Perhaps, the Editor might diflike the word conjuring here, because the Cadence of the Verse requires that the Accent should lie upon the Antepenultima; and the Senfe, that it should lie upon the Penultima. To explain this Difference; when we intend by conjure, to fignify a folemn Adjuration only, we lay the Accent upon the laft Syllable; where we mean by it a magical Invocation or Effect, the Accent falls upon the firft. But our Poet uses the Word in both thefe Senfes promifcuously, without regard to this Difference in the Pronunciation; and, I believe, generally, if not always, will be found to lay the Stress upon the first Syllable. So, again, in

HAML. pag. 457.

What is He, whofe Griefs

Bear fuch an Emphasis? whofe Phrafe of Sorrow
Conjures the wand'ring Stars, and makes them ftand
Like wonder-wounded Hearers?

So, in MACBETH, pag. 568.

I conjure You by That which you profefs,
Howe'er you come to know it, anfwer Me.

So, in ROMEO and JULIET, pag. 268.

I conjure Thee by Rosaline's bright Eyes,
By her high Forehead, &c.

And,

And, again, in the next Page;

my Invocation is

Honeft and fair, and in his Mistress' Name

I conjure only but to raise up Him.

Indeed, but three Lines before the last quoted Inftance, he seems to lay the Accent upon the last Syllable of this Word by the Neceffity of the Numbers; tho' the Senfe and Acceptation, which it carries, require it to be pronounced with the Accent on the firft.

letting it there ftand,

Till She had laid it, and conjur'd it down.

But, perhaps, either the Copyifts, or the Prefs, by Miftake, made Occafional a small Variation from the Author here; and this wrong Ca- Conjecture. dence is easily cur'd by only taking out the first it, which is of no Use there; and extending the Second Verb to three Syllables, by pronouncing it, without the Apoftrophe, at length; than which Nothing is more frequent throughout our Author's Works: As,

Till She had laid, and conjured it down.

LXXXII. Act 4. Scene 7. Page 440.

It shall as level to your judgment pierce,

As day does to your eye.

Falfe Point

[A Noife within. ing; and

Enter Ophelia fantastically dreft, &c.

Laert. Let her come in. How now? what noise is that?

O heat[] dry up my brains [,] tears [] feven times falt [ ]
Burn ON the fenfe and vertue of mine eye.

Had I never seen any other Edition of SHAKESPEARE than
Mr. POPE's, I could not but have fufpected Something wrong
here, tho' I fhould not, perhaps, have known fo easily how

Correction from Various Reading

to

out.

to rectify it. Just before the Entrance of Ophelia, a Noife is heard behind the Scenes, viz. of Some, that would have the Young Lady admitted; and of Others, that would keep her Laertes's Friends, as we may obferve at the Beginning of the preceding Scene, where he rushes in by force upon the King, are fet to guard the Door; and they might be follicitous that Laertes fhould fee his Sifter in her Madness, to heighten his Refentments for the Death of his Father. But it is certainly very abfurd that Laertes fhould know who it is without, upon the Noise made; that Ophelia should come in ; and then that he fhould defire, that She may come in; and then after all, that he fhould enquire into the Meaning of the Noife. I think, the fecond Folio Edition fets the whole Paffage right; and it seems to Me that it. ought to be corrected as that Copy, and feveral Others, which come after, exhibit it with more Propriety thus;

It ball as level to your Judgment pierce,
As Day does to your Eye.

[A Noife within, Let her come in.

Laert. How now? What Noife is that? --

Enter Ophelia fantastically dreft, &c.

O Heat, dry up my Brains; Tears, fev'n times falt,
Burn OUT the Senfe and Virtue of mine Eye.

'Tis natural for Laertes, who was in a riotous Proceeding against the King, to be alarm'd at the Tumult without, least his Party could not maintain the Door: And as foon as he fees the Occafion of the Noife, in the Admiffion of his diftracted Sister, his deep Concern makes him wish at once that he were depriv'd both of Senfe and Sight. But why, burn ON the Senfe? This Reading, in Mr. POPE's Impreffion, is, as I apprehend, a literal Miftake of the Prefs instead of burn OUT; and it is a Miftake so easy to happen, that I think in another Place the fame Error has paffed thro' all the Editions of SHAKESPEARE; and, as I fuppofe, was not fo much as

suspected

fufpected by our Editor, because he has given us the Paffage as he found it.

Emendation.

In the WINTER'S TALE, Florizel, Prince of Bohemia, in Occafional a paftoral Habit, addreffes Perdita, an Outcast Princess of Sicily, but fuppofed of mean Extraction; who was taken up an Infant, in a Defart of Bohemia, by a Shepherd, and educated as his Daughter. As the Prince is courting, careffing, and whispering her at a Sheep-fheering Feaft, Polixenes his Father, and an old Courtier attending him, come to the rural Entertainment. They fix their Eyes on the young amorous Couple, and obferving Something in the Virgin above her outward Seeming and Rank, fall to making these Obfervations

on them.

Polix. This is the pettieft low-born Lafs that ever

Camil.

Ran on the Green-ford; Nothing She does, or feems,
But fmacks of Something greater than herself,
Too noble for this Place.

He tells her Something,

That makes her Blood look ON 'T.

In the first Verse a literal Error is committed at Prefs, for the other Editions all read, as it ought to be;

This is the prettieft low-born Lafs

But what Senfe is there in Camillo's Speech, that the Prince tells her Something which makes her Blood look on't? This to me seems obfcure even to the Degree of being unintelligible. The SPECTATOR, if I remember right, tells us fomewhere a Story of a Climate fo cold at one Seafon, that it congealed Words even in the Pronunciation; and fo foon as a Thaw came, they were diftinctly repeated and heard: But, I must own, I never heard of any Words fo condens'd as to be visible to the Eye, much lefs to the Blood. If I underftand any thing of the Poet's Meaning here, he certainly wrote;

Winter's Tale. A 4. Sc. 5. p.613.

He tells her Something,

That makes her Blood look OUT.

i. e. that calls the Blood up into her Cheeks, and makes her blush. PERDITA, but a little before, in the self-fame Page, ufes a like Expreffion to defcribe the Prince's Sincerity, which appear'd in the honeft Blood rifing on his Face.

Your Praifes are too large; but that Youth

your

And the true Blood, which peeps forth fairly through it,
Do plainly give you out an unftain'd Shepherd, &c.

LXXXIII. Act 4. Scene 9. Page 444.

I lov'd your father, and we love YOUR felf;
And that I hope will teach you to imagine, ---

My Quarto Editions of 1637 and 1703, have a different Read-
ing of this Passage, which is espoused too by Mr. HUGHS,
and which I take to comprehend the genuine Meaning of our

Poet.

I lov'd your Father, and We love OUR felf;

And That, I hope, will &c.

I'll now give the Reasons for my being on this Side of the Question. Laertes is complaining, that (because the King durft not purfue Hamlet to Death for killing Polonius, but had only fent him out of the way;) he has loft a Father, and the Opportunity of being reveng'd on his Murtherer. The King bids Laertes not break his Sleep about the Want of his Revenge; for, fays He, I lov'd your Father, and I love my felf; and both These are my Motives to That End. But how did the King's Love of himself contribute to his Defire of Revenge on Hamlet? for thereon lies the Stress of the Alteration. Now there are two Speeches of the King in this very Scene, that perfwade me to espouse