Apem. A Plague on thee. Thou art too bad to curse. It seems clear to Me that the Divifion of thefe Speeches is mistaken: There is fuch a Contradiction in Senfe in the fecond Line. If Timon was too bad to curfe, why then does Apemantus curfe him? I think, it would be more reasonable to split the Speeches thus; Aaron. Luc. Aaron. Touch not the Boy, he is of royal Blood. Firft hang the Child, that he may fee it fprall, Get me a Ladder, Lucius, fave the Child; &c. Why fhould Aaron, the Moor, here ask for a Ladder, who earnestly wanted to have his I must confels I could not read this Paffage at firft without stopping, and a Sufpicion that the Names of the Characters were not all rightly prefix'd to thefe Speeches. It feem'd very abfurd to Me, however the Editor has taken it upon Content, that Agamemnon fhould make a Remark to the Difparagement of Hector for Pride, and that Eneas fhould immediately fay, If not Achilles, Sir, what is your Name? and then defire him to take Notice that Hector was as void of Pride as he was full of Valour. Why was Achilles to take Notice of This, if it was Agamemnon that threw this Imputation of Pride in Hector's Teeth? I was fully fatifY 2 fied Tranfpofitions of Perfons Names. The Like. The Like. The Like. The Like. fied that this Reproach on Hector ought to be plac'd to Achilles: And confulting Mr. DRYDEN'S Alteration of this Play, (which, I fuppofe, Mr. POPE did not look into, while he was publishing Shakespeare,) I was not a little pleas'd to find that I had but feconded the Opinion of That Great Man in this Point: Correct the Paffage therefore, ift. Gent. Thou art always figuring Diseases in Me; but Thou art full of Error; I am found. Not to dwell upon Explanation here, whoever reads this Paffage but once over, I dare fay, will be convinc'd from the last Speech in it quoted, that all which is plac'd to Lucio in his first Speech could never be intended to belong to him. It must be reftor'd, as the Sense of the Context requires. Hort. Bian. yet. I'll watch you better Was Ajax, call'd fo from his Grandfather. I must believe my Master, else I promise You, &c. Here, indeed, the Names are fo fhuffled and difplaced, that I must be obliged to explain the Bufinefs of the Scene, before I can convince that there has been a manifeft Tranfpofition. Bianca is courted by two Gentlemen, Hortenfio and Lucentio, who make Way for their Addreffes under the Difguife of Mafters, the One to inftru&t her in Latine, the other in Mufick. Lucentio, as he is teaching her Language, informs her who he is, and to what Purpofe he comes: She fays, She'll conftrue the Leffon her felf, and, in fo doing, the tells him, She does not know him, does not trust him, bids him take Heed that Hortenfio do not overhear them, and neither to prefume, nor to defpair. Hortenfio is jealous that Lucentio is, like himself, a Lover in Difguife, and fays he'll watch Him. After this, Bianca and Lucentio proceed in their Difcourfe, under Colour of continuing the Leffon; and there is no doubt but that the Speeches ought to be distinguish'd thus; Hort Hort. Was Ajax, call'd fo from his Grandfather. XXXVI. ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, Page 311. Char. Our worfer thoughts heav'n mend. [T. Luc. ALEX. Come, his fortune, his fortune. O let him marry a Woman that cannot go, sweet This I dare pronounce to be fo palpable, and fignal a Tranfpofition, that I cannot but wonder Char. Our worfer Thoughts Heav'n mend! Alexas, -- come, his fortune, his fortune. I think, there needs no ftronger Proof of this being a true Correction, than this Obfervation which Alexas immediately fubjoins on their Wishes and Zeal to hear him abused. Alex. Lo now! if it lay in their hands to make me a Cuckold, they would make them- The Like. XXXVII. The EDITOR has complain'd in his Preface, Page 18. that, often in the old Stage-Directi Impreffions, the Notes of Direction to the Property-Men for their Moveables, and to the on crept into Players for their Entries, are inferted into the Text, thro' the Ignorance of the Tranfcribers. the Text. I am afraid, he has not taken Care to remove all these wrong Infertions; and I believe the Inftance I am about to subjoin will be determined One of Those which ought not to have efcap'd his Obfervation. MACBETH, Page 594. I'gin to be a weary of the Sun, And wish the State o'th'World were now undone. Macbeth, feeing that he cannot be fafe within his Fortifications, refolves to iffue out upon the Enemy. But in a befieg'd Town, is it ever customary to order an Alarum, or Sally, by the ringing of a Bell? Or rather is not this Business always done by Beat of Drum? Hieronymus Magius, I know, in an accurate and icarce Tract of his upon the Antiquity and various Ufe of BELLS, fpeaks, among the reft, of a Tintinnabulum Caftrenfe, or Great Bell ufed in Camps. "Within the Period of Chriftianity, fays He, and after Great Bells obtain'd in Churches, the Commanders of Armies employ'd Such a One flung in a Wooden Turret at the Top of a large Chariot; which Chariot was always plac'd near the Pa"vilion, and every day, at the Rifing and Setting of the Sun, this Bell was rung out as a "Notice to the Army to perform their Devotions; instead of Sounding the Charge, likewife, "the Soldiers were call'd to Arms by this Bell; and in the Battle, it was placed in the "Middle of the Army, and defended with the fame Care as they are used to do a Standard." The Author concludes his Account of this Military Bell, with faying, That if any other Na tions Stage-Direction tranfpos'd. tions, befides the Italians, made use of such a Machine in their Camps, it was more than be knew. We may dare affert, at leaft, that it never found an Introduction into Scotland; and that therefore the Poet could not make Macbeth employ it, instead of the customary Way of directing a Charge upon the Enemy. In fhort, I believe thefe Words were a Stage-Direction crept from the Margin into the Text, thro' the laft Line but One being deficient without them, occafion'd probably by a Cut that had been made in the Speech by the Actors. They were a Memorandum to the Promptor to ring the Alarum-bell, i. e. the Bell, perhaps at that Time ufed, to warn the Tragedy-Drum and Trumpets to be ready to found an Alarm: And what confirms me in this Sulpicion, is, that for the four Pages immediately following, it is all along quoted in the Margin, Alarum; Fight, and Alarum; Alarums continued. It may be objected, indeed, to this Obfervation of mine, that the fame Expreffion is to be met with before in this very Play; and therefore we must examine that Paffage; Ibid. Page 543. Ring the Alarum Bell - Murther, and Treafon! I do not difpute thefe Words here being a genuine Part of the Text; becaufe the Reafon for XXXVIII. We come now to a Stage-Direction very unluckily misplaced; in which the Editor feems to have been misled by the fmall Edition, formerly publish'd by Mr. Tonson, for want of a competent Knowledge of the Customs of the Stage. Second Part of K. HENRY VI. Page 120. FLOURISH. Enter Mother Jordan, Hume, Southwel, and Bolingbroke. This is the first Inftance, as I take it, where Conjurers and common Witches are supposed to be usher'd into the Scene by the Sound of Trumpet; which is fignified by the Word Flourish. The Truth of the Cafe is this; whenever a King enters or goes off with his Court it is the conftant Practice of the Stage to flourish him on and off. In the Scene immediately preceding This of the Conjurers, K. Henry VI. and his Court are upon the Stage; and when they quit it, in the fecond folio Edition, and other old Books, we find it mark'd thus, as it most certainly ought to be restor'd; Enter Mother Jordan, Hume, Southwel, and Bolingbroke. As the Editor, in the above Inftance, committed a Miftake by departing from the older Copies; I believe, I can point out another Place, in which he has err'd with fome of thofe Copies, by prefixing the Word flourish where it ought by no Means to be admitted. K. RICHARD III. Page 349. The Court. FLOURISH. Enter King Edward SICK, the Queen, &c. This is one prevailing Inftance of the Theatrical Cuftom, as I above hinted, of flourishing their Kings on and off. But certainly this Cuftom is moft abfurdly maintain'd in this Place. The King is here brought in fick, nay, and to fuch a Degree, that upon his very Entrance, he fays, he expects every day to be releafed from Life. Can Trumpets be proper under this Circumftance? The Stage generally takes its Rules from the World, and 'tis known, when An alia Nationes, prater Italos, hujufmodi Curru in Caftris uterentur, mihi adhuc eft ineognitum. ever ever a King is fick, all Martial Sounds are forbid at Court, and even the Guard are reliev'd without Beat of Drum. XXXIX. The Editor (who tells us, that in the oldeft Folio Edition, where the Acts and Division of an Scenes are firft diftinguifh'd, they were divided according as they play'd them, often where Act mistaken. there was no Paufe in the Action, or where they thought fit to make a Breach in it) has fometimes taken Care to regulate the Shufflings and Tranfpofitions of the Scenes, and rectify the injudicious Divifions of the Acts: But this Part of Criticifin does not difplay itfelf thro' the whole Work. I fhall fubjoin one Paffage, for Example, in which he feems to have employ'd none of this Skill in marking the Divifion of an Act, viz. the End of the Second Act of King JOHN, Page 145. 'Tis true, he errs here in following the old Copies; as he did, in the laft Inftance but one, by contradicting them. The Lady Conftance, her Son Arthur, and Lord Salisbury, are upon the Scene; Conftance bids Salisbury be gone, and leave her to her Woes: He tells her, he must not go without her to the two Kings of England and France. She abfolutely refuses to go with him; fays, her Sorrow fhall keep its State, and the Kings may come to it. Her concluding Lines are thefe; It is evident, I think, beyond Contradiction, that Conftantia here, in her Defpair, seats her felf upon the Floor of the Stage: And can fhe be fuppofed immediately to rise again, only to go off and end the Act decently? And if he does not, how can the Act end here? There is but one other Method for it; and that is, of the foremost flat-fcene fhutting her in from the Sight of the Audience, an Abfurdity never once practifed by SHAKESPEARE. In the very next Scene which follows, and ftands as the first Scene of the Third A&t, the Kings are introduc'd, and Conftantia is likewife upon the Stage, and fpeaks within eight Lines of the Scene's beginning. We must therefore either fuppofe an Unity of the two Scenes, and that They come in to her fo foon as the fits down on the Floor; or rather, (which I think has been an Opinion of long Standing,) that an intermediate Scene or two have been loft, whereby we cannot now be certain how the Act ended; and that an Hiatus in Manufcripto ought to be mark'd to fignify the Imperfection. XL. The faulty Paffages which I have hitherto alledged, I think, are mostly such, as cal led for the Affiftance of Judgment to set them right: There are other Places again, which are corrupted in our Author, that are to be cur'd by a ftrict Attention to the Author himself, and by taking History along with us, wherever his Subject is historical. Diligence in this Refpect is certainly the Duty of an Editor: And yet that a due Care, even in this Part, has been hitherto wanting, the Inftances I am now going to fubjoin will manifeftly prove. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Page 95. Didft Thou not lead him thro' the glimm'ring Night From PEREGENIA, whom he ravished? * Faults of Inaa. vertence. Mr. POPE Confeffes in his Preface, that No one is more a Master of the Poetical Story, or has more frequent Allufions to the various Parts of it than SHAKESPEARE, It must be own'd; * Page 10. and the Paffage before us is a fignal Inftance. He touches upon a minute Circumstance in the Story of Thefeus; but, indeed, None of the old Clafficks tell us of fuch a Perfon as Peregenia, with whom that Hero had an Affair: Reflore therefore the Place, from the Authority of the Greek Writers. Did'st thou not lead him thro' the glimm'ring Night From PERIGUNE, whom he ravished? Here |