"And thus we paffe the year fo long,

"And neuer be we mute."

Compare the Mafque in the TEMPEST, A. iv. S. i. Where Iris fays,
You fun-burnt ficklemen of August weary,
Come hither from the furrow, and be merry :
Make holiday, your rye-straw hats put on,
And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
In country footing, &c.

Where is this ftage-direction, Enter certain Reapers properly babited: they join with the nymphs in a graceful dance, &c. The TEMPEST probably did not appear before the year 1612.

Some notices of GEORGE PEELE, the author of our OLD WIUES TALE, may be thought neceffary. He was a native of Devonshire; and a Student of Christ-Church Oxford, where he became a Master of arts in 1579. At the university, he was much efteemed for his poetical talents. Going to London, he was made conductor of the city pageants. Hence he feems to have got a connection with the ftage. He was one of the wits of town, and his "Merrie Iefts" appeared in 1607. Reprinted 1627. Mr Steevens juftly fuppofes, that the character of GEORGE PIEBOARD, in the Puritan, was defigned for GEORGE PEELE. See Malone's SUPPL. SHAKESP. ii. 587. He has some few paftoral pieces in ENGLANDS HELICON. He dedicated a poem called the HONOUR OF THE GARTER, to the earl of Northumberland, by whom he was patronifed, in 1593. He wrote alfo among other things, POLYHYMNIA, the defeription of a TYLT exhibited before the queen, 1590. As to his plays, befide the OLD WIUES TALE, 1595, he wrote THE ARRAIGNMENT OF PARIS, 1584. — EDWARD THE FIRST, 1593.-KING DAVID AND FAIR BETHSABE, 1599. [See Note on Comus, v. 934. fupr. p. 251.]—And THE TURKISH MAHOMET AND HYREN [Irene] THE FAIRE GREEK, never printed. [See Malone, ut fupr. vol. 1. 191.] Of his popularity, and in various kinds of poetry, fee Meres's WITS TREASURY, 1598. 12mo. viz. p. 232. 283, 285. And Nafh's EPISTLE to the Gentlemen Students of both univerfities, prefixed to Greene's ARCADIA, 4to Bl. Let. He lived on the Bank-fide, oppofite to Black Friars: and died, in want and obscurity, of a difeafe, which Wood fays is incident to poets, about the year 1597. He was a favourite dramatic poet and his plays continued to be acted with applaufe long after his death. A man of Peele's profeffion, fituation, and character, must have left many more plays, at least interludes, than are now remembered even by name only. His OLD WIUES TALE, which is unrecited by Wood, and of which the industrious Langbaine appears to have known nothing more than the title, had funk into total oblivion.

CORRECTIONS AND SUPPLEMENTAL

P. 3.

Τ

OBSERVATIONS.

HAT he was of a proper age for love. It is at least certain that Milton, whatever hidden meaning he, &c." Reform the paffage thus. "That King was of a proper age for love. "We will allow, that King, whatever hidden meaning the poet, &c.” Page 6. v. 18. Add to the Note.] Milton has the fame ufe and fenfe of Cox, in APOL. SMECTYMN. "Thus lie at the mercy of a "Cor flurting ftyle, to be girded with frumps and curtall gibes, &c." PROSE WORKS. i. 105.

P. 18. v.100. That fatal and perfidious bark,

Built in th' eclipfe, &c.] Although doctor Newton mentions the Ille et nefafto, and mala foluta navis exit alite, of Horace, as two paffages fimilar to this, yet he has not obferved, how much more poetical and striking is the imagery of Milton, that the ship was built in the eclipfe, and with rigged curses.

It may be a matter of curiofity to mention, that Mr Edward King whofe death is here lamented, is the author of an elegant copy of Latin Iambics, prefixed to a Latin Comedy, called SENILE ODium, acted at Queen's College in Cambridge, 1633, and written by Peter Haufted. Cantab, 1633. 12mo. Dr. J. WARTON.

P. 41. v. 27. Add to the Note.] Our author has CRANKS, which his context explains, PR. W. i. 165. To fhew us the ways of the Lord, trait and faithful as they are, not full of CRANKS and contradictions.”

P. 44. v. 53. From his watch-tower in the fkies.] So in his REFORMATION, &c. Of God. "From his high WATCH-TOWER in the

"HEAVENS." PR. W. i. 22.

P. 50. v. 94.] In Shakespeare, a fidler is called Hugh REBECK. See ROM. JUL. A. iv. S. iv. And Steevens's Note. If, as I have fuppofed, it is Chaucer's RIBIBLE, the diminutive of RIBIBE, used alfo by Chaucer, I agree with fir John Hawkins, that it originally comes from REBEB, the name of a Moorish mufica! inftrument with two ftrings, played on by a bow. [See Tyrwhitt's CHAUCER, N. on v. 6959.] Sir John adds, that the Moors brough it into Spain, whence it paffed into Italy, and obtained the appellation of RIBECA. HIST. Mus. ii. 86. Perhaps we had it from the French Rebec and Rebecquin. In the Percy Houthold Book, 1512, are recited,Myntralls in "Houfhold iij, viz. a Taberett, a Luyte, and a REBECC." P.42. It appears below queen Elizabeth, in the mufic establishment of the royal houfhold.

P. 54. v. 108. His fhadowy flail.-] We have the flail, an implement here given to Robin Goodfellow, in the exhibition of that favourite character in GRIM THE COLLIER OF CROYDON. See A.iv. S.i.

Reed's

Reed's OLD PL. xi. 238. "Enter Robin Goodfellow, in a sult of leather "clofe to his body, his face and hands coloured ruffet colour, with a FLAIL.” In which scene he fays, p. 241.

What, miller, are you vp agin?

Nay, then my FLAIL fhall never lin.

Robin Goodfellow, cloathed in green, was a common figure in the old city-pageants. Mayne's CITYE-MATCH, A. ii. S. vi. edit. 1639. Some fpeeches, fir, in verse, which I have spoke

By a green Robin Goodfellow from Cheapfide Conduit.
P.55. v. 113. Add to the note.] In GRIM THE COLLIER OF CROY-
DON, perhaps printed before 1600, Robin Goodfellow fays,
I love a meffe of Creame as well as they,

Ho, Ho, my mafters, no good fellowship?
IS ROBIN GOODFELLOW a bugbear grown?

A. v. S. 1. See Reed's OLD PL. xi. 254. Again, ibid. p. 238.
For I fhall fleet their CREAM-BOWLS night by night.
In the old Moralities it was cuftomary to introduce the Devil with
the cry, ho, ho, ho! GAMM. GURT. N. Ibid. ii. 34.

P. 56. v. 118. Add to the Note,] I take this opportunity of remarking, that the old practise of applauding favourite paffages of a fermon by a loud hum from the congregation, which was called bumming a fermon, is remembered by our author, APOL. SMECTYMN. §. x. He fays, the established clergy feldom preached edifying fermons in the largest churches: "and fuch as are moft HUMMED and applauded "there, would fcarce be fuffered a fecond hearing, &c." PR. W. i. 127. I think HUMMING might be revived with fuccefs by the methodists.

P.66. v.26, In Saturn's reign," &c.] Much in the fame ftrain, in his DIVORCE, B. ii. c. iv. "If at pleasure you can difpenfe with golden poetic ages of fuch pleafing licence, as in the fabled reign of old "Saturn, &c." PR. W. i. 190.

P. 87. v. 142. While the bee with honied thigh.] Dr Johnson cenfures Gray, who was a scholar, for giving to adjectives, derived from fubftantives, the termination of participles; as in bonied Spring. But here is Gray's authority; and we have HONIED again, in SAMS. AGON. v. 1066." Nor fear the bait of HONIED words." And нONIED fentences may be found in one of Shakespeare's HENRIES, See also EL. v.68.

That is,

MELLITASQUE Movent flamina yerna preces.

And vernal zephirs waft her HONIED VOWS,

P. 92. v. 161. There let the pealing organ, &c.] Of these penfive delights, he speaks in a very different tone in the Answer to the EiKON BASILIKE, §. Xxiv." In his Prayer he [the king] remembered what "voices of joy and gladness there were in his Chapel, god's house in "his opinion, between the finging-men and the organs the vanity, fuperftition, and misdevotion of which place, was a fcandal far "and near; wherein fo many things were fung and prayed in those "fongs which were not understood, &c." Again, with fimilar con"tempt,

66

F 2

་ tempt, S.xxv. "His glory in the gaudy copes, and painted win"dows, and the chaunted fervice-book, &c." Pr. W. i. 429, 531. P. 118. Add to the end of the note.] The following notices may correct or illuftrate what I have faid about Hartlib.

Samuel Hartlib came into England about the year 1640. His father, a Pole, lived at Elbing in Prufia; to which place his grandfather brought the Company of English merchants from Dantzick. During the former part of his refidence in England, he was worth 400/. a year, and had a penfion from the republican parliament, of 300 l. See his Account of Himself, 1660. Kennet's REG, AND CHRON. p. 868. fee alfo ibid. p. 870. 871. In 1662, he petitioned the new parliament for relief, being deftitute of all fupport, aged, and infirm. Here he fets forth, amongst other literary fervices, that he had formerly " erected a little academy for the education of the gentry of this nation, "to advance piety, learning, morality, and other exercises of in"duftry, not usual in the common schools." Ibid. p. 872. This inftitutution appears to have occafioned Milton's TRACTATE on EDUCATION, addreffed to Hartlib. He had before, in 1660, written to Lord Herbert, complaining of his extreme diftrefs. He had loft his penfion, the arrears of which amounted to 7001. He adds, " I have nothing "left to keep me alive, with two relations more, a daughter and a "nephew, who is attending my fickly condition." He begs his lordfhip to intercede with lord Manchester and lord Annesley, to join " in "making up fuch an affistance, as may fave your and their moft de"voted fervant from utter perifhing, &c." Ibid. I know not the event of these applications. He certainly deferved well of the public. But he feems to have wasted his fortune in projects. See alfo Birch's HIST. R. Soc. iv. 444. Milton in his Second Reply to More, mentions an infidious Letter from the Dutch printer Vlac to Hartlib. PROSE-WORKS, ii. 360. See manufcript Letters from Hartlib to Dr. Worthington, from 1655, to 1661, at Cambridge. MSS. BAKER, vol. xxix. p. 193. And Catalogue of Pamphlets in BIBL. HARL. p. 23.

Some have doubted about the time, when Milton's TRACTATE to Hartlib was written. It appears from his first Reply to More, published in 1654, that it immediately followed his Books on Divorce, published in 1644. For, reciting the order of his works, and having -mentioned the Books on Divorce, he adds, " INSTITUTIONEM deinde "LIBERORUM uno opufculo brevius quidem troƐabam; fed quod fatis "arbitrabar iis fore qui ad eam rem, qua par effet diligentia, incum

berent, &c." His next work, he fays, was the AREOPAGITICA. This was published in November, 1644. See PROSE-WORKS, ii. 333. Mr. Wife, late Radclivian librarian, had the TRACTATE to Hartlib, a thin quarto in one fheet only, undoubtedly the first edition; but I do not rememember the date, nor do I think there was any, or even a title page. That it was printed not later than the year 1646, appears from a quarto volume of many of Milton's profe tracts, given by himfelf, in that year, to the Bodleian library: in which this TRACTATE, without title page, in one sheet, is the last piece. See Notes

on

on the Latin ODE to Roufe fupr. p. 578. With what propriety it was placed at the end of Milton's own edition of this volume of his poems, 1673, whence, having been omitted by Tonfon, it was repeated by Tickell and Fenton, I do not perceive. A fmall edition was printed in duodecimo at Glafgow, in 1747.

Dury, mentioned in this Note as Hartlib's friend, was appointed in 1649, deputy-librarian under Bulftrode Whitlock of what had been the royal library. Wood fays that Whitlock, in 1647, had prevented the king's books and medals from being fold. ATH. OXON. ii. 546. Dury was Milton's friend and correfpondent. See AUCTOR. PRO SE DEFENS. in the PROSE-WORKS, ii. p. 377. 382. Whitlock calls Dury" a German by birth, a good fcholar, and a great traveller, &c." MEM. p. 401. vol. i. edit. 1682.

P. 124. v. 380. Add to the Note.] See Note on CoмUS, p.186. A critic of the most confummate abilities has confirmed bishop Warburton's opinion, that Pope plainly copied this fublime and elegant imagery, and that he has hewn his dexterity in contending with a great original. Pope fays,

Bear me, fome god, oh! quickly bear me hence,

To wholesome SOLITUDE, the nurse of sense;

Where CONTEMPLATION prunes her RUFFLED WINGS, &C. ON THE MARKS OF IMITATION, 12mo. 1757. P.43.

P. 149. v. 154. To cheat the eye with blear illufion.] In our author's REFORMATION, &c. "If our understanding have a film of ignorance over it, or be BLEAR with gazing on other false glifterings, &c." PR. W. i. 12.

P.150. v.161. Add to the Note.] See APOL. SMECTYMN. §. viii. Immediately he falls to GLOZING, &c." PR.W. i.121. And Shakefpeare's RICH. ii. ~A. ii. S. i.

Than they, whom youth and ease have taught to GLOSE.

----

P. 153. v. 181. Of this tangled wood.] "They seek the dark, "the bushy, the TANGLED foreft." PR. W. i. 13.

P. 155. v. 188. Add to the Note.] In a controversy about churchhabits, Milton applies Amis in a much less poetical fenfe, PR. W. i. We have heard of Aaron and his linen AMICE, &C."

100, "

P. 184. v. 421. Add to the Note.] Hence an expreffion in our author's APOLOGY, which alfo confirms what is here faid, §. i. Zeal, whofe fubftance is ethereal, arming in COMPLEAT diamond, afcends his fiery chariot." PR. W. i. 114.

. 190. V. 463.

When luft,

By unchafte looks, loose gestures, &c.] "He [Chrift] "cenfures an UNCHASTE LOOK to be an adultery already committed: "another time, he paffes over actual adultery with lefs reproof than "for an UNCHASTE LOOK." DIVORCE, B. ii. c.1. PR.W.i. 184. See alfo, p. 304. Milton therefore in the expreffion here noted, alludes to our Saviour's, “ πᾶς ὁ ΒΛΕΠΩΝ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑ προς ΕΠΙΘΥΜΗΣΑΙ αὐτῆς, * &c." S. Matth. EVANG. V. 28.

P. 193. v. 483, Night-founder'd here.] So in PARAD. L. B. i.