"I therefore beg it not, "To please the palate of my appetite, "Nor to comply with heat, (the young effects,) proper fatisfaction: "In my defunct and 7 "But to be free and bounteous to her mind." I don't beg it merely to please my appetite, nor to comply with lustful beat, (which are youthful affe&tions) in my own fatisfaction, which is, as it were, defunct, and proper to my age, being declined into the vale of years: But I beg it in compliance to Defdemona's mind. The word defunct is not to be taken ftrictly here as fignifying abfolutely dead; but almoft fo; or from the lat. defunctus it might mean, discharged from youthful appetite, and proper to his age and character. So afterwards, Act II. Iago fays, "When the. "blood is made dull with the act of sport, "there fhould be (again to inflame it, and to give fatiety a fresh appetite) loveliness in fa"vour, fympathy in years; manners and beau"ties all which the Moor is defective in." Now if any alteration were to be proposed, instead of defunct the propereft word feems defect, "In my defect and proper fatisfaction. 6 They read, diftin&. 173 In which sense the Latins use defectus ; and 'tis well known how frequently in Shakespeare's time they made Latin words English. Tacitus in Annal. L. IV. c. 29. Lentulus fenectutis extremae, Tubero defecto corpore. And Martial, L. 13. Ep. 77. "Dulcia defectâ modulatur carmina linguâ "Cantator cygnus funeris ipfe fui." Or what if, with a flighter variation still, we read? "I therefore beg it not "To please the palate of my appetite, "Nor to comply with heat, (the young effects "In me defunct) and proper fatisfaction? "But to be free and bounteous to her mind.” i. e. The youthful affections being in me defunct, &c. In K. John, Act I. Philip Faulconbridge has been just knighted. "Phil. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave "a while? "Gurn. Good leave, good Philip. "Phil. Philip, Sparrow, James. "There's toys abroad; anon I'll tell thee more." Mr. Mr. Pope thus explains it, "Call me Philip ? "You may as well call me fparrow; Philip "being a common name for a tame' fparrow." 'Tis not to be wonder'd that Mr. Theobald should turn a deaf ear to whatever Mr. Pope offers by way of criticism: he therefore alters the place thus, Philip! Spare me James. Without changing a word, why fhould we not read, taking the whole in Mr. Pope's sense? "Gurn. Good leave, good Philip. "Phil. Philip? Sparrow! James, "There's toys abroad; anon I'll tell thee more”” 8 So Prior in his poem intitled, The Sparrow and Dove: S. I woo'd my coufin PHILLY Sparrow. And in the workes of G. Gascoigne, Efq; p. 285. Lond. ann. 1587. The praife of Philip Sparrow. Of all the byrds that I doo know, SECT. VI. UT are there no errors at all crept into the B more into any one book, published fince the invention of printing. But these errors may often be accounted counted for, and the cause once known, the cure will follow of course. Not only the words in all languages are ever fleeting, but likewife the manner of spelling those words is so very vague and indeterminate, that almost every one varies it according to his own whim and fancy. This is not only true of the more barbarous countries, but was likewise the cafe of the more polite languages of the Greeks and Romans. The spelling of Virgil differ'd from that of Ennius; and later Romans ventured to vary from even the Auguftan age: Nor were the alterations lefs in the Grecian language; and every country followed their own pronunciation, and spelt in a great measure accordingly. 1 Auguftus himself had little regard to ftri&t orthography as appears in Suetonius's life of Aug. fect. 88. 2 Some letters were added by Epicharmus and Simonides. A fpecimen of the manner in which Homer's earliest copies were written, is as follows: ΜΕΝΙΝ ΑΕΔΕ ΤΗΕΑ ΠΕΛΕΙΑΔΕΟ ΑΚΗΙΛΕΟΣ It may be proper, in order to ascertain fome readings in our author, just to observe, that in the reign of queen Elizabeth the scholars wrote auncient, taulk, chaunce, &c. keeping to the broader manner of pronunciation; and added a letter often to the end of words, as funne, restlesse, &c. fometimes to give them a stronger tone as, doo, 3 wee, mee, &c. the y they expreffed by ie, as, anie, bodie, &c. Tho' many other inftances may be given, yet the generality of those writers 3 As trifling as these observations may appear, yet they are not to be too slightly pass'd over by our critic: There is a corrupted paffage in Shakespeare, which may hence be more truly than hitherto, corrected. In Julius Cæfar. A&t II. the old writing was thus. Danger knows full well There was some ftroke of the pen at the end of the letter e, which made the printer mistake it for an h: fo he gave it us, "WE HEARE two lions litter'd in one day." Mr. Th. reads very ingeniously "WE WERE two lions, &c. But my reading is nearer the traces of the original, and the stopping gives a greater propriety to the fentence. Befides accuracy is of the very effence of criticism, |