Suivant cefte reigle commune, Edit. Fol. p. 507. I know not whether an observation or two relative to our author's acquaintance with Homer, be worth our investigation. The ingenious Mrs. Lenox obferves on a paffage of Troilus and Creffida, where Achilles is roused to battle by the death of Patroclus, that Shakspeare must here have had the Iliad in view, as "the old ftory, which in many places he hath faithfully copied, is abfolutely filent with respect to this circumftance." And Mr. Upton is positive that the fweet oblivious antidote, inquired after by Macbeth, could be nothing but the nepenthe described in the Odyssey, “ Νηπενθές τ ̓ ἄχολόν τε, κακῶν ἐπίληθον ἁπάντων.” I will not infift upon the translations by Chapman; as the first editions are without date, and it may be difficult to ascertain the exact time of their publication. But the former circumftance might have been learned from Alexander Barclay;' and the latter more fully from Spenser," than from Homer himself. + It was originally drawn into Englishe by Caxton under the name of The Recuyel of the Hiftoryes of Troy, from the French of the ryght venerable Perfon and worshipfull man Raoul le Feure, and fynyhed in the holy citye of Colen, the 19 day of Septembre, the yere of our Lord God, a thousand foure hundred fixty and enleuen. Wynkyn de Worde printed an edit. fol. 1503. and there have been feveral fubfequent ones. "Who lift thiftory of Patroclus to reade," &c. 6 Nepenthe is a drinck of foueragne grace, "But Shakspeare" perfifts Mr. Upton, "hath fome Greek expreffions." Indeed! - "We have one in Coriolanus : and another in Macbeth, where Banquo addreffes the weird fifters: . My noble partner You greet with prefent grace, and great prediction Gr. Ἔχεια. -and pòs Tov "Exorra, to the haver." This was the common language of Shakspeare's time. "Lye in a water-bearer's house!" fays Mafter Mathew of Bobadil, "a gentleman of his havings!" Thus likewife John Davies in his Pleafant Defcant upon English Proverbs, printed with his Scourge of Folly, about 1612: For fome are good doers, whofe havings are ill." and Daniel the hiftorian ufes it frequently. Having feems to be fynonymous with behaviour in Gawin Douglas and the elder Scotch writers. Harts grief, and bitter gall away to chace "It doth establish in the troubled mynd, " &c. Faerie Queene, 1596, Book IV. c. iii. ft. 43. 7 It is very remarkable, that the bishop is called by his countryman, Sir David Lindsey, in his Complaint of our Souerane Lordis Papingo, Haver, in the fenfe of poffeffor, is every where met with: though unfortunately the πρὸς τὸν Ἔχοντα of Sophocles produced as an authority for it, is fufpected by Kufter, as good a critick in these matters, to have absolutely a different meaning. 8 But what fhall we fay to the learning of the Clown in Hamlet, "Ay, tell me that, and unyoke?" alluding to the Beauros of the Greeks and Homer and his fcholiaft are quoted accordingly! : If it be not fufficient to fay, with Dr. Warburton, that the phrase might have been taken from husbandry, without much depth of reading; we may produce it from a Dittie of the workmen of Dover, preferved in the additions to Holinfhed, P. 1546: My bow is broke, I would unyoke, My foot is fore, I can worke no more. An expreffion of my Dame Quickly is next faftened upon, which you may look for in vain in the modern text; fhe calls fome of the pretended fairies in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "In our Inglifhe rethorick the rose." And Dunbar hath a fimilar expreffion in his beautiful poem of The Goldin Terge. 8 Ariftophanis Comœdiæ undecim. Gr. & Lat. Amft. 1710 Fol. p. 596. 9 Dr. Warburton corrects orphan to ouphen; and not without plaufibility, as the word ouphes occurs both before and afterward. But I fancy, in acquiefcence to the vulgar doctrine, the address in this line is to a part of the troop, as mortals by birth, but adopted by the fairies: orphans with refpect to their real parents, and now only dependant on "And how elegant is this," quoth Mr. Upton, fuppofing the word to be used, as a Grecian would have used it? "öçqavos ab ógqvòs — acting in darkness and obfcurity. Mr. Heath affures us, that the bare mention of fuch an interpretation, is a fufficient refutation of it: and his critical word will be rather taken in Greek than in English: in the fame hands therefore I will venture to leave all our author's knowledge of the old comedy, and his etymological learning in the word, Desdemona. Surely poor Mr. Upton was Mr. Upton was very little acquainted with fairies, notwithstanding his laborious study of Spenfer. The last authentick account of them is from our countryman William Lilly; and it by no means agrees with the learned interpretation: for the angelical creatures appeared in his Hurft wood in a moft illuftrious glory,—“and indeed, (says the fage,) it is not given to many perfons to endure their glorious aspects." The only use of transcribing these things, is to fhew what abfurdities men for ever run into, when Deftiny herfelf. A few lines from Spenfer will fufficiently illuftrate the passage: "The man whom heauens have ordayn'd to bee' The spouse of Britomart, is Arthegall: "He wonneth in the land of fayeree, Edit. 1590, Book III. c. iii. ft. 26, Revifal, p. 75. 323. and 561. 3 Hiftory of his Life and Times, p. 102. preferved by his dupe, Mr. Afhmole. they lay down an hypothefis, and afterward feek for arguments in the fupport of it. What else could induce this man, by no means a bad scholar, to doubt whether Truepenny might not be derived from Tpúavov; and quote upon us with much parade an old fcholiaft on Ariflophanes?—I will not ftop to confute him: nor take any notice of two or three more expreffions, in which he was pleased to fuppofe fome learned meaning or other; all which he might have found in every writer of the time, or ftill more easily in the vulgar tranflation of the Bible, by confulting the Concordance of Alexander Cruden. But whence have we the plot of Timon, except from the Greek of Lucian?-The editors and criticks have been never at a greater lofs than in their enquiries of this fort; and the fource of a tale hath been often in vain sought abroad, which might easily have been found at home: my good friend, the very ingenious editor of the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, hath fhewn our author to have been fometimes contented with a legendary ballad. The ftory of the mifanthrope is told in almost every collection of the time; and particularly in two books, with which Shakspeare was intimately acquainted; the Palace of Pleasure, and the English Plutarch, Indeed from a paffage in an old play, called Jack Drum's Entertainment, I conjecture that he had before made his appearance on the stage. Were this a proper place for fuch a difquifition, I could give you many cafes of this kind. We are fent for inftance to Cinthio for the plot of Measure for Meafure, and Shakspeare's judgement hath been |