Terence begins the fentence with a nominative cafe, as if he should finish it with lucro babemus : but yet does finish it, as if he in the beginning had written Nobis omnibus. Left any one should think the fentence is to be thus fupplied, Quod attinet ad nos omnes, or with xala, I will add a fimilar place from Plautus in Poen. Act III. Sc. III,

"Tu, fi te dii ament, agere tuam rem occafio eft."

The fentence begins as if he would end it with occafionem nactus es; but it ends, as if in the beginning he had faid Tibi. And Hirtius Bell. Afr. C. 25. "Rex Juba, cognitis Caefaris diffi"cultatibus, copiarumque paucitate, non eft vi"fum dare fpatium convalefcendi.”

1 So the fentence is to be fupplied in Romeo and Juliet, A& IV.

Cap. Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar, "All our whole city is much bound to him.

i. e. As to this holy F. In refpect of this, &c. Which Mr. W. would change into-" Much bound to hymn," for the fake of grammar. So in the Tempeft, A&t I.

"Prof. Me, poor man! my library

"Was dukedom large enough.

į. e. As for me, poor man! &c. This is printed with ridiculous breaks.

In Hamlet, A& JII.

"Your majefty and we, that have free fouls, it "touches us not.”

He begins with a nominative case, as if he would fay, what care we, it touches us not: but cutting fhort his fpeech makes a folecifm. Many kinds of thefe embarraffed fentences there are in Shakefpeare. And have not the best authors their dxveología, as the grammarians call them, feeming inaccuracies, and departure from the common and trite grammar?

RULE XIII.

He makes a sudden transition from the plural number to the fingular.

And fo likewife do the most approved writers of antiquity.

Terence in Eunuc. A& II.

"Dii boni! quid hoc morbi eft! adeon' bomi"nes immutarier

Ex amore, ut non cognofcas eundem effe ?"

I

On which paffage thus Donatus, More fuo à

1 Buchanan, in his verfion of the Pfalms, uses the fame kind of folecism; I think not unelegantly.

"Qui patriam exilio nobis mutavit acerbo,

66

Nos jubet ad patrios verba referre modos ; "Quale canebamus, fteteret dum celfa Sionis "Regia."

plurali

plurali numero ad fingularem fe convertit. Here eundem agrees with bominem included and understood in the plural bomines. Sophocles in Elect. *. 1415.

Ω φίλταται ΓΥΝΑΙΚΕΣ, ἄνδρες αὐτίκα

Τελᾶσι τερον, ἀλλὰ σίγα ΠΡΟΣΜΕΝΕ.

Πρόσμενε for προσμένετε. As the fpeech is directed to the chorus, he confiders them as one or many. Euripides in Phaen. y. 403.

ΤΙ ΦΥΓΑΣΙΝ τὰ δυςυχές ;

Πο. Ἓν μὲν μέγισον, ἐκ ΕΧΕΙ παρρησίαν.

In the second verse ô Quyàs is to be supplied. St. Paul in his epistle to the Galatians vi, 1. TMEIZ οἱ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΟΙ καταρτίζεσθε τοιότον ἐν πνεύματι πραότης, ΣΚΟΠΩΝ σεαυτὸν μὴ καὶ σὺ πειρασθῆς. So Milton in a remarkable paffage, IX, 1182. "Thus it fhall befall

"Him, who to worth in women over-trusting, "Lets her will rule; reftraint he will not brook." Cicero abounds with fuch tranfitions; I will mention one, because Shakespeare has exactly its parallel. "Decius cum fe devoveret, et equo "admiffo in mediam aciem Latinorum irrue

bat, aliquid de voluptatibus fuis cogitabat? " nam ubi eam caperet." De Fin. II, 19. Here the relative eam agrees with voluptatem, to be fupplied

A a 4

fupplied from voluptatibus: just as in Antony and Cleopatra, A& II.

"My powers are crefcent, and my auguring hope Says it will come to th' full."

66

The relative it agrees, and is to be referred to power understood in the plural powers. By the by, when Shakespeare put thefe words in Antony's mouth, he had a view to what Mahomet said in a fort of prophetic rapture, That he would make his crefcent a full moon.

In Timon, A& III.

"Who stuck and fpangled you with flatteries, “Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces "Your reaking villany."

In Macbeth, A& III.

"And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
"When mine is blanch'd with fear."

In Antony and Cleopatra, Act III.
You are abus'd

"Beyond the mark of thought; and the high "Gods

"To do you justice, make bis ministers "Of thus, and those that love you.

This transition is very frequent among the ancients, from fingular to plural, and plural to fin

gular,

gular, when the deity is mentioned: and one reafon may be because they confidered Deity, as

one or many.

Of this mixture of the fingular and plural, because it seems ftrange in Shakespeare, I will add an inftance or two more from the Roman authors.

"Perfida, nec merito nobis inimica, merenti "Perfida, fed quamvis perfida, cara tamen.' Tibull. III. el. 7.

"Reftituis cupido, atque infperanti ipfa refers te "Nobis." Catull. ẹp. 108.

'Tis fomewhat extraordinary, that when we meet these kind of folecifms in the ancient writers, we then try to reduce them to rule and grammar; but when we find the fame in Milton, or Shakespeare, we then think of nothing but correction and emendation.

RULE XIV.

He thortens wo¿ds by friking off the first oz laft fyllable: and fometimes lengthens them by adding a Latin termination,

'Tis very cuftomary in our language to strike off the first fyllable. Hence we fay, fam ple, for example; tpittle, for hospital, &c. In Shakespeare