"Spangled ftarlight been."

"Chaucer uses it in this fenfe,

"Your blissful fufter Lucina the bene;"

"And Fairfax,

"The facred angel took his target bene.”

These are the examples he produces; whether wifely or not, let the foreft judge: but the conceit of a fmiling target is entirely his own; and, if he will allow me a pun, invita Minervá; for it seems in direct oppofition to the famed Ægis of Pallas. But this is hardly a laughing matter; for with what face can he fay fmiling, fhining-So ShakespearChaucer uses it in THIS fenfe-And Fairfax-when, if he knows any thing of the language, he must know; that not one of them, in these instances, uses fbeen in the fenfe of SMILING; and that, in its true fenfe of BRIGHT or fhining, it would make the paffage worse than he found it?

If Sir Thomas Hanmer, as he fays, took occafion, from having this emendation communicated to him, to alter the whole line; he fhewed more judgment, than if he had inferted fuch a falfe and nonfenfical note. But" in his rage of correction, he

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forgot to leave the reason, why the winter wind "was to be preferred to man's ingratitude." If fbeen does not fignify fmiling, I doubt Mr. Warburton will be in the fame cafe. However Shakespear has equally forgotten, in the next ftanza, to leave the reafon, why a freezing fky is to be preferred to a forgetful friend; which, perhaps, may give a reafonable fufpicion, that the word because in the firft ftanza may be corrupt.

EXAMP. XVI. Vol. 3. P. 11. ALL'S WELL THAT

ENDS WELL.

-"the compofition, that your valor and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing; and I "like the wear well] The integrity of the meta"phor directs us to Shakespear's true reading; "which doubtlefs was, a good MING; i. e. mixture, " compofition; a word common to Shakespear, and "the writers of this age; * and taken from the texture of cloth. The M was turned the wrong "way at the prefs; and from thence came the blunder." WARB.

I fuppofe, Mr. Warburton, who has collated all the editions, can, from fome or other of them, produce a proof of what he so positively afferts; that the M was turned the wrong way at the prefs: if it be fo, it will be easily distinguished from a W, especially in the old printing; where the W was generally unconnected, thus, VV +.

If it were not for preferving the integrity of the metaphor, which Mr. Warburton is generally more concerned about than Shakespear is; I fee no reafon, why a virtue of a good wing" may not refer to his nimblenefs or fleetnefs in running away. But Mr. Warburton fays, " Ming for mixture, com

pofition, is a word common to Shakespear and "the writers of this age," I defire him to produce his authorities both for the word, and the use of

* Ming, a verb, tho' not very common to the writers of this age; yet is ftill very common to the talkers, in fome parts; is ufed in the fenfe of knead and is plainly a contraction of mingle. But, what the texture of cloth has to do here, I know not; nor is it worth inquiring: as Shakespear probably never us'd nor heard the word.

Mr. Warburton is fo fond of this conceit, of an M being fet upon it's head at the prefs; that he has used it again in CYBE LINE, Vol. 7. P. 290.

it; for, confidering what we have seen in the last example foregoing, it is too much to take on his bare affertion; nor can I, till I fee it used by people of better credit, pay him the complement to fay; I like the wear well."

EXAMP. 17. Vol. 4. P. 287. 2 HENRY IV,

"Unless fome dull and favourable hand] Evi"dently corrupt. Shakespear feems to have wrote, "doleing; i. e. a band using foft melancholy airs." WARB.

Why this is the very fenfe, which the true text exhibits. But the temptation of coining a new word is irrefiftible. It feems, however, not very luckily coin'd here; fince doleing, if there were fuch a word, might perhaps rather fignify giving-out largeffes; in which fenfe, though Mr. Warburton might think a doleing hand a favourable one, other people perhaps would not judge it fo mufical, as the context requires.

If he gives us doleing for condoling, he may as well write fternation for confternation.

EXAMP. XVIII. Vol. 8. P. 375. OTHELLO: "O thou weed,

Who art fo lovely fair, and fmell'ft fo fweet,"&c1 "The old quarto reads,

"O thou blache weed, why art fo lovely fair, &c. "which the editors not being able to fet right, altered as above. Shakespear wrote,

"O thou bale weed, &c. Bale, i. e. deadly poisonous." WARB.

But

But till he produces fuch an adjective as Bale, which he cannot do from Shakespear, or any good author; he will not with all his dogmatical affertions convince us, that Shakespear wrote fo; the adjective is baleful. This note being towards the end of his long work, we may make the fame remark on him, as he has made on Sir Thomas Hanmer; "That "he did not understand his author's phrafeology "any better when he had ended, than when he had begun with him." See P. 396. Vol. 8.

EXAMP. XIX. Vol. 6. P. 392. MACBETH.

"Round about the cauldron go,

"In the poifon'd entrails throw] Every thing "thrown into the cauldron, is particularly enu"merated; and yet we find no poisoned entrails among them-I believe Shakespear wrote, poifon'd ENTREMES

an old word used for ingredients," &c. Warb. If Mr. Warburton means, there is no mention afterwards of the entrails being poifoned; what he fays is true; but then it will affect his entremes too but he is mistaken, if he affirms there are no entrails mentioned; for the word entrails fignifies the inward parts, [inteftina, partes internæ, Skinner.] in a larger fenfe than the vifcera or guts; and so the maw of the fhark, liver of the Jew, gall of the goat, and tyger's chawdron, are entrails: fo that there is no need of Mr. Warburton's entremes ; which, he indeed fays, is an old word used for ingredients; but he fhould have produced fome authority for it, fince his own will not go far, with those who know how eafily he affirms things of this fort. EXAMP.

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EXAMP. XX. Vol. 7. P. 238. CYMBELINE.

She's a good fign'; but I have feen small reflection of her wit. "If fign be the true reading, "the poet means by it, conftellation; and by reflec"tion is meant, influence. But I rather think, from "the anfwer; that he wrote, fhine. So, in his "Vénus and Adonis,

"As if from thence they borrow'd all their shine.' WARB.

So, becaufe fine fignifies brightness, you may call a bright perfon-a good fhine! The expreffion is monftrous. Sign is the true reading; without fignifying conftellation, or even a fingle ftar.

The fenfe is as plain, as words can make it. She has a fair outfide, a fpecious appearance; but no wit. O quanta fpecies, cerebrum non habet! Phædr. I wish, even thus much could be faid of Mr. W.'s Note.

EXAMP, XXI.Vol. 1. P. 328. MERRY WIVES, &c,

They muit come-off]" This can never be our "Poet's or his Hoft's meaning: To come-off being " in other terms to go fcot-free. We must read, "compt-off; i. e. clear their reckoning." WARB, Mr. W.'s explanation of to come-off by to go fcotfree, is worthy of him; who faith, to lay-by means to ftand still, to 'em means have at you, I'll make a Sop of the moon-fhine of you means I'll make the fun fhine through you, &c. To come-off is to pay; and is fo us'd frequently by Maffinger: In one place * fo plainly, as to admit no room for a doubt about the meaning, or for an effay after an emendation.

See his Unnatural Combat, A&t IV. Scene II.

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