of conception occurs in Lilly's Midas, a play which most probably preceded Shakspere's. Act iv. sc. 1. Pan tells Apollo, "Had thy lute been of lawrell, and the strings of Daphne's haire, thy tunes might have been compared to my notes," &c. WARTON. The same thought occurs in How to chuse a Good Wife from a Bad, 1608: "Hath he not torn those gold wires from thy head, "Wherewith Apollo would have strung his harp, "And kept them to play musick to the gods ?” Lilly's Midas, quoted by Mr. Warton, was published STEEVENS, in 1592. 681. And, when love speaks, the voice of all the gods Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.] This nonsense we should read and point thus : And when love speaks the voice of all the gods, i. e. in the voice of love alone is included the voice of all the gods. Alluding to that ancient theogony, that Love was the parent and support of all the gods. Hence, as Suidas tells us, Palæphatus wrote a poem called, "Αφροδίτης καὶ Ἔρωία. φωνὴ καὶ λόλω. The voice and speech of Venus and Love, which appears to have been a kind of cosmogony, the harmony of which is so great, that it calms and allays all kinds of disorders: alluding again to the ancient use of musick, which was to compose monarchs, when, by reason of the the cares of empire, they used to pass whole nights in restless inquietude. The ancient reading is, Make heaven WARBURTON. JOHNSON. I cannot find any reason for this emendation, nor do I believe the poet to have been at all acquainted with that ancient theogony mentioned by the critick. The former reading, with the slight addition of a single letter, was, perhaps, the true one. When LOVE speaks (says Biron), the assembled gods reduce the elements of the sky to a calm, by their harmonious applauses of this favoured orator. Mr. Collins observes, that the meaning of the passage may be this-That the voice of all the gods united, could inspire only drowsiness, when compared with the cheerful effects of the voice of Love. That sense is sufficiently congruous to the rest of the speech; and much the same thought occurs in The Shepherd Arsileus' Reply to Syrenus' Song, by Bar. Yong; published in England's Helicon, 1614: "Unless mild Love possess your amorous breasts, "If you sing not of him, your songs do weary." Dr. Warburton has raised the idea of his author, by imputing to him a knowledge, of which, I believe, he was not possessed; but should either of these explanations prove the true one, I shall offer no apology for having made him stoop from the critick's elevation. I would, however, read, Makes heaven drowsy with its harmony. Though the words mark! and behold! are alike used to bespeak or summon attention, yet the former of them appears so harsh in Dr. Warburton's emendation, that I read the line several times over, before I perceived its meaning. To speak the voice of the gods, appears to me as defective in the same way. Dr. Warburton, in a note on All's Well that Ends Well, observes, that to speak a sound is a barbarism. To speak a voice is, I think, no less reprehensible. STEEVENS. Few passages have been more canvassed than this. I believe, it wants no alteration of the words, but only of the pointing: And when love speaks (the voice of all), the gods Make heaven drowsy with thy harmony. Love, I apprehend, is called the voice of all, as gold, in Timon, is said to speak with every tongue; and the gods (being drowsy themselves with the harmony) are supposed to make heaven drowsy. If one could possibly suspect Shakspere of having read Pindar, one should say, that the idea of musick making the hear. ers drowsy, was borrowed from the first Pythian. TYRWHITT. Perhaps here is an accidental transposition. We may read, as I think some one has proposed before, "The voice makes all the gods "Of heaven drowsy with the harmony." FARMER. That harmony had the power to make the hearers drowsy, the present commentator might infer from the effect it usually produces on himself, In Cinthia's Revenge, Revenge, 1613, however, is an instance which should weigh more with the reader: "Howl forth some ditty, that vast hell may ring "With charms all potent, earth asleep to bring.” Again, in the Midsummer Night's Dream: 66 -musick call, and strike more dead So, also, in King Henry IV. Part II. -softly pray; "Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends; "Unless some dull and favourable hand "Will whisper musick to my wearied spirit." Again, in Pericles, 1609: "It nips me into listening, and thick slumber MALONE. The voice may signify the assenting voice; as in Hamlet: "Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice." By harmony I presume the poet means unison. MUSGRAVE. One might almost persuade one's self that the poet, in this description, meant to allegorize the correspondence between the seven primary colours, and the chords that sound the seven notes in the diatonic scale, had this discovery been made in his own time. HENLEY. 687. From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:] In this speech I suspect a more than common instance of the inaccuracy of the first publishers: From women's eyes this doctrine I derive, and several other lines, are as unnecessarily repeated. Dr. Warburton was aware of this, and omitted two verses, which Dr. Johnson has since inserted. Perhaps the players printed from piece-meal parts, or retained what the author had rejected, as well as what had undergone his revisal. It is here given according to the regulation of the old copies. STEEVENS. 695. a word that loves all men ;] i. e. pleasing to all men. So, in the language of our author's time, it likes me well, for it pleases me. Shakspere here uses the word thus licentiously, merely for the sake of the antithesis. Men, in the following line, are with sufficient propriety said to be the authors of women, and these again of men, the aid of both being necessary to the continuation of the human There is surely, therefore, no need of any of the alterations that have been proposed to be made in these lines. MALONE. race. 720. sow'd cockle reap'd no corn;] This proverbial expression intimates, that beginning with perjury, they can expect to reap nothing but falsehood. The following lines lead us to this sense. WARBURTON. 723. If so, our copper buys no better treasure.] Here Mr. Theobald ends the third act. JOHNSON. ACT |