her charge, his vouch, has fomething fine. Vouch is the teftimony one man bears for another. So that, by this, he infinuates his authority was fo great, that his denial would have the fame credit that a vouch or testimony has in ordinary cafes. WARB. Ibid] I believe this beauty is merely imaginary, and that vouck against means no more than denial.

JOHNS.

P. 277. L. 4. A comma only fhould be placed after rein.

REVIS.*

L. 9. die the death] This feems to be a folemn phrafe for death inflicted by law. So in Midiummer-Night's Dream. Prepare to die the death. JOHNS. -prompture] Suggeftion, temptation. JOHNS. P. 278. 1. 4. Be abfolute for death.] Be determined to die, without any hope of life. Horace,

L. 22.

The hour which exceeds expectation will be welcome.

JOHN.

L. 7. That none but fools would keep.] But this reading is not only contrary to all fenfe and reafon; but to the drift of this moral Difcourfe. The Duke, in his affum'd Chara ter of a Friar, is endeavouring to inftil into the condemn'd prifoner a refignation of mind to his Sentence; but the fenfe of the lines, in the reading, is a direct perfuafive to Suicide: I make no doubt, but the poet wrote,

That none but Fools would reck.

i e. care for, be anxious about, regret the lofs of. So in the Tragedy of Tancred and Gifmunda, Act 4.. Scene 3. Not that the recks this life

WARB.

And Shakespeare in The Two Gentlemen of Verona,
Recking as little what etideth me.
Ibid.] The meaning feems plainly this, that none but fools

would wish to keep life; or, non but fools
choice were allowed.

would keep it, if

A fente, which, whether true or
UPTON & JOHN

not, is certainly innocent.

L. 9. That do this habitation.] This reading is fubítituted by Sir Thomas Hanmer for that deft.

L. 10

meerly thou art Death's Tool;

JOHN.

For him that labour ft by thy flight to foun, And yet runn ft tord him fill.] 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 avoid him: which, as the matter is ordered, bring the Fool, at every turn, into his very jaws. So that the representations of these scenes 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 arose, of "being merry and wife." HANM.

P. 278. l. 12

Thou art not noble ;

For all the accommodations, that thou bear'ft,

Are nurs'd by bafenefs.] This enigmatical fentence, fo much in the manner of our author, is a fine proof of his knowledge of human nature. The meaning of it being this, "The most virtuous actions have a selfish motive, and even those of them which appear most generous, are but the more artful difguifes of felf-love." WARB.

L. 14. Are nurs'd by bafenefs.] Dr. Warburton is undoubtedly mistaken in fuppofing that by bafenefs is meant felf-love here affigned as the motive of all human actions. Shakespear meant only to obferve, that a minute analyfis of life at once deftroys that fplendor which dazzles the imagination. Whatever grandeur can difplay, or luxury enjoy, is procured by bafenefs, by offices of which the minds fhrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the fhmbles and the dunghill, all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornaments, dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine. CAN. CRIT. & JOHN.

L. 15.- the foft and tender fork

Of a poor worm.-] Worm is put for any creeping thing or ferpent. Shakespear f pposes 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 MidfummerNight's Dream he has the fame notion.

With doubler tongue

Than thine, O ferpent, never adder ftung. JoHN. L. 16. Thy best of rest is fleep,

And that thou oft provok'ft; yet grofly fear'ft

Thy death which is no more.→ -] Evidently from the following patlage of Cicero: "Habes fomnum imaginem Mortis, eamque quotidie induis, & dubitas quin fenfus in morte nullus fit, cum in ejus fimulacro videas effe nullum fenfum." But the Epicurean infinuation is, with great

judgment, omitted in the imitation.

WARB.

Ibid.] Here Dr. Warburton might have found a sentiment worthy of his adnimadverfion. I cannot without indignation find Shakespear faying, that death is only fleep, lengthening out his exhortation by a sentence which in the Friar is impious, in the reafoner is foolish, and in the poet trite and vulgar. JOHN. L. 18.-Thou'rt not thyself.] Thou art perpetually repaired and renovated by external affiftance, thou fubfifteft upon foreign matter, and haft no power of producing or continuing thy own being.

JOHN. L. 23. ftrange effects.] For effects read affects; that is, affections, paffions of mind, or diforders of body variously affected. So in Othello, The young affects. P. 279. 1. 5. Thou baft nor youth, nor age; But as it were an after-dinner's fleep,

Јони.

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

L. 7.

For all thy bleed youth

JOHN.

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Of palfied Eld; and when thou'rt old and

rich,

Thou haft neither beat, &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

fense of pleasure. To prove that youth is not enjoyed, he uses these words, "for all they bleffed 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 yourb

Becomes affuaged; and doth beg the alms
Of paified 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 the fhort duration of it.

WARE.

Ibid. Here again I think Dr. Warburton totally miftaken. Shakespeare declares that man has "neither youth nor age," for in youth, which is the bappiest time, or which might be the happieft, 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 purchase of all that formerly excited his defires, he has no longer the powers of enjoyment.

has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty

To make bis riches pleafant.

I have explained this paffage according to the present reading, which may ftand without much inconvenience; yet I am willing to perfuade my reader, because I have al moft perfuaded myself, that our author wrote,

L. 10.

for all thy blafted youth

Becomes as aged

JOHNS.

at, affection, limb, nor beauty.] But how does beauty make riches pleasant? We fhould read bounty, which compleats the fenfe, and is this; Thou haft neither the pleasure of enjoying riches th felf, for thou wantest vigour : nor of feeing it enjoyed 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 altogether juft. WARB.*

Ibid] I am inclined to believe that neither man nor woman will have much difficulty to tell how beauty makes riches pleasant." Surely this emendation, though it is elegant and ingenious, is not fu h as that an opportunity of inferting it should be purchased by declaring ignorance of what every one knows, by confeffing infenfibility of what every one feels.

JOHNS. L. 13.1 -more thousand deaths.] For this Sir T. Hanmer reads, a thousand deaths: th meaning is not only a thousand deaths, but a thousand deaths befides what have been mentioned.

JOHNS. L. 27.] Read, Bring me to ftand where I may be concealed, yet hear them fpeak. CAPELL.* P. 280. 1. 1. As all comforts are; most good in deed.] If this reading be right, Ifabella muft mean that the brings fomething better than words of comfort, fhe brings an affurance of deeds. This is harsh and conftrained, but I know not what better to offer. Sir Tho. Hanmer reads, in speed. JOHNSON.

Ibid.] The meaning is, that the comfort fhe brought him was in its own nature, and in reality, good and advantageous to him, tho gh, the words in which he was about to express it would found harsh and uncomfortable in his What follows fufficiently afcertains this int rpretation: For fhe immediately goes on to give him notice, that he was with all speed to fet out to take poffeffion of the happiness reserved in heaven. REVISAL.*

ears.

L. 4.

- an everlafting leiger.

Therefore your beft appointment.] Leiger is the fame with refident. A pointment; 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. *JOHNSON.

L. 16.

a restraint

To a determin'd fcope.] A confinement of your mind to one painful idea; to ignominy, of which the remembrance can be neither fuppreffed nor efcaped, JoHN.

L. 29. The poor Beetle, &c.] The reafoning is," that death is no more that every being muft fuffer, though the