"I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd thee. No way but this, "kiss "Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.” As this quaint antithesis depends upon ing" and "killing," and " killing," and "thee" and " thee" and "myself," we might, perhaps, with more point, as well as smoothness, read, "I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd. No way but this, "Killing myself," &c. i. e. Before, I kissed and killed; now, I kill and kiss. To you, lord governor," &c. Rymer's censure of the character of Iago is unfounded, and deserved no answer; but Dr. Warburton's answer to it is not just: had there been no other soldier in the play but Iago, no solid objection would have lain against his character; it would not have been to be inferred thence, that all soldiers are villains. In The Eunuch of Terence, there is no soldier but Thraso; but who ever dreamt of concluding, on that account, that all soldiers are vain-glorious boasters? Shakspeare, says Dr. Johnson, always makes nature predominate over accident. See Johnson's Preface, Vol. I. Prolegomena, P. 252, Reed's Ed. LORD CHEDWORTH. If Shakspeare's dramas were contemplated with a view to their distinct, comparative merits, this and Macbeth, I suppose, would generally be allowed to have a decisive pre-eminence over all the rest: but, of these two, it may be disputed which is the nobler composition, or displays most con spicuously the matchless genius of the author.The story of the Moor, being a domestic one, more readily engages our sympathy in the progress of his fortunes, than the ambitious and sanguinary projects of the Scottish usurper. Pity, in this tragedy, no less than terror, is powerfully excited; while the subject and conduct of the rival play precludes the indulgence of tender sentiment, and will not allow us a moment's relaxation from that " gelid horror" in which we are enchained, from the beginning to the end of that wonderful performance. Othello lays siege to the bosom; Macbeth to the head: one agitates, softens, and subdues the heart; the other elevates and astonishes the imagination. It is something like the difference between the acting of the late Mrs. Crawford, and that of Mrs. Siddons. If this be a more faithful, varied, and vivid portraiture of men, their actions, and their motives, the other is, confessedly, a more sublime display of bold poetic fancy; one has more truth, the other more invention: Othello is rather what the poet found; Macbeth, what he created; and, taking every circumstance into account on both sides, I scruple not to give the palm of preference to Macbeth. ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. SCENE I. 14. "Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel." This is quaintly expressed; the profanation is, the staining with neighbours' blood those swords which should be devoted to a different purpose: but this line, with the four that follow it, additions after the first copy, would perhaps be better omitted: they are of themselves worthless, and would not be heard during the conflict of the factions. 15. -His sword; "Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears, "He swung about his head, and cut the winds, Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss'd him in scorn." This thought occurs in other places: It is as the air invulnerable; "And our vain blows, malicious mockery." And in Macbeth: Hamlet. "As easy may'st thou the entrenchant air "With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed." "Peer'd forth the golden window of the east." Alluding, I suppose, to the oriental adoration paid to the sun. "Worshipp'd," I believe, is here a term used to express the general thankfulness and joy of nature, at the rising of that glorious luminary. B. STRUTT. "Peer'd forth." The first quarto reads "peept through," which seems to be right, and has support from various passages in other authors; as, "The sun out of the east doth peepe." Drayton. Mus. Elys. "And now the day out of the ocean mayne "Began to peepe aboue the earthly masse." And Milton, in Comus : Spencer. F. Q. "Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 16. "A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad." This obsolete, though correct, form of the preterimperfect tense of " to drive," occurs elsewhere; as in As You Like It "I "I drave my suitor from his mad humour." "Pursu'd my humour, not pursuing his, "And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me." This cannot, by any warrantable ellipsis, be reduced to grammar, or accord with the English idiom-the accusative pronoun "him," before the new nominative, is indispensable. We should, perhaps, read And gladly shunn'd what (i. e. his humour) gladly fled from me;" which agrees exactly with the context. "I "Pursu'd my humour, not pursuing his, "And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.” This idiom is perfectly French. CAPEL LOFFT. "With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew." A similar hyperbole we find in As You Like It; where Jaques, reflecting on the stag's weeping into the stream, says, "Thou mak'st a testament as worldlings do; Giving thy sum of more to that which had "Too much." Soon as the all-cheering sun "Should in the furthest east begin to draw The shady curtains from Aurora's bed." This is an inversion of poetic imagery; it is Aurora that should perform the office for the sun;-the passage is not in the first quarto. "But all so soon as the all-cheering sun "Should in the furthest east begin to draw "The shady curtains from Aurora's bed, 66 Away from light steals home my heavy son,” |