(6) It is not improbable that the poet himself might have introduced the word which is here rejected; and that the line, at first, stood thus :

" "Tis sweet and commendable in your nature."

But when, upon revisal, he judged it fitting to insert "Hamlet," it was, doubtless, to follow, that the word "Nature," with the possessive termination of the pronoun, was to be expunged. C. LOFFT.

(c) MASSINGER.

MARCELLA.

FRANCISCA.

-DUKE OF MILLAINE. Ed. 1638.

"Unheard-of impudence!

"You'll say I'm modest,

"When I have told the story; can you tax me

"(That have receiv'd some worldly presents from him)
"For being ungrateful? When he that first tasted,
"And hath so long enjoy'd your sweet embraces,
"(In which all blessings that our frail condition
"Is capable of, is wholly comprehended)
"As clogg'd with happinesse, condemns the giver
"Of his felicitie; and, as he reached not
"The master-piece of mischief, which he aims at,
"Unless he pay those favours he stands bound to,
"With unexampled favour; nay, doats on you
"As there were something in you more than woman,
"When, on my knowledge, he long hath wish'd
"You were among the dead; and I, you scorn so,
"Perhaps, am your preserver

MARC.

"Bless me, good Angels!

"Or am I blasted? Lies so false and wicked

"And falsehood to so damnable a purpose," &c.

Of eighteen lines here, in succession, we find only one (admitting the offered correction) of the regular heroic struc

ture

*Time, probably omitted.

"And age from that which bred it, good example,
"Nay (would ourselves were not the worst) even parents
"That did destroy the hopes in their own children:
"The first words we form their tongue with are licentious jests.
"Can it call whore? Cry bastard? O then kiss it,
"A witty child! Can't swear? The father's darling.
"Give it two plums; but this is in the infancy:
"When it puts on the breeches, it will put-off all this;
"Ay, it is like, when it is gone into the bone already."
Ben Jonson-Every Man in his Humour.

"In all our royal master's names we tell you,

"You have done injustice; broke the bond of concord,
"And from their equal share, from Alexander
"Parted; and so possessed not, like a brother,

"But as an open enemy you have hedged in

"Whole provinces; mann'd and maintain'd these injuries,
"And daily with their sword, though they still honour you,
"Make bloody inroads, take towns, and ruin provinces."
Beam. and Fletcher-Mad Lover.

Among these diffused terminations (besides some that are entirely out of all reckoning) we find in Jonson one, and in Beaumont and Fletcher two trisyllables; which, by the way, is very frequent with these writers.

(d) As, besides some instances in the preceding note,

"Where he

"Resolves to revel, how the lords of her, like

た

"The tradesmen," &c.

Massinger.-Picture.

"To die, which is inevitable, you may urge."

Ibid.

"The Spartans are in arms, and like to win all.

Beam. and Fletch.—Mad Lover.

"You are so tender now, think where you are sweet.”

Beam. and Fletch.-Hums. Lieut. "As you love heaven, love him; she's only yours, sir." "My lord the king, he will undo himself, sir."

Ibid.

"Time and the wars together, make me stoop, gentlemen.” Ibid.-Loyal Subject. "This is the noblest difference; take your choice, sister."

Ibid.

"I hope you travel, sir, with licence; how long, sir.” "My lord, will you not take your dispatch hence, yet?" Ben Jons.-Volpone. “We shou'd have a new amalgama made; O this ferret!” Ibid.-Alchemist.

"For a cloake with thrice-died velvet, and a cast suite."

Massinger.-Maids of Honor.

"Yourselves both in and upright with a provant sword.”

Ibid.-Ed. 1632.

(e) In the twilight obscurity of this vast region, where vagrant opinion will often be allured by vanity, that ignis fatuus, to tread the perilous wilds of conjecture, "I pull in resolution," it will, doubtless, be objected by some, that I am here transgressing the boundaries assigned to the critic; who, though licensed, by prescription, to commend or censure, can claim no privilege to alter. Unquestionably, where the text of an author has come attested to the world, as his own unadulterated performance, any attempts at emendation are unwarrantable; and, I have always viewed with indignant astonishment, the desperate temerity of Bentley, as exercised on Milton; but if we, for a moment, contemplate the different circumstances attending that great poet and our dramatist, we must perceive that no comparison,

on this ground, can be made between them. During the lifetime of Milton, two genuine editions of the Paradise Lost were published; and, besides the change in the number and disposition of the books, in the second copy we see, by a new title page, and a table of errata annexed, but two years afterwards, to the first, that the illustrious author had bestowed upon it the greatest attention, even to the most minute peculiarities of orthography. How foreign from this is the case of Shakspeare! Unmindful of every thing but his ease and profit, and wholly indifferent to the applause of posterity, he abandoned his works to the disposition of chance, and they came forth, accordingly, altered, augmented, and depraved; as suited, alternately, the caprice, the avarice, and the ignorance of players, managers, and publishers: upon a revisal, therefore, of compositions so abused, correction cannot fairly be deemed arrogance, nor alteration sacrilege; and if casual improvement be not imperiously dictated, but modestly suggested; not imposed as authentic, but submitted as convenient; not rashly usurping a station in the text, but humbly waiting for judgment in the margin, and implicitly abiding the sentence of the reader, whether for acceptance or rejection, the attempt will, at least, be pardonable.

UPON THE

PLAYS OF SHAKSPEARE.

TEMPEST,

ACT I. SCENE I.

6. "Blow, till thou burst thy wind."

Till thy lungs be rent-till thou art brokenwinded.

SCENE II.

If by your art, my dearest father, you

have

"Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them."

I am inclined to think the poet would have arranged these words thus:

86

If, by your art, my dearest father, you "Have put the wild waters in this roar, allay them,"

Arithmetic, indeed, might pause, dubious which line to burthen with the redundant syllable, but a good ear, in harmony with the sense, would at once suggest this disposition.