Dr. Bentley's mifrepresentation for the Dr. knew well enough, if he had given you the poet's verses, (as in his trials to correct them he must himself have turn'd, and varied the pointing feveral ways) in the following manner, Haud aliter, terras inter coelumque, volabat i. e. fled to the coaft of Libya; he could not have made way for his own correction: or if he had told you, that nothing was more common than for the best authors, to apply the verb properly to one substantive, and improperly often to the other. As in Sophocles Elect. ✯. 437 ̓Αλλ ̓ ἢ πνυαῖσιν, ἢ βαθυσκαφεῖ κόνει ΚΡΥΨΟΝ νιν. At vel ventis trade, vel profundo in pulvere The editor here would alter the context, tho' the ancient Scholiaft expressly vindicates the paffage. Пgos pèr To Baθεσκαφεῖ κόνει αρμοδίως λέγεθαι τὸ ΚΡΥΨΟΝ· πρὸς δὲ τὸ ανοαῖς & δύναται άρμόσαι. δεῖ ἦν συνυπακέειν ἔξωθεν ῥῆμα καλὰ ἀναλογίαν, ἢ τὸ ῥίψον, ἢ τὸ δὸς, ἤ τι τῶν τοιέτων. καὶ ἐν ἑτέροις τῦτο γίνεται πολλοῖς. ὡς παρ' Ὁμήρῳ, [11. γ'. 326.] Ἦχι ἑκάτῳ Ιπποι ἀερσίποδες καὶ ποικίλα τεύχε' ἔκειτο. Our Shakespeare, who imitated all the bold figures of antiquity, is not without like instances as in King Lear, A& III. "Since I was man, "Such fheets of fire, fuch burfts of horrid thunder, "Such "Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never "Remember to have HEARD." Had he told you this, I fay, he could not have abus'd that phrafe, littus et ventos fecabat, which he misrepresenting cites, littus fecabat ventofque. So that whether you keep the old pointing, or change it, the Dr. cannot get one jot forward towards an emendation: not tho' you allowed him, which I somewhat queftion, the propriety of legebat littus, apply'd to Mercury flying directly from mount Atlas to the coaft of Libya. This whole paffage of Virgil, Milton has finely imitated in his 5th book. . 265. &c. where the Dr. is at his old work, hacking and hewing. Were I to give an instance of Bentley's critical skill, I should not forget that place in the Plutus of Aristophanes, . 1010. which puzzled the Grecian critics, being an old inveterate evil, just gloffed over, 'till Bentley probed it to the bottom, and recovered it's pristine beauty. No one did better than the Dr. when he met with a corrupt place; but the mischief was, he would be medling with found places. The emendation is printed in a letter to Kuster, inserted at the end of his edition of Aristophanes: to which I rather refer the reader, than lengthen this note, too long already. Page 3. Like the old VICE.] a The allufion here is to THE VICE, a droll character in our old plays, accoutred with a long coat, a cap with pair of ass's ears, and a dagger of lath. Shakespeare alludes to his buffoon appearance in Twelfth-Night, A& IV. In a trice, like to the old Vice ; Who with dagger of lath, in his rage, and his wrath In the fecond part of K. Henry IV. A& III. Falstaff compares Shallow to VICE's dagger of lath. In Hamlet, A& III. Hamlet calls his uncle, A VICE of Kings: i. e. a ridiculous representation of majesty. These paffages the editors have very rightly expounded. I will now mention fome others, which feem to have efcaped their notice, the allufions being not quite fo obvious. THE INIQUITY was often the VICE in our old Moralities; and is introduced in B. Johnfon's play call'd the Devil's an afs and likewife mention'd in his Epigr. CXV. Being no vitious perfon, but the Vice About the town. A&s old Iniquity, and in the fit Of miming, gets th' opinion of a wit. But a paffage cited from his play will make the following obfervations more plain. A&t I. Pug afks the Devil "to lend him a Vice. "Satan. What Vice? "What kind wouldft thou have it of? "Pug. Why, any Fraud, "Or Covetoufnefs, or Lady Vanity, "Or old Iniquity: I'll call him hither." Thus the paffage should be ordered. "Pug. Why any: Fraud, "Or Covetousness, or Lady Vanity "Or old INIQUITY. "Satan. I'll call him hither. "Enter Iniquity, the Vice. "Ini. What is he calls upon me, and would feem to lack "Ere his words be half spoken, I am with him in a trico.” And 66 And in his Staple of News, A&t II. " Mirth. How like you the Vice i' the play? Expectation. Which is he? "Mirth. Three or four, old Covetousness, the fordid Peniboy, the Money-bawd, who is a flesh-bawd too they say. "Tattle. But here is never a Fiend to carry him away. "Befides, he has never a wooden-dagger! I'd not give a "rush for a VICE, that has not a wooden dagger to snap "at every body he meets, Mirth. That was the old "way, Goflip, when Iniquity came in like hokos pokos, "in a juglers jerkin, &c." He alludes to the VICE in the Alchymift, Act I. Sc. III. "Subt. And, on your stall, a puppet, with a VICE." Some places of Shakespeare will from hence appear more eafy as in the ift part of Henry IV. A&t II. where Hal, humourously characterizing Falstaff, calls him, That reverend VICE, that grey INIQUITY, that father RUFFIAN, that VANITY in years, in allufion to this buffoon character. In K. Richard III. A& III. Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity, I moralize two meanings in one word. INIQUITY is the formal Vice. Some corre&t the paffage, Thus, like the formal wife Antiquity, I moralize two meanings in one word. Which correction is out of all rule of criticism. In Hamlet, A&t I. there is an allusion, still more diftant, to THE VICE; which will not be obvious at firft, and therefore is to be introduced with a short explanation. This buffoon character was used to make fun with the Devil; and he had several trite expreffions, as, I'll be with you in a trice: Ah, ha, boy, are you there, &c. And this was great enter tainment tainment to the audience, to see their old enemy fo belabour'd in effigy. In K. Henry V. A&t IV. a boy characterizing Pistol, fays, Bardolph and Nim had ten times more valour, than this roaring Devil i' th' old play ; every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger. Now Hamlet, having been inftructed by his father's ghost, is resolved to break the subject of the discourse to none but Horatio ; and to all others his intention is to appear as a fort of madman: when therefore the oath of fecrefy is given to the centinels, and the Ghost unseen calls out swear; Hamlet speaks to it as THE VICE does to the Devil. Ah, ba boy, fayft thou fo? Art thou there, trupenny ? Hamlet had a mind that the centinels fhould imagine this was a shape that the Devil had put on ; and in Act III. he is fomewhat of this opinion himself, The Spirit that I have seen May be the Devil. This manner of speech therefore to the Devil was what all the audience were well acquainted with; and it takes off in fome measure from the horror of the scene. Perhaps too the poet was willing to inculcate, that good humour is the best weapon to deal with the Devil. True penny is either by way of irony, or literally from the Greek Tgúnavov, veterator. Which word the Scholiaft on Ariftophanes' Clouds . 447. explains, rpúμn, wegillpopeμéros ir τοῖς πράγμασιν, ὃν ἡμεῖς ΤΡΥΠΑΝΟΝ καλεμεν. Several have tried to find a derivation of THE VICE; if I fhould not hit on the right, I fhould only err with others. THE VICE is either a quality personalized as BIH and KAPTOΣ in Hefiod and Aefchylus. SIN and DEATH in Milton; and indeed VICE itself is a perfon. B. XI, 517. And took uis image whom they ferv'd, a brutish VICE. |