In the fecond part of K. Henry IV. A&t III. Falftaff 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 seem to have escaped 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.

Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit

1

Of miming, gets th' opinion of a wit.

But a paffage cited from his play will make the following obfervations more plain. Act I. Pug afks the Devil "to lend him a Vice.

"Satan. What Vice?

"What kind wouldst thou have it of?

Pug. Why, any Fraud,

"Or Covetousnefs, 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 seem to lack

" à Vice ?

"Ere his words be half spoken, I am with him in a trice.”

And

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 Pe"niboy, the Money-bawd, who is a flesh-bawd too they fay "Tattle. But here is never a Fiend to carry him away. "Befides, he has never a wooden-dagger! I'd not give a "rufh for a VICE, that has not a wooden-dagger to snap "at every body he meets. Mirth. That was the old way, Goffip, 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& 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&t III.

IN

Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity,

I moralize two meanings in one word.

NIQUITY is the formal Vice. Some correct 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 allufion, ftill more diftant, to THE VICE; which will not be obvious at firft, and therefore is to be introduced with a fhort explanation. This buffoon chaacter was used to make fun with the Devil; and he had feveral trite expreffions, as, I'll be with you in a trice: Ah, ha, boy, are you there, &c. And this was great entertainment

tainment to the audience, to see their old enemy fo belabour'd in effigy. In K. Henry V. Act 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, ha 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, wegililpuppetvos ir τοῖς πράγμασιν, ὃν ἡμεῖς ΤΡΥΠΑΝOΝ καλεμεν. Several have tried to find a derivation of THE VICE; if I fhould not hit on the right, I should only err with others. THE VICE is either a quality perfonalized as BIH and KAPTOƐ 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.

bis image, i. e. a brutish Vice's image: the Vice Gluttony; not without fome allufion to the VICE of the old plays. Or VICE may be in the abstract, as in Martial,

Non Vitiofus homo es, Zoile, fed VITIUM.

But rather, I think, 'tis an abbreviation of Vice-Devil, as Vice-roy, Vice-doge, &c. and therefore properly called THE VICE. He makes very free with his mafter, like moft other Vice-roys, or prime-minifters. So that he is the Devil's Vice, and prime minifter; and 'tis this, that makes him fo fawcy.

The other old droll characters, are the Fool, and the Clown, which we have in Shakespeare's plays. The Romans in their Atellan interludes, and Mimes, had their buffoons, called Maccus, Mŵxos, from whence the English word Mocker; and Sannio, from whence the Italian Zanni, and Zang, See Cicer. de Orat. L. 2. c. 61. and Bucco à quoiyrales, quod buccas inflaret ad rifum movendum: from whence is derived a Buffoon,

Page 128. SHAKESPEARE labouring with a mul tiplicity of fublime ideas often gives himself not time to be delivered of them by the rules of" flow"endeavouring art:" bence be crowds various figures together, and METAPHOR upon METAPHOR; and runs the hazard of far-fetched expreffions, whilst intent on nobler ideas be condescends not to grammatical niceties.]

The crouding and mixing together heterogeneous metaphors is doing a fort of violence to the mind; for each new metaphor calls it too foon off from the idea which the former has rais'd: 'tis a fault doubtless, and not to be

▪ ་ ས ་ ༈༙

apologized

In King Henry VIII. A& III. Sc. the laft.

"Say, Wolfey, that once trod the ways of glory, "And founded all the depths and shoals of honour, "Found thee a way, &c.

Mr. W.-" Rode the waves of glory."

In Julius Cæfar, A& II.

-"But do not ftain

"The even virtue of our enterprize,

"Nor th' infuppreffive mettle of our fpirits
"To think that or our caufe, or our performance,
"Did need an oath.

Mr. W. to preferve the integerity of the metaphor, reads, "do not STRAIN."

In Antony and Cleopatra, Act I.

"Take but good note, and you shall see in him "The triple pillar of the world transform'd

"Into a ftrumpet's fool.

"The metaphor is here miferably mangled; we should "read.

"Into a ftrumpet's STOOL." Mr. W.

There is much more of this kind of uncritical stuff in the late edition; but I am already weary with transcribing.

Page 216. SHAKESPEARE was a great reader of the fcriptures, and from the bold figures and metaphors be found there enriched his own elfewhere unmatched ideas.

I could wish some of our modern poets would follow the example of the three beft Makers, that our nation, or

perhaps,