as this is. It would be more strictly grammatical, according to our present idiom, if we should read

Business on all sides, and of all sorts, &c.

But that is not necessary; as of, in this place, has the force of on.

Page 589. JUPITER........

Whose powerful prayers were those that reach'd our ears, Arm❜d in such spells of pity now?.

That is, Spells fitted to move compassion; and is a more natural and poetical expression than spells of piety, which Seward proposes to read.

FINIS,

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

ON THE

PLAYS

OF

SHAKESPEARE,

EXTENDED TO THE LATE

EDITIONS OF MALONE AND STEEVENS.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS,

&c. &c.

ACT I.-Sc. 2.

THE TEMPEST.

PROSPERO. ......like one,

Who having unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a truant of his memory

To credit his own lie; he did believe
He was, indeed, the Duke.

Mr. Steevens justly observes, that there is no correlative to which the word it can properly belong, that lie, however, seems to have been the correlative which the poet meant, however ungrammatically. This observation has induced me to amend the passage, and to read,-Who having unto truth, by telling oft, instead of of it.;

And I am confirmed in this conjecture, by the passage quoted by Malone, in his appendix, from Bacon's history of Henry the Seventh, which runs thus:

Nay, he himself, (speaking of Perkin Warbeck) with long and continual counterfeiting, and with oft telling a lie, was turned, by habit, almost into the thing, he seemed to be, and from a liar, to be a believer.

There is, as Mr. Malone observes, a wonderful coincidence between the two passages; the sentiments in both being precisely the same.

ACT I.-Sc. 2.

PROSPERO.

..and here

Have I, thy Schoolmaster, made thee profit more
Than other Princes can, that have more time
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

The reading of the first folio is, than other Princesses can; which was changed by Rowe into other Princes, and Mr. Malone departing from his favourite Copy, has adopted this amendment, injudiciously in my opinion, and without sufficient attention to the construction of the passage.

Had the sentence ended with the words vainer hours, the amendment might have been justified; but the following words, and Tutors not so careful, prove that the reading of the folio is the true one; and the meaning is clearly this-here, I, thy Schoolmaster, have by my Instruction made you profit more, than other Princesses can, who have more leisure for vain pursuits, and not such careful Tutors as myself.