O fhaken as we are, fo wan with care, Find we a time for frighted peace to S pant, And breathe short-winded accents of new broils To be commenc'd in ftronds a-far remote. No more, the thirsty entrance of this soil (1) Shall damp her lips with her own children's blood: Vol. 11, B No (1) Shall damp. 1 i. e. wet, moisten : the old editions, and with them the Oxford, read dawb; there seems to me something greatly like Shakespear in that word, but I have kept damp, it is generally approv'd. The word files, in the fourth line following, as No more shall trenching war channel her fields, Scene. IV. Hotspur's Description of a finical Courtier, But I remember, when the fight was done, following, is in the old editions eyes ; and thus alter'd by Mr. Warburton : others read arms. I don't know whether eyes might not be justified, but I think files preferable See Upt. p. 334. (2) Pouncet-box.) A small box for musk, or other perfumes, then in fashion, the lid of which being cut with open work, gave it its name : from poinfoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave. So says Mr. Warburton, and then condemns the next lines as stupid interpolation of the players : they are certainly not very easy to be defended, but we find many such conceits as these in Sb. kespear. Took a Took it in fnuff). And still he smild and talk'd : mark !) (3) I then, &c.) When I first read this passage, I mark'd the lines, as I have printed them, and turning to the ingenious Mr. Ed. wards’s canons of Criticilia (p. 13.) I found he was of opinion, the lines should be fo transposed : by this means the sense of the parfage is quite clear, and we have no occasion for any alteration, “ Mr. Warburton in order to make a contradiction in the common reading, and fo make way for his emendation, misrepresents Hotspur as at this time when he gave this answer | not cold, but but. It is true, that at the beginning of the speech he describes himself as Dry with rage and extreme toil, Breathless, and faint, &c Then comes in this gay gentleman, and holds him in an idle dilcourse, the heads of which Hotspur gives us ; and it is plain by the context, it must have lasted a considerable while. Now the more he had heated himself in the action, the more when he came to stand still any time, wou'd the cold air affect his wounds, Gc." EOWARDS. |