G.265. W.245. for to speak the truth. This foolish insertion spoils the metre. Read: For to speak truth, G. 268. W.247.-These apish boys, when they but task the grammates, The principles of theory. Read: These apish boys, when they but taste the grammates, And principles of theory. G. 271. W.250.-Suddenly, "i. e. immediately." Ringrazio! G. 272. W.250.-Cull, passim. Read: coll. G. 272. W. 251. Struck on their foreheads. Read: Stuck on the foreheads. G. 272. W.251.-No woman but can fall, and doth, or would. "i. e. No woman, if she but can fall, doth fall, or if she cannot, fain would fall." And this I take to be a clear account of the matter! Bassanes says, Every woman is liable to fall; and either actually does fall, or would, if an opportunity offered. It is against the last chance that he purposes to guard, by closing his doors and windows. G.273. W.251. they say the king has mow'd All his gray beard. "Old copy, mew'd.” This is almost too absurd for Mr. Weber. Is there a child in the kingdom who does not know that to mew, is to moult, to shed the feathers? &c. And this precious correction (mowed) is, with the most undoubting simplicity, advanced into the text! G. 276. W.254.-I must attend Whether you please. G.277. W.255. How they flatter Wagtails and jays together! Could nothing excite Mr. Weber's suspicion? G.277. W.255.-Pleasant! how? The speaker is in no mood for pleasantry: he speaks in the impatience of anger to Phulas. Read: Peasant, how? G. 283. W.259.—Demur, “i. e. delay." No doubt! G.283. W.260.-Marriage joys are-the sinews of concord. "A metaphor taken from the sinews of a musical instrument." Excellent. G. 285. W, 262.-Asleep, sleep, sir. Read Asleep! asleep, sir! The matter is not much; and yet it should be noticed, for it spoils the verse. G.282. W.263. Read: such alacrity as nature And custom did delight in. as nature And custom took delight in, Why was this silly change? G. 286. W.263.-Exit Orgilus. Orgilus is the chief speaker in the scene! As sweetly scented as the incense smoking The holiest altars, virgin-tears (like [those] "Those," Mr. Weber says, is necessary to sense and metre, Had the assertion been true, Mr. Weber would have stumbled on a very good apology without knowing it. What sense the insertion of those found or left in the verse, is known only to himself:-but this is all he says on this exquisite passage-broken and confused indeed, far beyond his power of restitution; but which (as appears from his next note) he neither comprehended, nor felt in the slightest degree. G. 291. W. 267.-I tear my veil. Read: I will tear my veil. G. 293. W.268.-Pro. In vain we labour, &c. Here Mr. Weber has absurdly taken a speech from Penthea, to whom it characteristically belongs, and given it to Prophilus. G. 294. W.269.-Hath shock'd that shadow off. Read: Hath shook that shadow off. G. 295. W.270.-For basis, r. bases; and, for treasons or adulteries, r. treasons and adulteries. G. 295. W.270.-Intrenching on just laws. "This is a singular use of this verb, and it is put here for trenching upon just laws." Good! G. 296. W.271.-But let the gods be moderators still! "Moderators, a metaphor, taken from the office of moderators in public corporations." Better! G.296. W.271.-The prince of Argos Is entertained? "i.e. expected. This use of the verb is not very common, but the deduction of the meaning from the more common sense of it is sufficiently plain." Best of all! Mr. Weber had but to read the very next line, to see that the prince (so far from being expected) was al ready arrived; had been entertained, in the usual sense of the word, and made his demand of the princess's hand. It should be observed, that the last three " illustrative notes" closely follow one another on the same page. Surely no blind mole ever blundered into day so unluckily. G.299. W.274.-The handmaid to the wages, The untroubled [but] of country toil, drinks streams. "The handmaid to the wages, is a singular expression,—but the author is in many instances not less quaint in similar phrases. The old copy reads "the untroubled of country toil," which is in direct opposition to the "handmaid to the wages," who is certainly not untroubled of country toil.-The least violent alteration which suggested itself was the introduction of but, and this not only affords sense, but greatly assists the metre." After all this storm in a puddle, (and I have given but a part of it,) nothing is needed but a simple transposition. The handmaid to the wages Read: Here is no Weber's but Of country toil, drinks the untroubled streams want of either sense or metre; and Mr. may be sent about its business. G. 301. W. 276.-Calantha 'tis: the princess, the king's daughter, Sole heir of Sparta. "I have ventured," Mr. Weber says, "to make an alteration here. The old copy reads, Calantha is the princess, &c. which is neither unknown to Penthea, nor to the reader." Pity that such sagacity should be thrown away! Penthea had pressed her brother for the name of his mistress, which, after repeated attempts, he declares he dares not utter: on which she taxes him with want of affection to herself, and he then, with all the delicacy of respectful feeling, after an injunction of silence, replies, as in the text Peace! Calantha-is the princess-the king's daughter- (her claims progressively rising in dignity)—to shew the hopeless nature of his love. What now becomes of Mr. Weber's poor vulgarism-Calantha 'tis? G.303. W.278.-Or progress in the chariot of thy sun. Read: in the chariot of the sun. This passage is not without curiosity, as tending to prove that some of the words now supposed to be Americanisms, were in use among our ancestors, and crossed the Atlantic with them. It is not generally known that Ford's county (Devonshire) supplied a very considerable number of the earlier settlers in the Colonies. G.303. W.278.-Grausis r. Groneas. G.305. W.279.-O that I could preserve thee in fruition "For preserve, I suspect we should read but serve.” A more extraordinary suspicion never entered mortal head: the only apology for it is, that Mr. Weber did not know what he was saying. G.307. W.281.-Some way I must try, To outdo art, and try a jealousy. "The old copy reads, quite absurdly, cry a jealousy." I omit the rest, in pity to the reader: but Mr. Weber makes sense of the passage, he says, by reading try,* which, as occurring immediately above, is the last word that would i. e. I must try to try. |