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Now if this be the opinion of philofophers themfelves concerning philofophy, that it may be perfued with fo much ardor and enthusiasm, that even the over-ftrain'd perfuit may border on madness; how agreeable is it to the character of the wild, undisciplin'd Antony, to call even Brutus Mad, the fober Brutus, the philofopher and patriot? Such as Antony look on all virtue and patriotism, as enthusiasm and madnels.

I will here add an inftance or two of words and manners of expreffion from other languages, which Shakespeare has introduced into his plays. In Hamlet, A&t III.

"That he, as 'twere by accident, may here "Affront Ophelia."

i. e. meet her face to face. Ital. affrontare.

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In Macbeth, A& III.

"No, this my hand will rather
Thy multitudinous fea incarnadine,

Making the green one red."

i. e. make it red, (as Shakespeare himself explains it) of the carnation colour. Ital. colore incarnatino.

In Henry V. A& IV.

"And newly move

"With cafted flough and fresh legerity.”

i. e. alacrity, lightness. Fr. legereté. Ital. leggerezza. He feems to allude to that fine image in Virgil, Aen. II, 471. of Pyrrhus.

Qualis ubi in lucem coluber, malagramina paftus, Frigida tub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat; Nunc pofitis 10 novus exuviis, nitidufque juventâ, Lubrica fublato convolvit pectore terga,

Arduus ad folem, et linguis micat ora trifulcis.

In the Tempeft, Act II. Gonzalo is giving an account of his imaginary commonwealth.

"No name of magistrate;

"Letters fhould not be known; wealth; po66 verty,

"And ufe of fervice, none; contract, fucceffion, "Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none.'

Bourn, from the French word, Borne, a bound or limit: which was not known, as the poets fung, in the golden age. Perhaps from Bavès,

10 Novus, Virgil uses this word in allufion to his name NEOPTOLEMUS, the new or young warrior.

collis,

collis, tumulus: these being the original boundarys. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I.

"I'll fet a bourn how far to be belov'd."

i. e. a boundary, a limit. A Bourne, fignifies with us, a head of a fountaine; and towns, whose names end in bourn, are fituated upon fprings of water: perhaps from the Greek word Beúew, fcaturire. I cannot help observing that Shakespeare in the former paffage,

"Bourn, bound of land;"

adds an explanation of the word, which is no unufual thing with the best writers. In K. Lear, Act IV. he ufes it in it's original fignification according to the Greek etymology,

"Edg. From the dread fummit of this chalky "bourn."

I don't remember any one paffage, wherein he ufes bourn for a fpring-head.

In Hamlet, Act II. The "mobled queen: this defignedly affected expreffion feems to be formed

10 I once thought it fhould be mabled, 1. carelefly dreffed. The word is ufed in the northern parts of England; and by Sandys in his travels, p. 148. The elder mabble their heads in linnen, &c.

from Virg. Aen. II, 40. Magnâ comitante ca

terva.

But Shakespeare has fome Greek expreffions. In Coriolanus, A& II.

"It is held

"That valour is the chiefest virtue, and "Moft dignifies the baver.”

i. e. the poffeffor. So having fignifies fortune and riches. Macbeth, Act I.

"My noble partner

"You greet with prefent grace and great prediction

"Of noble baving."

Having, Gr. xa. Lat. babentia. In Sophocles, Aj. y. 157.

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Πρὸς γὰρ τὸν ΕΧΟΝΘ' ὁ φθόνω ἕρπει.

Ilgòs ròu Exovla, i. e. to the HAVER.

Hence Virgil, Geor. II, 499.

"Aut doluit miferans inopem, aut invidit

"HABENTI."

HABENTI, i. e. the HAVER.

In Hamlet, Ac V.

"Clown. Ay, tell me that and unyoke."

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i. e. put an end to your labours: alluding to, what the Greeks called by one word, Brλuros, the time for unyoking. Hom. Il. 6. 779.

Ημω δ' ήέλιο μελενείσσαλο βιλυόνδε.

Schol. ἐπὶ τὴν ἑσπέραν δείλης, καθ ̓ ὃν καιρὸν οἱ βοὲς ἀπολυόναι τῶν ἔργων. From this one word Horace has made a whole ftanza. L. III. Od. 6.

"Sol ubi montium

"Mutaret umbras, et juga demeret
"Bobus fatigatis, amicum
Tempus agens abeunte curru."

Hence too our Milton in his Mask.

"Two fuch I faw, what time the labour'd oxe "In his loofe traces from the furrow came."

W

Our English word Drphan comes from gPavos, ab igQuós being as it were left in darknefs, left void of their greatest bleffing their parents, the light and guide of their steps. 'OgCaves is fpoken of one in the dark and obfcurity: ὀρφανὸς, ὁ ἄσημος καὶ μηκέτι ἐμφανής, fays an ancient grammarian on the Ajax of Sophocles. Now allowing Shakespeare to use the word orphan, as a Grecian would have used it, how elegantly does he call the fairies, the orphan heirs of

destiny:

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