3

Hourly affict ; merely thou art death's fool ;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet runn'ft tow'rd him ftill. Thou art not noble ;
For all th' accommodations, that thou bear'st,
Are nursid by baseness : 4 thou’rt by no means va-

liant ;
For thou doft fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm. S Thy best of Rest is sleep, o
And that thou oft provok'st; yet grosly fear'st

Thy

3 — meerly thou art Death's offices of which the mind Irinks Fool;

from the contemplation. All the For him thou labour'A by thy delicacies of the table may be flight to shun,

traced bac to the shambles and And yet runn's tow'rd him ftill.] the dunghill, all magnificence of In those old Farces called Mo- building was hewn from the RALITIES, the Fool of the piece, quarry, and all the pomp of or. in order to shew the inevitable naments, dug from among the approaches of Death, is made damps and darkness of the mine. to employ all his stratagems to - the soft and tender fork ayoid him : which, as the mat Of a poor worm.“ -] Worm ter is ordered, bring the Fool, at is put for any creeping thing or every turn, into his very jaws. Serpent. Shakespeare supposes So that the representations of taliely, but according to the vulthese scenes would afford a great gar notion, that a serpent wounds deal of good mirth and morals with his tongue, and that his mixed together. And from such tongue is forked. He confounds circumitances, in the genius of reality and fiction, a serpent's our ancestors publick diversions, tongue is soft but not forked I farpose it was, that the old nor hurtful.

If it could hurt, ic proverb arose, of being merry and could not be soft. In Midsummer. wife.

WARBURTON. Night's Dream he has the same + Are nursd by baseness.] Dr. notion. Warburton is undoubtedly mis

With doubler tongue taken in supposing that by base. Than thine, Oferpent, never ad. nefs is meant felf love here are

der ftung. figned as the motive of all hu. 6 - thy best of reft is sleep, man actions. Shakespeare meant And that thou oft provek ft; yet only to observe, that a minute grolly fear analysis of life at once destroys Thy death which is no more. -] that splendour which dazzles the Evidently from the foiloning imagination. Whatever gran- passage of Cicero: Habes fomnum deur can display, or luxury en- imaginem Mortis, eamque quotidie joy, is procured by baseness, by induis, & dulitas quin jenfus in

morte

Thy death, which is no more. ? Thou’rt not thyself;
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains,
That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not ;
For what thou hast not, ftill thou striv'st to get ;
And what thou haft forget'st. Thou art not certain ;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,
After the moon. If thou art rich, thou’rt poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloadeth thee. Friend haft thou none;
For thy own bowels, which do call thee Sire,
The meer effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the Gout, Serpigo, and the Rheum,
For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth,

nor age;'
But as it were an after-dinner's neep,
Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth'

Becomes

morte nullus fit, cum in ejus fimu. paffions of mind, or disorders of
lacro videas effe nullum fenfum. body variously affected. So in
But the Epicurean infinuation is, Othello, The young affe&ts.
with great judgment, omitted in 9 Thou hast nor youth, nor
the imitation, WARBURTON.

age ;
Here Dr. Warburton might But as it were an after dinner's
have found a sentiment worthy Sleep,
of his animadversion. I cannot Dreaming on both.] This is ex-
without indignation find Shake- quifitely imagined. When we
Spear saying, that death is only are young we busy ourselves in
Jleep, lengthening out his exhor- forming schemes for succeeding
tation by a sentence which in the time, and miss the gratifications
Friar is impious, in the reasoner that are before us ; when we are
is foolish, and in the poet trite old we amuse the languor of
and vulgar

age with the recollection of 7 — Thou'rt not thy thyself.] youthful pleasures or performThou art perpetually repaired ances; fo that our life, of which and renovated by external affis no part is filled with the business tance, and thou subsiftest upon of the present time, resembles foreign matter, and hast no our dreams after dinner, when

of producing or continue the events of the morning are ing thy own being.

mingled with the designs of the – strange effe&ts.] For ef- evening: feats ead affects; that is, affections, - For all thy blefed youth

B В mes

power

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of pallied Eld; and when thou'rt old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty >

To

Becomes as aged, and doth beg Here again I think Dr. Warthe alms

burton totally mistaken. ShakeOf palfied Eld; and when thou'rt speare declares that Man has neiold and rich,

i ber youth nor age, for in youth, Thou haft neither heat, &c.--) which is the happiest time, or The drift of this period is to which might be the happiest, he prove, that neither youth nor age commonly wants means to obcan be said to be really enjoyed, tain what he could enjoy; he is which, in poetical language, is, dependant on palfied eld; muft beg -We have neither youth nor age. alms from the coffers of hoary But how is this made out? That avarice; and being very niggardAge is not enjoyed he proves, by ly supplied becomes as aged, looks, recapitulating the infirmities of like an old man, on happiness, it, which deprive that period of which is beyond his reach. And life of all sense of pleasure. To when he is old and rich, when he prove that Youth is not enjoyed, has wealth enough for the purhe uses these words. For all thy chase of all that formerly excited blessed youth becomes as aged, and his desires, he has no longer the doth beg the alms of palfied Eld. powers of enjoyment. Out of which, he inat can den duce the conclusion, has a better

has neither heat, affe&tion, knack at logic than I have. I

limb, nor beauty fuppose the Poet wrote,

To make his riches pleasant.

I have explained this passage -- for pall'd, thy blazed youth according to the present reading, Becomes affuaged; and doth beg which may stand without much the alms

inconvenience ; yet I am willing Of palsicd Eld;

to persuade my reader, because i. e. when thy youthful appetite I have almost persuaded myseif, becom; s palled, as it will be in the that our author wrote, very enjoymi nt, the blaze of youth

for all thy blafled youth is at once assuaged, and thou im

Becomes as aged mediately contracteft the infirmities of old age; as, particularly, - heat, affition, limb, nor the pallie and other nervous dif- beauty.) But how does beau:y orders, consequent on the inor- make riches pleasant? We should dinate use of lensual pleasures. read BOUNTY, which compleats

This is to the purpole; and p:oves the fenfe, and is this; I hou haft Youth is not enjoyed by thewing nether the pleature of enjoying ghie fort duration of it. riches thy self, for thou wanteit WARBURTON. vigour : nor of seeing is enjoyed

by

2

To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this,
That bears the name of life? yet in this life
Lye hid more than thousand death; } yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even:

Claud. I humbly thank you.
To fue to live, I find, I seek to die;
And, seeking death, find life : let it come on.

Enter Isabella.

Ifal. What, ho? peace here, grace and good com

pany!

Prov. Who's there? come in: the wild deserves a

welcome. Duke. Dear Sir, ere long I'll visit you again. Claud. Most holy Sir, I thank you. Isab. My business is a word, or two, with Claudie. Prov. And very welcome.

welcome. Look, Signior, here's

your fifter.

Duke. Provost, a word with you.
Prov. As many as you please.
Duke. Bring them to speak where I may be con-

ceald, Yet hear them.

(Exeunt Duke and Provost.

3

by others, for thou wanteft boun- an opportunity of inserting it fy. Where the making the want tould be purchased by declaring of bounty as inseparable from old ignorance of what every one age as the want of health, is ex- knows, by confeffing infenfibitremely fatyrical tho' not alloge. lity of what every one feels. ther just.

WARBURTON. - more thousand deaths.) I am inclined to believe that For this Sir T. Hanmer reads, a neither man nor woman will have thousand deaths : the meaning is much difficulty to tell how beauty not only a thousand deaths, but makes riches pleasant. Surely this a thousand deaths besides what emendatior, though it is elegant have been mentioned. and ingenious, is not such as that

SCENE

S CE N E II.

Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort ?
Isab. Why, as all comforts are ; most good in

Deed : 4
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heav'n,
Intends

you

for his swift ambassador ; Where you shall be an everlasting leigers Therefore your best appointment

make with speed, To-morrow you set on.

Claud. Is there no remedy?

Isab. None, but such remedy, as, to save a head, To cleave a heart in twain.

Claud. But is there any ?

Isab. Yes, brother, you may live:
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you 'till death.

Claud. Perpetual durance ?

Isab. Ay, just; perpetual durance; a restraint,
Tho' all the world's vastidity you had,
To a determin'd scope.

Claud. But in what nature ?
Isab. In such a one, as you, consenting to't,
Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,
And leave you naked.

6

6

4 - as all comforts are; moft Appointment; preparation; act of good in deed.] If this reading be fitung, or tiate of being fitted for night, Isabella muft mean that any thing. So in old books, we the brings something better than have a Knight well appointed; words of comfort, the brings an that is, well armed and mounted; assurance of deeds. This is harsh or fitted at all points. and constrained, but I know not

a restraint, what better to offer. Sir Tho. 9o a determined fcope.) A conHanmer read:, in speed.

finement of your mind to one s- an everlasting leiger. painful idea ; to ignominy, of Therefore your best appointment.] which the remembrance can be Leiger is the fame with resident. neither suppressed nor escaped.

Claud.