Page 254. THEODORE.... Who, but Euphanes, durst Make stories such as this? That is, who, but Euphanes, dare to commit crimes to occasion such stories? Page 257. CONON........ She chafes, like storms in groves: now sighs, now weeps; And both, sometimes, like rain and wine commix'd. We must read Like rain and wind commixed, As in Seward's edition. Page 260. CRATES....Horses? we are descried. Sympson proposes to read, Curse on it, instead of horses; an unnecessary amendment, and founded on misconception. Crates does not mean to call for horses, in order to escape; but, on hearing the sound of horses, naturally supposes they were discovered. Page 262. EUPHANES.... My dear brother, The sense and grammar require that we should read-- Nature's divided stream, Instead of streams. VOL. VI. BONDUCA. Page 284. COMILIUS....Not a flight drawn home. The Editors say that a flight means an arrow; but I believe it rather means the discharge of an arrow; and when Beatrice says that Benedict had challenged Cupid at the flight, she means that he challenged him to try who should shoot farthest. Page 285. CARACTACUS....I fled too, But not so fast; your jewel had been lost then, I cannot agree with Warton in his explanation of this passage. He says the meaning of it is, that Hengo stopt his flight: and, in support of this explanation, he tells us, that to trash a hound is a term of hunting, still used in the north of England, and means to correct him. To thresh either a horse or a man is a common phrase every where: to trash has the same sound. Hunting terms are seldom committed to writing; and, according to Warton, they have both the same meaning. Mr. Warton's reasoning is, that to trash is to correct; that to correct is to check; that to check is to stop; and that, therefore, to trash, in this passage, must mean to stop: not considering, that hounds are as frequently trashed for their slowness as for their speed. But the truth is, that to trash means to follow. So, in the Puritan, as published in Malone's Supplement to Shakespeare, Mary says, speaking of a coach-- A guarded lackey to run before it, and pied liveries to come trashing after it. It is evident that, in this passage, to trash means to follow; and the word has the same meaning in this. Page 236. CARACTACUS....Our registers, The Romans, are for noble deeds of honour; And shall we brand their mentions with upbraidings? The old reading is-- And shall we burn their mentions with upbraidings? This alteration is made by Sympson, who urges in support of it a Latin phrase, notam insebut the more correct Latin phrase is notam inurere, which confirms the old reading. rere; Page 287. CARACTACUS........ Let's use the peace of honour, that's fair dealing; I have no doubt but Sympson is right in reading-- But in our hands our swords. The change is but trifling, and it is a great. improvement of the sense. Page 292. PETILIAS........ We'll feed you up, as fat as hens in the forehead, A fitchock is a small animal of the weazel kind, remarkably irascible. Page 295. PETILIUS....... How to go on, and get to save a Roman. Sympson is clearly right in reading-- How to go on, and yet to save a Roman. The following lines prove the necessity of this amendment. Page 296. SUETONIUS....The rule is certain. Their uses no less excellent. Whose uses? The word their has no correlative: we should, therefore, read The uses no less excellent, Instead of their. Petilius means to say, that the rule was just, and the application of it excellent. Page 296. SUETONIUS....But where time Cuts off occasions, danger, time, and all Seward, not understanding this passage, proposes the reading of present evil, instead of peril, on a supposition that danger and peril are synonimous terms: but peril does not here mean danger; it means trial or hazard. Periculum, in hb Latin, from which peril is derived, has the same signification. The whole of Suetonius's speech tends to prove the necessity of hazarding an action, even on disadvantage. 7 Page 296. SUETONIUS........ Necessity gives time for doubts. The sense, and the whole tenor of this speech, requires that we should read-- Necessity gives no time for doubts: Page 296. SUETONIUS.... For doubts: (things infinite That is, infinite rewards; the words like them referring to things infinite, in the preceding line. The parenthesis, therefore, which separates that line from that which follows it, ought to be ex, punged. The concluding speech of Suetonius confirms this explanation-- Tell them, if now they conquer, The fat of all the kingdom lies before them; Page 297. SUETONIUS........ The virtues of the valiant Caratach More doubts me than all Britain. That is, It inspires me with more doubt. An unusual acceptation of the verb. Page 299. PENIUS.... And on their heads Whose virtues, like the sun, exhal'd all valours, |