Measure, A&t III. In the fame fenfe we have . their beaftly touches. And in Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. The neer-touch'd veftal. So Horace calls Pallas, L. I. Od. 7. Intacta. There is another word of not unlike import and fignification, In the Winter's Tale, Act I. "Go play, boy, play: thy mother PLAYS, "and I play too.' This is used in the fame fenfe as the Latins ufe LUDERE, and the Greeks Пá. Fis anus, et tamen Vis formofa videri LUDISQUE et bibis impudens. Hor. IV, 13. LUSISTI fatis, edifti fatis, atque bibifti. L. 2. 2.214. Turba Menandreae fuerat nec Thaidos olim 4 Our learned comedian in his Silent Woman, A& IV. Sc. I. thus literally tranflates Ovid. Art. Amator. Lib. I. *.677. At que, cum cogi poffet, non TACTA receffit, Ut fimulet vultu gaudea, triftis erit. "She that might have been forced, and you let her go free " without TOUCHING, tho' then fhe feem'd to thank you, "will ever hate you after; and glad i'th' face, is affuredly "fad at the heart." Milton likewife has followed this learned mean ing, in a paffage imitated from Homer [II. y. 441. II. E. 514.] "Now let us PLAY "As meet is, after fuch delicious fare." IX, 1027. He uses SHADOW, as the Latins use UMBRA, In the second part of K. Henry IV. A& II. Poius. "I am your SHADOW, my Lord, I'll " follow you.' So Horace, speaking of those who attended Mæcenas as unbidden guests, Quos Mecenas adduxerat UMBRAS. L. 2. 8. Again, L. 1. Ep. 5. Locus eft et pluribus UMBRIS. 'Tis a pretty allufion of constant attendants, in the sunshine of fortune, and who then cannot eafily be shaken off. The fame allufion Milton has, "Thou, my SHADE Infeparable, muft with me along." X, 249. In a Midsummer Night's Dream, A& III. He uses not a word form'd from the Latin, but the Latin word itself. Lyfander speaks to Hernia, "Get "Get you gone, you dwarf, "You Minimus. "This is (fays Mr. Theobald) no term of art, "that I can find; and I can fcarce be willing to think, that Shakespeare would use the maf"culine of an adjective to a woman. He was "not fo deficient in grammar. I have not ven"tur'd to disturb the text; but the author, perhaps, might have wrote, “ You, Minim, you. i. e. You diminutive of the creation, you "reptile. In this fenfe, to use a more recent authority, Milton uses the word in the 7th "book of Paradise Loft. "These as a Line their long dimenfions drew, "Streaking the ground with finuous trace; not " all "Minims of nature.” Mr. Theobald, who was no bad scholar, might have remembered that the mafculine gender is often used, where the perfon is confidered more than the fex; as here 'tis by Shakespeare. Milton's expreffion feems to be from Prov. xxx. 24. according to the vulgate, Quatuor ifta funt minima terre. MINIMS are an order of Friars, Minimi; X 3 Minimi; fo named thro' affected himility. From this adjective Spencer form'd his fubftantive, MINIMENTS, trifles, toys; res minimi pretii. B. 4. c. 8. ft. 6. "Upon a day as she him fate befide, "By chance he certaine miniments forth drew." Minim in mufic is half a femibreve; to which he alludes, in B. 6. c. 10. ft. 28. "Pardon thy shepherd mongst so many lays "As he hath fung of thee in all his days, "To make one minime of thy poor handmaid." In Othello, Act III. "Now by yond Marble Heav'n.” So in Timon, A& IV. The marbled manfion all above." And Milton, B. III. 564. "The pure Marble air." Virgil, Equor Marmoreum, Aen. VI, 729, which Phaer renders "The marblefacid feas." And Douglas, "Under the flekit fe of marbil hew." Homer Homer led the way, Il. ξ'. 275. ἅλα μαρμαρέην, which the fcholiaft interprets by λeux. The fea, as well as the sky, is called Marble, from its being refplendent, and shining like marble. And 'tis to be remembered that the poets predicate the same things reciprocally both of the fky and waters. In the firft part of K. Henry IV. fpeaking of the Severn, he says, "His "crifped head." And in the Tempest, Act IV. he has," Crifp channels." Crifp, or crifped, is curled. Lat. Crifpus, crispatus. So of the Clouds, in the Tempeft, A& I. "All hail, great mafter! grave Sir, hail! "To answer thy best pleasure: be't to fly, And fo in Timon, A& IV. "With all abhorred births below 5 CRISP heav'n, "Whereon Hyperion's quickning fire doth shine. 5" Crifp heav'n.] We should read CRIPT, i e. vaulted, "from the Latin Cripta, a vault." Mr. W.-But that we should read, as the poet red, Crifp, is plain from the above citations. One may ask too where is Cript to be found? Add to that Cripta is a vault under ground, áñà Txgu, hence the Italians have formed Grotta, a grotto. |