283 old copies, how we should ever be able to retrieve the original words; but must have been contented with the interpretation of a scholiaft. Nay perhaps half the readers of Homer would have liked the one as well as the other. But what shall we fay if Shakespeare's words have been thus altered? If the original has been removed to make room for the glofs? How fhall our author be reftored to his priftine ftate, but by having recourfe to the oldest books, and efteeming these alone of weight and authority? A short specimen of these gloffes, which might be greatly enlarged, is as follows, Hamlet Act I. the fwaggering upfpring reels: Glofs, upstart. A& II. The youth you breath of: Gloss, speak of. Othello, Act I. I take this, that you call love to be a feet or fyen: Gloss, a flip or feyon. A& III. A Sybill that had number'd in the world The fun to course two hundred compasses: Glofs, of the fun's courfe. Macbeth, Act I. which fate and metaphyfical aid: Glofs, Metaphyfic. Act II. For fear thy very stones prate of my where-about: Glofs, of that we're about. Julius Caefar, Act II. Caius Ligarius doth bear Caefar hard: Glofs, bear Caefar batred. Antony and Cleopatra, A& IV. The band of death has raught him : Gloss, caught bim. This may be fufficient to 'fhew how, in a modern Book, the scholiaft has routed the author of his ancient poffeffion. These errors are of the worst kind; they have a resemblance of truth without being the thing itself, and must neceffarily impose on all, but the true critic, who will be at the trouble of going to the first exemplars. B SECT. XVI. UT there are greater alterations, than any yet mention'd, ftill to be made. For the whole play intitled Titus Andronicus fhould be flung out the lift of Shakespeare's works. What tho' a purple patch might here and there appear, is that fufficient reason to make our poet's name father this, or other anonymous productions of the stage? But Mr. Theobald has put the matter out of all queftion; for he informs us, "that Ben Johnson in the induction to his "Bartlemew-Fair (which made its first appearance in the year 1614) couples' Ieronimo and "Andronicus 1 Hieronymo, or the Spanish Tragedy. This play was the conftant object of ridicule in Shakespeare's time. See Mr. Theobald's note, vol. 2. p. 271, 272. B. Jonf. Every Man in his Humour, A&t I. fc. 5. What new book ba' you there? What! Go by Hieronymo! Cynthia's Revels, "Andronicus together in reputation, and speaks "of them as plays then of 25 or 30 years stand ing. Confequently Andronicus must have "been on the stage, before Shakespeare left "Warwickshire to come and refide in London." So that we have all the evidence, both internal and external, to vindicate our poet from this bastard iffue; nor should his editors have printed it among his genuine works. There are not fuch strong external reasons for rejecting two other plays, called Love's Labour's loft, and the Two Gentlemen of Verona: but if any proof can be formed from manner and style, then should these be sent packing, and seek for their parent elsewhere. How otherwife does the painter distinguish copies from originals? And have not authors their peculiar ftyle and manner, from which a true critic can form as unerring a judgment as a painter? External proofs leave no room for doubt. I dare fay there is not any one scholar, that now believes Phalaris' epiftles to be genuine. But what if there had been no external proofs, if the sophist had been a more in the induction. Another prunes his muftaccio, lifps and fwears-That the old Hieronimo (as it was firft acted) was the only beft and judiciously pen'd play of Europe. Alchymift, A& V. Subt. Here's your Hieronymo's cloake and hat. able chronologer, would the work have been more genuine? Hardly, I believe; tho' the scholar of taft had been equally fatisfied. The best of critics might be imposed on as to half a dozen verses, or fo, as Scaliger himself was, 2 z Scaliger's cafe was this; Muretus, having tranflated fome verses from Philemon, sent them in a jocular vein to Scaliger, telling him at the fame time they were a choice fragment of Trabeas, an acient comic poet and Scaliger in his commentary on Varro (p. 212.) cites them as Trabeas' own, and as found in some old manuscript. verfes are ingenious and worth mentioning, Here, fi querelis, ejulatu, fletibus, Medicina fieret miferiis mortalium, The Philemon's verses want some little correction, and thus, as Εἰ τὰ δάκρυ ̓ ἡμῖν τῶν κακῶν ἦν φάρμακον, but but never as to a whole piece: in this respect the critic and the connoiffeur are upon a level. 3 That Anacreon was destroyed by the Greek priests we have the teftimony of a learned Grecian, and this poet is mention'd as a loft author by Petrus Alcyonius: fo that we have nothing now remaining of Anacreon's, but fome fragments, quite of a different caft and manner from those modern compofitions, fo much admired by minute scholars. 3 See what is cited from him above, p. 19, n. Several other proofs may be added; as Od. XXXI. Εμαίνει Αλκμαίων τε Χ ̓ ὁ λευκόπες Ορέσης. ¿ λeuxómus Ogésns, the white-footed Oreftes: i. e. treading the stage in white buskins. The mentioning the name of Oreftes puts the poets in mind of the stage: fo Virgil, Scenis agitatus Oreftes. If Virgil did not rather write furiis. But it happens very unluckily, that Sophocles had no play acted so early as Anacreon's writing his odes, and Sophocles was the inventer of the white fhoe; as the compiler of his life informs us. So that here is an additional proof of this ode's not being genuine. I fuppofe Sophocles' white fhoe was what Shakespeare in Hamlet, A&t III. calls rayed fhoes: i. e. with rays of fylver, or tinfel. Homer's epithet of Thetis is aglugúria, which Milton hints at in his Mafk, By Thetis tinfel-flipper'd feet. Θέλω |