Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, fore be a juft characteristic of each of them. Thus, by nimble jugglers, we are taught, that they perform their tricks by flight of hand: and by foui-killing witches, we are informed, the mischief they do is by the affiftance of the devil, to whom they have given their fouls: but then, by dark-working forcerers, we are not inftructed in the means by which they perform their ends. Befides, this epithet agrees as well to witches as to them; and therefore certainly our author could not defign this in their characteristic. We should read: Drug-working forcerers, that change the mind, and we know by the hiftory of ancient and modern fuperftition, that thefe kind of jugglers always pretended to work changes of the mind by thefe applications. WARBURTON. The learned commentator has endeavoured with much earnestnefs to recommend his alteration: but, if I may judge of other apprehenfions by my own, without great fuccefs. This interpretation of foul-killing is forced and harsh. Sir T. Hanmer reads foul-felling, agreeable enough to the common opinion, but without fuch improvement as may juftify the change. Perhaps the epithets have only been misplaced, and the lines fhould be read thus: Soul-killing forcerers, that change the mind, Dark-working witches, that deform the body; This change feems to remove all difficulties. By foul-killing I understand deftroying the rational faculties by fuch means as make men fancy themselves beafts. JOHNSON. Dark-working forcerers, may only mean forcerers who carry on their operations in the dark. Thus fays Bolingbroke, in the second part of King Henry VI: 66 wizards know their times: "Deep night, dark night, the filent of the night," &c., Witches themselves, as well as those who employed them, were fuppofed to forfeit their fouls by making ufe of a forbidden agenIn that fenfe they may be faid to deftroy the fouls of others as well as their own. The fame compound epithet occurs in Chriftopher Middleton's Legend of Humphrey Duke of Glocefter, 1600: cy. 66 They charge her, that he did maintaine and feede "Soul-killing witches, and convers'd with devils." The hint for this enumeration of cheats, &c. Shakspeare might have received from the old translation of the Menæchmi, 1595: "For this affure yourselfe, this towne Epidamnum is a place of outrageous expences, exceeding in all ryot and lafcivioufneffe; and ([ heare) as full of ribaulds, parasites, drunkards, catchpoles, conycatchers, and fycophants, as it can hold: then for curtizans," &c. STEEVENS. And many fuch like liberties of fin:" [Exit. ADR. Neither my husband, nor the flave return'd, That in fuch hafte I fent to feek his master! Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock. Luc. Perhaps, fome merchant hath invited him, Time is their master; and, when they see time, 7 ADR. Why should their liberty than ours be more? Luc. Because their bufinefs ftill lies out o' door. ADR. Look, when I ferve him fo, he takes it ill. Luc. O, know, he is the bridle of your will. liberties of fin:] Sir T. Hanmer reads, libertines, which, as the author has been enumerating not acts but perfons, seems right. JOHNSON. By liberties of fin, I believe Shakspeare means licenfed offenders, fuch as mountebanks, fortune-tellers, &c. who cheat with impunity. STEEVENS. 8 ill. This word, which the rhime feems to countenance, was furnished by the editor of the fecond folio. The firft has—thus. MALONE. ADR. There's none, but affes, will be bridled fo, Luc. Why, headftrong liberty is lafh'd with woe. There's nothing, fituate under heaven's eye, But hath his bound, in earth, in fea, in fky: The beafts the fifhes, and the winged fowls, Are their males' fubject, and at their controls: Men, more divine, the mafters of all thefe." Lords of the wide world, and wild watry feas, Indued with intellectual fenfe and fouls, Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls, 9 Adr. There's none, but affes, will be bridled fo. Luc. Why headstrong liberty is lafh'd with woe.] Should it not rather be leafh'd, i. e. coupled like a headftrong hound? The high opinion I muft neceffarily entertain of the learned Lady's judgement, who furnished this obfervation, has taught me to be diffident of my own, which I am now to offer. The meaning of this paffage may be, that those who refufe the bridle, muft bear the lash, and that woe is the punishment of headftrong liberty. It may be obferved, however, that the feamen still use lash in the fame fenfe as leash; as does Greene in his Mamillia, 1593: Thou didft counfel me to beware of love, and I was before in the lafh.' Again, in George Whetstone's Caftle of Delight, 1576: "Yet both in lafhe at length this Creffid leaves." Lace was the old English word for a cord, from which verbs have been derived very differently modelled by the chances of pronunciation. So, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578: To thee Caffandra which doft hold my freedom in a lace." When the mariner, however, lashes his guns, the sportsman leafhes his dogs, the female laces her clothes, they all perform one act of faftening with a lace or cord. Of the fame original is the word windlass, or more properly windlace, an engine, by which a lace or cord is wound upon a barrel. To lace likewife fignified to beftow corrections with a cord, or rope's end. So, in the 2nd. Part of Decker's Honeft Whore, 1630: the lazy lowne "Gets here hard hands, or lac'd correction." Again, in The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599: "So now my back has room to reach; I do not love to be laced in, when I go to lace a rafcal." 2 Men--the mafters, &c.] The &c. and in the next line-Lord. VOL. X. STEEVENS. old copy has Man the mafter, Hanmer. MALONE, Are mafters to their females, and their lords: ADR. This fervitude makes you to keep unwed. Luc. Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey. ADR. How if your husband start some other Luc. Till he come home again, I would forbear. pause ; 4 They can be meek, that have no other cause.5 3 fart fome other where?] I cannot but think, that our author wrote: - Start fome other hare? So, in Much ado about Nothing, Cupid is faid to be a good harefinder. JOHNSON. I fufped that where has here the power of a noun. So, in King Lear: "Thou lofeft here, a better where to find." Again, in Tho. Drant's tranflation of Horace's Satires, 1567: they ranged in eatche where, ་་ "No fpoufailes knowne," &c. The fenfe is, How, if your husband fly off in pursuit of fome other woman? The expreffion is ufed again, fcene iii : his eye doth homage otherwhere." Again, in Romeo and Juliet, A& 1. This is not Romeo, he's fome otherwhere." Otherwhere fignifies-in other places. So, in King Henry VIII. A& II. fc. ii: "The king hath sent me otherwhere." STEEVens. though he paufe;] To paufe is to reft, to be in quiet. JOHNSON. They can be meek, that have no other caufe.] That is, who have no cause to be otherwife. M. Mason. A wretched foul, bruis'd with adverfity, We bid be quiet," when we hear it cry; This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left. Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to trv ;— Here comes your man, now is your husband nigh. Enter DROMIO of Ephefus. ADR. Say, is your tardy mafter now at hand? DRO. E. Nay, he is at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witnefs. ADR. Say, didft thou speak with him? know'st thou his mind? DRO. E. Ay, ay, he told his mind upon mine ear: Befhrew his hand, I fcarce could underftand it. 6 A wretched foul, bruis'd with adversity, We bid be quiet. &c.] Shakspeare has the fame fentiment in Much ado about Nothing, where Leonato fays— men “Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief And again, 'tis all men's office to speak patience "To thofe that wring under the load of sorrow." DOUCE 7 With urging helpless patience-] By exhorting me to patience; which affords no help. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: As thofe poor birds that helpless berries faw." MALONE. 8 - fool-begg'd -] She feems to mean, by fool-begg'd patience, that patience which is fo near to idiotical fimplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to reprefent you fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune. JOHNSON. 25 a |