"of Media fent him a very confiderable rein"forcement." To omit Adullas, for Adallas, who is the king of Pont, but Polemo? and who of Lycaonia, but Amintas? First then the king of Pont is to be ftricken off the lift. And I make no doubt but in the original writing it was fo: and what the poet blotted out, the printer gave us, because he saw it filled up the verse :

66

King Malchus of Arabia."

Having gotten rid of the king of Pont: how fhall we reconcile to Plutarch?

"Polemon and Amintas,

"The king of Mede, and Lycaonia.”

This may be done by an eafy tranfpofition of the words,

"Polemon, and Amintas

"Of Lycaonia; and the king of Mede."

In Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV.

"Caefar. My meffenger,

"He' hath whipt with rods, dares me to perfonal "combat,

"Caefar to Antony. Let the old ruffian know, "I have many other ways to die: mean time 66 Laugh at his challenge."

What

What a reply is this to Antony's challenge? 'tis acknowledging he should fall under the unequal combat. But if we read,

!

"Let the old ruffian know,

"He' hath many other ways to die: mean time "I laugh at bis challenge."

By this reading we have poinancy, and the very repartee of Caefar. Let us hear Plutarch." Af"ter this Antony fent a challenge to Caefar to "fight him hand to hand, and received for an"fwer, That HE [viz. Antony] might find seve"ral other ways to end HIS LIFE."

To these may be added several other corrections of faulty paffages, which feem to have proceeded from the fame caufe.

In the Tempeft, A& I.

"Alon. Good boatfwain, have care: where's "the master? Play the men.

It fhould be ply the men: keep them to their bufinefs. Ply your oars, is a feaman's phrase: and Alonso speaking to the Boatswain bids him ply the men. In other places the phrafe, play the men, may be very pertinently used; as in the firft part of Henry VI. A&t I.

"When they shall hear how we have play'd

"the men."

And

And in Coriolanus, A& III.

"Rather fay, I play the man I am."

So in Scripture. 2 Sam. x, 12. "Be of good "courage and let us play the men for our peo

ple." The pertinency of the phrase in such like paffages occafioned the blundering transcriber to place it here. There seems to me to be an error a little before:

"Boatfwain. Hey, my hearts; cheerly, my "hearts; yare, yare; take in the top-fail; "tend to th' mafter's whistle; blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough." To what, or whom, does the Boatswain speak? He turns from the Mariners, and in a kind of braving thus apoftrophizes the Wind,

"Blow, till thou burft, thou Wind! if room "enough."

How small is the alteration, but what an energy is given to the action by this reading? Again in the fame play, Act II.

"Trinculo. Yond fame black cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul bumbard, that “`would shed his liquor."

'Tis not owing to the foulness, but the fulnefs of this large drinking veffel, (here called 8 a bumbard,

8

a bumbard, that must cause it to shed its liquor. 'Tis plain therefore that the propriety of the paffage requires us to read, a full bumbard.

In a Midfummer Night's-Dream, A& IV. "Queen. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee "in my arms.

"Fairies, begone, and be 9 always away.'

Read, "Fairies begone and be away.-Away."

[Seeing them loiter.

The fairies being gone, the queen turns to her new lover,

"So doth the 10 woodbine the fweet honey-fuckle Gently entwist; the female Ivy fo Enrings the barky fingers of the elm."

66

8 à Lat. bombarda, from the found: and drinking veffels were hence called BoμCuλiòi, à fono bilbiente. See Hefychius. 9 Mr. Theobald thinks the poet meant

and be all ways away.

i. e. disperse yourselves, and scout out severally, in your watch.

10 Mr. Theobald has printed it,

"So doth the woodbine, the sweet honey-fuckle,

66

Gently entwist the maple; Ivy fo, &c."

This is too great a variation from the received reading : and how jejune is it to tell us, that the woodbine and the honey-fuckle is the fame thing?

Read,

Read, wood rine, i. e. the honey-fuckle entwists the rind or bark of the trees :

"So doth the wood rine the fweet honey-fuckle "Gently entwift."

In Shakespeare's time this was the manner of spelling; fo Spencer in the Shepherd's Calendar, eclog. 2.

"But now the gray mofs marred his rine."

In King John, A& IV.

"Arth. Is there no remedy?

"Hub. None but to lose your eyes.

"Arth. ô Heav'n, that there were but a

66 MOTH in yours,

A grain, a duft, a gnat, &c."

Undoubtedly the true reading is, a MOTE. Matt. vii, 4. Why beholdest thou the MOTE that is "in thy brother's eye, &c." Horatio in Hamlet, Act I.

"A MOTE it is to trouble the mind's eye.

A mote, To xágos. The Anglo-S. verfion of St. Matthew's gospel uses this very word, mot: meaning what we call chaff, or short straw, and fo 'tis now used in the West of England; but