P. 94, 1. 30. uncharged ports:] That is, unguarded gates. JOHNSON. Uncharged means unattacked, nos unguarded. M. MASON. Mr. M. Mason is right. So, in Shakspeare's 70th Sounet:

"Thou hast pass'd by the ambush of young

days,

"Either not assail'd, or victor, being charg'd." MALONE.

P. 94, 1. 33-35. With my more reconcile them to it. glad I did atone my

to atone your fears noble meaning,] i. e. to So, in Cymbeline: "I was countryman and you.,,

STEEVENS.

not a man

P. 4, last 1. & P. 95, 1. 1-4.
Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream
Of regular justice in your city's bounds,
But shall be remedied, to your publicks

laws

At heaviest answer.] Not soldier shall quit his station, or be let loose upon you; and, if any commits violence, he shall answer it regularly to the law. JOHNSON.

The construction in the fourth line is, But he shall be remedied; but Shakspeare means, that his offence shall be remedied, the word offence being included in offend in a former line. The editor of the second folio, for to, in the last line but one of this speech, substituted by, which, all the subsequent editors adopted. MALONE.

I profess my inability to extract any determinatesense from these words as they stand, and rather suppose the reading in the second folio to be the true one. To be remedied by, affords a glimpse

of meaning to be remedied to, of the dark.". STEEVENS.

is

"the blanket

P. 95, 1. 15-22. Here lies a wretched corse, &c.] This epitaph is found in Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch, with the difference of one word only, viz. wretches instead of caitiffs. STEEVENS.

This epitaph is formed out of two distinct epitaphs which Shakspeare found in Plutarch. The first couplet is said by Plutarch to have been composed by Timon himself as his epitaph; the second to have been written by the poet Calli

machus.

Perhaps the slight variation mentioned by Mr. Steevens, arose from our author's having another epitaph before him, which is found in Keudal's Flowers of Epigrammes, 1577, and in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, Vol. I. Nov. 28:

TIMON HIS EPITAPHE.

"My wretched caitiffe daies expired now and

past,

"My carren corps enterred here, is graspt in ground,

"In weltring waves of swelling seas by sourges caste;

"My name if thou desire, the gods thee doe " confound! MALONE. our brain's flow,] Sir T. Haumer and Dr. Warburton read brine's flow.

P. 95, 1. 25.

Our brain's flow is our tears; but we may read, our brine's flow, our salt tears, Either will serve. JOHNSON.

Our brain's flow is right. STEEVENS.

-

· P. 95, 1.28-30. to make vast Neptune weep for aye

On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. ] Alcibiades's whole speech is in breaks, betwixt his reflections on Timon's death, and his addresses to the Athenian senators; and as soon as he has commented on the place of Timon's grave, he bids the senate set forward; tells 'em, he has forgiven their faults; and promises to use them with mercy. THEOBALD.

'I suspect that we ought to read:

One fault's forgiven.

Is noble Timon; &c.

Dead

One fault (viz. the ingratitude of the Athenians to Timon) is forgiven, i. e. exempted from punishment by the death of the injured person.

TYRWHITT.

The old reading and punctuation appear to me sufficiently intelligible. Mr. Theobald asks, "why should Neptune weep over Timon's faults, or indeed what fault had he committed?" The faults that Timon committed, were, 1. that boundless prodigality which his Steward so forcibly describes and laments; and 2. his becoming a Misanthrope, and abjuring the society of all men for the crimes of a few. Theobald supposes that Alcibiades bids the senate set forward, assuring them at the same time that he forgives the wrongs they have done him. On- Faults forgiven. But how unlikely is it, that he should desert the subject immediately before him, and enter upon another quite different subject, in these three words; and then return to Timon again? to say nothing of the strangeness of the phrase faults forgiven, for "faults are forgiven." MALONE.

558 NOTES TO TIMON OF ATHENS:

P. 96, 1. 4. stop it. STEEVENS. P. 96, 1. 6.

make peace stint war;] i. ei

leech. i. e, physician.

STEEVENS.

The play of Timon is a domestick tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful warning against that ostentatious liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits, aud buys flattery, but not friendship.

In this tragedy, are many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify, or explain with due diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself that my endeavours shall be much applauded. JOHNSON.

This play was altered by Shadwell, and brought upon the stage in 1678. In the modest title-page he calls it Timon of Athens, or the Manhater, as it is acted at the Duke's Theatre, made into a Play. STEEVENS,

559

NOTES TO

CORIOLANU S

*

This play I conjecture to have been written in the the year 16o9. See An Attempt to ascertain the order of Shakspeare's plays.

It comprehends a period of about four years, commencing with the secession to the Mons Sacer in the year of Rome 262, and ending with the death of Coriolanus, A. U. C. 266. MALONE.

The whole history is exactly followed, and many of the principal speeches exactly copied from the Life of Coriolanus in Plutarch. Pore.

Page 99, last line. Good is here used in the mercantile sense. So, Touchstone in Eastward Hoe :

"known good men, well monied."
FARMER.

Again, in The Merchant of Venice:
Antonio's a good man.

MALONE.

P. 100, 1.4. they think, we are too dear:] They think that the charge of maintaining us is more than we are worth. JOHNSON.

P. 100,

1. 7. 8. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes:] It was Shakspeare's design to make this fellow 'quibble all the way. But time, who has done greater things, has