459 this per mobile fratrum of commentators, than there is between them and the inimitable writer on whole works they have fo freely commented. If the Reviewer hath at any time, indeed, behaved towards thefe gentlemen with little ceremony, it hath been always when they deferved much less: for it is to be observed, be had nothing to do with the political characters of . He did not think it neceffary, therefore, to pay any deference to Dr. Jeanfin, as his majefty's penfioner; nor to Dr. Warburton, as bifhop of Gloucefter. Their literary character sahat concerned him; and even, viewing them in this light, he had to respect them only as commentators on Shakespeare No the the Reviewer piques himself on being deficient in PRICE DE CALITY, or would take upon himself to infringe the necefact Forms of decency and decoram. He admits, as Dr. JoanSou de ferves, 44 that effect is due to high place, and tender's for Crong reputation be then be concerns the reget to se fated to us to place and time; and assst day that wor tradermed for the Lvng goes as a rig to traple incamary and farmleg onds on the 2nd Had The Hidup of Gloucefer, when be entered on the rigte-reverend foe, made a public postave of the errors of poetry, and formally read the pongs and vanities ven min; nor one of the terés se malazani, at the fus he commces in the kind, accord and acrou a tury was fout, was the Ferien's conftat, vere tint judgment agünk nem, or save seen drept fon tavola to white mer feemed exersas occiget. Erfen Waterman, ar fendo pela 13 de likerne d Bers in the Four of me, da poser vos mira T Auence, in bott a power in the SM Me vier d riches of Cream How far just ope Dr. John the cute of te avoid the fper conclude, 232 rick's typer This large pamphlet contains only half of the Author's defign; which is, to take a review of all the eight volumes of which Dr. Johnson's edition of Shakespeare confifts. The prefent first part goes no farther than the third volume. Mr. K. begins with the Tempeft; and goes on with the plays, in the order wherein they are printed. As a fpecimen of his abilities and manner as a critic, in general, and of his knowlege of Shakespeare, and the earlier English poets, in particular, we fhall felect a few paffages; and the fewer will fuffice, as we shall have an opportunity of returning to the subject, when the fecond part of this undertaking fhall be published :—and it is promised, in the advertisement, with all convenient fpeed.' In The Midfummer-night's Dream, the following paffage hath given rife to fome very notable criticisms: QUEEN. Full often the hath goffipt by my fide; And fat with me, on Neptune's yellow fands, To fetch me trifles, and return again As from a voyage rich with merchandize. Mr.. Kenrick obferves, that the Doctors Warburton and Johnfon have both attempted to illuftrate this paffage, without fuccefs. The difficulty, fays he, lies in the fixth, seventh, and eighth lines. Dr. Warburton fays, "Following what? fhe did not follow the fhip, whofe motion fhe imitated; for that - failed on the water, fhe on the land. If by following we are to understand imitating, it will be a mere pleonafm-imitating would imitate. From the poet's defcription of the actions it plainly appears we fhould read FOLLYING Would imitate. i. e. wantoning in fport and gaiety. Thus the old English writers and they beleeven FOLYLY and falfely-fays Sir J. Mandeville, from and in the fenfe of folatrer, to play the wanton. This exactly agrees to the action defcribed.-full often has the goffipt by my fide-and-when we have laught to fee This note, Dr. Johnfon tells us, is very ingenious; but, continues. he, "fince follying is a word of which I know not any example; and the fairy's favourite might, without much licentioufnels of language, be faid to follow a fhip that failed in the direction of the coaft, I think there is no fufficient reafon for adopting it. The coinage of new words is a violent remedy, not to be used but in the laft neceffity." i will not, favs Mr. K. dipute with our editor the ingeBuy Dr. Warburton's more, or that of his own; but it is consumit an ingenuity of a different kind to that which is neceifar to ftrare Shikelpez e. The former of thele gentlemen, I remen her, affected to ride the bookie lers for Believing mim, that none but a part ondje ku u must I ne cent, bowever, hith proved this man to have kome truth in it. If either Dr. Warburten, or Dr. Jahnion, has a cooling this phale, excrolled their ingenuity as poets, nitead of their ingenuity as photogers, I am pallided ther would foon have diftoveres its meaning. But they were to intent upon arra, to attend to the imags defigned to be Curvered be thum. The former talks of an aution defcribed la two Lees, wherein nothing is spoken of but gi berlag and lagh . Do these imitate a hip uncer fal? To the been merely pill and wanton, is not the imitation bere mentioned: nor eves it confit in merely filtering the object imitated, as Dr. (Jonnión conceives; for the did not only skil upon land, in the iame direction along the ccft as the fhips did in the fa; but the cured again, which must have been in a different & rection. So that it appears neither of these ingminus critics had any idea of the poetical brauty of this paffage.—I fra'} ender our to expain in, therefore, by a very different mode of invet gation. — If the reader hith ever feen a ship fcudding before the wind, with its fore-fall grown lig-weird, is the poet exprefies it, with the swelling breeze; he must recolle that, in fich a cale, the fall projects fo far forward, that it fems, to a frecator on fore, to go in a manner before the rest of the venel, which, for the fime realon, appears to filrw, though cloidy, efter, with an ealy, fwimming motion. This was the moving image, which the fairy's favourite, taking the hint from, and the advan tage of, her pregnancy, endeavoured to imitate; and this the did, by wantonly diiplaying before her the convexity of her swelling belly, and moving after it, as the poet defcribes, with eretry and with fwimming get. Such being the fenie of the paffage, the text is cally afcertained, by pointing and reading thus; Which the, with pretty and with faimming gait Fellowing her womb, then rich with my young fake, Woo'd imitate. This is the method a critic fhould take with the poets. Trace out their images, and you will foon find how they exprefied themselves, without perplexing yourself either about the meaning of antiquated words, or the coinage of new ones." We cannot help thinking that Mr. Kenrick bath underfood and explained this beautiful paffage better than any former comentator; and his illuftration is to us the more fatisfactory, as Hh3 there there is not a word of the author altered:-it may not be amifs, however, to observe, in case of a second edition, that the word gate, as printed in the book, is wrong,-it fhould be gait. In his animadverfions on the following paffage, we apprehend. our Author, who is a very enthusiast in veneration for Shakespeare *, hath been very fuccefsful in vindicating the memory of the good old Bard, from a charge which, if proved upon him, would greatly affect the moral character of his writings. The paffage is in Measure for Measure : Dr. Warburton is here again brought into the fame indictment with the laft editor. The reverend critic is fuppofed, by Mr. Kenrick, to have brought the charge of fuicide against this paffage, in order to lay hold of an occasion for altering the text. The abfurdity,' fays our Reviewer, of fuppofing that the speaker intended it as fuch, is obvious, fince he is endeavouring to inftil into a condemned prifoner a refignation to his fentence. Dr. Johnson obferves, that the meaning feems plainly this, that none but fools would wish to keep life; or, none but fools would keep it, if choice were allowed." A fenfe which, whether true or not, is perfectly innocent. But though our editor is graciously pleased to exculpate Shakespeare in this particular, it appears to be only that he may fall upon him with the greater violence in a page or two after; where Dr. Warburton vouchfafes to pay the poet a compliment. This paffage is in the fame Speech as the foregoing; Thy beft of reft is fleep, And that thou oft provok'ft, yet grofsly fear'st Thy death, which is no more. This paffage, fays Dr. Warburton, " is evidently taken from the following, of Cicero: Habes fomnum imaginem mortis, eamque. quotidie induis, & dubitas quin fenfus in morte nullus fit, cum in ejus fimulachro videas effe nullum fenfum. But the Epicurean infinuation is with great judgment omitted in the imitation." On this note Dr. Johnfon hath made the following remark: "Here Dr. Warburton might have found a fentiment worthy of his animadverfion. I cannot, without indignation, find Shakespeare faying, that death is only fleep, lengthening out his exhortation by a fentence which in the friar is impious, in the reafoner is foolish, and in the poet is trite and vulgar.' -Nor can I, Dr. Johnfon, fays Mr. K. without equal indignation, find you misrepre We have heard Shakespeare's writings ftyled Garrick's BIBLE." If our English Rofcius fhould not chufe to have his favourite Bard beheld In this light, we dare fay our Author will have no objection to having his own name ftand here, in the place of Mr. Garrick's. fenting fenting Shakespeare, and thence taking occafion to condemn him where he is not culpable; lengthening out your cenfure with imputations that, being falfe in themselves, appear as in-. vidious in the man, as they are contemptible in the critic. Would not one imagine, from the warmth with which Dr. Johnfon speaks of this paffage, that it militates against the doctrine of the immortality of the foul; infinuating that in death we close our eyes, and fleep for ever?-Nothing, however, can be more foreign from the plain intent of the fpeaker, and the obvious meaning of the paffage. The duke, in the affumed character of a friar, is endeavouring to perfuade Claudio to acquiefce in the fentence of death påffed on him, and to prepare himself for launching into eternity. To this end he advises him to think altogether on death; and to excite him to do fo, he enumerates the feveral foibles of humanity, and the calamities incident to human life; evidently intending by this means to wean his affections from the world, and render him lefs averse to part with it, and less apprehensive of the pain of dying. Thou eft provokest Sleep, fays he, yet abfurdly feareft to die; which, with regard to the painful and perplexing vigil of life, is only to go to fleep. For that he only fpeaks of the mere fenfe of death, the parting of the foul from the body, and that Claudio understood him fo, is very evident, by the reply which the latter makes to his harangue; notwithstanding the very laft words of it seem to be full as exceptionable as thofe objected to. Lie hid a thousand deaths; yet death we fear, CLAU. I humbly thank you, To fue to live, I find, I feek to die; And, feeking death, find life: let it come on. If any thing farther is neceffary to corroborate what is here advanced, we might inftance the duke's exhorting him, in fcene III. of the fame act, to go to his knees and prepare for death. It is highly inconfiftent to think fuch a piece of advice should come from one who conceived death to be a perpetual fleep. Prayers must feem as fuperfluous to him, as the advice must appear impertinent to the prifoner. But that Claudio had the ftrongeft notions of a future ftate after death is not to be doubted, fince, fpeaking of the fin of debauching his fifter, and Angelo's defign to commit it, he says, If it were damnable, he being fo wife, Why would he for the momentary trick Again, when his fears recurring, he tells his fifter thist Death is a fearful thing, it is plain, he doth not confine the meaning of the word, an |