In speaking these last words, Celia points to her

heart.

Page 108. LEONTIUS........Faith, princes,

'Twere a good point of charity to piece them.

To piece them, means, to make them one again. To peace them, which the Editors wish to substitute, would not be English.

Page 111. LEONTIUS............

May they be ever loving, ever young,

And ever worthy of those lines they sprung;
May their fair issues walk with time along.

The last Editors say, that the reading of loins, instead of lines, will remedy the vitious construction of this passage; but it appears to me, that whether we read lines or loins, the construction will remain precisely the same. It certainly is defective; but, I believe, that arises from the inadvertency of the authors themselves, not the inaccuracy of the antient editions.

It may be reduced to grammar by a slight alteration; the reading whence, instead of they--

And ever worthy of those lines, whence sprung,
May their fair issue walk with time along!

But, for the reason I have stated, I do not propose that amendment. They sprung, evidently means, they sprung from.

VOL. III.

THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS.

Mr. Seward censures, with much indignation, his Gothic countrymen, who damned the Faithful Shepherdess on its first appearance on the stage; which he considers as a scandal to the national taste. I cannot agree with him in this severe censure; but think, on the contrary, that the conduct of the audience was very excuseable. Mr. Seward forgets, that a very fine poem may make a very dull play; and, notwithstanding the number of poetical beauties that abound in this pastoral, I will venture to assert, that it would prove upon the stage a very absurd and tiresome exhibition. It is tiresome indeed in the reading, and would be still more so in the representation.

Page 129. CLOE.............

Yet, if I may believe what others say,

My face has foil enough.

Mr. Seward has given us a very learned dissertation on this passage, but mistakes the meaning of it.

He says, that the common acceptation of the

word foil, is something ugly to set off beauty; but that cannot possibly be the meaning of the word in this place. The old and true reading is foile, derived from the French word feuille, which signifies gilding; and also a thin leaf of tinsel, of various colours, which is put under diamonds, and other precious stones, in the setting, for the purpose of adding to their natural lustre. It is to this that Cloe alludes.

Page 130. THENOT............

Was ever man but I,

Thus truly taken with uncertainty?

Where shall a man be found, that loves a mind
Made up in constancy, and dares not find

His love rewarded?

Uncertainty is here used in the sense of inconsistency; a desire of obtaining things incompatible with each other.

Page 137. PRIEST........Sweetest slumbers,

And soft silence, fall in numbers.

Mr. Seward says, that silence falling in numbers, is a very dark expression; and therefore proposes an unnecessary amendment. Silence falling in numbers, would indeed be, not merely a dark expression, but absolute nonsense; but as the verb fall refers to slumbers, not to silence, the passage requires no alteration; and soft silence means, with soft silence.

Page 142. CLORIN........Darest thou abide
To see this holy Earth at once divide,

And give her body up?

That is, the body which is in her possession; we must otherwise read, his body up. For the body she alludes to, was that of her lover..

Thanks, gentle shepherd; and beshrew my stay
Which made me fearful, I had lost my way.

We should certainly read--

Which made him fearful I had lost my way.

The sullen shepherd had just told her that he had seen Perigot, who called out on her--

And said, why, Amorat, stayest thou so long?
Then starting up, down yonder path he flung,
Lest thou had'st miss'd the way.

Page 161.

There's ne'er a sheperdess in all the plain,
Can kiss thee with more art; there's none can fain.

Your actions ever driven to the most,

Then down again as low, that none can find

The rise, or falling, of a woman's mind.

It requires some ingenuity to find any difficulty in a passage so clearly expressed as this is; yet

both Seward, and the last Editors, think it necessary to amend it.

Seward proposes to read--

Your actions ever driven for the most.

And asks, if their actions were ever driven to the most, how they could fall into the contrary extreme, and fall low again? But what the Poet means to say, is, that women are always in extremes; which is much better expressed by the words as they stand, than by his amendment.

By their actions being ever driven to the most, Perigot means to say, that every particular action is carried to extremity; not that the same action is always to continue.

Page 191. CLORIN.......

May thy grief more appease!

Seward says, that the word grief is to be spoken as two syllables: but will any man ever pronounce

it so?

Page 193. CLORIN........

In this flame his finger thrust,

Which will burn him, if he lust.

Sympson asserts, that this is taken, word for word, from Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor; and then, by quoting the passage alluded to, he proves that it is not,