Degrees, Obfervances, cuftoms and laws, On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold Sciatica, SCENE H. A Friend forfaken. As we do turn our backs From our companion, thrown into his grave, With his disease of all-fhun'd poverty, Walks, like contempt, alone. (4) A dedicated, &c.] In Romeo and Juliet, at the beginning, he speaks prettily of a bud bit by an envious worm, Ere he can fpread his fweet wings to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the fun, In the next line, the author feems to have had his eye on that trite and well-known line of Ovid's; Nullus ad amiffas ibit amicus opes. SCENE SCENE III. On Gold, (5) What is here? Gold yellow, glittering, precious gold? (6) No, gods, I am no idle votarift. Roots, you clear heavens! thus much of this will make Black, white; foul, fair; wrong, right; Bafe, noble; old, young; coward, valiant.. You gods! why this? what this? you gods! why, this Will lug your priests and fervants from your fides: Will knit and break religions; blefs th' accurs'd; Make (5) What is, &c.] See page 21 of this volume, Ben Johnson,› in his Volpone, fpeaking of gold, fays, Thou art virtue, fame, Honour and all things elfe! who can get thee He shall be noble, valiant, honeft, wife Mofc. And what he will, fir. A& r. Sc. 1. Which lines are an exact tranflation of the following from Ha race; Omnis enim res Virtus, fama, decus, divina bumanaque pulabris,. Clarus erit fortis, juftus, fapiens; etiam et res Et quicquid volet. L. 2. S. 3. I leave the learned reader to judge, which of the two, this claffical bard, or our illiterate one, with his fmall Latin and Greek, have beft expreft the fpirit and meaning of Horace. (6) No, &c.] This is well explained, Mr. Wa burton obferves, by the following lines of Perfius-Sat. 2. v. 10. Er o fi Subraftio crepet argenti feria dextro Or, O thou thund'rer's fon, great Hercules, Make the hoar leprofy ador'd; place thieves, 1 SCENE IV. Timon to Alcibiades. Go on, here's gold, go on ; Be as a planetary plague, when Jove Herfelf's a bawd. Let not the virgin's cheek Set them down horrible traitors. Spare not the babe, (7) Waped, i. e. forrowful, mournful. Ben Johnson, in the 5th act of the fame play we mentioned but now, obferves, That gold transforms The most deformed, and reftores them lovely The old fellow is here again at his books, as if, the flighteft remark were not to proceed from his own brain, but to be midwiv'd by him into the world from the claffics. Lucian, in his Gallus, fays, Ogas oowv, &c. You fee what mighty advantages gold produces, fince it transforms the most deformed, juft as it were that famous poetical girdle. Extort-Oxford editor, vulg, exhauft. Think it a baftard, whom the oracle Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat fhall cut, ·To the Courtezans. Confumptions fow In hollow bones of man, ftrike their sharp fhins, Nor found his quillets fhrilly. (8) Hoar the Flamen, That (8) Hoar, & Mr. Upton, plainly perceiving there was fome. thing wrong in this paffage, proposes to read, Hoarfe the Flamen. See Crit. i e. make hoarfe for to be boary claims reverence: this, not Nor found his quillets fhrilly, the hoar Flamen What the word fo loft is, or how it must be fupplied, can be only conjecture, fo that every reader will have a pleafing opportunity of trying his critical fagacity: the epithet is very proper for th Flama; That fcolds against the quality of flesh, And not believes himself. Down with the nose, Smells from the gen'ral weal. Make curl'd-pate ruffians bald, And let the unfcarr'd braggarts of the war Derive fome pain from you. SCENE V. Timon's Reflections on the Earth.. That nature being fick of man's unkindness, (Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puft) Flamen, and it feems to me, if we allow boarfe, there is none, or very little difference between what he and the lawyer were to fuffer it feems probable, feolds, in the next line, has been misplaced; and, indulging conjecture, we may at leaft be allowed to fuppofe the paffage originally stood thus ; Nor found his quillets fhrewdly. Scald the boar Flamen, And not believes himself. Thus, that part of the Flamen, which procures him reverence,, his hoary head would fuffer, and thus the punishments are varied. But this is only guefs-work, and yet in fuch cafes we have a better right to proceed in the daring work of alteration, than where an author's text is corrupt only to our feeble imaginations. (9) To forefee] As men by forefeeing, provide for and take care of their affairs, Shakespear ufes the word in that fenfe," of him that to forefee, provide for and fee after] his own particular advantage, &c.' (10) Crifp-crifpus, crifpatys, curled; alluding to the clouds, that appear curled, and to which he gives that epithet in the Tempeft. To ride On the curled clouds, |