft edition; to fignify the worft, or meanest fort. EXAMP. XVIII. Vol. 4. P. 42. RICHARD II. "the abfent time] For unprepared. Not an inelegant fynecdoche." WARB. * See Dunciad, B. 4. P. 67. Not Not to enter into the elegance of the fynecdoche, which feems but a hard and unnatural one; Mr. Warburton might have seen, fifteen lines lower, if his towering genius would have fuffered him to look downwards; the true reafon for this epithet: i. e. that the King was absent. -" because th' anointed King is hence." EXAMP. XIX. Vol. 4. P. 192. 1 HENRY IV. Here's no vanity!] In our author's time, the negative, in common fpeech, was used to defign ironically the excefs of a thing."-WAR B. Profound Critic! as if it were not at all times fo used! But no matter for that; the note is contrived fo, as to make a careless reader believe, that he is particularly verfed in the phrafeólogy of his author's time; and this looks well: though the difcovery be much of the fame kind, with that of the Fool in KING LEAR;.i "Then comes the time, who lives to fee't, That going fhall be us'd with feet." But, perhaps, there was no Irony intended here: for Falstaffe might very naturally fay, on feeing Sir W. B. dead; Here's no vanity: i. e. This is past jefting; This is a serious affair. EXAMP. XX. Vol. 4. P. 283. 2 HENRY IV. "As flaws congealed in the fpring of day] Al"luding to the opinion of fome philofophers; that "the vapors being congealed in the air by the cold, "(which is most intenfe towards the morning) and "being afterwards rarefied and let loofe by the "warmth of the fun, occafion thofe fudden` `impetuous H 3 દર petuous gufts of wind, which are called flaws." WARB. after the Oxford editor. The appearance of philofophical learning here misled Mr. Warburton to adopt this note of the Oxford editor's, notwithstanding the abfurdity of winds being congeled; which feems borrowed from Sir John Mandeville, who tells us of fighs, oaths, and tunes being frozen up for fome time, and afterwards let loofe by the warmth of the Sun: but they neither of them understood the meaning of the word in this place; which feems to be the fmall blades of ice, which are ftruck on the edges of the water in winter mornings; and which I have heard called by that name. EXAMP. XXI. Vol. 4. P. 265. 2 HENRY IV. "Philofopher's two ftones] One of which was an "univerfal medicine, and the other a tranfmuter of "bafer metals into gold." WARB. But the Panacea was not a ftone, but a potable medicine; which therefore Mr. Warburton fhould have taken care to have congeled, as he did the winds above, before he gave it the denomination of a stone. The meaning is, twice the worth of the philofopher's ftone. EXAMP. XXII. Vol. 4. P. 303. 2 HENRY IV. "We will eat a laft year's pippin of my own "grafting, with a difh of carraways." Who would imagine, that hiftory and literature fhould be brought-in by head and shoulders, to explane the meaning of a difh of carraways? But what cannot a great critic do? Mr. Warburton having, with a becoming gravity, informed us, that carraways are are" a comfit or confection, fo called in our au"thor's time;" (and I suppose, both before and fince his time too) adds, that "a paffage in De “Vigneul Marville's Melanges d'Hiftoire et de "Litt. will explain this ODD TREAT:" and fo quotes the paffage, which is not worth transcribing. But why does he think it fo odd a treat? It is ftrange, that Mr. Warburton's good mother should never have treated mafter with fo common and excellent a regale, as a roasted apple and carraways; fure he was a naughty boy, or has forgotten his mother's kindness to him. : EXAMP. XXIII. Vol. 4. P. 381. HENRY V. their gefture fad, "Investing lank lean cheeks, and war-worn coats, &c. "A gefture investing cheeks and coats, is nonfenfe. "We fhould read, Invest in lank lean cheeks, which is fenfe; i. e. their fad gefture was cloathed, "or fet-off, in lean cheeks, and worn coats. The image is ftrong and picturefque." WARB. Whether geftures investing cheeks and coats, or geftures invest in cheeks and coats, has the more Jenfe in it, not to mention ftrength and painting is a queftion worthy of our Profeffed Critic; but, in the mean time, as he has determined in a like cafe, Vol. 7. P. 180. "Nonfenfe for nonfenfe, the old "fhould keep its ground; as being in poffeffion." -EXAMP. XXIV. Vol. 5. P. 148. 3 HENRY VI. "O boy! thy father gave thee life too foon.” "Because, had he been born later, he would not now "have been of years to engage in this quarrel. H 4 "And |
