I shonld suppose that the words from, in the second line, and to in the third line, have been misplaced, and that the original reading was: As we do turn our backs

To our companion thrown into his grave,
So his familiars from his buried fortunes

Slink all

away;

When we leave a person, we turn our backs to him, not from him. M. MASON.

So those who were familiar to his buried fortunes, who in the most ample manner participated of them, slink all away, &c. MALONE.

P. 60, 1. 18. O, the fierce wretchedness that

glory brings us!] I believe fierce is here used for hasty, precipitate. STEEVENS. P. 60, 1.26. Strange, unusual blood.] Of this passage, I suppose, every reader would wish for a correction; but the word, harsh as it is, stands fortified by the rhyme, to which, perhaps, it owes its introduction. I know not what to propose. Perhaps,

Strange, unusual mood,

may, by some, be thought better, and by others worse. JOHNSON.

In The Yorkshire Tragedy, 1608; attributed to Shakspeare, blood seems to be used for inclination, propensity:

"For 'tis our blood to love what we are forbidden."

Strange, unusual blood, may therefore mean, strange unusual disposition. STEEVENS.

Throughout these plays blood is frequently used in the sense of natural propensity or disposition.

VOL. XIV.

20

MALONE.

TO FOOD

P. 61, 1. 12.- thy sister's orb] That is, the moon's, this sublunary world. JOHNSON. P. 61, 1. 13-26. Twinn'd brothers of one ཨསྙི། womb, sighin

Whose procreation, residence, and birth, Scarce is dividant- touch them with several fortunes this ad The greater scorns the lesser: Not nature, To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,

But by contempt of nature.] The meaning I take to be this: Brother, when his fortune is enlarged, will scorn brother; for this is the neral depravity of human nature,

ge

as it is by misery, admonished as it is of and imperfection, when elevated by fortune, will despise beings of nature like its own.

"

JOHNSONA but

Mr. M. Mason observes, that this passage by the addition of a single letter may be rendered clearly intelligible; by merely reading natures instead of nature. The meaning will then be Not even beings reduced to the utmost extremity of wretchedness, can bear good fortune, without contemning their fellow-creatures. whe word natures is afterwards used in a similar sense by Apemantus:

Call the creatures

Whose naked natures live in all the spite

"Of wreakful heaven, &c. 57ed to sit ag Perhaps, in the present instance, we ought to complete the measure by reading:0

not those natures,

STEEVENS, But by is here used for without, MALONE. P. 61, L. 21. Raise me this beggar, and denude that lord]] On

18118

copy deny't that lord. Where is the sense and English of deny't that lord? Deny him what? What preceding noun is there to which the pronoun it is be referr'd? And it would be absurd to think poet meant, deny to raise that lord.. The antithesis must be, let fortune raise this beggar, and let her strip and despoil that lord of all his pomp and ornaments, &c. which sense is completed by this slight alteration:

pam and denude that lord; So, Charles the First, in his message to the par liament says; Denude ourselves of all."

WARBURTON.A

Perhaps the former reading, however irregular, is the true one. Raise me that beggar, and deny a proportionable degree of elevation to that lord. A lord is not so high a title in the state, but that a man originally poor might be raised to one above it. We might read devest that lord. Devest, is an English law phrase, which Shakspeare uses in

King

Lear:
" Since no

now we will devest us both of. rule," &c. [diiw sautipli

The word which Dr. Warburton would introduce, is not, however, uncommon. STEEVENS. P. 61, 1. 24. 25. It is the pasture lards the brother's sides, The want that makes him lean, &c.] This ordered it, is an idle repetition on at the best; supposing it did, indeed, contain the same sentiment as the foregoing lines. But Shakspeare meant quite a different thing: and having, like a sensible writer, made a smart observation, he illustrates it by a similitude thus: -

as the editors

It is the pasture lards the wether's sides,
The want that makes him lean.

And the similitude is extremely beautiful, as-conta veying this satirical reflection; there is no more difference between man and man in the esteem of superficial and corrupt judgements, than between a fat sheep and a lean one. WARBURTON.

This passage is very obscure, nor do I discover any clear sense, even though we should admit the emendation. Let us inspect the text as it stands in the original edition ::

It is the pastour lards the brother's sides,
The want that makes him leave.

Dr. Warburton found the passage already changed thus:

It is the pasture lards the beggar's sides,

The want that makes him lean.

And upon this reading of no authority, raised another equally uncertain.

Alterations are never to be made withont necessity. Let us see what sense the genuine reading will afford. Poverty, says the poet, bears contempt hereditary, and wealth native honour. To illustrate this position, having already mentioned the case of a poor and rich brother, he remarks, that this preference is given to wealth by those whom it least becomes; it is the pastour that greases or flatters the rich brother, and will grease him on till want make him leave. The poet then goes on to ask, Who dares to say this man, this pastour is a flatterer; the crime is universal; through all the world the learned pate, with allusion to the pastour, ducks the golden fool. If it be objected, as it may justly be, that the mention of a pastour, is unsuitable, we must remember the mention of grace and cherubims in this play, and many such anachronisms in many others. I would therefore lead thus,

It is the pastour lards the brother's sides, "Tis want that makes him leave. The obscurity is still great. Perhaps a line is lost. I have at least given the original reading.

JOHNSON.

Perhaps Shakspeare wrote pasterer. STEEVENS. In this very difficult passage, which still remains obscure, some liberty may be indulged. Dr. Farmer proposes to read it thus:

It is the pasterer lards the broader sides,
The gaunt that makes him leave.

And in
support of this conjecture, he observes,
that the Saxon d is frequently converted into th
as in murther, murder, burthen, burden, &c.

REED

That the passage is corrupt as it stands in the old copy, no one, I suppose, can doubt; emenda therefore in this and a few other places, is not a matter of

ready more

tions have cnce but necessity. I have al

observed, that many corrup into the old copy, by the transcriber's ear deceiving him. MALONE.

P. 61, 1. 29. Grize for step or degree. Port. fangi. e. seize, gripe.

P. 62, 1. 4.

STEEVENS. P. 62, 1. 9. I am no idle votarist.] No insincere or inconstant supplicant, Gold will not serve me instead of roots. JOHNSON.

P. 62, 1. 9. Roots, you clear heavens!] This may mean either ye cloudless skies, or ye deities exempt from guilt. Shakspeare mentions the clear est gods in King Lear. STEEVENS.

P. 62, 1. 15-17.

Why this

Will lug your priests and servants from your sides; Aristophanes, in his Plutus, Act V, sc. ii. makes the