Let the old ruffian know

• He hath many other ways to die; mean time
• I laugh at his challenge.--'

we have the poignancy and the very repartee of Cæfar in Plutarch."

This correction was firft made by Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Mr. Johnfon hath received it. Most indisputably it is the sense of Plutarch, and given fo in the modern tranflation: but Shakspeare was mifled by the ambiguity of the old one: "Antonius fent again to challenge Cæfar to fight him : Cæfar anfwered, That he had many other ways to die, than fo."

In the third act of Julius Cæfar, Antony, in his well-known harangue to the people, repeats a part of the emperor's will:

To

every

Roman citizen he gives,
To every fev'ral man, feventy-five drachmas.
Moreover he hath left you all his walks,

His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,
On this fide Tiber.

"Our author certainly wrote," fays Mr. Theo'On that fide Tiber

bald,

And Plutarch, whom Shakspeare very diligently ftudied, exprefsly declares, that he left the publick his gardens and walks, wiper To Пoтaux, beyond the Tyber."

This emendation likewife hath been adopted by the fubfequent editors; but hear again the old tranflation, where Shakspeare's ftudy lay: "He be queathed unto every citizen of Rome feventy-five

drachmas a man, and he left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this fide of the river of Tyber." I could furnish you with many more inftances, but these are as good as a

thoufand.

Hence had our author his characteristick knowledge of Brutus and Antony, upon which much argumentation for his learning hath been founded: and hence literatim the epitaph on Timon, which it was once prefumed, he had corrected from the blunders of the Latin verfion, by his own fuperior knowledge of the original.*

I cannot however omit a paffage from Mr. Pope. "The Speeches copied from Plutarch in Coriolanus may, I think, be as well made an inftance of the learning of Shakspeare, as thofe copy'd from Cicero in Catiline, of Ben Jonfon's." Let us inquire into this matter, and tranfcribe a Speech for a fpecimen. Take the famous one of Volumnia;

Should we be filent and not speak, our raiment
And ftate of bodies would bewray what life
"We've led fince thy exile. Think with thyself,
"How more unfortunate than all living women
"Are we come hither; fince thy fight, which should
Make our eyes flow with joy,hearts dance with comforts,
Conftrains them weep, and fhake with fear and forrow;
Making the mother, wife, and child to fee
The fon, the husband, and the father tearing
His country's bowels out: and to poor we
Thy enmity's moft capital; thou barr'ft us
Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort
That all but we enjoy. For how can we,
Alas! how can we, for our country pray,
Whereto we're bound, together with thy victory,
"Whereto we're bound? Alack! or we muft lofe

See Theobald's Preface to King Richard II. 8vo. 1720.

The country, our dear nurfe; or elfe thy perfon,
Our comfort in the country. We muft find

For either thou

An eminent calamity, though we had
Our wifh, which fide fhou'd win.
Muft, as a foreign recreant, be led
"With manacles thorough our streets; or elfe
Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin,
And bear the palm, for having bravely fhed
Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, son,
I purpose not to wait on fortune, till

Thefe wars determine if I can't perfuade thee
Rather to fhow a noble grace to both parts,
"Than seek the end of one; thou shalt no fooner
March to affault thy country, than to tread

(Truft to't, thou shalt not, on thy mother's womb,
That brought thee to this world.

I will now give you the old tranflation, which fhall effectually confute Mr. Pope : for our author hath done little more, than thrown the very words of North into blank verse:

If we helde our peace (my fonne) and determined not to speake, the state of our poore bodies, and present fight of our rayment, would eafely bewray to thee what life we haue led at home, fince thy exile and abode abroad. But thinke now with thy felfe, howe much more unfortunately, then all the women liuinge we are come hether, confidering that the fight which fhould be most pleasaunt to all other to beholde, fpitefull fortune hath made moft fearfull to us: making my felfe to fee my fonne, and my daughter here, her husband, befieging the walles of his natiue countrie. So as that which is the only comfort to all other in their adversitie and miferie, to pray unto the goddes, and to call to them for aide; is the onely thinge which plongeth us into moft deepe perplexitie. For we

cannot (alas) together pray, both for victorie, for our countrie, and for fafety of thy life alfo: but a worlde of grievous curfes, yea more than any mortall enemie can heappe uppon us, are forcibly wrapt up in our prayers. For the bitter soppe of most harde choyce is offered thy wife and children, to foregoe the one of the two: either to lose the perfone of thy felfe, or the nurse of their natiue contrie. For my felfe (my fonne) I am determined not to tarrie, till fortune in my life time doe make an ende of this warre. For if I cannot perfuade thee, rather to doe good unto both parties, then to ouerthrowe and deftroye the one, preferring loue and nature before the malice and calamitie of warres: thou shalt fee, my fonne, and truft unto it, thou fhalt no fooner marche forward to affault thy countrie, but thy foote fhall tread upon thý mother's wombe, that brought thee firft into this world."

The length of this quotation will be excufed for its curiofity; and it happily wants not the affiftance of a comment. But matters may not always be fo eafily managed: a plagiarifm from Anacreon hath been detected.

The fun's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vaft fea. The moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the fun.
The fea's a thief, whofe liquid furge refolves
The moon into falt tears. The earth's a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a compofture ftol'n
From gen'ral excrement: each thing's a thief."

"This (fays Dr. Dodd) is a good deal in the manner of the celebrated drinking Cde, too well known to be inferted." Yet it may be alledged by thofe, who imagine Shakspeare to have been VOL. II.

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66

generally able to think for himself, that the topicks. are obvious, and their application is different.—But for argument's fake, let the parody be granted; and our author (fays fome one) may be puzzled to prove, that there was a Latin tranflation of Anacreon at the time Shakspeare wrote his Timon of Athens." This challenge is peculiarly unhappy: for I do not at prefent recollect any other claffick, (if indeed, with great deference to Mynheer De Pauw, Anacreon may be numbered amongst them,) that was originally published with two Latin3 tranfla

tions.

But this is not all. Puttenham in his Arte of English Poefie, 1589, quotes fome one of a "reafonable good facilitie in translation, who finding certaine of Anacreon's Odes very well translated by Ronfard the French poet-comes our minion, and tranflates the fame out of French into English : and his ftrictures upon him evince the publication. Now this identical ode is to be met with in Ronfard! and as his works are in few hands, I will take the liberty of transcribing it :

La terre les eaux va boivant,
L'arbre la boit par fa racine,
La mer falée boit le vent,
Et le foleil boit la marine.

Le foleil eft beu de la lune,

Tout boit foit en haut ou en bas :

3 By Henry Stephens and Elias Andreas, Par. 1554. 4to. ten years before the birth of Shakspeare. The former verfion hath been afcribed without reafon to John Dorat. Many other tranflators appeared before the end of the century: and particularly the ode in queftion was made popular by Buchanan, whofe pieces were foon to be met with in almost every modern language.