larly to have admired these two plays, and hath wrote two in imitation of them, the SEA-VOYAGE and the FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS. But when he prefumes to break a lance with. Shakespeare, and write in emulation of him, as he does in THE FALSE ONE, which is the rival of ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA, he is not fo ficcessful. After him, Sir John Suckling and Milton catched the brightest fire of their imagination from thefe two plays; which fhines fantastically indeed in THE GOBLINS, but much more nobly and ferenely in THE MASK AT LUDLOW-CASTLE. WARBURTON. P. 3. L. 1.] In this naval dialogue, perhaps the first example of failor's language exhibited on the ftage, there are, as I have been told by a skilful navigator, fome inaccuracies and contradictory orders. JOHNSON. P. 4. L. 1. Cheerly, cheerly,] from the old copies. Ibid. Hand a rope.] Old copies. CAPELL.* CAPELL. if room enough.] L. 3. blow till thou burft thy wind, Perhaps it might be read, "Blow till thou burft, wind, if room enough." JOHNSON. L. 16. o'the prefent,] i. e. on the prefent, at this inftant. THEOB.* L. 21.] It may be obferved of Gonzalo, that, being the only good man that appears with the king, he is the only man that preserves his cheerfulness in the wreck, and his hope on the island. JOHNSON. P. 5. L. 2.] The courfes are the main-fail and fore-fail. This term is ufed by Raleigh in his Discourse on Shipping. JOHNSON. P. 6. L. 3. to glut bim.] Shakespeare probably wrote, t'englut him, to fwallow him; for which I know not that glut is ever ufed by him. In this fignification englut, from engloutir, French, occurs frequently, as in Henry VI. Thou art fo near the Gulf Thou muft needs be englutted." And again in TIMON and OTHELLO. Yet Milton writes glutted offal for fwallowed: and therefore perhaps the prefent text may Яand. JOHNSON. L. 6. Brother, farezvel!] As Gonzalo had no brother in the hip, this line fhould, I think, be given to Alonso the king, taking leave of his brother Sebaftian, to which the next lines make the natural anfwer. Gonzalo had indeed no wife and children there, but that exclamation is the general cry in wrecks. Brother is ufelefs, unless fome brother had been afterwards mentioned. JOHNSON. L. 10. long beath.] This is the common name for the erica baccifera: which the Oxford editor not underftanding, conjectured that Shakespeare wrote,- ling, beath: but, unluckily, beath and ling are but two words for the fame plant. WARB. L. 12. If by your art, &c.] Nothing was ever better contrived to inform the audience of the story than this scene. It is a converfation that could not have happened before, and could not but happen now. WARB.* P. 7. L. 5. Profp. No barm.] I know not whether Shakefpeare did not make Miranda speak thus, O wo the day! no harm? To which Profpero properly answers, I have done nothing but in care of thee. Miranda when she speaks the words, 0 wo the day, fuppofes, not that the crew had escaped, but that her father thought differently from her, and counted their deftruction no harm. JOHNSON. L. 9. I am more better.] This is the genuine reading, which Mr. Pope has fophifticated; not obferving, I fuppofe, how frequent it is with Shakespeare, and the other Writers of that age, to add the termination to adjectives of the com parative and fuperlative degrees, and at the fame time prefix figns fhowing the degrees. THEOB.* L. 19. The very virtue of compassion in thee.] We must not think that the very virtue was intended to fhew the degree of her compaffion, but the kind. Compaffion for other's misfortunes ofteneft arifes from a fenfe or apprehenfion of the like. And then it is fympathy, not virtue. Though the want of it may be efteemed vicious, as arifing from a degene racy of nature, which cannot happen but by our own fault. Now the compaffion of Miranda, who never ventured to sea, not being of this kind, Shakespeare, with great propriety, calls it the very virtue, i. e. the real pure virtue of compaffion. WARB.* Ibid.] The very virtue means no more than the virtue itfelf. Mr. Warburton's refinement, in diftinguishing two kinds of compaffion, one of which is a virtue, and the other merely fympathy, is utterly deftitute of all foundation, either in nature, or in the intention of the poet, into whole thoughts it certainly never entered. REVISAL.* Ibid.] Virtue: the most efficacious part, the energetick quality; in a like fense we say, the virtue of a plant is in the extract. JOHNSON. L. 21. is no foyle] i. e. no damage, lofs, detriment. The two old Folio's read,- -is no foul: which will not agree in Grammar with the following part of the fentence. Mr. Rowe first fubftituted-no foul loft, which does not much mend the matter, taking the context together. Foyle is a word familiar with our Paet, and in fome degree fynonymous to perdition in the next line. So in the beginning of the third act of this play, but fome defect in her Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd, And put it to the foil. i. e. abated, undid it. Ibid.] I bave, with fuch provifion in mine art, Тиков.* The fecond of thefe lines, in all the editions preceding that of Mr. Rowe, ftood thus, So fafely order'd, that there is no foul Mr. Rowe, offended at the irregularity of the conftruction, altered it to the prefent reading, in which he is followed by Mr. Pope and Mr. Warburton, but, in my opinion, without neceffity. The conftruction is of that kind which the grammarians call the ávaxóλubov, and inftances of it occur not rarely in the works of the beft writers. In the prefent cafe, the conftruction is broken off, and left imperfect at the end of the fecond line, and it takes a new form in what follows; fo that to compleat it, the participle loft must be supplied from the word perdition, in the third line. The import is exactly the fame as if the poet had written, I have so safely ordered, that there is no foul.Why do I fay foul? No, there is not fo much perdition as an hair betid to any creature in the veffel. The antient reading correfponds with the impetuofity of the poet's genius, the present with the timid regularity of the critical corrector. REVISAL.* Ibid. that there is no foul.] Thus the old editions read; but this is apparently defective. Mr. Rowe, and after him Dr. Warburton, read, that there is no foul loft, without any notice of the variation. Mr. Theobald fubftitutes no foil, and Mr. Pope follows him. To come fo near the right, and yet to miss it, is unlucky; the author probably wrote no o foil, no ftain, no fpot: for fo Ariel tells, Not a hair perifh'd; On their fuftaining garments not a blemish, And Gonzalo; The rarity of it is, that our garments being drench'd in the fea, keep notwithstanding their freshness and gloffes. JOHNSON. Ibid.-that there is no lofs.] So, against the old editions, reads Mr. CAPELL.* P. 8. L. 5. out three years old.] This is the old reading 'tis true, the expreffion is obfolete, but it supply'd the fenfe of, full out, out-right, or right out, as in the fourth act of this play; Swears, he will shoot no more, but play with fparrows, L. 27.] Perhaps—and thou bis only heir. L. 28. A princess.] Against the old copies. THEOB.* JOHNSON. CAPELL.* P. 9. L. 23. To trafb] fignifies to cut away the trash or fuperfluities; as, to top, fignifies, to cut off the top. The Oxford Editor alters it to plash, not confidering that to pla fignifies to bind and complicate branches together, and fo is only used to fignify the dreffing and pleating of an hedge. WARB. L. 25. Key in this place feems to fignify the key of a mufical inftrument, by which he fet bearts to tune. JOHNSON. Ibid.] This doubtless is meant of a key for tuning the harpfichord, fpinette, or virginal: we call it now a tuninghammer, as it is used as well to ftrike down the iron pins whereon the ftrings are wound, as to turn them. As a key it acts like that of a watch. HAWKINS. P. 10. L. 4.] Alluding to the obfervation, that a father above the common rate of men has commonly a fon below it. Heroum filii noxæ. JOHNSON. Who having INTO truth by telling of it, Made fuch a finner of his memory, L. II. like one To credit bis own lie.] The corrupted reading of the fecond line has rendered this beautiful fimilitude quite unintelligible. For what is [having into truth]? or what doth [it] refer to? not to [truth], becaufe if he told truth he could never credit a lie. And yet there is no other correlative to which [it] can belong. I read and point it thus, like one Who having, UNTO truth, by telling OFT, To credit his own lie. i.e. by often repeating the fame ftory, made his memory fuch a finner unto truth as to give credit to his own lie. Á miferable delufion to which story-tellers are frequently fubject. The Oxford Editor having, by this Correction, been let into the sense of the paffage, gives us this fenfe in his own words, Who loving an untruth, and telling't oft, Makes WARB.* Ibid.] As the conftruction in the old editions is very bad, Mr. Warburton's correction by no means unexceptionable, and Sir Thomas Hanmer's rather improbable, I should incline to believe not only that the paffage is corrupted, but that a line hath been dropped. REVISAL.* Ibid.] Read-unto truth-against the old copies. P. 11. l. 1. I fhould fin, CAPELL.* To think not nobly of my grandmother;] This is Mr. Pope's |