Was parmecety, for an inward bruise; Danger. I'll read you matter, deep and dangerous: Honour. (4) By heav'ns! methinks, it were an eafy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon! Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear ACT (4) By heav'ns! &c.] I will not take upon me to defend this paffage from the charge laid against it of bombaft and fuftian, but will only obferve, if we read it in that light, it is, perhaps, one of the finest rants to be found in any author. Mr. Waburton attempts to clear it from the charge, and obferves, "tho' the expreffion be fublime and daring, yet the thought is the natural movement of an heroic mind. Euripides, at least, (as he adds) thought fo, when he put the very fame fentiment, in the fame words, into the mouth of Etcocles." Εγω γαρ, &c. I will not cloak my foul; methinks, with ease Defcending, pierce, fo be I cou'd obtain A kingdom at the price, and god-like rule. ACT II. SCENE VI. Lady Percy's, pathetic Speech to her Husband. (5) O, my good lord, why are you thus alone? Tell me, fweet lord, what is't that takes from thee ACT (5) See Portia's fpeech to Brutus in Julius Cefar, A& II. Scene III. ་ ACT III. SCENE I. Prodigies ridicul'd. (6) I blame him not: at my nativity, Hot. So it would have done At the fame feafon, if your mother's cat Had kitten'd, though yourself had ne'er been born. * * * * * * * * * * * * Difeafed nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions; and the teeming earth Is with a kind of cholic pinch'd and vext, By the imprisoning of unruly wind ** Within her womb; which for enlargement ftriving, On miferable Rhymers. (7) I had rather be a kitten, and cry, mew! Than one of these fame meter-ballad-mongers: I'd rather hear a brazen candlestick turn'd, Or (6) I blame, &c.] Glendower was mightily fuperftitious, he adds afterwards, -Give me leave To tell you once again, that at my birth The front of heav'n was full of fiery shapes, The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds (7) I had, &c.] Horace, in his art of poetry, speaking of poetafters, fays, Ut mala, &c. B 4 A mad dog's foam, th' infection of the plague, And Or a dry-wheel grate on the axle-tree, Punctuality in Bargain. I'll give thrice fo much land, To any well-deferving friend; But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, A Hufband fung to Sleep by a fair Wife. All on the wanton rufhes lay you down, And all the judgments of the angry gods And again; 'Tis hard to fay, whether for facrilege, And like a bated bear, when he breaks loose, Without diftinction, feize on all they meet: And Learn'd or unlearn'd, none 'fcape within their reach; (Sticking like leeches, till they burst with blood,) And never leave 'till they have read men dead. ROSCOMMON. (3) She bids, &c.] There is fomething extremely tender and pleafing in thefe lines, as well as in the following, from Philafter; which juftly deferve to be compared with them: -Who fhall now tell you How much I lov'd you? who shall swear it to you, Wake And on your eye-lids crown the god of fleep, SCENE IV. King Henry the 4th to his Son.. Wake tedious nights in ftories of your praife? And make them mourn? who fhall take up his lute Upon my eye-lid, making me dream and cry, And A&t 3. latter end. (9) Asis, &c.] It is remarkable of Milton, that whenever he can have an opportunity, he takes particular notice of the evening twilight, but I don't at prefent recollect any paffage where he defcribes this morning-twilight, which Shakespear fo beau-tifully hints at : nothing can exceed this lovely defcription in the 4th book of his Paradife Loft. Now came ftill evening on, and twilight gray Apparent queen unveil'd her peerless light, V. 598. The reader will be agreeably entertained, by confulting the paffage in Dr. Newton's edition of Milton, |