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"with SHAPELESS idleness"-"Idleness' is said to be shapeless,' as preventing the formation of manners and character."-WARBURTON.

"-nay, give me not the BOOTS"-A proverbial expression, frequently met with in the old dramatists, signifying, "don't make a laughing-stock of me." Collier, and the later antiquarians, deny that it has any connection with the Scottish punishment of "the boots," to which the older editors supposed it to refer. It is more probably derived from an old custom of rustic merriment at harvest-home feasts.

"However, but a folly bought with wit"-In whatsoever way, "haply won," or "lost."

"as in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells," etc. "Shakespeare has elsewhere used this beautiful image. In the 'Seventieth Sonnet,' for instance, we haveFor canker vice the sweetest buds doth love.

In KING JOHN,

Now will canker sorrow eat my bud.

In HAMLET,

The canker galls the infants of the spring.

The peculiar canker which our Poet, a close observer of nature, must have noted, is described in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM,

Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds. And in the First Part of HENRY VI.,

Hath not thy rose a canker?

The instrument by which the canker was produced is described in-

The bud bit with an envious wormof ROMEO AND JULIET; and in-

-concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Fed on her damask cheek,

in TWELFTH NIGHT.

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"Shakespeare found the canker-worm in the Old Testament, (Joel i. 4.) The Geneva Bible, 1561, has, That which is left of the palmer-worm hath the grasshopper eaten, and the residue of the grasshopper hath the canker-worm eaten, and the residue of the cankerworm hath the caterpillar eaten.'"-KNIGHT.

"To Milan let me hear from thee by letters." This is merely an inversion of "Let me hear from thee by letters to Milan." The first folio reads "To Milan," which the second folio needlessly changes to "At Milan," etc.

"Enter SPEED"-Pope, in his edition, stigmatizes this scene as "composed of the lowest and most trifling conceits, to be accounted for only from the gross taste of the age. Populo ut placerent." He felt inclined to omit it altogether, under the notion that it had been foisted in by the actors. But so greatly does public taste alter with time, that Pope's own verse would be omitted or thrust to the bottom of the page, if what is now deemed coarseness or comparative want of merit were to regulate the canon of authenticity. We think, with Johnson, that there is no proof of any interpolation.

"And I have play'd the SHEEP"-A joke upon the resemblance in sound between the words "ship" and

“sheep.” In many parts of England "sheep" is yet pronounced "ship." This joke is employed again in the COMEDY OF ERRORS. In writings of the time, Sheep-street," in Stratford-upon-Avon, is often spelled "Skip-street."

"-a LACED mutton"-A phrase which Cotgrave's old "French and English Dictionary," and many passages which the labour of his commentators have collected from the old dramatists, clearly show to have been a slang phrase of the day, to express a courtezan. But as this seems to some of the editors too coarse an epithet for Proteus to allow to be applied, even playfully, to his "ladye love,' Knight rejects the slang meaning, and intimates, on the authority of Horne Tooke's definition of lace, "to catch, to hold," that the phrase here means "a caught sheep." Proteus, however, is not drawn as a person of any very peculiar delicacy, and the use of the words is too familiar to be explained away.

"—did she nod"-These words, with the stagedirection, were supplied by Theobald. They are not in the old copies; but it is clear from what Speed afterwards says, that Proteus had asked the question. In Speed's answer, the old spelling of I for aye is retained, as the play on the word is lost in modern spelling.

"—that's NODDY"-"Noddy' was a game at cards, and to call a person a 'Noddy' was to call him a fool. 'Noddy' was the Knave or Fool in a pack of cards. The practice of calling the Knave Nod,' or 'Noddy,' is not yet entirely discontinued."-REED, and COLLIER.

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"That every day with PARLE encounter me"-i. e. With words or speech. The editor of the "Illustrated" SHAKESPEARE well remarks-"The whole character of Julia in this play is in the best style of Shakespeare's domestic heroines: she is a delightful compound of delicate ardour, and romantic, undoubting devotion; and bears much the same relation to her knowing and worldly, (yet not ill-natured,) serving-maid Lucetta, that Desdemona exhibits in comparison with Iago's better (though ambiguous) half. Julia's portion of their dialogue in the second act is exquisite."

"CENSURE thus on lovely gentlemen"-Pass my opinion upon. This word was commonly used, until modern times, without any reference to the opinion being unfavourable. Isaac Walton even uses it where the censure, (i. e. the opinion,) is that of the highest praise.

"Fire that's closest kept burns most of all." Such words as "fire," "hour," etc., are often used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries as if they contained two syllables; "monstrous," "country," etc., as if consisting of three; and "remembrance," "assembly," etc., as if consisting of four. This pronunciation is often necessary to preserve the metre, and was a frequent practice in the Poet's time, when the present mode was struggling with the relics of the older orthoepy.

"—a goodly BROKER"-The title of "broker" has risen in the world. Although originally meaning one who transacts any sort of business on another's account,

it was used in old English almost wholly for a matchmaker, (in its best sense,) or, a procuress. It is not until the commercial days of Temple and Swift that it is found familiarly used in its modern sense.

"How ANGERLY I taught my brow to frown"—" Angerly" (not angrily, as many modern editions have it) was the adverb used in Shakespeare's time.

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too harsh a DESCANT"-"The 'descant' formerly signified a variation of the original air; the 'mean,' or tenor."-STEVENS.

"I BID THE BASE"-"The allusion of Lucetta is to the well-known game of prison base, or prisoner's base, at which to bid the base,' seems to have meant, to invite a contest."-COLlier.

"Injurious wasps, to feed on such sweet honey"— "The economy of bees was known to Shakespeare with an exactness which he could not have derived from books. The description in HENRY V., 'So work the honey-bees,' is a study for the naturalist as well as the poet. He had doubtless not only observed the lazy, yawning drone,' but the injurious wasps,' that plundered the stores which had been collected by those who Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds. These were the fearless robbers to which the pretty pouting Julia compares her fingers:—

Injurious wasps, who feed on such sweet honey, And kill the bees that yield it with your stings. The metaphor is as accurate as it is beautiful."-Knight. "And thus I SEARCH it"-To search a wound is to probe it, or, to tent it.

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"a MONTH'S MIND to them"-A "month's mind" is equivalent to a great mind or strong inclination: a month's mind" in its ritual sense, is a month's remembrance; and Nash, in his " Martin's Month's Mind," (1589,) applied it in that way: "it was a month's remembrance of Martin Mar-prelate." The "month's mind" was derived from times prior to the Reformation, when masses were said for a stated period in memory of the dead. Hence they were also called month's memories, and month's monuments. For the sake of the measure, we ought to read, "a moneth's mind to them," and so the word was often printed.

SCENE III.

"Some, to discover islands far away"-" In Shakespeare's time, voyages for the discovery of the islands of America were much in vogue. And we find, in the journals of the travellers of that time, that the sons of noblemen, and of others of the best families in England, went very frequently on these adventures:-such as the Fortescues, Collitons, Thornhills, Farmers, Pickerings, Littletons, Willoughbys, Chesters, Hawleys, Bromleys, and others. To this prevailing fashion our Poet frequently alludes, and not without high commendations of it."-WARBurton.

"Attends the emperor in his royal court"-"Shakespeare has been guilty of no mistake in placing the emperor's court at Milan, in this play. Several of the first German emperors held their courts there occasionally, it being, at that time, their immediate property,

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and the chief town of their Italian dominions. of them were crowned kings of Italy at Milan, before they received the imperial crown at Rome. Nor has the Poet fallen into any contradiction by giving a duke to Milan, at the same time that the emperor held his court there. The first dukes of that, and all the other great cities in Italy, were not sovereign princes, as they afterwards became; but were merely governors, or viceroys, under the emperors, and removeable at their pleasure. Such was the 'Duke of Milan' mentioned in this play."-STEVENS.

M. Mason observes that-" During the wars in Italy, between Francis I. and Charles V., the latter frequently resided at Milan."

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"like a beggar at Hallowmas"-"That is," says Johnson, "about the beginning of winter, when the life of a vagrant becomes uncomfortable." Formerly, on All Saints Day, it was customary for poor people in Staffordshire to beg money for what was termed "souling." This, no doubt, was a remnant of the practice of praying for departed souls.

"-to walk like one of the lions"-Ritson supposes that Shakespeare, in using the phrase "the lions," was thinking of "the lions" in the Tower, of London; but it seems that the expression was in general use then, though probably derived from that ancient show.

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- for he, being in love, could not see to garter his hose"-At the period of this play, garters of great magnificence appeared around the large slashed hose, both above and below the knee. To go ungartered was the common trick of a fantastic lover, who thereby implied he was too much occupied by his passion to pay attention to his dress.

"O excellent MOTION! O exceeding PUPPET”—“ A 'motion,' in Shakespeare's time, meant a puppet-show, from the puppets being moved by the master, who interpreted to (or for) them, as Speed supposes Valentine will interpret for Silvia, the 'exceeding puppet' on this occasion."-COLLIER.

"All this I SPEAK IN PRINT"-i. e. "With exactness: Speed adds, that he found it 'in print,' perhaps in some book or ballad of that time, which has not survived to

ours.

He has rhymed before, and in the same style, just after Silvia made her exit: those lines could hardly have been quoted."-COLLIER.

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"-this left shoe is my father"-A passage in KING JOHN also shows that each foot was formerly (as now) fitted with its shoe; a fashion which was lost during the last century, and allusions to it puzzled the commentators until it was revived about thirty years ago:Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet.

"I am the DOG," etc.-Launce is himself puzzled with the characters of his own mono-polylogue; and perhaps Shakespeare did not mean him to get out of his confusion. Hanmer proposes to read, "I am the dog, no, the dog is himself, and I am me, the dog is the dog, and I am myself." Although this reading makes the text more reasonable, (as Johnson remarks.) it is not clear that the author meant to bestow much reason on Launce's soliloquy.

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SCENE IV.

how QUOTE you my folly"-To "quote" is to note or observe. Valentine in his answer, perhaps, plays upon the word, which was pronounced coat-from the French original.

"My jerkin is a doublet"-"The jerkin, or jacket, was generally worn over the doublet; but occasionally the doublet was worn alone, and, in many instances, is confounded with the jerkin. Either had sleeves or not, as the wearer fancied; for by the inventories and wardrobe accounts of the time, we find that the sleeves were frequently separate articles of dress, and attached to the doublet, jerkin, coat, or even woman's gown, by laces or ribands, at the pleasure of the wearer. A doblet jaquet' and hose of blue velvet, cut upon cloth of gold, embroidered, and a doblet hose and jaquet' of purple velvet, embroidered, and cut upon cloth of gold, and lined with black satin, are entries in an inventory of the wardrobe of Henry VIII.

"In 1535, a jerkin of purple velvet, with purple satin sleeves, embroidered all over with Venice gold, was presented to the king by Sir Richard Cromwell; and another jerkin of crimson velvet, with wide sleeves of the same coloured satin, is mentioned in the same inventory."-KNIGHT.

"Enter THURIO"-"The editors, from Theobald downwards, make "a Servant" enter here, and not Thurio, to whom the old copies assign the sentence

Madam, my lord, your father, would speak with you.' They say also that the commencement of Silvia's answer is addressed to two persons.' This is by no means clear: 'I wait upon his pleasure: come, Sir Thurio, go with me,' is spoken to Thurio with more propriety than to two distinct persons. It is more likely that Thurio went out on the entrance of Proteus, and returned with the message of the Duke to his daughter. The economy of the old stage, with many characters and with few performers, did not allow the waste of an actor in the part of a mere message-carrier. The probability is that the old copies are right, and that Thurio is employed from the Duke."-COLLIER.

"There is no woe TO HIS correction"-i. e. There is no woe compared to his correction. The idiom was

common.

"Is it MINE EYE, or Valentinus' praise"-This is the reading of Stevens. The folio, 1623, reads,-

It is mine, or Valentine's praise? which the folio, 1632, alters thus:

Is it mine then, or Valentinian's praise? Malone would have it

Is it her mein, or Valentinus' praise? and Warburton lays it down that the line was originally

thus:

It is mine eye, or Valentino's praise; which is clearly not interrogative, as the punctuation of the oldest copies shows it ought to be. Malone's emendation gives no support to the next two linesHer true perfection, or my false transgression, That makes me, reasonless, to reason thus ? He was right in adopting Valentinus, and wrong in rejecting "eye," which was the cause of the transgression of Proteus. Valentinus for Valentine we have had already, act i. scene 3. Perhaps the true reading was mine eyen, which was corrupted and abbreviated by the old printer to mine.

"like a WAXEN IMAGE 'gainst a fire"-This alludes to the custom attributed to supposed witches, of making waxen images of those whom they wished to destroy: as the image melted before the fire, the original was supposed to melt too.

"Tis but her PICTURE"-Johnson speaks of this line, as "evidently a slip of attention," as if Proteus could have forgotten that he had just seen Silvia herself, and not her "picture." He uses "picture" figuratively, meaning merely exterior as compared with inward "perfections."

"And that hath dazzled my reason's light"—" Dazzled" is here used as a trisyllable.

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"Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
Are visibly character'd and engrav'd."

The allusion is to the table-book, or tables, which were used, as at present, for noting down something to be remembered. Hamlet says:-

My tables,-meet it is I set it down.

They were made sometimes of ivory and sometimes of slate. The Archbishop of York, in HENRY IV., says: And, therefore, will he wipe his tables clean.

The table-book of slate is engraved and described in Gesner's treatise, De Rerum Fossilium Figuris, 1565: and it has been quoted in Douce's "Illustrations."

"And instances OF INFINITE of love"-"Infinite,"infinity. The same form of expression occurs in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, where we have "the infinite of thought," and also in Chaucer:-" although the life of it be stretched with infinite of time." The reading we give is that of the first folio, adopted by Knight and Singer. The common reading is that of the second folio, “Instances as infinite," which is preferred by

Collier.

"my LONGING journey"-Dr. Grey observes that "longing" is a participle active, with a passive signification, for longed, wished, or desired.

M. Mason supposes Julia to mean a journey which she shall pass in longing.

ACT III.-SCENE I.

"-fearing lest my jealous AIM might err"—" Aim" is here used in the sense of "guess," or "supposition," as the verb is similarly used in Proteus's answer.

" is soon SUGGESTED”—i. e. Tempted. Thus, in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL we have, "I give thee not this to suggest thee from thy master's service :" and in the same sense, in act i. scene 4, we have, "sweet-suggesting love," which the context shows to mean sweetly.

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"-for thou art Merops' son"-" Thou art Phaeton in thy rashness, but without his pretensions; thou art not the son of a divinity, but a terræ filius, a low-born wretch; Merops is thy true father, with whom Phaeton was falsely reproached."-JOHNSON.

"TO FLY his deadly doom"-" This is a Gallicism. The sense is--By avoiding the execution of his sentence I shall not escape death. If I stay here, I suffer myself to be destroyed; if I go away, I destroy myself."JOHNSON.

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These to her excellent white bosom, etc. "Again, in Gascoigne's Adventures of Master F. I.:' 'at delivery thereof, [i. e. of a letter,] she understode not for what cause he thrust the same into her bosome.' "Trifling as the remark may appear, before the meaning of this address of letters to the bosom of a mistress can be understood, it should be known that anciently women had a pocket in the fore part of their stays, in which they not only carried love-letters and love-tokens, but even their money and materials for needlework. Thus Chaucer, in his Marchante's Tale:'

This purse hath she in hire bosome hid.

"In many parts of England, the rustic damsels still observe the same practice; and a very old lady informs me, that she remembers when it was the fashion to wear prominent stays, it was no less the custom for stratagem or gallantry to drop its literary favours within the front of them."-STEVENS.

"if he be but ONE knave"-i. e. Not a double knave, says Johnson: and Dr. Farmer has shown, from several passages of old poets, etc., that two fools— two knaves, were often used where we should now say a double fool or knave.

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"-saint Nicholas be thy speed"-Saint Nicholas, besides being the patron-saint of Holland, and of Russia, presided over all clerks or learned persons. exalted to this honour, according to the legend, for having miraculously restored the lives of three young scholars who had been murdered. By the statutes of St. Paul's School, (London,) the scholars are required to attend divine service at the cathedral, on the anniversary of St. Nicholas. He has also long been known in Holland and New York as the special friend of children. In addition to these high charges of the care of nations, and scholars, and children, the saint was also honoured by having thieves called his clerks, why, it is not easy to say, unless it be that in the old times of learned beg"scholar" and "thief" were thought synonymous gary,

terms.

"She hath a SWEET MOUTH"- -"A sweet mouth' formerly meant a sweet tooth, which is here reckoned among the lady's vices; but Launce turns it to account by understanding the words in their literal sense, and setting her 'sweet mouth' against her 'sour breath.'"COLLIER.

SCENE II.

and perversely she PERSEVERS so"-This was the old mode of accenting the word. Milton was one of the first to write, and to pronounce it, persevere.

"You must provide to BOTTOM it on me"-Stevens has found this housewife's image, as appearing in English poetry, before the time of Shakespeare:

A bottom for your silk, it seems,

My letters are become,

Which oft with winding off and on,
Are wasted whole and some.

GRANGE'S "Garden," 1557,

"That may discover such integrity"—Malone "suspected" that a line following the above had been accidentally omitted; but any addition seems needless. Valentine alludes to the " integrity" of Sir Thurio's passion-"such integrity" as he may be supposed to have expressed in his sonnets.

"With some sweet CONSORT"- "Consort" meant, in our author's time, a band or company of musicians. It is so explained by the old dictionaries, and so used and spelled in King James's Bible. The substitution of concert is a modern corruption of the text.

"Tune a deploring DUMP"-The term “dump" is now used only in a ludicrous sense; but there were formerly regular serious pieces of music so called, one of which has been preserved by Stevens, in his editions, as "A Dumpe" of the sixteenth century.

"This, or else nothing, will INHERIT her"-To "inherit" is sometimes used by Shakespeare for to obtain possession of, without any idea of acquiring by inheritance. Milton, in "Comus" has, "disinherit Chaos," meaning, only, to dispossess it.

"To SORT some gentlemen well skill'd in music". To "sort" is to choose out, or select. When sorted, (Collier adds,) they would form a consort.

46- I will PARDON you"-i. e. I will "pardon," or excuse, your attendance.

ACT IV.-SCENE I.

"Have you the tongues"-i. e. Do you speak various languages?

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By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar"— The jolly Friar Tuck, of the old Robin Hood balladsthe almost equally famous Friar Tuck of “Ivanhoe❞—is the personage whom the outlaws here invoke. It is unnecessary to enter upon the legends

Of Tuck, the merry friar, who many a sermon made, In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws, and his trade. Shakespeare has two other allusions to Robin Hood. The old duke, in AS YOU LIKE IT, "is already in the forest of Arden, and many merry men with him, and there they live, like the old Robin Hood of England." Master Silence, that " merry heart," that "man of mettle," sings, "in the sweet of the night,” of-

Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John.

The honourable conditions of Robin's lawless rule over his followers were evidently in our Poet's mind when he makes Valentine say

I take your offer, and will live with you;
Provided that you do no outrages

On silly women, or poor passengers.

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"Thrust from the company of AWFUL men"-Thus all the old editions, and it is probably the right reading"awful" being understood in its literal meaning, for full of awe, under awe of authority, and it is thus used by the Poet, as in HENRY IV., "We come within our awful banks again;" and in HENRY V., awe is used in reference to the same idea of respect for rightful rule. Yet this sense seems peculiar to Shakespeare, and the commentators and lexicographers have produced no instance in any other old author. This gives some colour to the conjecture that "awful" is here a misprint for lawful; the phrase lawful men being familiar both in legal and popular use.

"AN heir, and NEAR allied unto the duke"-This line varies from the old copies, for it there stands thus:

And heir, and neece allide unto the Duke. Both the words in Italic are probably errors of the press. The old spelling of "near" was often neere. 'Heir" was formerly both masculine and feminine.

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"As we do in our QUALITY much want"-i. e. In our kind, or profession. So, in the TEMPEST,

-Task

Ariel and all his quality.

SCENE II.

"-he lov'd her out of all NICK"-Beyond all reckoning, or count. Reckonings were kept not only by hosts upon nicked, or notched sticks, but by such tallies in the Exchequer of England; and it is one of the many instances of the attachment of the English to their ancient forms, that this inartificial and primitive form of book-keeping was not abolished in the Exchequer until the first year of William IV.

"By my HALIDOM"-Minshew (Dictionary) thus explains this word: "Halidome, or Holidome, an old word, used by old countrywomen, by manner of swearing, by my halidome; of the Saxon word, haligdome, ex halig, i. e. sanctum, and dome; dominium aut judicium." A more common explanation is, that it refers to "the holy dame"--the Virgin Mary. But Nares (Glossary) and others reject both interpretations, and with more probability, and say it is merely "Holy with the termination dom, as Kingdom, Christendom;" meaning thus, holiness, faith; and is equivalent as an oath to "By my faith."

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SCENE III.

REMORSEFUL"-i. e. Compassionate; a sense which the word often bears. (See Notes on OTHELLO.)

"Upon whose grave thou vow'dst pure chastity." This alludes to a practice common in former ages, for widows and widowers, (and, probably also, betrothed lovers,) to make vows of chastity in honour of their deceased wives or husbands. In Dugdale's" Antiquities of Warwickshire," (says Stevens,) there is the form of a commission, by the bishop of the diocese, for taking a vow of chastity by a widow. It seems that, besides observing the vow, the widow was for life to wear a veil and a mourning habit. The last distinction we may suppose to have been also made in respect of male votaries.

SCENE IV.

"Enter LAUNCE with his dog."

"What shall we say to Launce and his dog? Is it probable that even such a fool as Launce should have put his feet into the stocks for the puddings which his dog had stolen, or poked his head through the pillory for the murder of geese which the same dog had killed?-yet the ungrateful cur never denies one item of the facts with which Launce so tenderly reproaches him. Nay, what is more wonderful, this enormous outrage on the probable excites our common risibility. What an unconscionable empire over our fanciful faith is assumed by those comic geniuses! They despise the very word probability. Only think of Smollet making us laugh at the unlikely speech of Pipes, spoken to Commodore Trunnion down a chimney-Commodore Trunnion, get up and be spliced, or lie still and be damned!' think also of Swift amusing us with contrasted descriptions of men six inches and sixty feet high-how very improbable!

And

At the same time, something may be urged on the opposite side of the question. A fastidious sense of the improbable would be sometimes a nuisance in comic fiction. One sees dramatic critics often trying the probabilities of incidents in a play, as if they were testing the evidence of facts at the Old-Bailey. Now, unquestionably, at that august court, when it is a question whether a culprit shall be spared, or whipped and transported for life, probabilities should be sifted with a merciful leaning towards the side of doubt. But the theatre is not the Old-Bailey, and as we go to the former place for amusement, we open our hearts to whatever may most amuse us; nor do we thank the critic who, by his Old-Bailey-like pleadings, would disenchant our belief. The imagination is a liberal creditor of its faith as to incidents, when the poet can either touch our affections, or tickle our ridicule.

"Nay, we must not overlook an important truth in

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