COMMENTS, &c.

VOL. I.

THE MAID'S TRAGEDY.

Page 7. LYSIPPUS.................A Lady, Sir,
That bears the light above her, strikes dead
With flashes of her eyes-The fair Evadne!

Whether we suppose that the pronoun her refers to Aspatia, or to Evadne herself, it is' scarcely possible to extract any sense from this passage as it stands; but a slight alteration will not only render it intelligible, but highly poetical. I should therefore read it thus:

A Lady, Sir,

That bears the lightning's power, strikes dead
With flashes of her eyes.

b

The words strikes dead, in the first line, and flashes, in the last, seem to confirm this conjecture. In the Humorous Lieutenant, p. 67, Celia says, I have no eyes

Of mortal lights; but certain influences,

Strange virtuous lightnings, human nature starts at.

Page 8. LYSIPPUS..................And where the rest
Of our young Ladies, in their wanton blood,
Tell mirthful tales in course.

In course means, in their turn, one after the other. The same expression occurs in the 27th page, where Aspatia says,

Let my bier

Be borne by virgins that shall sing, by course,
The truth of maids, and perjuries of men.

Page 12. DIAGORAS.Codes, Codes! what now?

I do not know the meaning of this ejaculation; but suppose it to be used instead of Gods, Gods! to avoid impiety.

Page 15. NIGHT................

How dull and black am I! I could not find
This beauty without thee, I am so blind;
Methinks, they shew like to those Eastern streaks
That warn us hence, before the morning breaks;
Back, my pale servant! for these eyes know how
To shoot far more and quicker rays than thou.

Both the sense and the grammar require that we should read beauties, instead of beauty, in the second line-unless we transpose the two last couplets, and read the passage thus:

How dull and black am I! I could not find
This beauty without thee, I am so blind.

Back, my pale servant! for these eyes know how
To shoot far more and quicker rays than thou:
Methinks, they shew like to those Eastern streaks
That warn us hence, before the morning breaks,

I should prefer the transposition to the amend,

ment.

Page 17. CYNTHIA......Rise, rise, I say,

Thou powers of deeps! thy surges lade away,
Neptune! great king of waters; and by me
Be proud to be commanded,

Mr. Seward's remark on this passage is, that the old copies read laid away, which appears to him to be scarcely sense. He says that Neptune, in leaving the ocean, is never supposed to bring the surges with him, or to lay them aside, but barely to leave them. The word lade, he says, will signify his parting the waves with his trident, to give him a free passage, which is an image quite poetical; and therefore he reads lade instead of laid, and is followed by the Editors of 1778. I cannot agree with Seward, that to con

vert the trident of Neptune into a ladle, is an image quite poetical: besides, to lade does not mean to part water or any other liquid, but to bale or throw it out.

I have no doubt but we ought to adhere to the old copies, and read

Thy surges laid away:

That is, thy surges being laid aside. A similar expression occurred but ten lines before, where the Night says to Cynthia,

Or, if thou wo❜ot, then call thine own Endymion
From the sweet flowery bed he lies upon,

On Latmos top; thy pale beams drawn away,
And of this long night let him make a day.

Page 19. NEPTUNE............ Till this night is done
By me, a solemn honor to the Moon.

Fly, like a full sail!

We should certainly read, tell, this night, instead of till, which is not sense.

The same expression occurs in the last stanza of the following song, where Cynthia says,