Page 3. MEAN while the author's words are either removed entirely out of the way, or permitted a place in fome remote note, loaden WITH MISREPRESENTATIONS and ABUSE, &c.] Dr. Bentley's foul play in this respect is most notorious; who, in order to make way for his emendations, will often drop the only, and true construction: the reader is mistaken if he thinks this done through ignorance. I will instance in a correction of a paffage of Virgil, Aen. IV, 256: which, among many other corrections, I chiefly make choice of, because fome have been deceiv'd into an opinion of its fuperior excellency: and I will give it in his own words, from a note on a paffage of Horace, Lib. I. od. 34. { Hic primum paribus nitens Gyllenius alis Conftitit hinc toto praeceps fe corpore ad indas ubi quam multa merito vituperanda fint vides. : Volat, et 66 mox volant deinde in continuatis verfibus ingratum "auribus podléherlov, volabat, fecabat: ad quod evitandum vetuftiffimi aliquot codices apud Pierium mutato "ordine fic verfus collocant, Haud aliter terras inter caelumque volabat Litus arenofum et Libyae ventofque fecabat. "Sed nihil omnino proficiunt, aut locum adjuvant: adhuc enim relinquitur vitim omnium deterrimum, fecabat littus "ventofque. ventofque. Quid enim eft littus fecare, nifi littus araré "et effodere? Quid autem hoc ad Mercurium volantem ? "Nullus dubito quin fic fcripferit princeps poëtarum : Haud aliter, terras inter caelumque, legebat The first fault he finds is with VOLABAT coming fo quick after VOLAT. But this repetition is fo far from a fault, that it has a peculiar beauty here; for 'tis in the application of the fimile; fo Milton IV, 189. Or as a thief, &c. In at the window climbs, or oer the tiles: More inftances might be added from Homer, and Milton, and Virgil. The next fault is the rime volabat, fecabat : If there was any ftop after volabat and fecabat, fome anfwer or apology fhould be made. But there is actually no more jingle in those verses of Virgil, than in thofe of Milton, II, 220. This horror will grow mild, this darkness light; VI, 34. Than violence: for this was all thy care. VI, 79. By facred unction, thy deferved right. Go then, thou mightiest in thy father's might. For if the reader will turn to the places cited, he will find, that all this jingling found of like endings is avoided by the verses running one into the other and I have cited them here in this unfair manner, as a parallel inftance of Cc 4 Dr. Dr. Bentley's mifreprefentation: 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 coast 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 fubftantive, and improperly often to the other. As in Sophocles Elect. . 437. ̓Αλλ ̓ ἢ πουαῖσιν, ἢ βαθυσκαφεῖ κόνει KPY YO'N yy. At vel ventis trade, vel profundo in pulvere The editor here would alter the context, tho' the ancient ́ Scholiaft exprefsly vindicates the paffage. Igos pèr To Baθυσκαφεῖ κάνει ἁρμοδίως λέγεται τὸ ΚΡΥΨΟΝ· πρὸς δὲ τὸ πνοαῖς ἐ δύναται ἁρμόσαι. δεῖ ἦν συνυπακέειν ἔξωθεν ῥῆμα καλὰ ἀναλογίαν, ἢ τὸ ῥίψον, ἢ τὸ δὸς, ἤ τι τῶν τοιέτων. καὶ ἐν ἑτέροις τότο γίνεται πολλοῖς. ὡς παρ' Ομήρω, [11. γ'. 326.] Ἦχι ἑκάσῳ Ιπποι αιρσίποδες καὶ ποικίλα τεύχε' ἔκειτο. Our Shakespeare, who imitated all the bold figures of antiquity, is not without like inftances: as in King Lear, A& III. "Since I was man, "Such fheets of fire, fuch bursts 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 mifreprefenting 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 fomewhat 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 inftance 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, juft gloffed over, 'till Bentley probed it to the bottom, and recovered it's priftine 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, inferted 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 afs'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&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 feem to have escaped their notice, the allufions being not quite so 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 Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit Of miming, gets th' opinion of a wit. But a paffage cited from his play will make the follow ing obfervations more plain. A&t 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 |