Haiah xlv, 8. " Drop down, ye Heavens, from "above, and let the skies pour down righteouf" nefs." Revel. xvi, 1. And I heard a great "voice out of the temple, faying to the feven Angels, Go your ways and pour out the vials "of the wrath of God upon the earth." In K. Henry V. A& L "Confideration like an Angel came, "And whipt th' offending Adam out of him.” 8 According to the Scripture expreffion, the old Adam, or the old Man, wáλasos augumos, fignifies Man in his unregenerated or gentile state: and the new man, is man in his regenerated and christian state. In Troilus and Creffida. A&t V. "Frown on, you Heavens, effect your rage " with speed! "Sit, Gods, upon your thrones and 9 fmile " at Troy! . I say, 8 See Rom. VI, 6. Ephef. IV, 22. Coloff. III, 9. 9 "Here Troilus is made to invoke the Gods to frown " in one line, and to smile in the other: and, as if he had "not talked nonfenfe enough, after having made them do and undo, and protract the fate of Troy, in the next "I fay, at once let your brief plagues be mercy, "And linger not our fure destruction on." 'Tis plain our poet had the pfalmist in view. "He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them "to fcorn: the Lord fhall have them in de"rifion." Pf. ii, 4. "The Lord fhall laugh "him to fcorn; for he hath feen that his day is coming." Pf. xxxvii, 13. Hence Milton, V, 735. "Mighty Father, thou thy foes "Juftly haft in derifion, and fecure 66 Laughft at their vain defigns, and tumults "vain." And before in B. II, 191. "He from heaven's height, "All these our motions vain fees and derides.” In the above cited paffage the Heavens are the Ministers of the Gods to execute their vengeance, and they are bid to frown on; but the Gods themselves fmile at Troy; they hold Troy in derifion, for they fee it's day is coming. "line he begs them to be speedy and brief, and dispatch We fhould read and point the paffage "them at once. thus, "Sit Gods upon your thrones, and smite at Troy, "I fay, at once. Let your brief plagues be merey. Mr. W. In King John. A& III. Couf. Nay rather turn this day out of the "week, "This day of fhame, oppreffion, perjury :. " Or if it must stand still, &c." In allufion to Job iii, 3. "Let the day perish, « &c.” And ✯. 6. "Let it not be joined unto "the days of the year, let it not come into the "number of the months." It feems likewise that Shakespeare had ftrongly the character and history of Job in view, when he made Othello pour forth the following most pathetical complaint, "Had it pleas'd Heaven "To try me with affliction, had he rain'd "All kind of fores and fhames on my bare head, Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips, "Given to captivity me and my hopes; "I fhould have found in fome places of my "A drop of patience." foul In king Lear, A& V. "He that parts us, fhall bring a brand from "heav'n, "And fire us hence, like foxes." Alluding Alluding to the scriptural account of Samfon's tying foxes, two and two together by the tail, and fastening a firebrand to the cord, thus let< ting them loose among the standing corn of the Philistines. Judges xv, 4. In the second part of K. Henry IV. A&IV. "And therefore will he wipe his 1o tables clean." In Hamlet, A& I. 10 "Yea from the table of my memory 10 The Pugillares or table books of the ancients were made of fmall leaves of wood, ivory, or skins, and covered over with wax. To which Shakespeare alludes in Timon. A&t I. "Halts not particular, but moves itself, : These verses are put in the mouth of a trifling poet.They confifted fometimes of two, three, five or more pages, and thence were called duplices, triplices, quintuplices, and multiplices and by the Greeks dialuxa, rpinluxa, &c. The inftrument, with which they wrote, they called ftilus ; at first made of iron, but afterwards that was forbidden at Rome, and they used ftyles of bone: it was fharp at one, end to cut the letters, and flat at the other to deface them; from whence the phrase, ftylum vertere. Shakespeare's time fignified a pocket book, "tables meet it is I fet it down." : TABLE in "Hamlet. My Prov. iii, 3. Write them upon the table of thine beart. So Aefchylus in fuppl. 187. Aiva Quλáκαι ταμ ̓ ἔπη δεχόμενα. I advife thee to keep my words written on the tables of thy memory. And in Prometh. 788. iysgáþeir déλlois Oge, which Mr. Theobald has cited. And thus the words in Macbeth are to be explained. Act I. "Kind Gentlemen, your pains "Are registred where every day I turn "The leaf to read them." Meaning in the table of his heart, to which he points. In Othello, A& IV. "If to preserve this vessel for my Lord." 1 Theff. iv, 4. To poffefs bis veffel in fanétification. In Macbeth. Act III. Put rancors in the vessel of my peace. So Lucret. V, 138. Tandem in eodem homine, atque in eodem vase maneret. In Cymbeline, A& I. "He fits 'mongst men, like a defcended God." There |