In Julius Caefar A&t II. Porcia says to Brutus, "To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed "And talk to you sometimes ?" 15 "This is but an odd phrafe, and gives as odd "an idea," fays Mr. Theobald. He therefore substitutes, confort. But this good old word, however difufed thro' modern refinement, was not fo discarded by Shakespeare. Henry VIII. as we read in Cavendish's life of Woolfey, in commendation of queen Katherine, in public faid, "She hath beene to me a true obedient "wife, and as comfortable as I could wish." And our marriage service Mr. Theobald might as well quarrel with, as ufing as odd a phrase, and giving as odd an idea. In the Midsummer-Night's Dream, A& IV. · "Oberon. Then, my queen,. in 16 filence fad, Trip we after the night's fhade." 66 In filence fad, i. e. ftill, fober. As Milton defcribes the evening, IV, 598. 15 He might have remember'd that Shakespeare himself in the Comedy of Errors. A& III. ufes the word he would change. "Comfort my fifter, chear her, call her wife. 16 They have printed it, In filence fade. "Now came ftill evening on, and twilight gray "Had in her sober livery all things clad. "Silence accompany'd." That fad and fober are fynonymous words, and fo used formerly, is plain from many paffages in our author. In Much ado about Nothing, A& II. "Benedick. This can be no trick, the con"ference was fadly born." And in Milton VI, 540. "He comes, and fettled in his face I fee 17 Sad refolution and fecure." Sad, i. e. fober, fedate. Spencer in his Fairy Queen. B. I. c. 10. ft. 7. Right cleanly clad in comely fad attire." i. e. fober, grave. And B. 2. c. 2. ft. 14. "A fober fad and comely courteous dame." 17 Sad refolution and fecure] "That's but a fad epithet "for Refolution: The poet gave it, "STAID Refolution and fecure. Or. STERN." Bentley. These 159 These few instances, among many others that may easily be given, are fufficient to fhew how ingenious commentators may be led into miftakes, when once they indulge their over-refining taft, and pay greater complements to their own gueffes, than to the expreffions of the author. T SECT. IV. HERE is no fmall elegance in the use of a figure which the rhetoricians call the apofiopefis; when in threatening, or in the expreffion of any other paffion, the sentence is broken, and fomething is left to be fupplied. "Tis a figure well known for that common paffage in Virg. Aen. I, 138. 66 Quos ego-fed motos praeftat componere "fluctus." And Aen. III, 340. "Quid puer Afcanius? fuperatne et vescitur "aurâ ? "Quem tibi jam Troja So in king Lear, A&t II. "Lear. No, you unnatural hags, "I will have fuch revenges on you both, "That "That all the world fhall-I will do fuch things, "What they are yet I know not." I mention these well-known places to introduce others lefs known. And here I beg leave to explain a paffage in Horace, who uses this figure with the utmost elegance in his ode to Galatea. Venus is introduced jefting on Europe, Mox ubi lufit fatis, Abftineto Dixit irarum calidaeque rixae : • Cum tibi invifus laceranda reddet What then? Why then treat this odious creature as cruelly or as kindly as you please. 'Tis an elegance not to be fupplied in words. Immediately Venus begins foothing her vanity with the dignity of her lover, and with her giving a name to a part of the world. Whether any commentator has taken notice of this beauty in Horace, I don't know: Dr. Bentley is at his old work, altering what he could not taste. 1 Hor. L. II. Od. 27. The Dr. would thus alter the paffage, JAM tibi INJUSsus laceranda reddet Cornua taurus. This figure has a very near resemblance to another called by the Greeks, τὸ σχῆμα παρ' Jóvoιav, figura praeter expectationem: when the fentence is in fome measure broken, or fufpended, and somewhat added otherwise than you expected. Ariftophanes in Plut. . 26. Χρ. Αλλ' να σε κρύψω· τῶν ἐμῶν γὰρ οικειῶν Πιςόταλον ἡγεμαί σε κλεπίςατον. Well, I'll not conceal it from thee: for of all my domeftics I think thee to be the most trusty and-the greatest knave. 'Twas expected he should have added, and the bonefteft. I come now to our author, and shall cite a few places, which, as far as I find, have escaped notice, and on that account, have been mended or mangled. In the Merrry Wives of Windfor, A&t II. 2 "Ford. Tho' Page be a fecure fool, and stand "fo firmly on his wife's Frailty; yet I "cannot put off my opinion fo eafily." He was going to say honefty; but corrects himself, and They would read, Fealty. M adds |